Is it me, or do the holiday seasons always seem to fly right by? It feels just yesterday we were having our Thanksgiving dinner, and just today we put up our tree and decorations. And Christmas is just around the corner, and will quickly be gone.
Our sacrament meeting yesterday was wonderful. We had beautiful music, singing by the choir and others, and a wonderful narrative of the birth of Christ during so. In Gospel Doctrine, we had a wonderful lesson about eternal families. How blessed I am to be sealed to my family, as well as my husband. And my husband to his family, which brings us all together. Our families are so important on this earth. All families are different, ranging in different sizes and have different circumstances; whether positive or negative. But we always have the chance to create our own families, to improve things within our given family, and bring new members and find lost members together. We have that power, each and every one of us.
One thing I'm especially grateful for, is the power of the Atonement and forgiveness. My goodness I don't know where my life would be without the knowledge that God forgives and forgets our sins and imperfections. There was a point in my life where I never believed I deserved a worthy man of God, because I had made past mistakes which temporarily set me on a different course than the straight and narrow. I was a lost sheep, wandering off and needing to find my way back to the flock. Before I had met my husband, I had been single for some time. This hadn't been a problem to me, because I was enjoying the single life. I had felt independent, strong, and even happy. Yet, the idea of marriage and finding a worthy man was a weight on my mind. Past mistakes were also adding to that weight. Although I had already prayed to the lord for forgiveness, I still didn't feel like I did all I needed to do. When Gary appeared out of nowhere, and made it clear he chose me for his wife, I started evaluating everything, thinking maybe there had to be a flaw in that. I became so torn because I had never met such a man, who held the Priesthood so worthily, and who had a good head on his shoulders; I was convinced there had to be something wrong. At this point, I started thinking about the mistakes and sins I had made in the past...and although I had prayed and fasted for weeks to be forgiven, I just couldn't shake that feeling of there being something wrong. This is when I made another choice to visit my bishop and share my concern. I confessed to him my past mistakes, and expressed my fear of making the next step in my life; going to the temple and being sealed for time and eternity. The bishop immediately suggested we pray together, which we did. I left the meeting in tears with such a spirit. I especially came to realize how the bishop himself turned to the lord immediately, confirming the true power of the priesthood. A week later, the bishop called me back into his office to ask me how I felt. I couldn't believe it...the weight had been lifted and I felt so...happy. More happy than I had felt before. At this time, he said, "The lord has forgiven you, he has confirmed this with me while I spent the past week praying. He had forgiven you when you first turned to Him many months ago. All He needed you to do was come to me, the Priesthood. Because of this, you are clean and your weight is lifted." Another meeting I left crying. That same day, I knew Gary was the one I was to marry...the spirit had confirmed it. And while we spent our relationship together before marrying, we promised each other to stay worthy for one another, as well as ourselves. Because of this, we were able to become sealed in the temple of the lord. I promise each and every one of you, using my own experience, although the pain of seeking forgiveness may feel unbearable at times, the feeling and knowledge that our Heavenly Father has forgiven us when the time arrives, is more joyful than ever imagined, and makes the pain we suffered worth it in the end. I can't even begin to express the joyfulness as well.
Heavenly Father knows who we are. He knows our trials, feels our pain, knows what's within our hearts. At times we may not understand why we are given specific trials, and how long we must endure them. But here's something I've always found comfort in:
When Jesus's disciples were on the Sea of Galilee, and their boat was rowing against the wind in toil, Jesus came to their aid. He didn't come until the "fourth watch", meaning dawn, but he did come.
When Joseph Smith was in the Garden praying, you read the following: "After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction. But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me."
The Lord will come, but sometimes it won't be until our "fourth watch." We may not be there yet. But I testify He will come. No giving up just yet...strive to do the best you can, and you will find His hand reaching out to take care of the rest. I promise you this; I know this from experience. Not only that, but the spirit tells me this as well.
Wow, I totally went spiritual, didn't I? :) This Gospel is amazing; and true.
Anyway, time to settle down with some hot chocolate and a nice Christmasy novel. I'll post another blog later of our past week and week to come. Bye!
"May we...demonstrate kindness and love within our own families. Our homes are to be more than sanctuaries; they should also be places where God's Spirit can dwell, where the storm stops at the door, where love reigns and peace dwells." -President Thomas S. Monson
Monday, December 21, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
3 Years
I married such a patient, hardworking and loving man! Especially a man who puts up with crazy ol' me! ;) But seriously, he is the best!! He works hard everyday, and pushed his way through school so he could support and take care of me, and someday our children. I have the opportunity to be a stay-at-home-wife, and although I'm looking for work to add something more to my schedule, I feel so blessed. It's rare to live in such an expensive city on a single income; but we can thanks to my husband. He's loyal, honest, fun, silly, adorable, and very loving! He treats me sooo well and I love how I can completely trust him with everything! He also has incredible ambition. When he wants to accomplish something, he'll work hard to get there. I LOVE that! I'm definitely looking forward to our future together because of it :)
Anyway, about our day today! Gary unfortunately got sick overnight, and had to see a doctor this morning; sinus infection. Poor man. So he had no choice but to call in sick, so sadly we couldn't go out and do much to celebrate. But that's okay! We instead walked over to the store, bought some dinner, and came back and made it together. We had yummy jalapeno cheddar things for an appetizer, pizza for our main course, and Susan cookies for dessert. I never had those before; yum! We also had Martinelli's for our drink. We set up our living room like a picnic, and sat on the floor while we ate and watched a pretty good film: Escape from Sobibor. It was a miniseries on television years ago, about a labor camp during WWII, and how the Jews had planned an escape. Pretty darn good. Recommended! Absolutely clean, too. So, that was our fun evening together!
This rain has been incredible as well. I went outside one day to see this:
Okay, time to go back to husband for the rest of the night. And in case you haven't seen, we had Christmas pictures taken.
Bye!!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Our Day
That's pretty much what we did Friday evening. Instead of going out and doing stuff, we stayed indoors, watched some shows together, then did a couple of campaigns on the zombie game (Left 4 Dead 2). It's definitely a fun game! Not kid friendly, though, just a warning. The language isn't bad, it's just the fact you're killing zombies that may be bad, lol.
Anyway, we slept in this morning until about 10am, and I cooked up a big sausage/waffle/egg breakfast. Gary had the waffles, I had the eggs. That definitely filled us up! After breakfast and showers, we headed back over to Woodland Hills/Canoga Park, where we did some Christmas shopping! I know, expensive place to shop, but eh...lol. We didn't shop the mall or anything, just some of the discounted stores like Big Lots and stuff. After that shopping, then we hit the mall. Wow! It was huge. It's a Westfield mall, like ours, except this one made ours look teeny. It's 3 stories, has an ice-skating rink, and just...lots of stores; big companies like Tiffany & Co, Louis Vuitton, Coach, etc. You name it, it was there. Beautiful, too.
On another note, we got new phones! We have had our old phones for a couple of years now, and were ready to get new ones. They're not as cool as the Droid or iPhone, but we still love them.
Okay, that's all for now. Time to play video games with the husband. Goodnight!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Lotsa Updating
I've gotten pretty bad with this blogging thing, huh?
Well, Thanksgiving weekend was busy for us! I hardly had time to sit down and blog about it all. But, I am available now, so here goes!
After Gary came home from work Wednesday, we started to leave for Bakersfield. However, after a quick prayer for a safe drive, we heard a funny noise from my car. We then drove to our mechanic to have him take a look. The guy was already backed up with customers, and when we mentioned we were on our way to visit family, he was kind enough to shove us in there. He noticed the belt was almost destroyed; it would have been bad had we driven to Bakersfield. Luckily we caught it then. So, we walked back to our place and waited until he finished.
Finally, we were on the road. We had a fun night in Bakersfield, and Thanksgiving was great as well. I got to see almost all of my siblings, as well as nieces and nephews. The dinner was sooo yummy, too! Gary and I brought our Wii over, so we all got to sit around and enjoy some games. We played Super Smash Brothers for a bit, which was pretty fun. It was funny to see Grannie and Mom trying to figure out how to play, too. So, here's a few pics from Thanksgiving:
Thanksgiving smooch
Brother Quinn and sister Jazmine
Mum and Pops
Sammie and Katrina wanting popcorn
So anyway, we had a lot of fun there! The Friday following wasn't exactly the most exciting day for us, however. Our brakes now needed to be checked out. So we drove over to Pep Boys (since they know my family), and had them check out the brakes. They discovered the front and the rear brakes needed to be replaced, as well as some other brake-related things. While they were working on that, however, we met up with the Joneses and went out to lunch at Sequoia Sandwiches (also got to see their new cute place). Their son Tyler is just too adorable! He was so happy and full of grins the whole time. So, that was the highlight of the day at least! We had a good time hanging out. The car, in the end (including the belt which was replaced on Wednesday), cost us a little under $600 for everything. So, that was no fun. We do feel blessed that we had no problem getting the money, though.
Anyway, we drove back home on Friday, and Saturday morning, my parents and other family came and picked Gary and I up, and we all went to Knotts Berry Farm for law enforcement day. We had fun! Gary and I first checked out the Ghost Rider roller coaster, and told ourselves, "Never again!". That ride HURT! It was so bumpy and threw us around. It wasn't too pleasant. But, the other coasters were definitely fun! We also went on some water rides, and got completely soaked on one of them, the Perilous Plunge.
Anyway, we drove back home on Friday, and Saturday morning, my parents and other family came and picked Gary and I up, and we all went to Knotts Berry Farm for law enforcement day. We had fun! Gary and I first checked out the Ghost Rider roller coaster, and told ourselves, "Never again!". That ride HURT! It was so bumpy and threw us around. It wasn't too pleasant. But, the other coasters were definitely fun! We also went on some water rides, and got completely soaked on one of them, the Perilous Plunge.
So fun!! It did kind of hurt on one of the bumps, thanks to another lovely ride we took before it. It was another water ride, some Tidal ride, that damaged my poor tailbone. Okay, so the ride flips you a lot...it hangs you upside down, then flips you back over. One moment I'm resting on my shoulders, the next, my bum slams into the seat. No problem at first, right? Well, next thing I know, I'm being slammed into the seat, yet my bum landed on the leg divider, and I heard an unpleasant sound to go along with it. I said, "That didn't feel too good." And since then, my tailbone has been super duper sore! So many times I'll forget about it, and plop down, only to cry out moments later. Not cool.
The ride which injured my poor bum.
All who went to Knotts: Grannie, my cousin Sally, Mommy, Jazmine, Daddy, Jazzy's cousin Tiffny, then Gary and I. I was wearing Gary's sweater, so the picture is unflattering, but who cares? :)
So, Thanksgiving weekend was definitely exhausting, but fun! We came home Saturday and crashed super hard.
Yesterday evening, we decided to put up our Christmas tree and decorations. It's not all completely done yet, but here's some pictures:
Santa!
Yesterday evening, we decided to put up our Christmas tree and decorations. It's not all completely done yet, but here's some pictures:
Our little tree
Dexter's new favorite spot (I'll catch him chewing branches every now and then, although the tree is clearly fake). He's currently napping under there right now.
This adorable set from my in-laws. Love it!
This is another cute set from my in-laws. Our little Nativity Set.
Santa!
And of course, we all need our mistletoe! :)
Our stockings, and yes there is one for the pets. And of course, the huge stocking here :)
So, that's that! Gary has gotten me into shooting games, so we've been playing a lot of Left 4 Dead 1 and 2. Makes a husband happy!
Okay, that's the update!
PS-I hate blogger, I hate blogger, I hate blogger, I hate blogger as;dlfkja;sjka;oskdjf;oaskdjf;ok2j345r09uiwertoija;dflkja;skljrpoqi234rj whoever created the new image thing should not be employed for blogger anymore. It should NOT have taken me over 30 minutes just to post these pictures correctly. Stupid, poorly made blogger. as;ldkfja;sldkfj
All better. Good luck making it to the comments.
Okay, that's the update!
PS-I hate blogger, I hate blogger, I hate blogger, I hate blogger as;dlfkja;sjka;oskdjf;oaskdjf;ok2j345r09uiwertoija;dflkja;skljrpoqi234rj whoever created the new image thing should not be employed for blogger anymore. It should NOT have taken me over 30 minutes just to post these pictures correctly. Stupid, poorly made blogger. as;ldkfja;sldkfj
All better. Good luck making it to the comments.
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