Mia's Ballet Recital Pt II

Mia's Ballet Recital Pt I

Graduation

As most of you know Colin's graduation was weeks ago but it is taking us weeks to catch up to real life again after our wonderful cruise! Thanks David and Debby. Thanks to Colin for graduating so we could go. Cruises are a lot of work but so much fun. Anyway, here are some pictures of graduation and thanks to all those who were able come. Colin starts orientation next Thursday. I still can't believe were are here sometimes. It is a good feeling though.

Mia also had her dance recital about a month ago so that is posted here too.

I have been counting my blessings lately and we have been so blessed in every way. Through school Colin and I didn't have many opportunities to pay much tithing, living off loans and all. We have discussed how now we will pay on a regular basis and what a blessing it will be. Later on I was listening to Dave Ramsey, the financial peace guru, and some lady called in to tell him that they were debt free because their whole family, kids included, put together a plan and they all stuck to it. She mentioned how God had blessed them. The Spirit testified to me of the truthfulness of Malachi 3:10 - "Bring ye all the thithes...if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing there [there shall] not [be room] enought [to receive it.]" I know, if we pay a full tithe, that we will have more blessings than we need. It is such a comfort to know that the Lord will take care of us through obedience to this law

We are looking forward to seeing you all in August for such a wonderful celebration. Also, everyone is invited to our house for Thanksgiving if you can get here. =-)

Arachnaphobia!!

So, I get home last night and Ray tells me that he found spider pictured below in Grace and Maggie's room. I seriously started freaking out, then he tells me that he actually found the spider in an outside bait station at an account he was at. NOT FUNNY!!! Aside from a tarantula, this is seriously the biggest spider I have ever seen. This is a quart jar it is now living in. Ray caught this little frog in our yard for the spider to eat, but they just hung out together all night. He looked the spider up and it turns out it is a harmless wolf spider, yeah right!! He also assured me that a spider that big could never slip in through the cracks in our house.

There are so many bugs in Oklahoma, bugs I have never seen. There is also so much wild life living in such close proximity. Ray caught this little frog in our yard in no time. We have found big old toads in our yard, the other day I opened the front door and found a turtle the size of a frisbee on our front porch. Grace and our neighbor Reid found a little baby turtle the size of a silver dollar in our yard a few days ago. I always see armadillos on the side of the road, sometimes smashed armadillos!! It has certianly been an eye opening experience living in this part of the country! I hope you don't get too creeped out by this spider, believe me, it will be destroyed when Ray gets home!!

Coming soon to a chapel near you...

For your evangelical enjoyment, please check out this link. Be sure to read the bios. I wish we could get them to do a fireside.

It reminds me of a scheme Marcia and I have been talking about doing. When we go to concerts, there are always people outside after the show, handing out fliers and CDs to promote their up-and-coming bands. No one really looks at these right away, they just take them and glance over them later. We decided that next time we go to a concert, we're going to hand out pass-along cards and CDs of the Book of Mormon in mp3 format. Basically, we're going to trick everyone into being exposed to the Gospel. :)

UPDATE: Marcia found out they're coming to Maryland this weekend. Looks like we'll get our non-fireside, after all.

Eva's 1st Birthday!

We had a good time on Eva's birthday. It was much different than how we celebrated Colby's (big party, lots of friends and presents) it was just Jason, Colby, Eva, and I. We had dinner and she got to play on a play gym for the first time ever. Then, we had cake and ice cream and she got to play with her new presents. It was fun and she LOVED the cake!! Sorry there are so many pictures, I can never decide which ones to post!

Grace's Scripture

Grace gave the scripture in primary a couple of weeks ago. She memorized the whole thing and did it all by herself!! When she was done some of the older kids in primary started to clap:)

Simple things

Today's blog comes from Jeffersonville, Indiana, home of the Census National Processing Center. I'm out here conducting training all week, and so far it has been a very favorable experience. (Especially the part where we get to drive a hot little Eclipse. Not sure how that happened.) It's nice to be doing work that doesn't involve sitting at my desk, and it's nice to know that my boss trusts me enough to teach stuff to other people. And I have downtime for the blog, another plus.

Mom wanted me to share a recent experience I had with sharing my testimony. It was followed in a very timely manner by a lesson in Relief Society about testimony, and how much power there is in the sharing of even the most simple testimony with others (thank you, President Kimball). It’s nice when the Lord uses timing to really drill home a lesson we should be learning.

Some of you may have heard about my friend and co-worker, Justin Kydd. I’ve known him for some time, and over the past few months we’ve been playing outside of work. He is very familiar with the church – he’s been playing volleyball with members of the Suitland singles ward for the past two years, and he’s taken the discussions twice. But he has a very philosophical and well-trained mind, which I think has been a crutch for him when the Spirit has tried to teach him. I imagine many promptings have been rejected because he simply hasn’t been able to find any corresponding logical thought to accompany those feelings and promptings. He claims to be atheist, which I don’t fully believe – I think he just needs to let his mind catch up to what his heart already knows. (I loaned him Mere Christianity to give him some perspectives from another who was once also a self-proclaimed atheist.)

Justin and I often engage in very deep religious discussions. I used to always be very cautious about what I said about God and spiritual things that I knew to be true, because I knew that he didn’t believe in deity or personal revelation – I’d be justifying one thing he didn’t believe by providing another. I don’t know why I was so afraid – I guess I just thought that if I stuck to the doctrine and continued to provide answers to his philosophical logic, eventually things would sink in all by themselves. One day I just decided I wasn’t going to do that anymore. I wanted to just talk to him about things I very sincerely believe. And so I did. It was the simplest religious conversation we’d ever had, and it was one of the first where I could feel the Spirit’s presence. That was the very first time I felt like he was truly affected by anything I had to say.

Justin is starting to take a greater interest in things. He is more actively pursuing answers to the questions he still has, and he is becoming more willing to give voice to his feelings and to accept that said feelings may actually be from an outside source. I don’t know how much of a turning point that conversation was for him, but it was a big one for me, because it strengthened my own testimony and reminded me of what is most important and effective in our work as member missionaries. Our testimony really is our most powerful tool in sharing the Gospel. You can discuss Gospel topics all day long, without really affecting anyone. The real thing that brings people to God is sharing your testimony and creating an environment where the Spirit can also be present to speak to them.

I think this blog is sufficiently long. I love you all.

xo

Abby

The Impossible Quiz

If you happen to have a couple spare hours (who doesn't, especially when they're getting ready to move!) this quiz is fun!
http://addictinggames.com/theimpossiblequiz.html

Love you all!
Dana

Pirates!!

I just saw that Priates of the Caribbean 3 is coming out this weekend. It reminded me of the trip mom, Grace and I took to San Francisco to visit Leslie when Grace was a baby. She was just over 2 months old. This is a picture of her from that trip. Anyway, we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 1 when we were there and I saw the beginning and the end, but missed the entire middle. As you all know, Grace was a fussy baby and I was out in the hall with her throughout the whole movie. She was literally screaming the whole time!! Leslie came out toward the end of the movie and took over for me. I sure didn't know what I was getting myself into when I had Grace! I am glad to say that my other babies have been much easier, and that I learned so much about unconditional love and devotion from Grace! I still haven't seen the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, or the second. Maybe I'll have to have a Pirates party this weekend!

Becky