Last night we walked across the street to the Hawkins' home and enjoyed a meal and games with their family, and the Evans, Randall, and Barney families. Kristin had made 5 or 6 kinds of delicious cookies and the rest of us brought heavy appetizers. I was SO FULL by the end of the night! We also played several rounds of a fun group game, similar to Mafia, called the Werewolves of Millers Hollow. That is a fantastic game for a large group--at one point there were 17 of us playing it! We had so much fun and really appreciated the invite!
Right now it is 8:51pm on the last day of 2015. Will we make it til midnight? We hope so!
Today the kids helped me gather Christmas decorations from around the house and begin that clean-up process. I thought I could put it off until Monday when everyone is back to work and school, but then all my helpers would be gone!
In the afternoon Jason took us to the bowling alley on base and we had a great time bowling a couple games. The facility there is small but really nice! Clean, updated and remodeled, great computer system, with a fully functional snack bar--win!
For our New Year's Eve festivities so far, Jason got a roaring fire going in the fireplace, we had dinner, and then we watched the Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation movie. We are taking a short intermission, and then we'll watch Ant Man! (and try to stay awake!) Rhiannon helped me make a really yummy 7-layer dip, and I've promised bacon-wrapped little sausages, but that might have to wait until tomorrow.
I've had a pesky cough this week that has been worse today, but I'm grateful I've felt well enough to participate and have fun with Jason and the kids. I told them tonight that there wasn't anyone else I'd rather spend New Year's Eve with!
There is still a lot of blogging to do on the last month, but 112 posts for the year isn't bad. I'll catch up soon!
It's been a wonderful year--we are looking forward to many more great days in 2016!
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Monday, December 28, 2015
Rhiannon speaks in Stake Conference!
For her second time in just over 5 years, Rhiannon spoke in stake conference early this month. She did a PHENOMENAL job in front of almost 700 people. We are so proud of her!!!
Here's her talk:
December 6th, 2015~ Stake Conference Talk by Rhiannon Cushing
Topic: Feeling Joy, Awe, and Excitement in Living the Gospel
Choose one:
-A tiny part of me cries when they lower the stand.
-Hello everyone!
I’m honored to talk to you all today and I hope everyone can hear me alright.
My topic today is Feeling Joy, Awe, and Excitement in Living the Gospel. First, I decided to simplify and get down to the basics—how do you truly live the Gospel?
The first thought I had was attending church meetings and activities regularly. Going to these bring me a lot of joy (especially when I don’t think it will that day); and my church activities like Mutual bring me joy as well. But living the Gospel is not just attending sacrament meeting and other church activities. True, this is essential and important; but it’s just one step.
I found a talk online from April 1993, from Elder L. Tom Perry, entitled—“Back to Gospel Basics”. He talked about visiting Peru and how all the saints located there were struggling. They started to practice basic teachings of the Gospel at home, and Elder Perry said this about the saints; “The blessings that have come to the Peruvian Saints from practicing these two basic gospel principles, daily prayer and scripture study, have been most remarkable. It soon became evident that faith and testimony were increasing among members of the Church…—daily prayer and scripture study—created a dramatic change and offered increased spirituality and works among the Saints there.”
My simplified version of living the Gospel is going to church meetings but then practicing the principles of the Gospel at home and representing our Savior to the best of our abilities.
The first part of my topic is feeling Joy in living the gospel. I believe this is one of the easiest feelings to have as a member of the church. President Utchdorf, my favorite speaker, gave an address in October of last year, titled, “Living the Gospel Joyful”. Instead of reading the entire talk, I’ll summarize. He explained how the “promised blessings of God to the faithful are glorious and inspiring…” and even though following commandments can be tough, it is all worth it. God is constantly raining down blessings and we only need to remove our umbrellas to receive them.
I’ve had a lot of experiences this year that have given me a lot of joy, and the more I’ve thought about these experiences, most of them have had to do with living the Gospel. This Thanksgiving Break my family and I went up to Utah, and we had the opportunity to do baptisms together in the Bountiful Temple. It was my brother Wade’s first time and my parents were married in Bountiful Temple so the whole thing was even more special than usual. I’m grateful we could do that together.
Then there’s the joy I get from going to Seminary each school morning. It can be quite a sacrifice, I’m not going to lie, but I’ve learned a lot and I’ve had fun with my friends there. It has also helped me tremendously with my personal scripture study. I used to only read my scriptures at church, but now I make it a habit of reading them every night. I’m grateful for Seminary and all my friends there, and for my wonderful teachers I’ve had. You are amazing.
Next is Feeling Awe from living the Gospel. We are all very lucky to have the Gospel in our lives and sometimes I think we forget how special it is and how people went through so many things for us to have it. Jesus Christ, our Savior, sacrificed so much for us. The Atonement was excruciatingly painful, but necessary, and He went through it all just for us, because He loves us. That is awe-inspiring to me.
Then there are the many pioneers who were chased from their homes, who traveled huge distances for their lives and for us. That is also awe-inspiring to me. I had the opportunity to go on our Stake’s pioneer Trek this past summer. I was very nervous but I am so glad I went. Over the space of three days the Kimbler Company traveled over 12 miles (which doesn’t sound like a lot but we were pulling a handcart the whole way haha) My testimony grew, and so did my friendships with my Trek family and others. Trek also deepened my understanding of how hard the trials of the pioneers were. They traveled hundreds of miles, sometimes in the dead of winter, and most lost family and friends along the road as well. I’m thankful for the pioneer’s example, for all the experiences I had on Trek, and for all the people I made those memories with. Trek is something I will never forget.
Last on the list is Feeling Excitement from living the Gospel. I get excitement from going to Mutual activities; they are always a lot of fun. Recently, my MiaMaid class put together some “blessing bags” to hand out to people less fortunate. I ended up giving one to a man in Salt Lake City. I thought it was hilarious because he said something along the lines of, “Oh, I get a lot of these! Thanks!” ☺ He seemed grateful and it was exciting to see his reaction and give service that way.
Another exciting experience I’ve had, fairly recently was working on a missionary Open House for our ward. The youth in my ward put most of it together, with help from our leaders, and it was very successful. There were lots of people there that we taught different principles of the Gospel to, and it was a faith strengthening experience for me.
While writing this talk, I thought about why I’m a Mormon. And it’s that it makes me happy; I know it, I live it, I love it. It can be tough at times, especially with how much the world is deteriorating around us, but it’s so worth it.
For some reason, this past week was just spectacular. Noting huge happened, I think just all of the little everyday things made me happy; I started to recognize all the blessings that God was raining down on me. In particular, I had a really cool experience at my orthodontist appointment. Yeah; out of all the places, my orthodontist appointment. One of the really sweet ladies helping surprised me. She said something along the lines of, “I remember you! You are just free-spirited and you have a good outlook on life.” Of course, I couldn’t really say anything, because she was already working on my braces. I ended up giving her an awkward thumbs-up, which didn’t give the compliment any justice, but that made my week.
Our Savior loves us very much. We make mistakes but we will never be alone because He is with us always. I hope we will all remember what this month is really about and try our best to honor Him.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Here's her talk:
December 6th, 2015~ Stake Conference Talk by Rhiannon Cushing
Topic: Feeling Joy, Awe, and Excitement in Living the Gospel
Choose one:
-A tiny part of me cries when they lower the stand.
-Hello everyone!
I’m honored to talk to you all today and I hope everyone can hear me alright.
My topic today is Feeling Joy, Awe, and Excitement in Living the Gospel. First, I decided to simplify and get down to the basics—how do you truly live the Gospel?
The first thought I had was attending church meetings and activities regularly. Going to these bring me a lot of joy (especially when I don’t think it will that day); and my church activities like Mutual bring me joy as well. But living the Gospel is not just attending sacrament meeting and other church activities. True, this is essential and important; but it’s just one step.
I found a talk online from April 1993, from Elder L. Tom Perry, entitled—“Back to Gospel Basics”. He talked about visiting Peru and how all the saints located there were struggling. They started to practice basic teachings of the Gospel at home, and Elder Perry said this about the saints; “The blessings that have come to the Peruvian Saints from practicing these two basic gospel principles, daily prayer and scripture study, have been most remarkable. It soon became evident that faith and testimony were increasing among members of the Church…—daily prayer and scripture study—created a dramatic change and offered increased spirituality and works among the Saints there.”
My simplified version of living the Gospel is going to church meetings but then practicing the principles of the Gospel at home and representing our Savior to the best of our abilities.
The first part of my topic is feeling Joy in living the gospel. I believe this is one of the easiest feelings to have as a member of the church. President Utchdorf, my favorite speaker, gave an address in October of last year, titled, “Living the Gospel Joyful”. Instead of reading the entire talk, I’ll summarize. He explained how the “promised blessings of God to the faithful are glorious and inspiring…” and even though following commandments can be tough, it is all worth it. God is constantly raining down blessings and we only need to remove our umbrellas to receive them.
I’ve had a lot of experiences this year that have given me a lot of joy, and the more I’ve thought about these experiences, most of them have had to do with living the Gospel. This Thanksgiving Break my family and I went up to Utah, and we had the opportunity to do baptisms together in the Bountiful Temple. It was my brother Wade’s first time and my parents were married in Bountiful Temple so the whole thing was even more special than usual. I’m grateful we could do that together.
Then there’s the joy I get from going to Seminary each school morning. It can be quite a sacrifice, I’m not going to lie, but I’ve learned a lot and I’ve had fun with my friends there. It has also helped me tremendously with my personal scripture study. I used to only read my scriptures at church, but now I make it a habit of reading them every night. I’m grateful for Seminary and all my friends there, and for my wonderful teachers I’ve had. You are amazing.
Next is Feeling Awe from living the Gospel. We are all very lucky to have the Gospel in our lives and sometimes I think we forget how special it is and how people went through so many things for us to have it. Jesus Christ, our Savior, sacrificed so much for us. The Atonement was excruciatingly painful, but necessary, and He went through it all just for us, because He loves us. That is awe-inspiring to me.
Then there are the many pioneers who were chased from their homes, who traveled huge distances for their lives and for us. That is also awe-inspiring to me. I had the opportunity to go on our Stake’s pioneer Trek this past summer. I was very nervous but I am so glad I went. Over the space of three days the Kimbler Company traveled over 12 miles (which doesn’t sound like a lot but we were pulling a handcart the whole way haha) My testimony grew, and so did my friendships with my Trek family and others. Trek also deepened my understanding of how hard the trials of the pioneers were. They traveled hundreds of miles, sometimes in the dead of winter, and most lost family and friends along the road as well. I’m thankful for the pioneer’s example, for all the experiences I had on Trek, and for all the people I made those memories with. Trek is something I will never forget.
Last on the list is Feeling Excitement from living the Gospel. I get excitement from going to Mutual activities; they are always a lot of fun. Recently, my MiaMaid class put together some “blessing bags” to hand out to people less fortunate. I ended up giving one to a man in Salt Lake City. I thought it was hilarious because he said something along the lines of, “Oh, I get a lot of these! Thanks!” ☺ He seemed grateful and it was exciting to see his reaction and give service that way.
Another exciting experience I’ve had, fairly recently was working on a missionary Open House for our ward. The youth in my ward put most of it together, with help from our leaders, and it was very successful. There were lots of people there that we taught different principles of the Gospel to, and it was a faith strengthening experience for me.
While writing this talk, I thought about why I’m a Mormon. And it’s that it makes me happy; I know it, I live it, I love it. It can be tough at times, especially with how much the world is deteriorating around us, but it’s so worth it.
For some reason, this past week was just spectacular. Noting huge happened, I think just all of the little everyday things made me happy; I started to recognize all the blessings that God was raining down on me. In particular, I had a really cool experience at my orthodontist appointment. Yeah; out of all the places, my orthodontist appointment. One of the really sweet ladies helping surprised me. She said something along the lines of, “I remember you! You are just free-spirited and you have a good outlook on life.” Of course, I couldn’t really say anything, because she was already working on my braces. I ended up giving her an awkward thumbs-up, which didn’t give the compliment any justice, but that made my week.
Our Savior loves us very much. We make mistakes but we will never be alone because He is with us always. I hope we will all remember what this month is really about and try our best to honor Him.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Our first family temple trip--2015 Highlight of the Year
In January we set a family goal to go to the temple together to do baptisms for Wade's first time once he turned 12.
During our Utah trip, we took off to the LDS Bountiful temple one morning and had an amazing experience serving in the temple together. It was so sweet to be back in the temple where Jason and I were sealed, and even sweeter to have both our kids with us there.
We did many cool things this year, but this trip made it to the top of our 2015 family moments. We were so happy to be there together. And it was cool to see Wade do 42 baptisms in a row, haha!
Families are forever!
During our Utah trip, we took off to the LDS Bountiful temple one morning and had an amazing experience serving in the temple together. It was so sweet to be back in the temple where Jason and I were sealed, and even sweeter to have both our kids with us there.
We did many cool things this year, but this trip made it to the top of our 2015 family moments. We were so happy to be there together. And it was cool to see Wade do 42 baptisms in a row, haha!
Families are forever!
2015 UTAH Thanksgiving Trip!
Hard to believe, but it took us a whole year to get back to Utah after our last trip! It was so good to be with family and spend time together doing some pretty unique and fun things. Here were some highlights:
Sunday:
Meeting BYU quarterback Tanner Mangum after sacrament meeting with Grandma Deb. The kids became instant fans, haha!
Making brownies with Grandma
Celebrating Grandma's birthday! (Fun times trying to keep Jason from stealing the cinnamon cake!)
Assembling our Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes together. Lots of fun--this would be a good tradition to continue!
Thanksgiving Day was lovely and relaxing. Dinner was delicious and there was plenty of time spent on games (The Great Dalmuti and Wits & Wagers were favorites), visiting, and EATING. Thanks also to Grandpa Rod who treated Wade to a much-needed haircut (we were inspired after watching a funny Blackish episode together!), and to Grandma who took Rhiannon shopping for Black Friday sales with Jaymie and McKaleigh!
Our trip was drawing to a close rapidly, and we were happy to get a visit in "down south" to Pleasant Grove with Jordan and Amelia's family. Their new home is beautiful and BIG, with lots of room to run and play and spread out! Thank you for lunch and the house tour and catching up!
Sunday:
Meeting BYU quarterback Tanner Mangum after sacrament meeting with Grandma Deb. The kids became instant fans, haha!
Making brownies with Grandma
Celebrating Grandma's birthday! (Fun times trying to keep Jason from stealing the cinnamon cake!)
Assembling our Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes together. Lots of fun--this would be a good tradition to continue!
I love this picture!!!
On Monday we did a little shopping and chilled. That night we met up with cousins and aunts and uncles to deliver our shoe boxes. The woman helping us said that this was the biggest year they'd ever had, and she'd been doing since the early 1990's. The boxes will be shipped to children in need and hopefully make their lives a little brighter.
Afterwards we went to the Iceberg for milkshakes. Rhiannon, Wade, and I had never been--the, uh, "Mini" milkshakes were NOT mini! Super good, though!
Another night that week we got together for pizza and bowling--we had a blast! Thank you, Grandpa and Grandma!!! After bowling we went back to the house and played this gross-out jelly bean game called BeanBoozled that the Croppers had picked out. It was SOOO funny! Colton, Heather, and the 4 CA Cushings survived to the end. (I'll have to get some pictures from Brett and Jaymie--I know they took a few pretty good ones!)
Thanksgiving Day was lovely and relaxing. Dinner was delicious and there was plenty of time spent on games (The Great Dalmuti and Wits & Wagers were favorites), visiting, and EATING. Thanks also to Grandpa Rod who treated Wade to a much-needed haircut (we were inspired after watching a funny Blackish episode together!), and to Grandma who took Rhiannon shopping for Black Friday sales with Jaymie and McKaleigh!
Our trip was drawing to a close rapidly, and we were happy to get a visit in "down south" to Pleasant Grove with Jordan and Amelia's family. Their new home is beautiful and BIG, with lots of room to run and play and spread out! Thank you for lunch and the house tour and catching up!
And just like that, our visit was over. We loved spending time with Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Rochelle, Brett, Jaymie, McKaleigh, Colton, Alex, Matt, Heather, Sam, Tyler, Lilly, Charlie, Jordan, Amelia, Jonah, Nolan, August, Reta, David, and Rose. Memories with family are precious!
We left Saturday morning very early in snow, all the way to Fillmore. That is always a little terrifying for me, especially when we miss idiots sliding into us (always in Provo for some reason!) on the slick, icy roads. Jason did a great job getting us through it! We turned off in Las Vegas towards Death Valley and had a very quiet, non-eventful rest of the way home, haha!
What a great trip--we loved it all!
An amazing petroglyph tour experience
In mid-November, Jason, Wade, and I went on a private petroglyph tour on base. (Rhiannon was at an all-day band event out of town--we missed her!) We met at the local movie theater parking lot with some other folks and then, after an extensive discussion of rules and what not to do, traveled on base to Little Petroglyph Canyon. We had the "primo" experience and went all the way to the end of the canyon--several others with different tour guides just stopped about halfway. April and Roy were our guides--they were the best!!
We scampered and climbed and had an amazing time, enjoying perfect weather, too. I was pretty sore the next day (hello, out of shape!), but Jason and Wade were fine. We agreed that we'd love to do it again sometime and take Rhiannon with us!
Info from the local museum's website:
"In the canyons and plateaus of the Coso Mountains are thousands of images left by the hunter-gatherer people who populated this region in times past. The images, called petroglyphs, are carved into basalt rocks, and range in age from Paleoindian times to the present. This is the largest known concentration of petroglyphs in the western hemisphere and is located on the Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake. Public access is permitted to the petroglyphs that are located in lower Renegade Canyon (also known as Little Petroglyph Canyon). Access is limited to tours with Navy-approved guides. People interested in visiting the petroglyphs can take museum-sponsored tours during the Spring and Fall months. Individual dates are announced on the Maturango Museum website."
I had to laugh at the info on Trip Advisor about this experience--it's rated the NUMBER ONE thing to do in Ridgecrest (out of 6 possible things, hahahahaha!)
We scampered and climbed and had an amazing time, enjoying perfect weather, too. I was pretty sore the next day (hello, out of shape!), but Jason and Wade were fine. We agreed that we'd love to do it again sometime and take Rhiannon with us!
Info from the local museum's website:
"In the canyons and plateaus of the Coso Mountains are thousands of images left by the hunter-gatherer people who populated this region in times past. The images, called petroglyphs, are carved into basalt rocks, and range in age from Paleoindian times to the present. This is the largest known concentration of petroglyphs in the western hemisphere and is located on the Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake. Public access is permitted to the petroglyphs that are located in lower Renegade Canyon (also known as Little Petroglyph Canyon). Access is limited to tours with Navy-approved guides. People interested in visiting the petroglyphs can take museum-sponsored tours during the Spring and Fall months. Individual dates are announced on the Maturango Museum website."
I had to laugh at the info on Trip Advisor about this experience--it's rated the NUMBER ONE thing to do in Ridgecrest (out of 6 possible things, hahahahaha!)
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