The past few weeks have been full of growth on my part... I have come to know the Savior and my Father in Heaven in a way that I haven't been able to previously... due to my own pride and selfishness. I want to Testify that I know that MY Savior lives. I testify that He is the Savior of all mankind - a literal Savior. Without Him we are nothing... and without Him, we will never be able to know what Joy feels like. Without Him, we could not be blessed with progression and life in the Eternities. I am grateful that I have been taught these truths, and feel indebted to my Father in Heaven for the opportunity to enjoy this knowledge in the flesh. So many live without this joy... How was I so lucky... Happy Easter... He LIVES!









I can do better... I can treat each other as HE would treat them! I am WORTH IT, and so are all His children around us... I am His Disciple - and Today I commit to do better!

Soccer Streaker

This past Saturday I joined a new soccer team. It's a "lower level" of play (the LOWEST division... I'm the only girl who's played soccer much... but the guys are pretty good) but I did have a good time playing... Maybe it's because it's nice to not be the worst player on the team for a change :) - They actually think I'm GOOD... (thanks other girls for making me "look good" ;) ) Okay, just kidding...

While playing this past Saturday, I was on the "sidelines" and heard some commotion behind me. I turned around just in time to see a butt - naked body go running by! This little boy (probably 4-5 years old) goes running by laughing and screaming - back and forth across the walk way a good 4-5 times :). His dad comes flying over the side board chasing him down - He grabbed him, and said, "You can't just take your clothes off... Where ARE your clothes?" Come to find out this little boy is a high functioning autistic kid, and doesn't like when his clothes feel wet... He said his pants felt wet, which is why he took EVERYTHING off :) It was awesome! But, gotta love a little game and a good streaker... :)

Soccer is the best sport ever! :)

Best Bro-in-Law (& Family) Ever!!!

Okay, so this is a quick note...

As you may have guessed from my previous post, life's been rather... how can I say... NOT what I'd pick for myself. However, I know that that is how I will learn and grow...blah, blah, blah... not what I'm trying to post tonight.

HOWEVER, I came home tonight, and was about to get ready for bed, when I found THIS on my pillow!




Okay, can I say "AHHH"... to explain
My little sister and her husband are commuting from my parents house in AF to Salt Lake every day to work. To help save on gas, etc. they park one of their cars at my house each day so that my sister and I can go to the gym together after work, and so she can have a car during the day, if needs be. Tonight, she came home before me to meet her awesome husband so they could change and go to the temple... he, being so thoughtful, had picked up these little "gifts" and wrote me a note in order to cheer me up from being sad. How awesome is that! Okay... seriously, whomever I end up marrying is going to have to be pretty darn amazing to match up to a brother-in-law like that! He's setting the bar pretty high, my friend!

THANKS A MILLION ADAM! It really did the trick tonight! :)

Change...

So, I know I've been doing a lot of "writing" and really pictures are more fun, but I wanted to post something that I found tonight, perhaps for my own benefit, but perhaps someone needed this as much as I did today...

For the past week or so, I've been thinking about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is really about change. I've thought about how the gospel brings about little changes in our lives as we come to understand new things and therefore "repent" of our shortcomings and mistakes. As we do that, the Lord CHANGES us, through the amazing power of the Atonement, to be more like Him. So really, the gospel is all about continually changing! If we aren't willing or ready to change, we can't really progress...

Recently there have been many promptings in my life to follow through with some "changes" that I did NOT want to make, but alas, in order to truly have peace in my life, I gave into the will of the Lord. My thoughts this morning were, "why is it SO hard to do the "right" thing sometimes? It's what is "right" and is supposed to bring joy in my life, but right now it's SO HARD!" Then, this evening I randomly clicked onto my cousin's blog and saw a link to a her friends blog. This friend recently lost a baby who was born prematurely (weighing less than 2 lbs). It told of the experiences they had during this precious baby's 10 days here on earth. One of the posts consisted of this "story"...

The Eternal Refiner and Purifier of Silver-- Malachi 3:3


Malachi 3:3 says: "And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness."

This verse puzzled some students in an Old Testament Sunday School class and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the students, a woman, offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next class.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire to heat it up. He explained that when refining silver, one needs to hold the silver in the middle of the flame where the fire is hottest and thereby burn away all of the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot. Then she thought again about the verse that says: "…He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver..."

She asked the silversmith if he truly had to sit there in front of the fire closely monitoring the progress and make adjustments the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man assured her he did, and that he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on it the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"

He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy – when I see my image in it."

When you are personally feeling the heat of the fire, as we all sometimes do, remember that God has His eyes on you and will keep closely watching you until He sees His image in your countenance.

It was very humbling to read this and to be reminded that the Lord knows what he's doing... He really does love me more than I understand. He wants what is best... even if it is uncomfortable for me and may even hurt for a while. And if I'll do my best to follow his commandments, I'll see His countenance in myself, if only for a moment... WHAT AN AMAZING GIFT! To be like God, what more could I ask for! It's so hard to remember this when you feel like you are consumed by the heat of that refiners fire, but oh how amazing it is to look back and see who you have become because of it! What a blessing it is to know who I am, where I come from and how to get back there! I'm TRULY one of the luckiest people to have ever lived on this Earth. I'm grateful for my knowledge of Jesus Christ, of his life and mission, and to Know, though experience, of the POWER of the Atonement! I'm so blessed to know about this kind of change...

Water Softener? and "You're NOT DATING SOMEONE!?!?"

Okay, tonight I need a little help and have a story to share in return. A few weeks ago a salesman came by and tried to sell me a "water softener system". He insisted on letting his company bring a water softener in for me to try "free for a month!". Deciding that I didn't want to stand here talking to this guy anymore, I said fine, bring it by. So, the next night they bring one by, and I should have just told him I'd changed my mind right then, because HE wasn't trying to sell me anything!
Anyway, tonight they sent over another salesman who wanted to come in my home, test things out and then show me how wonderful this new water softener is. To start things off, he was a nice guy, though pushy and smelled strongly of cologne and talked about a million miles an hour! He came in and showed me two tests with some hard vs. soft water samples (10 min) - THEN, seeing that I was pretty skeptical, he wanted to go over the "short" version of what his company had to offer. This "short version" took an HOUR! Can you imagine what the LONG version would have been like... Thinking that some of this sounded interesting, I didn't give him an answer.

When he was done telling me everything and had flipped through all the pages in his little book, he said something about me being single - like "...your single right? Your roommates may also be able to save money too..."
I said, yeah I'm single (um, I have a roommate sitting on the couch - of course I'm not married! Why would I have a roommate if I was married!)
Then he said, "so you're probably dating someone, right."
I said, "no. I'm not dating someone."
He says, "REALLY! Not ANYONE?!?"
I say, "um, no I'm not "dating" anyone right now."
Water man says, "Have you been married before?"
Me - "no. (In my mind - And is that really any of your business! Seriously!)"
Nosey water dude "but you date right?"
Me - "Well, yeah I go on dates here and there. But I don't date a lot."
Water man, "I just CAN'T BELIEVE you're not dating someone!!!"
Me - "Well, I'm happy. I'm not complaining about it right now."
Astonished Water guy, "I just can't believe that you're not dating someone!"...

You get the idea! He said, "I can't believe that you're not dating someone. That just really surprises me!" at least 5 times! My roommate was sitting on the couch facing the other wall TRYING NOT TO LAUGH! It was awkward for me and a little uncomfortable to have to explain to a TOTAL stranger that I'm not DATING SOMEONE! REALLY, is it so hard to believe that a nice girl is NOT attached to a guy at all times. Of course I'd LIKE to be married to Prince Charming, but it hasn't worked out that way so far - WHY DO I HAVE TO EXPLAIN THAT TO A TOTAL STRANGER! SO funny, awkward, and strange all in the same time!

He eventually stopped asking about my dating life, and started prying into my work life... Eventually he got the hint that I was done and he left, but the hint of his cologne hung in the air for a bit (we had to open the window so I didn't get a headache!)

So after all that, I'd love to know what you all think about water softeners. I am finding that my hair won't do much since they installed it, but I'm wondering if that is a normal thing... what do you all think? Are you Pro, or Against? Would LOVE any help I can get on this... I'd rather be able to give Captain Nosey Pants an answer over the phone this next time! I don't really want to spend another evening telling him about my lack of dating - Or maybe I'll just get a boyfriend in the next week!

CHOCOLATE!

Okay, today I go so mad at two boys, that I was shaking... I think I need some chocolate - THIS is why teachers get FAT! I HATE NAUGHT KIDS!!! They're not bad but they sure are naughty!

...

This is a great picture of our family from our family Christmas party - Ellison Style - we were having a contest on who could come up with the best Christmas outfit... we got a little carried away when we went through my Mom's Christmas Decoration box... There were some GREAT ones - spencer did win a top prize for his awesome outfit... the picture was a winner from the White Elephant gift exchange...



AND... finally! Here are some pictures of my house (at least the downstairs... my bedroom is rather messy!)