Getting better

I have been taught all my life that I need to read the scriptures every day. Me, personally, and with my family. J and I have been really good about reading every night. The only times we miss are when we're traveling.

It's been hard for me to find a time for me to read on my own. I prefer reading my easy, fluffy novels.

But this month, Sister Beck visited my stake. It was a great meeting for all women ages 16 and up. The building was so full that we practically had women hanging from the chandeliers. :) In part of her talk, she said that we need to spend at least some time in the scriptures every day. Even if it was one verse, a certain time period, or one chapter. She also said that we should read through the Doctrine and Covenants (using that hyperlink, the first paragraph gives the best summary). So I started reading in the Doctrine and Covenants. It's been a week. I read some every day during my breakfast. I used to sit at my computer with my cereal, but now I'm reading a part of the scriptures while I eat.

I love it! I feel so much more accomplished every day. I feel so much more connected to the history of the church. I really feel good about it.

Today, after I was done eating my cereal and had drank all of the leftover milk, I kept reading. Section 6 is probably my favorite chapter in the Doctrine and Covenants.

I love the promise in verse 5 that if we ask, we shall receive and if we knock, it will be opened. Notice the "IF" in there...

I love the testimony that the Lord gives of the work he's doing in verse 17.

I love the promise made to Oliver Cowdery in verse 20 that says,

"Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love." Not only is that a promise to him, but to me as well. I have felt his arms encircled around me. And it was wonderful.

I love love LOVE verse 36. "Look unto me in every though; doubt not, fear not."

That is my theme verse. It keeps me going.

With all of the mess with the house, it's hard not to doubt and fear. What if this happens...what if that happens...what if we lose it....what if we wait forever and can't even get it....

Lots of worries. But I am just trying to remember this verse. Doubt not, fear not. Wow.

The Lord knows me. He understands me and is watching out for me.

The Lord is my light.

He leads me along.

Fun Dates

J and I have had a lot of fun this month with dates. Some of the dates, we take pictures. Some we don't. So here are two dates I took pictures at.

J got us free tickets to the Steelhead's game.

This is us cold waiting outside for our tickets to show up

We lost. But it was fun to watch. REALLY fast game.

Then, we spent a Saturday at the beginning of the month by going to the Twin Falls Temple. The Boise one is closed for about a year for renovations so we hadn't been in a while. Twin Falls is 2 hours away from us, so we drove out, went to the temple, ate lunch, and came home. It was a big trip for a small event, but it was wonderful. I loved how much like the Rexburg temple this one was. I LOVED going during the day. The stained glass was so much prettier in the daytime. You weren't exhausted afterwards. The Celestial room was exactly that, Celestial.

What a wonderful, beautiful place.

On a not-so-happy note... the house might fall through. Probably will, actually. We were days from closing-days, not weeks, days- and they found out that someone made a mistake wayyyy back in the beginning of the foreclosure, so they have to start alll over again. They wanted us to sign a paper saying our contract is over with them, but we want to know what the problem was and if we can still get the house. We'll see. We're still looking, but we're pretty bummed.

Hopefully we'll find something as wonderful as this house. or get this house... :)

Friends

There are some things in life you can live without.

For instance, certain types of foods.... I can live without vegetarian bacon. I've tried it, found it tasted like bacon, and was satisfied to eat my meaty, fatty bacon.

But there are some things you can't live without. I can't live without a bathroom handy. I can't live without a bowl of cereal at LEAST every week. I can't live without air conditioning in the summer and a heater in the winter.

Something everyone can't live without is a friend.

In Kindergarten, your friend was who you sat by at lunch and who played with you at recess. You didn't share secrets, but you were "friends." Sometimes you even held hands and skipped or hugged. It was as simple as that.

In 1st grade, you figured out who you definitely didn't like and who you did. But you were still nice and called them friends.

As elementary school kept going, you figured out that boys had cooties so you couldn't be friends with boys.

In elementary school, I was friends with Kim, Annie, Chelsea, Kelsey, and my cousin Natalie.

Then, Middle school brings about changes. Friends go through a lot of trials. You are friends one week and mortal enemies the next. Brutal Middle School...Brutal...

My friends were Katelyn, Cassie, Megan, Stephen, Justin, Skye, and more. In middle school, I decided being friends with Skye wasn't worth all of the trouble and frustration, so we stopped.

In middle school, your friends are the ones who will keep your secrets, love you, and will always stand by you...and play barbies with you and not tell anyone about it...

High school, your guy friends turn into more than friends...

your girlfriends fight over those guy friends with you

you go through ups and downs, you realize being friends with Skye over long distance is easier, so you become friends again.

It's an interesting time.

In college, you make friends who will deal with your ups and downs from homework stresses. Your roommates can either be your saints or your hardships. I've had both. Your first semester, you learn that being sarcastic all the time can hurt others. You realize that behind every joke is some truth....and it hurts. Your dad might tell you to live with boys...they have less drama. :)

As college goes on, you make lasting friendships, some you will deal with until the seating arrangement changes, and some that you'll make sure you work hard to keep.

Then, for me, I met my best friend I'll ever have. I married him. He's truly my best friend and soulmate.

But here's the thing. A lot of girls think that their social life now is only him. What??

Why does that make sense?

J and I loved our social scene in college. We both went to 2 years of college before getting married. It was fun! We would do homework and then go play. or play and then go do homework!

Why is it that some/most girls think that since they're married, they don' t have time for their old friends anymore?

I sure hope I didn't do that. I think my schedule changed, but I am pretty good about calling anyway!

Being married, friends are really hard to find. You want friends who like both you and hubby.

That can get really hard. Especially since you have to like them and their hubby. It gets complicated. You find friends that can be just your girlfriend and the guys don't have to hang out, but that limits the times you and the girlfriend can get together.

Also. Here's a HUGE pet-peeve I have.

Why don't they invite you back?!

Is it that they aren't that interested?

Are they poopie friends, so they don't think to invite you back?

Are they way too forgetful?

What's the problem here?

We have some friends who are great friends! They're nice, we get along rather well, we have fun hanging out.

But J and I are always the ones setting up play-dates. We're the ones who pull it together and get things going.

Now this is fine and dandy for a while, but it's nice to not have to do it yourself. It's nice to be invited and not just do all of the work all of the time.

We had a couple in our ward who we invited for family home evening on Mondays. We invited them over for game nights. We invited them over for dinner. They kept on saying they'd have us over to do something, but never came through. Either they forgot to call until it was too late or just never did it.

So we invited them over a lot. And never saw their house. We never were invited over.

When they moved, they did give us a standing invitation to spend the night at their house whenever we needed to in driving past. That was nice, and a bit more than they had done all summer, but it was a bummer that that's all we got. I'd have liked to not host allll of the FHE's.

J and I had a couple in our married ward at school. They were MODEL friends. They invited us, we invited them, it was great! When we invited them, they made sure that they either came, or scheduled a day that they could come!!

Then, they went to DC for internships. What's great though, is that they moved back to the west. They're in Salt Lake area, so not exactly the Boise valley, but it's good. We went to see them when we were traveling through. It was great fun. We miss them soooo much!!

Here we are now, with people we love to be with but don't call back. It's a little frustrating. My best friends live in Texas, Arkansas, and pretty much everywhere else but Nampa, ID. It's irritating. I live for social life. I love hanging out. Even if it's just a game and dessert or if it's just hanging out to talk. I miss it. I miss being able to walk next door and hang out at my FHE sister's apartment.

Why are friends so difficult?

When someone asks you over to FHE or a game night, you ask them back! Then, they'll ask you, then you can ask them. it's brilliant! and simple!!

When someone calls you, call them back next! It's in your ballpark!

When they invite you to sit by them at church, sit by them or make sure you sit near them the next week without invitation!

I'm sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings. I have some great friends. A lot of them just don't reciprocate very often. I feel like I do all of the work a lot of the time. And it's frustrating.

Thanks for letting me vent to you.... :)

WE GOT IT!!!!!!

My title reminds me of a certain quote from Happy Feet: "And the Amigos? We got it!!!!"

My FHE sisters will recognize that one... :)

Anyway, We Got the House!!! I'm so excited!!

Last night when I had just finished making dinner, our realtor called J's phone and asked if he was by me. He said yes and she told us we got the house!!!!

We are so thrilled!!!

Closing date is estimated Nov 18th. She said she'll be trying to push it up, but we'll see what happens.

Next week, we'll meet with the inspector. Then, it's just all of the paperwork and finalizing stuff.

Bah!!!

So here it is!! It's on Sweet Drive. Isn't that cute?!

You walk in and this is the living room.

This is the dining area. We're planning on taking out the blinds there and putting in curtains. Eventually.

To the left of the dining area is this beautiful kitchen.

See?

Dishwasher!

Cabinets!

Pantry!

Window over sink!

LIGHTING!!!

Oh, it's so pretty!!!

Then, to the right of the living room is the laundry room, the door leads to a 2 car garage...

This is the master bedroom. With a ceiling fan!! woot!

To the right is the entrance to the master bath...

And here's the master bath!! 2 sinks! big mirror! and if you turn right, there's a walk in closet....ahhhhhhh space!

This is bedroom 1

Bedroom 2

Second bath. the ring in the mirror isn't really there. I think it's a glare.

The back of the house. There's a little covered patio right behind it, the diagonal window is the one over the sink. the window on the left of the house is our bedroom and the one on the right is bedroom 2.

The nice, big yard. See the dying grass on the left, far? That's where we'd probably put a tree.

A willow. :)

We're so excited!!! Can't wait!!!!

September

I didn't do a ton of blogging in the month of September.

So here is the month of September!!

First, I did a lot of substitute teaching. It gave me an excuse to use my "teacher bag" that my sister made me. It's nice and big for all of those huge teacher books and has big enough straps to put it on my shoulder even when it's full!

Then, J got his diploma!!!

He was a little excited...

So proud of him!

I made meatloaf for my in-laws. They loved it.

We got to have the leftovers since it was all of my food.

The meatloaf is my sister's recipe. And it's the best meatloaf ever. I love it.

The best thing to do with leftovers is to make an MLT. No, not like on Princess Bride...

But with warmed meatloaf, toasted bread, and tomato and lettuce with a little mayo....

ohhhh it's gooooooooooood....

Jolyn came to town for a while so we spent a lot of time at J's family's house.

This is TJ with the cat, Toby. Toby doesn't like TJ. TJ likes to pet him not so softly, so Toby usually bolts when TJ comes around.

He fell asleep propped up on his diaper/wipe case.

Last year at Thanksgiving time, I made the top to this quilt. It's a lap quilt for fall-time. So when I was in AR, I bought a back and then took it home to quilt. So Jolyn, Linda and I quilted it one weekend! It took about 30 minutes.

September 24, Kristin came to town for the weekend. Us girls went on a Women's Fitness Celebration 5K. It was cool! I was really nervous about making good time because I had a job orientation at lunch time. Turns out I had plenty of time. But hey, it was fun and I didn't break a sweat!

While we were gone, the boys babysat TJ and played video games. TJ loves his uncle Tyler. It's so cute. Tyler comes in and everyone else isn't as cool.

What a stud

This weekend was Conference. I love General Conference. It's amazing how the prophets speak to millions of people and each person is taught something different. It's beautiful how the spirit works.

When I was at my in-laws this weekend, a package showed up from my mom!

It was my monthly gift of books!!

Here's a pic of them

What's cool about most of these books is that they're from my grandma's bookshelf.

Very cool. Made me tear up.

This summer, I started crocheting a baby blanket.

It took FOREVER!!!!!

I finished it today. I think this blanket took about 6 months.

Last week, there was a special on Shutterfly for a free photo book. All I had to pay for was shipping.

I had already done a wedding one, didn't have kids to put in a book, and wouldn't be able to gather pics of the nieces and nephews in time to make the book.

So I made a quiet time book.

I took the children's song, All Things Bright and Beautiful and put pictures to the words.

All of the pictures in the book are from my photo library. I took all but one of them. J took one.

I'm very proud of it. :)

Now I'm excited for October! I'm going to find my favorite pumpkin recipes and make them this month.

and hopefully soon we'll find out about the house. The paperwork had to be entered in again, so we had to wait another 3 days. Today's the 3rd. So any minute now!! If we get this house, we'll be moving in October.

It's going to either be a huge month of moving and closing on a house or be a boring month with nothing going on...we'll see!! :)