There's No Place Like Home-Wizard of Oz

Today my church held a big dinner to celebrate the organization of the Relief Society. They chose the theme, "There's No Place Like Home" and centered everything around the Wizard of Oz. I volunteered to decorate a table.... and since it might be the only time I have a chance to make these cupcakes (of course, I saw them on Pinterest), I jumped on it. Since I was babysitting and had a few extra kids, I opted for the easiest way to make these. I bought a box of cake mix, cream cheese frosting, Sour Punch Straws, and Starbursts.

In between refereeing sessions over the wooden train set, I cut each straw into six pieces, and cut the Star Bursts in half.

Then I squished the Starbursts into shoe shapes and stuck them on the straws. Then the 2 year old and the 4 year old saw their chance. One would distract me while the other snuck into the kitchen and steal a shoe or leg and run off before I noticed. At one point I thought I was going crazy because I'd think to myself, "I swear I had more than these..." or "Um that's weird. These should be in groups of two? Where's the other one?" They were so sneaky it took me forever to figure it out. Dang kids! I saw one woman made the legs with hard candy and made the shoes out of fondant, but I'd rather eat a Starburst than fondant.

Since each cupcake would need it's own little support, I took the envelopes from my free 8x10's I printed at WalGreen's last week and covered them in foil. Had I wanted to be extra cute I would have covered them in my shiny pink wrapping paper, but that would have required tape, scissors and working around 3 kids who were obsessed with my every move. Since Looney Toon's was ending soon, I opted for foil.

Then I squished a cupcake on top of the witch's legs. That was the funnest part.

This is how they looked on the table... I liked it. The cupcakes were great bribery in filling the table up in about 2 seconds. Everyone loves a cupcake.There were a ton of cute decorations...

But this one was my favorite. Sonia-this is the Emerald City of all wrapping-paper-tubed-Emerald Cities.

This one was cute-the sign says something like "Love Begins at Home..."

I wanted to steal the puppy from this basket.

And I wanted the picnic basket from this one.... "Hey Boo-BOo! Let's go get a pic-a-nic bass-ket!"Where they got all this stuff I will never know, but it was cute. There were quite a few other tables, but I just wanted to give an idea of how cute this was set up.

They served ham, funeral potatoes, two different kinds of salads and rolls. So good!

The salad had strawberries. I love strawberries. And they had a big ol' cake. It's not a party without cake. Unless you are turning 21. Then you just want liquor and cake seems silly. Unless you don't drink. Then it seems like a good idea unless you're the only one eating it.

Everyone got a cute name tag. Mine spent the night sticking to my hair more than my shirt. I would have pulled it off but then I would have had to pull out 3 individual hairs so I just left it on and didn't move my head. I like my hair attached.

Super good evening! They also had a darling skit, some great music, and of course, a great speaker. We talked about how the Relief Society is dedicated to service to others and to helping each person develop their own relationship with God. It was nice.

I had to peace out early to go to play with my indoor team. We played the white team again. Oh. Yes. We did. I found my little friend and in true Christ-like manner, taunted her again. It was fun.

Avery's Baptism

Since the entire family was together at the Frio, Avery wanted to get baptized there. So her parents got special permission, and she got baptized! Since she knew how cold the water would be from the polar bear swim, we all thought she was pretty brave. She was given the option to get baptized in the hot tub-but after hearing stories about the pioneers who wanted to be baptized so bad they would break the ice on the rivers, she chose to go with the Frio. Did you know "Frio" means "Freezing?" They're not kidding. As Mormons, we baptize our children at the age of eight. Many religions baptize their members as babies. We wait until they are eight years old-basically when they're old enough to know better. Before that, children are completely innocent, incapable of committing real sin. Once they reach the age of eight they are able to choose for themselves if they want to be baptized, and start becoming accountable for their choices. Christ says in John 3:5, "Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." He also commands us "Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do." We believe in baptism by immersion, the same way that Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan. We are baptized by someone who has God’s priesthood authority for the remission of sins. (Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16). We are also baptized to become members of the Church of Jesus Christ, and to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5). When we are baptized, we recieve a remission of our sins. We also make a promise to our Heavenly Father. We promise (also called a covenant) to accept Christ, become one of His followers, and to keep His commandments until the end of our lives. If we do this, Heavenly Father promises us to forgive our sins and to let us return and live with Him in Heaven. It's a pretty good deal... especially the forgiveness part because heaven knows we're not perfect. I remember asking the bishop when I was baptized if the water would turn black from my sins all washing away. Then I asked if I would need to be baptized more than once-since I was sure at some point in my life I would do something wrong again. He laughed and assured me the water wouldn't turn black, that it was a spiritual thing and not temporal so the water would stay clean. Then he explained that each week I partake of the sacrament, I would have the oppurtunity to repent and be clean again. So being baptized once is all you really need, as long as you are baptized correctly and by the right authority. I didn't actually take pictures of the actual baptism-this is a photo of them getting ready. We believe the ordinance of baptism is sacred. Sacred things are best remembered-not photographed. I couldn't help but snap a few pictures before it though, it was such a beautiful moment. And then Avery got baptized-I was proud of her for not gasping when she went under. The water was SO COLD, and it naturally takes your breath away. But she was brave and reverent for the whole thing. They came back over-Emma was a great help. She held their towels... nice, warm towels! And here she is. The newest member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. When she was dried off she was confirmed a member and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. Christ taught that if you get baptized, but then don't receive the Holy Ghost as a companion, you only went and did things half way. The Holy Ghost is a spirit sent to help us here on earth. If we live our lives right, and try to be good, he will help guide us and keep us safe. I think it's safe to say she was a little cold-but the memory of her Christmas day baptism in the Frio will warm her up!

Prayers

Thanksgiving is approaching, and I feel like I have so much to be thankful for. Today I am super thankful for prayers, answered and unanswered. Today its the ones that are answered quickly. It's crazy that God will answer the simplest, silliest of prayers. Because I constantly am losing things, mostly I'm praying that I will find something (on top of everything else I ask for). But even those prayers for lost items are answered. It never ceases to amaze me that a God who has so many other things to worry about would bother to listen to my plea to find my USB drive, my shoes, my phone, or anything else that I seem to lose constantly. But He does. He totally does. I have some friends who might think it's a lucky coincidence, that statistically the odds are in my favor of getting what I ask for, like asking for sunshine on a sunny day. But I know that it's not a coincidence. It's a loving Father in Heaven who knows of my existence, and is aware of my every need.

Remember that day forever ago that I decided to take three dogs to the park? Well, I was all sweaty and gross from running. I thought, "might as well take the dogs out before I clean up." So, I grabbed my dog, a friend's dog, and then drove to my sister's to get her dog. I was leaving the neighborhood when I had this feeling I should stop by a friend's house that wasn't far away. I pushed it aside, "I'm sweaty, gross, and have a car full of dogs. She doesn't want this kind of company." I kept driving. I had the feeling again. I thought to myself, "No, I need to get my day going... she's probably not there anyway." I got to the stop sign... and that's when I turned around. When I pulled into her driveway she was hanging out in the warm sun. I felt dumb, but I got out and said hi. The tone in her voice was just wonder, "I knew you would come!!!" I was confused at first, but she said, "My phone is lost, my husband is at work, none of the neighbors are home, and I really, really need a ride to work! So I said a prayer that someone would come, and immediately I felt peace." She repeated, "I knew you would come!"

What simple, beautiful faith. I was so humbled and grateful that I had listened to what I thought was my own stupid voice. Turns out, the only stupid voice was the one telling me not to go by her house.

I know in the grand scheme of things that might not be such a big deal to others that she got a ride to work, but it was to her. And God knew that. He knew her individual needs, just like He knows each one of us. He knows what each one of us is going through, what our feelings are, and what we need in this life. We can become closer to Him through personal prayer and scripture study. We will be able to feel His love for us as we pray and try to be closer to Him. He wants to bless us-but it's up to us to ask and be willing to receive. He has given us moral agency in this life, the right to choose what we want to do with our lives. And if we want Him to be included, we have to make that choice. When our hearts hurt, He can heal them. He can give us answers to questions. He can pretty much do everything, but we have to ask. And that is what I am grateful today. I am grateful to a God who loves us individually, and who wants to bless me. And all I have to do is ask.

General Conference

For the longest time we have followed in one of Jeff's roommates traditions and made waffles for Sunday General Conference brunch. It's one of my favorite traditions. I love waffles. This morning we went through two boxes of mix for all the people at my Mom's house watching conference. The first box of mix took Tonia about eight seconds to prepare. The second box took two grown men, over the age of twenty eight, each with bachelors degree (and one with a masters) about twenty minutes to make. "Wait, so if the box is sixteen ounces and it needs eight 1/4 cups of water, how many eggs is that?" Thank heavens they figured it out before we all starved. Most of the kids opted to eat outside-until a dead wasp was spotted hanging on the screen. Then they all tried to run screaming into the house with their plates and cups full of milk. Fortunately, when I threw the dead wasp outside they all came back and were able to finish breakfast. Hannah opted for some safer seating inside.

When conference was over we skyped with Dad-who knew they had real Raisin Bran in China? And that milk comes in weird plastic pouches? He was eating breakfast and we had just finished dinner. If you look on the right computer screen you can see my Mom's latest obsession-the bald eagles hatching in Iowa. The kids were pretty obsessed too-they watched her bring in a dead bird, fish, and start ripping up the rabbit she'd been saving. It's pretty interesting.

Conference was great, but isn't it always? It seemed like the themes this year centered around service to others, getting away from the technical world and down to what matters, couples loving each other, and family. There were a few other talks in there that didn't center around that, but I did notice a lot of talks about service. I especially loved Richard G. Scott's talk, he really, truly loved his wife and you can see how much he misses her. I also couldn't help but have a little twinge on my heart-every conference I realize how much I miss President Hinckley. I honestly loved him so much, sometimes it still doesn't seem real that he is gone. He was such an amazing man, and such a great example to us all. President Monson is a sweetheart, but I will always have a special place in my heart for Hinckley. One other talk that made me smile was Elder Holland's. I love how he is just so direct, "I know not everyone out here struggles with pornography other issues we address in conference. So find the talk that applies to you and listen to that one!" That cracked me up. I am really glad I got to enjoy conference today, especially with the family! That always makes it a little more fun... especially when someone else cooks!

Gas

You know the story in the bible of the ten virgins? How one group ran around with just enough oil in their lamps to get them through part of the night, and the smarter half brought extra, just in case? There are so many lessons to be learned in that story, and I found myself thinking about it recently. I feel like I might have some bumps in the road and some little trying times in my life, but I can honestly not remember the last time I told someone, "Today was a bad day, and I just want to go home." And it almost happened twice last week. One day involved like 20 little things that came right after another, but suffice it to say that what earned the "bad day" title involved the dog and some poop, and it was really, really disgusting. I almost ran him over on purpose.

The second almost bad day was Saturday, and that's where I wanna talk about the ten virgins, the smarter one's being the one's who monitor their oil lamp levels.

So this last Saturday my Dad volunteered me to teach at the Webelo's One Outing, WOO for short, from 7am to set up til 12pm ending. There were about a hundred kids registered. I also was going running at 5am with Shelby and PG, Jeff had to work at 6am, and we only had his truck as my car was in the shop. Jeff decided that getting up at 5am was more than he could handle, so I drove the truck to go running. Of course, this meant I had stop halfway through the run and turn around so I could get back to the truck to get him to work. Not as fun as it sounds, and he was still a few minutes late. Then I ran home, showered, got the rest of my art stuff together and headed out to the activity, some fifteen miles away. That's when a scene from the night before flashed through my head. "Jeff, you're on empty, we need gas." So he stops and puts $6 dollars into a truck that gets 12 MPG. Of course, as I am walking out the door thinking of this, I can't find my ATM card anywhere. Gone. I had a sinking feeling. I knew where this was going... but needless to say if you're dumb you have to be tough, so I headed out the door... and promptly ran out of gas almost to the destination, on the uphill of an overpass. But somewhere, someone upstairs loves me because as the truck was having a seizure and decided to quit working, it rolled uphill... and then... ever... so ... so... slowly..... reached the top, and then ... barely rolled downhill, and coasted into a gas station. I was so relieved I cried. Then, realizing I still had no money, was half an hour late, decided not to stop crying. But somehow through the tears I said a quick prayer, and magically found my ATM card... and got gas. Then I had to teach ninety eight Webelo Scouts how to make a mobile out of pipe cleaners. Needless to say, I will never, ever have ninety eight children. Especially if they're boys.

... Then Chunky fell out of the truck. That's another story-he's totally OK but let's just say he won't be sticking his head that far out of the window again.

The rest of the day ended well, the weather was pretty, Chunky got meatloaf for lunch (I felt so bad, and he loves it), I hung out with some great friends and I got nine hours of sleep the next night.

The point is, all is well that ends well. And always, always keep your lamp full.

On the plus side...

Our Stake has become ginormous. Our ward split again today, for the millionth time since I've lived here. When my family first moved to The Wooodlands in 1987, it was population 22,000, and there was just the Woodlands ward. We were in the Houston North Stake. Now The Woodlands has grown to somewhere near 90,000 people and there are seven wards in this area. That is a lot of Mormons. It's always bittersweet when the wards split. The first time it happened my friends and I were stunned and upset. How could they split us up like this?? We recognized it had to be done, but we didn't want to miss seeing each other so often. We vowed that we would attend every ward, every week so we could all see each other. There were three wards then, and lemme tell you going from nine to five every Sunday lasted less than a month. That's when we realized that somehow life would still go on and we'd still all see each other at other activities... And that nine hours of church is a LOT of church. The sweet part of splitting the wards was that my friends made friends with other friends and those friends became friends too. Well, more like friendly acquaintances but still, it made the friend circle bigger and that is usually good thing. It also put some people into my ward that I ended up being best friends with, and we're still best friends to this day (wait, maybe we weren't in the same ward but whatever, it worked out).

So I will look at this ward splitting as a wonderful blessing-the gospel is growing and we'll be able to add to the friend circle again, and ... um we still have the 8:30 church slot in the same building. Suckers! Some people have to drive to Timbucktu to get to church... and speaking of Tim Buck Tew, that's what we're naming our first kid. Boy, girl, cat.. whatever.

A Day at the Pool

Usually when I take the kids to the pool it's not an emotionally scarring experience. But that's usually, and you can tell where this is going. We've spent most of the summer pleasantly enjoying the pools at our apartment complex, or going to the YMCA and enjoying the ones there. So far, the only scarring incident at the Y involved my eyes (which hurt after I had to bleach them), and an ethnic woman who thought her see-through shirt was a good choice to wear around children at the pool. I am not sure if she thought the kids were judging a wet t-shirt contest or what, but there was no way she was going to win with them things. Let's just say "Ew" with a capital "Ew." Anyway, usually the day at the pool is all fun and games. They play games, dive for random things on the floor of the pool and make you help them take their goggles on and off over a thousand times. On exceptionally fun days, Uncle Jeff throws the girls as far as he can into the deep end where they try desperately not to drown. When they finally make it back to the shallow end, he does it again! For some reason they love this game... The nice thing about the neighborhood pool is that the neighbors come and play and you get to meet new people. Some people like to come out and barbecue while they leave their four month old baby unattended in a pool floaty.Now this is where I preach modesty, modesty, modesty! ... and more Modesty! I believe that once you reap the ripe old age of Mommy, you should dress like one. I didn't say dress like Grandma-Mommy-Pioneer, but I am saying that at some point you really should consider setting a good, conservative example for your children. And for the rest of us, but mostly for heaven's sake please for the rest of us.

The great part is that she is blocking the view of her other friend, also wearing a child's bikini and weighing more than the four kids we brought to the pool combined. I think they were best friends. Best friends who smoke, eat and cuss loudly in the pool. And that was just on the surface...

And to top it off, it's not that those girls were the only other scarring event at the pool. These two were practicing their rescue breathing techniques. Or pretending to be vampires. Either way, they got them all wrong. Vampires and lifeguards look good when they do that. She's looking at me like, "What? It's totally not creepy to sit here and stare at my friend while she makes out with her boyfriend vampire! I'm trying to learn something new here!"

Needless to say, our fingers were pruney, our toes were pruney, and we needed to take the kids home so we could bleach their eyes. Let that be a lesson to us all, that we need to be better member missionaries. If these people knew about modesty and the law of chastity, we wouldn't have had such a scarring experience.

... Note to self: Send over missionaries...

The Letter of the Law

There is two parts to every law. The letter and the spirit. Where I live, we have pretty strict deed restrictions.  Ask my parents, they got sooo many letters about their pink flamingos from the home owners association they finally caved and took them down. Don't even ask about the roofing material on the driveway, or the grill under the carport... it's sooo silly.  There are rules about how long your grass can grow, how many times you can leave your car in the street, and where they can park (um, not within 20 feet of the fire hydrant.. sorry, Officer..), no garage sales, no painting your house an ugly color, and so forth.   It can be obnoxious if you happen to actually know them all and abide by them.

I drive by this house every day.  It's a nice house, nice yard.  Normally, I wouldn't think twice about it.  It looks like most houses do.

Occasionally people have a life and decide their grass can wait, and sometimes they go out of town.  Although, given the state the yard has been in for 10 months, they must go a lot.  But, it's not a bad yard, it gets by and I like the giant trees.  Although, I feel bad for the one struggling little azalea bush, it looks like of sad.  This house doesn't get home owner's letters complaining about the grass or silly pink statues, surprisingly they are following every rule as far as deed restrictions go.

Take this house, however.  It's the next door neighbor to the other guy.  I know they have a giant dead spot in their yard, but if you look closely, the house is in good repair, their grass is neatly mowed, and their garden is so pretty (that dead spot is pretty recent, I don't know what happened).  I love to drive by this house and admire the yard, it just emits sunshine and happiness.  Although you can't see all that in the picture because my camera just can't capture it, just pretend.

No one said they had to paint the house, or plant the flowers, or keep the garden weeded.  They don't have to do everything they do.  They would be following the "law" (if you can call deed restrictions that..) without all the pretty stuff. It's all optional.  But, they have chosen something better.  They have chosen to not only follow the letter of the law by keeping their yard presentable, they are following the spirit of the law.  And their yard is beautiful.

Russell M. Nelson said, "Avoid poisons of faith such as sin, pornography, or barely abiding the letter of the law instead of embracing the ennobling spirit of the law. Remember, “The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” (2 Cor. 3:6.)"

I've thought about the importance of following the spirit of the law for quite a long time.  I drive by both houses almost daily, and I always think about what a difference there is in these two homes.  I'd much rather live in and see the second one.  And those thoughts go beyond these two houses.  This is how our spirits can be, and how are spirits are will show on our countenance.  If we want to have a happy life, full of meaning and joy we need to be following the spirit of the law, not just the letter of the law.  I like to think of the law as things that we should be doing in our lives.  Sure, we have a calling and we do the bare minimum requirements to get by, but is that really the spirit of things?  Wouldn't we be blessed so much more if our hearts were in the right place and we did a smidge bit more?   That's what I think of when I drive by those houses, things I could and should be doing better at and I'm glad they're there to remind me.  So, thank you, green-thumbed neighbors, you are an inspiration to us all. 

Now maybe someday I'll get off my tush and get those things done...

Another Calm Day at Church

"This isn't making me want to have kids any sooner..." -Jeff

Rexburg Temple Dedication

Well it finally happened! The 125th temple has officially been dedicated. They had four sessions, and Jeff and I got to go to the 9am one broadcasted at the Hinckley building chapel. Just for clarification, we were not actually IN the temple for the dedication. We were in another building that was acting as an "extention" of the temple so more people could witness the dedication. Anyway, the ceremony was beautiful. Everything was well organized and you could feel the love of our Savior throughout the entire dedication. It was wonderful to see the first and great milestone that Pres. Monson got to do as prophet. Elders Bednar and Holland also had the chance to speak. We were all wondering where Pres. Eyring was, since he was President of Rick's college a while back and loves Rexburg, but apparently he broke an ankle last week and had to stay home. On the same sad note, Sis. Faust died this morning.

Even though we had to be up early, it was probably the best session, Jeff and I think. We got to see Pres. Monson put the mortar in the cornerstone of the temple. He is hysterical, he kept saying the funniest things to people as they would put the mortar in. It reminded me of when Pres. Hinckley dedicated the Houston temple and made the crowd laugh when he made a mess of the mortar too.

It was wonderful that the sun finally came out. This morning you could hardly see five feet in front of you because it was so foggy, but by the time the dedication was over the sun was shining as bright as ever! It was like Heavenly Father was showing his approval. The temple is such a beautiful place to be, and Jeff and I are so thankful that we have them in our lives. It's sweet to know that even after we die, we will continue to be a family in the next world because of the sealing powers that are found in the temple.