This article of the Church's response to the outcome of Prop 8 is remarkable! I like to keep "in touch" with Utah, so I occasionally read the Deseret News online or things from LDS Living online. Every time the church makes a statement I am amazed at the way they are able to express themselves in a kind, respectful, loving manner while being straightforward and honest. I know that those responsible for creating the public statements are led by God. I feel the Spirit-I feel peace and calm-when I read those statements.
Concerning this particular response, the Church addresses the fact that some members of the church opposed Prop 8 and encourages everyone to be kind and respectful of those with opposing views. There has been a lot of "talk" about Steve Young and how his wife was opposed to it, and many members have been angry and have kind of bashed her a bit because of it. But once again, we've been humbled by our leaders and taught that regardless of personal circumstances, we should always show love and respect towards each other. I LOVE how our prophets and leaders are always able to express what we believe in a clear and perfect way! The article addressed all the "issues" people had with Prop 8 in such a way that I feel like I can explain it to someone else, whereas before I had a hard time trying to describe WHY Prop 8 was so important.
So, a happy day in California. I know the fight isn't over, but I'm grateful for the members of the church and others out there who endured a lot of persecution for standing up for what is right!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
FREE Jessica Sprague class!
Hey people! Jessica Sprague is offering a FREE class called Stories in Hand. It's about pulling together memories and stories we have. Here's the link about the reason she decided to create this class and here's the link to register.
I'm registered and ready to go-hopefully you can join too! And if you're not familiar with Jessica Sprague's classes, they are tutorials that you watch on your computer ON YOUR OWN TIME! :) And there are message boards so you can chat with others who are taking the class or ask questions, etc.
I'm registered and ready to go-hopefully you can join too! And if you're not familiar with Jessica Sprague's classes, they are tutorials that you watch on your computer ON YOUR OWN TIME! :) And there are message boards so you can chat with others who are taking the class or ask questions, etc.
VOTE VOTE VOTE!
I just got back from voting and Dave's there now. It's pretty cool to be in a battleground state and have my vote really mean something. I appreciated voting in Utah, but I just knew how it was going to end, so there wasn't much of a pressure to vote there. But here? WOW! I'll admit, SNL has been hilarious to watch these last few weeks.
My thoughts and prayers are with those of you in California voting on Prop 8. After talking to my sister and emailing my friend I've learned that there have been some really BAD situations b/c of the hatefulness of some of those against Prop 8. My sister reminded me of how hard Satan is working on us. If you're voting no on prop 8 you can just close your browser now b/c this is something I'm passionate about. My sis made a great point about this issue and hopefully she doesn't mind if I share it. She talked about how there is a group that includes gays, lesbians, transsexuals, bisexuals, and those "questioning". They are supporting the idea that kids (and everyone else) should be questioning their sexuality and their gender. She pointed out that Satan is working hard to make us become an almost ASEXUAL people, b/c if that's how we are, we can't live eternally with God. Is that so true or what?? If homosexualism, or even asexualism, becomes the norm, then the Plan of Happiness is somewhat thwarted. You can't have eternal families if there aren't eternal marriages between man and woman. And procreation is one gift that Satan doesn't have, so why not attack the very relationship that CAN procreate? Misery loves company, right?
I've also been really bothered by the ignorance and misinformation of the voters of this issue. Some people believe that this issue makes civil rights unavailable to homosexual couples. THAT'S NOT THE TRUTH. Those rights are already available and this proposition will not take those rights away. This is a proposition to define marriage as a union between MAN AND WOMAN.
I have a lot of thoughts on this, but it's hard to put them into words. So, for those of you in California, we're thinking of you and praying that Proposition 8 PASSES. I know that the Lord is in charge and I know he's mindful of us. And because of that knowledge, I'm hopeful that even if things turn WAY south in this election, He'll be watching over us. He always is!
My thoughts and prayers are with those of you in California voting on Prop 8. After talking to my sister and emailing my friend I've learned that there have been some really BAD situations b/c of the hatefulness of some of those against Prop 8. My sister reminded me of how hard Satan is working on us. If you're voting no on prop 8 you can just close your browser now b/c this is something I'm passionate about. My sis made a great point about this issue and hopefully she doesn't mind if I share it. She talked about how there is a group that includes gays, lesbians, transsexuals, bisexuals, and those "questioning". They are supporting the idea that kids (and everyone else) should be questioning their sexuality and their gender. She pointed out that Satan is working hard to make us become an almost ASEXUAL people, b/c if that's how we are, we can't live eternally with God. Is that so true or what?? If homosexualism, or even asexualism, becomes the norm, then the Plan of Happiness is somewhat thwarted. You can't have eternal families if there aren't eternal marriages between man and woman. And procreation is one gift that Satan doesn't have, so why not attack the very relationship that CAN procreate? Misery loves company, right?
I've also been really bothered by the ignorance and misinformation of the voters of this issue. Some people believe that this issue makes civil rights unavailable to homosexual couples. THAT'S NOT THE TRUTH. Those rights are already available and this proposition will not take those rights away. This is a proposition to define marriage as a union between MAN AND WOMAN.
I have a lot of thoughts on this, but it's hard to put them into words. So, for those of you in California, we're thinking of you and praying that Proposition 8 PASSES. I know that the Lord is in charge and I know he's mindful of us. And because of that knowledge, I'm hopeful that even if things turn WAY south in this election, He'll be watching over us. He always is!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
One Happy Mamma=One Happy Halloween!
SHE WORE THE HAT!!!! I should've known that if I just left it to Dave it would get done. She fights ME on everything, but "Da-yay" (that's how she says Daddy) is the clear favorite. Sure enough, he wore it and let her play with it, and before we knew it, it was a fixture on her head for the night. No wig, but I'll take what I can get! And seeing how cute she was in that hat made ALL the sewing time worth it, 100 percent!
Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the night, then a slideshow of all the rest!
Emma and Elizabeth just love each other to pieces!
Checking out the loot
Two little buddies smooching!! HEHEHE! We sat Drew and Bree next to each other for some pictures (they're just a few weeks apart in age) and we just asked them to give each other a kiss. Boy, did they pull that one off!! This is probably my favorite picture of all!
Bree LOVES dogs, so every house that had one got an extra little conversation from Bree-a little high-pitched "hi doggie" and a cute little "teenk u" (thank you) and an exuberant wave good-bye. I just love the look of pure delight she had whenever she saw one.
This look is a little fanatical, if I say so myself. But Emma was so excited about trick-or-treating. It was all she could talk about all day. So this picture just sums up how she felt about it!
Here's the little Strawberry Shortcake crew-Lemon Meringue, Strawberry Shortcake, and Blueberry Muffin. We got a lot of comments from the people in front of their houses about how they were their favorite characters in the 80's! They looked so cute!
Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the night, then a slideshow of all the rest!
Emma and Elizabeth just love each other to pieces!
Checking out the loot
Two little buddies smooching!! HEHEHE! We sat Drew and Bree next to each other for some pictures (they're just a few weeks apart in age) and we just asked them to give each other a kiss. Boy, did they pull that one off!! This is probably my favorite picture of all!
Bree LOVES dogs, so every house that had one got an extra little conversation from Bree-a little high-pitched "hi doggie" and a cute little "teenk u" (thank you) and an exuberant wave good-bye. I just love the look of pure delight she had whenever she saw one.
This look is a little fanatical, if I say so myself. But Emma was so excited about trick-or-treating. It was all she could talk about all day. So this picture just sums up how she felt about it!
Here's the little Strawberry Shortcake crew-Lemon Meringue, Strawberry Shortcake, and Blueberry Muffin. We got a lot of comments from the people in front of their houses about how they were their favorite characters in the 80's! They looked so cute!
tagged
Aunt Marlys tagged me. She said that we have to use images from google to answer the tags. I'm not quite sure how to make this work right, but I'll try!
My age: 28
Cool places I've been: Orlando, Jackson Hole, Zions National Park, Goblin Valley, Bryce Canyon, Moab, Grand Canyon, New York City, Hawaii (Oahu and Maui), North Carolina, Nauvoo, Palmyra, Niagara Falls
Where I would like to go: anywhere warm and beautiful with no loud noises where I can RELAX. And I'd like to tour English and Scottish castles. And go to France, Italy, and Spain. And do a Mediterranean cruise. I'd like to go to a lot of places :)
My hobbies: music, scrapbooking, sewing, cooking, blogging, hanging out with friends, eating :)
My favorite place: "HOME"-and that is any place where I feel safe and happy. It's ALWAYS where my family is, but it's also where my best friends are or sometimes it's a beautiful quiet park out in the country, or it's around a campfire while talking. It's lots of places.
Weaknesses: Oh, I've got LOTS of those! Food, for the most part. Junk food. Anything that makes me want to eat more than I should. Brushing off my children when they're needing something, being too critical, thinking I'm always right, being too judgmental, procrastinating. All things that I'm trying to work on. And I have lots more, but let's not focus on those!
Bad habits: It seems to me like a habit is something you consistently do, and I'm not sure there's something that I ALWAYS do wrong. There are MANY things I do wrong, but I'm not sure there's a specific thing that's wrong all the time. Oh wait, yes there is. I let my girls watch a LOT of tv. Kind of. We don't have TV service, so it's PBS. It's gotten better since I've started going to the gym every day. Then it's only a movie after school while I'm getting dinner ready. But if I don't make it to the gym, the TV goes on at 9am and sometimes doesn't go off until 11:30am. I know. BAD MOM. But I'm okay with it-I've made my peace. Other bad habits...If I don't eat breakfast then I don't brush my teeth in the morning-I just stick in a piece of gum and get out the door. Gross, I know. I only wash my hair every 3 days-BUT FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH THICK HAIR YOU UNDERSTAND! It takes me a good hour to blow dry and flat iron. I'm NOT doing that every day! It's gotten to the point now, though, where my hair has balanced itself out. It doesn't get oily or greasy. I'm sure my family could point out my other bad habits.
Fun memories: Sliding down the stairs in slippery sleeping bags or blankets, teen cousins night and Hide and Go Seek in the dark at Grandma and Grandpa's house, cousin slumber parties on the trampoline, MANY moments with my roomies at BYU (too many to list!), trips to the lake with my family growing up, ward campout at Cherry Creek in utah-you ward members know who you are!!!, remodeling Mom & Dad's kitchen while they were gone-boy were we crazy, ANY time with my awesome hubby and sweet girls, staying at the huge house in Jackson, riding the Dragster at Cedar Point with Dave while the camera was rolling, making skydancers fly into the ceiling fans. I'll stop now.
And now I tag Kyla, Asialene, and Lindsey!
My age: 28
Cool places I've been: Orlando, Jackson Hole, Zions National Park, Goblin Valley, Bryce Canyon, Moab, Grand Canyon, New York City, Hawaii (Oahu and Maui), North Carolina, Nauvoo, Palmyra, Niagara Falls
Where I would like to go: anywhere warm and beautiful with no loud noises where I can RELAX. And I'd like to tour English and Scottish castles. And go to France, Italy, and Spain. And do a Mediterranean cruise. I'd like to go to a lot of places :)
My hobbies: music, scrapbooking, sewing, cooking, blogging, hanging out with friends, eating :)
My favorite place: "HOME"-and that is any place where I feel safe and happy. It's ALWAYS where my family is, but it's also where my best friends are or sometimes it's a beautiful quiet park out in the country, or it's around a campfire while talking. It's lots of places.
Weaknesses: Oh, I've got LOTS of those! Food, for the most part. Junk food. Anything that makes me want to eat more than I should. Brushing off my children when they're needing something, being too critical, thinking I'm always right, being too judgmental, procrastinating. All things that I'm trying to work on. And I have lots more, but let's not focus on those!
Bad habits: It seems to me like a habit is something you consistently do, and I'm not sure there's something that I ALWAYS do wrong. There are MANY things I do wrong, but I'm not sure there's a specific thing that's wrong all the time. Oh wait, yes there is. I let my girls watch a LOT of tv. Kind of. We don't have TV service, so it's PBS. It's gotten better since I've started going to the gym every day. Then it's only a movie after school while I'm getting dinner ready. But if I don't make it to the gym, the TV goes on at 9am and sometimes doesn't go off until 11:30am. I know. BAD MOM. But I'm okay with it-I've made my peace. Other bad habits...If I don't eat breakfast then I don't brush my teeth in the morning-I just stick in a piece of gum and get out the door. Gross, I know. I only wash my hair every 3 days-BUT FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH THICK HAIR YOU UNDERSTAND! It takes me a good hour to blow dry and flat iron. I'm NOT doing that every day! It's gotten to the point now, though, where my hair has balanced itself out. It doesn't get oily or greasy. I'm sure my family could point out my other bad habits.
Fun memories: Sliding down the stairs in slippery sleeping bags or blankets, teen cousins night and Hide and Go Seek in the dark at Grandma and Grandpa's house, cousin slumber parties on the trampoline, MANY moments with my roomies at BYU (too many to list!), trips to the lake with my family growing up, ward campout at Cherry Creek in utah-you ward members know who you are!!!, remodeling Mom & Dad's kitchen while they were gone-boy were we crazy, ANY time with my awesome hubby and sweet girls, staying at the huge house in Jackson, riding the Dragster at Cedar Point with Dave while the camera was rolling, making skydancers fly into the ceiling fans. I'll stop now.
And now I tag Kyla, Asialene, and Lindsey!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
brown hair
People have been asking, so here it is. This is the pic I posted on facebook. I LOVE my brown hair...so much that I might just stick with it :) And yes, it's not the greatest shot-I was trying to take the picture myself-not so easy!
Monday, October 27, 2008
confession
I guess I've just gotta bite the bullet on this one. It's driving me crazy, but I'M NOT A GOOD PHOTOGRAPHER!!! No matter what I do, I can't take a good picture. I thought that if we got a better camera then things would be different. Nope. Why is it that if I look through the viewfinder, JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE, my pictures turn out yucky? It doesn't matter how much I read in the manual and try to do everything it says, I can't get a good picture. I'm not saying I'm this fabulous person, but usually if I try something I can do it. AND I CAN'T DO THIS! This is going to bother me for a while.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
we're here...
all of us are accounted for:
1 husband back in school after a nice little trip to cali-although the girls were a little crazy being cooped up in the car for hours on end, at least he wasn't dealing with angry patients and COLD weather! :)
1 crazy wife trying to finish Halloween costumes and family picture outfits and wondering why she feels the need to MAKE everything...CURSE THE SEWING ABILITY...whatever happened to a good old PURCHASED costume??????
1 DANG CUTE Strawberry Shortcake daughter
1 psycho daughter waking up every night at 9pm to talk for a couple hours (or scream, but usually talking-she's getting pretty chatty) before calming down, then not waking up until 10am the next morning, therefore continuing the cycle...and not cooperating with the CUTE CUTE Blueberry Muffin costume mommy spent hours slaving over...WHY WON'T THIS ONE BEND TO MY WILL???? just kidding :) I'm really trying to work on "embracing" her defiance b/c I know it'll be a blessing down the road when people are trying to pressure her into doing things she shouldn't be :)
STAY BACK CRAZY LADY! She actually looks AFRAID of me!
Trying the little piggy-tailed blue wig. Nope...not working either!
Why is it so hard to adjust back to life when you go from west to east? Is it because you lose 3 hours? All I know is that I rely on my girls for my 7:30am alarm clock, and if they aren't awake, I'm not either! And that doesn't bode well for trying to get to a 9am gym class! Seriously, I'm all for sleeping in, usually, but I need to get back into some habits and these girls just aren't getting back into the groove! What works for everyone else?
But, we did have a successful trip to California. Of course, we'll still pray about everything to figure out where we need to be. There is one thing I think we had forgotten-the West is one big DESERT. We're so used to everything being so green and lush out here that we assumed that it would be like that out there. We KNOW it's a desert. I don't know why we expected anything different. It's reassuring to know that it's a little brown (okay, a LOT brown) out there b/c the hot summer just ended and come spring it'll be beautiful and green again. But we have this "dream" in our minds of what we want our ideal home to be and we were having a hard time finding it in California. Then as we were driving around today I was looking at all the houses and told Dave that I think our dream home exists in Ohio. Shucks...it's just too far away from family. Guess we'll have to re-think our dream home. We did find some things pretty close, though, so I'm sure we'll be all right :) Dream home is pretty far off anyway. But it's always good to dream, right?
This afternoon was the Leadership meetings for our Stake Conference. The Stake Primary President was speaking to us and began her talk telling us that while she was preparing, she received inspiration about what she should speak about. She said she was a little confused b/c the inspiration had nothing to do with Primary, but decided to follow through anyway. Then she proceeded to talk to us about the need for US to have family scripture study. I KNOW I'm not the only one to ever experience the feeling that someone is speaking directly to you! She told us some personal experiences and read us some quotes from President Benson's talk about the different blessings scripture study will bring to our lives. So I'll be honest and admit that family scripture study isn't quite working at the Latham household. I've given up trying to read books to Bree b/c she either gets mad and throws them at me or takes them away and won't let me look at it so I can read it to her. And then half the time we ARE all together is spent trying to get Bree fed and into bed b/c she has had it for the day. I REALLY want to make this work! I really felt motivated and inspired by the message today.
So here's my request for help--How does your family work in family scripture time? How much time do you spend on it (especially with younger kids)? Have you noticed systems that work? Any thoughts or advice are welcome!
And then tonight was Tia's annual Halloween party. We forgot our camera-like we do every year. The only reason I can think of is I'm usually getting back from our leadership meetings (it's always the same weekend as Stake Conference) just in time to throw on a costume, get the girls in bed, then get out the door. So hopefully the others will be so kind as to share pictures. Dave and I FINALLY won an award this year-Most Original. I was a Whoopee cushion and he was...a bum. He just wore scrubs and a long sleeve shirt, then some shorts that had a fake bum showing out of it. We're usually not very creative, so I was quite impressed that we came up with that. We were also thinking of a fireman and damsel in distress (burn marks on some jammies, soot on the face, etc), but I just don't know if I could have handled how hot Dave might have looked in a fireman costume :) It was a lot of fun. We tried a new game this year. Everyone drew a number then put it back in the bag. Then Brian drew out 2 numbers and those people had to go sit next to each other and come up with pick-up lines for the other while staying in character. Let me tell you, that was HILARIOUS! The best was when the 2 numbers drawn were 2 guys. And man, was it weird to notice how easily pick-up lines come to a guy, but not to the girls. We were STRUGGLING. But those guys kept coming up with things that had us rolling. Good times all around-I'm sad this is the last year for that party!
1 husband back in school after a nice little trip to cali-although the girls were a little crazy being cooped up in the car for hours on end, at least he wasn't dealing with angry patients and COLD weather! :)
1 crazy wife trying to finish Halloween costumes and family picture outfits and wondering why she feels the need to MAKE everything...CURSE THE SEWING ABILITY...whatever happened to a good old PURCHASED costume??????
1 DANG CUTE Strawberry Shortcake daughter
1 psycho daughter waking up every night at 9pm to talk for a couple hours (or scream, but usually talking-she's getting pretty chatty) before calming down, then not waking up until 10am the next morning, therefore continuing the cycle...and not cooperating with the CUTE CUTE Blueberry Muffin costume mommy spent hours slaving over...WHY WON'T THIS ONE BEND TO MY WILL???? just kidding :) I'm really trying to work on "embracing" her defiance b/c I know it'll be a blessing down the road when people are trying to pressure her into doing things she shouldn't be :)
STAY BACK CRAZY LADY! She actually looks AFRAID of me!
Trying the little piggy-tailed blue wig. Nope...not working either!
Why is it so hard to adjust back to life when you go from west to east? Is it because you lose 3 hours? All I know is that I rely on my girls for my 7:30am alarm clock, and if they aren't awake, I'm not either! And that doesn't bode well for trying to get to a 9am gym class! Seriously, I'm all for sleeping in, usually, but I need to get back into some habits and these girls just aren't getting back into the groove! What works for everyone else?
But, we did have a successful trip to California. Of course, we'll still pray about everything to figure out where we need to be. There is one thing I think we had forgotten-the West is one big DESERT. We're so used to everything being so green and lush out here that we assumed that it would be like that out there. We KNOW it's a desert. I don't know why we expected anything different. It's reassuring to know that it's a little brown (okay, a LOT brown) out there b/c the hot summer just ended and come spring it'll be beautiful and green again. But we have this "dream" in our minds of what we want our ideal home to be and we were having a hard time finding it in California. Then as we were driving around today I was looking at all the houses and told Dave that I think our dream home exists in Ohio. Shucks...it's just too far away from family. Guess we'll have to re-think our dream home. We did find some things pretty close, though, so I'm sure we'll be all right :) Dream home is pretty far off anyway. But it's always good to dream, right?
This afternoon was the Leadership meetings for our Stake Conference. The Stake Primary President was speaking to us and began her talk telling us that while she was preparing, she received inspiration about what she should speak about. She said she was a little confused b/c the inspiration had nothing to do with Primary, but decided to follow through anyway. Then she proceeded to talk to us about the need for US to have family scripture study. I KNOW I'm not the only one to ever experience the feeling that someone is speaking directly to you! She told us some personal experiences and read us some quotes from President Benson's talk about the different blessings scripture study will bring to our lives. So I'll be honest and admit that family scripture study isn't quite working at the Latham household. I've given up trying to read books to Bree b/c she either gets mad and throws them at me or takes them away and won't let me look at it so I can read it to her. And then half the time we ARE all together is spent trying to get Bree fed and into bed b/c she has had it for the day. I REALLY want to make this work! I really felt motivated and inspired by the message today.
So here's my request for help--How does your family work in family scripture time? How much time do you spend on it (especially with younger kids)? Have you noticed systems that work? Any thoughts or advice are welcome!
And then tonight was Tia's annual Halloween party. We forgot our camera-like we do every year. The only reason I can think of is I'm usually getting back from our leadership meetings (it's always the same weekend as Stake Conference) just in time to throw on a costume, get the girls in bed, then get out the door. So hopefully the others will be so kind as to share pictures. Dave and I FINALLY won an award this year-Most Original. I was a Whoopee cushion and he was...a bum. He just wore scrubs and a long sleeve shirt, then some shorts that had a fake bum showing out of it. We're usually not very creative, so I was quite impressed that we came up with that. We were also thinking of a fireman and damsel in distress (burn marks on some jammies, soot on the face, etc), but I just don't know if I could have handled how hot Dave might have looked in a fireman costume :) It was a lot of fun. We tried a new game this year. Everyone drew a number then put it back in the bag. Then Brian drew out 2 numbers and those people had to go sit next to each other and come up with pick-up lines for the other while staying in character. Let me tell you, that was HILARIOUS! The best was when the 2 numbers drawn were 2 guys. And man, was it weird to notice how easily pick-up lines come to a guy, but not to the girls. We were STRUGGLING. But those guys kept coming up with things that had us rolling. Good times all around-I'm sad this is the last year for that party!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Project/Craft Night Ladies...
For the next TWO Monday nights (October 20th and 27th), Project Night will be at Bridi's house. See you there!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
