Busy Butlers Boutique Giveaway

A friend of mine referred me to this website for a drawing for one crocheted beanie, and one set of Valentine bows.They are super cute so I decided to enter for the fun of it. Here's her website, go take a visit.
BusyButlersBoutique

Sunday Thoughts.

We had a really neat experience this past Sunday. Our old Sunday School class knew a lot about the gospel. Whenever we would ask them questions they would surprise us sometimes with their answers. Our new class consists of only 2 girls. Well for the past few Sundays we have been teaching only one at a time. This past Sunday for the first time we had both girls in our class, Needless to say we were really excited. Our lesson this week was on Revelation and well...in missionary terminology pretty much the lessons from Christ ministry to the restoration of the gospel. As I sat listening to my sweet husband teach the well know story of Joseph Smith to these girls. It finally hit me what my mission president meant by we will always be missionaries. I knew when I came home from my mission that I still needed to be a missionary. But I thought that when President LeSeur told me this that it meant that I needed to still befriend the less-actives, be kind to those people around me of other faiths and respect them and their beliefs and always remember that you are still a servant for the Savior. I never thought that missionary work aside from being a missionary is exactly what my husband and I do each Sunday. Teach these kids the gospel. Here was my husband teaching these two little girls about Joseph Smith just like he taught his investigators in Brazil and how I taught my investigators in the Philippines. The only difference..the language. I love the gospel message and I love the look in people's eye when they are understanding this message and feel the power of it for themselves. These two girls that we teach are very different...basically night and day. Alex is really outgoing and talkative and Natalie is very quiet and shy. But it was neat to see how excited they got about this messages. I love teaching these girls and I love this gospel so much. I love how no matter where you go it's the same and you always feel like your home.

Dinner and Dino's

This past weekend we finally got a chance to go out with Nancy,Gary and Lexi. (My sister, brother-in-law and niece) We have been saying for awhile that we want to get together but it has always fallen through. Well this time we weren't going to let it. So we made the date for this past Friday (the 16th). We had planned for Su Casa originally but the place was packed and they only had booth's. So we changed to Tucci's ( I hope I spelled that right) It's this cute little pasta place by Trolley Square. I loved this restaurant. We met to the owner and talked with him awhile. He is the sweetest guy. We were at the restaurant for almost 3 hours just talking and laughing and sharing stories back and forth. It was great. James and I had so much fun with them. Let's do that again soon guys. Then on Saturday Nikki was planning a surprise birthday party for Abby and James and I thought that to try and help her out we could take Gavin for the day so she wouldn't have to worry about him getting into anything. So we headed over to pick him up. Nikki already had the house decorated for the party. It looked so good. For Abby's party she had chosen an American Idol theme so she had decorated her house in blue,gold,silver and black stars with disco balls and music notes. She had a big sign above the piano that said Welcome to Hollywood. We knew Abby was going to love it. Well we got Gavin all buckled in and headed for Mom and Dad Armstrong's house to do a small workout with Lisa and a some Spanish lessons. The workout was great, I worked muscles I hadn't worked in a long time. Lisa really seemed to enjoy it too, which made James super excited. Abby even had fun stretching with us. James has been working really hard on these workout programs to try and adjust them to the different people. He's been doing a really great job. Well it was time for the party. So Mom told Abby that they needed to go over to her house to get her dress for the funeral that was taking place a little later. (The father of a good friend of Lisa's passed away). We left a little after they did. We had big plans. :) We were going to go to McDonald's for lunch and then go to the Dinosaur park in Ogden. Well when we got to McDonald's Gavin was out cold. So we went home to let him sleep a little longer and to get showers. It wasn't long before he was awake and saying he was hungry. So we climbed back into the car and headed over the the McDonald's by our house. As soon as we got there he was so excited, He went straight for the play area. I had to run to catch him so I could take his coat and shoes off. When James came over with our food I thought that there was no way we were going to pull him away from those slides. But he must have been really hungry,cause he came right over and let us put him in his chair and then he started to eat. He ate a lot more then what I thought he would eat before he wanted to go play some more. Well then it was time to go and that went over a lot better then what I thought to. I thought he would be crying cause he wanted to play some more. But he let James put on his shoes and coat and didn't cry at all. Maybe cause this was his first day out with James and Kris. Or maybe he knew that we were going to see dinosaurs and was really excited about that. We went to the George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park at the base of Ogden Canyon. As soon as we got out or the car and he saw the first dinosaur he couldn't contain it. he took off running saying "look dinosaur." James had to run and grab him to stop him from running in front of traffic. After we paid to get in we went upstairs and started our journey. Unfortunately I did forget the camera. But remembered later that I had the phone. So i was able to get a couple of pictures. Inside there were dinosaur bones and fossils and they had these neat animatronics of a triceratops mom protecting her two babies from a young tyrannosaurs Rex. At first he was really afraid of these. Then out side in the park they had all these life like Dino statues and fun little things to do along the way. playgrounds and stuff. There was these slides that they made look like a tree and you had to go in an opening in the base of the tree to go down the slides. I thought it looked way fun..but Gavin didn't seem to like it. he would point to all the dinosaurs and roar at them. he didn't much care for the ones that would roared back. :) We were there for awhile but then noticed that it was getting a little chilly. So we decided to head back. But not before he was able to get a dinosaur toy and balloon. We had a lot of fun with little Gavin and one of the best parts of this little outing we had with him. Now we are BOTH excited for kids and doing stuff like this with our own little Dino lover. :) If we have a boy.

Sunday Thoughts

John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

One of the speakers in sacrament was talking about how hard it is to fully live this commandment and how easy it is to love our friends or our families. But what about people in the world that do bad, or that co-worker who we have a hard time getting along with? I have this lady that I work with..not so much anymore but I still work with her and I DON'T get along with her at all. To ensure I don't turn this post into a venting session I am not going to say the things that drive me crazy. I have found it VERY hard to be around her sometimes and have (on a numerous of occasion) found myself wanting to "put her in her place" I have always held my tongue...until I get home anyway and James gets an earful. But having these feeling of almost hatred towards this person has changed me on the inside. I change that I really don't like. I have prayed, fasted, served and even ignored this woman to try and figure out how to love her and see her the way the Lord sees her. At one point I started to pray just asking the Lord to help me tolerate her. As I was sitting in church listening to this speaker it made me wonder if she was put in my path to help me stand up for myself. I know what you might be thinking, after all I said it sounds like I need to be nicer and just continue to pray and try and love this woman. Which I agree. But I am also wondering if the people I have the hardest time with in my life are the people that I need to stand up for myself and not be such a doormat. I had a companion in the mission field who I had a hard time with too and most of the time I just backed off and let her run the show. Which given that I was the senior I was told that I needed to take the lead. I feel like I never really did that. So I am wondering if this is the opportunity once again to kindly and lovingly stand up for myself and not get pushed around. We are suppose to love one another as our brother Jesus Christ loves everyone. But at the same time we are suppose to remember that we are sons and daughters of God. That we are endowed with power and have a great knowledge of who we are and where we come from. We are suppose to hold our heads high in the knowledge of these things. So when others are putting us down and trying to demean us (this is how I feel I am being treated as well as others around me by this woman) I don't think we are suppose to just lie down and take it. I think that we are suppose to lovingly and kindly remind these people that we can do it too and that they cant treat people like this. PLEASE I would LOVE feedback on this post. If I am just being prideful then please tell me. If you have any ideas on how I can talk to this lady. Or on what I should do. Please let me know. I have literally tried everything I can think of but she still makes me so mad when she treats people so badly that I want to scream or say something to either her or her boss. I know that this is NOT the right way to go about it. Any feedback/info would be great. I'm sorry this post didn't go the way I was planning.

Happy Birthday!

Today is Abby's birthday and I just wanted to leave a little birthday note for her. :)I met her almost 3 years ago when James and I started to date. I was able to go to a family dinner and meet the entire family a few days after my birthday. For my birthday she told me that cause I liked horses so much that she wanted to give me a special birthday present. Then she did her impersonation of a horse. Abby is a very sweet little girl. She is very aware of other people's feelings. She loves her brothers very much as well as all of her family. She also loves to read and sing. Which she is very good at both. So here's to you Abby on your 9th Birthday. I hope you had a great surprise birthday party and an all around great day! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

What's in a name?

This morning on our way to work James and I were talking about William Wallace and how we weren't really sure about where he came from, who he was and we wanted to learn more about him. Well it got me thinking about our ancestry and where we came from. I asked James is he knew the origins of the Armstrong family. He said that there was this story his grandma use to tell him about how the Armstrong's got their last name. After he told me the story he said that he wasn't sure if it was true or not. Well today has been a slow day at work so I decided to do a little research. I found this really neat website and I looked under the name Armstrong and this is what I found...

Search results for: Armstrong
A name given for strength in battle. Historians relate the following tradition: This family was anciently settled on the Scottish border; their original name was Fairbairn, which was changed to Armstrong on the following occasion: An ancient king of Scotland having had his horse killed under him in battle, was immediately re-mounted by Fairbairn, his armor-bearer, on his own horse. For this timely assistance he amply rewarded him with lands on the borders, and to perpetuate the memory of so important a service, as well as the manner in which it was performed (for Fairbairn took the king by the thigh, and set him on the saddle), his royal master gave him the appellation of Armstrong. The chief seat of Johnnie Armstrong was Gilnockie, in Eskdale, a place of exquisite beauty. Johnnie was executed by order of James V., in 1529, as a "Border Freebooter." Andrew Armstrong sold his patrimony to one of his kinsmen, and emigrated to the north of Ireland in the commencement of the seventeenth century. The Armstrong's were always noted for their courage and daring. In the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," when the chief was about to assemble his clans, he says to his heralds: "Ye need not go to Liddisdale, For when they see the blazing bale Elliots and Armstrong's never fail."

This story is the same one that James told me this morning. Isn't it a cool story, I Love it. It has gotten me really excited to do some digging into our family history. Anyway I just thought this was really cool and wanted to share. :) Oh the picture above is a picture of the Armstrong clan crest. Invictus Maneo means I remain unvanquished.

Sunday Thoughts

It's been awhile since I have done my Sunday thoughts and I really wanted to get them started back up again. Well at church yesterday two things really stuck out to me. James and I still teach our Sunday school class and it has changed A LOT. We went from teaching 6 kids to 2 kids. It's really different. We haven't had both our students in the same class yet. So all we've taught is 1 girl at a time. Last week it was Alexes and this week it was Natalie. These girls are night and day from each other it was amazing to see the difference. James and I were talking about what a humbling experience that this new class was going to bring. Humility has seem to been a topic that I have thought about a lot lately. I have realized that I have become very prideful and that I need to be more humble. It always seems like a hard thing to do sometimes. Our speaker in sacrament talked about Abraham, Issac and Issac's two sons and how it must have been a really trying and humbling experience for Abraham to have to follow the Lord's command to kill his son. Then how hard it must have been for Issac and Rebekah to watch oldest sell his birthright and marry outside the covenant when he was the one who was suppose to take on the full responsibility with being the oldest. In James' lesson that he taught in Sunday School. he said that everyday we cast a ballot for either Christ or Satan and that we can choose who we want to vote for and choose to serve. He then gave a series of examples and asked if they were on the Lord's side or on Satan's side. Listening to me husband give this lesson and to the talks the speakers gave really got me thinking about hos everyday we choose if we want to serve the Lord or Satan just by the little things we choose to do. Reading our scriptures, saying our prayers, attending church, visiting the temple regularly. All these things seem so easy to keep up on, but things happen and we forget or choose not to do them. I took a look back and realized how many times I have forgotten to include the Lord in my life. It's sometimes hard for me to remember that even though life can get busy and we run around doing those things that we think are important that I wouldn't have anything if it weren't for the Lord. My goal for this week is to cast my ballot for the Lord more often and to watch out for my pride and try to be more humble. What a great opportunity we have in this life to draw closer to our Heavenly Father. I don't want to ruin that because I might think a little to highly of myself. "“Choose you this day whom ye will serve; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Josh. 24:15.)
My purpose in this message is to emphasize the fact that this life is, for us mortals, a day of decisions, and to point out the need for us to make the right choices, and to make them now."
-President Marion G. Romney Second Counselor in the First Presidency-

For the book Challenge.

I wasn't going to write a review but changed my mind. :) My sister gave me this book and told me about it and the author. She said that she read it in one night cause she couldn't put it down. I was a little nervous cause...well for one I have already been reading "Total Money Makeover." By Dave Ramsey and it has taken me awhile to get through that. I have discovered that books like these I generally fall out of interest for and end up never picking them back up. Second. I LOVE fantasy books. Call me a child if you will I don't care. But some of my favorite books are meant to be for younger readers, I cant help it I love them. Some of the books I have read that I have not been able to put down (Sometimes almost literally) are The Giver, The Harry Potter series, Some of the Chronicles of Narnia, Fablehaven books 1 and 3, etc. Well when I did pick this book up I found that I did have a hard time putting it down. It didn't clash at all to "Total Money Makeover" if anything it added to it. I really loved this book. I loved the idea's that he had and that I got from this book. I am so excited for James and read it. i recommend this book to anyone. Especially those looking for financial peace of mind. To these people I would also recommend "Total Money Makeover" By Dave Ramsey or his other book Financial Peace. All of these book are absolutely WONDERFUL! :)

KEEP DREAMING!!
Rules are: Anything you have done has to be in bold. How much have you done?
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a Praying Mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Been to the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a Home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke ( We have this PS2 game)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight (if I have I dont remember)
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (in a pool...does that count?)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater (Every summer. love it.)
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving (ooo I want to so bad)
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Tied a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (wedding announcement in Monticello)
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby (not yet but trying)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit (This doesnt sound fun)
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Visited Italy
My friend Stacy did this and I thought it was fun so I wanted to do it. :) If this looks fun to anyone else well then...Tag your it!

Catching up

I thought I'd do this post to try and catch up with myself on all the different things that have been going on in our life. First new years. :) We had a really fun new years. The college closed at noon on new years eve and James didn't get off work for another 3 hours. So Dawn and I dropped the car off to him at the printing division and then her and I went to see Twilight...again. It was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed it the second time around cause I was able to relax a little more. After the movie James called and said he'd meet us at Dawn's house. After we met up we were able to change out of our work clothes and grab a few more things. then we all headed over to my sister in law's for a night of food and fun. :) It was exactly that too, we bought so much food (most of it junk) and we watched Chicago and played Cranium. By the time that midnight came around we were exhausted. We rang in the new year then Dawn headed home and we went to bed. :p That makes me feel so old. We had a great time though. Thanks Lisa!!! It was weird to go back to work on Fri for just one day...but the semester started on Monday and I think the students were happy we were there. :) Our Saturday was spent relaxing and catching up on house work. Sunday we had a baby blessing in Kearns. So after teaching the Sunday School class in our ward James came back and we gathered up cookies, coats and everything else we needed and headed down to Salt Lake (Kearns) we were 30 min early so we stopped by my niece Erika's house (It was her baby that was being blessed) to drop off the cookies then we headed on over to the church. It was nice to see family again and Craig did a wonderful job on the blessing. It was also fast and testimony meeting so we got to listen to some great testimonies. After we all went over to Erika's house to socialize and eat. Little Zach looked so cute in his little white suit. I tried to take a picture before this one but he was not happy so he was just crying.So Shelly put his binky in and I got the camera ready and then she pulled the binky out and I took the picture and thus we have what Erika calls this face he's pulling the monkey face. He's such a cutie. Congratulations to Craig and Erika on the blessing of their cute little baby boy Zach. After the blessing we drove up to Mom and Dad Armstrong's for family dinner. We were excited that we made it in time. It was a great weekend with family. Hope everyone had a wonderful New years. :)