Puppy Adventures

Well a lot of my friends have TONS of stories to tell about their kids and all the funny, cute warming, and infuriating things they do. Which I in turn pass on to James and my family. :) But since we dont have kids yet...I thought I'd pass on puppy stories. :p Well last saturday we had our good friends James and Karen Stewart over with their dog peanut.Well we made spaghetti and cookies and played games and watched ratatouille and had a lot of fun. Well during the movie Rosko decides he's done playing and he wanted to go sit on James's lap..... (Karens husband)or so we thought. Next thing we know Rosko had pee'd all over him. James and I felt soooo bad. they said it was fine but James was really upset with Rosko (my James) and I was so embarrassed. We kept offering to clean his pants and he could wear a pair of James's. He even brought down a pair of his short. But they said it was really okay. We have no clue why he did that. Karen said we was proabably to excited still and all the pressure. We've been having a little trouble with house training...He should have know by now..but he still has accidents. So if you have any advice we'll gladly take it. :)
Well the next day James and I decided to expand Rosko's boundaries to see how he'd do. So we confined him to the kitchen while we were at church. well when we got home we forgot that we put the garbage from yesterday by the door to take out...but we didnt take it out. : Well the spaghetti from saturday was in there. When we got home from church of course he had gotten into the garbage. None of it was on the floor or anything but then Rosko came running up to us and his whole head was red from the sauce and he had some on his nose still from licking it off the paper plates. He had chunks of noodles stuck to his back...we couldnt believe it. James looked like he didnt know if he should laugh or get mad. I should have taken a picture..he was one messy puppy. :)

Tribute to President Hinckley

There is a special tribute to President Hinckley that you can participate in if you'll be downtown for his funeral. People will be lining the streets as the Hinckley family drives to the cemetery and waving canes or handkerchiefs in a farewell to our prophet. If you would like to find out more about this please visit http://canewavetribute.blogspot.com/ I found out about this at work and I think it's a great idea..I would love to participate. The Hinckley family has asked that we not enter the cemetery as that burial will be a family only occasion. Thanks and have a great day. :)

Our beloved prophet

Last night James and I were at Nikki's house playing a new game with the family, when Justin came in and said he just got a call from work, (Justin is a security officer for the church and usually works with the first presidency, and apostles) to let him know that the Prophet had just died. I couldn't believe it. It was a shock and at the same time it didn't really hit me until this morning driving into work. After I had dropped James off I turned it to Kbull 93 and heard the morning dj's talking about the death of the prophet and saying how their show that morning was going to be in memory of him and they asked people to call in and share their thoughts. As I sat there listening to these people calling in some crying some not I looked up and saw a flag at half mast and it just hit me that he was gone from this life...but with his wife and family in the next. President Hinckley was a great man. he worked for the church for a number of years and was thinking about giving up his job at the church ( I cant remember where he was..I think something with the IT side of things) to pursue college and he said he's always wanted to travel the world. he decided against this to build up the kingdom of god. He was appointed an apostle back in the 60's. President Hinckley was able to get his degree and he has traveled to some amazing country's all around the world. What a great thing to be able to give your life to the church for so long. Abby last night said.."But I didn't even get to meet him." and thinking on that yes some people hasn't had the wonderful chance to being in his presence in this life. But just like Joesph Smith, Nephi, Moroni, Moses. We will all be together again someday. It has been wonderful listening to President Hinckley speak to us over the years, and as hard as it may seem to not have him here with us anymore. imagine how happy he is to be able to be with his wife again.

Elections

I was reading Katie's blog and she had a post that talked about the elections and had a quiz that you could do to find out the candidates who agreed with your views. So I took the quiz and was a little surprised to see the results. I really enjoyed taking this little quiz. If you would like to take it it's at this website...http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460
Have fun everyone. :)

All Clean

This weekend we had something very special happen. Our niece Abby got baptized. :) Her birthday was on Friday and she had a Harry Potter party and her mom surprised her with a magician. Abby was way excited and had a lot of fun. Then Saturday afternoon we got to go see her baptism. She looked so cute. Her mom gave a talk about following in the saviors footsteps and talked about how because the savior got baptized to "fulfill all righteousness" even though he was perfect, that we need to be baptized being in perfect. Nikki put paper footprints down on the floor as she talked about the different steps that we need to follow. Then all the kids got to walk on them. :) Then Nikki bore her testimony to Abby and all of us. Then we got to watch Justin (Abby's dad) baptize her.
As Abby and Justin were changing. Lisa and Heather did a musical number. Lisa sang "I am a child of God" while Heather played the flute. It was way pretty. After Abby came out in this way cute little white dress with a white crown of roses that Nona (grandma) made for her. Then Nona gave a talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost. She related the holy ghost to clear spring water and Abby to a white rose. She put the rose in the water an explained that when we have the Holy Ghost that we remain like that white rose. Even if we make a mistake we can repent and become again like that white rose. Then she showed us another white rose that didn't have "the Holy Ghost" or the water. It was dead and withered. She explained how much we need the Holy Ghost in our lives. She too bore her testimony to Abby.
The spirit that was there was so amazing. as soon as the baptism started to the very end we felt the spirit so strong. It was so great to see Abby make that choice. we're all so proud of her.

The next life

Last week Verl Jones( an old friend of the family) passed away. It wasn't really unexpected, he had cancer and was having a hard time. But it was still a little shocking. I've known Verl ever since I can remember and I grew up with his kids..mostly his son Scott who is closer to my brothers age. It's weird to think he's gone. We went vacationing with them and had party's and stuff. The funeral was on Monday and I didn't have the chance to go cause I was needed at work. But that night at our family home evening (we had the pleasure of having my mom and dad stay with us over the weekend) we talked about how when funerals happen it makes you stop and evaluate your life and your standing with the Lord. My mom and dad says that as they get older that question becomes more important to them and that they really want to make sure they are doing all that they can to return and live with our Heavenly Father. Verl was a great man and he loved the gospel and our Heavenly Father and brother Jesus Christ very much. He has been a great example to our family and a great friend. We will miss him but know that he is in a better place doing great things. Our prayers go out to Donna and her kids.

Snow time Fun

On Wed we had a huge snow storm and received a little over a foot of snow. I've always wanted to throw Rosko in so much snow that it would bury him. On wed after work I got that chance. :) It was so funny. James and I were laughing about it for the longest time. and Rosko kept biting at the snow and his tail was going so fast. We all had a lot of fun. :)

Missionary's

Well last night we received our first letter from Addison. (My nephew. He entered the MTC on Jan 2nd) His mom has been forwarding his sisters letters to us and she said she'd do the same for Addi's. His sister Alexis is in the New York New York south Spanish speaking mission and Addi is going to the Argentina Buenas Aires mission. As I read it it reminded me of when I was in the MTC. I told James that just by us reading his letter about his first day there it felt like I was going through it with him. I remembered what it was like to say goodbye to family then go and do all the paperwork and picture taking and trying to find your companion and where you'll live getting books, unpacking, walking around with that stupid orange sticker that everyone calls the dork dot. It just screams "look at me I'm Neeewwwww!"
It has been so amazing reading about Lexi's experiences and all she's been doing in New York. I am so excited to read what Addi's going to be saying about Argentina. All their letters also reminds me just how amazing the gospel is. How you can take a 19 year old boy or 21 year old girl and only after a few weeks training and miner language skills if they need it, then send them to some foreign country or different state and say okay here's a complete stranger your going to be living with. Now go to it and teach people who might not want to listen about the Savior. And they do it. isn't that amazing!
Not only that but they learn the language pretty much fluently. And most likely that missionary will hear once if not more in theier mission someone that they're talking to to try and get them to take the lessons or a member or someone. They'll ask them how long they have been studying the language and the missionary will respond and that person will be so shocked. I heard it quite a bit in my mission. Someone would laugh and say "oh how cute the white girl (or American) is speaking tagalog. how long have you been here in the Philippines and studying our language." then I'd tell them how long and they'd get this shocked look on their face and say they couldnt believe how fast we could learn the language which gave us a great opportunity to explain about the gift of tongues and that the message of the gospel was so important that the Lord blessed us to speak their language.
Being a missonary, having a missionray and just missionary's in general are such an amazing thing. There devotion, determination, and willingness to serve the Lord for 18 months or 24 months is just amazing. Alam ko na yung mensage tungkol sa ebangelyo ni Jesu Cristo ay totoo at sobrang importante sa lahat. Alam ko na buhay si Jesu Cristo at mahal siya tayo. Alam ko na yung aklat ni mormon ay totoo. Nagpapasalamat po ako para sa simbaha sa buhay ko. Mahal ko ni Jesu Cristo at yung ating ama. Ito yung patotoo ko sa pangalan ni Jesu Cristo. Shenowa.
Translation: I know that the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and its very important to all. I know that Jesus christ lives and he loves us. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I am thankful for the church in my life. I love Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. This is my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

New Year.

Well we've started out the new year a little rough. The Sunday before New Years Eve I got really sick and left early from work on Mon. James went to a party at his sisters house and I slept for awhile then I went over too. It was a lot of fun. We played games and munched on munchies. :) we played video games with the kids and Rosko was driving everyone nuts. we watched the ball drop in New York. It was a lot of fun. I feel a little bad about going though, cause I didn't want to get anyone else sick. especially the kids. Well that whole week I was sick and didn't start feeling better till Sat the 5th. Now I am feeling better and I'm back to work, but now James is sick :( but he didn't get it as bad as I did which is good.
Well what I really wanted to write about wasn't about sad stuff and getting sick. :) I actually wanted to write about resolutions. The past couple of years I haven't really like resolutions and had pretty much gave them up entirely. But I was reading Nikki's blog about the resolutions that her and her kids made this year and it dawned on me that resolutions are just something that people say to make themselves feel good and have no intentions of seeing it through to the end. Resolutions are....Goals. Wow what a great idea, why didn't I figure this out before. :)
So I would like to take a leaf out of Nikki's book and make a resolution and post it here to help me to remember what they are so I can continue to work on them. Nikki thank you for helping me to understand what a resolution really is, your a great example to me and I really do look up to you. and I hope you don't mind that I'm copying you. :)

I want to start drinking more water, juices and good stuff rather then so much soda. and I would also like to be more active. Walking, jogging whatever it takes just to be more active.

I want to get more organized with our life. Meaning I would like for James and I to have a good organized storage space. So shelves, a filing cabinets, maybe a safe to stick our marriage certificate and other important documents, a proper Mary Kay spot so I can find everything, :p and much more.

I want to grow closer to our Heavenly Father by going to church every Sunday, scripture study with James as well as my own. I would also like to get more involved in church activities and with the relief society.

I want to really get started on my Mary Kay business....I have my separate goals for that hanging on our fridge. :)

Well that's all of them, I am really excited to get started on these goals and to really work on seeing them through. I'll update you on how things are going with them. I really feel a lot better just writing them down it has helped me to get ideas on ways I can get started and stuff I can do to accomplish them. :)