Cute Quote

Just going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than standing in your garage makes you a car.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good: Sophie counted to 5 today! We were putting balls into her ball popper and I said, "one" and she continued, "two," "thee," "fur," "five."

The Bad: She's also started recently to not want to eat ANYTHING. She's always been a picky eater, but now even things that she used to like she turns her nose up at. It's so frustrating, especially when going out to dinner. I swear, the only things that she'll eat anymore is cottage cheese and yogurt. Aaarrrrrr.

The Ugly: My friend Allison has this totally funny page on her website (http://www.pretendingsanity.com/?page_id=219) called "Things I have Fished Out of the Toilet." Seriously, they are hilarious. My favorite is her son's own fist, clenched around a raisin that he REALLY wanted to eat. Anyway, I can now add something to my own imaginary "toilet fishing" list... a glowworm. HOW do you clean a glowworm that has been in the toilet?

Presiden Hinkley Passes Away

SALT LAKE CITY 27 January 2008 President Gordon B. Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through twelve years of global expansion, has died at the age of 97.
President Hinckley was the 15th president in the 177-year history of the Church and had served as its president since 12 March 1995.

The Church president died at his apartment in downtown Salt Lake City at 7:00 p.m. Sunday night from cause’s incident to age. Member of his family were at his bedside. A successor is not expected to be formally chosen by the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until after President Hinckley’s funeral within the next few days.

President Hinckley was known, even at the age of 95, as a tireless leader who always put in a full day at the office and traveled extensively around the world to mix with Church members, now numbering nearly 13 million in 171 nations.

His quick wit and humor, combined with an eloquent style at the pulpit, made him one of the most loved of modern Church leaders. A profoundly spiritual man, he had a great fondness for history and often peppered his sermons with stories from the Church’s pioneer past.

He was a popular interview subject with journalists, appearing on 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace and on CNN’s Larry King Live, as well as being quoted and featured in hundreds of newspapers and magazines over the years. During the Salt Lake Olympics of 2002, his request that the Church refrain from proselytizing visitors was credited by media with generating much of the goodwill that flowed to the Church from the international event.

In recent years, a number of major developments in the Church reflected President Hinckley’s personal drive and direction. In calling for 100 temples to be in operation before the end of the year 2000, the Church president committed the Church to a massive temple-building program.

In 1999 — 169 years after the Church was organized by its founder, Joseph Smith — the Church had 56 operating temples. Three years later that number had doubled, largely because of a smaller, highly practical temple architectural plan that delivered these sacred buildings to Church members in far-flung parts of the world. Many more Church members can now experience the sacred ceremonies that occur only in temples, including marriages for eternity and the sealing of families in eternal units.

President Hinckley was the most traveled president in the Church’s history. His duties took him around the world many times to meet with Latter-day Saints in more than 60 countries. He was the first Church president to travel to Spain, where in 1996 he broke ground for a temple in Madrid; and to the African nations of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Cape Verde, where he met with thousands of Latter-day Saints in 1998. In 2005, he traveled nearly 25,000 miles on a seven-nation, nine-day tour to Russia, South Korea, China, Taiwan, India, Kenya, and Nigeria.

At a general conference of Church members in April 2001, President Hinckley initiated the Perpetual Education Fund — an ambitious program to help young members of the Church (mainly returning missionaries from developing countries) receive higher education and work-related training that they would otherwise likely never receive.

Closer to his Salt Lake City home, President Hinckley announced the construction of a new Conference Center in 1996 and dedicated it four years later. Seating 21,000 people, it is believed to be the largest religious and theater auditorium in the world and has become the hub for the Church’s general conference messages to the world, broadcast in 54 languages.

Even before his term as president, President Hinckley’s extensive Church service included 14 years as a counselor in the First Presidency, the highest presiding body in the government of the Church, and 20 years before that as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

President Hinckley was born 23 June 1910 in Salt Lake City, a son of Bryant Stringham and Ada Bitner Hinckley. One of his forebears, Stephen Hopkins, came to America on the Mayflower. Another, Thomas Hinckley, served as governor of the Plymouth Colony from 1680 to 1692.

President Hinckley’s first job was as a newspaper carrier for the Deseret News, a Salt Lake City daily. After attending public schools in Salt Lake City, he earned a bachelor of arts degree at the University of Utah and then served two years as a full-time missionary for the Church in Great Britain. He served with distinction and ultimately was appointed as an assistant to the Church apostle who presided over all the European missions.

Upon successfully completing his missionary service in the mid-1930s, he was asked by Heber J. Grant, then president of the Church, to organize what has become the Church's Public Affairs Department.

President Hinckley began serving as a member of the Sunday School general board in 1937, two years after returning home from missionary service in Great Britain. For 20 years he directed all Church public communications. In 1951 he was named executive secretary of the General Missionary Committee, managing the entire missionary program of the Church, and served in this capacity for seven years.

On 6 April 1958, while serving as president of the East Millcreek Stake in Salt Lake City (a stake is similar to a diocese), President Hinckley was appointed as a general authority, or senior full-time leader of the Church. In this capacity he served as an assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles before being appointed to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on 5 October 1961.

President Hinckley received a number of educational honors, including the Distinguished Citizen Award from Southern Utah University; the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Utah; and honorary doctorates from Westminster College, Utah State University, University of Utah, Brigham Young University, Southern Utah University, Utah Valley State College and Salt Lake Community College. The Gordon B. Hinckley Endowment for British Studies, a program focused on the arts, literature and history of the United Kingdom, was established at the University of Utah.

President Hinckley was awarded the Silver Buffalo Award by the Boy Scouts of America; was honored by the National Conference for Community and Justice (formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews) for his contributions to tolerance and understanding in the world; and received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 2004, President Hinckley was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in the White House.

In March 2000 President Hinckley addressed the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. He also addressed the Religion Newswriters Association and the U.S. Conference of Mayors and twice addressed the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

President Hinckley wrote and edited several books and numerous manuals, pamphlets and scripts, including a best-selling book, Standing for Something, aimed at a general audience. In it he championed the virtues of love, honesty, morality, civility, learning, forgiveness, mercy, thrift and industry, gratitude, optimism and faith. He also testified of what he called the “guardians of virtue,” namely traditional marriage and family.

President Hinckley married Majorie Pay in the Salt Lake Temple in 1937. They have five children, 25 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren. Sister Hinckley passed away 6 April 2004.

Sophie's 1st Year

Some of you might know that for Christmas we made a book for the grandparents of Sophie's 1st year. It was a fabulous hit and the grandparents loved it! Shutterfly (where I made it) now offers a 'gallery' to show off your work, so I thought I'd post the link so you can check it out if you want to.

http://community.shutterfly.com/gallery/post/start.sfly?postId=/gallery/1/post/GMGDFg0Ys2Llo4Zg0zVLOw

I've put in pictures from each month as well as quotes from my journal from that particular month. I think that that makes it more intimate.

Edinburgh, Scotland

One of the perks of Aaron's job is that he gets a ton of frequent flyer miles. (That's what happens when you fly all over the world for 80% of the time.) He is currently in Cebu, Philippines again and comes home on the 30th. Then, he's home for a week and leaves for Edinburgh, Scotland.... so, Sophie and I decided to go with him! Yay!! It'll be all of our first times in Europe. Aaron, undoubtably, will be there a lot more, but I'm excited to be able to go with him this time. After deciding to go, I was so excited and mentioned it to my mom... who decided to come too! So, now my mom and dad are also coming with us. I'm really excited as now I will have someone to do stuff with during the day while Aaron is at work. (Hmm, and maybe we'll have a babysitter for one or two date nights in Scotland... shall we say valentine's day?)

We'll be there for just under 2 weeks. February is not the best time to visit Scotland, so I've heard, but it may be my only chance to go for free, so who cares! :) The picture above is of Edinburgh Castle which is definitely one of the first things on our list. I'm so excited to go!

Random Musings of the day

If we could find a way to use kids' snot as a fuel, we'd have a totally renewable and inexhaustible resource.

Clementines are good to eat. They are not good if they are stuck to your ovary. (If interested, or otherwise bored, see other blog: www.ttcsanity.blogspot.com)

Are blogs just our way of "keeping up" with people w/o really having to talk to them?

It's too bad TV isn't good for kids... we've watched a little today and yesterday b/c of the two of us being sickies, and some of them are so cute! Have you heard of "The Big Music Show," or something like that. Ahhh, we both loved it! :)

Part II

I got new scriptures for my birthday from my sweetie. I've been hinting for a couple years that "it'd be nice to have scriptures with my married name on them." Well, he finally got them for me - so I can stop using the ones that say Clever now :) Besides some of the pages are starting to fall out.

I'm excited to have them now since it's right at the beginning of the year and we're studying the Book of Mormon in our Sunday School Class (we rotate the book that we study: BOM, Old Test, New Test, you get the idea). I LOVE having my new scriptures. I was a little sad to not use my ones that are already marked up and whatnot, but this is my new beginning :) So, I've been doing my personal scripture study when Sophie goes for a nap each day. For me, I have to have it be part of my routine or I forget.

Anyway, I'm trying to make a concerted effort to " liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning." 1 Ne 19:23

So, before I go on, read these two verses from 1 Ne chapter 9...

5 Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not.
6 But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen.

Done? Ok. Need to read them again? Ok, I'll wait....
Nephi engraved all this stuff onto plates of metal and he had no idea why. Can you imagine how long that took and how hard that was? If I asked you to take an pick and axe and burrow through the rockies, you would want to know why - otherwise you wouldn't do it, or at least murmur against me. So often in my own youth and seeing other youth and even the not-so-young, there is a lot of questioning of easy, simple stuff.... for example... "why can't we get tattoos?" "What's the harm in an R-rated movie?" "Seriously we have to go to church for 3 hours? Why?" Murmur, murmur, murmur. Yet, Nephi (who was also very young) made these plates and didn't have to ask and didn't have to know because he had faith and knew that the Lord had a wise purpose.

Which brings me to another point, more of likening the verses directly to me, I suppose.
I sometimes get impatient with the timeline of having kids for us. Generally speaking, it will take us much longer and much more money to have our family than a good majority of other people (but not as much as others), and sometimes I get impatient. Yet, I KNOW that the Lord has a plan for our family. He has shown it so many times and I have such great faith in this... maybe sometimes I still murmur, or at least think of murmuring in my heart. Not against God, but just in general. Wo is me, I suppose. I try not to, and generally think I do a pretty good job, but some thoughts still creep in. I guess what I'm babbling about is that I need to just do my part. I need to have more of Nephi's attitude and go and do what my job is. The Lord will show the plan later for he knoweth all things from the beginning, will prepare a way, and hath all power unto fulfilling the plan.

Part I

Part I...
Well, the cat's out of the bag. It was our plan to not tell our family or friends (most anyway) that we were trying to have another baby... that hasn't exactly worked out well. A couple months ago I had such terrible stomach pains from the fertility medication that I'm on that Aaron had to call my mom and have her come over to help with Sophie. I couldn't do anything - I was on the floor (and later in my bed) curled into a ball from the pain. Sophie was so upset b/c she knew that mommy wasn't ok. We really thought that Aaron would have to take me to the hospital, so mom came over to help out and also stay with her while I was at the hospital. It turned out that I didn't go the hospital after all, but the help was invaluable (she would not let Aaron comfort her or anything). You just can't have someone (let alone your family) come over to help while you go to the hospital and not tell them why.... so my parents found out.

Then, maybe a month ago I was talking to my SIL (Aaron's sister) and well, it came out of my mouth before I even thought about it. We were talking about something else that related and it didn't even occur to me until after it came out. Ah well.

So fast forward to last Sunday or so. Aaron's parents came over and we had dinner and before he knew it, Aaron blurted it out too. At least I didn't feel so bad about telling his sister. :)

So now all of our family knows and a couple of friends, so I figured all of my friends might as well know. I'm terrible at keeping secrets and not saying what's on my mind. Funny b/c the first has kept me out of a lot of trouble and the second probably has gotten me in some trouble :) Anyway, I figured that I might as well be able to blog about it if everyone knows anyway. I haven't decided if I'll blog here or on our ttc (trying to conceive) blog that most people don't know about. Anyway, that is: www.ttcsanity.blogspot.com if I do decide to do it there instead so others don't have to weed through the endless babymaking charades.

The Pink Green Bag

Ok... the pink-green bag.... not a very catchy name - hmm, I'll need a different one. Anyway, I'm a fan of pink and browns together and loved this material from High-Fashion when I saw it.

I decided to make a reuseable grocery bag out of it - hence the 'green.'

I started it last night after I finished my new, cute, blue clutch (and after Sophie went to bed). So, after church today, I finished it up.

In these pictures, it has a loaf of bread and a box of cereal in it.

It's patterned after a regular, plastic grocery sack and

is gusseted on the sides so that more stuff fits in.

You can see the gussets better in the bottom picture.

I'm not sure if I'll use it for it's intended purpose, of if I'll steal it and put sewing material for my next project in it... hmm, what will the project be? I'm not sure yet... maybe I'll actually buy a pattern! I've been wanting to do some Amy Bulter stuff
(see: http://www.amybutlerdesign.com/products/patterns_top.php)
- and just found out that High-Fashion carries her patterns but not fabric.
But, I think that I may need a little more practice first.

The creative mo-jo has returned

Augh, I can't remember the last time that I did something crafty and creative... was it really Oct 2006 making a mermaid costume for Sophie? Really? There has got to be something else since then... but yet, I can't remember anything. I keep busy in my 'free' time (is there really any "free" time as a mom?) - gardening, running, photography, etc. but I definitely have lost my creative mo-jo since becoming a mom of a toddler. Mainly I think it's because I don't want to get all the stuff out, just to have to put it up an hour later when Sophie wakes up or try to wrestle her away from everything. But, I've been missing that part of me and decided to do something about it. Today, I made a cute little clutch purse. I'm looking forward to just sticking my wallet, phone, keys, etc. and sticking it in the diaper bag and going. Then, when I don't have the wee-one, I can just grab it and go.

I regret not taking pictures throughout the process, but ah well. I ended up having to sew it at my mom's house b/c my grandmother had my machine last and well... let's just say there is now a part missing.

Here's it's got my wallet, phone, and keys and definitely could fit more.