That's Why I Love Him

Summer Tidbits

We love summer: no school, no homework, it's kind of warm this year, we actually get to spend time with each other, picnics, planting flowers and tomatoes, kite flying, bike rides, picture taking and sunburns.



Even though we don't have any amazing plans for a vacation, we're excited to just be home and enjoy each other and what there is to do around here.



Work is great! There's lots to learn, but it's interesting enough to me that I feel like eventually I'll catch on to everything! And I'm on the company softball team, which will be a ton of fun. I haven't played in years so hopefully I can still hit a ball!

I found this at Hobby Lobby yesterday and I just couldn't resist. It's what my mom and grandma always said growing up.



Other than that, not much has been going on. But that's the way we like it!
Happy summer everyone! :)

Sunday Dinner

We just got back from dinner with some friends in the ward. They are great people and are awesome examples to us. I have a hard time with small talk so situations like these sometimes tend to make me feel awkward, but I thoroughly enjoyed talking with them tonight. I learned more about myself and some about Chase too. They asked us questions like:

1. What are some distinct memories from your childhood that you think helped define who you are?
2. What is the best thing you have learned being married to your spouse?
3. What was your favorite part of church today?
4. What do you do to try and get the most out of church?
5. How do you celebrate anniversaries, birthdays. etc.?
6. What is a main principle/concept you learned from your parents?

I really liked it. And it wasn't awkward at all, like it could be when someone asks you about those personal kinds of things. It was great to talk to them genuinely and openly and learn things from each other. It made me want to change the way we entertain guests because I truly felt more uplifted walking out of their apartment.

One of the things we admire about this couple is their ability to see Heavenly Father's hand in all aspects of their life and openly talk about it. They don't do it haughtily or stuck-up at all. You can tell they are genuinely humble and trying to become better individually and in their marriage. I want to be more like that.

Summer Barbecues

Just in the last few weeks we've been able to go to quite a few barbecues. Now if only it would stop raining it might actually feel like summer!

Eventful Week

It's been an eventful week, and it's only Wednesday! Basically I started a new job, quit the new job and accepted a different new job. All within three days. It's amazing how things work out! :) More details to come...

And I found this picture and thought it was pretty funny. :)

Quote

One of the girls in our Relief Society Presidency gave the lesson about the Atonement a few weeks ago. She read this quote and I just really liked it alot.

Elder McConkie stated, “The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the most basic and fundamental doctrines of the gospel and it is the least understood.” I hope this quote helps you to understand the Atonement on a new level and grow a deeper love and understanding of what our Savior went through for us.

“…We know that on some level Jesus experienced the totality of mortal existence in Gethsemane. It’s our faith that he experienced everything- absolutely everything. Sometimes we don’t think through the implications of that belief. We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don’t experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means Jesus knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer- how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student-body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked, and the car started to skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virginia. He experienced the gas chambers at Dachau. He experienced napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism.

There is nothing you have experienced as a woman that he does not also know and recognize. On a profound level, he understands about pregnancy and giving birth. He know about PMS and cramps and menopause. He understands about rape and infertility and abortion.

His last recorded words to his disciples were, ‘And, lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world.’ (Matt.28: 20) What does that mean? It means he understands your mother-pain when your five year old leaves for kindergarten, when a bully picks on your fifth-grader, when your daughter calls to say that the new baby has Down’s syndrome. He knows your mother-rage when a trusted babysitter sexually abuses your two-year-old, when someone gives your thirteen-year-old drugs, when someone seduces your seventeen-year-old.

He knows the pain you live with when you come home to a quiet apartment where the only children who ever come are visitors, when you hear that your former husband and his new wife were sealed in the temple last week, when your fiftieth wedding anniversary rolls around and your husband has been dead for two years. He knows all that. He’s been there. He’s been lower than all that.”

(Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up!, p. 175)

Sunshine and Rainbows

After a gray and very rainy day the sun decided to come out and make one of these. :)