That's Our Girl!

Brianna's unique way of crawling:

Brianna's unique way of sleeping -- folded in half:

Brianna, herself:

I Love To See The Temple

Today was unofficial Ward Temple Day it seemed. We had our testimony meeting today and many testimonies centered on Temples. There is a dear elderly couple who joined the Church 40 years ago, but were finally sealed in the Temple this week. The missionary who originally taught them made the trip out all the way from Idaho to be at their sealing!

Then, another dear sister who had had some pretty serious issues in the past finally made it back to the temple this week after a seven year absence. She bore a beautiful testimony today.
She made a wise comment recently that went something like this:

Any life or choice

that would keep you out of the Temple

is not worth it.

The only life that is worth living

is the one that keeps you in the Temple.

In Primary, my counselor conducted and, as her message, shared a story related to the temple. Then, I taught Sharing Time, and the principle for today's lesson was: I will keep the commandments and live now to be worthy to go to the temple. I felt kind of lucky to be the one to teach this lesson, considering the beautiful experience that we had so recently with Brianna's sealing.

So, in honor of today's unofficial theme, I thought I would share some of the beautiful photographs that my talented husband has taken of various temples. I hope you enjoy them!

Maybe We Should ALL Get Dogs -- BIG Dogs!

This link was sent to me by a dear friend. The information available at this site can be disturbing.

www.FamilyWatchDog.us

When you visit this site you can enter your address and a map will pop up with your house as a small icon of a house. There will be red, blue and green dots surrounding your entire neighborhood. When you click on these dots a picture of a criminal will appear with his or her home address and the description of the crime he or she has committed.

This site was developed by John Walsh from Americas Most Wanted. This is another tool we can use to help us keep our kids safe.

This does a really good job of ridding you of any false sense of safety.

To Bark or Not To Bark

We are contemplating buying a dog for Ben. Are we crazy? Perhaps. We are not animal people. Although both James and I were total animal lovers as kids, somewhere along the line the wet noses and dirty paws lost their magic for us. So, why would we consider a dog now?

Here's my "PRO" list:

• It would help get Ben, and probably all of us, out of the house more regularly.


• Pre-school will be ending soon with a loooong summer ahead. Ben has one friend that he plays with on a regular basis, and that is only once a week. A dog would provide a constant playmate for Ben, because, no matter how much I play with Ben, it is never enough.


• I think that a dog could help Ben with the transitions coming up in his life: transitioning to Kindergarten, and then to a cross-country move, complete with a new school etc.


• A chance for Ben to learn some responsibility (though I think this is wishful thinking on my part.)


• Ben worries about everything, including getting dirty. Maybe if he had a dog to play with, he would have so much fun, and enjoy playing outside so much that he might forget to be worried; maybe he'd even get dirty like little boys are supposed to.


• A chance for Ben to feel unconditional love from someone besides his parents and sister on a daily basis.


• We have a HUGE backyard, but rarely go play in it. It would be a great yard for a dog, and a dog would be great motivation to get outside--at least for Ben!

Here's my "CON" list:

• Did I mention the wet noses?


• Poop in the yard.


• James is highly allergic, so this animal would have to be an outside-at-all-times pet; and it does get hot and cold here.


• Cost. It isn't cheap to have a dog.


• An outside pet is dirty. (I wonder where Ben learned to worry about being dirty??)


• Our backyard backs up to FIVE neighbors yards; four of whom have at least one dog. That could equal a whole lot of barking.


• We are planning to put some money into making our lawn healthier this year, as we will be putting the house up for sale next spring. We would really not like it if our dog was digging up the yard.

Wow. The journey through my mind as I try to reason things out can be a long and somewhat confusing one. A complete Pro/Con list, and still, I (we) can't decide. I would totally appreciate any advice, insights, different points of view, etc. that you could offer to help us in weighing this decision.

Princess On The Move

After four rounds of antibiotics and a perpetual ear infection for the last three months, Brianna received tubes in her ears on Tuesday. She did great and the surgery went smoothly. They said that they anticipated no complications. They did, however, warn me that she may be clumsier than usual for the rest of the day from the anesthesia.

Clumsy?? Ha! Not our little Princess. Instead, Brianna took the opportunity to begin crawling! Not in the traditional sense of the word, mind you. She has developed her own unique method of crawling. She always begins from a sitting position, leans forward and places her hands on the ground. Then, she puts one foot on the floor, while keeping the other leg in sitting position. With her hands and with her one foot, she maneuvers around the floor. I think that she feels that it would be beneath her dignity to crawl on hands and knees. (Maybe that stems from the 'Princess' nickname?)

Some Moms Only Get Dandelions

Ben placed this nearly unidentifiable penny in my hand, and lovingly said, . . .

"For being my Mom for so long."

It Could Always Be Worse

There was a book I loved as a child. I believe it was called It Could Always Be Worse. I think it was a Russian folk tale. The basic gist of the story was this: A man was feeling like his home was too small for his growing family and too noisy with all of the children and activity. So, he went to see the village wise man. The wise man advised him to bring his chickens into the house. This made things even crazier, so the man went back to the wise man who advised him to bring his donkey into the house. This made things crazier still. So the man went back. On, and on it went, until all of the man's animals were living in the house too. Finally, the wise man advised him to put all of his animals back out to the barn, etc. When the man did this, he was elated at the size and order that he found in his home.

Sometimes we need things to be put into perspective just like this poor Russian man.

Two days ago, I was bemoaning a situation I was facing with our scouting program in our Ward. Basically, we have lost our charter because we did not fill out the proper paperwork or pay our dues in time. This problem was brought to my attention after it had become a crisis.

I was sharing these woes with my mother. She then shared with me the problems of some of her dearest friends and neighbors:

• An honest and kind man is facing prison time for a crime he didn't commit, without any real chance to share his side of the story.
• A woman just learned that her cancer has advanced to the point that there is no treatment that will cure her.
• Another woman just had another surger in order to remove all of the scar tissue from a previous reconstructive surgery following a mastectomy.
• Another friend is facing a difficult divorce after a long and difficult marriage.

Isn't it great that my Cub Scout Pack lost it's charter? I mean, really, this only requires some additional paper work and money! In communicating the full situation to our representative in the Bishopric, I plan to compile a long, long list of "Things Worse Than Losing Our Cub Scout Charter."

Perspective is such a great gift, isn't it?

What Are You Passionate About?

This question made James come alive, but made me feel defensive and frightened. Why?? Why did I suddenly feel exposed and inadequate? I wanted to hide, and desperately wanted to change the subject.

Passionate? Me? Nothing. I have spent my life trying to perfect the even-tempered, imperturbability that seemed to me the ideal. Extremism in any form has always been distasteful to me, and always seemed mentally unhealthy. I guess being passionate equated with extremism to me.

Now, suddenly, in this context I could tell that being passionate was not only desirable, but seemingly essential to happiness. And yet I had none. Nothing. No passion here. Just empty imperturbability. Who wants imperturbability in place of passion??? No one. Well, I did; but now even I recognize that I must find SOMETHING that I feel passionate about.

How do I do that?? I don’t know, but I would almost guarantee that it will take time to discover what makes me passionate, and that it will most certainly involve some sort of TURBULENCE.

. . . So, . . .What are you passionate about?

Expressions of March

"'Shhh!' said Pooh. 'You'll wake the lion!' Pooh explained to Christopher Robin what Rabbit had said.

"'Silly old bear,' said Christopher Robin. 'It's just an expression. Some people say that when March weather comes in fiercely -- like a lion, it will go out meekly -- like a lamb. They're talking about the weather, you see, not a real lion.'

"Pooh and his friends heaved an enormous sigh of relief ...."
(Winnie the Pooh's March March!, A Disney Enterprises/Reader's Digest Young Families Book)

Yesterday, with the rain pouring down, and the wind blowing hard enough that the flags were straight and the trees were bent, I said to Ben, "March certainly has come in like a lion! We'll have to pay attention to see if it really goes out like a lamb."

This morning, the sun was shining in a beautiful sky. Ben crawled into bed beside me, and said softly, "It's a lamb day, mom."

Recognize Any of These Familiar Faces?

I told you he was fun and funny!!