In Our Family This Month...
* The time of year that I always look forward to has come - the arrival of Grandma and Grandpa Carlson! They flew in on the evening on April 4th and spent the next 2 weeks with us, flying back home on April 18th. We relaxed the following the day and then loaded up for a quick trip to Rexburg, Idaho to see Joseph and Sarah graduate from BYUI. We met everyone (JR and Family and Sarah's family) at The Hickory and were able to catch up with everyone! The graduation was really nice and afterwards we met up in a room at the Student Union for pizza and refreshments. We stayed the night in Idaho Falls and headed home the following day for the girls to play in a Rugby Match against Capital. We did make a short stop in Albion and visited with MaryJane Jolley.
* During their time here, grandma and grandpa were able to attend 4 Rugby Matches! 3 for the girls and one for Nathan. We had bitter cold weather for most of them but we still enjoyed cheering on the kids! Surprisingly, grandma and grandpa really enjoy watching Rugby and kept commenting on how exciting the game is and fun to watch. They were both impressed with how well the kids played and we all loved having them there with us! We even got Grandma Vogt and Aunt Heidy along with Remy and Clementine out to one of the matches.
* Of course whenever grandma and grandpa come out, we check on the rental house and do a "bigger" project... This trips project was prepping all of the backyard landscaping and hauling in decorative rock. Marty, Stacey and Marlena came out and while we were in Rexburg, they got everything prepped and then all of us headed over and we had all of that rock (8 Yards or 20K pounds!) spread in a few hours! The boys (Ben, Seth and Nathan) did most of the shoveling and then Aubrie and Lexi did the majority of hauling and dumping the rock with wheelbarrows. It was then Stacey, grandma Carlson and my job to spread out the rock with rakes. The end result was impressive and it looks sooo good!!
* Mom thought that doing the landscape was going to take several days but since it was done in ONE, we spent most of the 2nd week out shopping! We hit multiple thrift stores, Deseret book, Church Distribution, Discount stores and the Mall! We found soooo many treasures and cute clothes! JC Penny's was having a HUGE sale and we ended up going back several times and were able to get MANY things at 90%-95% off! Dresses for $5, $60 jeans for $3 and tops for $2-$4. We even had McKendra meet us there on one trip and were able to get things for their entire family.
* We were able to celebrate Easter with everyone this year (Vogt's, Carlson's and Dinkel's). During our shopping trips, we also were able to find super cute Easter dresses for all of us girls! McKendra wanted to host Easter Dinner and so after church we all headed over there. Grandma had gotten up early (before church) and put the ham into the oven and we had prepped most of our dishes the night before. we had a really enjoyable lunch and then the Dinkel's had to head back to Nebraska after our dinner. Sadly, no one got pictures - but we did take some after church in all of our new clothes.
* Aubrie got her braces off! Yippee!! Like Lexi, she also got the permanent retainer installed and her smile is just radiant! What a difference 18 months (in both her Teeth AND looks/maturity).
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* Aubrie and Lexi turned 15 on April 29th! They are both so beautiful, kind, caring, funny, fun to be around, helpful, thoughtful, spiritual, obedient and just the best!! They had a Rugby match that day and we took cupcakes for the team (and their teammates all sang to them which was fun!) That evening they had a big party over at the house with 20+ friends. We fed everyone dinner, they played games, went to the park and then finished up the night with a movie and popcorn. Their friends spoiled them with so many gifts (and gift cards!). The girls wanted a monochromatic blue party and so we got creative and decorated with the different shades of blue (which is mom's favorite color scheme!) Everything turned out just wonderful! One thing Aubrie really wanted were these 4 ft tall "15" mylar balloons and so the next day we ran over to the park and took a few pictures with them holding those balloons.
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Spiritually Speaking...
* While grandma and grandpa were here, mom got tickets to The Living Christ. It was a beautiful presentation of the life of Christ from video, paintings, statues and the most impressive being live actors (from our Stake) portraying the Savior in famous paintings. It was powerful and so very well done! We were all so grateful that we were able to attend. When we got home, we highly encouraged Ben and Kat to attend it during their date the next day. They were hesitant but eventually ended up going where Ben was brought to tears by the power of it!
* We were able to attend the Temple all together as well. Of course it was super special and I'm so grateful that I was raised by such wonderful parents who taught me the gospel and a love of the Savior.
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* For my personal studies today I read in John 11 about Christ raising Lazarus from the dead. I knew I would go over this during enrichment with the kids and so turned to the seminary manual for some added insight. To preface, I’ve been feeling like we haven’t gotten any new steps to take or insight/revelation regarding a career for John, and as the days and weeks roll-on, I have found doubts, starting to creep in. I think this story and the principles I was able to gain from it, are a beautiful tender mercy from the Lord and a He was just strengthening my faith and telling me to hold on a little longer.
The Savior can perform miracles in my life, as I act with faith in Him
- if the Savior can raise Lazarus from the dead, He can certainly bring to pass the miracle of putting plans in motion for John to get a great job! Seriously, I believe the Lord can perform miracles in my life, and I will keep the faith and put my trust in him.
- Acting with faith in Him, makes me think of doing all the things that we have felt impressed to do during this time of unemployment. Doing our family, history, attending the temple, personal and couple scripture study along with family come follow me study. Even though these things seem unrelated to finding a job, I will continue doing these in faith, as I know this is what we have been asked to do!
- this one really struck my heart. I need to not only have faith that the miracle will come, but trust in his will and his timing. This is so much harder to do!
- There was this quote from Dallin H Oaks that went right along with this!
- "The first principle of the gospel is faith in the lord Jesus Christ. Faith means trust - trust in God's will, trust in His Way of doing things, and trust in HIs timetable. We should not try to impose our timetable on His. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Twelve Apostles has said: "The issue of us is trusting God enough to trust also his timing. If we can truly believe He has our welfare at heart, may we not let His plans unfold as He things best?"
- what a sobering quote about how if I truly believe that God has my welfare at heart, wouldn’t it be wise to let the plans that He is orchestrating to unfold as he thinks best? Wow! What a thought to ponder and contemplate! Of course this makes sense!
- I am holding strong to that blessing John received (back in December 2022) about how plans are in motion, even as we speak, and that the Lord is preparing a very special opportunity that John will just love!
- Interestingly, the last couple of times I’ve been in the Temple, my thoughts have turned back to Akuma. Crazy, huh?! So, I have not given up hope that they will reach out to John in the future – even if it is not for a while and we take a short employment opportunity in the interim.
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