I {LOVE} My Fuzzy Socks

Christmas Review

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I {LOVED} Christmas this year because Mike and I decided we would cut WAY back and really focus on just being with family and friends.

We enjoyed having my brother Brian here. However, we missed having my sister Cathi and her family here as they were in Oregon visiting her in-laws. We also missed having Eric and his family here. Maybe one of these coming years we can all get together for Christmas!

I also love the week between Christmas and New Years. It is a week of reflection for me. I look back on the year and look forward to the year to come. Never has this been as true as this year. So much has happened and so much has yet to come.

This coming week, since I am on vacation, I think I will begin my 2009 Top Things lists. I hope everyone, whether you make lists or just reflect on your own, will take this week to remember all the memories that were created for you this year.

Many blessings for the rest of this year and the year to come!

Looking Out My Window

I am so thankful to have a warm home! Especially this week with temps going to -13 (after wind chill). It is warmer today, and this is what I can see looking out my window. (It has been snowing all day)

2 WEEKS!

I can hardly believe there is only 2 weeks left until Christmas!

Are you ready?

I only have 2 people left to buy for! WOOHOO!

This year, Mike and I have been thinking a lot about TRADITIONS.

What are your favorite traditions?

One that Mike and I had issues with was opening presents. See, my family always opened one gift on Christmas Eve and then the remaining Christmas morning. Mike's family hated the kids waking them up to open presents so they opened ALL gifts Christmas Eve. This seemed CRAZY to me. Mike has eventually decided he likes 2 days of presents to open.

Another tradition I love is getting together at my parents house and Joyce playing all the Christmas songs while we sing.

A tradition Mike and I have started is going to a movie on Christmas (or Christmas Eve if Christmas is a Sunday) and also going out to breakfast with his mom. We love leaving a little gift or a large tip for the waitress that is stuck working on Christmas Day.

We have been trying to decide other traditions we will want to start with our kids. We know that we want to buy our kids an ornament every year so that when they have their own place they have special ornaments to place on their tree.

I would LOVE to hear your traditions! What are your favorite memories?

Traditions are one of those things that I think should be the focus of Christmas. All too often these days, people focus on the wrong thing. Or the complain that Christmas is too materialistic (um, only if you let it be...) and so on. I think as we bring the focus off expensive gifts and such we will find that it is the small things, like singing Christmas Carols around the piano, that we remember and love the most.

FOR ME...Revisited.

I have really felt the need to re-visit an old post but have fought that feeling for a few days. I don't think I can fight it anymore. I was thinking the other day about how Mike and I were about ready to give up! In August, we decided to try one last time to get pregnant. If it didn't work, we would apply for an IVF grant and then wait until we knew the time was right to adopt.

Mike and I have CONSTANTLY visited the idea of adoption. Every time we talked about it, and prayed about it, we knew it was not the path we were supposed to take at that time. For some, that may have been a comfort but to us, it may it even more difficult to understand why we couldn't get pregnant. Every time I started to feel that way, I would revisit my post from November of 2008.

FOR ME~ November 2008

After a rough night for Mike and I, as he went to take his mom home last night, I found myself at the edge of my bed, face soaked with tears, in prayer. Mike and I have questioned the direction we should go lately with the many obstacles in our life. I was deeply pondering on one of those items, frustrated that I had not felt that I had received an answer. I was emotionally and physically exhausted. I questioned the decisions I had made, although they had been made prayerfully. I was wondering if it was time to just give up on this certain trial.

Don't we all feel like that at some time or another? I have felt this way several times, especially with this particular trial. As I prayed and asked the Lord to give me the strength to accept whatever answer I was given, and to be able to recognize that answer, I expressed how I felt I could no longer continue in the direction I had been guided and that I felt it was time to "give up". As I finished my prayer, I felt comforted that no matter what, I would be able to handle the answer I was given.

As I read my scriptures later that evening, I was drawn to a scripture I had actually read several nights before. I kept trying to stop myself from reading it, but for some reason, when I would start reading the verses I had planned on reading, my thoughts and eyes were drawn to this other scripture. I would like to share this scripture. Not something I normally do but since so many of us often want to give up on the plan the Lord has, and since it touched me so deeply when I finally read it, I am going to share it.

Alma 26:27"Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold the Lord comforted us, and said: Go (insert where ever your trial is, etc (the one in Alma is teaching the Lamanites))...and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success."

What a comfort this scripture was to me last night. Although I must admit as I was typing it I realized the key is to bear with patience. Although, 7 years is pretty patient I don't think I have a patient attitude.Trials are the entire reason we are here on this earth. I have been taught that from such a young age. Many of us have. Then why do I (and maybe others but nobody else I know) always sit there with a why this, why me attitude? I know that when something happens to me I ask why this, why now and so much more. Or when you think you have finally overcome a trial, only to find you have farther to go...How many times have each of us thought "Why would the Lord finally give me such and such only to such and such to me?" Really, is that the attitude to have?

I remember about a month ago there was a Sunday school lesson and the question was does God do things TO US or FOR US? This entire experience, while not yet over, has made me take a step back and think about that. This particular trial (of which many of you are aware) has brought Mike and I closer together. It has made us feel grateful for the things we do have. We have been able to help others around us and make new friends that we may not have been so close to without this trial to share. So really, while it is hard for me to see at times, this trial was done FOR US. I guess I just needed to remember that. So the next time I start thinking that the Lord is asking too much and that he is being unfair to me, I really hope that I remember last night and the scripture that I read, the way the Spirit touched me and let me know that this trial is part of Heavenly Father's plan for me, that he does love me and if I am patient, obedient, and endure to the end, he will "give unto me success".

Now it seems so long ago that those feeling of hopelessness were surrounding us. I am so grateful for this trial in my life because it brought Mike and I closer together, strengthened our testimonies and so much more. It has been AMAZING journey. One I would never wish on anyone else, but one I would never change even if I could in my own life.

A Much Needed Date Night.

I may not be doing the 25 blogs of Christmas this year, but I am suddenly feeling myself more inspired to post lately!

Mike and I feel so blessed to have some great friends! Our friends are not only people we can talk to and laugh and have a good time with, but they are also people who are EXTREMELY GIVING! One such friend (or friends, they are a married couple) are Matt and Monae. I have known Monae since high school. They are great people. They both work in the arts (At the Morrison Center) as (for lack of knowing their real titles) stagehands. These guys are always thinking of other people.
Last night, they had 2 shows they were apart of. They had been over working at the Egyptian Theater for Opera Idaho, and they had another show at the Morrison Center. Even though they are AWESOME, neither of them are able to be in 2 places at once. So they were WONDERFUL and gave Mike and I their tickets to Opera Idaho's production of Ahmal & The Night Visitors!
The opera (in English thank goodness since Mike HATES reading subtitles) was about a crippled shepherd boy, that is visited by the Wisemen as they journey to follow the star to see the Baby Jesus. They stop by this boy and his widow mother's home. It is very short but it was a great Christmas event. We loved it!
Afterwards, Mike and I decided to head to see another friend and went to Baskin Robbins for some SUPER THICK milkshakes! Yeah! We have grown to know the owners, Kim & Mark, and they are such an INSPIRATION! We enjoyed talking to Kim (Mark usually is working at the other store when we go) and seeing her.
So, thanks to some great friends, Mike and I had a much needed date night. We are trying really hard to pay off all our bills so money has been very tight. It was a lot of fun to get dressed up (a little) and head out. (Plus, Mike was excited because he had never been to the Egyptian before.) It is these kind of friends that really get you in the Holiday Spirit! They are all so wonderful and we feel so blessed to have them in our lives!
Matt & Monae~ We will have to take you guys out some time for all that you have done for us!

(I want to make sure others aren't left out~ we have a lot of other great friends that do a lot for us and we appreciate ALL OF YOU!)

15 Random Things About Me

I haven't done anything like this in a while so here it goes. 15 Random things about the most boring person....me!

1) I LOVE cheese...specifically the individually wrapped cheddar ones from Tillamook...called tillamoos!

2) I turn my radio to the all Christmas music all the time station the day after Thanksgiving, but I do listen to my regular station for the morning show. A nice break from all the Holiday Carols.

3) I am completely BUMMED that Mike and I are not able to go to Texas this New Years!

4) I have been completely addicted to reruns lately such as What I Like About You, The Nanny, Malcolm in the Middle and even a little Full House.

5) I am no longer highlighting/coloring my hair, but I still have my natural blonde streaks so I am not sure anyone can tell.

6) I like to run the heater in my car but still crack the window. I think it feels good to get some fresh air coming in.

7) I can not imagine how a year or so ago I was able to do 101 of these random things about me because I am struggling with 15.

8) I am enjoying all the new friends I am making through pregnancy forums.

9) I like to wear fuzzy socks in the winter.

10) I keep my house really cool and then cuddle up on the couch with blankets and hot cocoa.

11) I am wondering why I agreed to sing with a friend for her works open house! I haven't "performed" for Christmas in almost 10 years.

12) I am keeping all my fingers crossed that we don't get a lot of snow in the valley this year. The last 2 years gave us plenty.

13) I am just a little bummed that we didn't go to Disneyland one more time before we got pregnant....totally worth it, but now will probably be 5 or so more years before we go again.

14) I often laugh at how IRONIC it is that the Jackson 5 recorded so many Christmas Songs when they are Jehovah Witness and do not celebrate Christmas....HMMMMM

15) I have not yet seen the first Twilight movie and personally, have no desire to see them.

I hope others will take a moment to list some random things about themselves. Not only do others get to know you but it really makes you think. It is not as easy as answering a bunch of questions in a tag. TRY IT!