Lehi's Dream

I'm not big on the Gospel according to Dedra, or anyone else. I hope that the things that I want to share with you make sense and seem correct. I wrote these thoughts down a short time ago and tonight I felt like I should share them here.

I LOVE LEHI'S DREAM!!!

In 1 Nephi 8:5, you read of a man in white robe. That man is Jesus Christ. Then over in verse 11 of the same chapter, it talks of the fruit--which is the Love of God. The fruit is white--a whiteness that exceeds any thing Nephi has ever seen. I think that is awesome because who loves us more than Jesus Christ? No one! The love of God in the dream is whiter/brighter/stronger than any other. White is also pure. Christ's love for each of us is whiter/brighter/stronger and more pure than any other love.

Another thought I had about Lehi's Dream is found in chapter 12 of 1 Nephi. I was reading about the thunderings and quakings. I noticed that where ever the destruction was, the mist of darkness followed. That mist is Satan. Then is vs. 17 & 18 we read again about the Mist of Darkness and the Great and Spacious Building, which is the pride of the world.

That is when my thought came to me. I realized that all things that came from God are 'natural'. The Rod of Iron is not going to break during a natural disaster. The Tree of Life along with the Fruit have to be nurtered. If I don't do my part--read the scriptures, be kind, keep the commandments, magnify my callings, etc, the fruit won't be there for me to partake of.

I found it interesting that the temptation of the devil is a mist, because a mist can clear away. It WILL clear away! When Christ comes, that mist WILL clear away. Also, mist can move away quickly (casting satan out). Have you ever been driving through fog and all of the sudden you can see clearly? It's like going from a bad situation to a better one.

Lastly, the Great and Spacious Building is also man-made. When the earth has it's earthquakes, that building will fall! Just like when Christ comes and we all bow down before him, our pride is going to fall away.

I know the things that I have read and studied are true! I can feel the Holy Ghost testify to me again right now that the scriptures are true and they exist for our day and to help us (YOU AND ME!) through any troubles we may have.

I just felt like I needed to share that with you. I know many of my friends aren't members of my faith. If you ever had any questions, please feel free to ask me! You can also look at our church website on line.

Coming soon...

MORE CURRENT PICTURES!!!

See this BEAUTIFUL camara?? I bought it in May. I LOVE it. Rather, I LOVED it. It had a little accident in California and drowned. What happened you ask? It fell in the toilet at Disneyland. I know, GROSS! I've done my best to sanitize it. I washed the little cord or handle thingy. I cleaned everywhere I could with clorox wipes. (Too bad you can't run it through the washer...I already know water is BAD for it.) I let it dry for a while. Still it wasn't working. When I've needed to take a picture, I have borrowed Nicole's camara. Last night I loaded mine up with batteries again..one last effort to see if it has finally decided to work. No such luck, and to add insult to injury... Somebody (one of my kids) has dropped it and the screen is shattered. Goodbye little Cannon.

Tonight Ken and I went to Walmart (I HATE WALMART) to buy a new camara. Sadly, our beautiful camara is no longer available there...9 months later. We had to buy a different one. We finally chose one and they didn't have any in stock. We asked to buy the display and they wouldn't sell it to us because at some point they will have more in stock. I asked when and the lady said they wouldn't know until it was shipped.When we got home, I went online (I LOVE AMAZON!) and found the exact camara we had for a very nice price. Ken talked me into buying the once we were going to get at Walmart though. Because we bought it online, through amazon, the price was 30 dollars less that at Walmart and we didn't have to pay shipping. It will be here in 5 days. Then I can take pictures again. I'm so excited!!!

Bowling

The first friday of every month we take the kids in our class at school bowling. When we get there, they all take their shoes off (we don'tmess with rentals), the bumpers go up, and then they bowl.


We have some amazing talent in our room. The high score was 113, the low was 36.

One girl (age 6) walked up to her lane, stopped at the line and just dropped the ball. About 1/2 of the way down to lane, it STOPPED! We couldn't get the guy's attention to come get it, so I got to walk down the gutter and get the ball. It happened too quickly to hand my camara to my friend, but it was enjoyable.

One boy actually managed to get a ball in the gutter--I don't know how he did it, but I got a picture of it.

Good Times. LOL!

While I was eavesdropping...

This morning Ken asked Nicole what movies came from Netflix yesterday. She replied that she didn't know. Ken jokingly said, you know but you don't want to tell me becuase you are mean. Nicole said, no really! I just don't remember, I'm sorry Dad. Ken said, I know Colie, I was kidding. You don't have a mean bone in your body.


Less than 5 seconds later I heard, 'SHUT UP ANIMAL!!!" from Nicole.


It made me laugh.

This is not a stuffed animal, it's our dog--Animal.

A couple of questions

Tonight when I was tucking Matthew in I asked him the same things I ask him every night.

Where do you want to get married? The temple.
Which one? It doesn't matter, Dad says my wife gets to pick. (Atta boy! 1 point for Ken!)

Where do you want to go on your mission? Australia. No wait, I don't want to learn to speak their language.

LOL!!

I was going to tuck Nicole in too, but she is hiding out in the bathroom. I asked her if she was okay and she said she was in there because she wasn't sure if she was sick yet. (She is going to school tomorrow!)

Family Scripture Study or Enduring to the End...you decide!

I'd like to give you a glimpse of our scripture study . It happens either at 6:30 am or in the evening right before bedtime around 6:45-7:00. Today, we were late...it was 8:21 when we started because of Wednesday Night Activities at the church.

So this is how we start every night. Ken uses his best 'Fight Announcer Voice' and says--really LOUD-- TONIGHT ON SCRIPTURES!! Then he reads the heading of the chapter we will be reading. Tonight it was Alma 8.

While Ken was reading the first 10 verses, Nicole was taking her hair out and teasing the dog. Matthew was on the floor body surfing on his ripstick. (He lost his ripstick tonight)

Randomly, when Ken read the word 'Ammonihah' everyone felt the need to say it with him in an authorative voice. When the word Satan was read, Matthew took it upon himself to follow with the sound effect du du dun. (doom and gloom from cartoons)

After Ken reads, next it's Matthew's turn. In Verse 15 he misread and said, 'lift up thy tiny head and rejoice.' I don't know where he thought he saw tiny, but it crackced Ken and I up. We kept it hidden, but it was not a good thing. The next verse he misread again, 'I am sent to command three (instead of thee) that thou return to Ammonihah (more authorative voices).

After verse 16, it was time to review. Ken asked, 'so what have we read about so far?' Nicole responded by asking, 'Can I go to bed?' More sighs followed by Ken and I and Matthew said, 'du du dun.

We pressed forward with the review, next it was Nicole's turn to read. As she read, Matthew was all over the floor, and had surrounded himself with his favorite toys (which are not even allowed out of his room.) She was 2 verses into her reading and we asked Matthew where she was...what word was next. He said a word (which was wrong) and Nicole said, 'I don't even know where I am. I'm starting over.' More sighs from Ken and I.

She had 1 more verse to read and Ken asked the kids a question. Nicole felt interupted and said, 'I'm not done reading..I have one more verse.' Ken repeated the question and then Matthew asked, 'when are we getting the dog's balls cut off?'

Time for family prayers. We will try again tomorrow. **sigh**

This picture is LIVE. I had my phone and shot it really quick while Nicole was reading. **more sighs**

Happy Birthday Wendi!!

Today is my Sister's Birthday. Wendi is #1 out of 8 and 8 years older than me.

Even thought I was so much younger than her, and there were a couple of kids in between up, I always felt close to her growing up. She taught me the articles of faith. She took me and my little bros and sister to see the movie 'Oliver and Company' in the theater when I was in 5th grade. She also snuck pizza into our room (Heather, Wendi and Me) when we were playing house when I was little.

The first trip I ever went on without my parents was with Wendi. She was 14, I was 6. We had to go from Meridian, ID to Ontario, OR to pick up some headsets for my Mom and Dad. The trip was an hour or so each way, and I'd never gone that far without my parents. We even left the state!! Wendi had just gotten her driver's license, and I was so excited that she invited me to go. We left in the daylight and got home in the dark. I thought we'd been gone ALL DAY. Even thought we now go further than that to attend Stake Conference or to get to a Sam's Club, I thought we were on a road trip.

As I got older, our relationship was always good. She had fun things for us to, and I loved it.

Wendi on your birthday, I hope you have a great day! I wonder if you even remember that today is your birthday, lol. (I'm serious!!) Thank you for fixing my hair for me before my first Stake Dance. Thank you for letting my paint my dresser at your house when I was is HS. Thank you for buying my wedding book. Thank you for letting Ken live with you guys when we were engaged. Thank you for letting us hang out at your house when we visit. Finally, thank you for being a good example to me while we were growing up. I love you!
Here are some pictures of us, growing up...

Happy Groundhog Day!!

I LOVE GROUNDHOG DAY!

I think my love started when the movie Groundhog Day came out. I was in High School. I saw it with some of my closest friends at the time(Beth Palmer, Chris Spurlock and his GF, James Miller) and I LOVED IT. That movie is the first movie I ever went to twice in the theater.

I bought it on VHS as soon as it came out and we watched it so much we wore the tape out. Thank goodness for DVD.

Now that I am married and have kids, Ken and I try to make memories for the kids. We like to celebrate holidays that are really useless (Groundhog Day, St. Patrick's Day, April Fools Day, etc) and make memories for the kids. I'm not going to lie, I enjoy the memories too.

Today was no different. It was a normal day for us. Ken and I went to work, the kids went to school. We feed the missionaries every other Monday and they came over tonight. Dinner was nothing special either. The fun started after dinner. I found a cake idea on the net and we made a groundhog cake. We all built it together and then of course, we ate it. Then after FHE we watched Groundhog Day together.

Here are some pictures of the cake we made. It was super fun to make and eat.

I put the boys in charge of crushing up the oreos. They were sprinkled on top of the cake, it looked like dirt. They are pretty amazing, I must say!

The sisters, Nicole and I decorated the candy bars to look like groundhogs.

For those of you who have led sheltered lives and have not had the privelidge to become acquainted with Groundhog Day, here is a little video for you to watch. RENT THE MOVIE! YOU CAN BORROW MINE! WATCH IT!

A post from Nicole

Here are some pictures of me and my mom. we took them after church today. Thanks Matthew for taking the pictures.

Want to go for a ride on this?

Sorry these pictures are so fuzzy, I took them on my phone.

Last week, during FHE, Matthew was not interested in listening to the lesson. He was actually in a bad mood and at one point he walked by my area rug and kicked up the corner. I nicely asked him not kick the rug but it was too late. He already had a new idea. He walked to the other side of the rug and kicked that corner. Right away I knew what he was doing.

I made the mistake of smiling to Ken and telling him that he's making an airplane. I was thankful that Matthew laughed though, defusing his crumby attitude.He remained here for the rest of our FHE. This is a site I see often now.