Angels

(I found this in my drafts. I'm not sure why I didn't hit "publish" a few months ago, but the sentiments are still immensely valid.) 

Recently I was studying in the Book of Mormon about the people of Limhi and the people of Alma. Their respective righteousness and and attitudes toward adversity are often compared, but I noticed that they both eventually did the exact same thing.  "And it came to pass that so great were their afflictions that they began to cry mightily to God."  (Mosiah 23:10)  "And they did humble themselves even in the depths of humility; and they did cry mightily to God, yea, even all the day long did they cry until their God that he would deliver them out of their afflictions." (Mosiah 21:14) This pattern is repeated throughout scripture as people were humbled to the DEPTHS of humility and cried for relief.

Here's the thing. I totally get this. I relate to what it feels like to be in the depths of humility. 

I have descended to some dark and difficult places as I struggle to help loved ones through challenges.  I have watched loved ones in my home and out of my home deal with things that are so big that I don't know how I can possibly help them.  I have found myself crying "mightily" until God throughout the day and acknowledging to Him that some things are a lot bigger than my mortal ability to carry them. 

As part of God's answer to my prayers, I have felt the presence of angels. At times I have sensed the concern and presence of those beyond the veil who have a personal interest in my well-being and the well-being of my family.  I think that some of my angels are my grandmas who have passed on, and who are rooting for all of us and supporting us when we are weak.  I found myself thinking about a talk a few years ago by Elder Holland.

 "In the course of life all of us spend time in “dark and dreary” places, wildernesses, circumstances of sorrow or fear or discouragement. But I testify that angels are still sent to help us, even as they were sent to help Adam and Eve, to help the prophets, and indeed to help the Savior of the world Himself." 

For me, one of the hardest challenges so far has been watching my children deal with hard stuff. I need to remember Elder Holland's words and that there is power in the covenants I have made with God:

"I ask everyone within the sound of my voice to take heart, be filled with faith, and remember the Lord has said He “would fight our battles, our children’s battles, and the battles of our children’s children.” And what do we do to merit such a defense? We are to “search diligently, pray always, and be believing. Then all things shall work together for our good, if we walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith we have covenanted.”

In addition to heavenly help, I have been lifted by some people in my life who are intuitive, kind, and placed in my life by a loving Heavenly Father. 

"I have spoken here of heavenly help, of angels dispatched to bless us in time of need. But when we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with—here, now, every day.  Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind."

Finally, a few scriptures and words of a hymn which have resonated with me lately. 

 “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, … my Spirit shall be in your heart, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” D&C 84:88

For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Revelations 7:17

Where, when my aching grows,

Where, when I languish,

Where, in my need to know, where can I run?

Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?

Who, who can understand?

He, only One.

September Thoughts

A whirlwind descended on our house about last April and just barely moved on. It's been really hectic. Keeping up a family blog has been the least of my concerns, and my concerns have been many!

In addition, I recently discovered that there are not great options for downloading the blogs to a site where I can edit and then publish blog books. To be honest, that is my primary reason for keeping up a blog. It has been a valuable history for our family, with the added perk of keeping family members who live away from us apprised of our doings. I have been in mourning about the fact that Blurb has stopped talking to Blogger, which makes blog books super difficult. At first I thought I would just forget the blog altogether, and that's still possible. But I am going to TRY something. I will publish a blog post and immediately copy and paste the pictures to a page on a book making site. I will keep adding to the saved book until I have enough to print. That should theoretically help with the blog book dilemma going forward, but does nothing for the 6 YEARS I hadn't yet downloaded and printed. Yikes. I'll have to deal with that another day.

School started a week ago, and so far all is well. I'm holding my breath just a bit. It's a big year. Joseph started middle school and so far really likes it. The highlight of this week was when he got his personal iPad, issued by the school. Most of his assignments will be on the iPad. Aubrey has had this school-issued technology for the last few years. Aubrey started the all-important junior year of high school and has some really tough classes. In addition, she is going to be in a play through Metro this fall. Bailey is back at school at BYU and, from all reports, having a great time. Brandon and Angela have moved to CA, where they are working and checking out microbiology graduate school options.

I have been in my church calling for a year now (and the topic of my church calling really deserves an entire post one of these days).  I finally feel like I know what I am doing and things have settled down after a busy summer of camps and activities we were in charge of. I am enjoying the quiet during the school day to get things under control in the house and work on projects. I have such a long list of projects which I never get to, but I'm slow and steady making my way through them. 

Over the last year I've done a much better job of keeping up a few journals, including a personal journal and my favorite scripture thought journal. So, if my descendants want more info about what is swirling around in my head, they will have to scrounge for the details in the books. 

All is well in Vancouver. That's a good feeling.  It's a beautiful time of year and the weather is perfect. September always feels like a hopeful month of beginnings and fresh starts, even more so than January. Here's to fresh starts. 

Aubrey's LDS Prom

Aubrey was asked really early to LDS Prom by a guy in her Seminary class, breaking the hearts of several other guys who were planning on asking her.  She ordered a dress online from China, and it was a beautiful dress, but she decided it wasn't as modest as she wanted, so I became a dressmaker.

I spent an agonizing hour in a huge fabric store trying to find the right matching fabric in the blue/purple/grey color.  I did finally find some fabric, but then realized that I didn't need to buy fabric at all because I needed to cut off about 3 inches from the bottom of the dress and hem it, and I was able to use that fabric to add panels and sleeves.

It was a long and quite challenging process to alter the dress.  There were FOUR layers of skirt to be hemmed.  And I am not a very experienced seamstress, but I think the finished product was fantastic. Next time, though, we will take more time to evaluate a dress before ordering AND will pay the measly $15 extra to get the dress custom fit.

Here's the dress with alterations:

 We ran to the mall one family night to find the perfect shoes to go with the dress (sorry Dan and Joseph, who patiently waited in the car!)

Modeling the dress in anticipation of the big day. I was actually out of town for the LDS Prom, so Dan handled all the preparations for the celebration. 

 This was Aubrey's instagram post posing with her date at the restaurant.

 The entire group of 5 couples. All great kids.

 And the official dance photo!

Snippets

In March my presidency and I pulled off Stake Pinewood Derby. It was a lot of work and I still have the same issues with Pinewood Derby, but I appreciated all the hard work given by great people, including Joseph and Dan, who helped us set up.  I will have to do another post to talk more about the ups and downs of my calling over the past year.  I have no picture for this, but I spent about 3 weeks in April agonizing over a talk for Stake Conference. So glad that is over!

Aubrey received her actual drivers license in the mail!  She loves driving. 

Joseph played three sessions of basketball this year, with Lance Kartchner as his coach and his buddies Alex, Ian, and Matt on his team. They had a great time playing together and learned SO much.  They had some great games. Below, we celebrated his great game at Burgerville.

Aubrey dressed up for Spirit Week - 80s Day. I offered to rat her bangs in true 80s style, but she declined.

 We gave in to Joseph's entreaties for a pet after he carefully studied options and settled on a guinea pig which he then actively marketed to his parents. We spent one family night at PetSmart picking out Luna, who has turned out to be a very nice pet. Now, however, he is lobbying for a cat!

We finished out our season tickets to Keller Auditorium by all going to see Newsies. It was so fantastic!  Dan and Aubrey also saw Annie at Keller in May.

Easter 2016

The Easter Bunny caught us just before our trip back East and dropped off a few goodies.

Then we headed into the rain for the annual Easter egg hunt with all the kids in the neighborhood. In the ten years that we have lived here, our kids have grown up and become some of the oldest kids in the hunt!

After church we took a few pictures.

And Joseph hid eggs for Aubrey around the house.

Then Joseph made himself a nest by the fireplace and ate Easter candy and carrots while reading a Goosebumps book.

Meanwhile in Utah, Bailey slept over and Brandon and Angela's house so she could go to church with them and then go to Ali's house in Lehi for a wonderful Easter dinner! My grown kids took Easter pictures in front of our Provo apartments and sent them to me on their own volition!

It was a Happy Easter!

Other random events from the Spring 2016

In February Dan received a new church calling to the High Council. For a few weeks he continued teaching Seminary every morning while also serving on the High Council (and deejaying the stake youth dances), but then the Stake Presidency changed their mind (whew) and released him from teaching Seminary. This is Dan as he left to Seminary for the last time. Can you see the mix of emotions on his face? 

Later that week we went to his Seminary room and helped him clean out his cupboard. This was really a bittersweet and sad experience for him, to say goodbye to a time-intensive, all-encompassing calling he had embraced for almost 4 years. 

Since then, Dan's responsibilities in the High Council have switched several times, and eventually he was designated the High Councilor over Stake Primary - which means that we get to work together! That has been a relief, because I was getting frustrated with the lack of response from the High Councilor I was working with previously.

I love Spring. So many beautiful colors. I was making a bed upstairs one day and had to pause to take a picture through the window of some of the colors in our backyard.

We all came down with a terrible virus in February, and it took a few weeks to feel better. (I did, however, have the chance to watch the entire season of Poldark on PBS Masterpiece and over a season of Call the Midwife while I lay on the couch recovering so that's a perk.)  Joseph had been sick for 10 days and had missed a full week of school by the time of his birthday. We already had a party planned for the night of his birthday, and he had been feeling better and had gone to school that day, so we went ahead with the party.  

That may have been a mistake! We had a great time running ourselves ragged at the Family Fun Center in the somewhat cool spring weather. By the next morning Joseph was much worse and began coughing. By the next Wednesday I took him in to the doctor to see why he could not shake his virus.  It turns out that the poor kid had developed mycoplasma pneumonia, or walking pneumonia. 

It took a few days to find the right antibiotic that Joseph was willing to take.  Only certain antibiotics work on mycoplasma, and he could not bring himself to take oral Zithromax. He doesn't weigh enough to take the Zithromax pills. After a tumultuous 24 hours and consultations with the doctor and pharmacist, he was prescribed oral Doxycycline. Finally, he was on the mend!

Somewhere in the middle of all this, Aubrey and I used our season tickets to the theater to attend Wizard of Oz. It was a little bit meh, but our standards for musicals are pretty high! 

 The end of February I randomly decided to update all our 72 hour kits. This had been on my to-do list for YEARS. The clothes that I pulled out of each child's backpack would have fit a much younger version of themselves. We are set now - food, clothes, and everything.

 We have the coolest dentist office. On St. Patrick's Day Joseph went to the dentist, and the dentist was wearing a leprechaun outfit with crazy light up shoes.  No cavities!

We took one last picture of most of Joseph's costumes and bagged them up to give to a friend. Sigh. It's hard to see the end of a season.

 This year in Joseph's 5th grade classroom the students walked down to the Salmon Creek once a month and took water samples to test for dissolved oxygen, phosphates, turbidity, ph, and other things I have forgotten. They got very efficient at the process and were cool little scientists. I went on the field trips most of the time, and the walk back up the hill to the school was always a killer workout!

Joseph is 11!

Joseph's 11th birthday fell on a Friday. He started the day with a hearty breakfast in bed: bacon, strawberries, homemade pancakes with maple syrup, and powdered donuts.

He opened all of his gifts before school because we knew we would be gone to his birthday party from after school through late evening. 

 At lunchtime I picked Joseph up and took him to Burgerville for a lunch of chicken strips, fries, and a chocolate shake. Then we ran into Winco to pick out cupcakes that he could give to his class.

As soon as Joseph got home from school we loaded up in the car and picked up all his buddies. We took two cars - I drove all the boys and Dan drove Aubrey and her friend Emma. We traveled for over an hour to Bullwinkle's Family Fun Center, where we played and partied to our hearts content. 

On the way, to maximize our playtime at Bullwinkle's Joseph opened the gifts from his friends. We also picked up Little Ceasers and everyone ate pizza and drank juice boxes on the way. Multitasking for the win!

 We rocked out to all the boy's favorite tunes all the way to Wilsonville.

Once we got there, we got our unlimited ride bracelets and started doing laser tag, bumper cars, zipline, arcade games, miniature golf, and more.

 What a great group of boys! We are grateful that Joseph has such good friends, but we are especially grateful for our sweet, kind, smart, tenacious, and good-natured boy. We are so glad he is part of our family!