Nauvoo

Nauvoo Temple


Joseph Smith and his wife Emma Smith.


Mansion Home where Joseph and Emma lived while in Nauvoo.

Joseph and Hyrum overlooking the city for the last time before going to Carthage where they were later killed.

Inside Carthage Jail.

The window that Joseph fell from after being shot.

The graves of Joseph, Hyrum and Emma Smith.

What an incredible trip touring Nauvoo and all the history and meaning it holds for our Church. It could not have come at a better time for me. I am in such a good place in my life and belief in this Church and the gospel truths it holds. It seems like my testimony is continually evolving. As a child I think we all hold a simple and pure testimony of all things that are true. As adults we have the responsibility to seek the truth and live by it not just in our hearts but in our minds. Pure testimony that comes so easily as a child is lost in adulthood so we either lose our faith or we build on it by study and prayer. All my life I have in varying degrees built upon my testimony of a Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the restoration of His Church in the final dispensation of time, through Joseph Smith who was a Prophet, the Book of Mormon as a sacred book of scripture and living prophets today. It sounds so incredible the things this Church claims. I just read today in a book giving a history of Jesus Christ that in His own day the Jews believed that living prophets and holy visitations were a thing of the past when right in there midst they had the Savior of the world. The Lord has never forgotten his children and miracles happen everyday.

So what I was getting at before I went off on my little tangent is my testimony of these things has always been there but in a way it has almost felt like a burden for various reasons, at this time in my life it all seems to be coming together in such a beautiful way, it has stopped being a burden and become a blessing. It feels like all my life I have been staring a the most beautiful painting, over scrutinizing it, looking too closely at it. I finally stepped back to see the big picture, the purposes of all the little pieces taken as a whole. The end result is our Saviors work of art and it is beautiful. Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and lean of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Chicago

All these years I have heard a lot of things being hyped up that I have never tried. This weekend I had a lot of firsts.

-Fist time in Chicago or any big city for that matter. As we were driving through the city I totally felt like I was in the middle of a movie set. The city is amazing and scary. The first thing we saw was the skyline the second thing we saw was two drunk guys get into a fight. One of the guys was holding a rabbit, it all sounds a little "Alice in Wonderland" and it felt that way too.


-First pedicure. This was not overly hyped up, it was so fun and relaxing. On a side note my feet have always been, well, ridiculously cute but now they are ridiculously cute and glamorous.

-First time trying sushi, way over rated. I actually gaged 5 times trying to get it down. The whole tastelessness combined with the squishy texture threw me over the top.

-First time in IKEA, while I don't think it is over rated it is the store that never ends. I totally thought I would be having nightmares about being in IKEA and never finding my way out.

-My first fiber cereal bar. Over rated, got a little bloated in the car ride home...it was a long ride.

-First time in a cab. Not over rated or under rated. I just wanted to shower myself in hand sanitizer after every ride.

-First time in a comedy club. Tons of profanity, having said that it was a unique and fun experience.

-First time drinking a 4 dollar bottle of water...man was it good! I opened a bottle of water in our hotel room and later found out it cost 4 dollars....4 DOLLARS!

-First time using the bathroom at the worlds biggest truck stop on the way home. Ummm...it was big?

We were there the weekend they celebrated St. Patricks day so the river was dyed green...and every one was drunk.

Me and Jenny, this girl is ton of fun! Jenny, I'm not even going to charge you for saying that since I just realized that I never payed you for the 4 dollar bottle of water that was charged to our room. Love ya!

This is Paige and Jenny, I had so much fun with these girls!

8 Things.

8 things tag rules are:*post rules on your blog*answer the 6 '8' items*let each person know they are tagged by leaving them a 'comment'

8 favorite TV shows.

-So you think you can dance.
-The Bachelor. (I still like Jason even though he is a dirty dog.)
-American Idol. (even though I never vote.)
-The office.
-Samantha Who.
-I really liked True Beauty.
-Jon and Kate plus 8.
-Any baby show on Discovery Health.

8 Things I did Yesterday.

-I went shopping and took advantage of an awesome sale. I got 5 shirts 1 pair of shoes and 2 pair of socks for 76 dollars. It was like all those dreams I have about finding a great sale and filling my cart with stuff, don't tell me I'm the only one who has had that dream.
-Showered and tried to shave my legs but John stole my last razor and I didn't want to run down the stairs naked looking for it.
-folded and put away 8 loads of laundry.
-cleaned my house.
-I just asked Karina "what did I do yesterday" and her reply was "put me in the corner?"
-Bathed Brock and Karina.
-Watched American Idol.
-Ate 1 and 1/2 chili dogs.

8 things I'm looking forward too.

-My trip to Chicago.
-Tyler,Doni, Damon and Cassie coming to visit. Big WAHOO!
-Spring.
-My tenth wedding anniversary, we're planning a child free trip to Hawaii. Look out, you could be the one we ask to watch our kids.
-My tax return, we are paying off some bills and although I wish we could blow it on fun stuff it feels great to have little less debt.
-Eventually painting and decorating our bedrooms and bathrooms.
-Teaching my kids to ride bikes this summer.
-When my kids are old enough to do the dishes. SCORE!

8 Favorite Restaurants.

-Olive Garden.
-Famous Daves.
-Red Lobster.
-Red Robin.
-Burger King. (sometimes nothing tastes better than a whopper junior with fries.)
-Panda Express.
-Old Grist Mill.
-Pancheros.

8 things on my wish list.

-I not going to wish to have no debt, I would settle for a house payment and a car payment.
-to drop 15 to 20 pounds, man would I look good!
-to take my kids to Disney Land.
-to someday finish my college education.
-to fly, not drive, home twice a year.
-to read the twilight series again for the first time.
-to find books as entertaining as the twilight series.
-to be a multi millionaire and buy all my family members a house, and retire my parents with more money than they can possibly spend on their kids.

8 People I tag.

-Britney
-Amy
-Alisha
-Shauni
-Laura
-Brooke

Honored Guest!

This is McKenna's class mate and good friend Hannah. She looks two years older than her doesn't she. Anyway, McKenna has been trying to get a play date with Hannah (funny, pretty soon I won't be able to call them play dates, they will be "hanging out") for a long time and a couple of weeks ago we finally arranged one with her mother's permission. It was about two weeks off and so for two weeks McKenna has been meticulously planning the day when Hannah would come. She informed me that she planned on taking Hannah on a tour of our home and would like to have it clean that day and to make sure that I am dressed with my makeup on. I'm not shocked by the requests only because I was a lot the same way as a child, I am however a little insulted that she should think that she has to remind me to clean the house and get dressed as if this doesn't happen on a daily basis. Some day's I were my pajama's all day but that doesn't mean I didn't intentionally dress in my pajama's.
Karina has been looking forward to it as much as McKenna. I think she asked if Hannah was coming around 20 times today (no exaggeration) and if she was going to ride in our car and watch a movie. When Hannah finally arrived you should have heard the excitement level in the house. I guess getting dressed and cleaning my house is a small price to pay for such happy, cheery children.