South Dakota: The Mount Rushmore State

The whole fam (minus the photographer) on the Presidential Trail at Mount Rushmore

None of us had ever been to South Dakota before.  And now we wonder why! It's kind of funny that it's mostly known for Mount Rushmore because the Black Hills are seriously breathtaking!  

As we left our hotel and headed toward Mount Rushmore we passed herds of buffalo just grazing on the rolling hills off the sides of the road.  So of course we did the touristy thing and took a few pictures.

On the road to Rushmore we passed a sign for Custer State Park. Allen had read about a picturesque lake there and decided we should go check it out, so we did. And HOLY COW was it gorgeous!

We parked the car and braved the rain to snap a few photos of Sylvan Lake.  The thing is, the pictures just don't convey the true beauty of this place. I kept looking at the actual lake and its amazing rock formations, then looking at the picture I'd take of what I saw and the snapshots never seemed the same as what I saw in real life. (That was kind of a tongue twister but I'm not sure how else to say it.)

We continued to drive through Custer State Park just to marvel in the awesome scenery.  This place easily compares to Goblin Valley or Zion National Park.  I'm surprised we don't hear more about it.  Everywhere we looked these fingers of rock pointed heavenward.  (A quick Google search let me know that these rocks are known as The Needles.  I like Rock Fingers better.)

I must have taken at least 200 pictures from the window of the van. At one point we stopped and let those who didn't mind a little rain jump out and get a picture taken.

We eventually came to this cool little tunnel that only one vehicle can fit through at a time.  We all held our breath, sucked in, and the van barely squeezed through. 

The view from the other side of the tunnel

We probably took more time than we had allowed for in Custer State Park, but I think it was a good thing because the skies began to clear up as we headed toward Mount Rushmore.

My brother Chip told me that if we were going to be in South Dakota we might as well go check out the Crazy Horse Memorial, too.  It is a work in progress, but we went to take a look.  It cost $28 to get into the park there and we weren't planning to stay, so we were happy to just snap a photo from the van and head to Rushmore.

This was our first view of Mount Rushmore.  Pretty cool.

It only cost us $11 to park here, and it was well worth the money simply for the number of license plates in the parking lot that helped us get a whole bunch of states crossed off our list for the License Plate Game. We took quite a few group pictures in the park.

Of all the places we could travel that are east of our home state, Hubba's dream destination was Rushmore. I took individual pictures of each of the kids with the four stone-faced presidents in the background, but Hubba's was my favorite.  He can now cross 'pick George Washington's nose' off of his bucket list. (This was completely intentional. I am all about fulfilling dreams.)

We did the walk along the Presidential Trail, which loops around the park and gets you up a little closer to each of the faces carved into the mountain.  As we were headed back to the entrance I saw this great photo spot and was taking a picture of the family when a sweet older gentleman asked if he could take the picture for me, "because they wouldn't all be here if not for you!" So here's the whole crew.

Little X rode on Allen's shoulders a good amount of the time.  Isn't he a cutie?

Much later than planned we hit the road again and headed for Allen's brother's house in Minnesota.  Just as we left Rushmore the rain started again so we had the perfect window of opportunity during our visit.  As Allen drove I fell asleep, and after a while he woke me because he knows how much I love clouds and storms. Check out this beauty that was lingering over us... 

Awesome, right?

As it started to get dark that evening we were treated to yet another amazing lightning storm all around us.  I tried (in vain) to get a picture of the lightning as it would shoot across the sky and ended up with the following picture, which I think is one of my favorites from our trip.

You're probably wondering what's so fantastic about a blurry picture taken through the window of a moving vehicle.  The thing I love is those flecks of light in that funnel-ish cloud.  I would watch as the lightning would travel from the base of the funnel, up to the cloud, and then explode in a burst of light.  It was like Mother Nature was giving us a firework show and the way the lightning traveled up the funnel was just awesome, like watching a firework travel into the sky before exploding. It's probably one of those you-had-to-be-there kind of moments, but I'm glad I was able to capture a teensy bit of the magic.

On The Road: Day One

How we roll.

The first day into our grand adventure the goal was to reach our hotel in South Dakota.  We had quite a few miles to put behind us and the scenery made the drive even more enjoyable.  

We stopped for gas a couple of times and then again at the entrance to Martin's Cove in Wyoming to get a picture near Devil's Gate (the break in the rocks in the background) and to stretch our legs a bit.

One of our favorite things about Wyoming was the gorgeous sunset that just seemed to get better and better as the sun sank lower into the distance. I wish I could have taken a picture to match what we actually saw but the camera just couldn't do the colors justice.

As we traveled on we were treated to a brilliant lightning storm that continued to wow us throughout the night as it lit up various sections of the clouds or sky in flashes of white and blue.

We arrived at our hotel in the wee hours of the morning and were pleasantly surprised at the warm reception we received by the owner.  As I checked in he let me know that he has turned on the air conditioners in our rooms to cool them down before we had arrived.  He also noticed that there were 2 adults and 8 children and so, assuming we were all one family, we had adjoining rooms on the first floor.  After some excitement from the kids over having televisions and refrigerators in our rooms we all fell asleep within minutes.

As we slept, the storm that had surrounded us along our drive caught up to us and we woke the next morning to overcast skies and a gentle rain. 

Our Trip To Everywhere

Sometime around Christmas or so we decided to take a big family trip this summer.  We knew that Thumbelina would be leaving for college and that she could possibly be enrolled in summer semester, so we planned it for the first 3 weeks of the summer.  We put it on the family calendar so that nothing else would be planned during that time and told the kids to start researching places they would like to go located east of Utah so they could put in requests for stops.

We traveled through each of the colored-in states above, starting in Utah and going in rainbow color order until you end up in Utah again. For the most part, what a fantastic vacation it was!

Before leaving we came up with an itinerary which included the distance and amount of time we would be on the road on traveling days.

Before leaving I made each of the kids a travel bag filled with things to keep them busy, along with a few treats and a pair of dollar store sunglasses.  They got a blank copy of the map above so they could color in each state as we passed through it as well as one of various travel games that I printed off and laminated so they could write on them with dry-erase marker and then trade them with someone else once they were done.  Each bag had a dry-erase board and a travel journal (thank you dollar store!) so that each of them could have a place to write things down either temporarily or permanently along the way.

As a family we completed the license plate game once by the time we got to New York (thank you random driver with Hawaii plates in Palmyra!) and all but finished it again by the time we got home (still searching for Hawaii plates to finish out round two).

One of the best ideas I got (shout out to my friends Jes and Anita!) was to have a mini-version of our van inside the van, moving along a string to show how close we were to our destination. The kids NEVER ONCE asked "Are we there yet?"  The only thing they would say sometimes was, "Do you need to move the little van?" So I'd move it and they would all cheer and then they were content with having a visual reference of how much closer we were to arriving somewhere for the day.

The first picture is kind of like playing I-Spy, do you see our little van?

Here it is up close.

Once the van reached the end of the string we were done driving for the day. Totally brilliant.

Everyone's favorite game was what we called The List Game.  I found simple picture lists online for the smaller kids (find certain road signs, a tree, a dog, a flag, etc.) and made a super long, challenging list for the oldest kids:

Even Little X was able to complete the picture lists and he would get excited to cross things off as he spotted them.  Cowgirl was the first to finish the difficult list.  It required 3 days of constant searching. When the other kids saw that she got her own package of goldfish crackers for this task they were suddenly all much more interested in accomplishing it themselves.  (No one else ever completed it, but it was great to get them looking out their windows!)

Thumbelina graduated on a Wednesday and we started our trip the next morning. This meant that everyone missed the last two days of school, which, as we all know, was no big deal.

Rather than make this a way-too-long post, I plan to give each destination its own page over the next couple of weeks.

Our first stop?  South Dakota!

My Adorable Senior

Thumbelina graduated from high school on May 28th. We are so proud of our senior!  Prior to graduation we had my awesome and talented friend Trish take her senior pictures.  What do you think?

Cutest senior I ever saw!

She was so excited about this idea of making her senior pictures creative that we did a double-sided announcement.  One side was the photo above and the other was the photo below with all of her graduation details included.  Isn't she a beauty?

 

I let her choose the pictures for the announcement, and the sideways one was great for adding wording next to her cute mug, but these two are probably my favorites:

I can not believe this girl is old enough to be leaving home and starting college.  My babies are growing up faster than I can keep up with and it's a tough thing.  But man, oh man am I one proud mama when it comes to this girl and her talents and abilities!  She's going to do just fine.

My Dance Audition

My sister and I just before our tap-dancing debut 

I've only had one actual audition in my entire life for a dance group or team or whatever they're called.  I was reminded of it recently when I went to see the Modern Dance performance at our high school (since Thumbelina's choir was singing for one of the numbers), which was pretty awesome. 

I've mentioned before that I have always had an amazing dancer inside of me somewhere.  What I mean by that is that I have an almost overwhelming desire to dance quite often.  And in my mind, these dance numbers are beautiful and fluid and flawless.  But there is something lost between the image of what I'm going to do in my mind and what actually happens when I attempt to execute a dance number.  I tell you all this so you'll have a better understanding of the day I auditioned for the Modern Dance Company (Team? Group?) at my high school my sophomore year.

Everyone has their 'thing' in high school.  My thing was music and theater.  Probably a good 25% of my friends who were involved in music and theater were also involved in dance so, despite never having taken a dance class since my tap class at about 5 years old (see photo above) I thought I should unleash the dancer inside and audition for the advanced modern dance class.

I will admit to you openly that I had no idea what 'modern dance' really meant.  I figured that if it was modern and, well, dance, then it would work.  So I spent the better part of a week studying music videos on VH1 and MTV (This was the 80's, guys, meaning NO INTERNET.  Also, it was Madonna Week on VH1.) to prepare a great "modern dance" number for my audition.

When the day of auditions came I sat at the side of the room, confused as to why everyone was just wearing cut-off sweats or Those Dancer Pants and off-the-shoulder sweatshirts when I was ready in full Madonna uniform.  I remember thinking, wow.. I'm going to totally nail this!  No one even dressed up!

First we had some group try-outs where the teacher would show a small group some dance moves and then we would copy her in unison while she watched.  My unison was a little different than everyone else's but hey - I would definitely stand out!  I knew she wouldn't forget me.  I added a bit of flourish to the boring moves and tried not to watch myself in the fully-mirrored walls in the dance room.

When it came time for the individual portion of the audition I was lucky enough to go first.  I blasted my Madonna cassette from the boom box in the corner and gave it all I had.  I was on FIRE, people!  Up, down, and all around.  I'm pretty sure I covered every inch of floor space available.  The music was in me and I executed each move the way I had practiced.  Only I looked a LOT different in these big mirrors than I did in my head when I was rehearsing on my living room floor in front of the TV at home.

You may not be surprised to find out that I did not make the callback list.  A couple of my friends told me how everyone was talking about my audition and how hilarious it was.  It turns out that everyone thought I was being funny on purpose.  What could I do besides roll with that?

So I owned my new-found hilarity and accepted the fact that I was just not meant to be a dancer.  Or at least not a modern dancer.  Whatever that means.

Adventures in Potty Training (because someday this will be funny)

I am currently in the process of potty training for the last time.  This cute little rascal is not making things easy on me.

Starting with Princess (5 kids ago) my cousin Julie introduced me to an amazing book called Potty Training in Less Than a Day, which worked on the previous 4 kids like a charm.  Yes, the day I worked on it with them was long and frustrating, but by the end of the day they were all in undies full-time and never went back to diapers again, even at night!

Since X is now well over 3 years old, I knew it was time to review the book again and get ready for a long day of hanging out in the bathroom with him.  I knew it would be worth it because he would be all potty trained by the end of the day and I'd be done with diapers forever!  *cue angels singing*

Well, Little X had another idea of how things should work.

First off, I showed him how one of our dolls could use the toilet. (This is all from the book I mentioned, by the way.)  I sat the doll (named Star) down on the toilet and released a medicine dropper full of water behind it so it looked like it was going potty and then got all fake excited about it.  "Look X!  Star can use the toilet!  Did you see his potty?  YAY STAR!  Star is such a big boy!"  You know what he said to me?

"Dolls no go potty, Mom!  You silly!"

"No, Star DID go potty!  Did you see it? Should we give Star a treat for going potty on the toilet?"

"Moooooom! Dolls no eat treats.  You crazy!"

"You're right.  So, if I give you the treat will you wear underwear and go potty on the toilet like Star?"

After eyeing the treat, he agreed and the real adventure began.  Part of this whole potty training program is that you ask the child like every 5 minutes if they are wet or dry and reward them whenever they are dry (or doing anything they are supposed to) with all the drinks they want (so they'll have the urge to use the toilet all day) along with some treats and more fake excitement over their dryness.  I had a huge variety of drinks I knew he liked (sodas, juice boxes, capri suns, chocolate milk, etc.) so he'd be motivated.  I had salty snacks as rewards to keep him thirsty.  This has always worked in the past, but after about 4 hours of endless drinks he still had not wet himself or gone potty in the toilet.  His bladder must be ginormous.

I'm sure Little X was really starting to think I was crazy with all of this talk about using the toilet over the last 4 hours.  I kept thinking, why aren't you needing to pee??  But I just asked him again, "Are you dry?"

X: Nope!
Me: Wait, are you wet?
X: Nope!
Me: What are you then?
X: I'm Little X!

He continued to answer me every time with this so I gave up on the wet/dry questions and just asked, "Do you need to go potty?" To which he would always answer no.

Long story short, he was not anywhere near being potty trained at the end of the day.  All we had was a 3-year-old on a sugar high and a frustrated, tired mom.  The book says to just keep moving forward if this happens, picking up where you left off the next day, so that's what I did.  The first thing he told me when he woke up in the morning was "NO drinks today Mom.  NO DRINKS.  Just treats."  The kid is no dummy.

At one point I was using the bathroom (like I hope he will before college) and I came out to this:

When I asked him, exasperated, what in the world he was doing he answered, "Um... draw on the wall with red marker?" I let out one of those huge mom-sighs and asked, "WHY are you drawing on the wall?"  With fake excitement in his voice he said, "P-CUZ I DRY!"  I took the marker and threw it away then started to clean the wall.  As I was scrubbing he handed me this:

This is another thing I was trying to help sweeten the whole deal.  Every time he went potty or poop in the toilet he got an X toward earning a toy airplane he's been wanting.  He only had three Xs by this time but he had apparently decided that he deserved the airplane anyway and filled in the rest of the boxes himself.  He happily announced, "All done!  I dry, I draw you picture, I get my airplane!"

He just doesn't get what I'm trying to teach here.  Either that or I'm just not getting it.

I had to leave the house to pick some kids up at one point and I came home to X happily playing in a pile of dirt in the backyard.  In the nude.  When I approached him he yelled out, "ALL DRY MOM!!"  Maybe he's on to something?

I am SO READY to give up, but I am not a quitter.  Keep your fingers crossed for us, will you?

Towel Guy

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to Durango, Colorado to watch my awesome superstar friend Ashley play her last basketball games at Fort Lewis College before she graduates in a couple of months.

It just so happened that Ashley's final game was played on National Compliment Day, so I was leaving compliments all over the place all day long.  I had printed out a stack of them before we left so I wouldn't forget.  Bathrooms, grocery stores, vending machines, car windshields, bulletin boards, locker rooms - I placed them anywhere I thought they'd be found by someone in need of a compliment.

That night at Ashley's game there was something strange going on.  About every 5 minutes or so this guy would run out on to the basketball court and wipe up a spot on the floor.  I couldn't figure out what was going on until I saw the dripping myself - it had been a super wet, rainy day and water was leaking from the ceiling and dripping right into the middle of the basketball court.  This guy's job was to run out and wipe up the little puddles that would form on the floor whenever there was any sort of quick break in the game.

All of a sudden, it came to me.  National Compliment Day!  If anyone deserved a compliment it was this guy, performing a thankless task that he probably thought was happening unnoticed.  I flipped over one of the signs we had made to cheer Ashley on and made Towel Guy his own sign which read, Go Towel Guy!  Then the next time he ran out onto the court to mop up the floor, I waved my sign and cheered loudly.

At first, he didn't notice.  And then my friend Michelle and her friend Vieve started cheering for him with me. We'd count 1,2,3... then yell, "GO TOWEL GUY!" while I waved my sign for him to see.  Some of Ashley's family joined in, too.  Eventually, he noticed and gave us a little wave.  We continued to cheer for him throughout the game.

After the game was over we went to ask for a picture with him.  He agreed (as seen at the top of this post) and after the picture was taken he smiled and said, "Thanks for the support.  That was great."

National Compliment Day mission accomplished!

Colorado Trip

Last month I got to take a little road trip with some of my favorite neighbors across the street to spend some time with one of my favoritest neighbors across the street, Ashley.  My friend Ashley is graduating from college in a couple of months and then she's going to serve a mission for our church in Poland for 18 months.  I was so honored to get to be there with her as she went through the temple for the first time, in Monticello.

 Lots of neighbor love right here.

 

That same night, and again the next day, we got to explore Ashley's college town in Colorado.  There were all sorts of fun things for sale in the little shops downtown.

 

But the most fun of the whole trip was seeing Ashley in her element - on the basketball court!  I've been promising her I'd come see her play for all four years that she's been there but never had the chance to make it there.  So her Senior Night seemed like the perfect day to cheer her on.

I love my favorite across the street neighbors!

We are some of Ashley's biggest fans, so we were super excited to make posters and cheer for her like crazy folk.

I can't remember the last time I took a trip like this.  It was well worth it!  I loved spending time with friends, talking with Ashley over waffles with strawberries and whipped cream about the individual ways God speaks to each of us (I think about that conversation all the time and see examples of it so often!) and making awesome new friends (hey there Holley and Maria!).  I stayed in the homes of people that I didn't know who fed me, gave me my own bed and welcomed me like an old friend.

I also had a blast letting Towel Guy know how appreciated he was at Ashley's final home game, but that needs a post all in itself.

You Are Awesome

Little O came up to me and showed me a stack of pictures he had created.  As I was looking through them he said, "I am a great artist!"  And it's true, he is.

When is it that we lose this confidence?  When do we go from "I am beautiful! I am smart! I am awesome!" to "Don't take my picture, I don't look good. I'm not good at that. I'm barely getting by."

Don't you listen to those voices that tell you you're not good enough. Every single person I know is awesome.  Even those I don't know. I'm serious! I don't have to know you to know that you are awesome.  Every person out there has a story and there is part of every person's story that reveals their awesomeness.

Be like a child again.  Remember who you are (you are awesome!) and own it.

  

The Power of the Atonement

When I was a young child, each Sunday my parents would send my brothers and sister and I to a Lutheran church near our home in Iowa.  One thing I remember very well was that every week in children’s Sunday School we would recite a scripture together, John 3:16.  It is the first scripture I ever remember memorizing, and one I have never forgotten: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  When I was 8 years old my family moved to California.  There the missionaries found us and we joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I would occasionally hear this scripture shared in our new religion, too, so I knew at a young age that it was an important one.  And it is.

Not only is the Atonement a way that we can recognize Heavenly Father and Jesus’ love for us, but through it we can come to know of their very personal love for each of us.

The Atonement of our Savior covers the whole world and all people from the beginning to the end of time.  That can be pretty overwhelming to think about.  What we need to remember is how personal the Atonement is.

Through the Atonement each of our own individual circumstances are addressed.  It covers each of our personal needs, challenges, and possibilities.

We recently held a Stake Standards Night where I sat on a panel which answered various questions from the youth.  One question which was asked near the end of our discussion (I don’t remember it exactly) was something like: What does the Atonement mean? I answered the question extensively, but only in my head, not where anyone else could hear it, and I regretted that afterward.  So I’d like to answer that question now.

What does the Atonement mean?  It means everything.  The Atonement was an intimate, personal experience in which Jesus came to know how to help each of us individually. It means that no matter what I go through in my life, someone understands.  It means I never have to be alone, that there is always someone I can talk to. It means that at every low point in my life I have had a friend who listens and loves me unconditionally.  It means that no matter what mistakes I make there is a way to make things right again.

Three years ago I slipped and fell on our icy driveway and broke my leg. As we waited for the paramedics to transport me to the hospital, my oldest son, Allen, would not leave my side.  My whole family was worried for me and upset about what had happened, but Allen had a deeper understanding because he had broken his leg just one year before I did. He understood the pain I was experiencing. He understood the frustration of waiting in the emergency room.  He remembered the nervous hope that things could be fixed properly. He knew the anxiety of waiting for surgery and the restlessness of being immobile. He knew the recovery I would have to endure and the therapy I would need to go through.  My son understood my injury in a more personal way because he had been through it before, he had experienced it.

This can be related to the Atonement, only on a much, much grander scale.  Jesus has experienced all of our sorrows and pains and sins and trials in a very personal way.  He understands. He gives us hope.

Moroni 7:41 reads, “And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.”

Elder Bruce D. Porter said, “We all experience some level of adversity and heartbreak. But having experienced tragedy, sickness, and disappointment in His own life, the Savior knows how to strengthen us in such trials as well.  He is there not only when we cry out from the burden of sin but also when we cry out for any other reason.  Sometimes we think of the power of the Atonement as something that works after this life, as though it were something that applied only at the Judgment Day.  But that is not true doctrine.  The redeeming power of Jesus Christ works during our lives, day by day, moment by moment, as He gives us strength to overcome, as He forgives us of sin, and as He brings us, through the Holy Ghost, comfort, peace, and joy.  My prayer and hope is that we will discover the power of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives, that we will understand that the Atonement is not something abstract.”

So how can we do this?  How can we understand that the Atonement is not some abstract, general idea?  How can we come to understand the intimate, personal effects that the Atonement can have in our lives?  We often speak of the Atonement in general terms, about the sins and suffering of the entire world.  But that’s not how we experience life.  We experience things individually.  That means that my Savior understood what I felt when I was alone on the playground as a young child at school.  He knows what it felt like when kids made fun of me because my parents were Deaf.  He knew what it felt like when I had to suffer the consequence of poor decisions. He even understands things like the disappointment of auditioning for the school musical and not getting a part. He knows what I felt the day we discovered that my infant daughter had cranial synostosis and would have to endure major surgery to correct it – not only what I experienced but also how it was for my husband, and my daughter, individually.  He experienced the different kinds of grief that came when I lost my dad to cancer, and my friend to suicide. He understood the difficulty I had in sending each of my kids off to kindergarten and the happy sort of heartache that comes with sending older children off to serve missions.  He knows my frustrations when I make mistakes as I am continually trying to be a better wife or mother or sister or daughter or friend.  We all have examples from every day of our lives, and the Savior knows it all.  He’s been there.  He’s experienced everything.  I would not wish those pains and trials on anyone, but the beautiful thing is that He loved me enough that he was willing to experience those things for me, so he could understand.  And He did this not only for me, but for each one of us!  My emotion in recalling these experiences is not sadness but more of overwhelming gratitude for what He was willing to endure for us.

It is hard to imagine how the Atonement could be so personal, how the Savior could really know each of us and our individual experiences so intimately.  I love how Elder Merrill J. Bateman explained this.  He says, “The Pearl of Great Price teaches that Moses was shown all the inhabitants of the earth, which were “numberless as the sand upon the sea shore” (Moses 1:28).  If Moses beheld every soul, then it seems reasonable that the Creator of the universe has the power to become intimately acquainted with each of us.  He learned about your weaknesses and mine.  He experienced your pains and sufferings.  He experienced mine.  I testify that He knows us.  He understands the way in which we deal with temptations.  He knows our weaknesses.  But more than that, more than just knowing us, He knows how to help us if we come to Him in faith.”

None of us is perfect. Perfect people don’t need a Savior. The power of the Atonement is that it saves us in our imperfections.  We are all works in progress.

Alma 7:11-12 says, “And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.  And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the band of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

Elder John H. Groberg said, “I testify that no one has or ever will experience any set of circumstances, be they disappointments, betrayal, pain, persecution, suffering, or whatever, that cannot and is not swallowed up in the Savior!  You can feel no hurt, emotional or physical, that He has not already felt.  There is no combination of human emotions or physical illness or suffering that cannot find refuge in the Savior’s sacrifice for us. He knows how to help us. He wants to help us. Please let him."

Have you ever seen a sign in a store that is undergoing remodeling? It usually says something like, “Please excuse the mess, we’re growing”. I want that on a t-shirt!  “Please excuse the mess, I’m growing!” It applies to everyone. This is what the Atonement is about for me. This is where I know I can apply the Atonement every day.  My life is not perfect, none of us are perfect. We are always making mistakes, we are all broken.  Our lives can be a mess, but we are also always learning and growing through the things that we experience.  We just need to look beyond the mess and see the child of God that is growing in the middle of it.  That’s what our Savior sees.

Our prophet Thomas S. Monson has said that, “Our Heavenly Father … knows that we learn and grow and become stronger as we face and survive the trials through which we must pass.  We know that there are times when we will experience heartbreaking sorrow, when we will grieve, and when we may be tested to our limits.  However, such difficulties allow us to change for the better, to rebuild our lives in the way our Heavenly Father teaches us, and to become something different from what we were – better than we were, more understanding than we were, more empathetic than we were, with stronger testimonies than we had before.”

I have a testimony of the Atonement.  I love my Savior, Jesus Christ.  It is through personal experience that I count Him as my truest friend. He understands me and my personal trials, experiences and heartbreak like no one else can.  I am thankful that He loves me and every one of us enough to help us through the “mess” of our experiences so that we can continue to learn and grow and become more like Him. 

Random Thoughts

Have you ever had to re-think your life as you thought you knew it?  This is something I've been going through lately and I can't stop running through it on repeat in my mind.  I've come to realize that my perceptions of my life have not always been true.  I am not sure how exactly to explain it.  I have always assumed that my perceptions of my life as I was growing up were accurate but I've recently discovered that I have remembered some things wrong.  And there are pictures that prove to me that things are not the way I remembered them.  That bothers me.  What is it that causes me to remember things in a way that is different from reality, to turn my perceptions into reality?  I used to think that my siblings were remembering things wrong but now I wonder if that's the case.  Maybe we're all wrong and we're all right because we all perceive things differently.  But which perception is the factual one?  It makes me nervous about sharing stories from my childhood anymore. What if the information I'm sharing is false, despite how I remember it?

I have also recently discovered a whole new extension of my family.  People I never really knew before who were suddenly there, a whole huge room full of them, all happy and smiling and welcoming and sharing the same values and beliefs as me.  And I couldn't even really enjoy it because the whole time I was fighting back tears at the realization of what I've been missing out on my whole life.  I wanted to take pictures of everyone but it felt almost as if I was going to ruin the moment if I did.  And now I want to get to know them all better but I'm apprehensive about inserting my family and my life into theirs all of a sudden.  I don't know what it is that is holding me back.  Maybe it's because I have a hard time with change and I'm nervous about stepping beyond the place where I've made myself comfortable.  Maybe I think too much.

I am constantly in awe of the things that music can do for me. When I am sad, frustrated, overwhelmed, nervous, scared, thankful, happy, or *insert other emotions here*, my favorite thing to do is think of a song that captures that emotion and sing it.  I recently realized that whenever I am in the car by myself I choose to do one of two things - pray out loud or sing.  And a lot of times they feel like the same thing.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give to those who are planning their wedding is this: hire a professional photographer.  Because even if that one family member who takes pictures is going to be there, they might just want to be family and not take a lot of pictures.  Or maybe they'll never get around to giving you the pictures.  Hypothetically speaking, maybe the film containing pictures from your wedding day will get lost.   Or maybe you won't want to ask about your pictures because you're not paying for them, so you don't get to see them until forever later.  (If they don't lose the film, that is.)  Or maybe 21 years after your wedding you'll go to an uncle's funeral and be given pictures that your uncle took at your wedding luncheon.  Pictures you had never seen before.  But it's best not to wait 21 years and just hope to happen upon some of your wedding photos.  It's best to spend the money on a good photographer because you're never going to be able to capture that day again.

My mom, my husband, me, my dad 

with my siblings 

young'uns 

mama, me, pop

(Thanks for the pictures, Uncle LaVerne.  What a treasure!)

Beggar's Opera

Thumbelina and All-a-Boy were in their school's production of Beggar's Opera.  The director decided to take it in a more interesting direction by incorporating bluegrass music and folk tunes.  All-a-Boy was the sheriff, Thumbelina was a thief.  

We loved the set design and the bluegrass band.  Awesome!

Every once in a while a couple of hillbilly gals would come to center stage with a 1-2 sentence synopsis of what was happening on a chalkboard.  This was a genius idea, as it helped those of us who were getting lost in the language to understand what was going on.

Overall the show was fun, there was a lot of obvious musical talent involved and some great acting as well.

Here is Thumbelina's solo, for which her microphone did not work.  But it's okay because she's adorable and fun to watch.

It is always a thrill to see my kids on stage! I love that they love something I loved when I was their age.