Eagerly Accepting

I just thought I'd share something I've been pondering a bit lately. The subject came about from a combination of two sources: my Sunday School lesson this last Sunday and the bits of the blessing that Russ gave Cindy (as told to me by Cindy).

My lesson this last Sunday was about Abinadi (we're a week behind most people because of the snow day we had). We started out by talking about different people throughout the scriptures who accepted difficult missions. Like in Isaiah 6 (and 2 Ne. 16) where Isaiah responds to the Lord's question, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" with a very bold and faithful, "Here am I, send me." Isaiah, along with the many others we discussed, such as Noah, Moses, Lehi, Esther, and Samuel the Lamanite, all knew that the missions would be difficult. They knew that the people may not want to hear and that they would resist and possibly even try to kill them, but they accepted anyway.

In Cindy's blessing, she was told that her baby knew the challenges he'd face before coming to the earth, and that he eagerly accepted them.

So it made me wonder what challenges we eagerly accepted before we came to earth. Did Cindy know that her 5th child would have something wrong with his heart and she eagerly accepted the challenge of caring for him (knowing Cindy, I'd say that it's a very distinct possibility)? Did my friend Katie know that she would lose her husband and have to raise their son alone for a couple of years before she'd remarry? Would knowing about these challenges in advance make them easier or harder?

I always admire those who have the really big challenges and yet never seem to waver, the people who are rocks. I would describe Cindy that way, for sure. It may be a struggle and she may have the sorrow and cry at times, but she remains stalwart and is a great example to me.

My patriarchal blessing tells me that I came here knowing that there would be times of sorrow, and hurt, and challenge, but that I would be able to hear and understand the gospel principles, that I understood them clearly before. With all the examples from the scriptures, they were all people who had a clear understanding of gospel principles. They had strong faith and a determination to do God's will, no matter the consequence. I'm sure that Cindy takes comfort in knowing that her baby eagerly accepted his challenges, and I know that Katie takes comfort in the knowledge that she will she her husband again and that they are sealed for all eternity. I know that for me, it's much easier to go through whatever challenges that come my way when I try to look at them from an eternal perspective, when I know that "all these things will give thee experience and shall be for thy good."

Preschool graduation

Today was Alex's last day of preschool. It's amazing how fast the school year has gone by. He always looked forward to Mondays and Wednesdays when he would be able to go and learn letters and numbers and play with the other kids.

As it ended up, the last time was at our house. We learned about the number 10 and then I decided to do a little graduation ceremony for them, since it seemed a bit anti-climatic to just do the number 10.

I made little graduation caps and diplomas for them and bought cupcakes with graduation star rings in them for a snack. I also made (well, painted) little picture frames for each of them so I could take their pictures in their caps and then print them and put them in the frames so they could have a reminder of the day. We ended up not really having time to print them off, so I gave their parents the frames and am emailing them the pictures. Most of the moms were there for it, so they got pictures too. One ended up taking the "official" pictures of them after they got their diplomas.

It ended up being fun for them, but their favorite part was getting the cupcakes.

Here's Alex in his cap. He's pretty cool:


This is the graduating preschool class. From left to right, Peter, Dani, Danae, Alex, Ashtyn, Owen:

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Poor Alex. He had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Well, parts of it anyway. Despite that, he's been pretty happy and as energetic as ever.

It started this morning after we dropped Ben off at school for his field trip. We left the school building and went across the street to get in the van. Alex was running ahead of us as usual. He tripped and fell, scraping both knees. It looked like his shoes had suddenly been stapled to the ground. His feet stopped, but the rest of him just kept going. He cried the whole way home. Drama queen? Not Alex.

At home later, he fell off the side of the couch when he was trying to climb over it. He came to complain to me just so he could get a hug, then went back to playing.

The next incident happened when we went to the bus stop to pick Ben up after school. Alex didn't want to wear his shoes, so he rode in the wagon with Chris and Daniel. Just as we were about to stop to wait for the bus, Alex fell out of the wagon backwards and landed on his head. Surprisingly, he didn't cry that time.

Then came the big one. Kyle came over to play late this afternoon and Ben, Chris, and Kyle all went out back to play. Alex waited a while, then finally got on his shoes so he could go out and play with them. While he was doing that, I took Daniel up for his bath. I heard Bryce downstairs saying, "Alex, are you okay?" Then I heard some, "It's okay, we'll clean it off. Blood won't hurt you." After I had drained the water in the bath, Bryce called me to come down, where he showed me the top and back of Alex's head. He had a nice gash where Kyle had hit him with a long two by four we have in the back yard. I took Daniel back upstairs and put him in bed, then took Alex over to the Quick Care.



We got out of the van at the Quick Care and had parked next to an island thing. Alex insisted on walking on the curb there, despite me saying that he'd had a rough day and that maybe he should just walk on the ground. Yep, he fell into the bushes. "That one didn't hurt, Mom." At least there was that. Of course, when we walked into the Quick Care, they told us they were closed even though they were supposed to be open for another hour. Their computers had gone down 2 hours earlier and still hadn't come back. So when they couldn't verify who people were, they couldn't treat them. They told me that the other Quick Care on 12th Avenue was also closed for the same reason. So I took Alex to Primary Health (it's also like a Quick Care) despite being fairly certain that they aren't on our preferred provider list with insurance. That means insurance will only cover 60% of the cost, but I thought it would be better than driving in to Meridian to go to the ER.

When we walked up to the receptionist, Alex told her that he didn't need any shots. She told him to make sure he told the doctor that. Then the doctor came out and had a quick look at Alex's head and said that they just had to clean the room, then we'd be able to go back. Another kid was just leaving who had to have stitches in his chin. Lucky Alex was going to get 2 or 3 staples in his head. He was actually pretty brave for the whole thing, even when he saw the doctor filling up the needle to numb his head. It looked like it was hurting him to numb it, but he didn't cry, just kind of whimpered and ducked his head down a little tiny bit. After they numbed him, he did get 3 staples. He didn't mind so much when he got to choose whether to go to Cold Stone or McDonald's for a treat after. He chose McDonald's and is very excited about his Spped Racer toy.

(These are kind of hard to see, but if you look close, you might see the 3 staples ... or you can click on the picture to see a bigger version)



Let's just hope that tomorrow is better for him.

Marriage and laws

Today the Supreme Court in California overruled the voters' wishes and legalized gay marriage. I think that even if I weren't against gay marriage (for a varitey of reasons, but I won't go into that here...if you want to know why, post a comment or email me or something), I would be upset at that ruling. Especially if I were a resident of the State of California. Laws are based on the morals and beliefs of the majority. If the majority has expressed through votes that they do not want something to be legal, it should not be legal. A court, even a court that is as liberal as the one in San Francisco where the ruling was made, should not have power to change the laws so contrary to the majority belief. It suggests a lack of regard for those people who put them in the position to uphold the laws, or at the very least, an arrogance in thinking that their views and knowledge and beliefs are more important than those who voted against it in the first place. It also begins to lead us down the road away from the democracy that has made this nation great. I sincerely hope that the rest of the nation doesn't follow the example of this one state and overthrow the wishes of its citizens. The minority, while important, should not have precedence over the majority. When that begins to happen, our very rights as a nation are in jeopardy and we should consider if we really want it to happen.

Anniversary

Today is Bryce's and my 9th anniversary. It's strange to think that we've been married for that long. With much of the world today, 9 years is a lifetime to be married, but I still feel like we're babies in the marriage department. My sister will have been married for twice as long as I have this year.

Bryce got up this morning and said, "Hey, we're 9 this year." I think that's actually a good way to describe a marriage. It's almost like we're children continuing to grow and mature together. We comprehend and understand more now than we did when we were first married. We've had experiences that have helped us grow closer together and grow stronger. I think of how many in the world today so easily and readily throw away marriages, usually in the infancy of their marriage, and don't try to work things out. While in some cases it's definitely the best thing for them, I believe that in many cases, if they worked a little harder, they'd get through it stronger and wiser. They'd have grown up a few years.

In our 9 short years together, we've added a few pounds, 4 kids, and one big dog. We've lived in 2 states, 5 cities, lived in 3 apartments, 3 houses, and 6 different wards. We've either used or owned 5 different cars and still have 2 of them, although one has just sat in the garage for over a year. Together we've had 8 different jobs. We've gained two sisters-in-law and 19 neices and nephews, with 2 more (that we know of) on the way. We've also lost 2 uncles, 2 grandparents, and two nephews.

So all in all, we've had a pretty good life so far. I look forward to going through what's ahead hand in hand with my best friend.