tonight

Tonight we watched "17 Miracles" for Mutual and it was awesome. I found myself not wanting the movie to end because I loved the feeling I felt during it. The stories about the Martin/Willie handcart companies have always been some of my favorite.

This is one of my favorite quotes ever (preceded by an introduction from Pres. Hinckley):

...a group in Cedar City were talking about [those] who were in those ill-fated companies. Members of the group spoke critically of the Church and its leaders because the company of converts had been permitted to start so late in the season. I now quote from a manuscript which I have:

“One old man in the corner sat silent and listened as long as he could stand it. Then he arose and said things that no person who heard will ever forget. His face was white with emotion, yet he spoke calmly, deliberately, but with great earnestness and sincerity.

“He said in substance, ‘I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts mean nothing here for they give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. A mistake to send the handcart company out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife was in it and Sister Nellie Unthank whom you have cited was there too. We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? Not one of that company ever apostatized or left the Church because every one of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with him in our extremities.’” (Manuscript in my possession.)

The quote was by Francis Webster.

Here's another quote from lds.org about it...I'm not sure if this is also Francis Webster. It's in "Our Heritage" and the movie quoted Levi Savage as saying part of it so I'm not sure:

“I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it. … I have gone on to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there.

“Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company.”

The pioneers were amazing. After mutual I went running with Kenzie. Okay, so today it was definitely a jog and not a run. It was more like "shuffling." But, we ran .64 miles without stopping. I know this isn't very far but for me, it is like a 10K :) The most we'd run before was .3 miles so this was nice. I just kept thinking about the pioneers :) It also helped that Kenzie tricked me into running to the corner instead of the lamp post I had decided to stop at. What a good friend. I think I just had a random burst of energy. I'm still wired so hopefully I'll be able to go to sleep tonight.

thanksgiving trip

I went out West for a few days to visit Cheryl and Becca for Thanksgiving. I love my family. And, I'm glad Matthew and Stephanie came out for Thanksgiving, too! I got to meet this cute girl:

We had dinner with Becca's family on Wednesday night and came up with some great Thanksgiving names for Heather to name her baby: Grace, Thankful, Cranberry, Gladys, Cornucopia, Harvest, Autumn, Wishbone, Pumpkin, Sweet Potato, Plymouth, Mayflower, Ginger. She even picked one of our suggestions! Okay, so maybe she had already decided on the name.

Thanksgiving was lots of fun with lots of great food and way too much pie.

More playing on Friday (we just like to play and have fun). We went to the library and found the best book: Matthew A.B.C. We had a good laugh reading that one.

On Saturday, we went to the temple and then stopped at the Distribution Center and Deseret Book. I got some Christmas shopping done and that was a relief. I had lunch with one of my BYU roommates, Katy, and it was fun to see her. Overall a good trip. I like just hanging out with my family. Thanks, Cheryl and Becca, for feeding me and driving me around so I could see everyone.

A little side note: Andrew doesn't cry when I say "hi" to him anymore. I feel so loved now :) Okay, in his defense, he was 1 and 2 and every time I saw him was when he was on a trip and out of his comfort zone and there were 50 other new people around.

Oh, and we got to listen to a lot of Joy School songs. So fun.

Here are some pictures of the kiddos:
And Cheryl:
And a picture I forgot in my last post:

summer/fall

I'm still alive. here are some pictures to prove it:
From top left: some of my many amazing friends at the YSA conference, the next three pictures are my party rock outfit for the dance at the YSA conference (I don't want to talk about how many hours I spent on it), and the last picture more amazing friends at the pumpkin patch.

Here is where I give a "shout out" to my friends. I have been extremely blessed to have very generous, fun, talented and patient friends. This has been a ridiculous year and I have definitely been more of a "taker" than a "giver" and I am thankful for everyone's kindness.



On Sunday nights, I have dinner with some of my friends and then we play a game or two. One night we played Bible Pictionary. Here is just one of the many wonderful pictures. I thought my picture was good... ;)


This summer, Janae came to visit!!! I didn't actually have any pictures of her so I stole one that Anthony put on Facebook. We mostly just "hung out". Let's see...we watched movies, went to Mooresville (please note the picture of the massive rosemary bush that we saw), drove around random places in Alabama, went to the temple, went to Cullman to see Cynthia and Chad and flew kites with them (well, Chad flew a kite), and played Celestial Pursuit. I always beat her at that game :)

I went to Texas to visit Erik and Tiff for Labor Day and that was lots of fun. They took me to the beach and I got to go swimming in the ocean for the first time (we didn't stay long because it was really windy). I also saw dolphins and a "shipwreck" while we were on the ferry. That was awesome. It was fun to get to know their family a little better and to just relax with people I love. Thanks, guys!