Day 24: Rain, Rain, Go Away! Come Again When the Harvest is OVER!

I don't sleep very well as of late. It's either a trip to the bathroom or being uncomfortable that wakes me up every couple of hours. In the wee hours of the morning this morning, I awoke to the sound of rain pounding on the tin roof right outside our window. I love the sound of rain on a tin roof. But last night, I cringed. I knew what rain that was pouring like that meant for Dallin. It meant no work would happen today. Normally, any woman would jump for joy, knowing her husband wouldn't have to work the next day, especially after a crazy summer like this has been. But, I have come to realize the bigger picture as far as work is concerned. Rain just isn't good in the summertime.

That being said, I was so grateful that I had the chance to just hang out with Dallin today. We needed that. With this sweet little one due in just 8 1/2 short weeks, we don't have a whole lot of time to be together, just us. So, we hopped in the car and headed to the coast at Lincoln City. Granted, Tate and Trent came with us, so it really wasn't just the two of us, but still, it was so good to be together. We headed to the Tanger Outlets (my favorite place in Lincoln City ;-)) and I got some baby stuff at Carters Outlet. Then we headed to Mo's and I had the best Clam Chowder ever! After that, we watched the sun set over the Pacific Ocean and then ended the evening at Cold Stone. Too bad it was 55 degrees as we were eating our ice cream. :) I still enjoyed mine though. Needless to day, it was a wonderful day for me and the hubs.

I am so grateful for Dallin and his willingness to work. He has the hardest work ethic and loves keeping busy. He does so much to provide for this little family, and I consider myself so lucky to have married someone with that quality. I am so grateful that we can spend time together too and have so much fun with each other. He is my best friend and my better half. I love this man with all my heart and can't wait for this little babe to meet his/her amazing daddy. Yay for rain today. :)

The Sunset

The boys in front of Mo's!

Dallin and I in front of Mo's (It was kind of windy and my hair was all over the place and this isn't the best picture, but oh well! We take what we can get! :))

The Pacific Ocean in the background. So pretty!

Day 23: In God We Trust

At the rate I am going, 80 days will have gone by in my attempt to do my 40 day posts. :) Sorry, I'm just a slacker. I'd like to promise you an improvement, but I can't guarantee that. It's just the kind of person I am. :) So, if the posts continue to be sporadic, forgive me.

I was reading in 2nd Nephi the other day and a couple of passages of scripture really stuck out to me. Maybe because I have been thinking a lot about the 8/28 event that Glenn Beck hosted, or maybe because I just needed to read it. In the first chapter, Lehi is addressing Laman and Lemuel one last time before he passes away. He starts out by talking about the land of their inheritance; the promised land. In verse 5, he says, "Yea, the Lord hath covenanted this land unto me, and to my children forever, and also all those who should be led out of other countries by the hand of the Lord." He continues on in verse 6 saying, "there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord." As I read that, I realized that all who came to this land were truly brought here by divine design. What an amazing thing. The Lord had His hand in it all. He brought those to this land that He knew would build it up to the great nation it now is.

But then, right after Lehi tells them about this great nation and the divine way in which they inherited it, he issues this warning in verse 7, "Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever."

What a warning. No cushion, no buffer, just puttin it all out there and telling it how it is. As I look at the state of our nation, I get a little nervous. We seem to be losing sight of what really matters. God is being taken out of our schools, attempted to be taken off our money and essentially, out of our lives. If we don't change things, well, I don't really want to find out what "cursed shall be the land for their sakes" all entails. Call me crazy. I would prefer it being blessed forever because of righteousness. And in order to do that, to be righteous, we need to go back to our roots. We need to get back to what our Founding Fathers started. We need to recognize the Lord's hand in the creating and establishing of this nation. And, as is written on all our currency, we need to remember, "In God, We Trust." We are truly a blessed nation that has been given so much. Let's not condemn ourselves to captivity and cursings, but instead continue to be the promised land.

Day 22: Trip Check

Sorry for not posting. I swear, this week has been crazy. Between my visit home (which lasted way longer than it was originally planned for and I am totally ok with that :)) and getting back here to do laundry and buy groceries for my poor husband who was living without, and reading the final book in the Hunger Games series, Mockingjay, I feel like I am finally in normal mode. If you know me at all, once a book has me within it's grasp, I don't come up for food, water, air or sleep unless it's totally necessary. :) Ok, slight exaggeration. But only slight. But the house is clean, the laundry is done and the fridge is once more stocked, so I feel good.

As I made my way home on Wednesday, I found myself entering the Portland area at about 4:15. Bad timing. Rush hour starts right about that time. And rush hour in Portland stinks. It's pretty much bumper to bumper traffic for two solid hours. Not fun. So, as I entered Gresham, I called my mom and asked her if she could go online to tripcheck.org and see how the traffic was for me. What resulted was kind of an interesting experience. She was literally able to follow me from the I-84 to the I-205 to the I-5, all by camera. She told me what to expect as I came to certain roads, and where the traffic would be the heaviest, where it was lighter, if there were any accidents up ahead (which there were not, thank goodness.) She followed my trip for a good 15-20 miles and told me everything I needed to know. She kept commenting, "this is so crazy! I can't believe I can follow you like this!" She even saw live feed and could see me passing by certain cameras. It was pretty cool.

I thought about how it would be if our lives could be like that. If we could have someone that could go a few weeks or months or even years ahead of us and report what was coming and warn us how to avoid the traffic jams that may result. And then I realized, we do have that. It's called a Prophet of God. And his name is Thomas S. Monson. We have had so many prophets come and forewarn us of the dangers that surely lie ahead and how we can be prepared to face those dangers. When the First Presidency came out with the Proclamation to the World on Families, the family wasn't being attacked that heavily. Now, we are constantly being bombarded on every side concerning our families. When they first started warning about food storage and not going into debt, it wasn't as big of an issue with most people. Now, how many times do we see commercials for debt relieving agencies and credit card debt relief? There were laws that were trying to get passed about not having a garden or only being able to have a certain amount of food storage. We are seeing the wisdom NOW of the counsel we were given THEN. What foresight, what inspiration those wonderful men had/have to tell us how to prepare and arm ourselves against the certain dangers that may befall us. I am so grateful for a living Prophet who leads and guides us and gives us counsel. I am grateful for my own personal "tripcheck" that warns me when there are unforeseen dangers ahead. We thank Thee oh God, for a Prophet, to guide us in these latter-days.

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Day 21: Getthing Rid of the Junk

Today I de-junked the closet in my old room at my parents. My mom has been asking me to do this for quite some time and I finally got around to it. Among the treasures that I found was the cast from my freshman year that Phil Vasser signed, about 4 of my old backpacks, my track spikes, stage make-up and performance shoes and a plethora of other goodies. (There may or may not have been unused wedding gifts in there too. Woops!) I parted with most of those things, but couldn't bear to get rid of my track spikes. Don't ask me why. Probably the same reason I cry at track meets. Those and my performance shoes. I couldn't bear to part with those. I think because I have this hope that one day I will be in another performance when I will need them. One never knows! One thing I found, I couldn't just send to the Goodwill, but I really don't want to keep it. It's my college bedding. It's super cute (Tommy Hilfiger), was only purchased 4 years ago and is still in great shape. The sheets might be a little faded, but I think it all looks really good. So, before I put it up on Craigslist, I am wondering if there is anyone who reads this blog that might be interested? I am getting rid of it for $25 OBO. Here's a picture of everything.

(Click on picture to enlarge)

The comforter is a twin, and so are the sheets. It comes with two pillow cases (only one pictured, but they're identical) one Euro Sham and a decorative pillow. I am throwing in a mattress pad too, which is super thick and really nice quality. I think it might be Egyptian cotton. The bedding, in case you can't tell from the pictures, is navy, light blue, yellow, lime green, hot pink and white striped. I absolutely LOVE this bedding, but have no use for it now, obviously. So, if you want it, give me a shout out!

Now, on to the real reason of this post. As I was de-junking, I thought about all the spiritual junk I am hoarding. Well, not spiritual, but saying sinful just sounds so harsh. I guess that's what it is though; sinful junk I carry around. You know, the "favorite sins", sins of omission, a bad habit, whatever! And I wondered why it's so hard to get rid of it all when it's so easy to get rid of all the temporal stuff that is unnecessary in my life. Why is it so difficult to give up certain sins? Because I am a natural [wo]man. And, I can't do it on my own. I need the Lord to be with me every step of the way to lead and guide and encourage and love.

When I was packing to go to college, my best friend Kayla, who I talked about in my last post, helped me get everything organized and ready. She is like the EXPERT de-junker. Before that night, I had this tendency to hang on to EVERYTHING. I would always think, "oh, I might use that sometime" or "I will definitely need that at some point" but she got me to be realistic. And ya know what? I can't remember a single thing I threw away that night, but I threw away a LOT of junk (much to my mother's delight!) Sometimes, we just need the expert de-junker to come into our life and allow Him to help us purge. Sometimes we need Him to tell us that we don't need any of that junk anymore. In fact, we would be so much better off without it! But, we have to LET Him help us. I'm slowly learning to let Him in to help me and I am trying to do my part the best I can, but hey! I'm not perfect! I stand in need of His assistance all day long. But thank goodness He is a forgiving being. Thank goodness He helps us when we ask, and even helps when we sometimes don't ask. I am vowing to start de-junking the "sin closet" that has built up in my life and let some things go. It's time to get rid of the junk.

My Apologies

I'm sorry about not posting for the past couple of days, but I made a surprise trip to Washington when I found out all 5 of my siblings would be here. Needless to say, I would rather be spending my time with them than blogging. :) Things will resume on Tuesday! See you then!

The Original 6

Day 20: The Best Things in Life Aren't Things, They're Friends.

Currently, I have no job. I don't go to school either. I'm just growing a baby! And I have limited interaction with the outside world. My interaction mainly consists of talking to the checkout people at WinCo and Costco and the occasional trip over to Marcus and Ashley's. So you can only imagine my delight when I received a package in the mail yesterday from one of my best friends in the entire world. As I read the card she included, it made me realize how blessed I am to have the friends that I do. Being here in Salem and somewhat removed from everyone, I tend to forget how lucky I am and what awesome people are in my life. This friend in particular is pretty amazing though. I can't tell you how many times in my life she has given her time and attention to me. She is always there when I need her and never asks for anything in return. She loves unconditionally and would drop anything at any moment if I asked her to. She's the bestest best friend a girl could ever ask for. So thanks Kay for all the good times. Thanks for the laughs at Yokes when you ran into the barrier as we were getting our favorite cake, thanks for all the movie rentals from Hollywood, for the crying on each others shoulders about dumb high school boys, for the auction where you first laid eyes on your future husband, for all the football and basketball games, the state tourneys, and supporting me in all my plays and concerts. You were the best friend in high and middle school and you've been even better as the years have gone on. I love ya babe!

"I'd like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me, I'd like to be the help that you've been always glad to be; I'd like to mean as much to you each minute of the day, as you have meant old friend of mine, to me along the way." -Anonymous


After her dance recital when we were like 5? :)

At one of the MANY football games from our high school experience

Kayla going to a prom our Junior year

Graduation!

At Kayla's wedding, May 25, 2008

All the Bridesmaids at her wedding!

"A friendship can weather most things and thrive in thin soil; but it needs a little mulch of letters and phone calls and small, silly presents every so often - just to save it from drying out completely." -Pam Brown

Day 19: You're The Inspiration!

I'm not your typical girl. I don't cry in chick flicks or in sappy movies. I don't really ever cry, period (except now that I am pregnant. You can't STOP the tears anymore, it's kind of ridiculous.) But there is one thing that will get me crying instantly, no matter what, no matter where. Sporting events. Yes. You read that right. Sporting events. Track meets in particular. When I see athletes giving it their all, I lose it. I think it's because I know exactly how it feels to give everything you've got in that one moment; to be the best you can be. I know the burning in your lungs, legs filled with lead, can't go any harder, can't go any faster, giving it your all feeling. It's inspiring to me to see people working so hard at something.

So, it was no wonder that I was fogging up behind my lens as I took pictures of my oldest sister, Rachel, when she competed in her triathlon in July. (I know, I am so behind on posting about this!) She and her friend Wendy Beus trained and competed together (along with about half of Pasco 6th ward!) It was so amazing to see her accomplish this amazing feat because of a few things. One, it was her first triathlon ever. Two, she has diabetes and has had it since she was 12. She was diagnosed with it a few months prior to my being born. But don't let any statistician tell you anything about the likelihood of not being able to do certain things because of diabetes, because Rachel has beat them all. She's got 4 totally healthy girls (which in and of itself is a miracle) is totally fit and trim (and gorgeous to boot) and has a normal lifestyle apart from her having to give herself insulin at random times during the day. So, needless to say, I was in awe and totally inspired as I watched her compete in her triathlon. She got a great time too. Here are some of the pictures from the race.

I didn't get there in time to get a picture of her getting out of the Columbia from the swim, but I caught her just in time for the bike portion. This is just as she was coming back from the bike ride.

All the kids got cowbells from some random person handing them out and they were loving life. We finally told them they couldn't ring the bells unless they saw someone coming or going. :)

Just starting her 5K run.

Crossing the finish line! Phew!

Chad, Rach and the girls after the race.

The whole 6th ward group that competed (plus a couple not in 6th ward :))

So I guess my point with all of this is to say thank you to those who have inspired me. Thank you to my amazing siblings who are constantly defying all odds and doing great things and being the best siblings a youngest child could ever ask for. Thank you to amazing singers, pianists, violinists, guitarists, dancers, athletes, etc who have accomplished so much and inspired me to do my best in all I do. Thank you to my amazing father who, even though he was an outstanding athlete, never pushed us to do anything we didn't want to do, but supported us in everything. And thank you to my wonderful mother, who played taxi and ran us all over heck so that we could pursue our dreams. You are all my inspiration. *Cue Chicago* :)