A Happy Sunday

Photo by Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

There were a number of good things about Sunday.  First, we had surprise visitors.  One of President Oaks' grandsons is in our ward and was blessing his new baby girl, and President Oaks came to participate.  He is the first counselor in the first presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  His wife came too.  She is lovely and kind.  We wondered if people would be too intimidated to share their testimonies, but instead there were a steady stream of people sharing their testimonies of our Savior. 

I was worried Sunday morning about the Primary Program practice.  The program is next week.  How would it go?  We have such a good group of kids and teachers, and even with several visitors I thought it went quite well.

After that I headed to choir and saw Derek in the hall.  He told me to go with Dan and shake President Oaks hand.  I ended up mostly chatting with his wife while he talked to someone else.  It turns out that they had visited Dan's class right after Sacrament meeting.  After chatting about the beauty of the Payson temple and temples in general, she said hello to Dan and President Oaks shook his hand.  She told me they had gone to his class and he was a good boy.  As they left (I had shaken President Oaks hand as I talked to Sister Oaks) she turned around to mouth, "He is a really good boy."  Derek and Kayli had shaken President Oaks hand after Sunday School. 

Later that evening we had a family dinner at Derek's parent's house.  It was really good to visit with those who could come.  I am thankful for our good extended family!

Good Days With Bad Things In Them

Kayli wanted a picture
of Teddy yesterday while she 
was at work.  He kept
licking my face which made it
a little hard to take.  That
might explain my weird face.

Today (Saturday) started super early with an alarm going off under our refrigerator.  Yes, you read that right.  It is a water sensor that sets off an alarm if it gets wet.  The fridge was leaking from the back and the alarm went off at 5:30 a.m.  So today I am thankful that the alarm caught it before water was all over and leaking into the downstairs, that we could turn off the water and go back to bed, and that Derek knew how to fix it.

I am thankful that Derek and I were able to go out and eat and visit and plan.  I am grateful for his listening ear and his love and kindness.  I am thankful that Dan had a friend who could come over, and that Jake knows how to drive so he could go to Walmart and we didn't have to.  I'm glad I could talk to Trisa for a few moments and she could tell me cute kindergarten stories.  I am glad to be home, and glad for a day that was sunny.  I have been tired, and a bit grouchy today, but it wasn't a bad day.  Maybe there are no bad days.  Just good days with bad things in them :-)

We Have In Our House a Fireplace

The most recent picture of our fireplace.
And Kayli with Teddy, Doug, and Chewy
Which I posted about 2 days ago!

We have lived in our house for over 21 and a half years.  I wonder how many days worth of hours I have spent sitting by our fireplace.  It has been one of our favorite things ever since we moved in.  It is warmth when it's cold, an extra seat when we need it, and a cheery look on Christmas, and any other winter night.  It has a mantle for a family picture, or flowers, or bats (for Halloween) or Christmas stockings.  So, on this cold November night (I'm writing the night of Nov. 1st), I am thankful that we have a reliable source of heat that has even worked before when the heater didn't -- though the heater has been fairly reliable and I am thankful for it too!

The mantle sometime in the last 13 years (Dan has a stocking!)

NOVEMBER

***

N is for the colder Nights that replace the heat.

O is for the Oven cooking food that's good to eat.

V is for how Very thankful we all try to be.

E is for just Everyone we love and get to see.

M is for a M month to focus on what's good.

B is for Baking pies, and other tasty food.

E is for the Earth that gives us food and beauty too.

R is for Remembering all the good that we can do.

By Sherie

Happy Month of Thanksgiving!

***Photo by Eric Tompkins on Unsplash

Thankful Thursday on Halloween

***

Here are some things I'm thankful for today.

1.  I am enjoying the book "Girl, Wash Your Face" by Rachel Hollis
2.  I had some training for my office work at the temple today, and I'm thankful I arrived at the same time as other people who also didn't know how to get in to the temple that is currently closed for cleaning and maintenance!  We made it to where we needed to be!
3.  I was able to get some cleaning done even though I didn't really want to.
4.  Kayli gave me a shirt!  I get clothes from Kayli sometimes and it's awesome!
5.  Kayli and Jake have been training Teddy on an obstacle course they made.  They were all have a really good time down there!
6.  I gave the boys chores and Jake did his, and Dan has started!
7.  Little kids will come to the door this evening, and they are cute.
8.  Halloween will be in the past after tomorrow and I can just have fall decorations until it's time for the Christmas ones!
9.  When nobody is home, I can listen to Christmas music early without anyone raising their eyebrows at me!
10.  I was just texting my Mom.  I like that my Mom texts!

***Photo by Pro Church Media on Unsplash

Pumkins!! & Don't Panic!!!

From left to right:
Dan's pumpkin (he'll finish soon), mine, Jake's, Derek's and a gold one Dan painted Saturday.

Me taking a picture for my family to show them what my 30 day heart monitor looks like.

Don't panic!  In my family it is fairly normal, for all of the girls at least, to have some arrhythmia -- our hearts beating a bit out of rhythm occasionally, especially when we're tired or stressed.  We all know to put our head down low, or sit down, or lie down and breathe regularly and all will be well.  Every now and then I have had a slightly worse episode and have freaked people out by not being able to get enough air to talk in full sentences, or by having my heart freak out enough that I gasp when it goes back to normal, or occasionally I feel myself going dark and think I'm going to pass out just to have my heart start working fine again in the nick of time.  It always has gone back to normal though -- and fairly quickly!

I mainly have the heart monitor because I have met my deductible this year and it seemed a good time to see if I could learn anything useful about my heart.  It seems likely that I just need to not let myself get too tired or stressed out :-).  The extra weird episodes happen so infrequently that it is unlikely I'll have one even in the 30 days I wear this thing.  So when you hear I have a heart monitor there really is no reason to panic about my health.  It is the same as always :-)  -- and by that I mean excellent of course! (I told my NP that I always thought of myself as a healthy person and she said I am a healthy person, I'm just getting older.)

Tyler's Farewell and Teddy's Escape

Tyler

Our nephew Tyler is going into the Mission Training Center in Provo on Wednesday to prepare for the Iowa City Mission.  He spoke in church yesterday and so we went to listen and then went to their house to visit for a while afterwards.  We enjoy Tyler.  He is a good person and he will be a good missionary I am sure.  He even let me give him a hug before I left :-)

While we were at their house I got a text from our neighbor telling me that Teddy had escaped.  This wasn't a huge surprise since he is something of an escape artist.  Trisa's dogs were here too and sometimes Teddy wants a vacation from being chased by Doug (the dog) and so he jumps the fence.  Kayli had her Dad bring her home right away.  Where did he come from when she whistled?  The back yard.  He had jumped back in.  Pretty soon I got a text with the picture below.

Kayli washing the snow clumps off of Teddy since it was a snowy day.

When I got home Kayli was feeling sorry for the shivering dogs outside.  She decided she needed to bring them in too and wash them off.

Kayli with Teddy, Doug, and Chewy (left to right)

I rather love this picture.  Kayli loves the doggies!!
They love her too,

The Annual Halloween Party

Tia, Mike Adam, and Trent

Saturday was the annual Halloween Party that Derek's Mom puts a lot of work into preparing.  It was four and one half hours long this year.  That is shorter than usual.  I only got one picture of the whole event and that is the one above.  I believe we were getting ready to do the Monster Mash with Aunt Megan.  The party always includes games, dinner, the Monster Mash (with Dem Bones added this year -- yay for Tia who took the assignment for us), more games, an interactive story, pinatas, and the haunted woods.  This year we also split into families and made candy-bar chart stories.

Even with all of the fun activities, my favorite part is getting to visit with family.
They are awesome!

The No Judgment Zone -- Focusing Forward

Last night at a Relief Society meeting about nurturing, a friend talked about a "no judgment zone", and how it was helpful to have someone listen to your problem, and then, instead of asking "Why did you let that happen?", or "How could you have been that careless!" or any other judgment, just helping you know what to do next, to move forward instead of focusing backwards.

She compared this to the atonement of Jesus Christ.  When we make mistakes he doesn't beat us over the head with them, and ask how we could have been so stupid again!  He listens to what we say, forgives us, and helps us know how to move forward.  He helps us learn from the past, but He wants us to focus forward.   

Keeping Our Promises

Dan, Jake and Teddy

Have you ever had a friend that often cancelled at the last minute, or was always at least half hour late?  Or maybe they promise to help, and then forget?  After a while it is hard to trust that a friend like that will do what they say.  We would never be like that, right?  I think most of us work really hard to keep the promises we make to others, but do we do the same with the promises we make to ourselves?

I was reading a book yesterday by Rachel Hollis and she talks about this.  How many times have we told ourselves that we are going to exercise, or eat right, and then we give up after not too many days -- if we start at all.  I am like that, and it was a bit of an aha moment when I read about not keeping promises to ourselves.  I am not always being a good friend to me!  But how to fix this?  It is much easier to break a promise to myself than to break a promise to someone else. 

Rachel talked about a couple of things that I think are helpful.  First, be very intentional about any promise we make -- to anyone, including ourselves.  Check the calendar.  Make sure there is really time to do what we are promising.  Write it down.  Don't double or triple book ourselves so we don't have time.  Second, break down whatever it is we are wanting to do so that it is easy to succeed.  If we normally do no exercise, we probably aren't going to succeed at running five miles a day right off the bat.  Make an easily attainable goal and do it for long enough that we feel the joy of having succeeded -- and then make it a little harder. 

No matter what kind of promise we make to ourselves, we should try to keep it just like we would any promise we make to others. 

A Proud Moment

Not our actual jumper cables.  Ours look a little more used than those!

So, I went out to go to the store, and put the key in the van, turned it, and got "click, click, click, click, click" and not "vroom vroom" like I wanted.  I could have called the roadside service.  They've jumped the van while it was in the garage before.  But I decided that I was resourceful and had a truck out front with a perfectly good battery.  So I found the jumper cables, and Teddy and I jumped in and out of the truck a few times until it was properly maneuvered really close to the van.  And I did it!  I got the van started, and didn't kill either vehicle!  That was my proud moment.

Then Teddy and I went driving to recharge the battery.  I'm not used to driving with Teddy.  He needs a seatbelt.  He likes to stick his head out the window, which I had to lock so he wouldn't accidentally close it on himself.  While driving around, I came upon an unexpected stop sign.  I started to put on my brakes, and Teddy started to fall, and I did the nice thing.  I ran the stop sign.  There were no vehicles in sight except the one quite a ways behind me that was not occupied by a law enforcement officer:-)

In The Quiet Heart ....

...Is hidden sorrows that the eye can't see.**

All I have are pictures of Kayli's "sillies".  Dogs can be good at sensing hidden sorrows!

Have you ever not felt well, and then looked in the mirror and been surprised that you look the same as always?  Or have you ever felt overwhelmed, or sad, or lonely, and been in a group of people thinking how odd it is that nobody can tell?  Have you put on a happy face, given a happy sounding hello, maybe even professing to be doing very well, when you really want to cry, and you wish someone would see, and care, and know how to help?

Today my physical therapist mentioned the line above about hidden sorrows.  He said he believes it is absolutely true that everyone has them.  I agree.  We are all, at least sometimes, the one with the sorrows, the sickness, the loneliness, and the feelings of being overwhelmed.  We are also the ones, at least sometimes, who are available to take the time to listen, and see, and care, and help.  Often, we are both at the same time -- the helper, and the one needing help. 

I am grateful for the people who check on me.  Those who smile, or wave, or say hello.  Who help me at the pharmacy, or the grocery store, or the doctor's office and are kind.  I love those who take the time to listen, and to care.  I appreciate all who, even without seeing my hidden sorrows, still make them feel lighter and easier to carry.

**(Lord, I Would Follow Thee, Susan Evans McCloud)

Trying For Gratitude

I sent this to Kayli at work yesterday.  It's possible that I take more pictures of the dog than anyone else in the whole family!  He's cute and can't tell me no.  He's super wiggly though!

I was trying to decide what to write and thought about whining, but then I decided I should at least try for gratitude.  So here goes.  Ten things from today.

1.  I enjoyed my bran flakes.
2.  The flowers on the table are pretty.
3.  I got to rest by the warm fire for a while before needing to get ready to go.
4.  I enjoyed talking to Janessa, the physical therapist's helper.
5.  Their helping didn't hurt today. 
6.  Teddy was really happy to see me after physical therapy, especially because he had wrapped his rope / chain thing around a tree and couldn't move far.  (He can't be left free when we're gone because he's an escape artist).
7.  It is a really beautiful fall day today, with sunshine, and colored leaves.
8.  Dan's doctor actually listened to me today -- and answered my questions -- and was helpful.
9.  I got to see my friends at the pharmacy.  (Nevermind that they are my friends because I go to the pharmacy so much!!)
10.  Derek's been driving around a bit today and so he called me from his car.  I'm thankful for hands free calling so he can do that.