A House of Order

So I walked into the living room yesterday to find this second picture. And I sighed. Yep, that's my house folks. Let me break it down for you: A) the cushions have been pulled off the couch- every single one of them. B) the Tupperware has obviously been invaded and who knows where else the other pieces have been scattered. C) this picture was taken right about high noon and my child is still in her pajamas- well, to make it even better she is actually only in half of her pajamas. D) speaking of pajamas, they are covered in chocolate milk. E) said child is covered in snot due to the cold that has been passed around to all of us. F) hair has obviously not been combed in about 3 weeks. G) This is only ONE of two children, and the one who does the least amount of damage in the house. Hmm. You always wonder what life is like at other houses? Well there you have it. Yep, usually there is some sort of mess somewhere in the house and I can really let my mind wander and feel guilty about not having things always "looking" just so. But you know what? After I took a deep breath, I took a second look at that. Just look at that cute little thing kicked back on the couch just as content as can be. So I guess I'll be just fine if my house is torn apart at high noon on a Wednesday with lots of chocolate milk and snot. Perhaps we need to just throw the cushions off more often.

First picture: What is better than a good pumpkin carve? That was FHE this week. We got the ol' punkin carved and ate M&M's. Obviously Kenna was in heaven and loves to look at her punkin all lit up. She wanted to fill up her pumpkin with M&M's. Ha! Nice try sweets, nice try.

If there was a third picture it would be of our company this past week. (Woops, guess we were having too much fun to take pics). Wednesday and Thursday we had Grandpa Clark and Uncle Benson (Israelsen) stay with us. Kenna LOVED Uncle Benson and thought life was great when she got to snuggle with him to fall asleep. Thanks for being such a good sport Uncle Bens! They were our little slaves getting in some gravel and had quite the trial getting another load of wood for us. Then Friday-Sunday Grandma Shelly and Grandpa Kerry (Otte) came down to see us. We went to see "Beverly Hills Chihuaha" and depite a few tense moments, Kenna really liked it. Other than that we just enjoyed each other and were spoiled rotten. We are always so sad when family has to go back home. We sure love you guys!! Thanks for all you do for us. We are so blessed with such awesome families.

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission....

I had the coolest experience the other day that I always want to remember, hence I add it to my little e-journal I've got going here.

I never went on a mission, but have always had such a great respect for the wonderful people in my life who did serve. I've never considered myself a missionary, and in fact have always been so nervous about sharing my beliefs with strangers. I always get to upset with myself about that, because if I truly believe, then I should have no problem sharing it with others regardless of them accepting it or not- Something I have been working on. Well, recently our ward has been doing a continous fast to help boost our member missionary efforts. Our family took our turn a few weeks ago and I KNEW that opportunities would surely come, so I am going to have to get over this little shy thing of mine. Well, the other day my doorbell rang, and there stood a cute little black lady selling some cleaner of some type. She introduced herself and was really so sweet. So I listened to her schpeel on the cleaners and throughout the conversation just tried to make small talk with her. She was actually really fun to talk with and we laughed a little bit here and there. It wasn't too long into the cleaning demo I had an instant impression I needed to make a missionary opportunity out of it. I started asking questions about her and her job and found out that this cute little black girl was 20 year-old Carmelita from Detroit, Michigan who was hoping to start nursing school in January. We laughed at how our culture out here was pretty different from what she is used to back in inner-city Detroit. As the conversation was winding down, I asked her if she had heard of the church while being out here. She hadn't, and I continued to ask her if she belonged to any church of her own. She didn't. Now was my time. Normally, this is where my heart starts thumping out of my chest and I can't get myself to talk. But this time was different, and I suddenly felt like I knew just what I needed to say and the words just rolled out. I told her we belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we believe in the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ which is a companion to the Bible. She was so cute and pulled out a paper and wrote down the name of the church and also the church website. (This is where I needed a spare copy of the BOM, and will definitely get some). I invited her to look it up when she gets back home, and if she has a chance on Sunday to find one of our churches. (She is staying in Beaver for a few weeks while they go around selling their cleaners). She was really open to hear me out and left with a smile. As the door closed, I realized I was feeling the Spirit so strongly and that I had truly been guided through my little missionary experience. I may never know what turns out with cute Carmelita, but I pray she also felt the Spirit and that a little seed was planted that hopefully in time will grow to give her the most incredible gift she could ever have. In no way do I mean to boast, because I have a LONG way to go. I also realize there was a lot of things I could have done differently. I konk myself over my head not finding out where she lived in Michigan so I could get the missionaries to her door. But I was so grateful for this little experience, as small as it was, to teach me that I can be a missionary. I look forward to future opportunities and hope that whenever someone comes to my door, even if they are trying to sell me cleaner, they will leave with much more than they came with and hopefully will be touched by the Spirit. I challenge those of you reading this to find missionary opportunities of your own. I would LOVE to hear your stories! Thank you to all you wonderful people out there who are such great examples to me and help me strive to be better.

Where Does The Time Go?

Today I have been trying to organize my pictures while both girls are napping. Let's give a quick hallelujah to a double nap! Anyhow, I've been going through all the pictures on my computer and putting dates on the hard copies so I can put them into albums. We just won't talk about how far behind I am. I still have oodles on my memory card that need to get printed. Somewhere in the hundreds.....(groan). Anyway, back to the story. So I'm going through my pictures and started looking at the shots from when Kenna was a baby. Oh my goodness! I can't believe how I have forgotten what she was like as a little tiger. Now she's become my walking talking little angel/devil. (I say that with oh so much love, mind you.) I can't imagine what it will be like someday when we sit around as a family with teenagers laughing at all our pictures. THEN I will really wonder where the time has gone. But, just for fun I put up pictures of my babies who are no longer babies. Even my little Allie isn't really a baby anymore. NOPE, not quite baby hungry yet, don't you worry. The days of perma-scream-infant are still a little too fresh in the ol' noggin. But I definitely look forward to more sweet little ones to come. I need to have these moments to remind me that being a mom is one of the greatest blessings I will ever have. Somedays are more devil than angel, if you will, and I need some rejuvination every now and then. Ah yes. Looking at baby pictures is rejuvination for mom and redemption for the kids. Of course this double nap thing is scoring the girls some really good points too. Love you my ladies!