A Blessing in our Lives!

Beginning this school year our children were talking with us over the dinner table how they want to be consistent with their personal scripture study along with their family scripture study! They were saying that you really have to be self motivated since they took away seminary recognition awards for reading consistently every night. So with this question from our children Wade came up with a proposal on each of their doors the next day and this is what it read......

What a blessing it has been to our family to not only read together the scriptures but to be able to study and read them individually---together! I have to admit some nights there are distractions like this one, when Roxy decided to jump up in her seat to join us!

But what a blessing it has been to read together the word of God and after discuss what we have learned. I am enjoying reading the New Testament for my Institute class and am able to get insight from my kids because they are studying the same scriptures in their Seminary classes. I learn so much from my children. I believe that Heavenly Father sent my children to me so I could learn from them! They truly bless my life by their example. I feel so blessed for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his teachings in my life. I have never felt the Lord so strongly in my life which has made our relationships with family so deep and close. The Lord is continually blessing our family in so many ways. The Love of God is real and is there for all to partake! A quote that I have recently leaned on is by Bruce C. Hafen, "Our worth lies in our understanding of ourselves as children of God and that it does not depend on our talents, our heritage, our appearance, or our intelligence. It depends on our love of God." I have the most amazing family that teaches me what is truly important in life. Families are eternal and I am so grateful for mine that the Lord has blessed me with in this life and in the eternities!

"Better to be Safe than Sorry"

Laurisa had open heart surgery over 7 years ago and for three years after had chest pain that started in her back every few months as a complication. For the past 4 years she has been so healthy, so yesterday when she woke with the pain in her back it had me a bit concerned. She tried not to let me know about it because she didn't want me to worry. So this morning when she still had it I called her cardiologist to see what we should do. He told me to go to the E.R. and have some tests done.I just couldn't wait to have Laurisa come home and tell her we needed to run some tests....I just knew she would be so excited! She actually agreed, so we went to lunch and then I took her to the E.R. The pain had gone away by this point, but I told her, "it would be better to be safe than sorry", since we haven't had tests run for over four years.
When we got there we thought we would do a few tests and be out of there---wrong! They admitted us and started hooking her up with all these tubes and wires. You should have seen the look on her face when they put oxygen tubes in her nose. We both started laughing and couldn't stop the whole three hours in the hospital! We had so much fun cracking jokes with each other and reading our books while cuddled togehter in the hospital bed in blankets. I could have fun doing anything with this girl, she makes everything fun! I kept telling the different nurses that my daughter feels fine and is going to be so mad at me doing this to her and they kept saying,"Better to be Safe than Sorry!!! Sorry Laurisa but it made for a fun memory!
The thing I feel the worst about is that she has to go tomorrow and have her blood drawn again for a volunteer internship program she was accepted in to work at the hospital. I told her she is the bravest girl I know and now will know what it feels like to be on the other end when she helps patients!

A Reason to Celebrate!!!

Last Wednesday Wade found out that he was retained as a Pfizer District Manager. We were so relieved and felt blessed to have been fortunate enough to have stayed a part of Pfizer, after being employed with them for 15 years, especially when they were letting go of over 26,000 employees. Friday we found out that my brother Tom was also retained---we were so excited to hear that news! But there was a catch, Wade was placed as Tom's boss. Since family cannot be in the same district they had to make a change, so they gave Wade another district with no travel---which we were so excited about since the previous territory had a considerable amount of travel. This morning we woke to news that they may leave Wade and switch Tom. Well after hours of sitting on pins and needles the verdict was to switch Wade to the territory with no travel. We feel so blessed and know our prayers were answered for Wade to have been given this most desired territory that is in our backyard! Tonight after feeling a roller coaster of emotions we took the family to CELEBRATE!!!

Cardinals Go to The SUPERBOWL!!!

We are so proud of our Arizona Cardinals, even though they didn't win it made an exciting edge of our seat night with yummy food and great company!!! We definitely created a memory. It was a VERY CLOSE game which made it very exciting until the end!

Mountain View's Winter Formal

Laurisa went with a good friend of hers from her Light performing group, Nate Free. We were out of town at a wrestling tournament so Joslyn came over and did her sisters hair and make-up. I stayed up late last night, after returning from our trip so I could hear all about the night! She said it was her favorite dance yet (she says that about each one). I guess they just keep getting better. She was in a group with many of her guy friends that she has been friends with since 6th grade. All six guys danced with her at the same time since many of the girls wouldn't dance. They had her spinning all over the dance floor! She is having the time of her life and enjoying every minute of her senior year!

"Mom's head is in a pot"

I have been learning the benefits of healing with "essential oils". Getting over walking pneumonia I am trying to open my lungs with eucalyptus so I make a tent over steamed water with essential oils dropped in the water. Wade called to talk to me and asked Laurisa where I was, she responded, "Mom's head is in a pot!"

Gratitude Door

Our Gratitude door was inspired by a book I read by my cousin Kristen Oaks titled "A Single Voice." It is an amazing read for not only singles but everyone! It is filled with so many inspirational stories and scriptures that can help us in our daily lives! I was very inspired by her chapter on Gratitude. She shares a story of a friend who under went cancer treatments and the things she was most grateful for. She put a large piece of paper on her door and everyone that came in or out recorded one thing that they were grateful for. So we decided to try it Jan 1st. It has been such an incredible month sharing our everyday grateful moments. It is amazing the many blessings we have in our lives! I realized while reading this book how many people have shared their life's lessons with my cousin and in return she has shared her life lessons with us in her book. I am so thankful for her book, she is truly an inspiration to me! I think that is truly the life lesson that inspires me most,is that we are all here to learn from each other! I think that is why I enjoy blogging so much because I learn from all of my family and friends who continually inspire me! I encourage you to make a gratitude door. The quote that she shares that the lady learned is that,"we cannot be unhappy and grateful at the same time." That is so true! It is contagious, even friends wanted to contribute to our gratitude door when they visited! It has been such a blessing in our home that I think we'll continue our gratitude door at least another month and hopefully continue in our hearts always!