matching purple toes, although Isabella's has sparkles
catching butterflies
would have been more successful with a net.
air and space museum
awwww
she loves the water, and I love her smile.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
hot summer days
matching purple toes, although Isabella's has sparkles catching butterflies would have been more successful with a net. air and space museum awwww she loves the water, and I love her smile.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Chastening
A song called Savior Redeemer of My Soul changed my life a few years ago on this day.
A few years later, I still find the words coming into my head at least once a week. Today I'm particularly moved by the 3rd verse:
O'er rule mine acts to serve thine ends.
Change frowning foes to smiling friends.
Chasten my soul til I shall be in perfect harmony with thee.
Make me worthy of thy love, And fit me for the life above.
-Orson F. Whitney
I have felt the Lord's chastening in my life in the last few weeks, and it has been such a blessing. I do desire to be worthy of His love, and welcome opportunities to recognize weaknesses, even it when hurts. For the first time in my life, I have begun to recognize the many opportunities that have been or could have been lost because of my pride. For one who struggled (at times still struggles) with self-confidence, it feels at first almost paradoxical to find the symptoms of pride in my heart.
I find this quote from Patricia Holland very helpful to recognize why the boundaries between self confidence and pride can seem so fuzzy: “Satan uses that very delicate line between self-confidence and pride to blind us. He can keep us so frenzied in our efforts to protect our self-esteem that we are blinded to the one quality that would assure it--true dependence upon the Lord.”
How grateful I am that the Lord teaches even us unconsciously prideful people. He has again and again carefully led me from distracting dreams and selfish timetables, to the places and experiences that were best for me. He has tutored and taught me. He has allowed enough disappointment and pain to teach me trust in His will and His timing. Sister Holland describes it as “[The Lord using] my pain as his megaphone for an otherwise dull ear.” He had allowed heartache, disappointment, or sorrow to become refining tools, revealing just a bit more of the potential buried far beneath layers of selfishness and weakness.
A few years later, I still find the words coming into my head at least once a week. Today I'm particularly moved by the 3rd verse:
O'er rule mine acts to serve thine ends.
Change frowning foes to smiling friends.
Chasten my soul til I shall be in perfect harmony with thee.
Make me worthy of thy love, And fit me for the life above.
-Orson F. Whitney
I have felt the Lord's chastening in my life in the last few weeks, and it has been such a blessing. I do desire to be worthy of His love, and welcome opportunities to recognize weaknesses, even it when hurts. For the first time in my life, I have begun to recognize the many opportunities that have been or could have been lost because of my pride. For one who struggled (at times still struggles) with self-confidence, it feels at first almost paradoxical to find the symptoms of pride in my heart.
I find this quote from Patricia Holland very helpful to recognize why the boundaries between self confidence and pride can seem so fuzzy: “Satan uses that very delicate line between self-confidence and pride to blind us. He can keep us so frenzied in our efforts to protect our self-esteem that we are blinded to the one quality that would assure it--true dependence upon the Lord.”
How grateful I am that the Lord teaches even us unconsciously prideful people. He has again and again carefully led me from distracting dreams and selfish timetables, to the places and experiences that were best for me. He has tutored and taught me. He has allowed enough disappointment and pain to teach me trust in His will and His timing. Sister Holland describes it as “[The Lord using] my pain as his megaphone for an otherwise dull ear.” He had allowed heartache, disappointment, or sorrow to become refining tools, revealing just a bit more of the potential buried far beneath layers of selfishness and weakness.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Camping in Shenandoah!
Fabulous camping friends at the beginning of our hike. We weren't quite so cute by the end. 
Natural Waterslides (that's me at the bottom in case you can't tell)
Late night around the campfire. Amazingly bright stars. Not getting cold at night. I LOVE camping!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Virginia Beach Trip
Norfolk Naval Base Tour. Started out our saturday with a tour of a cool navy ship. Well, I think it's more cool if you're a boy... heck I can't even remember what it's really called (cool navy ship isn't the offical title). Then we headed to beach, Virginia Beach to be specific, where the weather was perfect, the sand was hot, the water was oceany (too cold for my taste), our friends were MIA for a while, the time was limited, and the boys beat us at ultimate frisbee.
Best part of saturday was a sweet cruise in Portsmouth where we went on a REAL sailing ship. The captain built the ship himself. It was a BEAUTIFUL evening. 
We finished out our Saturday night exhausted, but happily fed at a cool drive in whose name I forget because I felt half drunk with tiredness. The ice cream was goooood though.
Sunday after church we had a picnic in the perfect picnic location: the Botanical gardens in Norfolk. And we took a little tour on a tram around the gardens. Very enjoyable afternoon.
All in all, it was a great way to spend the weekend, exploring a new part of Virginia, accommodated by gracious hosts, and making new friends.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
living it up!
9 straight days off work, and I'm determined to fit in as much goodness as possible.
It started with a recovery from the party mess and cleaning my room, but now that the chores are over, it's just fun from here on out.
fun so far:
winning 3 games of ultimate frisbee
North Beach where I saw jellyfish for the first time
Disc golf
American Art Museum where I throughly enjoyed Norman Rockwell Exhibit
Crepes and smoothies from china town
still to come:
Goo Goo Dolls Concert
Mountain bike ride with friends
morning at the temple
Camping trip at Shenandoah National Park, natural waterslides included
I have to feel pretty good about this week, and my summer in general. It's been an adventure every weekend and I've loved it!
It started with a recovery from the party mess and cleaning my room, but now that the chores are over, it's just fun from here on out.
fun so far:
winning 3 games of ultimate frisbee
North Beach where I saw jellyfish for the first time
Disc golf
American Art Museum where I throughly enjoyed Norman Rockwell Exhibit
Crepes and smoothies from china town
still to come:
Goo Goo Dolls Concert
Mountain bike ride with friends
morning at the temple
Camping trip at Shenandoah National Park, natural waterslides included
I have to feel pretty good about this week, and my summer in general. It's been an adventure every weekend and I've loved it!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
FHE Planning Guide Book Review
There's No Place Like Home... Evening!
An FHE Planning Guide for Young Single Adults
Written by Janna McFerson
Illustrated by Madeline Elsey
Blog: http://fhebook.wordpress.com/
Buy Online: http://www.fhebook.com/Thebook.html
Let's face it. FHE can be lame. This book is 99% guaranteed to make sure that doesn't happen.
Anyone who has to plan any activity in any ward I attend will hear about this book from me. (Let's hope day that will extend beyond a singles ward.) Every calling in the church needs a book like this. Relief Society Meeting, Ward activities, Ward Retreat, and of course FHE committee members could benefit from this book.
You're going to need a highlighter and sticky tabs when you read this. There's so much stuff packed in here and you'll want to keep track of your favorite ideas/ advice. The illustrations, notes, bold/italics, etc. do their best to keep things organized, but there's just too many topics for you to find the good stuff just by flipping through.
I've been at enough Enrichment planning meetings, Ward councils, etc. to know that a good deal of meetings in the church can be painful and drawn out if you don't have direction and a system. Chapter 4 (motivating your FHE committee) would definitely be helpful for a myriad of callings which involve getting a group of people organized within a calling.
Thankfully I've moved on to a Visiting Teaching Supervisor calling which doesn't require any meetings. But if someday Janna writes a book about how to get people to actually report their visiting teaching visits, I'm so buying one.
Oh, and the sooner I can get my ward to plan an area Prop D8te activity, the better. I've always wondered if something like this would actually work. The "tie date" activity in my BYU ward (randomly setting up of one guy and one girl) was a total flop. But if you know that you're getting setup with someone you're actually interested in, I have a feeling this would work out better.
Resources on the CD are awesome. Seriously, not having to plan the activity or even the flyer is worth the book price to me. Say you have to plan activities for 6 months. That's 24 activities. That's less than $1 week. The time/ stress/ effort/ and avoided activity flops you'll be saving is worth way more than that.
In short, is this book worth your money? Unless you're planning on being a nursery leader for the rest of your life (these activities may be a little advanced for them)... Yes, and then some.
An FHE Planning Guide for Young Single Adults
Written by Janna McFerson
Illustrated by Madeline Elsey
Blog: http://fhebook.wordpress.com/
Buy Online: http://www.fhebook.com/Thebook.html
Let's face it. FHE can be lame. This book is 99% guaranteed to make sure that doesn't happen.
Anyone who has to plan any activity in any ward I attend will hear about this book from me. (Let's hope day that will extend beyond a singles ward.) Every calling in the church needs a book like this. Relief Society Meeting, Ward activities, Ward Retreat, and of course FHE committee members could benefit from this book.
You're going to need a highlighter and sticky tabs when you read this. There's so much stuff packed in here and you'll want to keep track of your favorite ideas/ advice. The illustrations, notes, bold/italics, etc. do their best to keep things organized, but there's just too many topics for you to find the good stuff just by flipping through.
I've been at enough Enrichment planning meetings, Ward councils, etc. to know that a good deal of meetings in the church can be painful and drawn out if you don't have direction and a system. Chapter 4 (motivating your FHE committee) would definitely be helpful for a myriad of callings which involve getting a group of people organized within a calling.
Thankfully I've moved on to a Visiting Teaching Supervisor calling which doesn't require any meetings. But if someday Janna writes a book about how to get people to actually report their visiting teaching visits, I'm so buying one.
Oh, and the sooner I can get my ward to plan an area Prop D8te activity, the better. I've always wondered if something like this would actually work. The "tie date" activity in my BYU ward (randomly setting up of one guy and one girl) was a total flop. But if you know that you're getting setup with someone you're actually interested in, I have a feeling this would work out better.
Resources on the CD are awesome. Seriously, not having to plan the activity or even the flyer is worth the book price to me. Say you have to plan activities for 6 months. That's 24 activities. That's less than $1 week. The time/ stress/ effort/ and avoided activity flops you'll be saving is worth way more than that.
In short, is this book worth your money? Unless you're planning on being a nursery leader for the rest of your life (these activities may be a little advanced for them)... Yes, and then some.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Party plans + good friends = success
So I loved planning this party, and making the flower arrangements, and seeing it all come together. I'm going to miss my friend Bethany who is moving to Florida with her soon to be husband.
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