I hate....

Brandon always says that my blogs are always so long. I figure people obviously come back to read more, so they must not be that bad. But,to help make Brandon happy, I will keep this one short and ...sour, not sweet. All I have to say right now is I HATE PEE! I'm sure there will be a long blog about it later, when I have settled down a bit and stopped thinking about where I could run away to.-P-

Sunday Message

Today was a wonderful day. Aside from the fact that I thought I would have a heart attack as I stood up infront of more than 200 people to deliver my talk, it was very gratifying to give my talk and then go to teach the primary children. I always feel that I learn more than anyone else. So below I have included what I typed up for my talk. I hope that you all have a great week! -P-

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When the Bishop called on Wednesday, I knew it wasn’t just to chat about his son’s wedding. So when he asked me to give a talk this Sunday, I was glad the subject was forgiveness, because it helped to not hold a grudge against him.
My first thought was that I knew a lot about forgiveness. After all, I have three young children at home. I always have to tell one of them to say, “Sorry” and the other one to say, “That’s okay.” So there you go, that’s forgiveness. Now what am I supposed to do with the rest of my 12 minutes?
I thought it would be good to look up some scripture verses to go with my talk and as I was searching the scriptures, I began to understand how little I really knew.
I came across Luke 17 1:4. It says:

Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
3 ¶ Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
It states very simply that if someone asks your forgiveness, you forgive them, even if it is seven times, you forgive them. It is not always that simple, but did you catch watch it said in the first verse? Jesus said “It is impossible but that offences will come.” Jesus knows that we will be offended, but he leaves us scriptures to tell us what is required of us. In Doctrine and Covenants 64: 9-10 it states:
9 Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.
10 I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.
Here we learn that we are to forgive ALL men and that if we don’t, we will have the greater sin. Why would it be the greater sin if we choose not to forgive?
In Mark 11: 25-26 we read:
25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
Our willingness to forgive is linked directly to Heavenly Fathers willingness to forgive us. As we learn in Luke 6:37:
37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.
Our relationship with our Heavenly Father should be reflected in how we treat our brothers and sisters here on earth. It is not our job to stand in judgment or to criticize others for their actions. It is our job to act in love, the way we hope that our Heavenly Father will act towards us. Following the examples of Jesus can only help us to achieve this. He was the ultimate example of love and compassion, not being reviled by the lepers as others were, not casting a stone at a woman who had sinned saying in John 8:7
7 …He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her...
Even at His last moments we read in Luke 23:34:
34 ¶ Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
At one of the most horrible times in His life, Jesus was able to offer forgiveness to others, the very ones who were crucifying Him.
I can not say that it is easy to forgive someone that has wronged you, but I do know that it is required of us. If we choose to judge and condemn others, even in the smallest way, making fun of the way someone looks or making them feel bad for their actions, we are in the wrong. But if we choose not to forgive, we then take the greater sin upon ourselves. I believe that it is the greater sin because, first, we are not obeying our Heavenly Father, but second, we are allowing something negative to linger in our lives. If we truly forgive someone, we can move past that event. On the other hand, if we choose not to forgive and let the bad feelings we have fester, they can only increase the pain that we have and possibly knock us off our course back to Heavenly Father. When we try harder to examine the life of Jesus, we are able to see the full range that forgiveness can encompass. I know that it is hard to be that forgiving with others, but I know with prayer and practice, it can be accomplished.
We should all listen to the words given to us in Ephesians 4:32:

31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and lamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
If our Savior was willing to sacrifice His life for our sins, we should be able to forgive others who sin against us. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Good Morning, Jake!

We have a little tracker at the bottom of our page and when we log in we can see where people have visited us from. We can label each visitor if we can figure out which one they are. Sometimes we can match up what time they left a comment with what time a specific computer has logged in or just by location and there's only one person we know there. Because of this, we are aware that my wonderful brother-in-law Jake checks our page from Utah every morning. I have felt bad not having any updates lately, knowing how disappointed he must be when he checks and there is nothing new. So I wanted to say a big "Good Morning, Jake. Have a great day!"

We've also noticed that there are several people that routinely visit us from some of our friends sites and just wanted to say, "Welcome to our crazy world. I'm glad it's something worth reading about."

I wouldn't want to disappoint you today, so let me tell you about our morning. Well, I guess it actually started last night. I took my Mom to see the BYU Ballroom Dance Company perform at the Washington Center. IT WAS AWESOME! If anyone is near Auburn on Saturday evening, they'll be at the Auburn P.A.C. and you should go. They do a number that is all black light stuff that is so great. Anyways, Brandon and I decided that we could be one of the host families for two girls that night. We got them home by 10:30 and were finally off to bed by 12:45 or so. Our family was all up by 6:15, against my will, so I was trying to keep them all quiet so the dancers could sleep. They got up for breakfast and after we ate I started making sack lunches for them. I kissed Riley and sent him off to school. Then it was time for us to get them to the church for their bus. YAWN, I know it doesn't seem bad, but here is where it gets better. I get home from the church just in time for a meeting that is to be held at my house. As the first person shows up a little early to feed her baby before the meeting, I get a phone call from one of the girls that had stayed over. She had left her cell phone and could I bring it there, please? So I asked my friend if she was okay with my two children and her three for a minute and was off. Dropped off the phone and got back in time for the other people to show up. Between us there were only 7 kids today, which is down from the summers average of 11 or so. We always seem to get stuff done, even while having to rescue a tiny kitten from the hands of too much love. Just after the meeting, I received a call from the Bishop. He had been out of town and realized I never had received a phone call to invite me to give a talk in church on Sunday. This is my week to teach the children's lesson about service, so how could I say no? And since the Bishop wants me to talk about forgiveness, how can I be mad at him? So I will have one 15 minute talk and two 15 minute lessons on Sunday. Hurray! Please, no one call me for the rest of the week as I will be insane. As I am wrapping up my phone call with the Bishop, Anna very calmly walks into the room, tells me Evan has taken off his pull-up and it had poop in it and then calmly walked away. Yikes! So...I'm trying to finish up the conversation, consoling a crying child, quietly yelling (really you can do that) at the girls (Anna had a friend over!) not to step in anything while I am stripping Evan of the remainder of his clothing that unfortunately were not clean anymore. Finally I hung up with the Bishop (I'm sure the crying child was an indication that I needed to go) and carried a naked, poopy, crying child to the bathtub where he stood for a few minutes as I visually tracked where I had found him to where it had all started. Of course, the phone rang. It was Brandon calling. NO, it was not a good time since I was cleaning up tracks through the kitchen that were not MUD! Oh my goodness! A little while later, my husband showed up home from work early, deciding to work longer on Friday, because he was "tired" and thought he'd have a nap this afternoon. He took care of Evan while I took the girls to school and then we spent 2 hours napping in our perfectly quiet house. I don't know what I loved more this afternoon, my nap or my wonderful, loving husband. Most days there would be a clear winner, but today, by husband pulled ahead a little. Ha Ha! I love Brandon so much. Hope this made someone feel better about the day they had. I can still manage a smile, so I guess it wasn't that bad of a day. -P-

Peek-a-boo!

So yesterday Brandon and I were one of those terrible types of parents who reneged on everything we said. Almost always, we make good on our word. Yesterday, that all went wrong. It all came about from an event that occurred a couple days before. We ended up feeding a very cute stray cat. We took it to the shelter and they said that since we were turning him in as a stray, we could adopt him in three days,if we wanted. We have been talking about pets lately and this pushed me over the edge. So I convinced Brandon that I would end up doing all of the hard work and he gave in. On Friday we went to the shelter to get the cat we had turned in and there were tons of kittens. So we took forever trying to decide on a cat. Whatever Anna wanted, Riley didn't. I was almost to the point of calling a blind vote when they agreed on one. So we went to the front desk to fill out the paper work and were told "Adoptions were over 30 minutes ago." Tears! That's all I can say. So we headed to pet smart to look at their cats, but none of them were kittens. So we told the kids we could go next door to rent a movie to try to cheer them up. We were there for about 30 minutes, and having the same problem with making a decision, when we hit our last straw and gave up. We told the children never mind and left without a video. I don't think that we have EVER done that. So we headed home with more tears. We had talked about having pizza for dinner because it was our Fun Friday dinner night. But we had done pizza the last 3 Fridays. We decided to get Happy Terriyaki instead, because the kids love it. As Brandon picked up the phone to order, I ran in the other room to tell the kids the great news. MORE tears! At this this point I was hiking up my pants to keep them dry from the flood waters. Oh my goodness! I had had it! No more. Too much yelling and a lot of I'm sorry's to the kids later and life continued on okay. Well, Evan has been on a really long "Days Go By" kick. He can sings almost every word of that song. You know when you have a favorite thing and you introduce you child to that thing because you love them. Only they ruin it by making you get totally sick of it. So it is with that song. Anyways, when he was done with dinner, he wanted to sing it "Really loud," so we sent him in the other room. A few moments later, Brandon opened the family room door and sucked in his breath. No, not more Sharpie, but poop! Evan loves taking his pull-ups off, but had chosen a bad moment. Luckily there was none anywhere but his legs. Should I even say it.... MORE tears! Only this time it was me . I wanted to be sent to my room at this point and was never so happy for bedtime to come. Today, we went back to the shelter and got the kitten that we picked out last night. She is two months old and just precious. We named her Peekaboo but call her Peeka for short. It had originally been Pika, short for Pikachu, Riley's favorite Pokemon character, but when my mom came to meet her, she thought it was short for Peek-a-Boo because she was hiding and kept peeking at us. We liked that. Just when I thought I was about done changing diapers, I've moved onto litter boxes. What was I thinking?-P-

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Club Members Only!

I've joined an elite club. Here's how you can join, too. First you have to be busily drawing pictures on a balloon for your daughter. Then, you have to have a 2 year old who will yell, "Pee Pee in the toilet." That's your cue to drop everything to run to the bathroom. When you are done (and disappointed with wet underwear), you have to decide now would be a good time to shower. After you are all done and dressed, you must then go search out your children. You will have to enter a room, suck in your breath and try hard not to yell at the 2 year old who doesn't know what the word permanent means. And then you will have to take the Sharpie marker away from him and go throw it in the garbage. That's when you become part of the "I was stupid and left a Sharpie where my small child could reach it" club. You can join in other ways, too. But this is how I did it. Anyone care to join me? -P-

The Bravery of a Mom

I don't think that anyone truly understands how brave a mother has to be. There are so many times that a Mom has to take a deep breath and just move forward. The first time you leave your baby with a babysitter that is not family. The first day of Kindergarten or Preschool when you let them go off for the day with strange kids who will teach them who-knows-what. Sleep-overs at someone else's house. What about when they become teenagers. The things they are exposed to. The three D's: driving, dating, drugs... There are so many times in a mother's life that she has to be braver than she really is. Sometimes letting your kids grow up just sucks. It is so scary that Heavenly Father has entrusted us to raise these children. But it is important to realize that He has only lent them to us for a small while. If we do a good job as parents, they will want to remain in our lives even after they no longer have to.

So today, when I took off Evan's pull-up and replaced it with plastic underwear, I was braver than I wanted to be. I was saying Yes to letting Evan be more independent, but also reluctantly saying Yes to cleaning up many messes over the next few... days.

Okay, I'm more of a realist than that, but anyways...

Potting training, here we come!

Gone hog wild!

We always kneel in a circle for prayer as a family at bedtime, after we have read our bedtimes stories and scriptures. It is quite an adventure when you have small children. Never so much as when you have a 2 1/2 year old. Tonight was not exception. It is always a battle of the wills with Evan. Trying to get him to join the circle and stay quiet during the prayer is so fun. But tonight he got us all laughing, actually snorting, hysterically. With all of our coxing, we got him to kneel with our family. His older brother and sister were sitting reverently, being good examples. We all started to fold our arms and bow our heads while Evan starts to grab his nose with two fingers and plug it. Then he snorts in real deeply, making a very loud sound, and announced to us "I'm a pig!" He does it again and says "Anna, be a pig. Riley, be a pig" I can't help but laugh out loud while Brandon is trying to remain reverent, waiting for the moment to pass. Then Evan, between loud snorts, looks up and says, "Daddy, be a pig!" Brandon reluctantly grabbed his nose to snort as Evan turned to me. Before he even said "Mommy" I plugged up my nose and snorted. Evan got the biggest smile on his face, probably because he realized that he has complete control of his family. We had to love the joy of this moment, though. We held off prayer for one more moment so we could get a short video. Have a great laugh and a good night. -P-

Frogs - The Revenge!

While we were picking tomatoes today, we found a big green tree frog. Of course, Anna wanted to keep it. Just last night, she was crying in bed about missing the frogs. So when she begged to put him in our tadpole's home, I decided it would be okay for a day or two. I hadn't yet cleaned it out after getting rid of all of the frogs. So I reached my hand into the tank to set up the plants again and something sprang into the water. Now you have to understand, I overturned EVERYTHING when we captured our 25 frogs for thier release. I don't know how it happened, but it appears we had 26 frogs! Wow! I guess we get to keep one afterall, at least for a little while. -P-

A case of mistaken identity

Today, we decided to pick as many tomatoes as we could before the mice got to all of them. With the ones I picked a few days ago we'll have plenty for a batch of spaghetti sauce and a little salsa! After picking tomatoes I decided to clean up the garden a little bit. My cucumbers had been overgrowing into the pumpkins so I just grabbed them by the roots and pulled. As I dislodged some vines that were stuck to the pumpkins, I came up with this one. I found two more just like it as I continued to pull. Is it just what happens when cucumbers get WAY overgrown or did I just make a cuckin or a pumper? It is really much more orange in person. So weird. -P-

Counting Cousins

Up until this last weekend, Anna couldn't count her cousins right. She would count with her fingers "Emily, Daniel, Michael, that's three and the twins is two. I have five!" "Nope" I would say. She would look at me puzzled and I would have to remind her about Aunt Meri's new baby, Tanner. Well, she doesn't forget him anymore. She adds him to her count in a sing-song kind-of way that is just so sweet.
We had a wonderful time with the Kirkwoods' last weekend. We got to see Dustin and Meri and meet Tanner. And Jake was back in town for the weekend. Jeff and Lesha came down for the weekend. Marji and Bill took us all out to dinner with on Friday. DJ was even there, although were at the restaurant where he worked, so he didn't get to have fun with us. They all came to Riley's football game to see him score the extra point on Saturday. That evening we added more family for a big birthday bash. All of the aunts, uncles and cousins showed up for a great time. We played a really fun game that Jake taught us called "Signs" where you sit in a circle and pass discrete little motions back and forth to eat other while trying not to get caught by the person in the middle. It gets pretty funny, as you can choose some crazy stuff to be your sign. Case in point, Dustin chose scratching his armpit. Can you even do that without getting caught? I think he just didn't want to get chosen! Sneaky way to not participate, Dustin. On Sunday, we drove up to Dustin's sisters house to participate in blessing Tanner. What a beautiful day! The sun was shining and we were all dressed up. So much family around us. I am one truly blessed individual.
On Saturday night Lesha and I got to go to a special women's conference at our church. One of the leaders talked about creating something, anything, with our talents. "The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before." President Uchtdorf goes on to say, "The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter." Some people don't recognize the untouchable things that we can create, only looking to the things that we can feel and see. But so many times it is the untouchable, unseen things that we have created in our lives that hold us up when our feet fall out from underneath us. I am glad for the relationship that I have with my family. But I know that it did not just appear out of nowhere. We have all put our fair share of creativity into it to keep it happy and loving and one of the most prized possessions in my life. Okay, sappy I know, but true. Love you all -P-

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