Happy Birthday, Mom!

Over our camping trip, we celebrated a birthday! In honor of the big day, Dad put together a photo slideshow of Mom's life and presented it to her. Because I don't have the internet capacity to upload the slideshow, I will just share a few photos of her life. I don't think I'll embarrass her... too much.

Happy [belated] Birthday, Mom! I love you so much.

The juices really aren't flowing...

I am having lack of creativity which equals lame blog posts. I'm so sorry!!!!!

I saw Eclipse today. I really enjoyed it, actually. The loyalty, trust, and love shown through Edward towards Bella, and always putting her first, really impressed me. Yeah, I know it's a fiction story, but it makes me hopefully and happy. Jacob was immature. Haha.

I've been babysitting as a source of income and sanity. I haven't had any luck anywhere else which makes me sad. However, when I register for classes in a couple weeks I have a schedule planned out where I can work part time, be a student full time, and play competitive soccer. Thanks to some close friends, I've finally grasped that having way too much free time is very detrimental to my mental health. I think way too much and it just makes me worry and over think things.

Mommy comes home from Italy tomorrow night! She's actually in the air, probably over the ocean now, on her way home. We've missed her.

Yeah, another lame blog post. I've been gone all week, but I need to read a nutrition article and post my newly attained knowledge soon. It's on my loooooooooooooooooong list of things to do, don't you worry.

Best. News. Ever. part 2.

First, to answer any questions, yes I got permission to post this.

Second, this is an email my mom typed up and sent out to family and friends of her testimony and her decision to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Yes, prayers are heard and answered.



"To My Family and Friends,

I have made the decision to get baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  It has been a few years of study and prayers to come to this decision.  I was baptized in a lake in Georgia when I was 16 years old with my best friend Melissa and felt very close to God at the time.  Then life happened and we moved to a new town and I never found another church.  My faith slipped away. 

When the kids were small I tried a few different churches. I had to drag them kicking and screaming and I never found what I was looking for.  I spent many hours out in our forest praying for help to find true peace and happiness.  For a while I thought that Buddhism sounded cool.  I prayed for teachers to come into my life to help me.  Rita and Mike Barrett came into my life about the time they lost their eldest son Josiah.  They have blessed my life in many ways.  We started a Bible study together.  I had strong opinions about the Bible, even though I had never actually read it.  It wasn’t your typical study where everyone believed the same thing.  We were a small group of non-believers, searchers and devout Christians.  We had wonderful discussions, although heated at times.  The more I read the Bible and learned about Jesus’ teachings the more they made sense to me.

About this time our daughter, Vicki, started to become interested in the Mormon Church.  The initial interest was cute boys, but I watched her develop into this incredibly strong young woman with a very strong testimony of Jesus Christ as her Savior.  She stayed true to her beliefs with her parents and many of her friends telling her she was wrong.  I know we feared we were loosing her to some Bible thumping cultish like church which didn’t like black people or gays.  Instead, we watched her thrive and love people around her and bring our family closer together with her spirit.  I learned that the stereotypes of the Mormon Church were false.  I started going to church at first just to spend more time with her, but eventually I felt the sincerity, love and goodness of the people at church and finally felt the peace and happiness I had been searching for.

 When my niece, Veronica, suddenly passed away last September and my sister Cacia asked me to go and tell our mother in person, Vicki was our strength.  She kept telling her Grandma that it was going to be okay.  She knew in her heart that Veronica was okay and in a much better place.

  

 So now, I’m taking a huge leap of faith and letting these young Mormon missionaries throw me into the water so to speak. I believe that the blessings to come will be great.  I know it scares my husband to death, but all I can tell him is I know that I’m supposed to be with him and I love him.  I truly believe having Jesus Christ as the center of my life will enrich our marriage, family and friends.  I’m getting baptized this Friday, April 30^th at 7pm at the church in St. Helens.  Please come if you can."

Parental Visit

I'm so grateful that I was able to have my parents come out to school and visit me for the weekend! They arrived up here Saturday night after a crazy evening and I just said goodbye to them. I cried, but don't tell them that.

So, to tell the crazy story a little bit, throughout the day on Saturday I would get updates telling me where they were. They were making great time in that new little RAV4. About 6:30, I got a call from a number I didn't recognize. I answered and it was my mom. I was really confused, because it was a 208 number. She doesn't know anyone in Idaho except Rexburg students, or so I thought. It turns out she was calling from a pay phone. A little bit about this brand new Toyota technology: most of the new models have this thing called a smart key, where as long as the "key" is 3 feet from the car, you can unlock it and start the car without a hard key; you press buttons. Without that "key", the car won't respond at all. Well, while at a rest stop, that "key" got lost after exiting and locking the car. Luckily, they had money to use the pay phone and to call AAA and me. I was on the phone for the next half an hour or so trying to figure out where there was a Toyota dealership still open. Found one in Pocatello, so we had the RAV4 towed there. I made the trip down to Pocatello to pick up my parents and we left the RAV at the dealership. Today, we found out that the "impossible task" of reprogramming a key to the computer of the car is possible, and were able to pick it up today. I made two trips down to Pocatello in 3 days.

Also, while I was on the phone calling dealerships on Saturday, I had forgot about the grilled cheese I was making. When I walked out of the room, my roommates shared a story with me about how the bread and cheese were burning so bad that they were waving the pan around outside to cool off the now black toast. I didn't eat that night.

Anyway, my dad snapped a few pictures while they were here. I have other pictures on my camera which I haven't uploaded yet and I think my parents have even more on their camera that haven't been uploaded yet, either. Here's our Sunday:

Driving around, my dad snapped a shot of the temple. it's such a cool picture because if you look to the right of the temple, there's a white steeple, and down the road, there's another. It's artsy.

My mom could barely pick me up. But I still love this picture.

"Look at the cool bark!"

The apartment. Been here since September and finally get to leave it in less than 3 weeks.

Henry's Fork at Beaver Dick park.

Geoff performed "Come Thou Fount" for us. It was absolutely beautiful and brought such a comforting spirit.

Trish's artwork before Geoff's performance.

The kids. I won't post the pictures after I was kicked and spit on. And I think Trish tried to bite me, too. I love my friends. :)

It's been a great year at school. I still have 2 weeks and a couple days to go, but I am ready to go home. Now it's just up to me to make the best of my final weeks here before heading off to the heartland. I'm going to miss my friends so much, but I know our paths will cross again.