Today I took pictures of the Bottoms. It was a little chilly (if you look close you can see Zebadee's pink nose), but we had a good time and the pictures came out really cute. Here are some of my favorites.
Christopher and Zebadee
The Bottoms
Marcie and Zebadee
Isn't she so cute!
A happy family.
Well, Thanksgiving was fun. I ate with Lois Porter, Clarisse Minner and the Bottoms. We had lots of good food and company. After we ate and cleaned up we dipped hard pretzels in caramel, chocolate and sprinkles or nuts and then went and caroled to 8 different families in the ward. It was really fun and I think that it will be a new tradition for me.
(From the left of the table) Marcie, Christopher and Zebadee and then Clarisse and Lois.
Us making the yummy pretzels.
Part of the finished product.
The finished treat plates - I made chocolate cake into loafs that we cut up and then we added candy - it was well received! :)
I had a great Thanksgiving and hope all of you did as well. We took some pictures of the activities and will post them when I get a chance.
Today I am grateful for talents - not just mine but yours as well. There are so many amazingly talented people in this world. I am thankful that each one of us got at least one of them and that we are able to make each others life that much more rich with them.
There are of course talents like singing, dancing, acting, speaking, creating art,sports, etc. that are very outwardly apparent and which I know many many talented people with these talents (actually I am related to peop
le with these types of talents). But not to be forgotten are those that have talents that are unseen such as compassion, love, empathy, faith, hope, strength, patience and joy. What a amazing world we live in that allows to have and know people with all these types of talents, as I sit and listen to beautiful music be played and sung I am uplifted, art makes my heart happy, and then there are those that strengthen me and comfort me with their talents.
I was talking with my mom about a week ago about how Thanksgiving in many ways doesn't seem like enough sometimes - you work all day cooking and in about 15 minutes it is gone and people wonder off to play games, sleep, etc. So that is why I decided to do a week of Thanksgiving and then yesterday when I was work calling people to set up interviews with them I had a mother tell me to come today - that they weren't doing anything. WOW! So I agreed hoping that this family that lives in a trailer park would be able to benefit from the $30 that I give at the end of the interview for their time. So I went this morning and drove around the park and found the trailer and family. I did the interview and asked them about plans for the day and still no plans - they might go over to some friends and eat some food at some point but nothing certain. I am very thankful today for a good job, good friends and money to provide for my needs and some of my wants.The thing that I decided on Monday I would talk about today is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Recently I have been touched by the good people that I meet. I think about how Christ's teachings have changed so many lives even if they are not of my faith. I think about Elder Uchtdorf's talk about hope and how faith and charity work together to create a better person, a more charitable, faithful, and hopeful person. I am grateful to know so many people that have taken those teachings of Jesus and use them each day in their lives, it is a blessing to me to know them.
The Gospel and my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints blesses my life in unto
ld ways, but here are some examples.
1. I get to be in primary and see the faith and hear the testimonies in song and words of the children "Suffer the little children to come unto me, for such is the kingdom of God".
2. I understand the plan of salvation - that alone is worth so much and such a blessing
3. I am sealed to my family forever and if we live worthily of the celestrial world we will all live there together - a true heaven in deed.
4. I get to be a missionary and teach others for the rest of my life through my words, deeds and testimony
5. I meet some of the most amazing friends and people that love me and support me
6. We have a living prophet that guides us, leads us, prays for us
7. We have the priesthood of God
8. I get to go to the temple anytime I want and feel close to my Savior and Heavenly Father
9. We believe in personal and modern day revelation
10. I get to read and study the Book of Mormon each and every day
11. I know how to prepare and am not worried about the future
12. I belong to a ward which is a instant support network
13. I know that I am a Daughter of Heavenly Parents who love me and want me to return to live with them someday
14. Everyday of my life is blessed with the gift of the Holy Ghost
15. Most of all I am thankful and grateful that I know I can have a personal relationship with my Savior, that He died for me and rose the third day, that through the atonement all of my sorrows, pains and sins will be resolved, and that He loves me and knows my needs.
The beauty of this world never ceases to amaze me. I have lived in many places and traveled to many many more and every where I have gone I have been surrounded by beauty, some of which I had to learn to appreciate more than others, but always beauty. I can't believe how much Heavenly Father and Christ blessed us all!
One of the things I love most about the beauty that was created for me and you is how close I feel to my Savior in nature. I know that I am not alone in feeling that closeness, but I am so very grateful.
As stand at the edge of an ocean, on top of a mountain, look into canyons, walk in a forest, or walk through the fields I am reminded how small all of my worldly worries are and that money is just that money, tests are tests and frustrations will end if I allow them to - I am thankful that perspective I can receive by just walking among His creations.
So instead of list things I thought I would do a just show you the beauty! 
This morning I sat and thought about what my most meaningful blessings were and made my list for the week and of course friendship is a huge blessing in my life. I will share pictures of some of my friends but unfortunately I do not have pictures of them all.
1. My friends support me even when I am not the nicest person on earth or they don't understand the path I have chosen.
2. They like to spend time with me and share my interests and thought patterns.
3. Help me remember that I am unique and that that is a good thing.
4. Are great examples of how they live their lives.
5. Encourage me to be better, do better and serve better.
6. Help me understand the gospel better
7. Allow me to serve them
8. Do fun things with me.
9. Serve me.
10. Ultimately - they love them - thank you so much.
Here are my closest friends that I have pictures of
Suzan, Marcie, Dallas, Amy, Beth & Cherilyn
Freedom to worship as I wish, even when others do not want me to.
Freedom to make mistakes and then pay for the consequences (mistakes help us learn and in Satan's plan we would not have this)
Freedom to travel and see the beauty that God created for us.
Freedom to vote (thanks to all the woman that worked so hard to get this for me!)
Freedom to go to school and get an education (woman are not allowed to do this in some parts of the world even today)
Freedom to work and provide for myself the things that I want to have and the things I need.
Freedom to be politically active in any cause, for any party or for any person.
Freedom to speak my mind.
Freedom to love who I want.
Freedom to uncensored work (email, blogs, websites, newspapers, etc.)
Freedom to pursue 
happiness!
I have decided to share something that I am thankful for each and every day this week.
My family - this is of course my largest blessing in life besides the gospel and I couldn't have the gospel without them! So why am I grateful and thankful for them? Here are 10 reasons I am thankful for them....
1. They love me for who I am
2. I can be me completely and without reservation around them
3. They make me laugh
4. They support me in everything I do
5. They are great examples of living the gospel
6. They have given my siblings, in-laws and nieces and nephews to love
7. They always are happy to see me and talk to me
8. They understand me
9. We share history
10. They are all trying their best to live the best life that they can live - that takes guts and sometimes doesn't produce any glory
On another note - my friend Amy's b-i-l was in a bad bike accident - his bike hit a brick from a construction site on his way to school (he is a PhD student in IL) and came down on his face with moved his helmet and his smashed into the sidewalk head pretty badly. He has been in the ICU for a couple of days and is now in the Step-down ICU. Please pray for Brian and Emily Jamison and their 2 little girls (2 and almost 1). They need all the prayers they can get to have the bruising and swelling in his brain go down. I am thankful for modern medicine that kept him alive - he is a really great priesthood holder that loves his family and is trying hard to complete school.
Dallas tagged me with this tag.
This mornings tag is brought to you by, book:thirty .
Here are the rules:Open the closest book to you—not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment. Turn to page 56 and write out the fifth sentence as well as the next two to five sentences. Pass this on to five blogging friends.
My “closest” book is Emma's War - A True Story by Deborah Scroggins. Closest - well it was the first one on the book shelf beside me - I am completely surrounded by books in my office.
Beautiful women were the only indulgence the Mahdi allowed himself and his men; there were terrible punishments in his camp for drinking and smoking.
In this as in all else, he claimed to follow the model of the prophet Muhammad.
There were signs and portents in the Mahdi's favor. In 1882 the appearance of a comet had foretold that the town of EL Obeid would fall to the Mahdi. Eleven months later the Egyptian government sent ten thousand men under the command of a British officer, Colonel William Hicks, to recapture the town.
I will tag:
Asia
Shelly
Malissa
Cyndi
Cherilyn
So I figured that if I talked about my mission it would be fun to get some of those pictures up as well. Now, remember that it was the '90's so no comments about hair, clothing (not completely sure why I chose some of these clothes) or anything else! :)
It was fun to go through the pictures and scan some of them in. Here goes.
This is me at the Provo Temple during my time at the MTC - it was a great time too.
This is my district in the MTC - it is tradition (or at least it was) to stand in front of the map of the world and point to where you are going. Problem here is that all of the Elders were going to the same place and there was not enough room. Sister Kiri Price (the one with the red hair) is my companion - she was everything I needed and wanted - she is a great person.
Mike was my very first door knock on my first full day in Michigan. I learned a lot about faith and the Lord guiding the work that very day (there is a long story here so ask if you want to know). Here he is in all his faith ready to be baptized - joyful day!
All who read this know that I got very sick (later found out it was Epstein-Barr) and went home after a short amount of time in the field. I have often looked back on all I learned in such a short period of time. I know that the Lord allowed me to experience and see everything that I needed to because He knew the plan and knew I would not be going back.
The older sister in this picture had breast cancer when I got to Muskegon and Josh (the elder behind me) gave her a blessing to heal her the day before surgery. She went in and was healed (no trace that it had ever existed). She went inactive a few weeks later because of something small and in my opinion silly. My testimony was strengthened about miracles - that they are wonderful but they do not build faith without the study, prayer and contemplating that must accompany them. Our faith and testimonies are built piece by piece and without that there is no foundation to stand on, no rock (Helaman 5:12).
This is me - surprise, surprise. It was taken the day before I left - we had a crazy blizzard and as we drove that day many times we wondered if we would make it home. Sister Fales was my companion at the end and she taught me a lot about faith, prayer, and following the Spirit. She was the best teacher of the gospel I had ever seen - wow! I am so grateful that she loved me and was willing to give up her status as the highest numbers in teaching, tracking and baptizing while she was with me. She said it didn't matter and that the Lord had put us together for a reason - she was a great example to me and I learned to love her after about 15 minutes of being around her.
My mission like all others had its challenges and sweetness, I so grateful for it. It took me a long time to get over feeling like I let the Lord down when I came home to sick to be a missionary but I know that I did what I was intended to do at the time and those experiences will go with me forever.
I have been thinking about missionary work a lot lately. A couple weeks ago my home teachers came over and we were talking about the church, how my parents joined, etc. and something hit me harder than than any other time in my life. We are told and we teach the kids and others to follow the prophet and for the most part we are agreeable and do what is asked - until it is hard, inconvenient, etc and then it seems like more of a struggle to do it.
For example food storage and debt. I have some food storage and I have some debt - I don't think they were meaning both. :) I am trying to get my food storage and I am trying to get out of debt but, if I had been wiser when I was younger and listened to the prophet than I wouldn't be in debt now - I will say this there is plenty of my debt from school and the prophets have said that it is alright to to take out debt for school - but now I have to pay it back! :(
So, that was a tangent here is where the meat lies. When I was talking with the HTers I realized that if Tom had not listened to the prophet and given up so much (good career, relationship, money, etc) and come and found us that we would not be here today! Pretty powerful if you take it to that level - because of his obedience I am blessed with an eternal family and a chance at the celestial kingdom (if I am worthy). Boy am I grateful for his faithful and obedient heart!
I was reading in the Conference Issue the talk "Go Ye Therefore" by Sister Allred and found myself thinking I feel the same way about my mission. Here is what she said:
"My mission had a great impact on my life. I learned to rely more on the Lord, to seek guidance of the Spirit, and to feel an overwhelming love for God's children. My knowledge of the scriptures and my understanding ofthe doctrines increased. So did my desire to be obedient and to keep the commandments with exactness. My testimony of the Savior and His infinite atonement was strengthened. My missionary experiences became part of who and what I am. Missionary work became my passion. It has impacted my life and that of my family more than anything else."
I know that each of us has the opportunity to be the difference in someone else's life and I know that for those that read this they already have. I am grateful for talks like these that get me to remember the joy that comes from helping someone learn about the plan of happiness.
So Cherilyn tagged me and so here goes. I am supposed to provide:
5 joys, 5 fears, 5 obsessions, 5 surprising facts, and 5 tags...
5 Joys
1. My family and friends
2. The temple
3. Learning
4. My religion
5. Creating things
5 Fears
1. Not succeeding
2. Never marring and having children
3. Death of my parents and siblings
4. Letting people down
5. Losing my good friends
5 Obsessions
1. Learning (degrees - at least others think so)
2. Creating new things
3. Taking pictures
4. Finishing my PhD soon
5. not sure - grad school seems to pull every bit of life out of me
5 Surprising Facts
1. I love traditions so much I am constantly making new ones for myself
2. I want to understand how computers work better - don't tell my dad :)
3. I'm good at math and science - but don't tell anyone
4. I want to live all over the world for work
5. I'm more of a pleaser than I want to admit
5 Tags
1. Cyndi Selim
2. Asia Lowe
3. Shelly Turpin
4. Dallas Mathews
5. Malissa Mobley
I have recently finished two quilts (that I worked on forever because I am too busy) and thought I would post one that I finished 2 summers ago because I never posted it (wasn't blogging yet). I realized how terrible my carpet looks in the lovely rental - I am planning on cleaning them soon and I do vacume every week!
They are not the best pictures but I think that they are cute quilts. The first one is for Zebadee for Christmas for her toddler bed.
The second is one that I made because I loved the panel of Noah and the animals - those of you who know me well know that I love Noah.
This one is one that Beth designed and I made while she was here in the summer of 2006. It is Dick and Jane and so cute.
This was the title of the email I got from my advisor today!
What does it mean?
I PASSED MY GRANT AND THUS PASSED COMPS!!!!!!!!!!!!
So I am now ABD or All But Dissertation! I can not tell you how exciting this is for me!
I am more excited about this than my job I could get right now.
I just got back from NCFR (National Council of Family Relations). I was supposed to be in Branson right now but I have been sick all week and so has Marcie who was supposed to meet me there. I got to Little Rock on Monday and hid in my room with the curtains closed all day Tuesday and Wednesday because my head hurt so very much. I decided to only stay one night in Branson and that was because I thought the 7 hour car trip would be too long for one day with this splitting headache. So, I did go and present and everyone seemed to think it was good and especially liked our title "Do Rural Communities Grow Couch Potatoes?" - the answer is yes - especially for little girls.
I did take a few pictures of Little Rock and Branson. I decided that Branson is not really for me - too much touristy type things - I would rather go somewhere more secluded to "get away from it all" - that is hard when you are in the midst of it all. So, I probably won't be going back even though it is really beautiful - I would rather go to another Silver Leaf in AR that is secluded and beautiful.
Here are some pictures I took. I was a little amazed because within just a few days so many of the trees had dropped their beautiful leaves and I was just too late - I guess I just to heed the warning Grandma always gave to stop and smell the roses or in this case stop and take some wonderful pictures even if you are really busy! I guess that is the story of our lives - I just need to learn that lesson better.
