This is the real me.

A good friend of mine asked me a while back what my favorite scripture was. But as the saying goes, I could no sooner pick a favorite star in the sky...so I ended up sending her a list of over a hundred scriptures that I liked—ha! The past few months I have been contemplating a lot about myself and a few of the scriptures that have profoundly affected my life, complete with life-changing, "turning point" stories behind them. Here they are: “Yea, and  cry  unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy  doings  be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy  thoughts  be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.” (Alma 37:36, Book of Mormon) “…There was given to me a  thorn  in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me…. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My  grace  is sufficient ...

Yesterday, Scotty and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary!!!! I don't know about every other married person, but every year when my anniversary comes around I think back about all the ups and downs and how we made it through another year. Commitment, loyalty, faith, love, forgiveness, hope, optimism--I have grown so much in all those areas the last 8 years....... Year 1 was marked by tragedy. My sister's fiancee was killed by a drunk driver as he traveled home after our wedding. My first week of marriage was spent not on a honeymoon but grieving with my sister and attending a tragic funeral. As I had been so busy making wedding plans and prepping for the big day, I had not been doing all the things I needed to in order to stay spiritually strong. So I was hit hard by this. Really hard. My faith was hit like never before. Thus began the worst summer of my life. By year 2 I had lost hope of ever having a really happy marriage. I was committed to marriage and to God, ...

Q: Have you gotten morning sickness yet? A: YES. Started January 28th...at first it kind of came and went throughout the day, then after a short while, it started lasting almost the entire day with small moments of relief at random times (at which moments I immediately offered up a MOST heartfelt prayer of gratitude), then I started feeling better in the mornings but would get sick after breakfast and it would last ALL day even past going to sleep at night (the only times in each 24hrs I felt normal was in the middle of the night when I would get up to use the bathroom)...NOW however, the past few days I have felt SO much better! I still have just enough edge to let me know I'm still pregnant and haven't miscarried but not enough that it puts my entire life and mothering skills on hold. (BTW with Parker it was SOOOOO much worse! Sick all day AND all night 24/7 for 6 weeks straight! That's 1008 hours!!! Let's just say I am SUPER SUPER grateful that it's not like tha...

You can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you can't count the number of apples in a seed.  Last school year I taught Concert Choir at Meridian High School...I both heard about the job and got hired as the temporary sub just two days before school started. I hadn't planned on teaching school again for a loooooooong time...my first job out of college really burnt me and I loved just staying home with 1 year old son and teaching private lessons...easy life, not much stress, I was fine with that....but then this job came up. I thought well, I guess if it's only ONE class, I think I could handle that. So when I started, I didn't really know what to do. I hadn't been hired yet, but should I start working as if I would be hired?? I didn't know...it was definitely a unique situation...but I decided to go that way. Thinking back, I would've done things differently but you know, I suppose that's normal whenever you chart new territory with little prepara...

I recently read my sister Angela's blog post about forgiveness: http://xoxoangelann.blogspot.com/2011/01/anyone-you-need-to-forgive.html  and it got me thinking that there is nothing so misunderstood until it is lived than forgiveness. Dr. Sidney Simon, a recognized authority on values realization, has provided an excellent definition of forgiveness as it applies to human relationships: “Forgiveness is freeing up and putting to better use the energy once consumed by holding grudges, harboring resentments, and nursing unhealed wounds. It is rediscovering the strengths we always had and relocating our limitless capacity to understand and accept other people and ourselves.” Most of us need time to work through pain and loss. We can find all manner of reasons for postponing forgiveness. One of these reasons is waiting for the wrongdoers to repent before we forgive them. Yet such a delay causes us to forfeit the peace and happiness that could be ours. The folly of rehashing long-past ...