Veteran's Day

I have to admit, growing up all Veteran's day meant to me was a day of school, usually resulting in a three day weekend, often spent up north to a weekend get-a-way. Wow have times changed. Although I am still grateful for the day off and usually it does fall on a Monday, the meaning of Veteran's day has definitely changed for me as I have grown older, as I hope it has for you. Now as most of you know, I am a proud Army Wife, my husband is in the Army Reserve and has served one tour in Iraq. As you can imagine, this brings a whole new meaning to the event of Veteran's day. I am excited to celebrate all of the soldiers who have fought for this country, past or present. Especially for the one's who have lost their lives fighting for this country. I greatly enjoy the freedoms that come from it and don't know what it would be like to live in a country were freedom is not practiced regularly. I have experience the stories my husband has shared as he described the war torn country of Iraq, how they live and die, and how the freedoms we so often take for granted are not the same to them. On this Veteran's day I hope that you will take the time to thank a Veteran, for what they have done for us and this country. I hope that we remember this day not only as simply a day off from school, but a day to truly remember those who have lived, died, and fought for this country. I also pray that we would keep special mind of those killed in the recent attacks at Fort Hood. What a sad situation, those young lives should be remembered. Parent's I encourage you to teach your children the real meaning of Veteran's day, fly your flags high and be thankful for this freedom that we enjoy every day.

Thank you baby for serving our country, for sacrificing all to keep us safe, for this I am truly grateful and am so proud to call you my husband.

October 26, 2009

I am sure most of you have heard by now of the incident that occurred on the Arizona State University Campus yesterday. If you did not I will briefly explain it to you or you can look up the story here http://www.statepress.com/node/8727 . Yesterday a graduate student committed suicide in his professors office while they were talking. He just pulled out a gun in the middle of their conversation and shot himself. Wow. I am almost speechless. But as this happened I feel the need to write out my feelings, so this is it. Feel free to read on or not. While I am saddened by this event and my thoughts go out to his family and friends, I have mixed feelings of sadness and thankfulness, I am also a little scared. I am of course, sad for the family of this student, who now has to figure out how to live life without their loved one. I too had a family member commit suicide and let me tell you it is very hard on the loved ones left behind. So I pray that his family is comforted in this time of need. Next, I am thankful that his intent was only to kill himself, and not to go on a shooting spree and kill other innocent lives. You hear about school shooting, more often then most of us would like, but we still think, oh that would never happen at my school. I thought that too, until this event that brought the story a little to close to home. Luckily, I was not on campus yesterday, but what if this man had decided to kill many others before he ended his own life? What if friends of mine that were on campus yesterday were involved in more than just one man's suicide? I am thankful that this man only took one life, his own, and did not kill other innocent lives. And lastly, this event instilled more of a fear in me. This man came onto campus with a gun, and nobody knew. Nobody. That is so scary to me. As I got in the elevator today and there was one other student in there with me, I could not help but think, what if he has a gun too. What if he is going to shoot? I know that situations can happen anywhere and that you can be injured doing almost anything. But it is scary to think that people around me could have weapons without anyone knowing. I am sure going to be more cautious and careful, doing what I can, but if the weapon is concealed, I guess there is not much I can do besides put my faith in Christ and hope that if it is my time to go I am ready. I hope I am ready.

When I Grow Up...

When I grow up I want to be a teacher, a doctor, a nurse, a firefighter, a policeman... This is along the lines of what you will hear when you ask a child what they want to be when they grow up. When I was asked that question, I often answered I don't know maybe a teacher? I just want to help people. Well here I am a Junior and college, I am majoring in Psychology and minoring in Human and Family Development. But what do I want to be when I grow up. As everyone else in my major begin applying for graduate school, doing research and devoting every waking minute to the program I think, is this what I really want? To be stuck in school, and having it own me for the next 4-5 years?? Not really. Honestly I want to be done with school as soon as possible! But then I think to myself. Well if you don't continue with school what are you going to be? With such a competitive market out there, there is not much you can do with a bachelors degree is psychology, I have to do more schooling. Maybe I should have thought of this before I picked my major, but I didn't, I picked my major because I thought it was interesting and because I wanted to help people, more specifically be a counselor and help people overcome their problems. The type of counseling I have wanted to do has varied, from marriage and family, to marriage and family with an emphasis in military and helping spouses and children survive deployment, cause I know it was easier to survive a deployment when I had someone going through it with me. Then I thought school counseling would be ok too. I could help young lives find direction. But I really don't know what I want to be. I just want to help people. The more I ponder on what to do next, the more stuck I am. To me, success is not measured on how much schooling you have or how much money you make. If you tell me you have a Master's degree I don't see you anymore successful than a mom with 5 kids who has been at home raising them. To me she has a Master's too, only she did not sit in the classroom to get it, she earned it through years and years of trial and error, and her reward is much more sweet, and pays more than any Master's degree does. As as I ponder the roles of the mothers I know, my mother, aunts, grandmothers, and friends I think, wow what a job! Isn't the job of a mom helping people? Changing lives, and molding them to choose the right and be God's children? Maybe what's best for me is to be a mom, to help people that way. I don't know, maybe I will never decide what I want to be when I grow up.

Hey there Delilah (I'm at the MTC)

To all my LDS friends, this is so funny! Its a must see!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1157595773724

will update more later!

Pay Your Tithing!

The economy sucks! I am sure that we have all figured that out by now. Most families (unless your filthy rich) are struggling right now to pay the bills, support their families, find work etc. Our little family has been no exception to that. Kenny works for a construction company, as most of you know construction means work is not always available and there are quite a few days that he has been told to stay home, due to there being no work for him. But I am truly thankful that he still has a job! At least he is making something. But as we struggle and most months I am stressed because I am not sure how I am going to pay the bills every time something happens and we have enough money to carry us along. A personal experience that I want to share in particular is this month we were struggling with finding enough money to pay our mortgage. It came down to the last minute and the pay checks just weren't enough. Kenny called me at work and told me that he had received a check from the Army for backpay that they owed him, and you guessed it, it was just enough to help us pay the bills. I can testify to you that this is because we strive to pay our tithing first every month. That is not something that is skipped over. We put our faith in the Lord and do all that we can with budgeting and watching what we spend, paying our tithing, attending church meetings, saying our prayers, etc. The Lord has definitely blessed us in this time of need and I guarantee that it will be the same for you if you heed his commandments and PAY YOUR TITHING!

Rely on the Lord and He will help you. As I sat through church pondering the past week, we sang "Come Unto Jesus" which seemed appropriate for my past week.

"Come unto Jesus ye heavy laden, careworn and fainting, by sin oppressed.

He'll safely guide you unto that haven where all who trust him may rest."

"Come unto Jesus from every nation, from every land and isle of the sea.

Unto the high and lowly in station, ever he calls, 'Come to me'"

I love church. I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have a testimony of this gospel. I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God. I know that the Temple is the house of the Lord, and that we can go there to be refreshed and renewed. I am thankful for my temple marriage and that I can be with my wonderful husband forever. I am thankful for my husband and what a wonderful man he is.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday and always remember to say your prayers and thank God for your blessings!

8 in the morning

So it happened, the thing I have been dreading ever since we moved into this ward.  We changed to the 8am time slot.  I have to admit, I have been complaining and moaning and groaning ever since I found out that our stake changes times when school starts and that our next time slot would be at 8 in the morning.  For those of you that know me, you know that I am NOT a morning person whatsoever! And I had a hard enough time getting to church at 10am.  This means no more late Saturday nights for a while and getting used to a whole new schedule(can I just say I am so thankful I don't have kids that I have to get up at that time too!).  So we showered Saturday night (so as to sleep in as late as we could) and set the alarm for 7:00.  The phone on my alarm has been finicky lately and doesn't like to go off! And guess what! it didn't go off this morning either so we woke up at 7:30 instead of 7:00.  Still we hurried around and hustled and bustled so that we could make it to church on time! And can I tell you something! The Lord definitely blessed us for making the effort (and sacrifice for me) to go to 8:00am early morning church.  Today was also Fast Sunday, and the spirit was so strong! The testimonies of those in the ward touch my heart so deeply! I am so glad that I made it to church today! And will make an honest effort to make it on time (and hopefully even early) to church every Sunday!  It is getting a little better and we are getting to know a few more people, but I still feel lost in a huge ward! Maybe it will get better soon! School will be starting back here in a few weeks and I only have a year left before I get my bachelors! I am so excited! If I can just chug along til that point all will be better! 

Perspective

So its late and I need to get to bed as my husband is snoring next to me :) But as I met with a friend tonight and we unloaded all of our stresses and frustrations (trying to decide how to get our lives more organized so that we felt more in control and better about ourselves) on each other we came upon this quote which I love but completely forgot about.  Just something to think about.  I will update more soon!

"The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums, the Lord would take the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature."

~Ezra Taft Benson