Happy New Year!

Alas, I still have not written an entry about my wonderful Christmas, and now it is already New Year's Eve. My plan was to write a Christmas blog today so that I could write a New Year's blog tomorrow, but the day got away from me.  So, I will do a New Year's blog now and hopefully soon write about Christmas.

Today has been a nice day. We went to the temple this morning with my parents and my Uncle Joe to do some family names. It was a good session.  I love the peace and  beauty of the temple. I spent a lot of the time pondering about family and what a blessing it is in general and specifically how much I love my family.

After the temple we went over to my parents for awhile. It is nice to have a few days off to spend time with family this weekend.

I came home and had three more chapters in the Book of Mormon to read in order to finish it. In 2000, at the suggestion of a friend, I decided to try reading the Book of Mormon in a month. I did, and it was such a wonderful experience that I have done it every year since then. I usually do it earlier in the year, but this year I was reading the Old and New Testaments (finished the NT, only half way through the OT) so I didn't start until mid November. I am a little over my month, but I wanted to finish it before the end of the year. I finished a few minutes ago, so I barely squeaked by. I sure do love the Book of Mormon and I love reading it fast like that every year, because it gives me a different perspective.

So, here I am at 5:55, about to leave for a New Year's Eve party, and I thought I would do a quick post.

After I finished the Book of Mormon I spent a few minutes going through my journals and getting an overview of my year. Every New Year after I get home from the celebration, I write a journal entry about the year. So in preparation for that, I sat down for a minute and reviewed my year.

It was so wonderful to look back. Yes, there were hard things that happened this year, but they were far outweighed by the many good things that happened: sleepovers with my nieces and nephews; many fun family parties, including our family Olympics; summer vacations, trips to the canyon and Lagoon trips; going to two temple open houses and the wonderful opportunity to be at the Oquirrh Mountian Temple dedication; going to Conference; working at the temple and the wonderful experiece of being a coordinator, working with the sweet Primary kids in my calling, working as a nurse and having patients tell me I made a difference for them, teaching and training new nurses; all the fun things we did for the Holidays this year...

OK, I guess that is enough of a review, but as I reflected about my year, I just felt so grateful for my blessed life! New Year's Eve used to be so hard for me because I am not married, but Heavenly Father has taken that pain from me and given me sooo many compensatory blessings.

So, I end this year with gratitude for all that has happend this year and with excitment for what the New Year will bring. I want to be a better person in the New Year, be more willing to serve and love and help others.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!!

It has been a wonderful Christmas, and I will write all about it soon, but I just wanted to send out a quick Merry Christmas!

This was what Jen and I saw as we left our house this morning:

What a beautiful sunrise and what a wonderful way to start off Christmas morning! I love the color of the light coming over the mountains in the first picture and the light just starting to touch the tops of the mountains through the misty clouds in the second picture. It was so beautiful! I about froze Jen by opening the car window to get the pictures, but I think it was worth it.

As I looked at the beautiful sunrise, I thought about how it was perfect imagery of the birth of Christ and how that singular event brought light to a dark and troubled world. I love this time of year and the chance it gives me to ponder on and celebrate all that He did for us; His humble birth, His perfect life and His supreme sacrifice.

We came home for a few hours and I was reading Matthew 1 and Luke 1-2.  I love what Mary says to Elizabeth:

"And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation… He hath filled the hungry with good things… He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy."           --Luke 1:46-54

He has surely filled my life with good things and blessed me greatly.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Odds and Ends

Ok, so it is midnight and I should be in bed, but I wanted to post a few pictures. Last week we made Gingerbread houses with the nieces and nephews, and it was so fun (and hopefully some day I will post about it), but I was so busy helping the kids that I did not get to do my own. So tonight, the adults made houses while the kids played.

I love making Gingerbread houses! While mine are by no means professional, and I usually only spend an evening making it, it is a fun tradition that I have been doing for many years. Ems and I were the only ones that spent all night at it (which is why it is now midnight) so by the time we got around to taking pictures ours were the only ones left to take pictures of:

Here is Em's house--she is amazing! Unfortunately, you can't really see how detailed it is in the picture. Look at the decoration done in frosting on the front of  the house. She did that around the whole house. The roof is graham crackers, perfectly placed, and the lights around the roof are Christmas Cadbury eggs, cut in half. She really is creative. (One year she made a big church complete with stained glass windows, but that took a lot longer than just one evening.)

Here is my house.  Notice I copied Em's frosting decoration on the front of the house, although mine is not quite as precise. (I am not quite as patient as she is...) Mine is on a bigger board so I was able to do a little more with the yard. It sure was fun to make! I especially like the tree. You can't really see in the picture, but it is red and silver, and the same silver accents are on each post of the fence (suggested by Emilee, of course.)

On a totally unrelated note, I have to tell one more quick story. I ran in to the gift shop at the hospital last week and bought a little stuffed animal. I think it was $12 total. The cute pink lady told me that because I spent over $10, I qualified to be in a drawing for a nativity and pointed over to the side of the store to show me what they were drawing for. I couldn't really tell where she was pointing, even when I asked her again, but I decided it didn't really matter since there was not much chance of my winning it anyway. So, I filled out the ticket and went on my way.

A few days later, I got a call that I had won the drawing. I thought that was fun, especially since I have never won a drawing like that, but I still wasn't sure what I had won. I assumed it was just a little nativity.

Well, I went in to pick it up and they handed me this large box. When I opened it up, this was what I found:

It is actually a Demdaco nativity! I looked it up and it sells for around $75. I couldn't believe that I had actually won something so nice, and from just a quick trip in to the gift shop. I just thought I would share my fun news.

Well, I'm off to bed. I hope you are all enjoying this Holiday season. I am sure having fun!

Deep Thoughts

(Warning, long post!)

Wow, it has been a busy week…oh wait, my goal is to say a full instead of busy. It has been a full week, packed with all sorts of good things, but not leaving me time to blog. I want to do a post about our Gingerbread houses with the nieces and nephews at some point, but getting all the pictures in would take too long before work this morning. So, I am going to instead share some “deep thoughts” I have been pondering about the past few weeks.


In Stake Conference a few weeks ago, the Second Counselor in the Stake Presidency gave a powerful talk about Christ and His healing power in the night session. The next morning, he gave another shorter talk about Christ. In that second talk, he told a story that I can’t stop thinking about. He first quoted President Packer as follows:

“I somehow knew there was one thing the Lord would never take from me, and that was my free agency. I would not surrender my agency to any being but to Him! I determined that I would give Him the one thing that He would never take—my agency. I decided, by myself, that from that time on I would do things His way.” (“Spiritual crocodiles,” Ensign, May 1976).

Then the Counselor told a story from his own life. Right after his first child was born, he knelt by the couch where his wife and child were sleeping and told Heavenly Father the same thing. He said in that prayer, “You can take my child or my wife in death; you can ask me to move…you don’t have to take anything from me, I give it to you freely.”

Wow, that was so profound to me! This past few years I have really committed to follow Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and to do Their will, but I have never thought of it like that. I was especially impressed at the specifics of his prayer. I thought about what a poignant time it is to have a new baby, all the love and emotion that the parents must feel, and for him to specifically say that Heavenly Father could take his child or wife…I couldn’t believe what faith he was demonstrating!

One of my biggest fears as a child was that one of my family members would die. I used to lay awake at night worrying that someone would get in an accident or one of the kids would get lost. (In fact, anytime we went anywhere with all the kids I was constantly counting to make sure each one was there…silly me!) I don’t worry about it anymore like that, thank goodness, but of course at times I ponder about how hard it would be to lose someone or to have one of my sweet little nieces or nephews die.

So, I have thought a lot about that talk these last few weeks. I have thought about being willing to give up anything.

As I was reading in the Book of Mormon in my personal study last week I was reading about the people of Ammon. I have always loved this scripture, and it was particularly applicable to what I have been thinking about: “And they never did look upon death with any degree of terror, for their hope and views of Christ and the resurrection; therefore, death was swallowed up to them by the victory of Christ over it” (Alma 27:28).

I think that is amazing! Because of their faith in Christ, they did not fear death for themselves, but I think they also did not fear death for their family members! I thought about when more than a thousand were slain without resistance…what faith!! I realized as I read it again that it was not that they didn’t mourn, but that they didn’t fear. I think there is a big difference between the two emotions.

What I have finally processed and come up with is something I really always knew but never thought about in this way; the Stake Counselor and the people of Ammon and anyone who really commits themselves to the Lord can say that He can take anything from them because they know Him, and they know that He can be trusted impilictly! They know that He loves them beyond measure and wants only what is best for them.

I read something this week by John Bytheway that really sums it up for me, “While we may not have all the answers in this life, the Lord does, and we can trust Him more than anyone or anything in this world. He will help us get through everything” (“When Times Are Tough, p29.”)

I had the opportunity in the temple last night as I was working to be alone in the Brides Room for a few minutes while I was waiting for a bride to come in and then again to be alone in the Celestial Room at the end of the night. (Which as a side note, can I just say that I love, love, love working in the temple. What a privilege to be in those sacred rooms alone and have time to ponder!!)

Both times it was so peaceful and beautiful and I was thinking about all of this. I was thinking about how the Lord has led me and blessed me in my life. That He has helped me through hard times in the past and blessed me beyond measure. If and when I do have to say goodbye to a family member or maybe even a child, it would be incredibly painful, but He would be there to help me. It is like President Hunter said (as also quoted by John Bytheway), “If our lives and our faith are centered upon Jesus Christ…nothing can ever go permanently wrong” (“Fear Not, Little Flock,” BYU Devotional, 1989.)

I can give Heavenly Father my will, and I can tell Him that He can take anything from me, and I can do it without fear because I trust Him. He has helped me in the past, He helps me day by day, and I know that He will never forsake me!

The Roof and Temple Square

Remember how I love Christmas??  One of my favorite things about Christmas is doing "Christmassy things" that become treasured memories. Well, Jen and I had the opportunity to go to the Roof Restaurant and Temple Square with some good friends this week. It was so fun and so beautiful to see all of the lights. I wanted to do a post about it with some pictures.

I love the Roof Restaurant. I love it because of the peaceful atmosphere and the beautiful views of the Temple. It is on the top floor of the JSMB, and almost every window has a view of the Salt Lake Temple and the lights of SLC. They have a person playing piano and  the music combined with the beautiful views makes it so enjoyable!  It is pretty expensive, so I only go once in awhile, and because of that, I have some wonderful memories of times there with friends and family.

We decided to go again this year with our friends JoAnna and Lisa, wonderful friends from our last ward. We got there right at sunset and had a wonderful seat. The man playing the piano was very good and he was playing Christmas music. After a few minutes, they turned on the Christmas lights, and I got this picture. This was the view I saw while I was eating. Isn't is so beautiful?

This is a picture of us at the table, Jen sitting by Lisa and me sitting by JoAnna:

Here is a view of the Temple that Jen took from her seat after the sun had set. Isn't it so beautiful shining in the night?

                         

And here are the four of us together, standing next to our table.  Notice the Temple behind us; we had wonderful seats!

After dinner, we walked around Temple Square. I love Temple Square at Christmas time. It reminds me of the many times we came up with my family when I was a child, with choirs when I was in High School, and more recently with my nieces and nephew and with friends. I love places that have such wonderful memories!

  

At one point as we were walking around and I saw the Temple shining brilliantly amidst the beautiful colored lights, I thought to myself that the reason the church goes to all the work to create this wonderful place is to bring people to the Temple, and ultimately to Christ. I thought of how much I love the Temple, how grateful I am for the influence it has been in my life. I felt so incredibly blessed!

We went and saw the Nativity that has music and narration. It is between the Tabernacle and the North Visitors Center, and is one of my favorite parts of Temple Square at Christmas. I love to ponder about the birth of Christ the way it changed the world! Here is a close up picture of the Nativity.

Here is a picture of the four of us on Temple Square. It was cold, but not too bad (although if you look closely, you can see my nose and cheeks red with cold).

Last of all we went over to the reflecting pool that has a Nativity in the middle. It was so pretty with the lights, the Temple and the Nativity reflecting in the water!

It was such an enjoyable night, and so fun to be with Jen and my good friends. Most of all, I loved the time it gave me to reflect on Christmas and the wonderful gifts our Father in Heaven has given us!

Christmas Decorating

Christmas is my favorite holiday and I love decorating for Christmas!  I love the colors, the smell of cinnamon pine cones, the Christmas music, the Christmas lights... I could go on and on.

This past week I decorated three different times and it was so fun. When Dan and Ems lived with us, we always decorated together, so now every year we have a tradition of helping each other with our trees. We have more fun doing it together (and plus Dan carries the heavy things up the three flights of stairs for us.)  My Mom likes us to help her with her decorating every year as well, so the day after Thanksgiving we start decorating and spend the whole weekend decorating.

This year we decided to spread it out a little because I was scheduled to work on the Friday after Thanksgiving. So, we did Emilee's tree on Wednesday, (although I got sidetracked that afternoon with Fluffy), my Mom's on Friday (which I was actually able to help with some until I got called into work) and mine on Saturday. So, I guess mine was the only one that I was involved in the whole time, but it was a fun weekend of decorating anyway.

On Friday, before we set up my Mom's tree we were moving furniture around and I was vacuuming. Ad and Stace and their kids were there, along with Emma, and they all decided they wanted to help me vacuum. Aren't they so cute?

(I am wearing my Christmas scrubs since I was on call to work)

All three times we had Christmas music playing. I love hearing little snippets of the music as we are decorationg. I love pulling out the decorations and remembering my favorite ones. I love the memories the different decorations bring! Most of all, I love that it helps me to think more of Christ and His birth and all that it means in my life.

I didn't get many pictures of Em's and my Mom's tree since I was in and out, but I did take some of my decorations when they were done. Here is my tree completed, with a close up of the decorations:

I love to sit on the couch at night with the tree on and read my scriptures or just listen to music and ponder the meaning of Christmas.

Here are some of my other favorite decorations (that are almost like seeing old friends again :) :

The ceramic bear, santa and trees are ones we made in a ceramic class that the four girls and my Mom took years ago. (I also did a ceramic village in that class, but I have not had room to get those out since I moved in to my condo.) I love them because they remind me of that time together with my Mom and sisters. The nativities are some that I have collected over the years, I really love nativities.

Here is the nativity that Jen got me last year. Isn't it beautiful?

And last of all, since probably no one but me really cares about all of my decorations, here are some of the other ones I have made or bought through the years:

I love Christmas!!

Thankful

I came home early tonight to go to bed because I am scheduled to work a 12 hour shift tomorrow at the hospital. Right as I was going to bed I got put on call, so I figured I could take a quick minute to write.

It has been a nice Thanksgiving. I have such a wonderful family, so supportive and fun to be with. I was able to see all of my family at one time or another today except my one brother and his wife (we missed you guys!). Jen and I went over to my parent's house early and helped set up and it was nice to visit with them. I sure love my good parents and all I learn from them.

Then the families that were coming for dinner came and we had dinner around 1:30 (yum, yum, I love turkey and stuffing). The rest of the day we played games and talked and ate pie. It was a very low key, but a nice Thanksgiving. One of the biggest things I am thankful for today is a wonderful family who are my best friends.

I especially loved seeing all the cute kids. My neices and nephews are such a comfort to me. I love to talk to them and hear the cute things they say. Today Josh asked me how Fluffy was buried if he went to live with Heavenly Father. It was so precious to explain to him (using the glove analogy) about the resurrection. It was so cute when Annika asked me to come and build a castle with blocks, when Joey sat on my lap as we were playing the game, when Brendan helped me decide what cards to put down... I could give an example with each child. I love that they all love me and want to be with me.

One of my favorite things is when they give me drawings or make some other cute thing for me. My journal has a lot of those precious little drawings from various neices and nephews. I have to add one quick picture here. The other day I went to Emilee's house and Emma, with Em's help, had made cookies that spelled my name.


Isn't she just so cute in her little apron? One of the greatest blessings of still being single after all this time is the close relationship I have with all these sweet little kids!

I wanted to add a few more things I am thankful for. This morning I woke up early with a tender heart. Yesterday was a very difficult day for me and Jen and as I woke up, I laid in bed for a few minutes and prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for comfort in difficult times.

When I opened my eyes the first thing I saw was my favorite picture of Christ, and I thought again of how thankful I am for the Atonement and that Christ suffered for our sorrows as well as our sins. That even though this is a relatively small thing that I am grieving about, Heavenly Father and Jesus care because they care about me and my happiness. What a blessing to have a Father and Brother who love us so much.

I got up and made rolls and while I was making them I listened to October Conference for about two hours. It was so good. I listened to several talks, but my favorites were President Uctdorf's from the Priesthood session about learning from our adversity and President Monson's from the Sunday Morning Session about service. I love the counsel we get from our leaders and how it helps me to ponder ways I can improve and become a better person.

I also listened to some Christmas music. I love music! Here is a line that I heard again this morning from one of my favorite Christmas songs, "The Star of Bethlehem" by Sally Deford: "The star still shines for me... It beckons me through ages past by countless years undimmed. It bids me serve His children now, thus to worship Him." Aren't those beautiful words?I love the lessons I can learn from music.

The other thing I was really grateful for today was the beautiful sunshine! Wasn't it a gorgeous day?

Well, there are many other things I am thankful for, but this post is probably too long already and I'd better be getting to bed. I am going to be hating life tomorrow if I get called in at 4:30 am, but I am glad I was able to write anyway!

This and That

Ok so I have had this blog for over a week and have only posted twice. Sigh, I had such high aspirations when I started it. So, here I am at 10:45 starting a post. That is about the time I get around to things.

It has been a busy weekend, but I keep thinking of something I heard in a Conference at work a few weeks ago. They were introducing a woman speaker that had a lot going on in her life and talked about all the things she was involved in and how busy she was. When she got up to speak she said, "I don't like to think of myself as having a busy life, I like to think I have a full life." I really liked that and have thought a lot about that since then.

Sometimes it is hard to know what the most important thing for me to do next with all the things I have going on, but I am so glad that I have such a full life! I am so glad that I have such a wonderful family, wonderful callings and great jobs. (Although I do wish I could see each one of my family members more often...)

I have started praying the last few months every morning that I would do the most important things with my time that day. It has been so amazing how Heavenly Father will quietly lead me to do something different than I had orginally planned, and how I am able to get the most important things done. I am grateful to have the Spirit to lead me!

I had a great time with the nieces this weekend. As they were all gathered around at the beginning of the night and I looked at all of their sweet faces, I couldn't help but get a little teary eyed (I know, ME, get emotional) as I thought of how lucky I am to have so many sweet nieces and nephews to cuddle and love. Thanks family for sharing them with us!

On Sunday we had Stake Conference. On Saturday night, at the evening session, they called people out of the audience to bear "Christ centered testimonies." I thought of what I would say if I were called, and a whole organized series of thoughts came right to mind. I wasn't called up that night, but I was grateful for the thoughts I had that reinforced my testimony of the Savior.

The next morning, I saw there were no speakers sitting on the stand again and wondered if they were calling for testimonies again. I knew I would not be called, I mean, why would they call me? (Most of the people they were calling were Presidents, etc). They did call people out of the audience and I was not one of them. Then, one of the sisters they called was not there. The Stake President stood up and paused and looked around and then said, "We have a set of twins in our Stake...I would like them to come up and give their testimonies" and announced our names. Wow, I couldn't believe it.

So, since he announced my name first, Jen said I got to go first (she is so kind.) It was really neat though because since I had thought it all out the night before I knew exactly what I wanted to say.

I quoted part of D&C 98:1-2 and focused on the part thay says, "for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth..." I remember studying one time and finding that the word Sabaoth means "multitude". I thought of what that means in the context of this verse, that even though He is the Lord of multitudes, He hears my prayers. I can hardly comprehend that, but I know it is true. I know He knows each one of us individually and loves us more than we can imagine, that He longs for us to be happy.

I then shared the quote that I put in my last post. I was grateful for the opportunity to bear testimony, even though it was unexpected. Jen did a great job on her testimony. It was a neat experience to be up there together.

Well, enough rambling. It was a great weekend!

Serenity

“He is the answer to the longings of the human heart for certainty. He is the answer to our individual sins and to our sorrows... In the midst of our trials and challenges, we will find peace, knowing that in the end it will be all right. We will find serenity in the face of affliction. We will find this serenity in life even as chaos swirls around us. Such is the power of a testimony and witness that Jesus is the Christ.” --Elder L. Aldin Porter, April 2001 Conference

This morning after I woke up, I laid in bed for a few minutes and was pondering and looking at the pictures of Christ in my room. I have some of my favorite quotes taped to the desk right next to my bed so that I can read them when I first wake up. I read this one again and looked at my pictures and thought of how grateful I am for Jesus Christ and all He has done and continues to do for me. I love that quote! I love the part that talks about finding serenity even as chaos swirls around us. But the reason I can have that serenity is because of Christ, because of His great sacrifice and continuing love. Do I sometimes forget the cost of my serenity, what it must have cost the Savior? I love Him so much and want to do all I can to serve Him!

I have had a crazy couple of days, working 30 hours in 3 days between my two jobs and also doing Primary stuff at night(which I love...) so I haven't had time to post, but I wanted to at least post this today. I will try to post more later. I'm off to the temple soon! (Can't go a Thursday without the temple even when mine is closed.)

A Blog...Finally!

So, with the help of my wonderful sister Jen, I have finally created my own blog. (Jen is the reason I get around to a lot of things...) Now you can have access to all of my random thoughts and daily activities.

Since I am just in the process of getting my blog set up and organized, so you will probably see changes, but at least I am starting. Hopefully I will get in the habit of posting regularly.

To explain my URL, when I was young my Mom was trying to teach me the importance of service and talked to me about making sacrifices for others. I took it a little to the extreme and started writing in my journal about it. One of my entries in my 11 year old journal starts, "I made three sacrifices today..." and I went on to list what those sacrifices were. My family still teases me about that one. I obviously have a lot of work to do on my humility!

So, I thought I would do a quick first post about what has happened in the last day or two.

Last night we had our third "nephew sleepover." We actually had all of the nephews except Logan (who had strep throat--we really missed him) and Camden (who still is a little young to want to stay with Aunt Jan and Jen.) We had Matthew and Brayden come to the night celebration only becasue they are still too young to sleep over.

We had such a great time! The boys were all so excited and were very good. We made "Thankful Turkey" crafts by tracing their hands and feet and had them each write a thank you note to their parents. Then we made cookies and watched a video. They all did really well and had fun together.

Since Jen is going to do a whole post, complete with pictures (she is much more experienced at this kind of thing), I will not write many more details, but I really did enjoy it. I love that we can have such a close relationship with all of these cute kids. I love that they trust us.

Cute Joshy kept commenting on all the pictures of Jesus we have in our house and then came this morning and whispered in my ear, "I have wanted to ask someone this... Does Heavenly Father love Osama Bin Laden?" (He had been telling me all about September 11 and what he had learned about it.) What a precious experience to try to explain to Josh that Heavenly Father loves all of His children, but He is not always happy with the decisions we make and we will all have to suffer the consequences of our choices. I just loved that he trusted me enough to ask me that.

All the other boys were so cute as well, and growing up so fast. It was so fun to see them interact together and see all of their cute little expressions and hear them talk together. I sure love my nieces and nephews. They make being single so much easier! Thanks to all my family for sharing your kids with us! We are looking forward to having the nieces next week.

Well, with the sleepover and spending the last few hours creating this blog I haven't done much of my Saturday stuff, so I'd better get going. I hope I'll write more soon (and soon I will learn how to put pictures on to make it more interesting...)