Forever Strong

So, last week Bryce and Stephen watched that movie "Forever Strong" probably 3 times.  The rest of the week Stephen went around the house doing the "Haka".  Rugby is a very popular sport in Australia and New Zealand and Michael had a companion from NZ.  The Mission President actually showed the movie "Forever Strong" to his missionaries there a while back. ( Michael has sent a few pictures of him with his tounge hanging out and he and his companion doing the "Haka").  Anyway, I decided that I should take a picture of this obsession with Stephen and send it to Michael.  So, I did. (I also took pictures of each of us making our "pukana" faces but they are pretty ugly...especially mine)  But, besides this picture of Stephen's "Haka" pose, I think the title of the movie is very appropriate for this young man. 

 Stephen is a pretty amazing 15 year old, but of course I am his mother so I am a bit biased.  He made the Varsity Football team this year and so he has been going to conditioning every morning and it's been kicking his butt.  But, as he comes home he tells funny stories about his teammates, who are mostly juniors and seniors and he has been enjoying his associations with them.  However, he is very aware that their standards are not always the same as his.  So, he finds it a welcome challenge and a responsibility to set an example of who his Heavenly Father expects him to be. 

The other day after I left for work he sent me a text to tell me he was deactivating his fb account.  I was shocked because he loved that thing and spent a good deal of time talking with friends and sharing good information.  But this is what he said to me,"I just think that spending too much time on the internet is not a good thing and it allows more chances for the adversary to creep in.  I need to use my time more wisely working on my duty to god, reading scriptures, and working on my eagle.  Satan is real and to not  always be prepared spiritually is just stupid."

Okay, so I know he is just a teenager and so much can change in the next few years, but for now i am enjoying this "Forever Strong" phase he is going thru!  I love it!

(okay, if you really BEG I just might put up the pictures I sent Michael...If I get real brave...I mean really brave.

Happy Birthday to one awesome Woman!

Today I want to wish my beautiful Mother in Law
  Delores 
a very Happy Birthday!  I love this woman!

She has taught me so much.  She raised 6 boys herself and so she knows all the ins and outs of being a mom of boys! I am so grateful to her for all she has done and continues to do for our family.  She truly is a woman of faith, dedication, strength and love.  This is my favorite picture of her with Michael and Brittani when they were just about 2 years old.  She was and still is a wonderful Grandmother.  A woman who knows what is important and how to let her family know that they are #1 in her life.  She is a great example of creating a forever family.  

Thank you Mom for who you are and all you do!  We love you dearly!

The Greatest Dad

Happy Father's Day Mike

Thank you for teaching our boys to be kind, honest, strong, loving and hard working.

Thank you for teaching them ,thru your example, to honor their priesthood and to have integrity.

Thank you for always playing with them. 

And Thank you for supporting me as their Mom!

Thank you for ALL you do for our family.

You are the Greatest Dad!

We Love You!

and the boys!

The circle of life

Back when I was still on fb.  I looked up some of my investigators from my mission days.  One in particular who was a golden contact, who we had the privilege to teach and had joined the church, I found but I never heard back from him. When I cancelled my account I figured there went my chance to ever get in touch with him.  Well, on Tuesday I recieved an email from this young man ( not so young anymore) and I was so excited!  But I couldn't figure out how he got my email, so I asked him.  He said he searched for me and somehow found my blog and got my email address here.  Well, he called me yesterday and we talked for about an hour! Denis was and is still golden and going and growing strong in the gospel.  His oldest son, Bryce, is on a mission and entered the MTC one week after Michael.  So, they were in the MTC together.  So awesome!
We had a great conversation about his conversion 25 years ago and what a wonderful experience it was for both of us.  Denis truly was a golden contact!  He served a mission in So. California and met his wife there.  Another Elder who was from California and I visited him on his mission after we came home.  We were both blown away by his studies of the scriptures, I'll never forget that.  He has since married had 3 children and served in many leadership callings including serving as the ym president and as a member of the bishopric.  Today he serves on the High Council of his Stake.

Wow...the circle of life is a wonderul thing!

p.s. about a week ago I almost removed my email address from my blog....so glad I didn't!

Egytian Ratscrew and other fun games!

  
http://www.waste.org/~oxymoron/cards/ratscrew.html (go here to get instructions)

It's been since I think February that our TV decided to stop working and we decided we didnt really need it anyway. There was always a baseball game or something else going on and really, what is worth watching on TV these days anyway? We do have a small tv that we use to watch dvd's on, but since summer started the kids have been watching some dvd's during the day so we've been trying to stay away from them at night.

So, we've been doing a lot of this!  And boy, oh boy are we having fun!  We learned a couple of very fun card games this spring one is called Egyptian Ratscrew

and the other is Nertz and now we are hooked!  Both are very fun games!  Another very fun game is things

http://www.thingsthegame.com/  check it out! 

A family that plays together stays together....right??

A bit heavy....

We were a bit stunned by Michael's email this past week as he told the story of the boy's father who thought that their family dog had attacked and killed his son, so he took the dog out into the woods and "put it down" and then came back to find that the dog had attacked and killed a bear that was trying to attack the son, that the dog was actually trying to protect the son.

(You can go to my blog list and visit Elder Nelson's blog to read the whole story.)  Anyway, Stephen and I had a difficult time understanding the message behind that story.  The speaker who told the story was talking about the youth and parents and how sometimes the youth think that their parents are too harsh or cruel.  When they are just trying to protect them. It was interesting to me that Mike got the message right away and that it had such a huge impact on Michael.  If you knew the relationship between the 2 of them you would understand.  Michael has always been a sensitive young man.  We were always very close, afterall he was our first child and it was just Michael for 5 years before we had Stephen.  But coming from the background that I did I was always very protective of him and his feelings.  Mike on the otherhand came from a very different background and his expectations of his sons is high, his patience is long and his determination strong.  I am grateful for this, but when Michael was growing up he often mistook Mike's expectations as being too high and his discipline as being too strict.  In fact it wasnt long before Michael left on his mission when he just started to understand that his Dad was just being a good Dad. I on the other hand, tend to be too lenient and too much of a pushover.  It took me a while to see and then help Michael understand that his Dad isnt trying to be mean but that he is trying to teach him to be the best young man that he can be.  Well, it is so nice to read Michael's letters and to see how Michael now gets it.  He is so much of who he is today because his Dad loves him, pushed him and didnt let him settle for mediocrity.

Michael mentioned as a side note to me that he thought maybe his email was "a bit heavy", but that he felt it was important to mention.  I am so thankful for missions and the many experiences that Michael is having that are helping him (and me) to grow in areas that are helping him to be the person that Heavenly Father knows he can be.  He'll be a great Dad someday.

What if?

It's Sunday yay!  I woke up this morning thinking "what if?"  Not that this is the first time I have ever asked myself that question...but this morning a different thought came to mind when I asked myself that question.  I usually think...there is no what if...things are how they are and were always supposed to be.  But this morning the thought came to my mind that it all depends on our choices.  Now, it's not that I dont know that our choices make a difference as to what happens in our lives, it is just that it has never quite hit me the way it did this morning.

I thought about the Plan of Salvation and how simple it really is.  It is us that complicates it by some of our choices. We make life hard for ourselves at times, or at least harder than it has to be.  Yes, we all have our  agency and we will ALL have trials in our lives, however, so much of what we go thru we could probably avoid if we made different choices.  But the great part about it all is that no matter what we do, no matter what choices we make or how many stupid choices we make, the plan of salvation provides for us a way to start over and still receive all the blessings that our Heavenly Father has promised to those who are faithful.

So, "what if"....well, who cares?  It is what is it is and we just keep on going from here.  Today I am thankful for the Plan of Salvation and for my agency to choose how difficult I want to make life for myself because it is really so simple.  Just have faith, be obedient and believe.

What if I didnt have the gospel in my life....now that is a very different story!

Enjoy your Sunday!