August 1st - September 18th

 Here's what we've been up to the past month and a half!

* After the summer Rugby Tournament, we turned in our Purple and Black colors for Blue and Gold and joined the Meridian High School Rugby Family! The girls are starters on the JV team and Dad is their coach!! We are so blessed that MHS welcomed John onto the coaching staff with open arms (and the girls too!) They practice 2 hours a day and have games 1-2 days a week. It's quite the time commitment but the girls and dad wouldn't have it any other way! Mom has also found some super nice moms on the team that she chats with at the games. As of today, we've played 4 matches and are 2-2.  At one of our last matches, there was a professional photographer (as in he shoots for ESPN and Sports Illustrated!) and he took some pictures that were amazing! He sells them for a reasonable price so we'll purchase a couple but in the meantime, here are a few of the amazing ones he got from Aubrie in action! Following those pictures, I've included some of us that were taken on Game Nights...

* We have also celebrated 2 birthdays - Mom and Nathan's! Nathan turned the big 16 on Sept 15th. For his day, he invited a friend, Trenton Rigby, to go to Wahooz. The girls decided they wanted to join so mom dropped the 4 of them off at 1pm and they stayed until 10:15pm (the girls did have a little intermission for Rugby practice but went right back as soon as practice was over). For mom's birthday, her and dad went shopping at the mall and got a new outfit and then went to see the new movie: Thor, Love and Thunder. Afterwards we headed home where the kids were waiting to celebrate! 

 

* Tech Trep High School officially began for mom and the kids. We've worked all summer to get ahead so that we can take our "summer break" after Halloween until after the New Year! It's definitely been an adjustment and we're still trying to get a good rhythm and see if continuing on with TT will be a good fit or not but schooling fills a lot of our day! The kids all started up with Seminary as well. They attend at Meridian High School and go for 4th period (which is from 1:15-2:40pm) every other day.

* Dad's Gallbladder went berserk! Unfortunately it happened while he was in SLC for a work conference and he ended up in the hospital down there all alone! No!!!! After arriving back home, he's had several more Dr appointments and it's been determined that his gallbladder is only functioning at 1% (we were told that any function less than 35% means surgery to remove it) so needless to say, his will be coming out soon! We haven't scheduled a surgery date yet because dad is trying to make it until after the Rugby season. So far, he has been able to control the attacks with diet. Here's a picture he sent to us while in the ER. It was certainly hard to not be with him when he was hurting so bad!

Other things that have gone on: 

* Ben's friend, Tyson Woolstenhulme, left back to his Mission in Africa. He stopped by to say goodbye and snap a pic! 

* Aubrie had a really bad ingrown Toenail and had to have it removed. She was out for Rugby practice for 2 weeks and couldn't wait to get back. 

* Ben had a rough 2 week depression and Psychotic episode. That was really hard to watch but he was able to get an emergency meeting with the Psychiatrist and they adjusted his meds and that has seemed to have helped! I'm sure all of the prayers said on his behalf helped too!

* Dad and the boys (along with Ben's friends: Matthew, Issiac and Tyson) and Ryan Aten went to the August Burns Red concert. They were front row and said it was one of the best concerts they'd ever attended! They even got a selfie with one of the band members afterwards!

* Boise State Football season has kicked off! They have played the last 3 weekends (winning 2/3 of them). Only 1 of them have been a home game and Seth got the privilege of being dads "Plus 1).

Spiritually Speaking...

* I have made the recommitment to being more spiritually connected to heavenly father. I am doing a conference talk a day that will get me through all of April 2022s conference talks before the October general conference. I’m trying to go back over with my questions that I had written down from last conference. In addition, on Sunday our Bishop (Bishop Ehlers) challenged us to read 10 minutes a day, every day, in The Book of Mormon until the end of the year. The family and I are taking on this challenge. Today I felt inspired to read in Enos as the question I was asking to go along with the conference talk was “How can I invite the Holy Ghost to be more powerful in my life?“

One of the ways I felt I can do that is by repenting. Not that there any major sins, but just daily repentance of small minor things can help me have the Holy Ghost be more powerful in my life. Also, in verse 12 talked about how The Lord told Enos he would grant unto him the desires of his heart according to his faith. It’s got me thinking what are the desires of my heart? I tried to ponder (I realize I have a hard time slowing down to just think of things and I’m going to try better at this)… anyway here are some of the desires of my heart:

• For each of the kids to have a personal relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ
• For each of us to be less addicted to our phones and to build relationships with others
• For those in the family that struggle with mental illness, that they could be made whole
• That myself and others in the family would not struggle with weight
• That I would find joy in serving in my calling
• That the natural man could be removed from our family. 
• That TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube videos would not be part of our family. The filth that comes from those and the mind numbing waste of time that they are is sad to me
• That I would find more joy in serving others outside of my family (and sometimes even my family🤪)
• That food would not be such a ruler in my life. I worry that life will not be as fun without the “fun food“

So as I think about this some more, maybe these are desires that I should be praying for with faith. Later in the chapter it’s talks about that if we pray with faith believing that we will receive what we’ve asked for that it will be done according to our faith. I just need to have faith that these things can be a reality in my life.

Update: as I’ve still been sitting here trying to think about the desires of my heart a powerful truth came into my mind. That truth is that I already have received so many “desires of my heart“!

• being married in the temple and having a wonderful husband who is so kind to me!
• We have all been kept safe and protected each day and return home together even though there are so many dangers out in the world and so many times accidents could happen
• We have an amazing home that was truly my desire to be able to get! I feel so happy here and peaceful and I just love it! I also love all the things that are inside of it that help me enjoy life. They are all desires of my heart
• That we have a close family that and we enjoy spending time with each other and all the kids
• That August was able to get married in the temple!
• That Seth was able to serve a mission
• That Ben has been able to work with so many great professionals and help him with his bipolar.
• That John was able to double his income and we don’t worry about money as much!
• That we were able to pay off all of our debts and become debt-free in a matter of less than two years! We paid off over $100,000! Now that’s insane!
• That John was able to get VA disability and that his rating was so high (beyond the desires of my heart!)
• That Nathan has been able to increase his reading significantly! And that his writing is growing each day!

Those are just a few of the bigger ones but even smaller desires of my heart like being able to pay cash for new phones, drive a vehicle that I like, take good pictures, decorate the home, having a great friend like Stephanie! Many of the things that at one have have been a desire of my heart have been granted to me! Heavenly father is so good to me!

* Another conference talk I watched was “A Might Change of Heart” and the book of Mormon passage I read was in Ether chapter 2. My question was “How can I better keep the Sabbath Day Holy?” Ether chapter 2 was about the Jaradite‘s crossing the ocean and needing to figure out what to do for lighting. As I ponder this and how to apply it to my question, I realized that they had the same answer! The Lord didn’t just tell the brother of Jared what to do, he had him come up with his own plan on what would work. The same is with keeping the sabbath day holy… The Lord wants me to take the time to answer my own question on what I can do to better keep the sabbath day without him just telling me.

Of course, the “standards“ came to mind like spending time with family, not watching our “regular“ shows but find more things that would bring us closer to Christ in our TV watching. But the big one that was stressed in my mind was to spend that time doing family history! We have so much to do! It can be our own personal family history with me doing the blog, or adding stories to family search or inputting names from Switzerland that John got to even searching and finding our own names to include in the Family Tree! All of it is great things to do on the Sabbath