turkey trot

I did it in under an hour! Yup, I ran 4 miles in 56 minutes. Now you can all stop laughing, I know how slow that is. I know, people. But considering where I was when I started in August, it is kind of an achievement for me. As much as I would try I couldn’t seem to come under 63 minutes when timing myself, so I was thrilled with 56 minutes. Yeah, baby! The trick must have been Meghan slowing up at the end to run with me and push me. (Megs, can’t thank you enough)

I only had two goals: I just wanted to finish and I wanted to run the whole way, so I feel great. Not smug, mind you, as there was no smugness around yesterday. ‘Cause for all our previous A.S.S. sputtering and boasting and teasing there were no egos involved. Just everyone in the fam being incredibly supportive. Lacy and Penee yelling words of encouragement along the way, and HB, after already finishing, jogging back the running route to see where Megs and I were. I think he thought I had died along the way.

I was proud of myself and proud of everyone else, too. Thanks for all your encouragement (particularly Linds, Kenz and Megs, love you ladies)

This event has made me think about how far I’ve come and where I would like to go. That's always a good thing.

then...and now

Whew Whee. Here we are. Another anniversary.
Our secret? Keep in mind I know nothing about anyone else’s marriage. What works for them, what’s best for them, I only know this marriage.

And in this marriage I can only say our longevity and viability is due to a couple of powerful concepts/truths.

1. When you see a happy, long term marriage you are looking at a couple of really good forgivers. They forgive each other for being mortal, for being sinners, for being so, well, fallen and natural manish. Forgiveness says: I will not treat you badly because of your sins against me or your annoying habits.

2. When you see two highly incompatible people who yet manage to live in happy incompatibility you are looking at a couple of really good forbearers of strangeness. They put up with each others’ quirks, messiness, love of cardboard, money counting and immature selfishness. And sometimes the depth of immaturity can be staggering. Sort of Woody Allen-like who famously quipped,”Basically my wife was immature. I’d be at home in the bath and she’d come in and sink my boats.” Yeah, like that.

3. When you see a couple of oldyweds, 29 years, 3 kids and serious combined poundage later you are looking at two people blessed by grace. Because the Savior gets the credit when two very different and very imperfect people forge a life of faithfulness by relying on Him.

Happy Anniversary, ld. Don’t think I don’t know how lucky we are. Don’t think I don’t know how blessed I am to have married you. Thanks for all your share of the hard, rugged work of forgiving and forbearing. Love you more than air.

happy b-day to everyone's fav wedding singer

One time during a serious ‘pound on your sister’ wrestling match you choked me and I almost died. You were not concerned. I forgive you for this.

Happy Birthday, bro. I love you.

yet another reason why i love the internet

I am hard at work preparing a workshop on Family Home Evening for our RS Super Saturday/Enrichment. Oh, and we are also squeezing in a Visiting Teaching conference to boot. Megs is teaching a class on Scripture Marking Ideas and Kenz is heading up the children’s class so it will be a family affair. After searching the net I came up with quite a few good sites. Here are some of my favorite FHE resources, maybe they will prove helpful to you. With so many (tons!) of resources (some with already made ready-to-print lessons) there’s no excuse for crappy Home Evenings☺

I’ll post more from our Workshops later, if you’re interested. But bookmark these now fam.

Deseret Book offers free lessons
http://ldslivingmagazine.com/subs/show/6?page=1

FHE lessons for a whole year
http://www.angelfire.com/mo/lissa1/FHE.html
http://www.angelfire.com/ma/lissaannapage/FHE.html

FHE in a Jar
http://www.jennysmith.net/search-lds-clipart.php?mediaid=436

FHE cans and cards
http://ce.byu.edu/cw/cwwomens/booths/3.pdf
http://ce.byu.edu/cw/cwwomens/booths/3.htm

FHE for small children
http://www.mormonshare.com/fhe/fhe-motivators.php#smallchildren

Article on FHE
http://www.mormonshare.com/fhe/fhe-articles.php

FHE Games
http://lds.about.com/od/familyhomeeveninggames/Family_Home_Evening_Games.htm

FHE Agendas and Assignment Boards
http://www.mormonshare.com/fhe/fhe-planners.php

100 plus Quick FHE ideas
http://www.mormonshare.com/fhe/100-fhe-ideas.php

Quotes and articles regarding FHE
http://www.mormonshare.com/fhe/fhe-motivators.php

General Conference Activities and Games
http://lds.about.com/od/generalconferencegames/General_Conference_Activities_and_Games.htm

Mormon Times FHE Ideas/Resources
http://mormontimes.com/mormon_voices/emily_w_jensen/?id=3845

Pratt’s FHE
http://fastq.com/~jbpratt/lds/resources/index.html
http://www.fastq.com/~jbpratt/lds/fhe/lessons.html

An alphabetized by topic list
http://www.eprimary.dk/ccc_family_home_evening.htm

Family History FHE Ideas
http://www.eprimary.dk/2005/2005_nov_a/165%20Fun%20Family%20History%20Activities%20for%20Kids.htm

Seminary Ideas (ideas on teaching scriptures)
http://latter-dayvillage.com/seminaryhome.htm

FHE in a jar
http://www.eprimary.dk/2002/2002_05_b/FHE%20129%20FHE%20in%20a%20jar.htm

FHE in a jar (another one)
http://www.eprimary.dk/basis/fhe%2001%20sharlene.htm

FHE quick tips from lds.org (duh)
http://www.lds.org/familyresources/quicktips/0,15876,4006-,00.html

21 Ideas to involve young children in FHE
http://www.eprimary.dk/2002/2002_05_b/FHE%2021%20Ideas%20to%20Involve%20Young%20Children.htm

FHE lessons
http://www.familynightlessons.com/

*FHE blog w/ lessons to print out.
http://nataliesfhespot.blogspot.com/

*Another blog about FHE w/ ideas
http://fheplanner.blogspot.com/

Flannelboard stories from the Friend, includes text.
http://www.stums.org/closet/html/flannel.htm

*This lady has computer colored Flannelboard stories from the Friend and lets you just print them out. Awesome. She has put together a huge file of free FHE lessons. Sure you can get them as black line masters elsewhere, but she has used some paint type program to color them. all you need to do is print and laminate them for wonderful quick FHE folder lessons.
http://chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.com/2007/11/flannel-board-stories.html

An idea sharing site
http://www.sugardoodle.net/mambo/

*Yet another FHE blog, fast easy lessons
http://fheinasnap.blogspot.com/

A few FHE lessons, but a lot of other good info on families.
http://whyfamilies.blogspot.com/

A great handout from a past Women’s conference. I’m basing my presentation kind of on this.
http://ce.byu.edu/cw/womensconference/archive/2008/sharing_stations/pdf/3.pdf

weird sunday

Right before the Sacrament was passed to me yesterday I felt a tap on my shoulder. A sister whispered to me that the handicap toilet in the women’s bathroom had plugged up and was close to running over and did I know where the plunger was?

I will spare you all my thoughts as I energetically plunged a smelly mess, with this sister standing over me offering instruction. “Don’t get anything on your self” she said encouragingly when the cheapo plunger turned inside out with nearly every thrust. And I appreciated her helpful and optimistic comments regarding how lucky we were that the church had toilet paper that easily disintegrated. Ugh. Shoot me now.

To add to the day's weirdness, a sister in RS had a baby that kept crying. I was teaching the lesson and slightly annoyed. I’m thinking, Sheesh, take your baby out will ‘ya? Finally after enduring many pointed stares from those around her, she gets the message and stands up. It was only when she walked directly in front of me that I noticed her baby wasn’t a baby at all but a lifesize doll. This woman brought a doll to RS. One that bawls like a real baby.

It’s days like this that make me feel like I never left Blythe.