Lagoon

The girls have been begging me to take them to Lagoon for a year now. Every time we drove past it on our way to preschool they would yell out "Lagoon" and then ask when we were going. Well, I finally took them, and we had a spectacular time! I told them before we left, that if they whined or cried we would go straight home. I figured by the evening they would be tired and start to fuss and then we'd go ....but the hours kept passing and they were still good as gold, so we stayed til the park closed. We were there over 12 hours! I'm so proud of my darling little angels, who are beautiful, fun, smart, and sweet as can be!

Free at Last!

After my divorce to James I found myself caught in a vicious cycle. For whatever reason, i repeatedly went back to him. Things would be good for a few weeks, but then the same problems and issues from our marriage would arise and we would break up. This went on for 8 long months. Each time we broke up was very painful, yet i kept submitting myself to being hurt over and over again. As I've thought about this I've come to realize that it was fear that was taking me back to him. Fear of the unknown, fear of being single for the rest of my life, fear that I wouldn't find anyone as good as him etc. What I was lacking all along was faith. My patriarchal blessing says that the Lord will sustain me in any righteous desire of my heart...if I will abide by the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Well, I'm doing my best to live the gospel, and the Lord knows the righteous desires of my heart, so now I just have to be patient, and watch the Lord work his miracles. I'm finally free from fear...faith has made me free at last!

Missionary Opportunity

Last fall I had the opportunity to reconnect with a friend that I've known since the 3rd grade. We went for a hike and had a fun conversation reminiscing about the past and our youth. I don't remember how we got on the subject, but somehow the conversation turned to religion. My friend had been raised Catholic, but all of his friends growing up had been LDS, so I asked him his opinion about the church. He said that he had great respect for Mormons and especially for the emphasis we place on families. I felt strongly that I should invite him to learn more about the church, but I kinda fought the impression. After wrestling with it a little I finally succumbed and asked if he had a Book of Mormon and if he'd be interested in learning more. He said yes. A few days later I gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, and Our Search for Happiness, and asked him to read them. We sat and talked for a long time and he asked me a lot of questions. It was fun to share my testimony and explain different things to him about the church, especially about Joseph Smith and the Atonement. I invited him to come to church with me and he came several times, and then things in my life got a little crazy, so i didn't see him for awhile. A few months later I got a text from him...it said, "I want to get baptized." I was so excited. I called the missionaries and scheduled a time for them to meet my friend. It was great to have the missionaries in the home and to be able to participate in the discussions. It was also great when I got to see my friend baptized on April 24th. I love sharing the gospel with others. I hope he will progress and be able to reap all the blessings that come from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

A teaching moment

Every year on Flag day our neighborhood has a flag day parade. All of the kids from the neighborhood gather together with their bikes, or scooters and decorate them in red, white, and blue and then parade them through the neighborhood. One of the men in the ward is a fireman and he brings a fire truck and honks the horn, and sprays water, and the kids all love it. Well, my kids were very excited about being able to ride their bikes (with training wheels) in the parade this year. We got to the starting point, decorated their bikes and then followed behind the fire truck as the parade started. The first portion of the route is uphill, so I ended up pushing both of them for most of it and we got pretty far behind most of the other kids. Finally, we got to the top of the hill and onto a flatter portion of the route. The girls took off, seemed to be having fun, and I lagged behind on foot. The route started a downhill portion and my girls were getting farther and farther ahead of me, and then they were supposed to turn into a cul-de-sac to turn around. As they were making the turn...they both biffed it!!! Alyssa was bawling, Holly was sprawled out in the middle of the street, and there I was running to get to them as fast as I could. Holly shook it off pretty good, got back on her bike and caught up with the other kids. Alyssa, however, didn't recover so quickly. Both of her knees were pretty scraped up and she was crying pretty hard. I somehow persuaded her to get back on her bike and held her hand as we tried to catch up with the parade. We finally arrived at the finish and enjoyed a yummy meal.

Later that night as we were sitting on the couch for scripture time, Alyssa looked at me kinda sad and said, "mommy, I was the slowest one tonight." I could tell she felt sad, embarrased and humble...which provided me with a wonderful opportunity to teach her. I told her that it doesn't matter how slow she is, or if she falls off her bike, that it's not important to be first or to win, but what matters most is that she gets back up each time she falls, and keeps trying until she finishes. I told her how proud I was of her that she kept trying and finished. Then I asked her what mattered most and she said, "that I always keep trying." It was a very sweet teaching moment.

Fish fiasco

A few months ago the girls each brought home a goldfish from primary. Each child in the class had been given a fish, but most of the other kids fish died within the first few weeks of recieving them. I was taking great pride in the fact that our fish had outlasted the others. Well, on Mother's Day my sister came for a visit. I was upstairs chatting away with Angie while Jade and Whitaker went down to play with Alyssa and Holly. At one point we noticed that things were awfully quiet downstairs, never a good sign with kids, but we just continued with our enjoyable conversation. After a time we decided it was time to go check on the kids. I quickly noticed that something wasn't quite right. The kids had dumped out a large bin, previously full of ring pops, and had dumped both fish into the larger bin. As I was putting them back in their separate jars I noticed that the fish weren't acting quite right...to make a long story short...After being tortured and traumatized by 8 tiny little hands, goldy fish gave up her will to live. She is survived by her best friend Whitie, who underwent the same traumatic experience but somehow courageously survived the ordeal.

The next morning when the kids got up I informed them of our loss. We took Goldie into the bathroom and stood around the toilet. Alyssa looked at Holly and said, "You have to say something nice and then say goodbye." Without muttering a word, Holly dumped Goldie into the toilet and flushed. Alyssa immediately ran to the couch, pulled her blanky over her head and bawled.

I am happy to report, however, that Whitie is still alive and has outlived all the other fish in the class.