Happy Day! Admitted to the University of Texas at Austin!!

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Michelle

I just found out tonight that I was accepted to the University of Texas at Austin for the upcoming fall semester!!! I’m THRILLED!!! I got into Texas State University in San Marcos also, but UT is much closer to home and has more commuting options, so I think I’m going to accept at UT. I’m not 100% sure yet because although I was admitted for their Liberal Arts – Spanish program, in order to get my teaching certificate I also have to get admitted to their UTeach program. Therefore, I have to find out if I can get into that program before I’ll accept the offer of admission. The one downfall to UT is that I’ll have to take another math class because College Algebra doesn’t count for their general education math requirement, and I’ll have to take Chemistry II or some other science I & II classes because they require the combination of classes that ACC & Texas State don’t require. There might be some other classes that UT requires  as well, but I’m not sure yet. Therefore, if I go to UT it might take 2-1/2 or 3 more years to finish…… which I’m really not looking forward to…. but they are a lot closer to home, which has a lot of benefits too. 

The next step is finding out about the UTeach program. If I get into that, I’ll more than likely accept at UT. 

In any case, it’s great news before the end of the semester & gives me added incentive to try even harder on my finals! 

In other news….. I’m having gastric sleeve surgery in May. I made a blog just for that journey, which you’re welcome to come follow too – My Gastric Sleeve Life. 

Needless to say, many things are happening around here! 

Michelle

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What Thinks Christ of Me?

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Michelle

This weekend was the 182nd General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is a cool infographic that the Church made that gives some interesting information and statistics about General Conference at http://www.lds.org/bc/content/ldsorg/content/images/GCinfographicsa-1200px-wide.jpg?lang=eng if you’re unfamiliar with General Conference. 

A couple weeks ago, I found an interesting blog – Middle-aged Mormon Man – and today after Conference was over, he posted the following on Facebook: “So how long does the Post-Conference “High” last for you? Until tomorrow? Two weeks? 3 months? Right now I’m ready to take on the world…” I loved that thought because when Conference was over, I posted on Facebook, “So many thoughts running through my head after General Conference! So very grateful to Heavenly Father for continuing revelation & guidance through awesome leaders! Time to let things sit in my mind for a while & somehow re-prioritize to squeeze more important things into my days.” Right now, I am completely on that “post-conference high” that he mentioned! I want to change EVERYTHING that needs to be changed NOW. I feel that way after almost EVERY General conference. In reality, my post-conference high normally crashes by the Wednesday after General Conference ends. Every once in a while, it’ll last a week or two, but 98% of the time it lasts no longer than a month after Conference. I truly hope that this time is different!

The last few times we’ve had Conference, I’ve said I don’t feel I get as much out of it now as I did when I was growing up because when I was growing up we had to go to the church to watch Conference and now we can watch online. In a way, I love that it is more accessible now. However, it is harder for me to concentrate when there is cleaning to do or when there are games to play or Facebook or other websites to look at. One year, I remember scanning old pictures during it, which I loved doing, but after a while I discovered that I was paying more attention to the pictures than to Conference. I keep saying I’m going to go to the church again to watch it……. then a crazy week like we just had happens and I get lazy or tired & just watch at home. 

Last time, in October, we went to the San Antonio Zoo with the exchange student that was here on the Saturday of Conference. I felt bad about not watching it, but justified that it was good to do something with our family & especially with the exchange student. This time, we had signed the girls up for a dance clinic they wanted to go to, so they were gone for the first session on Saturday. I could’ve watched it, but again I justified that I was tired & had studying and work to do (I started doing some medical transcription work again this week because of Richard’s medical bills & our debts) , so I didn’t watch  the first session on Saturday. Then, we went to a performance that the kids did for parents at the dance clinic during the second session on Saturday, so we didn’t watch that either. I think it was my own guilt getting at me that made me realize how many other LDS members I know also didn’t watch on Saturday & I was surprised when I read more and more Facebook statuses about what people were doing instead of watching Conference. Of course, I wasn’t any better than any of them because I wasn’t watching either! I ended up eating away at my guilt and feelings so much that I was in a terrible mood last night. I watched Remember The Titans, ate chips & queso, and went to bed later than normal just because of trying to make myself feel good enough to sleep well!! I think Satan works overtime on LDS members in order to get us to justify our way out of the Saturday sessions of Conference! I had a thought today, while still contemplating my guilt, of “wouldn’t I make sure I watched it if I knew Christ would be there?” I know, kind of a WWJD or what-would-you-do-if-Jesus-was-here moment of clarity that sounds rather corny, but is so very true. General Conference is our time to hear what Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want us to hear directly from the mouths of their servants and it makes no sense to justify it away! (truly, I’m chastising myself here – not anyone else!!!) 

We did watch both sessions of Conference today though. However, I didn’t go to the church to watch it. I just watched on my laptop. I just sat and watched though and didn’t do other things (except for eating lunch). I loved Conference once again. For some reason, even after all these years, I’m always surprised at what I take away from General Conference and how I always feel that they are talking directly to me!

I loved a lot of the talks today and could probably go on and on about different things I took away from each one. However, the one I want to focus on is the one from Elder Neil L. Andersen, who is one of the Twelve Apostles. He started his talk telling about a reporter who was interviewing members of the LDS Church and when the reporter interviewed Elder Andersen, the reporter asked “How could someone NOT consider you a Christian?” Elder Andersen said that he knew the reporter was referring to the LDS Church in general (since many people say we are not Christian), but Elder Andersen considered the question more personally than that. He said that he asked himself, “Does my life reflect the love and devotion I feel for the Savior?” He then mentioned the scripture where it asks “What think ye of Christ?” (I’m HORRIBLE at remembering where scriptures are) & then Elder Andersen said that after this life, when we are judged, the more important question will be “What thinks Christ of me?” 

This question, along with a lot of other things said in General Conference today, started me thinking more and more about changes I want to make in my life to bring the spirit into it more fully. This is where the “post-conference high” thing comes in. I hope that I won’t just change tonight or tomorrow, but that I will continue what I have thought of for the indefinite future. 

One of the “themes” that I noticed today is the family & how important it is to improve our families. I thought it was interesting that it was a theme today because it’s something I’ve been thinking about and striving for the last year. This is one of the areas that I often fizzle out after a few days or a week of trying to change. I think it would be so much easier to change if I was single & didn’t have a family. However, that kind of defeats the purpose of having a family. However, today during Conference I realized that I need to make the changes I need to make in myself and then maybe the family changes will take place. I’m not saying I’m going to ignore the family & the changes that need to be made, but I need to make sure that the changes I need to make in myself are a priority and the rest will follow. This kind of goes along with my decision last month to start the Personal Progress Program again. I have struggled (again) with various things – mainly self esteem – lately & I felt I needed to do something to change. I was a bit nostalgic thinking of “Sara” turning 12 and entering the Young Women program at church because I loved the years I was in the Young Women program. The YW President bore her testimony recently about how women can do the Personal Progress Program a second time even when they aren’t “young women” anymore. I felt that doing the Personal Progress Program again was my answer to trying to change myself and improve my self esteem. “Sara” is thrilled that I’m doing it at the same time she is going through the program.

Anyway, during Conference today, I had some inspirations about things I need to change and about things that can help me improve myself and our family. There are some things I thought about that I don’t think are going to happen simply because I don’t think the family will agree. However, there are things I can do by myself and that will hopefully improve the family too. Please don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying our family is horrible or anything because it’s not. However, even the best family can still improve or we wouldn’t be here on the earth anymore!

One thing I’m going to do for myself is to watch at least two Conference talks each week between now and the next General Conference in October & write about thoughts & feelings I have when watching them. My first thought was to watch one talk each day, but I think that was more the “post-conference high” talking than reality simply because of my current schedule (at least until the end of the semester), so I changed it to two talks per week. Who knows – I might end up making time for one a day, but at least I know two per week is more feasible!

I hope and pray that I can continue my post-conference high all the way through the first weekend of October until the next sessions of General Conference because I want to be able to have a great feeling when I think of the question “What thinks Christ of me?” I want to be able to declare a resounding “YES” when I think of the question “Does my life reflect the love and devotion I feel for the Savior?”

Michelle 

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Life’s Bumps, Twists, and Turns

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Michelle


Last week, Richard and I celebrated 13 years of being an eternal family. On Facebook, I posted something about our anniversary & in part of the post, I wrote “It’s been 13 years full of bumps & twists & turns, but I wouldn’t want to be travelling this road of life with anyone else by my side!”

When I wrote that, I never would have imagined that life would throw us another bump the next day!

Richard went to get our Bountiful Baskets order in the morning & things were going just as any other normal Saturday. He was working on fixing something for the lawnmower. He grabbed my laptop to take out to the lawnmower to look up some serial number. The girls were in the pantry working on moving laundry into the living room so I could sort it out and fold it. All of a sudden, I heard a massive scream & ran to the pantry to see my laptop on its side on the floor and Richard lying on his back with an arm straight out & screaming on the pantry floor. Apparently, he tripped over one of the laundry baskets somehow and started to fall & moved so he’d save the laptop & ended up falling directly onto his right shoulder.

He couldn’t move his right arm at all. I couldn’t help him up. He claimed he’d get up himself, but I knew that wouldn’t happen. He was in excruciating pain. I said I’d go get the neighbor we know the best, but he said that neighbor had just left. I went to another neighbor’s house & her husband wasn’t home. However, she knew the newer neighbors so she went to their house with me to introduce me & see if they could help. The awesome man came over and helped Richard get off the floor and into the car so I could take him to the emergency room! I was so glad I didn’t have to call an ambulance!!

Richard could barely walk into the emergency room, but couldn’t sit in a wheelchair either because of his arm. They didn’t really want our daughters to see him like that, so they asked that they wait in the waiting room. However, I didn’t want to leave them in the waiting room the whole time, so I ended up calling a friend from church to come get the girls since I didn’t know how long we would be there. The friend who picked them up had family in town & she said they might be going somewhere later. I told her it was okay if she handed my kids off to some other family in our ward (congregation) as long as she let me know where they ended up!

Richard was in horrible pain. I’ve never seen him in such pain before (and hope I never have to again)!! I ended up saying that it *almost* compared to me being in labor!! It was really horrible! They gave him some short-acting pain medicine that only worked for a few minutes before he started yelling again. They didn’t want to give him anything stronger until the x-rays came back & they knew what they were dealing with & how to pop the shoulder back in because it was obviously dislocated.

After we had been there about 90 minutes, they finally knew what they were going to do and they started to give him Versed to knock him out so they could pop the shoulder back into place. The ER doctor was a woman & the main nurse there was a man. The doctor tried & tried & tried to get the shoulder back in & the nurse was pushing & pulling & putting his weight on top of Richard to try to get everything in the right place. The doctor almost gave up and was going to call an orthopedic surgeon for possible surgery! She turned to me & said, “You have to understand that it’s kind of an insult for an ER doctor to have to call an orthopedic surgeon for one of these!” Then, she took off her white coat (I guess to try to make sure nothing was in the way) and tried again. BINGO! It popped back in! She said, “I guess I should’ve taken that off sooner!” She definitely got a workout in that day! It took about 10 minutes of twisting & turning his arm ways I never knew it could turn in order to get it back in place!

After they got it back in place, they waited for Richard to wake up from the Versed & then they took more x-rays to see if it was broken at all. It was actually broken on the ball of the shoulder (greater tuberosity for my MT friends)! Therefore, after 5 hours in the ER, they put a sling on Richard’s arm & gave us a prescription for pain medicine & sent us on our way with instructions to see an orthopedist on Monday.

During this time, our daughters had been passed off to another family & another friend called me & said she’d get pizza for dinner & pick our girls up so we wouldn’t have to go get them! I know our ward is awesome & I’ve heard lots of stories of wonderful service and I’ve had service rendered before, but never to this magnitude. I’m so grateful for the loving sisters who took time out of their day to help us!

On Monday, I took Richard to the orthopedist & we found out that it is broken (about a 1-mm break) and he will have to be in a sling for 4-6 weeks. At this point, the doctor doesn’t think he’ll need surgery, but he said it’s broken on the part where the rotator cuff could actually pull it away more. If that happens, they would have to do surgery to put pins in the shoulder! We’re all hoping that doesn’t happen!!!

Richard went back to work on Wednesday & is surviving. Luckily, he takes the train to work, so he doesn’t have to worry about driving (since he can’t drive now anyway).

Of course, when life throws you a bump, it has to throw in a twist and/or turn as well!!!! Tuesday, “Bella” woke up and started to get cereal out to eat & ran in the bathroom and threw up! UGH!! Richard was home still, so he stayed home with her. She’s had this happen a few times in the past 6 months or so. However, I didn’t think it was her cyclic vomiting syndrome returning just because she’d only throw up once & then be fine. We actually thought it might just be her allergies & post-nasal drip that gets in her stomach & bugs her. That’s kind of what we expected this time too. However, then she threw up again in the afternoon. Therefore, she couldn’t go to school on Wednesday because of the 24-hour symptom-free rule! I stayed home from school with her on Wednesday. Luckily, she didn’t throw up at all, so she returned to school on Thursday.

We thought we were done with the bump and twist……. then came the turn too!!! “Bella” woke us up at 2:30 in the morning & said, “I just threw up in my bed.” COME ON, R-E-A-L-L-Y?!?!?!??!?! At this point, I’m thinking “Does someone have some Voo-Doo dolls with our names on them or something!?!?” Well, I text my volleyball teacher & tell her I can’t pick up the volleyballs that day & can’t come to class because of “Bella’s” sickness & I stayed home with her again. She threw up one other time in the morning, but then was okay the rest of the day Friday.

Needless to say, this week has been full of some of the worst bumps, twists, and turns that we have had to deal with in our immediate 4-person family in a while. However, it is still true that I’m going through these things with my best friend and eternal family by my side. Here’s hoping that the week after our next anniversary will not be so eventful!!!! (I’m not superstitious, but after this week, I’m really wondering if it has to do with it being the 13th anniversary!)

Hopefully we can have these same smiles on our faces all around our 14th anniversary!!!

Michelle 

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Time Ran Away From Me!!!

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Michelle

WOW!! Has it really been two days shy of 3 months since I last wrote here?!?!?!?! WOW!! 

I never expected to take this long to write again! Time has just run away from me! 

Here’s a short synopsis of the last 3 months:

December
**We enjoyed our Christmas. We bought a new artificial Christmas tree this year & since it was kind of part of my Christmas present, I bought some purple glittery butterfly ornaments for it & purple garland for it too. We still had plenty of other ornaments, so it wasn’t just a purple tree. We actually just took the tree down the first weekend of March!! (which testifies as to how busy things have been!!)
**I filled out my applications for Texas State University and for the University of Texas at Austin. In a way, I’d rather go to Texas State because I like the atmosphere there better. However, UT is closer to home, so I applied there too. After doing my applications, I found out that if I do get in to UT and choose to go there, I will have to end up taking at least 2 or 3 extra classes for general education requirements that I already thought I had done because UT has some different requirements than ACC and TX State have.

January
**The girls started school again on the 2nd and I enjoyed more of my break until the Spring Semester started on the 17th. I’m taking 16 credits this semester, which consists of World Literature, American Literature, Introduction to Communication, Spanish IV, Art History, and Volleyball. Two of the classes are online ones because when I was looking into the classes I wanted there were some professors that did not have very good ratings on Rate My Professors, so I decided I’d rather take online classes than have to deal with horrible professors in the classroom.
**In the middle of the month, the foreign exchange student that was staying with us told us that she decided to move in with another family for the rest of her stay. She left at the end of January.
**I received a letter of acceptance from Texas State University. It will probably be May before I hear about the University of Texas. At least I know I have one option now!
**We won tickets to see the Harlem Globetrotters. We had a BLAST!!! I have always wanted to see them, but have never had a chance before. I’ve never laughed so much at a sporting event!! Here is a picture that I took on my phone of “Bella” on Richard’s shoulders getting some of the player’s autographs after the game!

February
**I went to “Bella’s” Valentine’s Day Party at school.**I had this surprise on my MESSY desk on Valentine’s Day morning. **We really wanted to try to cut down on our phone bill, so we tried to downgrade from our iPhone 3GS phones to “regular” cell phones. However, that lasted less than a week because Richard really needs his iPhone for work and neither of us could get used to the “regular” phones!! We ended up going back in and actually wound up upgrading to the iPhone 4S phones. We took the sim cards out of our old 3GS phones & gave them to the girls to use more like iPod Touches. We are definitely a “techie” family!!!
**We won tickets to a monster truck show. Richard & the girls had never been to one before (and I’ve only been to a couple). We LOVED the show & took a bunch of videos & pictures with our new phones! Here’s my favorite picture of the girls that night!
March
**We FINALLY took down the Christmas tree (although I kind of wouldn’t have minded if we kept it up).
**”Sara” turned 12!!!! We took some of her friends with us to the discount movie theater to see “We Bought a Zoo.” Here is their “Conga line” when we left the theater!  **”Sara’s” BIG birthday present was having her room painted. Originally, we were going to paint it as a surprise, but then we were looking for some options of things to put on the wall and the things we were looking at wouldn’t match the original color she had picked for her room. Therefore, we decided to tell her and go to a store to pick out things for the walls & then go pick a color to match. We ended up getting some metal decorative butterflies and “cucumber crush” paint. We also bought some shelves for the walls & new bedding. Here is a picture of the butterflies, shelves and new color (the bed is on the other side of the room).**This brings us to this past week – SPRING BREAK!! It was Spring Break for me and for the girls. Although it was a break, I had a bunch of school stuff to complete. However, I did take time to relax and have fun with the girls too.

One other thing that has happened is that I haven’t been feeling well for a while now. I finally went to the doctor at the beginning of March & had a ton of blood work done. Unfortunately, all the blood work came back negative and/or normal. In a way, that is actually awesome & not unfortunate. However, I say it’s unfortunate because it doesn’t give me any answers as to why I’m feeling icky so much. I’ve been thinking that it might be Celiac Disease or just a gluten intolerance. Therefore, as of Tuesday, 3/13/12, I’ve been following a gluten-free diet in order to do a “Celiac Challenge.” I’m still not 100% sure that gluten is the problem, but I am feeling about 75% better after just 5 days of eating gluten-free. This is definitely a new adventure for me. I hope and pray that this is the issue or if it’s not I’ll be able to get the right answers soon. 

Now I’m all caught up! Hopefully it won’t be another 3 months before I write again!!

Oh – I also removed the Google Friend Connect thing from the blog because Google announced that it was getting rid of GFC for any “non-Blogger” blogs as of March 1st. I added a way to follow through Google+ and still have ways to follow through Networked Blogs, email, and BlogFrog.

Michelle  

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Fall 2011 Grades

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Michelle

Grades posted last Thursday. I was very happy when I saw them! I was kind of worried about Chemistry and College Algebra. I thought I’d get a “C” for both, but wasn’t 100% positive. I was very happy to see that I ended up with a “B” for both! I KNOW the math one was due to a curve & I believe the Chemistry was too, but I did work hard for both of them & I’m glad it paid off! Here are my grades (copied from the “My Grades” page). 

My overall GPA is…. 3.417

Fall 2011 (August – December 2011)

OVERALL GPA FOR SEMESTER = 3.450

CHEM 1111 (General Chemistry I LAB) = C
CHEM 1311 (General Chemistry I CLASS) = B
COSC 1301 (Introduction to Computing) = B
GOVT 2306 (Texas & Local Government) = A
KINE 1144 (Volleyball) = A
MATH 1314 (College Algebra) = B
PHIL 1301 (Introduction to Philosophy) = A
SPAN 2311 (Spanish III) = A

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Love and Service

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Michelle

Yesterday in our Gospel Doctrine class, the teacher showed the following video. It is a talk from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who is the Second Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The video is from a talk he gave in the October 2009 General Conference & is entitled “The Love of God.” (in addition to seeing the video here,  you can click on the talk title and go to the LDS site to read the transcript from the talk too)

As expected by the title, President Uchtdorf talks about God’s love, why He loves us, why we should love Him, and how we can increase our love for Him, among a couple other things in the talk. 

It is no secret (at least I don’t think it is) that I have struggled with loving myself for a long time. Tears strolled down my face on Sunday when I listened to this talk, especially to the following paragraphs…

God does not look on the outward appearance. 8 I believe that He doesn’t care one bit if we live in a castle or a cottage, if we are handsome or homely, if we are famous or forgotten. Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely.

He loves us because He is filled with an infinite measure of holy, pure, and indescribable love. We are important to God not because of our résumé but because we are His children. He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken. God’s love is so great that He loves even the proud, the selfish, the arrogant, and the wicked.

What this means is that, regardless of our current state, there is hope for us. No matter our distress, no matter our sorrow, no matter our mistakes, our infinitely compassionate Heavenly Father desires that we draw near to Him so that He can draw near to us. 9

Those paragraphs seemed to scream out at me yesterday! 

At one point, a question was asked somewhat like “Why is it hard to see God’s love?” (I don’t remember the exact question) & someone brought up the fact that sometimes people have a hard time loving themselves. I thought, “Hey, that’s my answer!” Although, in reality, I know God loves me – I struggle with loving myself. 

Another part of the talk mentions how we should serve in order to increase our love for God and for others around us (which, in turn, will increase our love for ourselves also). The thoughts were brought up about serving others and reaching out to others and becoming lost in service so we are less selfish and don’t think of ourselves and our own problems so much.

When I thought of this in relation to the whole talk and also this time of year & everything, the only thought that came to my mind was “Serve Your Family.” This, too, was almost like a scream in my head! I almost said something, but didn’t realize that the teacher was ending a few minutes early. Although I understand that service to others is important, the thought just came resounding in my mind that my family needs to serve each other right now in order to increase in our love for each other and love for ourselves and our family unit. I’m not saying service to others is a bad thing because it’s not. I’m just saying that sometimes we (as humans & families) need to be a little selfish and serve among ourselves in order to grow and gain a better testimony of service and of the importance of family. 

Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night with the thought of starting a “Service Jar” for our family. I thought of a few things, like “make someone’s bed for them,” “start the dishes” (without being asked), “sweep the floor” (without being asked), “make a card for a family member letting them know what you like about them,” and “read a book to a family member.” Throughout the day today I’ve tried to think of other little things that we could do for each other as a family to serve each other and increase our love for one another. I plan on making strips of paper with these things written on them and putting them in a jar so our family members can pick strips out of the jar (one or more per day) and serve each other.

I believe that through fortifying our family and increasing our love towards one another, we will be able to increase love for ourselves as individuals, increase our love of our family unit, and because of that fortification we will also be able to more fully share that love with the world around us!

If you have any ideas of things to put in our “Service Jar,” please comment below to share your thoughts!!

Michelle

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Veterans Memorial Park

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Michelle

Last week we went to Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday to check out their fairly new dog park & let the girls play for a little while. I forgot to bring my camera with me. However, I was in awe of the veterans memorial they have there. I didn’t even know they were putting it there. I guess it was just done & dedicated this Veterans’ Day. I wish I had known about it then! Anyway, I was so humbled & full of gratitude at looking at everything there that I decided to return on Friday with my camera. I took about 140 pictures! Along the pathway up to the monument, there are remembrance stones that people have purchased to pay tribute to a family member who served in the military. I took a lot of pictures of those – although I didn’t take pictures of ALL of them because there are a lot of them! 

I have had a great love and admiration for those in the military for a long time. I’m not sure why this monument hit me as much as it did, but I’m grateful for those who donated to make it happen and so very grateful for all those who have served in the military in the past and who now serve in the military – in the United States and in other countries who fight with us to ensure freedom.

Before I share the pictures from the monument here, I wanted to share this video I found on Thursday (Thanksgiving), which also humbled me and made me even more grateful for the military in various countries that work together. It’s also set to one of my all-time favorite hymns (which makes me like it even more)!

Here are the pictures I took on Friday…………………………

 

 

 

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New Family Car

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Michelle

In August 2007, we bought a little Nissan Sentra, which was perfect for our impending move from upstate NY to Austin TX that we knew we’d be making in December 2007 and it was perfect for our family of four, especially when the girls were only 7 years old and 3 years old at the time. 

As the years have passed, we’ve often thought about getting a minivan in the future. As the girls have gotten older (and taller) the space in the Sentra seemed to shrink. When we got two large dogs, that space seemed almost non-existent. The girls could only have one friend over at a time, especially if we wanted to go anywhere when the friend was over because of space in the Sentra. We’ve wanted to start going camping as a family and do other things. Through time, although the Sentra was a great car & got great gas mileage, we realized it was not the car that would service all our family needs in the long run.

We started looking at different options and were fairly confident that we would want a Honda Odyssey…… at some point.

Well, that point ended up being yesterday! We went to the dealership “to just test drive and look” at an Odyssey…… SIX HOURS later…….. we drove off the lot in our new, black, 2012 Honda Odyssey EX!!

Here are some pictures I took of the car and Bella today……………….. 

It was nice to go to church this morning and not have to have three people squished in the back seat (because Franzi goes to church with us)! 

It is still going to take some time getting used to driving a bigger car, but I’m sure I’ll be used to it after a week or two, especially since I’m the one driving everywhere! The  one thing we REALLY miss now is that the Sentra had a keyless start, so I could just leave the keys in my purse and open the car and start the car! We have buttons on the key now so I can unlock the doors from it, but I have to still take the key out of my purse to do so, and we have to put the key in the ignition to start the car! After 4+ years of not having to worry about a key, it just seems very odd to us right now….. I’m sure we’ll get used to it in a month or so though! I really liked their metallic blue color option, but they only had this one EX model on the lot then & it’s black. That’s okay, although I think we’ll be washing it more than we washed our grey Sentra!! 

Even though we hadn’t planned on driving away with a new car yesterday, we are very happy with our choice and we are looking forward to great family adventures to come in the future!  

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Giveaways on Book Review Blog

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Michelle

Things have been quite busy around here. I wanted to update the blog this past weekend, but didn’t have time. I might not have time until Thanksgiving, but just wanted to write a quick note to let y’all know that I posted 3 new reviews and 2 giveaways this past weekend on our book review blog -  Bookworm Family - so head over there if you’d like to check out the reviews or giveaways. One giveaway is for a children’s book called The Lemonman & the other is one for a youth/teen/young adult fantasy dragon story, The Dragon Stones Saga, where I’m giving away 2 copies each of Book 1 and Book 2 in the series (Book 2 just came out, so the publisher sent me 2 copies of each book to give away). Anyway, head over there if you want to check them out….. the giveaways are through midnight on 11/19 & winners will be chosen on 11/20.
Michelle

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The 181st Semi-Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Michelle

As I have mentioned in the past, every April and October we have a conference that is broadcast over satellite, radio, TV, and the Internet. This conference is for all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is also for anyone of other religions or beliefs who wishes to listen. We believe that Heavenly Father has a prophet and apostles in the world today just as He did in the time that Christ was on the earth. This conference is a time when the prophet, apostles, and other church leaders speak to us and share inspiration from Heavenly Father with us. One of my friends posted a quote yesterday on Facebook about General Conference that I absolutely love. “We cannot with impunity act as if this were any other weekend. It is not. It never has been. It never will be. It is the most dramatic moment in any six-month period of the year, wherein the power and the ability and the voice of the Lord are made manifest to the inhabitants of this earth!” – Jeffrey R. Holland (one of the current apostles)

I admit that we decided not to watch General Conference yesterday because we decided to spend a family day at the San Antonio Zoo. It was a fun family day and although I’m glad we went, I’m also ashamed that we didn’t stay home to watch conference. However, I am eternally grateful that we have the technology available now so that I can watch the sessions from yesterday now and not have to wait a month or more to read or watch the conference sessions we missed. I also love that we can embed the conference sessions on blogs and other places to share with others. 

If you go to October 2011 General Conference, you can pick and choose and watch or listen to each talk individually. In the coming weeks, the printed transcript of the talks will be added to that site too in case you want to just read the talks. I have decided to go ahead and embed each entire session here. The sessions are about 2 hours each and include the talks, prayers, and music from The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and some other choirs. Again, if you would like to just watch the talks, which you could do in 15- to 20-minute time periods, you can go to the page above to pick individual talks. That site above also has archives from other conferences if you wish to watch old talks too. 

I would invite everyone who visits, regardless of your beliefs, to take some time to listen to the prophet and apostles and to the marvelous messages and inspirational music in these sessions. I understand that there may be some things that do not make sense if you are not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but these messages are truly for everyone on the earth and concern ways that we can improve our lives to return to Heavenly Father someday!

Saturday Morning Session

Saturday Afternoon Session
 

Priesthood Session – This session is for the men of the LDS Church who hold the holy priesthood, but these talks can also be applied to other people.

Sunday Morning Session

Sunday Afternoon Session

Relief Society Session – This was held on Saturday, 24 September 2011, and is meant for all the women of the LDS Church over 18 years of age, but again can be applied to anyone!

I would also like to share some pictures that were posted on the We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ blog, which were made to be reminders of some of the things mentioned during the conference. 

I absolutely love General Conference! It is a time that gives me the spiritual uplift needed to keep going and to improve my life for the next 6 months until the next conference. I often feel that Heavenly Father is speaking directly to me through His servants during conference. My spirit is always renewed when I attend church each week, but it is renewed even stronger during General Conference! I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for not leaving His children (us) alone on the earth without guidance! I am grateful to my mother for recognizing the truths taught in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when I was a baby and for joining the LDS Church and raising me with the knowledge of where I came from, why I am here on earth and where I am going after this earth life. I’m grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who answered my prayers when I struggled to know if what I grew up learning was in fact true for myself. My life will be forever blessed for this knowledge! Life may not be easy (and I know it’s not), but the gospel brings me blessings and peace amidst trials and tribulation! 

Michelle

There is also a YouTube Channel that posts all the individual talks from conference. They have a lot of the past years on there also. LDS General Conference is the YouTube Channel. It is not an official LDS channel, but is done by a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

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