The Final Scene in It's Wonderful Life

Yesterday in the evening, we received a friendly knock at our door. My kids answered quickly. I was expecting a friend of mine to come and pick up 3 kittens for her farm. It was this friend and 2 of our other friends with tons and tons of stuff for our family to help during this time of unemployment and the birth of our new little baby. My friends secretively gathered a lot of our Facebook friends and friends who know our family or just John or just me and gathered all of these needful and nice things. Everyone donated items-- money, gift cards and many people wrote sweet and kind notes to go along with it all. There were beautiful homemade items and nice store bought items. We were given baby clothes, clothes for me, gift cards for clothes, gift cards for a dinner and movie date, a costco gift card, a hair cut gift card, and more. We were also given new towels, baby bath supplies, lotions, soaps, freezer meals, tons of diapers and wipes, essential oils, gifts for the kids, and cash! My 3 dear friends stayed and chatted and I opened all of the gifts and we had a baby shower of sorts. I am so very grateful for the love that was showered on our family. My kids acted and felt like it was Christmas. I am touched and I am reminded that Zion will come again. I can see the gathering as we learn the doctrine of Jesus Christ and stand together, and I can see the gathering in the service and love given. My heart is happy. I know this was a tender mercy. I am so blessed to have so many wonderful people love and care for us. I hope I can do this for other people in the future.

The People Who Showered Us with Love

• Aislinn Mellor
• Amanda Miner
• Amber Wadman
• Ana Blake
• Andrya Lewis
• Ann Checketts
• Aimee Kieffer
• Cheryl Savage
• Christina Starr
• Christina Bartholomew
• Courtney Montierth
• Gerilyn Merill
• Jalayne Grow
• Jenifer Moss
• Jennifer Camargo
• Jessica Washburn
• Judie Balzer
• Kassie Welch
• Kati Wafford
• Katie Esplin
• Katie Newbry
• Katie Richins
• Katrina McNiven
• Lanette Draper
• Laura Lake
• LeNell Jensen
• Lisa Richardson
• Margaret Martell
• Marybeth Lemon
• Melanie Arkoudas
• Misty Zaug
• Montserrat Wadsworth
• Natalie Larson
• Paula Jensen
• Raelyn Davis
• Ruby Johnson
• Ruth Carruth
• Sarah Eastley
• Siobhan Downing
• Viki Bailey
• Amber Peck
• Blake DeRosia
• Bonnie Atkinson
• Britt Kelly
• Dave Thayler
• Elizabeth Downie
• Emily Farrer
• Jen Pocock
• Jill Wright
• Kaylene Thayler
• Michelle Linford
• Natalie Koopman
• Nathalie Bowman
• Rebecca Reiman
• Renee McDonald
• Stephanie Sorensen
• Tim and Wendy Barron
• Vickey Taylor

This Week at Our House # 22

1. John made dinner a lot to help me as it gets harder and harder for me to move around.
2. School ended for Ruth and all of the Legacy Prep kids. That has been such a relief because I can now sleep in an extra hour in the morning. I have been and will be walking Rachel to school in the morning to get in a little exercise. I felt pretty awful all week and when I had my midwife appointment my blood pressure was high for me. I will be seeing her again this week and getting that checked.
3. Ruth finished her sophmore year and had high honors all year!! Giving her a 3.96 gpa for the year. I am so proud of her. I know she worked hard for grades.
4. Kate got to got to Lagoon with all the other junior high kids on Thursday. She came back sunburned and happy. Kate made honor roll with one B the first quarter and a 4.0 all the other 3 quarters giving her an accumulative gpa of 3.98. Again, I am a proud mom. 
5. Johnny got to go to Lagoon too. He came back happy and sunburned and then got the sickness going around our house the next day. Johnny made high honor roll all 4 quarters with an accumulative gpa of 3.95 for the 8th grade. He also got all honors marks for his citizen ship. I am especially proud of Johnny because he skipped two grades and had all of his courses with kids that much older than him. Johnny was mature, all of his teachers thought he belonged where he was socially, behaviorally, and academically, and he made good friends. 
6. Adam got straight A's to end the school year with and only deviated from that with one B+ third quarter. He started Legacy Prep frustrated and behind his classmates because Legacy Prep teaches a year ahead of the public schools. He ended the year as the top student in his class for math and on level for reading. I am very proud of Adam too.
7. Rachel went back to school and is in until July 3. I hate that as does Rachel now too. She is suffering having to do homework when everyone else has free time.
8. Anya got straight A's all school year. She had her end of the year kindergarten concert to show the parents all that they learned. They had so many awesome things memorized including things about the Founding Fathers. They also danced and had tons of art ans cute songs. I just love Legacy Prep. I will be sad if we have to move and leave this awesome school.And yes, I am proud of Anya too. She started out school not knowing much more than her alphabet and now she can read.
9. Joseph had a pretty good week without much destruction. I think he tried to take the bathroom fan out of the ceiling in the downstairs bathroom, sigh. He is too curious!!
10. Josh is still potty training, but it is coming along. If I do not take his bedtime diaper off first thing in the morning, he will be sure to take the opportunity to poop in it. He is the oldest of all of my kids to still be having potty trouble. Still, it is coming and his diaper is just off all day and has been for months.
11. Arwen was quite sick with a high fever most of the week. 
12. I am officially 37 weeks along. I cannot wait to meet this little baby. She seems strong as she kicks me pretty hard.

This Week's Pictures

Johnny's Sacrament Meeting Talk

Johnny was asked to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting today. I was very impressed because public speaking is what scares him the most. Still, he accepted, wrote his own talk, practiced in front of the family and did a really good job. Here is his talk on Being  good Example:

"My talk is on good examples. What is a good example you probably won’t ask. Well a good is example is someone doing things that are an example of goodness. In this case and what should be in every case goodness means righteousness. Now we can and all ways should be a good example. This can range from missionary work to being reverent during Sacrament. Now I’m going to expand upon being a good example with missionary work. This is one of the times when being a good example is particularly important. If we are being a good example for the people we are teaching it would help them come to the truth of the gospel. Also we wouldn’t teach someone to do something we never do. Then we would be hypocrites. The Scripture Alma 17:11 explains how being a good example on your mission will help bring the gospel. Alma 17:11 says
“And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.”

This as I said clearly illustrates why we should be a good example on our missions. Though being a good example is not only for your missions. You should do it all the time. It is not something you do once or twice. Being a good example from day to day is easy. For example as your read scriptures and pray every day and when you do service for others, these things are setting good examples. So if every day you are doing these things you are setting good examples. These may be minor things but they are still good examples. The best example though is Jesus’s example of infinite love and righteousness. We cannot follow this example perfectly because we are imperfect but because of the Atonement we can repent and start to get back on the path of righteousness. The best way to follow Christ’s example is being charitable. You may ask what is being charitable. Being charitable is showing charity. Now that raises the question what is charity. The best way to answer that is the scripture Moroni 7:45-47. Moroni 7:45-47 says
“45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
 46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—
 47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.”

Now if you are showing charity not only “shall it be well with you” but you are also setting a great example for others to follow. If you are doing acts of charity every day you will be a great example.
In the name of Jesus Christ amen."

This Week at Our House # 21

1. Nothing new job wise. John is looking out of state now. As of Friday, we finally got the first installment of unemployment. This sure has been hard. Everything seems to be coming together just before disaster. I am thinking that this will be how a job comes-- just as things get really, really bad.
2. I have 4 more weeks of pregnancy to go. I am starting to take evening walks to help prepare my muscles for labor. After giving birth this many times, my muscles aren't what they used to be. I am as tired as ever, but trying to spruce the house up for our new arrival. I have found that it works well if I work, then rest, then work, then rest.
3. Ruth has finals this week and then she is finished the 10th grade. Where has the time gone? I remember being excited for her to start pre-school. 2 more years now and she is done and gone. I used to try and fill my time, now I try and enjoy my time. Life moves more quickly than it seems when your kids are little.
4. Kate finished off her finals this week. She made another 4.0. She has come a long, long way from the little first grader who couldn't read and struggled to recognize her numbers 1 to 20. Now Kate will be starting calculus (college math) just as she turns 15!
5. Johnny had finals all week too. He made the high honor roll and is ready to begin the 9th grade just before he turns 13!  Johnny has one more play week of school-- same as everyone except Rachel. For the Legacy Prep kids, grades closed Friday and the final week, is a play week. Johnny is particularly looking forward to Lagoon Day (that's an amusement park) on Thursday.
6. Adam's soccer team finally won a game. He is improving with every game. John started practicing with him a couple of times of week too which is helping. Adam ended the school year with all A's. He has a playing week of half days ahead of him.
7. Rachel woke up in the middle of the night Monday with a headache. She spent the rest of the week down with a high fever around 103. She was so miserable, but refused to take any medicine because she does not like the taste. Rachel is the only one of my children that finds a high fever and a severe headache more tolerable than the taste of medicine. Saturday morning her fever finally broke. Rachel goes back to school on Tuesday and will be in school until July 3rd. I hate year round school and I am done being a school mom. I need a vacation too.
8. I love that Anya can read so well. Besides Johnny, she is my only other child to be reading at the end of kindergarten. 
9. Joseph has been working at reading in his own time. He picks up books and tries to read them. Joseph's method seems to be to memorize the book. My kids who did this usually began reading faster than my kids who focused more on phonics. No matter what I have done, all of my kids have had their own style and way to learn to read. I have given up on forcing one way. It seems to work better to let them tackle it on their own and be available for support and help. Joseph started getting a fever on Friday, but he is still eating, running, jumping, and playing. There is just no stopping that boy.
10. Arg, Josh pooped his pants several times this week. When will he just do it?
11. Arwen loves to sit and look at books. I always see her with a pile of books sitting and looking through them. She likes to be read to, but often prefers to just be left to look through on her own.
12. I am 36 weeks along today. We should get to meet Susan sometime in the next month. It's nice to have something wonderful happening during our otherwise time of trial.

This Week's Pictures

Mormon Women Stand Blog

Since March I have been very blessed to be a part of the Mormon Women Stand community. What began as a Facebook page to promote faith and unity for the women within the gospel of Jesus Christ has now become a part of Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and now a website and blog. I have volunteered to write doctrinal church articles for the blog. I am very excited for this opportunity to join with many amazing, diverse, faithful sisters. Honestly, it has been such a testimony to come together with many faithful, Latter-day Saint women who all have very different backgrounds, family lives, trials, and experience. It gives me hope for Zion.


Please stop on by. My first post is titled: Increasing Faith.

This Week at Our House # 20

1. John had one interview this week, and he has a phone interview tomorrow. We have officially decided that we will seriously look at a move for a good/ long term job. John has had a hard time with employment the 4 years we have lived in North Salt Lake. We will begin researching states and jobs. We cannot move a big family to just any place for any job. We need to live in a place where we can afford a large home, food and clothes for 10 kids. We would prefer that it is near family.
2. I am slowing down. I will be 8 months pregnant in 4 more days and I sure can feel it. I've hit the,"It's hard to move around" phase of pregnancy. I am grateful for any exercise I did before this pregnancy because even as moving is getting harder, I am not having the hip and leg pain that I did with the last pregnancy.
3. Ruth babysat for us 2 days in a row this past week because Johnny had an orchestra concert one day, and Adam and Anya had their end of the school year singing concert the next. When we came home the first day, Ruth had the house perfectly clean and all of the kids fed, bathed and ready for bed.
4. Kate babysat alongside Ruth too, and then as an awesome treat, Kate and Ruth's friend Bonnie took them to the movie theater to see Captain America. I was so glad that they got such a nice break after a busy week with the family. My favorite part was Kate coming home and complaining how Black Widow flirted with Captain America.
5. Johnny had an orchestra concert. He did a great job. He has a really good orchestra teacher and has learned a lot this year. I have been very impressed with the entire orchestra. Johnny loves it and plans to continue with the violin. This is huge because he took piano for several years, hated it and quit.
6. Adam had his singing concert. I think this is the first one that he actually bothered to sing in. But he didn't do any of the hand motions or dance steps. I don't think Adam will grow up to be much of a performer. He is still in soccer and loves that. John has been taking Johnny and Adam and some kids in the neighborhood to practice soccer a couple of times a week. That has been good for Adam and boosted his confidence a lot.
7. Occasionally I feel like I get things right with my kids. This week, we found out that Anya had a talk to give in primary. Rachel said she wanted to give a talk on that topic. I asked Rachel what she would say if she had that topic. Rachel said she did not know, so I told her to go and write a talk. Rachel wrote a really good talk and Anya used what Rachel wrote as part of her talk.
8. Anya really enjoyed her singing performance. Afterwards, she sang her songs again and again for the whole family. We loved it.
9. Joseph's a real smart little guy. I am impressed at how much he knows for his young age. He can tell me a lot of scripture stories and he just knows about things and how to do things. I guess all of his annoying getting into things, taking apart things, and general exploration has a purpose. I think he will quite like school when he starts in the fall.
10. In church today I told Josh to sit on Dad's lap. He said, "not Dad!" I said, "but you love dad." Josh shouted out a reply of, "I hate Dad." John and I started laughing and I noticed the speaker and the Bishop looking right at us.
11. In church today, Arwen started to pinch my arm. I told her not to because it hurts. She looked right at me and said, "Shhhh".
12. Susan's moving around a ton. Her head is down and I can sure feel that. Her heart rate and growth rate are normal and consistent. My blood pressure and weight gain and everything has been normal and steady. It looks like everything is a go for a normal healthy labor and delivery. I am having contractions all of the time now. As of today, I am 35 weeks pregnant. My mom bought a plane ticket and will be here around my due date. This is at a sacrifice to her and the rest of my family as she will be here while my dad and sisters who live with my parents close on their house in Maine and move to North Carolina. I am glad I get my mom, though. Susan will probably be one of her last grandchildren and I am happy that she will be here to see her fresh from heaven. 

This Week's Pictures

I am not sure why we have a need for beds for these boys. They sleep on the floor more often than not

This Week at Our House # 19

1. John had 2 job interviews this week and 2 additional contacts. They may not end in a job, but they are certainly steps to one. John made Mother's Day really nice for me by making a very nice dinner and letting me rest a lot. I love my wonderful husband.
2. I felt big, tired, and pregnant most of the week. This pregnancy has been very rough. I am very grateful that my husband and children have been willing to pick up the slack where I am lacking and the house is as clean as it always is.
3. Ruth's friend drama is getting to her. She cannot wait for school to end. Just a little more than 2 weeks and it is over. 
4. Kate feels the same way. She gets a lot of slack from her friends about being honest and moral and trying to keep her media clean. She likes her friends, but she is looking forward to summer vacation. The end is so hard. We are so close, but not there yet.
5. Johnny is doing great. He's very kind, helpful, and respectful. He has an orchestra concert this week and will be playing a special violin number with 2 other people. He's been practicing pretty hard. He did not even know anything about the violin a year ago. He was nervous to take it, but has found that he loves it.
6. Adam is still loving soccer and getting better and better at it.
7. Rachel was off track and we have enjoyed having her home and hanging around. She made me breakfast in bed and had lots of Mother's Day gifts for me. She asked, and I let her make cookies by herself without help for the first time. They tasted good. I'll let her experiment more on her own in the kitchen now.
8. Anya helped Rachel get me breakfast in bed. She was so cute about it. Last night, she kept telling me to stay in bed and sleep late. 
9. Joseph really likes the cats and kittens and is pretty good and nice to them. He's such  a rough and tumble boy, it is sweet to see him being affectionate with the animals.
10. Josh seems to basically be potty trained, though he still needs reminders. He has been the toughest kid to potty train. Josh has been screaming about every little thing. It's a toddler thing that I have had to train all of my kids out of. Now it is Josh's turn. I miss all of his baby cuteness, but this just seems to be a normal step in growing up.
11. Arwen has been loving books and loving being read to. Whenever I sit down on the couch, she will bring me a big pile of books. If I am busy, she will sit and look at books. 
12. I am 34 weeks along! Only 6 more to go. I am at the point know where I feel stuffed and feel like breathing is a bit of chore. Though I am grateful to be getting little Susan here. Every child is so precious.

This Week's Pictures