As Faithful As Mary

Last week when our new laurel's adviser let us know that she was going to be out of town for the next two weeks, she asked if I would like to teach the laurels while she was away.  As you recall I absolutely loved the time that I was able to spend with the laurels when I taught them, so I gladly let her know that I would be willing to do it this.  When I learned the lesson outlined for this week was to be on developing talents I thought that was a great lesson, but it was the week before Christmas and so I asked if I could tweak it a bit and pull in the Christmas story.
I didn't want it to be just the Christmas story though, I wanted the girls to really come to know and appreciate Mary the Mother of our Savior.  Since this was not in the manual I set out and let the spirit guide where this lesson should go, it turned out to be the most moving lesson that I have taught in a very long time.  I was terrified going in with just a skeleton outline and relying 100% on the Lord to take the lesson where he wanted it, but the appreciation I was able to come away with for Mary was remarkable.  I will list a few of the highlights I feel blog appropriate.
When the Angel appeared to Mary it says that she was confused why he would start with such a salutation.  It made me think about when someone wants to ask a really big favor they usually butter you up before requesting anything.  I think that's what she must have been thinking as well.  This wasn't what really impressed me though, what really impressed me was how she must have felt. She just had this experience and she was to let Joseph know, and most likely her parents, and they were all supposed to believe.  Well as we know Joseph had a hard time believing her almost to the point where the engagement was called off.  How heartbreaking that must have been for her to think that the one she truly loved and wanted to be with didn't believe her, and if he decided to break it off she would be publicly persecuted.
The next thing that I had never really thought about was the distance she traveled at that late stage in pregnancy.  I assume that she could have stayed and let Joseph go pay the taxes, but rather she supported her husband and went with him. Most likely leaving the support system she had and the home they had prepared to bring a baby into.
Third can you imagine knowing that you are bringing the Savior into the world and you have to do it in the most unsanitary of circumstances, with no where to lay the babe once it was born and only a husband there to help.  I am sure since Joseph was a carpenter he had made a cradle at home and they were well prepared to give their child as much royalty as any new parent wants to give.   Do you not suppose she questioned, why if I am so highly favored am I having to bring this spirit into the world this way? Well if she did she never complained, she pondered it in her heart and as we know the Lord brought confirmation at the temple, but it wasn't until 40 days after her labor.  How remarkable this woman was, continually heeding the promptings of the Spirit to keep our Savior safe, raising Him, nurturing Him, and supporting Him even until the day He was put on the cross.  I am amazed at the strength this woman had and have a whole new perspective on the Christmas Story and our Savior's Mother.  I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to discuss this with the Young Women and hear what they thought and help them get to know how faithful and obedient Mary truly was.  If only we all could be as Faithful as Mary.
 I don't know if it's becuase we are going through the adoption process and parenthood has been on our minds a lot recently, or why this lesson meant so much to me today, but just like I told the YW even the most righteous are tried at excruciating levels, but the Lord is always there to pull us through.  He gave Mary confirmations when she needed them but she was definitely tried and her potential was pushed, she had to have the faith and believe that what she was doing was the right thing and not give up.  I don't think we will ever be tried in the ways Mary was but we have trials in our lives in which time and time again we are being prepared to be the instruments the Lord needs us to be as we build His kingdom and look after those around us. 

Family Home Entertainment

The past few weeks we have been so busy getting ready for Christmas and working we haven't gone on any new crazy adventures, but that doesn't mean we haven't spent some great nights at home entertaining ourselves.  Ever since the day Oley got glasses I continue to ask him why he doesn't want contacts.  One evening after he brought me my contact case, I discovered I had forgotten I had changed contacts that morning so had my old ones still in the case.  Lucky for him I lovingly let him try out my old contacts. . . which resulted in a great laugh! Funniest night ever!

The puppies have had some great nights as well.  They got a Christmas card from cousin Ryker, and have loved having the tree to sit under. 

With all the good there had to be some worry somewhere right?  Well Lily, our little explorer, gave us a scare once again this time with chicken bones.  Our little scavenger found some and Oley wasn't able to tell whether she had eaten any or not, but once he told me I just had to search handy-dandy google and learn of all the awful side effects - you know you all do this same thing.  After a lot of research we opted not to go to the emergency vet, it said that if they are able to get the bones down without choking then most of the risk is eliminated.  But I was still worried, as any good pet owner would be, so I worked from home most of the day the next day to be with her.  I am glad I have such a flexible job that allows me to do things like this, but I am even more grateful that our little baby was okay.  

Lastly and most likely the best event that occurred was the white elephant gift that I got at my office Christmas party.  I was so excited for this ninja turtle snuggie that I just couldn't wait to show Oley his new snuggie.   He absolutely hates them, and makes fun of me ruthlessly whenever I use my WSU one so I just knew he was going to love this or hopefully it will grow on him!

Honestly who couldn't love this?  Awesome, right?

 

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

That's right you read that right, we bought our very first ever Christmas Tree this weekend!!  Okay I am sure there are a few of you reading this thinking what in the heck you have been married 5 years and never had a Christmas tree, well yes and no.

In the past we have had this pink Christmas Tree.  Okay, so we have some explaining to do.  While we were both going to school full-time and working full-time we literally were at our house long enough to sleep and on Sundays.  As soon as finals were over and Christmas break hit we would head home to spend the holidays with the family.  Therefore neither of us 1) had time to put up a tree and all the time it consumes during finals, and 2) never felt we really NEEDED one where we would be at our parent's house for Christmas, so this pink tree has served us well for the past 5 years. 
But this year since neither of those circumstances are applicable we went and bought our very own, real, First Christmas Tree!  I did not think I would ever be this excited, but I am in Love with it!  Friday night in the down pouring rain, serious in like the eye of the storm, I made Oley come help me pick out a tree.  We then stopped at Wal-Mart and got the decor for the tree, I was super anxious to get things going!  But since the tree was soaked we wanted to let it dry out a bit on the porch before we brought it in.  So while in the Christmas spirit I got the Christmas Cards all addressed!  Yay!

Then on Saturday morning, after Oley finished helping some ward members get packed into their moving truck, he brought the beauty into the house! The dogs were very curious! 

While I put the garland and nativities up around the house Oley got the lights and tinsel put on the tree, and then we worked together getting the ornaments on, tying the bows and enjoying having it in our home!

I keep requesting that Oley cut the top off so it looks normal, and for some reason he won't, so it looks all goofy becuase we went with a bow rather than a star, but I love it all the same!

To Love is To Serve

I have never been as sad as I was this time to have to switch callings.  Yes, I truly loved my little 4-year olds and I loved spending every Sunday morning with them, but the past 5 months that I have been able to teach the Laurels I have grown to sincerely love them.  Since we had stake conference last week I have known that I was going to be released and called to be the First Counselor in the YW Presidency for 2 weeks.  I think it was probably better I had that much time to switch my frame of mind of being sad I was being released as the laurel adviser to joy that I would still get to be involved with these girls, although it didn't make it any easier as I taught my last lesson on Sunday.  The youth these days are so strong, I thought it was bad 7 years ago when I was their age but I am amazed every week as they come and share their testimonies in class.
As I reflect why this calling was so hard for me to leave compared to ones I have had in the past it simply came down to the simple fact I truly love these girls.  Yes I would pray before I prepared lessons for my primary children, but I never prayed daily for guidance in how I could help shape the lives of the 4-year olds like I did my Laurels and I sincerely believe that was the difference.  These girls were constantly on my mind and I was constantly praying for them.  Although I am confident they are in very good hands and as I transition into leading the Mia Maids I know that I will learn to love not only the Laurels of our ward but all of our Young Women.  It's overwhelming to me to know that both Oley and I are responsible for the youth of the ward, hopefully we will be able to be everything the Lord expects and not mess up too terribly bad!     

The Adventures of a Tourist

There is so much to do on this side of the state it's dwindling it down to meet the interests of those that come to visit that is the hard part.  Since we spent the majority of Friday shopping we decided we would spend Saturday site seeing, so what better place to do that than down town Seattle.  Oley and I had not made it to the temple yet this month and since this was the last weekend of the month we still needed to get that in, so while we made a trip to the temple his family went to breakfast and met us in down town Seattle.
Our first stop was the classic Pike Place Market.

 

 

 Dougie had gotten lost while the majority of the group had stopped for a bathroom break, so the remainder of our time spent at the market we were searching for him.  He left his phone in the car, where would we be without technology, obviously lost.  

 

Oley ran back to the car to get my tripod while we searched for Dougie.  But everyone has to have a classic Pike Place Pig picture, so we made sure we got one for them. 

 While waiting for Oley the second time we went out by the sound.  The birds were so accustomed to people they would walk right up to Jake. 

We took a few different pictures of the family all together.  This one wasn't one of the ones I planned to edit, but I thought it was blog worthy. 
We drove down past the space needle and then headed to Tacoma to experience the Zoo Lights, which were super fun!

As we were leaving Seattle the sun was setting and so I was able to get one quick shot of Century Link feild while we drove by.

One of my colleagues told me about the Christmas lights Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium does every year and so we thought we would try it out.

There were lights throughout the whole zoo, and the greatest part was we were even able to go into the aquarium and see some of the animals. 

The typical Grandpa Dougie making sure his grand kids were sufficiently spoiled, although they loved these light up swords he bought them.

 We have never been to this zoo before, but after spending some time there this weekend we definitely want to go back when we can see all the animals and experience the whole zoo!

Since I have taken this desk job I have become quite large so I made Oley take my picture next to a sign that fits me quite well. 
It was sad to see the holiday weekend end and it is never fun saying bye to family, but as much as we enjoyed spending time with the family and at our house it was so refreshing to get back to the work week grind today. 

I Love Turkey Day

For the majority of our marriage Oley and I have had the opportunity of hosting someone at our house for Thanksgiving, so not to break the tradition we invited his family up to share in the Thanksgiving feast.  This year I even talked Oley into letting us get a little super festive and buy new plates to liven up the table a bit.  

I forgot to take a picture on Thanksgiving, oops!   I am in love with the plates and it made the meal come together so nicely.  His family arrived on Wednesday evening and so we met up with his Aunt and friends for dinner and then headed home to prepare for the big day.  

The dogs absolutely loved having kids in the house again!  Lily was even brave enough to let Jake cuddle her while we got the dinner ready.  

I am horrible and we didn't even take a single picture of the dinner, but believe me it turned out great.  Oley always does such a great job, I feel bad that I spent half the morning driving his aunt to the airport so left him with the majority of the work, but he did a wonderful job!  

This year we didn't really see anything we "HAD" to have so we didn't join in on the fun of Black Friday shopping.  I was actually a little saddened by this, but we did still go shopping. We headed down to Cabela's that afternoon and shopped around.    

This was the first time we have got to spend a lot of time with Roarke (Oley's brother) and his family so we are glad that they were able to come up and visit, their kids are growing up fast, but have the cutest personalities. 

After Cabela's we went a little bit further south to hit up the outlet malls!  Since this was the first time we have been all together in awhile we wanted to get at least one family picture done.  Unfortunately it rained all day Friday, and when it finally let up a little bit the lighting was horrible.  

When we got out to establish the lighting was not going to work Jake and Oley spent some time wrestling around before we got back in the car to go shopping.  After we shopped our hearts out, we headed on home to call it a day! 

A Great Way to End the Week

Friday after work I was so excited for the weekend.  We had A LOT planned and I wasn't going to let the headache I had brewing ruin it for me.   My first stop on the way home was the mall.  We have been in need of some more hand soap so I stopped into Bath and Body Works before I headed off to get my hair cut.  They have this new hand soap called Peach Bellini. . . I highly recommend it.  Anyway then I went to try out a new salon. . . I always hate finding a new hair dresser, but it had to be done!  Well I was going to show before and after. .. but for some reason this won't let me upload any more photos. . . WEIRD! 
Oley is now the scout master so he was to be on a camping trip that night and so it was just me and the puppies. . . well until only one boy from the whole young mens showed up.  So Oley came home and we got to spend the WHOLE weekend together!
Saturday we had planned to have a few other couples over after the Adult Stake Conference session, but after we all realized it didn't get over until 9 PM we decided we would have to postpone until another time.  The speakers were great like usual and being able to spend time with the neighbors was also a lot of fun.
Sunday evening we met some of the greatest people ever and were able to really end our weekend on a high note!  We are so grateful for the people the Lord puts in our lives and the blessings that we are to one another. 

Now to figure out why my blogger won't let me upload any photos. . . any ideas why?!?

An Alarming Sound

Last week when I got home from work I found Oley upstairs in our bedroom with all of the wires out of the wall and ceiling.  My first question was what are you doing?!?  If you have never been to our house we have no light fixtures in our rooms so we have to use lamps, we were told this is the "new fad", kinda a lame fad if you ask me. Anyway I had no idea what he had up his sleeve this time.  He preceded to let me in on the fact he was sick of having to use a lamp and so was installing a light in our bedroom.  At first I thought no big deal he was able to install a fan in our last house so a light can't be much harder right.  Well after 30 minutes of him flipping breakers and getting frustrated, he decided a lamp was probably a better idea. 
As he was cleaning up the mess he had made, I was joking with my Grandpa on the phone and he said well you better sleep with your fire extinguisher tonight.   Haha I thought.  So the night wore on, no biggy right.  Well about 2 AM we hear this annoying beeping coming from the corner of our room.  Our home security system, great!  It was beeping to make us aware the battery was dying.  So Oley came downstairs to examine the main system.

 While on further inspection he somehow set the whole system off.  Had we followed up with the property management group and got the code for the system would have been no big deal, but we failed to do that and now had to think under pressure.  As you know home alarm systems are loud, it was 2 AM and our neighborhood is a fairly quiet place.  I was so worried that it was waking up all the neighbors.  So as Oley was scrambling downstairs to figure out what to do, handy-dandy Google gave us the answers.  We were going to have to pull all the sensors off the walls and unwire them. 
What can I say my Mr. Fix it was able to get it all done in 25 minutes. . . although it felt as though it took 25 days.  The next morning we got a call from the property management group, askign whether teh police showed up.  I guess when the alarm was set off it called dispatch.
Some days I just shake my head and have to laugh at all the curve balls we are thrown.  Can't beat going through this life with your best friend and laughing about all those "good times"!

Martha Stewart Living

Oley just loves being married to me and constantly having to change the furniture around, but honestly I was having a hard time with the current situation, the ottoman was taking up too much of our living space down stairs.  So you guessed it we took today to rearrange the house, again!  Last night we went and bought a new rug, which I think brings character to the room, and today we went to work. 
I am in love with the results!

I wish I would have taken before pictures, but here is the new living room.

Got a longer rug for the back door, that matches.

Moved the rug we previously had in the living room to the sitting area up stairs.

Great place to store the ottoman until we move back into a bigger house that will have room for this to be with the couch.

And up course me and my baby girl warming up by the fire after church!

It's Autumn Time!

I never remember singing the "Autumn Time" song in Primary when I was a child, but last year around this time while I was teaching we sang it and it's all I could hum to myself as I helped do the yard work yesterday!  The sun was shining and we knew it was probably the last nice weekend we would get so after getting the household chores done, we headed out to get the yard work done. 

Oley Raked

I Bagged

Oley Mowed

And then we all relaxed

It's amazing how many leaves one small tree produces! But that's okay becuase I love all the fall colors!

This was a picture I took early this season.

Red Light, Green Light

So we have all played the game as a child red light-green light, which at the tender age of four we are able to comprehend this concept, or at least my cute little 4-year old primary class was able too.  But for some reason on Friday night as I was driving to go play soccer for the first time in months, which I was super excited for, the person driving behind me must have forgotten the simple concept of stopping at a red light and you guess it rear-ended me.  I could not believe it!  As I pulled over into a parking lot to assess the damage I prayed and hoped it wasn't bad, for as bad as it jolted the car I was prepared for the worst. 
As I walked around the back of my car, which I have only owned for 6 short months mind you, I was relieved to find that there were only two small dents.  These dents are the perfect shape and size as the screws from her license plate. 

Since I was super anxious to get to the soccer field and the damage wasn't terrible I called Oley to see what I needed to do.  I asked if she had insurance so we could swap information, when she told me she had no insurance and was a single mother of two kids, I felt really bad.  So I elected to not do anything, but Oley then told me I needed to call the police if she had no insurance.  So as I was trying to find the number for the police, she got back in her car and drove away.  My sympathy for her slowly transformed into "what in the world you can't just drive away from your problems".  The license plate number I was able to take down was registered to a Subaru and she was driving a jeep, so that did me no good.  Now we just have two small dents in the back of my car, which had this lady stuck around and been willing to exchange information in case something more serious was wrong I would have been fine, but running away from your problems kind of bothered me.  But you can only stay frustrated for so long!  Guess we will see what we can do about getting these small dents fixed up so they don't rust or anything, and hope it doesn't happen again!  Made me realize how trusting we really are of other drivers on the road. 

Nobody's Body But My Body

So the past few weeks the lessons I have had to teach in YW have been on the importance of caring for our physical bodies.  Growing up it always made sense to me that our body is a gift from God and that we should care for it.  It wasn't until these past couple of weeks when it really hit me that our bodies truly are a Gift from God.  Those who chose not to follow our Father in Heaven do not have a body.  I don't know why it took me this long to realize this but this is huge, no wonder Satan tries every way he possibly can to take possession of our mental state so that he can posses our physical state. 
I went on to think about how I really treat the body that I was given.  There are mornings, recently A LOT of mornings, when I just don't want to get out of bed and run becuase I am "too tired", no I really am not too tired I am just being way to lazy to get out of bed and take care of my body.  While I was on my sugar free month last month, I never felt as though I ate too much or was bloated and that's how it should be our appetites should be in Lord's bounds.  But it is hard, there is a point of becoming way too obsessive about this and just remaining conscience of it.  So I guess here is my start to a better healthier me.  Maybe I will even be crazy enough to run another marathon, but don't quote me on that one!

One Lucky Kid

Last night we took Oley's aunt out to dinner for her birthday.  We tried out this new place in Sumner and according to Oley they had the best onion rings he had ever had!  But that's besides the point, as we talked about the past weekend and how we were able to spend time with my family and nephews Oley pulled out his phone to brag about our newest little nephew, Oden.

Oley's aunt made a comment that I just couldn't shake for the rest of the night, "Oley you are going to make a great dad!" Obviously it wasn't becuase I was shocked at this comment, becuase we hear it often, but I began to reflect back on how Oley interacts with children.  He always wants to be the first to hold babies, he has this love that radiates off of him that the little children at church always want to sit on his lap and be his best friend. He loved our nursery calling, and the kids loved him.  Because of this place in Oley's heart for children, and our dream of having a family, it makes the difficulty we have in reproducing that much more difficult.  But I am so glad that we have siblings that allow us to be apart of their children's lives and gives Oley the chance to be Greatest Uncle a child could ever want.  When he is interacting with children I can't help but think of how great of a dad he really will be!  When it finally happens our child(ren) will be on lucky kid!
As I continue to reflect I want to take a trip down memory lane. . . lucky for you I am going to take you with me.  

Much like any good uncle there has to be some goofing around.

Oley has always had a special place for Ryker.  I think it has to do with the fact Lauralynn left Ryker with him when he was a couple months old while we were at a coaching clinic.  In the picture above we were on spring break and nobody could get little Ryker to settle down, so Oley took him in the other room and Ta-duh he was able to stop the tears. 
 

 

I love that Oley is so great with little kids, I can't wait for what the future holds for us and for him in his career! 

Love my Sisters

It's so fun to get together with my sisters to see how different and similar we really are.  Since we have never really had sister pictures taken and this was a full weekend of taking family pictures I wanted to get at least one shot of all of us together.  I was hoping we would have had time to do a full shoot, but the few shots we got are perfect! 

I love my sisters and am proud of each of them and all that they have accomplished.  I will have to admit they are some strong-willed women!
Before we headed up to Everett Oley took us to his new FAVORITE place for breakfast.

His anticipation for breakfast!

The restaurant had the perfect chair to get a quick snap shot of our two little nephews, Oden and Ryker. We can't get enough of them. 

We then drove up to the temple grounds so I could take Lauralynn's family pictures.  Here is Rykers trademark flip Holly off while taking pictures pose, I think every time I have taken their pictures he has one.

 Lauralynn and Doug's Family.

I took photos of Mar and Jacob the day before, I love how they turned out!

Tried out a photo shoot in our house, quite frankly turned out much better than I expected it too. But how could it not when you are taking pictures of such a cute little baby!  Our adorable little nephew Oden.  Such a cute little guy. 

 One of my favorite shots from Marilee and Jacob's photo shoot. 

It was so fun to have my sisters and their kids here, they make some of the cutest little fellows.  Someday we will have some rug rats for them to run around with, until then they will just have to continue to be spoiled by our attention.
Oh I forgot the only good picture I have of the Halloween party.  But oh what a great party it was! Can't wait to see Robyn's photos of everyone's costumes, our bobbing for donuts game, and the cupcake decorating contest.

My mom is the most amazing seamstress I have ever met.  This costume was awesome!  Loved Baby Oden's as well.