I can't believe I forgot

Here is a picture of little Seth's teeth. You can't really see two of them, but there are two teeth there. Anyway, congratulations little Sethy. I also can't believe he is already 9 months old. When we went to the Dr. last week (another thing we did, but I forgot to mention), he was 23 pounds and maybe 28 or 9 inches long. I don't really remember the length, but he is 23 pounds. I couldn't believe my baby was already 9 months old. He has been so much fun.
OK. So, I don't know why I don't remember what we did last week. We actually had a milestone. It was our anniversary last Monday (the 28th of July). Brian and I have been married 8 years. It has been wonderful. I was sick Monday, and Brian had school, so we celebrated on Wednesday. We had a great time. We got a babysitter for all the kids. We went to the movies and saw Get Smart. It was very funny. I don't remember when I last laughed that hard during a movie. Of course, there were a couple of inappropriate scenes, but it was really pretty clean. Afterwards, we went to TGI Fridays and had dessert. It was a free date because we had some coupons and a gift certificate. Brian won the movie tickets from some competition at work, and he got the gift certificate when he reached his 5 year mark at Kohl's. So, thank you Kohl's for the great date:). Brian got me some lilys. They smell so good. Every time I walk into the living room, I smell them.

Hmmmm

So, I also posted another post that shows up after this one. Because church today had the same theme for all three meetings, I decided to post my thoughts from the day. How I am grateful for the gospel and the church.

Well, as I sit down to type this, I can't think of anything we did this week. I have been working on a list of chores (like, weed the back yard, get rid of the piles around the house, decorate the dining room, etc...) Brian gave me to do. If I do them all, then maybe Santa will bring us bikes for Christmas. Sadly enough the only thing I did this week was take some toys to the basement and clear off the kitchen counter (the one I usually just dump stuff on). Now, of course it is full again, but with the library books we will take back, and the stuff I will take back for a diaper study. Other than that, we didn't do much. I really wasn't feeling well for much of the week, but especially not so on Tuesday. That hopefully explains my serious lack of doing stuff. Brian seems to have what I have.

Sometimes I am so jealous of him. Last Sunday when I was sick, I decided to go to church because otherwise, I would have had to keep the baby, Kara, and Lindsay home with me because they all had borderline coughs, (so, I would not have gotten any rest, and it was much easier to go to church). Of course this week, when Brian is sick, everyone else is healthy, so he gets to stay home and be all by himself to nap and rest for the 4 hours we are all gone. Oh well, I am really hoping he feels better for our vacation this week, and it really wasn't too bad taking care of the kids this time when I was sick as compared to taking care of the kids when I had my kidney stones removed. In fact, it didn't seem too bad at all. I might have just been a little less patient at bedtime.

Anyway, we did go swimming a couple of times this week. The kids are really enjoying it. I am hoping they will continue to do better. Kara is not really afraid of the water at all any more. She used to not want to get her face wet at all ever, and she would hardly jump into the water into Brian's or my arms, but now she will jump in all by herself, and she will blow bubbles and get her face wet. She seems to really love swimming and working at getting better.

Matthew has been reading up a storm. He read about 30 library books these past couple of weeks. He reads all his books and all of Kara and Lindsays. He loves a series called Secrets of Droon, and the A-Z mystery series. He also loves Jigsaw Jones and Scooby Doo. He is so cute. It is fun for me to see him enjoy reading so much.

Lindsay went to play at her friend Kennedy's house (for reals. Not just her usual wishfull thinking). For her weekly planning during FHE, she often says she is going to play at Kennedy's house. This week, it actually worked. They played in the pool and in the back yard. She talked about it all day, and she was very pleased that she was going to a friend's house and Matt and Kara were not. She was so cute about getting ready and putting her swimsuit in a bag. She was quite disappointed when we had to eat lunch before we could leave for Kennedy's house. She is so much fun. It is so fun to see her personality come out.

Seth surprised me with a new tooth on Monday. Then, on Wednesday his other bottom tooth popped out. I would take a picture of him, but he is asleep, so I'll take one when he is awake. You can't really see them yet because they are just poking through, but as they get more visible, I'll post a picture. I am hoping that now these teeth have come out, he'll sleep better at night. I guess we'll see about that.

Brian is really really looking forward to our vacation we have planned. He has been uncharacteristically faithful about planning it out, just to show how excited he really is. It has been fun to see him plan it. I think this is how thorough he does stuff at work. No wonder they love him. He is amazing, and I know they love him. They probably don't love him as much as I love him, but they do love him. I don't know if I mentioned that he got a raise the other week just because he is doing such a great job (different than the yearly raises they do in April). He just has to finish studying and everything for his final on Thursday this week. Then, he'll have the rest of the month off school. He is also looking forward to getting started with the scouts. He has his first planning meeting this Tuesday.

Hopefully I'll get some pictures of little Sethy's teeth up soon.

A sure foundation

So, here goes another post. Today in Sacrament meeting, there were a lot of testimonies about our Savior, Jesus Christ, being there during times of affliction. Then, I got to teach in a primary class. The lesson was on Helaman 5. We worked on memorizing part of the scripture mastery scripture 5:12. And now my sons Remember, Remember that it is upon the rock of our redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation. Then, in Relief Society, we also talked about overcoming trials. It seemed like the entire church meeting was focused on this one topic. Throughout the day, I kept coming back to the scripture in Helaman 5:12, and also these scriptures in the Doctrine and Covenants, and how when I had my kidney stones, they were so helpful. I decided to post this on my blog because of the talk in the Ensign article last month by Elder Ballard. Since this is going to be a scrapbook I pass onto the children, I really want them to know my testimony of my Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

So, I know I wrote a letter describing the misery of the kidney stones, but I will summarize it here again... The pain feels seriously like labor. Not the intense labor at the very end when you’re ready to push the baby out, but definitely as bad as transition labor and when your contractions are only 2-3 minutes apart, but this pain lasted hours on end (no breaks every couple of minutes). Add to that nausea and vomitting. Then, this went on for days. So, I had my surgery on Thursday, and then Sunday night, I was still having some aweful pains. I was so tired. None of the medicine (the “really good stuff”) they gave me worked. After trying a couple of different ones that made me really nauseated for hours until with wore off, along with the terrible (understatement of the year) pain, I decided that pain alone was much better than nausea and pain. And, then I found that Ibuprofen worked better than anything else. But, it would wear off before I could take more. Mostly, I could keep on top of things, but Sunday night I couldn’t. I was so tired of the pain, and I was exhausted. Brian would have done anything to help me, but there was nothing to be done. I just had to wait one more hour till I could take more medicine.

Finally I got to take some medicine, but I still had to wait for it to kick in. Anyway, I was laying in bed, crying and miserable and nauseated, hoping and praying I wouldn’t throw up the pills I just swallowed. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, and this scripture ran through my head, so I read it. D&C 122:8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he? I got to thinking that Joseph Smith surely went through a lot of pain (emotional as well as physical), and I know I am not even nearly even remotely close to Joseph Smith’s sufferings. I also thought of this scripture in D&C 121:7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; 8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes. 9 Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands. 10 Thou art not yet as Job; thy friends do not contend against thee, neither charge thee with transgression, as they did Job. Even Joseph Smith didn’t suffer like Job, and Job didn’t suffer even remotely like Jesus Christ. Then, I was really humbled. I prayed, and I was immediately able to more patiently wait for the medicine to kick in. The pain was still pretty aweful, but somehow, I believe through the power of the Atonement, I was able to handle it with a lot more patience. There was peace inside me.

Anyway, the past couple of months, I have thought back to that experience a lot. The very first time I had the pain, that made me think I might be dying because it was so bad and so sudden, Brian gave me a blessing. In it, it said something like I would be closer to my Heavenly Father, or I would learn something important from that trial. I hope I have. Today, during church, I thought a lot about the scripture in Helaman 5:12 (since it was the focus of the primary lesson) “And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.” Anyway, I just wanted to bear my testimony, I found this to be true. That night, I felt like there was nothing left inside me (my spiritual/physical “house” was gone), but at least I had the foundation I have so far built upon as Christ, and He made things peacefully bearable. I hope I always remember this experience and always remember to lean on Christ and continue to build upon Him as my foundation because He will always be there, and if I build upon Him, I “cannot fall.”