Last Sunday was our niece Allison's missionary farewell. She is going to Fukuoka, Japan. It was a beautiful meeting. We especially enjoyed her testimony and we know she will be an excellent representative of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We stayed at her ward for the rest of the meetings, and the RS meeting was about journals, which is why I decided to start this blog. Some of the older ladies talked about blogs that their daughters were doing, and how much they enjoyed them. I have been wanting for awhile to keep a journal where you could include photos, and this looks like something along those lines which I would like to try. My sister-in-law Julie sent me a link to her family blog here on blogspot, and she says it's not very hard, so here goes. Hope you enjoy sharing with us.
Another thing that we talked about during that lesson was something that one of the GAs (unfortunately I forgot to write down which one) used to ask himself every day when he wrote in his journal:
Have I seen the hand of the Lord reaching out to touch me or my family today?
To answer that question I share the following experience I had last week: We were blessed with seven beautiful puppies the day before Halloween this year. I knew giving them up when it came time would be hard for me, but it was harder than I expected. Several people wanted to adopt TJ, shown to the right, but the first couple fell through, I just didn't feel right about the second lady who wanted him, and then we didn't get any more calls for awhile.
Last Thursday when I went to rehearse with the Tabernacle Choir, I wasn't expecting to enjoy the rehearsal because I was soooo worried about the puppies and finding good homes for them. For some reason, I was particularly worried about TJ. He was starting to show a tendency to be fearful of strangers, and I worried that whoever came to look at him wouldn't like him if he barked and was afraid of them. I didn't want to give him up unless I was sure that he felt comfortable with his new parents and that they would be good for him. I was also preoccupied with the remodeling project, and how will I learn to take care of this beautiful home that we are building, so that it will stay nice. That night we rehearsed a song called
My Shepherd Will Supply My Need. As I sang the words:
My cup with blessings overflows.Thine oil anoints my head.and later:
Oh, may Thy house be mine abode,And all my works be praise.I thought about all the many blessings I have received lately, like puppies, and money to remodel our house, and realized that I needed to be more thankful and faithful and less worried. I also thought about several marvelous blessings that Dave has pronounced upon my head lately. Another song we rehearsed, called . . ? . has the phrase:
There's not a plant nor flower below but makes Thy glories known.The seas arise, the tempests flow by order from Thy throne.Lord, all that borrows life from Thee is ever in thy care,And everywhere that we can be, Lord Thou art present there.As I sang those words, the Holy Spirit revealed to me that the Lord has a plan for everyone, including puppies. He sent those puppies down here according to His plan for them, and He knows where they are supposed to live and who will be the best owners for them. I was inspired then that I should pray to the Lord and thank Him for his blessings, ask for help to care for the blessings I receive from him, and acknowledge that he has a plan for our puppies and entrust them to His care. I think I forgot to do it that night, but when we woke up Friday morning, that's exactly the prayer I prayed. That day I talked to a person at Brickyard Kennels who suggested that if I wasn't getting responses to my puppy ad on KSL.com that I should delete it and then create a new ad, so that when people search for puppies they will see my ad at the top of the list. I did that, and Friday evening when Dave and I returned from the temple, there were two messages on our answering machine from a couple in Provo who wanted to adopt TJ. It was too late in the evening to return their calls, and on Saturday morning I was scheduled to go down to Springville to rehearse with our niece Allison at 10am, but I was delayed, and right as I was leaving Dave answered a call from the couple in Provo and arranged for me to take TJ and Molly with me so they could come to Springville to see them. I didn't want to do it, and got really mad at Dave for insisting, but it turned out that Dave was following the promptings of the Spirit and the people loved TJ from the moment they laid eyes on him, and he went willingly with them. Have I seen the hand of the Lord in my life today? You bet I have.
We still have one more puppy who needs a forever home. If you know someone who wants an absolutely gorgeous female puppy, please tell us. Her name is Molly and here are a couple of recent photos:
Happy Anniversary to US!
Dave and I just had our third anniversary on Dec. 28th, 2007. I adore him. Talk about the hand of the Lord in your life, Dave is the best blessing I've ever gotten from Him. Here's to many, many more happy years together.
President Hinckley: In Memoriam
I have a friend who is a nurse for many of the LDS general authorities, including President Gordon B. Hinckley. In light of his recent passing, I thought I'd tell you something she shared with me a couple of months ago. I mean this with the utmost respect. As my friend was about to retire from the Tabernacle Choir, she was telling him that she thought it would be difficult for her. He said something like this. "Think of it this way: when you retire, you will get up the next morning and figure out all sorts of fun things to do with the rest
of your life. When I retire, I'll be dead." Despite being dead, I know that he is having a wonderful reunion with his wife Marjorie and all of his loved ones who passed on before. We love you, President Hinckley! Congratulations on your graduation!
We are currently on the downhill side of a huge home remodeling project. This is the main floor of our house. We took out the old kitchen, knocked out the wall between the living room and the kitchen, added a new window where the kitchen sink used to be, and replaced the old aluminum sliding glass door with a new vinyl one. Notice the hole in the ceiling where our carpenter nearly lost his life when the ceiling fell out while he was installing a sun tunnel . Turns out the old ceiling was never nailed up properly. That hole is right over the stairs. Good thing he caught himself on one of the trusses. We also removed the old flooring and then the chipboard that was underneath it, but once that was done we found the plywood flooring underneath was all rotted, so we ended up replacing the entire subfloor on the main floor. Notice the darker brown sheets of plywood that are new and the old ones which haven't been removed yet. Tulla is asleep by the door, and Mickey is watching her.
These are the stairs half ripped out. We took out the wall around the stairwell and put in new alder stairs with new handrails.
Here's the front room with the fireplace ripped out and the old blinds still in, but all new ceilings and walls.
Here's the first window to get a wooden sill and new casing.
We ripped out the old front closet and the bedroom closet behind it to enlarge the entryway. Then we installed french doors where the closet used to be and knocked out the wall between the two small bedrooms behind it to make one large one. You can see the holes in the wallboard where the electrician had to make modifications. He kept finding old wires up in the ceiling from previous remodeling projects which hadn't been capped off or boxed properly. Good thing he fixed them all. You can also see some of the new oak floor and the hole in the ceiling where the old swamp cooler was.
This is the enormous truck that brought in all the new drywall. They loaded up the hook thing with big sheets of drywall and then swung it over the lawn up to the front door, unloaded it from there, and then did it over and over again until it was all in the house.
Here they are bringing in one of the 12-foot sheets. They used these to hang a new ceiling right over top of the old ceiling.
A view from the new master bedroom of the fireplace right after we ripped out the old mantel and hearth.
Notice the sheets of plywood stacked by the stairway and Mickey waiting with his ball for us to throw it. Mickey belongs to Dave's sister Becky, but we babysat him for 7 months while she was in Germany with her family. He is an aussie and we bred him (actually we just let him do the work himself) with our border collie, Tulla, while he was here. They had 7 adorable puppies.
