A thoughtful text

I've been teaching an institute class for young single adults for almost a year and a half now and I absolutely love this assignment, in case I haven't mentioned that before. :)  Every week we have a good time learning together, but there is something special about the brand-new course Jesus Christ and His Everlasting Gospel.  We feel the Spirit in a powerful, consistent way every single week because of our focus on the Savior.  It is fantastic.

Last night was no exception.  We spent almost 45 minutes sharing our favorite General Conference moments and talks, and then we learned about Jesus Christ calling the twelve Apostles and proclaiming His mission as the Messiah.

When I got home there was a text on my phone from a friend in the class--it made my day and my heart filled with gratitude.  The Spirit is the true teacher, and I'm always thankful when it is there in abundance, comforting and helping us individually.

Our family is...

On Monday Rhiannon, Wade, and I, and Rhiannon's friend JenAi Evans, drove down to Anaheim to see the Imagine Dragons concert.  (It was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Post and videos coming soon!)  Today I was thinking about something JenAi said after we'd left Brant and Chris's home in San Bernardino on Tuesday morning.  (We had stayed there overnight after the concert and then hung out for breakfast the next day before heading home.)

JenAi said she noticed that families seemed to have a defining characteristic.  Her family valued honesty and keeping it real.  Then she said, "After being around you and your brother's family, I think your family's virtue is kindness."

That made me so happy to hear that!  Our family definitely tries to be kind.  We're not perfect, but we do value being nice to others! :)

It was time for a good blackmail post

The other day I was on the computer and heard Rhiannon giggling on the other side of the wall.  She had taken all of these with my phone camera:

I dare you to try looking at those without laughing.  I died!  And I'm STILL getting a huge kick out of it.  What a clown! :)

She is a beauty through and through!  She's only into high school a few months and we are watching her get older and wiser right before our eyes.  It's magical, scary, fun, and bittersweet all at the same time!  Love this girl!

A gift that keeps on giving

Early in the summer the nice, expensive, $600 waterfall pump in our front yard gave up the ghost, and so we've had the water features turned off for months.  A few fish died and the rest were hanging on for dear life, grateful for the water we added by hose every day to add oxygen to the ponds.

Jason had a friend look at the pump, and he didn't have any luck.  And we were enjoying the lower electric bill, too, so finally last week we made the decision to fill in the ponds.  We needed to find homes for the fish first, though.  Wade was devastated, saying he didn't want us to be "fish murderers," and he wasn't too impressed with my "whatever happens, happens" attitude.  The fish were cool, but we didn't have to feed them, we never interacted with them.  To me they were just ornaments in the pond.  Not so for Wade.

So I did what everyone does in Ridgecrest--I searched one of our local Facebook seeking/for sale pages and followed up with a person interested in fish for their pond.  

The response was immediate and after a few days this really nice couple, Matt and Julia, showed up and went fishing for about an hour, collecting as many fish as they possibly could from our ponds.

I have this suspicion that Matt and Julia may be superheroes, running around in broad daylight and saving the universe one fish pond at a time, like Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent.  They were classy, classy folks, came dressed like they were going on a safari, and were SO kind and GRATEFUL for the fish we were just giving away.  They were good at catching those fish, too!  They just had this aura of being super, super cool and I felt lucky to meet them and be around them.

That night Julia sent me a picture of the "fish release" party they had at their ranch.  They'd invited neighbors and friends over and were so excited!  I told them how happy they'd made our son by giving the fish a good home, and they said we could come over some time to say hello to them.  

Then tonight we got this in the mail, this teeny tiny envelope full of good stuff:

People like this make the world a happy place!

Extended "Family"

This morning we all jumped in the van and headed to a local elementary school to help with a community service project.  There's this large desert area full of scrub brush that kids walk through to get to the school, and it was FULL of trash.  We had a surprisingly good time working with friends in our LDS stake and other community members, filling bag after bag and finding everything from furniture to toys to swimsuits.  We only stayed a couple hours but felt we'd put in a good effort!

Then tonight we went to an open house to say goodbye to some friends moving back to Utah.  The Kimbler family opened their home to us all and hosted the party for the Calls.  There was a HUGE turnout.  HUGE. Wall-to-wall people.  Kids everywhere, plenty of food, and adults mingling all over the house and yard to visit and catch up.  When we left there were close to 20 kids running around just in the front yard, if that gives you an idea.  We were kind of the outsiders being from a different ward, but we knew so many people there and had a great time.  The Calls are off to Logan, UT so that Ben can get his PhD and teach engineering--he was telling Rhiannon and me that Texas A&M would be a place he'd want to teach at.  We geeked out over that!

There are times when I wish we lived closer to our grandpas and grandmas and aunts and uncles and cousins and really miss all the fun family times that we can't attend because we live too far away.

It's tough.

But we are blessed to live in this small community full of good people who look out for one another and become extended family for each other!

This week a woman posted on a Ridgecrest Facebook page with questions about the community.  She said her family was LDS, coming from Cedar City, and she wanted to know about it all--schools, wards, weather, houses, neighborhoods, community, renting, all of it.  The response she got was overwhelming, over 100 comments and counting.  She said she felt the love and her family was excited to come.

I learned a lot from this woman, someone I've never met.  I admire the way she jumped in and was doing homework on Ridgecrest, trying to have an upbeat attitude and really get to know the place, instead of moving into town and waiting for people to get to know her.  Through that simple Facebook inquiry, I think half of our stake knows her and can't wait to see which ward her family moves into, ha-ha!

She is definitely preparing to bloom where she'll be planted.

I love that.

Thoughtful people make the world go 'round

Yesterday some thoughtful people made me very happy.

One friend came by in the morning with some divine cookies, STILL WARM, and visited with me for a bit.  She wanted to thank me for pointing out an article in the January 2014 Ensign called "The Healing Power of Grief" to another friend, who quickly called her and told her about it.  My friend's visit was unexpected--I hadn't showered and had just come inside from washing windows, I was in my old red sweatshirt, purple leggings and brown shorts (I know, I know, tacky!)--but, boy, was her visit wonderful!  We had a very real conversation, beyond those "How are you?" ones.  My friend had been gone for a few months taking care of her sister, who died after a battle of cancer just a few weeks ago.  It meant a lot to me that she would take that time to stop by, especially when she's dealing with her own sadness and grief.

Shortly after that friend left, I got a call from Wade's school asking me to please, please come in and sub for a teacher who'd gone home sick in the morning.  I'm thankful for thoughtful friends who were willing to change plans and pick up Rhiannon for me from school, especially since it was my turn to carpool that day!

Then there was my handsome, hard-working hubby, Jason, who kindly drove Rhiannon and her friend down and back to the stake center for a dance activity.  I was at Cub Scouts with Wade, and it helped a lot to have Jason do that.  It's the little things that mean a lot!

Then another friend called during the day and invited me to join her next Friday for a temple trip.  She has to go down to LA anyways to pick up a friend from the airport, but she figured she'd carve some time out to do a temple session, too.  She remembered me mentioning to her that I had a goal to attend the temple more this year, and so she called me up to see if I'd like to go with her.  I really appreciated that!

Then there was our daughter Rhiannon who sent me upbeat texts, got dinner started while I was driving Wade to flag football, and just all-around makes me happy with the sunlight she spreads around her!

Then there was Wade, who put the icing on a busy, happy day when he said he wished that our Webelos den meeting had been longer last night!  Cool!

So, cheers to thoughtful people who make my life easier, brighter, and happier!  Happy Friday!