Follow the River

Just finished such an amazing book! It is historical fiction - my favorite genre. It's called Follow the River by James Alexander Thom. It is about a woman named Mary Ingles. She was 23, married and pregnant when Shawnee Indians invaded her settlement. The Indians killed most of the men and women and took her captive. For months she lived with them until she escaped and walked the 1,000 miles back to her home. This is seriously one of my all time favorite books.

For the most part, this book was taken from her journals and is one of the most inspiring stories about the human spirit. You'll love it!

Welcome Home!

WOW! What an emotional weekend! One gift most of us women have in common is what I call extreme empathy. We can put ourselves in others shoes and actually feel a glimpse of what they are experiencing. It's why when one woman cries, we all cry.

Thursday my brother and his family welcomed home their first missionary. After serving two years in upstate New York my nephew Jordan is a changed person. And he has helped change many lives too.

I was so excited for Steve and Lisa to see their son I could hardly stand it. It takes so much faith for a mom and dad to hand their son over to the Lord like that for two years. It made me reflect on the future sending Ashton on a mission of his own. I'm going to be a wreck! I couldn't see through the lens of the camera as I took most of the pictures! These pictures were my favorite and they speak 1,000 words all on their own.

Here's the kicker. They're second son Taylor just submitted his papers! So here we go again! It's so awesome!

Jr. Jazz

My new favorite past time is watching six year old boys learn to play basketball. Ashton cannot get the concept of offense and defense. When his team is shooting the ball, there is Ashton guarding his guy. When they are on defense, there is Ashton guarding his guy. Well, if there's one thing he does well, it's guarding his guy. Bless his heart.

Each week we do see progress with the boys. Instead of tucking the ball like a football under their arm and driving through all the players to get to the net, they are actually dribbling. It's a very, very high dribble, but it's a dribble. They are actually learning to pass the ball too, it rarely makes it to the intended boy, but at least they're starting to share the ball.

Heaven help me, there are still five more weeks to go!

NEGATIVE ONE

SO, if you know Aaron he cannot sit still. He had a couple days off work between Christmas and New Year's and he drove me crazy! One day I could tell he was coming down with cabin fever. He really wanted all of us to go skiing, but it was freezing outside. I finally relented and agreed to go skiing at Alta at 3:00 - when it is FREE. I am NOT going to pay to freeze to death.

It was SOOO cold. The sign read -1 degree. Needless to say, we lasted one hour. My goggles iced over after the first run. Aaron took a picture of me at the end of our fun adventure to show the icicles growing on the ends of my eyelashes and eyebrows. Nice.

Why can't he just be happy drinking hot chocolate and watching a movie like most men?!

The Fearsome Threesome

This pretty much sums up Christmas Day. Ashton is still into Star Wars - this is the third Christmas now where his gifts revolve around the battle between the dark side and the goodness of the force. As you can see here, we are all good guys! (I obviously didn't know we were pulling GQ tough guy faces . . . .)

He also received the Millenium Falcon ship. It is a HUGE toy that I liken to a barbie house for boys. His action figures can sleep in it, make food, watch TV, and fix hurt people. Now this is a toy I can get into!

Christmas Eve

It was the second annual "Classic Roller Skating - wear your kids out so that Santa can get his work done" event. We were a bit disappointed as we had the entire place to ourselves last year. This year there were more people, and strange people too, which made me wonder about our choice of Christmas Eve festivities. Whatever, we fit right in! Aaron's brother, Nate and his family all showed up, the Olson Family, the Rees Family and the Thayne Family all came for the YMCA and snowball skate as well. The more the merrier! I can't speak for everyone else, but I had a blast! Obviously . . .

TOFW

I was able to go with my work to Time Out for Women. This is an event sponsored by Deseret Book with the purpose to uplift and build women's testimonies. I have been to it several times now, and it never disappoints.

I wanted to write down a couple of my favorite speakers and the messages I took away from them. Mariama Kallon has a DVD at Deseret Book that tells her story - but she lived in Sierra Leone and watched her entire family murdered at the hands of rebel soldiers - narrowly escaping with her own life. She was placed with an LDS family in a neighboring village and introduced to the gospel. Inquiring after a white missionary couple in her village learned about the missionary program. She filled out papers and served a mission on Temple Square. Throughout her talk she kept referring to her "therapist." At the end of her message she introduced us to this therapist. The camera did a close up of her scriptures. You cannot image what this woman's scriptures look like - it brings you to tears. You have never seen a book more loved, marked in, book marked, worn out book in your life. She testified it doesn't matter what challenge, crisis, or torment you go through in life - the scriptures will ALWAYS comfort you and guide you. WOW, she was powerful.

Another speaker was Brother Wilcox. I've heard of this man quite a bit, but have never listened to him before. He talked about the atonement in a way that I have never thought of it before. He spoke of a nephew that had made every wrong decision imaginable. In an effort to "save him" he and his brother enrolled him at BYU for EFY. He said his nephew lasted only a few hours before he called his dad and said, "Get me out of here - I can't stand these people!" Brother Wilcox compared this experience to us and our options for the life hereafter. He said that we will be granted that kingdom in which we will experience the most happiness and feel comfortable in the eternities. He imagines judgement meeting with God and Christ, with Christ on his knees before us begging and pleading with us to accept his offering so that we will want to be with Them as an eternal family. To grow and continue our progression. If we think, speak and act in a Christlike way in this earth life, we will truly be Celestial people. It will feel right, comfortable and natural. Loved this.

Looking forward to next year TOFW - they have great speakers lined up including Stephani Nielson of the Nie Nie Diaries!