I'll have you know, that you can be worry free. Abby IS RELATED TO GRANDMA SMITH. Why do you say that, you ask?
Well, she woke up at 2 am last night asking for "dooonnuuttts". Then she woke up this morning and of course insisted on "donuts" for breakfast. And if that wasn't enough. She dragged us to the store this morning and wanted a CHOCOLATE frosted CHOCOLATE donut with sprinkles on top.... and to top it off, she had to have it with CHOCOLATE milk...........
30 August 2010
Missionary Moment
Thursday, I got a call at 5:40 PM from an unknown number on my cell phone. I usually don't pick up, but it was a local number and I felt like I should. I picked it up, lo and behold, it was the missionaries. They had an appointment with a lady in my neighborhood at 6:00 pm and was wondering if I could join them at the appointment.... AND if i could help with the lesson... AND if i could bear my testimony... AND find a baby sitter.... in twenty minutes.
Talk about last minute! I rarely, can find a baby sitter for a date night none the less last minute! I said, I would call them back in a few minutes, too find a baby sitter. Fortunately (and unusual), I was able to find some one to watch Abby. Terra's was home and able to. (Blessing #1) So I called them back and said I would.
I really was proud of myself. I didn't worry at all about bearing my testimony or the lesson, like I usually am. Some one gave a talk in church a week or two ago and quoted someone saying that all worrying is just another way for not putting your trust and faith in the Lord. Since I heard that, I have stopped worrying about the lessons I teach 2nd hour in church and any thing else I might worry about.
On top of that. I got ready and was out of the door in record time (Blessing #2). I pepped talked Abby on the way over to Terra's, telling her mommy would be back soon, and that I was going to leave, and she was going to stay there and play with Tracen. Since I left for Camp in July, Abby screams and cries and we have to pry her fingers off of me as I leave. That day, she walked in, said good bye and I left in a total of a minute (blessing #3).
I got to the investigator's house BEFORE 6pm and BEFORE the missionaries (this could only be done by the hand of God. Me, on time? I blame the Cowles side for having no sense of time. Andrew likes to call hyper active anti punctuality.)
The investigator went to church two weeks ago, where the Missionaries discovered her. She just randomly showed up to church building one day. She really wants to be baptized. She understands the purpose and importance of it for returning to live with Heavenly Father, however, I don't think she understands that by being baptized you're becoming a permanent member of the church. But anyway, she and her 2 month old boyfriend had started to read from the gospel principles book, a chapter every night before bed. Some time, the missionaries are going to have to bring up that you can't live together unless your married... that one will be interesting. I think the missionaries are dreading being that one up. :)
But this lady, is a pretty impressive investigator. For this being her first discussion, she already had quite a bit of knowledge on her about the church (she had it a little confused, but she knew a lot). And she had cancer in her right eye, which caused her to lose her eye and now has a prosthetic eye, which has brought her closer to God and feeling the Holy Ghost. (Actually as a side note, she was worried that she would lose her eye while getting baptized. And come up from the water having a floating eye hanging around the water... that's quite an image).
It was great to listen to their missionaries message. I wish they were more eloquent in their speaking, and that their teaching flowed from point to point better. Some times, even I was having a hard time following where they were going with their thoughts.... I felt like I should speak up, but they only have an hour and I want to make sure they get their lesson finished. I also felt like when I spoke up, they would lose their thought process, and these particular missionaries aren't very good at looking beyond what they're thinking in their minds. I wish they would have told the Joseph Smith story a little better, as well. It's so special and so important, and it's hard not to be touched by the spirit when it's being told...... ....... usually.
Either way, I think she might join the church, which is exciting. I was able to go back again the next day for the second discussion too. And the second day, you could hardly smell cigarette smoke in her house. The first day, it burnt my throat walking in, so hopefully she's starting to make a change for the good. She was already good, but you know what I mean.
I felt blessed and honored to be able to go with the missionaries and do that, especially since I wasn't able to go on a mission myself it was great to get that glimps and joy of missionary work. It made me think a lot about Miles, and wonder how he's doing.
Talk about last minute! I rarely, can find a baby sitter for a date night none the less last minute! I said, I would call them back in a few minutes, too find a baby sitter. Fortunately (and unusual), I was able to find some one to watch Abby. Terra's was home and able to. (Blessing #1) So I called them back and said I would.
I really was proud of myself. I didn't worry at all about bearing my testimony or the lesson, like I usually am. Some one gave a talk in church a week or two ago and quoted someone saying that all worrying is just another way for not putting your trust and faith in the Lord. Since I heard that, I have stopped worrying about the lessons I teach 2nd hour in church and any thing else I might worry about.
On top of that. I got ready and was out of the door in record time (Blessing #2). I pepped talked Abby on the way over to Terra's, telling her mommy would be back soon, and that I was going to leave, and she was going to stay there and play with Tracen. Since I left for Camp in July, Abby screams and cries and we have to pry her fingers off of me as I leave. That day, she walked in, said good bye and I left in a total of a minute (blessing #3).
I got to the investigator's house BEFORE 6pm and BEFORE the missionaries (this could only be done by the hand of God. Me, on time? I blame the Cowles side for having no sense of time. Andrew likes to call hyper active anti punctuality.)
The investigator went to church two weeks ago, where the Missionaries discovered her. She just randomly showed up to church building one day. She really wants to be baptized. She understands the purpose and importance of it for returning to live with Heavenly Father, however, I don't think she understands that by being baptized you're becoming a permanent member of the church. But anyway, she and her 2 month old boyfriend had started to read from the gospel principles book, a chapter every night before bed. Some time, the missionaries are going to have to bring up that you can't live together unless your married... that one will be interesting. I think the missionaries are dreading being that one up. :)
But this lady, is a pretty impressive investigator. For this being her first discussion, she already had quite a bit of knowledge on her about the church (she had it a little confused, but she knew a lot). And she had cancer in her right eye, which caused her to lose her eye and now has a prosthetic eye, which has brought her closer to God and feeling the Holy Ghost. (Actually as a side note, she was worried that she would lose her eye while getting baptized. And come up from the water having a floating eye hanging around the water... that's quite an image).
It was great to listen to their missionaries message. I wish they were more eloquent in their speaking, and that their teaching flowed from point to point better. Some times, even I was having a hard time following where they were going with their thoughts.... I felt like I should speak up, but they only have an hour and I want to make sure they get their lesson finished. I also felt like when I spoke up, they would lose their thought process, and these particular missionaries aren't very good at looking beyond what they're thinking in their minds. I wish they would have told the Joseph Smith story a little better, as well. It's so special and so important, and it's hard not to be touched by the spirit when it's being told...... ....... usually.
Either way, I think she might join the church, which is exciting. I was able to go back again the next day for the second discussion too. And the second day, you could hardly smell cigarette smoke in her house. The first day, it burnt my throat walking in, so hopefully she's starting to make a change for the good. She was already good, but you know what I mean.
I felt blessed and honored to be able to go with the missionaries and do that, especially since I wasn't able to go on a mission myself it was great to get that glimps and joy of missionary work. It made me think a lot about Miles, and wonder how he's doing.
A great day
I had a great weekend and loved every minute of it.
I made a deal with Andrew that if I picked up the house, he had to put picture frames up on the wall. He took the deal and I have picture frames up by stairs and he has a clean house.
Friday, it rained in the morning and I made pull apart. I could have ended the day with that and would have been completely satisified with my Friday, but we didn't.
We dropped Abby off at Terra's house. And Andrew and I headed towards Mesa. Our ward had a cannery assignment Friday and I used it as an opportunity to turn the cannery into a little date. We picked up gamma seals for our 5-gallon buckets. Don't know what those are? -- they beautiful! They're a seal that goes on your 5-gallon bucket, and instead of prying it off the bucket for 15 minutes, it just screws on and off for easy accessibility and still keeps out the moisture with a great tight seal. Now we'll be able to keep all the rye, corn starch and wheat in these buckets and I'll be able to use it more!! oh the joy.
After that we booked it over to the cannery where we helped to bottle spaghetti sauce. I'm not going to lie, I was disappointed when I found out it was spaghetti sauce. You each get to take home a sample of what you helped bottle and I can't eat the church's spaghetti sauce. :( It has dehydrated mushrooms in it, and I'm allergic to mushrooms. But it was still fun to go there and serve with Andrew. We took the hot (120 degree) bottles full of spaghetti off the conveyor belt and onto a rack that pulled the bottles through a cold water bath, which sealed, cooled of and rinsed off the bottles. Then put the bottles off the rack onto another conveyor belt which took the bottles through a dryer and into a little machine that put the labels on the bottles. It's the kind of mindless busy work that I don't mind doing, I could probably do it every day. And it leaves me to my thoughts as talking isn't easy to do with all the loud machines around. It's amusing to see how all the machines work and see how they make things that we buy in stores. It's also kind of a self-gratification knowing that the food we're helping bottle is going to food banks, bishop store houses (which then go to members whom the bishop thinks are in need of food) and bought for food storage.
That finished early so we were then able to go pick up and pay for the window tint that Brent, Andrew's brother, ordered for us. We're hoping that the window tint is 1, accepted by our HOA and 2, will help keep the house cooler in the summers when it's so hot and our AC is blasting. Hopefully it'll help our AC out. I can't wait to put it up and see if we can feel the difference.
Last month we put insulation in our garage door. I couldn't believe the difference it made in Abby's room which is above the garage. The garage is much cooler, still hot, but cooler and Abby's room doesn't take in so much of the heat now from being above the garage. AND it made the garage door quiet! She used to wake up any time the garage door was opening or shutting. NOT ANY MORE, you can't hear it any where in the house. Now she no longer wakes up at 2am when Andrew comes home from work thanks to the insulation. I can't believe that garage insulation isn't a given thing down here in this heat!-- it should be. We're hoping that the tint will be just as miraculous as the garage insulation. *fingers crossed*
Then we called in and ordered some amazing pizza from Picazzo's it's a fresh organic Italian kitchen that's based in AZ that makes amazing food that tastes soooo soooo good. It's so healthy for you too, but unfortunately with that comes pricey. ... Organic olive oil and garlic, mozzarella, fresh Roma tomatoes, Kalamata olives, artichoke hearts and French feta topped with fresh basil: it makes my mouth water. And their hummus is soo good, it screams garlic but mmm-hmmmmm.. delic.
We couldn't stay, we just picked up the pizza and left because I had doubled booked myself. Thank goodness the cannery didn't take very long. I had to go with the missionaries that night to an investigators house and Andrew picked up Abby.
I got home, searched the house for a large set of scriptures as the regular BOM is too small of font for the investigator then happily dragged Andrew, Abby and I walked back over to her house and gave her the large print BOM for her to read. On the way home, we walked over to the new neighbors behind our house and introduced ourselves.... and then asked if we could get our ball back that had bounced into their yard. :) We ran around the neighborhood chasing Abby and watching the sunset, asking Abby what colours were in the sky. Then got home tired from chasing and decided we needed to go to the store and buy some Blue Bell Ice Cream. yummmmm.
We got there, and Andrew bought my FAVOURITE flowers, Lilies. Oh they smell so good. I don't even have to walk up to them to smell them, they fill the air in the room with the smell of lilies. i love it. It reminds me of the song :
I made a deal with Andrew that if I picked up the house, he had to put picture frames up on the wall. He took the deal and I have picture frames up by stairs and he has a clean house.
We dropped Abby off at Terra's house. And Andrew and I headed towards Mesa. Our ward had a cannery assignment Friday and I used it as an opportunity to turn the cannery into a little date. We picked up gamma seals for our 5-gallon buckets. Don't know what those are? -- they beautiful! They're a seal that goes on your 5-gallon bucket, and instead of prying it off the bucket for 15 minutes, it just screws on and off for easy accessibility and still keeps out the moisture with a great tight seal. Now we'll be able to keep all the rye, corn starch and wheat in these buckets and I'll be able to use it more!! oh the joy.
After that we booked it over to the cannery where we helped to bottle spaghetti sauce. I'm not going to lie, I was disappointed when I found out it was spaghetti sauce. You each get to take home a sample of what you helped bottle and I can't eat the church's spaghetti sauce. :( It has dehydrated mushrooms in it, and I'm allergic to mushrooms. But it was still fun to go there and serve with Andrew. We took the hot (120 degree) bottles full of spaghetti off the conveyor belt and onto a rack that pulled the bottles through a cold water bath, which sealed, cooled of and rinsed off the bottles. Then put the bottles off the rack onto another conveyor belt which took the bottles through a dryer and into a little machine that put the labels on the bottles. It's the kind of mindless busy work that I don't mind doing, I could probably do it every day. And it leaves me to my thoughts as talking isn't easy to do with all the loud machines around. It's amusing to see how all the machines work and see how they make things that we buy in stores. It's also kind of a self-gratification knowing that the food we're helping bottle is going to food banks, bishop store houses (which then go to members whom the bishop thinks are in need of food) and bought for food storage.
That finished early so we were then able to go pick up and pay for the window tint that Brent, Andrew's brother, ordered for us. We're hoping that the window tint is 1, accepted by our HOA and 2, will help keep the house cooler in the summers when it's so hot and our AC is blasting. Hopefully it'll help our AC out. I can't wait to put it up and see if we can feel the difference.
Last month we put insulation in our garage door. I couldn't believe the difference it made in Abby's room which is above the garage. The garage is much cooler, still hot, but cooler and Abby's room doesn't take in so much of the heat now from being above the garage. AND it made the garage door quiet! She used to wake up any time the garage door was opening or shutting. NOT ANY MORE, you can't hear it any where in the house. Now she no longer wakes up at 2am when Andrew comes home from work thanks to the insulation. I can't believe that garage insulation isn't a given thing down here in this heat!-- it should be. We're hoping that the tint will be just as miraculous as the garage insulation. *fingers crossed*
Then we called in and ordered some amazing pizza from Picazzo's it's a fresh organic Italian kitchen that's based in AZ that makes amazing food that tastes soooo soooo good. It's so healthy for you too, but unfortunately with that comes pricey. ... Organic olive oil and garlic, mozzarella, fresh Roma tomatoes, Kalamata olives, artichoke hearts and French feta topped with fresh basil: it makes my mouth water. And their hummus is soo good, it screams garlic but mmm-hmmmmm.. delic.
We couldn't stay, we just picked up the pizza and left because I had doubled booked myself. Thank goodness the cannery didn't take very long. I had to go with the missionaries that night to an investigators house and Andrew picked up Abby.
I got home, searched the house for a large set of scriptures as the regular BOM is too small of font for the investigator then happily dragged Andrew, Abby and I walked back over to her house and gave her the large print BOM for her to read. On the way home, we walked over to the new neighbors behind our house and introduced ourselves.... and then asked if we could get our ball back that had bounced into their yard. :) We ran around the neighborhood chasing Abby and watching the sunset, asking Abby what colours were in the sky. Then got home tired from chasing and decided we needed to go to the store and buy some Blue Bell Ice Cream. yummmmm.
We got there, and Andrew bought my FAVOURITE flowers, Lilies. Oh they smell so good. I don't even have to walk up to them to smell them, they fill the air in the room with the smell of lilies. i love it. It reminds me of the song :
"Consider the lilies of the field,
How they grow, how they grow.
Consider the birds in the sky,
How they fly, how they fly.
He clothes the lilies of the field.
He feeds the birds in the sky.
And He will feed those who trust Him,
And guide them with His eye.
Consider the sheep of His fold,
How they follow where He leads.
Though the path may wind across the mountains,
He knows the meadows where they feed.
How they grow, how they grow.
Consider the birds in the sky,
How they fly, how they fly.
He clothes the lilies of the field.
He feeds the birds in the sky.
And He will feed those who trust Him,
And guide them with His eye.
Consider the sheep of His fold,
How they follow where He leads.
Though the path may wind across the mountains,
He knows the meadows where they feed.
He clothes the lilies of the field,
He feeds the lambs in His fold,
And He will heal those who trust Him,
And make their hearts as gold. "
He feeds the lambs in His fold,
And He will heal those who trust Him,
And make their hearts as gold. "
And of course at the store, we picked up Abby's favourite, pink sugar cookies. Then Andrew's favourite, mint chocolate chip ice cream to top it off.
Best. Day. Ever.
29 August 2010
What we've been doing lately....
I have a happy heart. We have been so blessed this year, I'm still pinching myself wondering when I'm going to wake up. I am just so happy with where life is headed and can't wait to see what life will bring next.
I have spent the last few weeks trying to get our house ready for some semi-permanent guests. For the next year, we will have our friend Lauren come live with us and her two boys, Aiden (3) and Kyler (1 1/2 ?) while Richard (husband/dad and Andrew's good friend) is serving in Iraq. He was in the same unit with Andrew in Idaho, and was with Andrew when he went over to Iraq. It'll be new, refreshing, and I have a peaceful, comforting feeling that this will be good for them and us to be living here together. I feel that it's what we're supposed to do and am hoping it'll all work out for good. And maybe it'll encourage me to keep my house cleaner. :)
I've got the toy room picked up and organized and ALMOST to where I want it. I've been through the food storage room and organized, clean and gotten rid of things. A good number of picture frames are up on our walls now (in the staircase). Andrew has been putting shelves in closets and in the laundry room (nice, good looking shelves too. Not those cheapo plastic/metal rod ones. I'm talking wood, screws, caulking and paint! Yay!) A friend gave us a nice dresser for free, so we have moved clothes from our two dressers into the one nice one now. The house is painted (ceilings need to be fixed still though). We got bunk beds for the boys and are trying to go through the closet upstairs that is in the room Lauren will being sleeping in... dum dum dum dummmmmmmmm. It's a very loaded walk in closet that's served as our extra bedroom for random things like, blow up mattresses, sewing machines, baby accessories that we don't use but don't want to give up in case we ever decide to have another hellion and paper filing... lots... and lots.... and lots of papers. I think that closet might be the death of me. My goal is to get it knocked out this week. And I have no idea where we're going to put the crib, but all in all this has kept us fairly busy. Although I think Andrew and I like having little projects and things to work on; a goal to move towards.
After the closet, next up for projects: tinting the windows of our house, finishing up the shelves in our closets, reupholstering the kitchen chairs, and picking up the backyard.
I have spent the last few weeks trying to get our house ready for some semi-permanent guests. For the next year, we will have our friend Lauren come live with us and her two boys, Aiden (3) and Kyler (1 1/2 ?) while Richard (husband/dad and Andrew's good friend) is serving in Iraq. He was in the same unit with Andrew in Idaho, and was with Andrew when he went over to Iraq. It'll be new, refreshing, and I have a peaceful, comforting feeling that this will be good for them and us to be living here together. I feel that it's what we're supposed to do and am hoping it'll all work out for good. And maybe it'll encourage me to keep my house cleaner. :)
I've got the toy room picked up and organized and ALMOST to where I want it. I've been through the food storage room and organized, clean and gotten rid of things. A good number of picture frames are up on our walls now (in the staircase). Andrew has been putting shelves in closets and in the laundry room (nice, good looking shelves too. Not those cheapo plastic/metal rod ones. I'm talking wood, screws, caulking and paint! Yay!) A friend gave us a nice dresser for free, so we have moved clothes from our two dressers into the one nice one now. The house is painted (ceilings need to be fixed still though). We got bunk beds for the boys and are trying to go through the closet upstairs that is in the room Lauren will being sleeping in... dum dum dum dummmmmmmmm. It's a very loaded walk in closet that's served as our extra bedroom for random things like, blow up mattresses, sewing machines, baby accessories that we don't use but don't want to give up in case we ever decide to have another hellion and paper filing... lots... and lots.... and lots of papers. I think that closet might be the death of me. My goal is to get it knocked out this week. And I have no idea where we're going to put the crib, but all in all this has kept us fairly busy. Although I think Andrew and I like having little projects and things to work on; a goal to move towards.
After the closet, next up for projects: tinting the windows of our house, finishing up the shelves in our closets, reupholstering the kitchen chairs, and picking up the backyard.
23 August 2010
09 August 2010
Patriotism.
My sister asked me this weekend if Andrew and I would write letters on patriotism for her YW Lesson being a Veteran's wife and a Veteran that she could read to the YW. Seeing as I missed a post on the 4th of July, here's a tribute to the 4th. This is what I came up with, I thought I'd publish it for others to see too:
I am 24 years old and I grew up in Beijing, China.
I never felt like I had patriotism until recently. I have always had a respect for the sacrifices my ancestors made to make our country what it is today. And I have had a respect for the ideology behind the United States of America, but my love, my memories, my friends, my knowledge of the land, my people whom I felt I belonged to and related to the most, are in China. However, I was no longer living in China, I was indefinitely staying in the United States.
I remember the very day my patriotism grew. I met my future husband while he was overseas on a tour of duty in Iraq for the US Army when I was 19. Though we had never met each other, we had been given each other’s email address by a mutual friend and were begged to write each other. My first letter to this soldier, whom I did not know and did not want to write to, was distasteful and unkind. Having
harsh opinions towards our country, our president and those fighting for the war in Iraq. I did not have patriotism.
The soldier subsided my opinions and tried to get to know me. Our letters grew from weekly to daily to many times a day depending on when he was on the gun line. He finally got home on a two-week leave and we met face to face for the first time. We had one week of dating before he had to go back to war. We watched movies, met his entire family, went to the shooting range, hiked to a glacier, and
visited Temple Square in that one week. I also knew that he was going to be the one I marry.
It wasn’t until that night before he had to leave that my patriotism grew. We stayed up the whole night talking, looking at photos and watching the stars. My time with him was soon going to be put on pause. He went and got changed into his uniform. As I saw him walk out of that bathroom tightening the cuffs of his sleeves, stringing the lace through his boots, correcting his collar and shaping his beret to fit properly on his head, I had that special love for him and for the soldiers he was fighting with. He stood for something and he stood because he knew it was the right thing to do. He was leaving his life, his love, his family, his hobbies, his job, his education, his car, and his friends. Why would anyone do this? And after such a great week we had, would you want to leave? He did this because it was a love and loyalty towards our country. Do you have that?
Needless to say, I didn’t want him to leave. He picked me up, hugged me, and swung me around. Then gently placing me in the car, he kissed me good-bye, and I watched him slowly disappear in my rear-view mirror. He had patriotism; he was trying to give more to the Nation by protecting it from those who want to destroy it. It was a selfless service.
And I learned my patriotism from him that very day. I had to believe that this country was worth defending because otherwise I was sending the love of my life off for no reason. I spent the next 4 months until he got home, waking up at 4:30 in the morning to talk to him. Some times I wouldn’t hear from him for days because their base was attacked, or soldiers had medical problems and all communication coming in and out was limited. But this only caused me to have a more devoted love and support towards him as I learned what he was going through by defending me, and my rights to be able to live the way I do. There are soldiers right now putting their life on the line so that every day I can enjoy the things that brighten my day.
I slowly learned that I didn’t want their fight to be in vain. I have a flag visible in my house to try to remember every day to show my respect, love and support towards my country and the soldiers fighting to defend it. I try to be the citizen that they would want to fight for. I participate in my community, I vote for representatives in the government, I now pledge my allegiance to the flag, I speak up and actively participate in law making that would help better the community, I pay my taxes, I obey the law, I talk to my neighbors, and I make the area I live in worth fighting for by making it look beautiful and by not littering, I treat others with respect and I try not to take for granted the rights and the freedoms I have, that others whom I grew up with don’t have.
I hope we all try and do the same every day to not let the soldiers defending our country be in vain and by doing so you too will gain patriotism.
I am 24 years old and I grew up in Beijing, China.
I never felt like I had patriotism until recently. I have always had a respect for the sacrifices my ancestors made to make our country what it is today. And I have had a respect for the ideology behind the United States of America, but my love, my memories, my friends, my knowledge of the land, my people whom I felt I belonged to and related to the most, are in China. However, I was no longer living in China, I was indefinitely staying in the United States.
I remember the very day my patriotism grew. I met my future husband while he was overseas on a tour of duty in Iraq for the US Army when I was 19. Though we had never met each other, we had been given each other’s email address by a mutual friend and were begged to write each other. My first letter to this soldier, whom I did not know and did not want to write to, was distasteful and unkind. Having
harsh opinions towards our country, our president and those fighting for the war in Iraq. I did not have patriotism.
The soldier subsided my opinions and tried to get to know me. Our letters grew from weekly to daily to many times a day depending on when he was on the gun line. He finally got home on a two-week leave and we met face to face for the first time. We had one week of dating before he had to go back to war. We watched movies, met his entire family, went to the shooting range, hiked to a glacier, and
visited Temple Square in that one week. I also knew that he was going to be the one I marry.
It wasn’t until that night before he had to leave that my patriotism grew. We stayed up the whole night talking, looking at photos and watching the stars. My time with him was soon going to be put on pause. He went and got changed into his uniform. As I saw him walk out of that bathroom tightening the cuffs of his sleeves, stringing the lace through his boots, correcting his collar and shaping his beret to fit properly on his head, I had that special love for him and for the soldiers he was fighting with. He stood for something and he stood because he knew it was the right thing to do. He was leaving his life, his love, his family, his hobbies, his job, his education, his car, and his friends. Why would anyone do this? And after such a great week we had, would you want to leave? He did this because it was a love and loyalty towards our country. Do you have that?
Needless to say, I didn’t want him to leave. He picked me up, hugged me, and swung me around. Then gently placing me in the car, he kissed me good-bye, and I watched him slowly disappear in my rear-view mirror. He had patriotism; he was trying to give more to the Nation by protecting it from those who want to destroy it. It was a selfless service.
And I learned my patriotism from him that very day. I had to believe that this country was worth defending because otherwise I was sending the love of my life off for no reason. I spent the next 4 months until he got home, waking up at 4:30 in the morning to talk to him. Some times I wouldn’t hear from him for days because their base was attacked, or soldiers had medical problems and all communication coming in and out was limited. But this only caused me to have a more devoted love and support towards him as I learned what he was going through by defending me, and my rights to be able to live the way I do. There are soldiers right now putting their life on the line so that every day I can enjoy the things that brighten my day.
I slowly learned that I didn’t want their fight to be in vain. I have a flag visible in my house to try to remember every day to show my respect, love and support towards my country and the soldiers fighting to defend it. I try to be the citizen that they would want to fight for. I participate in my community, I vote for representatives in the government, I now pledge my allegiance to the flag, I speak up and actively participate in law making that would help better the community, I pay my taxes, I obey the law, I talk to my neighbors, and I make the area I live in worth fighting for by making it look beautiful and by not littering, I treat others with respect and I try not to take for granted the rights and the freedoms I have, that others whom I grew up with don’t have.
I hope we all try and do the same every day to not let the soldiers defending our country be in vain and by doing so you too will gain patriotism.
 | |||||||||
| Liz making my army job look good, posing on a M109-A6 Paladin (155mm Self Propelled Howitzer), @ the 2006 Spring Military Ball right after the Iraq tour |
08 August 2010
Why My Calendar is still on April...
It's been a busy summer, I haven't had time until now to change it!
Here's the short and condensed version:
May:
Lots of things happened in may, including running a dulathon. it was something like 2 mile run, 4 mile bike, and then 2 mile run again.
June:
I helped throw a baby shower for my friend, Tiffany.
Andrew graduated:
Family came:
July:
The first week of july, we were in Preston/Yellowstone (Trip #1 to ID) to see family again and have a Family Reunion up in Yellowstone. We were cold the entire time we were up there. We tried to find jackets, but who needs jackets when it's 50 degrees out... THAT'S WARM?!?!!?!
We returned to AZ, only to find out the morning we arrive that Grandma Bartholomew died. so The next weekend (trip #2 to ID) we went to her funeral and had another family reunion there for the short weekend but we got to see Brian and KT again too.
Then we came back home, to AZ. I helped with a RS meeting activity, and got ready for Camp. And then Grandpa Bartholomew died.
I went to Girls camp up at Mt. Lemmon:
Then, I left 1 day early for camp and made the last trip (Trip #3) up to ID, for Granpa B's funeral.
This last month, I have decided that riding bikes is good after being crammed in a small car for 90 hours. I also decided that we need to buy a bigger car. And lastly, I saw more sun rises, than I have ever wanted to see. Having not slept 3 days that week of camp and funerals. ... In case you were lucky enough to sleep in and missed some sun rises, here's what they looked like at Lake Powell on one of many trips back home to AZ:
Here's the short and condensed version:
May:
Lots of things happened in may, including running a dulathon. it was something like 2 mile run, 4 mile bike, and then 2 mile run again.
June:
I helped throw a baby shower for my friend, Tiffany.
 |
| Here's some guests doing the bottle chug game. |
Andrew graduated:
Family came:
 |
| I had to add this, I think Lee Ann's face is hilarious |
July:
The first week of july, we were in Preston/Yellowstone (Trip #1 to ID) to see family again and have a Family Reunion up in Yellowstone. We were cold the entire time we were up there. We tried to find jackets, but who needs jackets when it's 50 degrees out... THAT'S WARM?!?!!?!
 |
| we had our usual feet in the water competition up at Willow Flats. Really, it's just an update on who's more stubborn. -- I won might I add. |
Then we came back home, to AZ. I helped with a RS meeting activity, and got ready for Camp. And then Grandpa Bartholomew died.
I went to Girls camp up at Mt. Lemmon:
 |
| Some of the girls I was over. I was the head leader over all the level 2s for our stake |
Grandma and Grandpa B: we love you and will miss you. You were a great example to us. Till we meet again.
This last month, I have decided that riding bikes is good after being crammed in a small car for 90 hours. I also decided that we need to buy a bigger car. And lastly, I saw more sun rises, than I have ever wanted to see. Having not slept 3 days that week of camp and funerals. ... In case you were lucky enough to sleep in and missed some sun rises, here's what they looked like at Lake Powell on one of many trips back home to AZ:
more details and pictures to come on the subject later.
xoxo
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