Connor Rolled Over!

Yesterday was a huge day! Connor rolled over! The previous night I was talking with our neighbor Jill and asking when I should start ‘tummy time’, she guessed since he was stronger that we could probably start it whenever we felt like it so the next day (December 7, 2010) I decided to give it a try. I had just fed and changed him so I knew he would be in a pretty decent mood. I laid out his blanket on the floor and then put him on his stomach; he was doing so good, just lifting himself up, no tears just being a tough guy! I decided to take a picture so I pulled out my phone and took one, then realized my camera was just in the corner. I ran and grabbed it, through the SD card back in, turned it on, turned around to look back at Connor, and he just rolled over when I looked! Like it was nothing. I was in complete shock! Our son is 9 ½ weeks rolling over! I immediately called Brandon to tell him the news, which of course he asks if I recorded it - no! It was random; I didn’t think he’d do that! – plus we don’t have a camcorder… I tried a few more times to get him to roll over but to no avail, he decided once was good enough.

Brandon came home for lunch and we decided to try again. Sure enough, he wanted to show Dad his new talent! He rolled over twice for Brandon, and we were able to record it off of his phone! After that he was cranky again, but still! Rolling boy!

Here's the link to the video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6yIH3r1WFE

Christmas Cards

At the end of each year I always think we're going to do Christmas cards, yet I always forget to put them together. This year might be different! Shutterfly is having a promotion on their Christmas cards for 2010, check out the cute cards you could get 50 free cards!

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

Two Months!

Our little Connor is two months! (Actually he's 9 weeks now, but I'm a slacker and forget to update the blog.) Either way he is getting so big! Well...the funny thing is, he is getting big for me, everyone else thinks he is still small....which according to his measurements is true. We have a runt!

Connor's height is measuring in the 50% and then his head and weight are measuring in the 25%. He did have to get his shots and I'm so grateful for Aunt Jilly who did them so fast! He had no idea what hit him until after they were done, then he didn't appreciate the pain. Do not fear though! A few days later he's back and just as smiley as ever! I am so grateful for his smiles and when he shares them. Connor is also starting to coo at us and this morning he was wanting to laugh so hard! I can't wait to hear his little laugh. :)

I've posted my favorite picture of him so far! Well, favorite that I've taken. I just wish I would have taken it with my Canon instead of my phone. O-well, either way he is cute!

Blessing Day

November 5, 2010 Brandon blessed our little guy. I wish I could remember everything he said, but I know that he described our son wonderfully and I'm excited for Connor to continue to grow and develop!

I'm so grateful for all of our friends and family that came to support us. I'm grateful for worthy priesthood holders to participate in our families life. I am also grateful I got to bear my testimony to my inactive Mother and her boyfriend (Jay) who is not a member of the church. The whole meeting I sat next to them battling with myself. I hate speaking in front of large groups of people...yet I couldn't ignore the feelings of gratitude and love the Savior had blessed me with, plus I know my Mom and Jay needed to hear what I had to say. I honestly don't know what I said, or if I even made sense. I do know I cried like a baby, and I felt the spirit.

After the blessing we packed up tons of food and headed to Brandon's office. His work was able to let us use one of their conference rooms for the luncheon, so we were able to have a successful and delicious lunch!

September 29, 2010

Thursday (September 30, 2010) – At 1:30 AM I started to push my little heart out! (Did I mention attempting to push a child out when you have a head cold is not very fun?) Anyway, I pushed for about an hour and a half to two hours, when they decided to have me ‘rest’. They told me I would only rest for a half n’ hour and we’d be back to work, but little did I know they didn’t come back for an hour and a half! (Apparently they were understaffed with nurses and doctors that night). After my ‘resting’ time, (which I still pushed by myself during that time), we started to push again. Just after 5:20 (guessing on times) they told me he was crowning and about to get here…Everything went so fast after that…They started to fix the whole room, and get things ready, and within a few minutes they told me to push again. I kept pushing and pushing, Brandon and the doctor kept reassuring me he was almost there, and then sure enough – push push push…BLACK OUT. Yup, I passed out at the last minute and the next thing I hear is Brandon saying ‘he’s here!” (Apparently I found out I had an episiotomy and I lost quite a bit of blood – hence the passing out). The time after that was so surreal. Our son was here…A beautiful healthy 7 lb 4 oz – 19 inches long Connor had made it here. Did I mention I was surprised he looked like me instead of Brandon!? Huge shock! The first time I got to hold him I talked to him and sure enough he smiled at me and I knew everything was going to be ok.


I love our little family, and can’t wait to share the stories of our new adventures!

September 29, 2010

Wednesday (September 29, 2010) – I did not sleep well that night either due to me getting contractions in my lower back and my cold was just horrible. Brandon convinced me I should stay home and so he called in for me saying I was just not well enough to go to work. It was a good thing too, because not ten minutes later my vision went away and I started to see ‘flashing lights’…I was getting a migraine. It wasn’t the first time I had gotten a migraine, but it was the first time for the pregnancy, and yet again another sign of preeclampsia. So I called my doctors office to see what they thought I should do. Well they set up an appt for me about an hour later and told me I’d have to see a different doctor because mine was out of town for the rest of the week. So I took a nap, and then went down to their office, I had to wait over an hour just to meet with this doctor, and when I did see him, he didn’t even check anything out. Just asked me a few questions and then told me he wanted to give me a shot to knock me out – so if I had someone with me to take me home that’d be great… Well I didn’t, I had gone to the office by myself, so instead he prescribed me Oxycodone and Tylenol which together equals Percocet. Now I personally had a horrible feeling about drugging myself up at 38 weeks pregnant, just so I could feel comfortable. I was also extremely upset because he should have sent me to the hospital, but instead just gave me a prescription and sent me on my way. I drove to a gas station nearby parked and called Brandon to tell him what the doctor had said…I also cried for a good 10 minutes because I just could not understand why they wouldn’t keep me at the hospital. I kept having all these signs for preeclampsia, but apparently it wasn’t that big of a deal… To attempt to cheer me up, Brandon and I went out to lunch and then I went home and rested for a few hours. I woke up and went downstairs waiting for Brandon to get home; he ended up working late but did come home around 6:30 -7ish. When he did come home he was just as upset as I was with the doctor, so he decided to call Labor and Delivery at the hospital and tell them our situation. Once he told them our story they told him that we were more than welcome to come down and they would do a medical evaluation on me. (Finally some semi good news!) Before we went to the hospital we stopped at Walmart and got a few munchies for Brandon and some cough drops for me (my cold had just been getting worse and worse, blah!). We also checked my blood pressure there and sure enough, it was high again. Brandon took a picture of what my blood pressure was to prove that we weren’t just making things up and we drove to the hospital. When we got to labor and delivery (8 pm) it was quite dead. I was the first woman to come in that night so they put me in a small room to check how my body was medically… They put lovely wires all over me, took more blood and started to check blood pressure. Sure enough, my blood pressure was still high and it wasn’t going down. When the on-call doctor came in and started checking things he gave me two option s. 1) Do a 24 hour urine test or 2) he could induce me tonight and get the baby out! Once again I thought it was pointless to ask a 38 week pregnant woman if she wants to be induced or wait, especially an impatient one like myself, but again I asked what his opinion was. Surprisingly enough he said that we should go ahead and admit me to the hospital and get my water broken and induced! (Hurray! – also it was close to 10 pm) A few minutes later they moved me to an actual labor and delivery room (which by the way was HUGE!), and started to prep me for everything to come. At around 10:30 PM the doctor broke my water – and right afterwards Brandon and Dr. Allen gave me a blessing. (Quick side note – I am so grateful for the priesthood and that there are so many worthy priesthood holders around) A few minutes after the blessing my contractions had gotten unbearable! Thank heavens they had called the anesthesiologist and so I only had to deal with the heavy painful contractions for 10 minutes. I cannot describe how wonderful the epidural was! The pain was gone within a few minutes, yet I could still feel the pressure of things going on. Anyway – after the epidural they started me on pitocin – to say the least I was ready to push by 1:30 AM.

September 28, 2010

Tuesday (September 28, 2010) – Monday night going into Tuesday I did not get very much sleep due to me getting sick, and contractions. I went into work and about half way through the day I had a LPN co-worker tell me that I didn’t look to well. I obviously wasn’t feeling too well due to me being nine months pregnant and sick with a cold, but I asked why she brought it up. She said I looked super swollen and asked if she could check my blood pressure to make sure I was ok. About a hour later she came in and checked my blood pressure, sure enough it was HIGH (144/100). She told me that I should either call my doctor immediately or go to the hospital, since I only had about a hour left of work I decided I’d call my doctor and see what they said. We set up an appt. for about 1 PM and I finished my day of work and off I was to the doctors. Brandon and I met up at my doctors’ office, and they checked my blood pressure, sure enough it had gone down. (ugh). So we went in the back to meet with our doctor. After he checked me and everything was the same from the day before he told me I had two options. They could either do a 24 urine test – where I’d have to collect my urine for 24 hours and then bring it back in for them, or I could go to the hospital and they could check my blood pressure every 10 minutes for an hour or two and run some blood tests. He asked which option we would prefer (duh the hospital), but I turned it back on him and asked which one he would prefer us doing. I was surprised when he told us that we should go to the hospital and that he’d call them to let them know we were on the way. In my head I was thinking ‘Finally we’re going to the hospital!’ but at the same time I had to tell myself they could send us home at anytime. So we went to labor and delivery, where they put me in this HUGE room and got all these lovely computers attached to me. Brandon and I waited there while they ran all these tests for about an hour and half when the attending nurse came back telling us everything looked good. (So close!). They told me to go home and relax, and that they would probably see me soon, but that if I had any other symptoms of preeclampsia that I should come back in (blurry vision, headaches/migraines, more high blood pressure, etc).

September 27, 2010

Connor is here. I cannot express the wonderful spirit he has brought into our lives. But I can write down the story of how he got here. It was kind of a weeks’ worth of events that led to his birth, so I’ll write down what happened within that time.

[It is taking me longer to write down the story, due to the fact that I don't have a lot of time! But I'll post those eventful days as soon as possible :)]

Monday (September 27, 2010) – Every Monday for the last month of the pregnancy I had a doctor’s appointment. They just check over everything and see how far you are to going into labor. Well this Monday I went into the doctors and my blood pressure was a little high, still technically ok, but it was borderline high. Also my ankles/feet had been swollen (for months), but they had started to get worse and worse. My doctor told me to come in later in the week (suggesting Friday) to get my blood pressure checked again to make sure I wasn’t getting preeclampsia. On a brighter note, I was dilated to a 4 and 80% effaced. That night I also got a head cold. (lovely).

That being said...

Okay, so every now and then I get on this blog and post a few things that I have had on my mind. I have written about the deep thoughts of change, about how cool my wife is, and other things.

I haven't written on this blog for a while, and although I think Tenille has done a great job at keeping people updated generally on what's going on in our little corner of the world, I thought it would be nice to toss a few thoughts on what's been on my mind lately.

Baby Holyoak's name

Our baby boy was originally going to be named Ammon James Holyoak. Ammon is one of my favorite scriptural heroes, and I just plain old like the name. The middle name James comes from my closest cousin, James Cook. I admire him, the way he carries himself, his work ethic, and kind demeanor towards others, especially to children. I have always wanted to establish that link from him to my kids.

One day, however, Tenille and I were talking about other names that sounded good. I brought up the name Connor, and how it had a nice ring to it. Nevertheless, it wasn't long before I circled back to Ammon and suggested that we just leave the name Connor off the table, but Tenille was stuck on the name. So at that point, we were at odds between Ammon James vs. Connor James (the middle name wasn't up for changing).

One morning, I woke up thinking about our baby boy. About how Connor truly did seem like a good fit, but "Connor James" just didn't sound right. I started to think about the middle name, James. James. Who is James? James Alan Cook, my cousin, I answered my own question. James Alan, I thought. Hmm… Alan. Connor Alan? Connor.. Connor Alan! James gets his middle name from Grandpa Holyoak, Alan Holyoak. My stepbrother Casey's middle name is also Alan (Casey Alan Bair). One of my closest friends is Allen Witt. Alan seems pretty fitting, I thought. I said it out loud and I liked it even more.

Later that morning, I asked Tenille to consider the middle name change, and she liked it. A lot. I think initially she was more excited that I had put away the name Ammon, but regardless, I was so overjoyed to have realized what our boy's name would be: Connor Alan Holyoak.

Saratoga Chase HOA

A few months ago, the neighborhood got together to determine who would serve on the board of the HOA. I personally was getting frustrated with the lack of information we had, and how seemingly nothing was getting done at the time. I volunteered to serve on the board, and without much further conversation, I wound up serving as the HOA president (It sounds more powerful than you think; it's really just a formality).

I have had to learn pretty quickly what it means to serve on an HOA board. I work jointly with good people who are smart, honest, and forthright. The responsibilities of running an HOA are a lot more complex than I ever thought, and sometimes politics does wiggle its way into it all, which is frustrating, yet interesting at the same time. It's been quite a learning experience for me, and one of the main things I have learned is to be not so quick to judge, but rather to get as much information and options in front of you as possible, and then methodically make your way to the best decision.

Immigration and Gay Marriage

Speaking of not being so quick to judge, here's one for you. Most of you out there in the cyber-world have at least read or heard about Arizona's law, prop 8, etc. I personally have been pretty decided on these issues:

1. From a principled standpoint, I believe that if you are to come to the United States of America, you should do so through honest channels. The primary reason America offers such a grand opportunity is because of the freedom we have secured for ourselves. We bow to no one, because of the blood of our forefathers. Freedom comes with a cost, and a free ride to liberty is not only unfair, it cheats one’s soul of what true and honest freedom really feels like. Those among us (some estimate the tally to around 11 million) who are undocumented immigrants do not feel truly free, and are therefore stuck in a cycle of self-deception, that collectively cheats the nation’s spirit as a whole.

THAT BEING SAID:

The solution to illegal immigration is not going to be a black and white, this-or-that resolution. Deporting 11 million people because they don’t have their papers is by all accounts an improbable, exponentially expensive, and simply an impractical solution. Nevertheless, at the same time, I believe that those people who use lies and deceit to cross our borders, and then continue to do so once they are here, should be dealt with according to the laws of justice, and if necessary, sent swiftly back to where they came from. We have been taught to be merciful; however, mercy cannot rob justice. Also, I believe that the Arizona law is a good one – but for reasons others may not agree with. I believe the state law is a subtle and clever way to force the Federal hand, whose responsibility it truly is to resolve the issue. After all, a national border is defined by a nation, not just one state. Stay strong AZ!

2. I believe that gay marriage is wrong; that it is a mockery of the original institution. I believe marriage is intended to be one man and one woman, who love each other as equal partners, who can reproduce and raise children in a loving home. I understand that some homosexual couples have been able to adopt children, but I believe that the best opportunity for young children tends to lie with a mother and father presiding in the home, as nature intended.

THAT BEING SAID:

I believe that this country guarantees certain human and civil rights to all people. That includes the right to follow one's own conscious, even if it is considered “unnatural” or if others detest your actions as heinous. I am starting to believe that even though gay marriage is against nearly everything I hold dear, I can still raise my family just as well in this world, regardless. The only inconvenience for my family will be that it's one more issue on which to guide and teach our children about. This is one of the reasons we are parents. Part of being a parent involves navigating your children through untested, untraveled waters. This subject will be one all parents will have to tackle in the years ahead.

Just as our parents had to deal with things they had never before encountered, so too shall we - the parents of the rising generation - have to deal with things as parents that we didn't experience as kids. Our parents, for example, did not have to deal with texting while driving, or the internet. Who knows what we will have to have to instruct our children on in the coming years? The sacred institution of traditional marriage is likely to be one of them.

Healthy Choices

Last week I had one of my monthly doctors appointments. We went in like any other time, and the doctor starts talking about my weight. (YIKES!) He told me that I've gained quite a bit of weight, and that I should watch my portions and exercise more. To say the least, I took it hard! (What woman wouldn't?!) The next morning I told Brandon I wanted to change a few habits (some were just for me, some he couldn't avoid). Here are the changes we made last week:

*No Soda (This is mostly for me, but he has joined along as well. Granted he did drink some rootbeer last night, but reassured me that it was very flat, so it didn't count. Haha)

*Eating Dinner before 8 PM (The first few days it was hard, but I started to realize how much better I was feeling! It is harder than I thought since it's light till 9:30!)

*More Walking (Quite hard when your ankles are the size of baseballs, sorry for those that have noticed!)

*Switching from 2% Milk to 1% (Gasp! Brandon was a little hesitant on this one, but I told him he wouldn't be able to tell to much.)

I know that they aren't a lot of changes, but I feel small and steady wins the race. :) I'm hoping in doing these things it will balance our diets a bit more (and my weight!)

Today Brandon was talking to his co-worker about his weight loss goals and asking him for advance on what changes to make. Guess what he said...First and foremost eat dinner before 8 PM (I'm a genius), and switch to 1% or skim milk (Again!). I was a little surprised when Brandon told me this, because I am not a healthy person, (chocolate is definately a weakness, and Jill's cupcakes...YUM) but I think we're starting to make good changes for us.

P.S. Can you believe it's almost August!? WOW has time flown by!

An Afternoon at Temple Square

This last weekend Brandon and I decided that we should take a little break and do something fun, we thought to ourselves, let's go to Temple Square. So we hopped into our car and drove up to SLC. We decided we were going to park under the Conference Center, because it was shaded, so we headed on our way down to the underground parking. When we got to the bottom we found that the gates were opened on both sides, so Brandon asked what was going on. Apparently there had been a funeral that day and so they were letting anyone park there for FREE Saturday only. Wahoo!

Anyway, we start walking across the street to Temple Square and decide that we're going to go see the Christus first. As we're walking up to the Christus I realize that we hadn't been there since we first dated (2 1/2 years ago)! It was neat to sit down together and just feel the spirit in that room. As we were there we got to hear his words in Korean, Spanish and English. The best part was watching Brandon during the Spanish words, it brought him back to when he was on his mission and he got a bit teary eyed. (I love him so much, so cute!). After the English words we asked a lovely person to take our picture pretty close to where we had one of our first pictures taken.

December 2007

July 2010

After the Christus, we started to walk around the grounds and had a lovely missionary sister took our picture. (I'm really trying to be better of taking more pictures of Brandon and I, I've been slacking on this aspect, so I'm sorry!)

After the picture, we went to the South Visitor's Center and saw the new model of the SLC temple. Wow! That thing is amazing!! It was neat to look at it and think "I've been there!" I love the temple, it's the best feeling to do temple work.

After we saw the model we walked around the Joseph Smith Memorial building and made our way across the street to the new Deseret Book store. I love looking at all the artwork and the new books. We then started to get a bit thirsty so we went across the way to Blue Lemon to get a smoothie. When we walked in Brandon immediately noticed a worker there and called him by his name, psychic? More like stalker. (Just kidding). Come to find out Brandon knew the manager from High School! As the caught up on life I downed half of the tropical smoothie they made. YUM! I'm definately a fan of their smoothies, Brandon and I plan on going back to try their food sometime.

As we left Blue Lemon, we thought that we could attempt to figure out Trax. I had heard before that in downtown SLC there was a "free zone." Well, we decided to take it to the Gateway. We traveled safe and sound, and mostly just walked around, it was nice to get out on a beautiful day though!

I do have to say, we missed being with the Witt's and Tobler's going down the river! But next year we'll be back to enjoy Riggins with them again!

Lauren

My sister in law, Lauren is gorgeous. We went up to Logan, this past Thursday afternoon to take her Bridals. I was a little nervous with the weather because it was raining on the way up, but in Logan it was just either cloudy or sunny. She was absolutely stunning and I just had to put a preview up!

Love you Lauren and congrats!

Scum

Have you ever played Scum? If you like card games this is definately one I would suggest, it's such a great party game.

This weekend we had the opportunity to be with family and play Scum into the weee hours of the morning! Normally I'm not the best at playing games, don't get me wrong I love to play games...I'm just very competitive and it can be a bad thing if I'm losing (I'm a horrible poor sport - ask Brandon). One of the great things about Scum is you can move around from being "king" to "bottom scum" at the end of each round! I'm slowly starting to learn how to play my cards better, and I'm so grateful for the help the Cook's and Brandon offered to give me when I got down to a few cards :) I'm so grateful for good times and laughter...We got to a point in the early hours of the morning when everyone was laughing so hard I wasn't sure if I was going to throw up or keep laughing. There was also a time that if someone said anything that would pertain to a phrase in a song Mari, Aly and I would just burst into that song and sing about half of it! Oh it was so wonderful. Great people, fantastic game, cookies and singing are definately a wonderful thing to be thankful for!

I hope everyone else had a great Memorial Day weekend. I'm grateful for those that have fought (and do fight) for the freedoms of this country. I'm grateful we had the opportunities to visit family members graves and reflect on how they have helped each of us become stronger better people. (I'm also grateful for the stories that everyone remembers of these people, that I have not met. I know I don't truely know them, but I definately have felt their love this weekend and it will be a great day when I will get introduced to them).

I am so grateful for the gospel and I have the knowledge that we are an eternal family. I am forever grateful that I have been sealed to my sweetheart and know that our family will always be together. I am grateful for the priesthood, and the comfort it is in our home, and I am grateful we make each other laugh and get to become a stronger unit each day.

This is us on our 2 year anniverary dinner. We went to Brick Oven, it was delicious!

This is how we really act after two years! Just kidding, I love you Brandon!

Frogs, snails and puppy dog tails...

That's what our little boy is made of!

I know it's completely horrible that I couldn't wait 12 days...But I convinced Brandon last Wednesday afternoon that we should find out early at the mall. :) Our little guy definately was proud to show off the goods! The one thing he was shy about, showing off the profile of his face! He kept bringing his hands/arms up to his face or he would just look at us straight on, just a little frustrating! It feels so realistic now. I can't express how happy Brandon and I are! My friend Janeal just posted this quote on my facebook and I think it's perfect! I think I might try to do something cute with it in his room...We'll see if I get crafty or not. :)

"Little hands and little feet, Little toothless grins so sweet, Little eyes that shine so bright,Little arms to hug you tight - Everythings little except your joy when you have a new baby boy."

What's that?!

I know this is me probably denying things again, but earlier this week I'm pretty sure that overnight my stomach pushed out abnormally! I was talking with my co-worker (not wearing a jacket for once) and she gasped and said "Look at your stomach! You're showing!" I know that it's a good thing, but it's definately something that is harder to accept; especially when I feel like I'm still looking in the 'fat stage' and not the 'pregnant stage'.

Brandon has been telling me that I've been showing for a little while now, but I've definately been ignoring it. I do have to say that this is the first day where I really had to undo the button on my jeans cause they were just pushing into my stomach too much! Brandon has been a good sport about things, he let me go out and get a few new shirts that are quite a bit looser. They are a lot more comfortable to say the least! It is very awkward shopping for larger/maternity clothes, especially when you don't quite fit into those clothes. Sweat pants have definately become my best friend ;)

I'm sorry I don't have a 'belly' picture to put up, I'll try and have Brandon take one this weekend. I hope everyone has a fantastic Mother's Day weekend! I'll try to get on another time this weekend to do a specific Mother's Day shout out to both of our Mom's!

New Changes

Have you ever looked at your life and thought, I would really like to change this about me...Or you think about new goals/aspects that would make yourself better? I have a problem with this. Recently I have a lot more time to think about things, and a lot of the time I think about how I use my time, or how I need to change and become better.

Brandon and I have recently sat down and think about goals we would like to start, or other habits we'd like to break. We sit down and write a list down thinking the next day we're going to change. It not that hard to break a habit right? Well I've learned, I can't do that. So the other day I decided I'm going to look at one of the habits, and change.

The past few weeks Brandon and I have been able to cross one of those habits off the list that we'd like to start. I'm so proud of us, and I can honestly say it's brought us closer, and the spirit has been in our house more. I've also been less stressed, and the days have felt easier to deal with one at a time. It's nice to be able to realize that I can conquer my goals one at a time, and I don't need to be so worried about changing everything at once.

On a side note, I have started to feel the baby, at least I think I can. It is by far the weirdest feeling ever, but it's kind of neat at the same time. Our next doctors appointment is next Monday, it will just be a normal appointment where we'll hear the heart beat and ask a few questions. Then the exciting appointment will be two weeks from then :)

Also this last weekend I was able to take a few engagements of my adorable sister in law and her fiance. Here's a shot I love of them. Congrats to Lauren and Jake! I'm so excited for their wedding on July 2nd.

Five weeks

In five weeks this beautiful girl will graduate high school.

It will also be our two year anniversary. :)

So far we don't have any plans for our anniversary, we do however get to find out if our little baby is a boy or a girl! We're both very excited, and it's hard to believe it's going this fast, yet at the same time it doesn't feel like to much has changed (minus me hating food). Other than that we're doing great, life is good, hard but good. :)

TV is chewing gum for the eyes

I've been reflecting over myself the past few days...about the things I need to work on, and things I need to let go. I've realized how much tv has taken over my life...I have detached myself away from family, friends, personal goals, etc...

Recently my routine is to come home, eat lunch, turn on the tv whilst I eat lunch, (and unfortunately I hate to admit this....) stay there for hours until Brandon comes home. How unhealthy is that?! Yes, I understand it's nice to sit down and relax, to veg and not think about what I need to work on for a few minutes, maybe even a hour...but HOURS?! How can I let myself waste that time?! How did I? Obviously there are many reasons, and I shouldn't make excuses. What I need to do, is to make a change.

This morning I was reading an article on www.lds.org, it's called 'Television and Time - By Elder F. Burton Howardof the First Quorum of the Seventy.' There were quite a few points in his talk that caught my attention, but by far this paragraph hit me hard...

"Now, brothers and sisters, one of the great cries of modern man is we don’t have time to do the things we should do. We don’t do our genealogy because we don’t have time. We don’t love our neighbor because we don’t have time. And yet we spend more time watching television than any other single elective thing in this world. I don’t believe the excuse is going to hold any water with the Lord. I don’t believe that we can ever say we didn’t have time. I think all we’ll be able to say, rather lamely, is that our priorities were not the same as the Lord’s."

How profound are these words, and he wrote them in 1979!

My goals are to start reading more, to clean up throughout the week, so Saturdays aren't spent with all day cleaning. To be more aware of my family, neighbors and friends, to start attending the temple more often, etc etc. I need to set my priorities to where they are more intune with the Lords.

** Side note - There are a few shows I just can't give up. I do feel that I can watch some tv from time to time and be ok...But not what I've been doing. I'm ashamed. **

New Balance

I believe some of the best news you can read/hear is: New Balance: $0

This year when Brandon and I were writing our goals for the year we decided that we wanted to pay off as much debt as possible. With tax season around the corner I was actually quite nervous, you see last year when Brandon and I paid our taxes together for the first time we ended up owing. This year while we were starting to enter our information in it started to show us that we were owing...again.

Well thanks to prayers being answered, and for us buying a home, we were able to actually get a return this year! At first it was looking like we'd only be able to pay off one of our debts (my credit card), and then put the rest into savings. But then, on a glorious Friday afternoon after I got home from work I checked the mailbox. There was another tax form, from a mortgage company. I didn't think much of it, assuming it was a duplicate form, but opened it, checked it...double checked it with the mortgage tax form we had already received....It was different! It was able to raise our refund so we could pay off both Brandon and my credit card (and put a bit in savings)! What a blessing!

Anyway, today we received the refunds, and we urrgently paid off our credit card debt. I can't explain the happiness it brings me to know that we are a little bit closer to our goals of paying things off this year. It is such a relief to look at our account and see 'New Balance: $0', and in a way it makes me feel a bit proud to know that we were able to pay it off.

I am so grateful for our Heavenly Father. I am grateful for him answering the many prayers I plead to him throughout each day. I am grateful he is patient with me, and always there to listen whenever I need him there. I have recently realized that he will bless us with what is best for us when the time is ready. I love him, and am very grateful for our relationship and the joy he is to my life.

One of the reason's why I miss my Y.W. president!

Many years ago when I was still in Y.W.'s I had the most wonderful Y.W. President. She is full of patience, love, kindness, etc etc. She has always been an amazing seamstress, and I always begged her to make me a quilt. But to my sadness, she would not make one for me. However when I was around 16 or 17, she said she would help make a quilt. I decided I'd make a star quilt, so I purchased all the fabric, washed and cut it all and started to make the pieces. Winnifred helped me with every step along the way, including having me piece together about 5 squares.

Well I moved to Arizona, and the quilt pieces picked up dust in Winnifreds corner...About a year later I moved back and decided I needed to work on it again...Well I had forgotten how long it took to do one piece (have I mentioned I'm not very patient?). So I made another block, and then got busy again. Shortly thereafter I met Brandon and definately ran out of time for the quilt. We got engaged, and married a few months later. I was really hoping she'd be able to come to our sealing in May, but she was going to go work on the Panama temple that weekend. But she had a surprise for me. Winnifred had slowly been working on the pieces and had been finishing blocks for me!

About a year or so later, it's done! Look how beautiful it turned out!

So the point? Thank you Winnifred so much for sharing your talents with me! I promise the next time I do a quilt it will be more simple, and I'll finish it!

Pick me up!

This week has been so hectic with work...

With life...

I needed a pick me up...

Isn't he perfect?

I wish I looked this cute whilst sleeping. :)