A Thanksgiving Blessing

We've had a lot of prayers answered in the last little while. I'm grateful for all of the blessings we've been given and the experiences I've been blessed to have while I've been unemployed. Heavenly Father certainly does help you make the most of things. I've had time to get to know Bree a lot better and spend time with her. I've really enjoyed that. I've had time with my family that I have really needed. I miss them a lot. I've been able to focus on a lot of things that I needed to, and it's been a blessing to have the time. It's true that everything has a time and a season. I'm just waiting to see what this next season brings.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I hope you get a small moment alone this season to stop and reflect on just how greatly blessed and loved you are.

~Beth

PhotoShopping

My first PhotoShop experiment. What do you think? It's far from perfect, but it's a beginner's attempt. Thanks to some help from Bree!

Halloween

Hi, again!

I decided I would post our pictures from the Halloween party that Bree and Katie threw at our house this year. It was a lot of fun! Bree took pictures of everyone in front of the backdrop she put together; which turned out quite cute, I must say.

Robert and I dressed up like old people. We had fun hamming up the part, too. :) We inhaled a bit of corn starch and baby powder while powdering our hair, though. I hope we don't hear any news reports anytime soon stating the discovery of health hazards from baby powder. :(

Our friends Jonathan, Jordan, and Clara dropped by for a while; which made the party even better. We are blessed with good friends and family!

Just so you can share in the scariness of our costumes, here are a few pics. Enjoy!

Granpa Elison Book

Ok. Tell me this doesn't look too 'girly-ish.' I got a CD from my Aunt Mary loaded with pictures scanned from photo albums that belonged to my Grandpa Elison. It has been such a treasure! I still don't know the names of everyone in the pictures or where there fit in the family tree, but I hope to find out soon.

Oh the Digital World

I've discovered digital scrap-booking, and it's amazing! (Thank you Bree!) Here are my first two pages, or the trial run. They are pictures of me and my Dad. Let me know what you think! I'm completely open to suggestions for improvement, since I'm relatively new to all of this.

Camera Fun

So I was watching my cousin's little girl play on the swing when I went home for the weekend and she was so cute I ran for my camera and took some pictures.

"Sweet is the Peace the Gospel Brings"

“Sweet is the Peace the Gospel Brings.” These words have been running through my mind these last few weeks as my family has experienced the passing of yet another loved one. After a miraculous gift of seven more years of life after a heart transplant and so many more miracles surrounding an ocular melanoma, my maternal Uncle, Ron Wodskow, passed away on May 11, 2008 in Idaho Falls, Idaho from liver cancer after only four day’s notice that he had the disease. The Patriarch of my mother’s side of the family, he was definitely the family’s ‘Dad’ and no one could doubt his love for them. It was always evident when you were in his presence that he loved you, and it was a powerful love; the kind that just envelopes you and makes you feel safe. Christ-like love. He was also a family teacher, showing us all how to live and love the gospel through loving advice and powerful example. So everyone, in a way, felt like they were losing a father. This should have been terribly traumatic; drop-to-your-knees-and-sob traumatic. For some of us it was, but only for a few moments. But after those few moments came the peace; that sweet peace that comes from the Spirit and our knowledge and faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because of the Spirit and this gift of ‘good news’ our Uncle’s passing became one of the most beautiful things we could witness.

I know it’s odd to hear death described as ‘beautiful,’ but that is what the gospel can shape these traumatic experiences into; beautiful life experiences. Where there should have been unbearable heart ache and sobbing, there were many tears but also so much peace. Through the Gospel I know where my Uncle Ron has gone, and so does our family. “…the grave hath no victory and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.” (Mosiah 16:8, Book of Mormon) I know he is not gone forever, but only for a time. I know that he will rise again because Christ has broken the chains of death and given us the gift of the resurrection. Until the resurrection comes, I know “…the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.” (Alma 40:12) I also know that through the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we can also live with our Savior and our Uncle Ron because we are given the magnificent gift of repentance. I know man is not perfect; we make mistakes daily (heaven knows I make plenty of them). We always forget the little things that we should be doing. Sometimes we make very big mistakes, but none of them are ‘untouchable’ to the Atonement. All can be forgiven if we repent. What a gift this knowledge is to us. What a gift this Gospel is to us.

I was also given the sweet gift of being able to say ‘goodbye’ to my Uncle the day before he died. I cried. Many of my tears streamed from watching the tears of others; especially his dear wife, Aunt Pat, their children, and my mother. I also wept because it would be a long time before I would see him again, and I loved him a lot. However, “Sweet is the Peace the Gospel Brings” and when I bent over his hospital bed to give him one last hug, I knew it was only going to be a temporary separation and instead of saying ‘goodbye’ I was blessed to be able to say, “I love you, and I’ll see you later.”

Just a Bunch of Blog-ony

One reason I hesitated to create a blog is because I don't feel like Robert and I do anything that would be exciting for anyone but us; it would just be a bunch of Blog-ony. : ) So far, however, everyone has at least liked the name. There's really not much of a story behind it. Robert and I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond not too long after we were married because we were gifted a gift certificate from there. In the car we were joking and thought it would be funny to call our family "Bob, Beth & Beyond" after we have kids. We thought it was funny, anyway, and luckily our names just fit the ticket. However, if our blog does get too boring we could just call ourselves the 'Blog-ony' family. : )

It's About Time

I thought that after being married for almost a whole year it was about time Robert and I got a blog so everyone could see our grand adventures. :) Ok, so maybe they are only grand to us.


The first grand adventure was last year in June when we got married in the Salt Lake Temple. What an adventure it was! Family all over, packed schedules and hot weather, but the day was a dream come true. Not only were we sealed for time and eternity but we were blessed to share the day with most of the many people we love.

Now fast forward 10 months and we are graduating from Brigham Young University. Robert earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and Spanish Translation and I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with a Minor in Business Management. Finally, after 4 years for me (and Robert says 21 years for him) we are through school...at least for now. Robert will go on for a PhD in English, he wants to teach at a University, but we haven't decided which school to attend as of yet.

Graduation was quite an experience. Jonathan went to see his girlfriend, Elizabeth Watt, graduate so he asked if he could sit with my dad & mom and he did. All of the graduates lined up outside of the Administration building in lines according to our individual colleges and we stood there for about 40 minutes before we started marching into the Marriott Center. It was such a cold day!! It had rained in the morning and it started snowing as we lined up to march. Robert walked with my college so we could sit together, and when we lined up we bumped into Kamie Robinson from our Casa Dea ward, so we ended up sitting next to her, which was fun. Then we walked next to Tavin Cardon and Camie Burton as well. We went a few feet farther and my friend/Robert’s old roommate Matt Daley came running up (he was graduating with a Master’s Degree in Accounting) and shook Robert’s hand and gave me a hug. He was in his Master’s robes and such.
Finally we made it into the Marriott Center. The place was packed. I don’t think there was one empty seat!! Elder Bednar spoke and so did our friend, Matt Daley. I don’t know how that boy landed that speaking position, but he did a good job. He spoke on how we can and should use our education to serve others.
Elder Bednar was the last speaker and he said that he had been to so many commencements that he didn’t even bother to keep track of the number, but he had learned one thing from them all and that was that no one remembered what was said by the speakers. In fact, he said he didn’t even remember what they said, so his gift to the graduates was a short talk because he knew we all wanted to be out of there. Cheers went up from the audience, but I was slightly disappointed. I wanted to hear more from an Apostle. His talk was quite good. It was on how we need to learn to love learning and always be continually learning.


After the closing prayer we marched outside and waited for my Dad and Mom to find us. Jonathan’s girlfriend, Elizabeth Watt from Blackfoot, Idaho, found us first, then Jonathan and Dad & Mom found us. We called Matt to see where he was so we could take pictures with him.
Later on Jonathan and Liz came over for lasagna and coconut cream pie. Joe and Bree came down with their new baby girl, Priya, and we all had dinner. It was a very nice day and I really enjoyed it.
The next day, Friday, was the individual college’s graduations where you walk across the stage and they give you the diploma cover. Robert walked with my college, the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences (which is the largest college at the university) and our ceremony started at 8:00 in the morning in the Marriott Center. We had to be outside and lined up by 7:00AM!!!!!! So we got up at 5:30am Friday morning to get ready and get to campus. We found the Anthropology line and I ended up being the first person in the Anthropology dept. and Robert (who’s not even and anthropology student) was second in line. We stood there for 45 minutes in the cold morning air and my hands and feet were so frozen that I couldn’t feel them for ½ an hour after we went into the Marriott Center. The Anthropology Department was the first college so we were right behind the Doctorate and Master’s degree students, and the college Valedictorians, so the Anthropology dept. was the first Dept. to walk across the stage and I was the first student!! I was also toward the beginning of the line, and I got lost….
Well, ok, here’s the story just to show that I’m not entirely an educated idiot, only mostly... J When we walked into the tunnel to get to the floor of the Marriott Center I was walking behind the Master’s students, but in the tunnel the Valedictorians, who had been waiting in the tunnel, were placed in front of me so they could sit on the stage. There were two lines walking onto the floor at once, so one was filling up the near section of seats and my line was filling up the far section. Well, when I got to the floor the line ahead of me was peeling off to go to the stage and I knew I wasn’t supposed to be on the stage but the line ahead of me was no more!! So I stopped and quickly panicked then decided to just lead the line to the far side seats. There I was leading half of the entire graduating body of students and I lost the line! It was kind of like the line of ants in the movie, “A Bug’s Life” where a leaf falls between these two ants in the line and the ant behind the leaf loses control and starts crying that the world was going to end because he lost the line. Only I wasn’t that bad. I just started walking to the far seats and the girl that was supposed to be helping our line came hurrying around the corner to see where the line had gone, but by then I had everything under control. That was an adventure.
We finally got to sit down and we were in the front row, so we got to watch all the people walk across the stage. It was quite amusing, I must say. One lady took her little boy across with her, and he was dressed up in graduation robes and cap. He was pretty cute, but as soon as they got across the stage she set him down to take a picture and he ripped (ran) back in front of the stage to go across it again. J His dad came ripping across after him but he didn’t know where his little boy was so he was saying, “Where did he go?” The students farther down in the first row told him that the people at the end of the stage had caught him so he didn’t go across again. The dad got his son and hauled him off; he was in trouble.
After the umpteenth student walked across the stage they said a prayer and we were free to go. We hiked the million stairs to the street level to meet my Mom and Dad and went to campus to take some pictures with our favorite statues around campus: the naked Indian (Massasoit) in front of the Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL), the stature of Brigham Young in front of the Administration Building (ASB), and the family in the courtyard near the Wilkinson’s Center (WILK).

All was said and done by 11:00 and after we took pictures we walked back to the van, got something to eat at Taco Bell and took Robert to work. Poor Robert doesn’t have any vacation days so we don’t know how he is going to make up taking ½ a day off for graduation.

My brother, Tim, and his wife, Kodi, and their two girls, Adasynn and Ember, came down from Logan on Friday night to spend the weekend with us. Saturday we went to Cabela’s for Dad and Tim, and to the Hogle Zoo for all of the girls. I don’t know that Robert was too thrilled with any of them, but he seemed to have a good time. I know I enjoyed walking around the Zoo with him. We tried on funny hats at the gift shop, and Mom was snapping away with the camera, of course. Adasynn was pretty cute with the Giraffes, and she said her favorite part of the Zoo was a pile of small rocks that she played in while everyone was looking at the Giraffes. We go to the Zoo and Adasynn plays with the rocks. She’s so cute. My favorite part was the monkeys and the penguins. There were three penguins huddled in the corner of the pen that reminded me of the plotting penguins in “Madagascar.”

The troupe stayed until Sunday afternoon then they all went home. The house was VERY quiet after they left; too quiet. Now life is relatively back to normal, minus the school part. I work all day, 8-5 and so does Robert. However, I still have that ever-nagging feeling that I have homework to do. I wonder when that will go away....