Now if only...

I could remember at the beginning of the day to say my specific prayer, I could get in the habit of starting my day off on the right foot. So my goal for the coming week is to remember. We shall see how I do! Maybe I will be like Sister Hinckley when she made a goal to read all of the standard works each night and after the 4th or 5th(because I don't have the book handy to confirm specifics) night she said I am only 3 or 4 days behind. I guess it is all about intentions right?

Wonderful

On Sunday our lesson in Relief Society was superbly wonderful! A part of the lesson really gave me a different perspective on how to better my life. I had never thought of before to start my day off with a prayer that basically outlined to the Lord what I wanted to accomplish or get done, but that is what Elder Bednar talked about in his conference talk.

So I thought I would try this out. At first I felt panicked because I try to be a person who keeps their word. But I got over the feeling and, I tell you what, it sure made a difference in me being more conscientious of the choices I make throughout my day. I felt more of an accountability to the things I told the Lord I wanted to get done or help guide me in. He even guided me to help someone who needed help, which I prayed for.

I am grateful for the lesson that gave me a new perspective on how I can be a better instrument in the Lords hands. I gained a testimony of the importance of being specific with the Lord and to remember to include Him in my daily grind however small it may be. He truly does want to bless us with the desires of our hearts and He IS there to bless and guide us in our lives. We just have to do our part, and sometimes it can be as simple as starting our day off with a prayer.

Beefy

Last night as we were getting ready for bed, my husband was trying to get a nostril hair out. As I watched him try to maneuver his thick fingers up his nose as if they were tweezers, I said "I don't think your beefy tweezers will get the job done" My husband then proceeded to laugh so hard he turned purple. I love making him laugh, it makes me happy!

The disclaimer

Due to my husband not acknowledging he has a curse he has asked me to put a disclaimer stating that he does not recollect our conversations happening the way I stated them in my previous post "The curse". Which I think makes him so cute. We have to stand for something right? He believes the post is not completely accurate, which is fine with me. We are all entitled to our opinions. What I heard and said is different than what he recollects. I am aware that this is something all of us in relationships get to deal with. Because I love him so much I will put the disclaimer to my truthful accounts. :)

I didn't realize how much my husband cared what I wrote about but apparently he does. Like my post about how our bodies are so weird, he thought wasn't a good idea, or the schizophrenic one. Oh well, I am what I am and my life is not glamorous and so I will not portray it to be anything it is not. What you get is what it is.

About my husband. I got him on camera this morning. He is so adorable. He is truly the best husband and Father ever. About this morning. The girls have been wanting their toe nails and fingernails painted. Emma especially has been wanting them done. Wednesday, Emma and I went to the dollar tree to get Sera a present, and while there, she asked if she could get her some nail polish because, as she said, "I am such a kind person." Of course, I said yes.

So she asked Jared if he would paint her toenails for her. He said yes. Well this morning, she reminded him how patiently she has been waiting and he agreed so he painted them, and then Lucy's and Sera. So I got him on camera painting Sera's. He is the best Dad ever. I don't think the girls will not realize how amazing of a father they have until they are older.

Thanks Jared for giving me a good laugh and the banter of our disagreements of how our conversations go. I guess we will see who does more push-ups in heaven :)
(push-ups in heaven is something we incorporated early on in our marriage when neither of us would give in to the others persuasion of how a situation took place or how conversations went so we would say "If I am right then you will have to do a push-up in heaven!" or "If I am wrong I will have to do a push-up in heaven!" It works for us)

The curse!

My husband has a curse. I am not sure if he even acknowledges this curse. I certainly do!

My first recollection of this curse was when we were at a auto auction(about 7 years ago) at a impound lot for a police department.

I would say that there was at least 100 cars there in various conditions. Jared and I walked naively around for a good 45 minutes before the auction started. We had our eyes on a few cars that seemed like they were in good condition and agreed that we would only make bids on those ones.
The end of the auction was coming near. For some reason or another I can't remember why, Jared and I got separated. When we reunited he had this sheepish grin on his face.

I said "What did you do?"

He then exclaimed "I won a bid on a car!"

Me- "Okay, which one?"
J- "The Chrysler Sebring!"
Me- "Um! I thought we weren't going to bid on that one."
J- "Well we got it for cheap."
Me- "No! YOU got it for cheap!"

Well it turned out to be a crappy car it finally died about 6 months later in the middle of the road.

Thus began "The curse of Jared"

The most recent incident was his purchase of a great camera from eBay. My dream camera to be exact. A cannon 5sIS (I think that is what it is called). Anyway, I started using the camera Sunday night and I wanted to zoom in and out on the girls. I had used my sisters same camera before and so I remembered the buttons. But when I went to zoom it wasn't working. HMMMMMM!
Me- "Something is not right with this camera!"
J- "What do you mean?"
Me- "Well the zoom doesn't work"
J- "Oh!"

"HUH! I should have expected this!" I thought.

I asked Jared where he got the camera from, his reply "I got it off of eBay from a guy who sells refurbished cameras for a living."

Me -"How much did you get this camera for?"

J-"$242 He had the best prices"

This is a great price if it worked since I think you can get them normally in the $400's

Me- "Weeellllll, he probably has the best prices because he sells pieces of crap!"

Luckily we have learned from this curse, and Jared bought the "refurbished" camera with all sorts of protection in case of frequent situations like ours. So the camera is on its way back to the "dealer" as we speak and our money will be refunded fully. Wahoo for that!

Overcome

I have a problem!
Anytime I have gone to the girls school for events (Kindergarten graduation, Mother's day tea, Fun Run, Halloween parades) I am overcome with emotion. As I walk up to the doors of the school I realize that our children will be all grown up before I know it, and for some reason I feel like I am going to bawl.

For several minutes I have an internal dialogue that goes something like this
" Pam you are not going to start crying! Kids growing up is apart of life! People will wonder if something is wrong with you, and maybe there is, but not in the way that it would be portrayed by you crying at a Halloween parade! Snap out of it sister, you can cry once you get home!" etc.

This last time at the Halloween parade, party thing, my husband was able to come for the parade part. My eyes were a little wet when I saw him. Instead of telling him the real reason I lied! It was a windy day and so I said "Man that wind sure made my eyes water a lot!"

Later that evening I told him the real reason my eyes were wet and the reason I lied. Because I knew if I told him there at the school the way I was really feeling I would start to cry, the "ugly cry". You know where your face is stuck in that awkward position, and I didn't want to make a scene.

We won't talk about Emma's Kindergarten graduation or the Mother's Day tea her class did for the Moms.

I am not really sure if these feelings will subside as they get older and more teenagish.
They sure are wonderful people though.
Even if they occasionally tell people "You know, my Mom gets angry sometimes!?!?"
This is the way I feel about our children as the words stated in the book "Love you forever"(Which by the way makes me cry when I read)--
"I like you for always.
I love you forever.
As long as I'm living,
my baby you'll be!"

Why so weird?

Why do our bodies do such weird things? For instance, when I work out or am cleaning, my nose will start to leak. Why? I have no idea!

Some people produce more plaque on their teeth than others. Why? I have no idea!

I sweat more in my right arm pit than in my left. Why? I have no idea!

Before I had any children we went out to eat with my Dad's side of the family. My Grandma and I needed to use the facilities. While we were in the facilities my Grandma proceeded to aggressively pass gas. I didn't know if I should laugh or be concerned.

My Grandma yells from the stall, "Any of you out there, I just want you to know that when you get older you have no control of what your body does! Especially if you have had children!"

I have children now and I have a firm testimony of the truthfulness of her message.

This post may be disgusting to you but the truth is we all have bodies and like it or not they all do disgusting things.

The list could go on and on of the weird things our bodies do, but I will cease from furthering the list.
I just wanted to make it known that I think our bodies do weird things!

Ding dong, anybody home?

Have you ever noticed children have really short-term memories? It is like they put themselves in situations that screams to us "normal" people, "Ding dong, anybody home?"

I figure we all are like this at some point of our mortal life, it just seems to me to be more evident in children.

Example: As mentioned in an earlier post, I watch the neighbor boys after school. I have learned a lot about the difference in how boys and girls play. Regardless of the differences Emma seems to think that she can be just as tough as "The Boys" , but always falls short of being tough.

So in the last week Emma has been trying to do the same tricks as the boys on the tire swing. They will twist that doggone tire swing so tight that I think one of these days it will literally shoot someone off of it.

So this particular day as I was outside observing the children at play, the 3 boys were all attempting to go faster than the other one. I thought for sure one of them was going to lose their snacks they had just ate.

As I watched I noticed Emma carefully watching them. I can just imagine Emma's thought process : "Huh, that doesn't look that scary, maybe I will try it."
She then mustered up the courage to announce to the boys, "I want to try that!"
So they gladly made the swing available to her. They let her settle in before they start twisting.

As they are twisting her and the rope is starting to slow down from being so tight I can see the bubble above Emma's head screaming : "ABORT! ABORT! ABORT! ABORT! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!" But being true to form of a child she ignores the shouts of her internal danger warning system and hunkers down on the swing with this look of horror that could be easily described as "I really do not know if I am going to survive this! Please Lord help me live through this! I promise I will never do anything stupid like this ever again!"

As the boys release the human grenade, she starts screaming this most hideous scream only a mother can detect as true and utter fear from a child. The boys then decided to sway Emma as she is swirling around and she is banged into the tree. They then realize they have crossed the line, as Emma changes into TIHOE (The Incredible Hulk On Estrogen), and they immediately stop the swing and help her get off.(this all happened in about 45 seconds)

After she got off of the swing she obviously was crying and ran to me all upset and stuff. Anyway Emma tried to make it sound like the boys had tricked her into hopping onto the swing. I reminded her that she very gladly and willingly got on that swing.
(Remember I had watched the whole thing) I told her that I was sorry that she got hurt, and that she needed to remember that boys play differently than girls! (And then gave her hugs and kisses, because that is what we do to make things better) "Okay Mom" was her reply.

So I went inside to finish dinner up. 2 minutes later I hear a scream and a cry again. So I go to the door and it is Emma again.

"Moooom (sob, sob, sob, sup, sup,) the boys hurt me again!"

ME: "How did they hurt you?"

Emma: "I was swinging on the tire swing again and they started to twist me again and (sup, sup,) I said stop and they didn't and so (sup, sup,) I started to get off the swing but they didn't stop (sup, sup,) the swing, and so my foot got stuck while (sup, sup,) I was trying to get out(soooobbbbinnngg)!"

Now I am thinking at this point "Are you serious, you are telling me that your reasoning thought that it was safer to jump out of the perpetually moving swing then to stay put until it came to a stop?"

Obviously that is not what a nice mom would say out loud. We only think these things and hope that they never come out of our mouths.
So I said "Emma, I am sorry you got hurt again. Next time just stay away from the boys when they are near the swing(hug and kiss)" Emma: "Okay Mom, I think you are right."

So it is with our life journey. We ignore the promptings we get that warn us of danger and we get hurt over and over, and still we have a loving God who gently reminds us "Ding dong anybody home?"

Unintentional Blaspheme

Tonight during FHE (family home evening) Sera was examining the statue of the Christus we have on our piano mantle. After a few minutes she rather abruptly asked "How come Jesus's boobs are showing?"
I have the hardest times when our children ask these kind of questions. I mean how can you not laugh out loud or giggle when such questions are posed.
So my husband who is better equipped at answering these types of questions said "because He didn't have any shirts."
Which of course made me laugh even harder.
So Sera then said as she pulls up her shirt "I'm gonna dress like Jesus then, because I want to be like Him!"
Never a dull moment! At least in our home, and that is the way I like it.