Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A Shining Moment

Isaac was asked to give a talk in church on Sunday. The theme for this month is "Because I know we are all children of God, I will share the gospel with others." So Isaac and I wrote the following talk.

Heavenly Father wants all young men to serve a mission. I need to be strong and faithful to the gospel. I can prepare to serve a mission now by choosing the right. I can be a good example to others. I can be helpful at home. I can read the scriptures and be a part of Family Home Evenings. I know that I can be a missionary now and tell others of Jesus. I hope I serve a mission somewhere that has a beach. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

He helped dictate what he wanted to say and I wrote it down on a piece of paper. When it came time for him to give his talk he walked right up to the microphone. He didn't look for Jeremiah or me, waiting for us to come and help him. He stood up confidently and read his whole talk.

I was so pleased with him. I happened to look around the room and every adult in there had dropped their jaw in surprise that he could read so well. I was just happy that he was so excited to give his talk.

After he finished he took his seat with the rest of his class. He looked at his paper, raised an arm in silent triumph, and then kissed his talk.

Oh Yeah...I'm a Genius

I have a pie cherry tree. Last year I pulled off a couple cherries and tasted them, but I never did anything with all the cherries. The other day I was looking over my tree and thinking what a waste it was to let all the cherries just sit there so I decided to pick some and make a pie. As I brought them into the house and started to pit them I just kept thinking, "These look so much like cherry tomatoes."

DUH, Gwen! Do you think that's where cherry tomatoes got their name?

If you see my common sense, could you tell it I miss it?

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Spoiled and Blessed

I've really been feeling like the Queen of the Castle lately. After our camping trip Jeremiah and I got the house ready for company that we thought would be arriving on Sunday. Apparently, we're morons and can't look at a calendar and really had to hustle when we learned that Uncle Aaron and Aunt Mary were coming Thursday night. -I think we pulled it off all right.

Also, because of our inability to communicate dates I had already made plans to go out of town with my parents for my SIL's baby shower. So I took off the morning after our company arrived and left Jeremiah at home with the kids and the company. It was a fun, carefree weekend for me as it included the baby shower, shopping and a rodeo. Although it was speckled with oddities and sadness as another SIL's mother passed away.

I came home to find my MIL and Aunt Mary cleaning my kitchen and talking about how hot it was out on the deck and "oh, you should feel how hot it is on the deck." I know my deck gets hot, and I was, in all truthfulness, annoyed that there were telling me how hot it was on my deck. Like I don't live there? But once I got out there, I understood what they meant. It was a ploy to get me outside to see the new canopy covering the deck, the new porch swing in the new shade under the canopy, and the new picnic table/bench set from Mary and Aaron.

(BTW: I've asked that they not do things like this, but that only seems to be a challenge to Aaron to do so. So instead of protesting I think I'll just embrace their generosity and continue to express my gratitude no matter how over-the-top and unnecessary their gifts are. But I did tell them that if they wanted to say thank you for letting them stay with us, we would have been happy with a box of Otter Pops.)

Then the next day my MIL showed up with a Maple tree for me to plant in my backyard. (I guess everyone was telling us that our young landscape was in desperate need of shade.) I got the tree planted - thank you, Lynette - and then Mary took my picture in its shade. I really love it and I can't wait for it to grow big and tall and turn red in the fall.

I'm really grateful for all the improvements to my yard. The deck now feels like more of an extension of the house and I love seeing the new tree in the yard. The only problem is that now I don't go past the deck!