Life update

I was reading everyone else's blogs and is it just me or does our family just like to blog about health problems.  :)

Life is moving at a very brisk pace for us.  Heidi's birthday was yesterday and we took it easy.   I felt bad but I had to hold an open house for a house I am trying to sell for a friend at work.  I also took another friend to go look at a house in Stone Oak.  Noone showed up at the Open house except for their neighbor and the neighbor's Mom.  

We are off tomorrow and have a full slate of things we would like to get done.  I need to add some bamboo flooring below the tv.  We had another leak in our house in the same spot from either the solar panel people or the roofers.  Neither one is taking responsibility but luckily the roofers fixed all around the area on the roof and they would lift up the carpet which was wet and replace the padding if it was moldy.  

We brought our car into a repair shop for the sixth time to get the smell out.  At the time that we bought it back from USAA we paid $2,500 for it and $2,000 in repairs.  We only repaired it because they said they would get the smell out and after the 6th time they still hadn't....so I think we are going to wait till December and drive it to my parents to sell in Spring, where there arent' as many hail-damaged cars.  Hopefully, we get between $4K to $4.5K out of it.  I thought about going after the owner and his promise but know the owner is an inactive member of the church and did his best to get out the smell, it isn't an avenue worth pursuing.  

The Elder's Quorum lesson was pretty insightful.  Think of our family in terms of emotional, spiritual, physical and educational needs.  I was thinking the bubble that keeps out evil things and helps us focus our family activities on Christ is a great thing not to be disparaged by those inside our outside of our faith.  

 

Relationship between Love and Healing

So I normally don't write on weekdays but I heard this really insightful segment on On-point about PTSD.  I approach this with caution knowing that this is a sensitive topic to some people close to us but I felt the commentators point was well taken.

The commentator mentioned several things but the core was based upon the fact that we as a society are starved for communion and closeness and as a result, this has an impact on the health of our society.

Case in point is the military.  1/2 of those returning back from active duty are diagnosed with PTSD; whereas very few within native american tribes who participated in other traumatic events such as killing at an early age  were diagnosed as such.  His hypothesis was the leaving of a brotherhood or comradery into a stressful situation with the need to find a job, to go to school, all alone heightens a condition that if left untreated often results in PTSD.  

In today's society we often live far away from family; we work away from family, we don't eat together, we spend a lot of time at the computer or TV and don't develop deep relationships. The stress of coping with life alone is too much for the human body.  Depression, PTSD, and other mental sickness certainly aren't caused by but feed upon loneliness and lack of love.  The opposite is true as well.  Depression and other sicknesses become less apparent as relationships are used as a healing balm to allow us to share, feel loved, appreciated and be healed.

Many times I hear faith connected with healing but I believe love is connected with healing as well.  After all, would Naaman be convinced by his servants to follow Elijah and dip in the river jordan 7 times, if he didn't love them?  Would the lame person have ever been carried and let down to the top of the roof if he didn't love his friends?  Would Jesus have ever gone through what he did as the only man who could do it alone if he didn't love us?

The scriptures say that God is love and that Christ came to bind up the broken heart. By holding a simple conversation with someone and showing compassion, understanding without judgment, we allow ourselves to be tools in the hands of the Lord to heal.

I think sometimes about the family unit and that it isn't given its true measurement of value.  The maintaining of family relationships is essential for our development primarily as it fosters the love all of us need to grow and heal.  After all, without love we are nothing.

Family Visits

Well, we had a good time this weekend having everyone over.  I took of Friday and went to the temple with Grandma, Janet and our parents.  We had a really spiritual time there.  Then, we had to hurry back to my pregnant wife watching all of the kids.  That was really nice of her to let me go.


We went to the Mexican restaurant down the street and ate outside only to have it rain on us.  I tried their spinach enchiladas and I have come to the conclusion that I simply don't like them in general. 


The next day we went kite flying at the church, which was fun for all of the kids.  The wind was so strong that you could just sit there and the wind would pick up the kite.  We brought the Barbie car and one of the gokarts our neighbors gave us and the kids had fun.


I was reading Jacob 5 yesterday and had a good discussion with Mom on the digging, fertilizing, and pruning.  The fertilizing is the reading scriptures, praying, and going to church and the temple.  The pruning is the removing of things that don't add any value towards your journey towards discipleship.  That is a personal thing.  The digging as Mom suggested is the killing of shallow roots, thus sparking a desire for your taproot and other central root system to grow more firmly. This comes as a result of living and experiencing heart-wrenching experiences, helping others go through their experiences, that solidifies your faith in Christ.


I went to church this morning only to realize that I wasn't feeling any better and probably couldn't make it through the final two hours of church.  So I went home and got a long nap, which I needed.  Heidi graciously watched the boys.  I felt really bad because yesterday, Heidi felt the same way but attributed her nausea to pregnancy, which now appears to be a stomach flu. She didn't ask to stay home but was clearly under the weather and slept a bit when we got home.  Sometimes I need to listen more to her needs and not just assume that anything she goes through is pregnancy and doesn't require my help.

Another Week

Well, we spent most of yesterday going through Heidi's old boxes and threw away quite a few things.  I feel bad throwing away lots of medicines but they were expired. 


This past week we started sitting down with Carter at night and reading for 15 minutes.  No longer was it difficult to get him to see his prayers.  He says them immediately because he knows a story is coming. I never thought reading with him at night was so exciting for him.  I was surprised when he first started that he already knew some basic words.  He is picking things up really fast and really good at memorizing.


The week before Heidi has given birth to each of our kids has always been difficult. Heidi has swelling feet, back pains, ice munchies, and numbness in her legs and arms.  She was experiencing numbness in her legs and arms and asked for a blessing.  I believe I had already massaged those parts without any luck. So I gave the blessing and said that the numbness would subside.  Soon after I started to see her shaking her legs again, a sign again that she was experiencing numbness.  So I had the prompting to rub the back of her legs and her ciatic area for a minute, which appeared afterwards to cure numbness for the time being.  I haven't really had a blessing like that but it reminded me of the Lord rubbing spittle in the blind man's eyes.  Whether or not it increased faith or the healing was in my hands when I did it, I am not sure but the result worked. When I heard the quote that Brigham Young when giving blessings expected to heal the person receiving the blessing that changed mindset in blessings.  Even though the real healing isn't in the words, the words themselves can increase faith.


I taught a lesson today in Elder's Quorum on Joseph Smith.  There wasn't a lot of new material really that I could tangent on or things I didn't already know about him but interesting enough, it didn't matter.  The questions asked were sufficient to reflect and apply the teachings to their lives.  In addition, I had the prompting to add on the chalkboard what great things the Lord had done through Joseph Smith as well as what sorrow and things he ended up giving up.  That prompted a good discussion about his character which helped whenever we talked about him as a prophet.  Somebody mentioned I should get the Truman Madsen Joseph Smith CDs for my ride to work.  Nobody already has those, do they?

Well,  I still can't write on anyone's blog but Mom's.  Most likely has to do with permissions. We received our first electric bill, which was $40.  It will be nice to see the impact of the solar panels once the summer rolls around.

I added weed n feed to the yard, watered it, put weed killer in the flower beds,  During the process we identified a carrot that was in the ground and a little bunny.  We have a whole bunch of lettuce growing, so Carter and Halley tried to unsuccessfully feed it.  After the carrot and the bunny, Halley came over to me and wanted to know if I had any more surprises.  I told her I didn't know if I did.

As I was thinking about it, I came to the realization that having a garden is spiritual in nature.  There are so many analogies to a garden and you can learn virtually every aspect about the Plan of Salvation from a garden. Here are a few.

1. What to plant- Certain things grow better in the type of soil than others; Certain teaching methods work better for helping our kids succeed such as through love and persuasion
2.  Carryover garden-  The lettuce seeds from last year and a few of the tomato plants kept growing/sprouted during winter.  Sometimes your efforts have a much larger impact than you realize.
3. Too much water-  Too much water can lead to growths on the tomatoes.  You have to balance the water with the sunlight as well as the type of plant for it to grow correctly.
4. If you don't water your yard on a consistent basis, then the grass dies and weeds grow.  It becomes much harder to take care of a yard on an inconsistent basis than if you do it regularly.
5. The harvest tastes good-  Except when I say that a cucumber is a squash, for the most part homegrown items simply taste better.
6. Miracle of planting.  That a seed can grow into a fruit-bearing plant is a miracle.  It is amazing that one tomato seed can produce hundreds of tomatoes. This is part of the Abrahamic covenant that his seed should be as the sand of the sea.

We brought our van into the dealership to get fixed before the extended warranty runs out.  We have gotten it on both cars and so far we have come out about even when we buy it.  We are hoping our cars last quite a bit longer such that we can pay cash next time we need to buy it.  

Observations

I have been thinking alot about a few things recently.  Elder Lawrence from the Seventy came to our church two weeks ago and spoke about a few things.  When I reread his talk from conference, which was "what lack I yet", the same impression of what I need to fix coincided with what my wife told me and what my boss told me... :)  I need to listen more intently and my wife adds, listen with the same energy as the person communicating....I need to speak kind words at all times, especially get to know and actively seek to develop relationships with those I meet...I need to more effectively give the background of the subject before I communicate the principle.  This could take years but I think with time and prayer and study I can be much more successful in my mission here in this life.

Heidi mentioned something that I thought was interesting.  She mentioned that one of the reasons that taking care of our children is so taxing is that they are high emotional.  This of course is one of the things I fell in love with Heidi, that she had a personality, and loved and served others.  Miles, Carter, and Halley are all emotionally demanding individuals.  Satisfying their needs often involves more than simply the physical needs but showing you care at their level.  Definitely draining but worth it whenever, you see that they care. 

Our solar panels are up on our house now and functioning.  For Valentines Day I purchased a $20 ice shaver for Heidi.  She said she usually goes through about 8 cups a day.  That's when you know ,your present was a success.  Apparently, people with low iron crave ice for some reason.  That is her. 

I have made the observation more than once that Mom and Dad didn't really invite people over to our house growing up except for choir practice.  I feel somewhat in that same pair of shoes.  We have a few of Heidi's friends that come over from time to time but really we are in survival mode a lot of the time.  Taking care of the kids and getting things done on our massive to do list really doesn't leave time for many things.

I have thought recently after looking at several pictures of us growing up why all of us kids turned out all right. Even though Mom had to make the bittersweet decision to go back to work, much can be said about what she did during those 14 years with kids before that happened.  You can say with all earnestness that our parents helped us keep the Sabbath Day to be holy, Mom helped us to pray, Dad showed love by playing music for us while going to sleep, dressing up for pioneer days, the family home evenings, the family prayers. Those are what held us together.  The spiritual connection that was created by the sealing covenant was strengthened by those spiritual activities such that we as children were able to develop a spiritual refinement at an early age that we could not forget or abandon.  Mom and Dad helped us to feel and appreciate the love of our Savior.  Thanks Mom and Dad.

Busy as a Bumblebee

6/7/2015

Well, I spent some more time trying to get more of the mold off of the back and front of the house with the bleach and the power washer.  Some of the mold from previous rainy seasons buried underneath the dirt and an additional layer of mold won't come off.  A friend from church is going to loan me he high-powered PSI power washer that might be able to get it off....that and I am going to rearrange a few of my hoses so that the non-leaky hose is in the front.

We played frisbee golf on Thursday instead of Ultimate frisbee on Thursday and had a good time.  Grandma invited me over a few times for dinner, which was nice.  Her meatloaf she made for dinner today was tasty. Too bad Dad wasn't here to finish off the leftovers.  I think Carol was going to finish them off tomorrow.

This weekend we ended up getting together to do some cleanup work along the San Marcos river.  Some of the apts. there had quite a bit of mold spreading up almost 4 ft high from the flooding.  We worked about 7 hours each knocking down drywall.  It was quite the workout.  I rode up with the Stake President who went on and on about the Slaugh family and all they had done for the Stake.  Then he started to talk about Susan and the Messiah.  All I could do is smile.  Susan has done a good job with her family.

I am going to protest the value of my home on Wednesday using my Bishop's Bexar County property tax assessment. We have basically the same house, except his has a .4 acre lot with a 3 car garage and his property is assessed at 20K below mine.  We also have partial rooms added by the previous owner that weren't even included in the assessed value. Somehow mine shows as having gone up $32K in one year.  That is more the 10% max for homestead owners.

Heidi comes home either late Monday or on Tuesday.  Their family likes to drive at night-time, which makes me a little unnerved, but I get it.  If the kids are sleeping it does make for an easier trip....you just have to stay awake.

I bore my testimony today about family.  It was fitting since my family wasn't around.  I did have a few impressions.  One of which that I could and should reach out to old friend that I had a long the way and catch up with them.  A few of them resisted my friendship while they were going through hard times...maybe they are reading and willing to see an old friend.

The other impression was after hearing the following quote, which struck home, one because I myself had similar experiences.

Elder Joe J. Christensen said: “There are those who wake up every morning dreading to go to school, or even to a Church activity, because they worry about how they will be treated. You have the power to change their lives for the better. … The Lord is counting on you to be a builder and give them a lift. Think less of yourself and more about the power you have to assist others, even those within your own family”.

When I was in 5th grade I was beat up on the street behind me, which caused me think of myself as unimportant.  The bullier then rubbed it in my face while I was at school and even threw little acorns sometimes at Linda and I when we walked home.  I remember key figures who stood up for me along the way.  One was when the bullier again approached me in 7th grade in the bus line, only to be reprimanded severely by Tiffany.  The second was when I was acting dumb and said something I shouldn't to TJ and David Lee stood up for me, even though for whatever reason, we weren't close any more.

The same thing happened in choir in 8th grade.  My heart was so innocent, that I just sang the way I loved to sing.  That annoyed two boys who made it their job to threaten to beat me up.  They wanted me to admit that they were better at singing then I was.  I decided to stop trying in choir so they wouldn't make fun of me.  They took the fun out of singing.  So I dropped out of show choir and didn't sing in High School.

Unfortunately, I was on the other side too when there was someone in my high school band that was called gay.  I knew he wasn't gay but because I myself was made fun of my freshman year of band, resisted being his friend.  4 years later I saw him show up one time in our ward.  I eagerly reached out my hand to say hi, do you remember me?  Unfortunately, he didn't.  I felt really bad about that.

So many experiences that I just kept inside.  I didn't really feel comfortable with sharing them with anyone.  When meeting with a counselor a few times, I realized that Heidi wasn't the only one that had dealt with trauma, I had dealt with it myself, only my nature was to whenever I was confronted to shield myself off from everything and everyone because I felt unsafe.

Heidi has been through quite a bit as well; however, when we share our experiences, we tend to bond a little, knowing that having gone through all we did we came out imperfect, but alright.

One of my favorite songs growing up was I'll walk with you.  It kind of hits home sometimes.

Days of the Bachelor

Well, Heidi left with the kids to California, but the good news is that she is coming back. :) She called me a few times to stay awake. She should arrive any minute.  Surprisingly, she didn't leave a list of things for me to do...however, I did make a list and it sure is long. Mold has been especially present on the stone on our house and brick fence.  We need to pressure wash and spray a bleach solution on it.

I walked to church today, which takes me about 5 minutes and somebody stopped to give me a ride because they thought my car broke down...The church speakers did a great job talking about hastening, which has been interpreted all the way from technology, kids doing family history, and the lowering of mission ages.

When Dad mentioned his cougar dream, it reminded me of an experience mentioned today concerning Hugh B Brown.  He was about to become a millionaire and wasn't sure if it was the right thing for him.  So he prayed and prayed as if he was fighting the devil all night.  His wife came in and prayed with him.  Then when he went to the office that day on a Saturday and prayed he felt his peace.  When he came home, David O. McKay called and asked if he would be an apostle.  So he left his job and lost out on becoming a millionaire.  However, a few years later someone from his company who had made 7 million dollars said he would give all of it if he had the peace of conscious that he had.

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

A good week

Well, we had a lot of special projects at work.  Quite a bit of my time goes to provide information on various data scenarios to provide information in a way that would be useful to our CEO.  GAAP numbers does not provide meaningful information to real estate consumer in the industry.

I haven't been able to have a meaningful scripture study since we started exercising at night.  I've found that lunchtime works great and I have a half an hour to really study the scriptures in addition to listening to things on the way to work.

As I have done this, I have felt more promptings.  I asked Mike for some training wheels before I bought some online and he just happened to find some at a ward garage sale.  Also when I was getting some free water barrels, I asked the seller about the basketball hoop that was there and she said that we could have it.  Carter loves basketball hoops and will bring it up any time we go to church.  His birthday is coming up.

We watched the movie Insterstellar and I thought it was very thought-provoking, and especially liked the last 30 minutes or so of it.  I liked the thought that love motivates us to do things that we otherwise would be unable to do, but didn't think much of the "they" being their species in the future to create the wormhole.  That was somewhat confusing. It was interesting to think about the time differential,but aging doesn't affect resurrected bodies, so that is a moot point.

I had some interesting thoughts as I was praying last night.  Heidi has been through more in her life than anyone I know, including ailments in just about every part of her body.  For her to be the person who she in spite of that says a lot about her.  Even more so, to see Heavenly Father have to watch somebody go through those things is a type of what Heavenly Father had to do for his Son Jesus Christ.

Another Week

Well, life is general is moving on.  There are always special projects of analyzing information at work which keeps me constantly busy.  Susan closed on her 4 acre plot of land which was exciting.  They have big plans for it.  I am grateful for our house.  Grandma and Carol came over and we went through some of our acestors' pictures.  It was neat to see the James and Snodgrass relatives and grandfathers and grandmothers and to hear Grandma's one-liners about each of them--some of which weren't that nice.

Grandma made a comment that Heidi didn't know when she married me that we were going to live in such a big house.  I didn't envision this either.  I just walked into a good job.  We have been trying off and on to plant avocado trees from the seeds but haven't got any to give roots yet.  We will keep trying.  Wouldn't mind planting some pecan, avocado, and peach trees in the back.  We have some work to do to spruce up our yard.

We have been warming up for the BYU alumni 5K run.  I have a much longer stride than Heidi so I might not be running.  At least it will be good exercise though :).  I also signed up for the Helotes Market days, which is basically a book of mormon desk at a farmer's market. I think the focus has been family history as of late.

Heidi gave a good talk today about the need for the Book of Mormon.  After reading about President Benson's scathing words about the need to repent for our lack of use of it in our family, I figure I should redouble my efforts to use it in my personal scripture study.

More than anything I am just trying to put Christ more in my life.  As I do that I have felt that all of the other potential problems I might go through will dissipate.  

Easter

We had a great weekend for the most part.  We spent a lot of our Saturday in between sessions putting down mulch, and added some sand underneath the playground set.  Would would of thought $10 in sand would bring so much joy.  Our kids played with it for hours.  Emma wasn't feeling well so Halley Facetimed her and showed her the sandcastle she was making and wished her well.  It was fun to see Emma so excited to see Halley and talk to her on the phone.

The first two sessions of conference on Saturday were mixed.  All of the kids had coughs and runny noses, probably from the oak pollen.  Miles has it the worst plus two teeth coming in and an ear infection.  He was quite clingy.

I enjoyed priesthood session.  So many things that I need to be doing better.  Interesting that putting down your phone to be with your kids is no longer just common sense but church doctrine.  I think I am going to go back on the phone diet and only access it when my kids are asleep or someone calls.

Halley thought she saw Grandma in the Mormon Tablernacle Choir and Grandpa was Elder Eyring. Halley made a cute book on Jesus and the resurrection.

Grandma, Aunt Cathy, and Stockwell family came and ate some Brazilian lunch on Sunday.  We did a little Easter egg hunt and then we talked about Jesus and Easter and about how Jesus's last plea before he was resurrected was for the apostles to share the gospel with all men and that's what I did in Brazil and am trying to do now.  We do Brazilian food every Easter as a tradition.  Next Easter I will probably try my hand at a churrascaria.  Grandma liked the Brazilian cheese bread which turned out pretty good this time. At first she thought the dough was mashed potatoes, but then when she realized there was dough left over she make a few comments about it and then confronted me directly about how I needed to let her take some home so she could make some more. :)

We gave some food to our neighbors who in turn gave us some of their food.  We do that often.  I enjoyed several talks but probably liked the most Elder Oaks', Elder Holland's, and Elder Ballard's.

Life's Lessons

Well,  this week I have come to have a greater appreciation for Heidi and the things that she does.  Most of the times we are invited to parties it is because of her.  We got invited to an 80's karioke party but the requirement is that you sing.  We probably will borrow some wigs like Heidi's brother's used to do.  I don't know if I really know any 80s music.  I am still young.  It is funny that the 70s music is coming back.

So the lot that Susan wanted apparently has another offer; however, we don't know if it actually came in.  I think they are waiting to see. I can't imagine that it would be higher than the asking price initially.  We sweetened up the other details and sent it out.  Hopefully, the seller agent will move the process along...

I am grateful that Heidi is such a good teacher and patient.  A lot of times I think of it as being with kids but she has made me less analytical and more emotional...as much as a introvert can be.  When I first heard of being an introvert, I thought it was a bad thing; however, it just is how you get energy.  Do you get energized by being alone or by being around people.  Sometimes it changes over time.  I tend to get reenergized when I am alone thinking.

Alot of changes I have made to myself have been because she was able to point out ways that I can develop a stronger emotional connection, or what not to say or how to say it.

We started watching Lost as our show until a few more movies come to redbox.  We restarted our budget successfully of putting a set amount of money in a debit card account according to our budget and then when it runs out it runs out.  The budget isn't suffocating but rather let's Heidi spend it how she wants.  She did a great job with it and it has been great.  No more questioning slushies at Sonic.  She can do what she wants.

I taught Halley's primary class today and realized that if I want to help our kids learn, I should try to pair what we teach along with what they learn in their classes.  I can do a much better job and it will help reinforce what they learn and give them more opportunities to share their thoughts.

Halley is doing a good job reading and is getting into 1st grade reading material.  She is such a good memorizer and has picked up piano pretty well, even though we have only had time to spend with her once a week.

Days of the New

Days of the New used to be my one of my favorite bands growing up.  There was one bad track on it that I had to tell Bishop Bertoch to skip when we were coming back from one of our High Adventure trips.

I started relistening to Pandora about 6 months back and realized how much I liked my old music.  I find it interesting how the music I liked then still seems to be some of my favorite.  Those teenage years were so important.

I had a really good past few weeks.  USAA Realco had a record year and we were rewarded handsomely for it.  I got a Superior rating, which I was rather grateful for.  I worked really hard for it, making sure the financial meetings with the CEO were fruitful and discussed issues or items that he might not be aware of and improving several of the financial reporting processes and output for our corporate team.

Heidi and I had a fun time at the Spurs game together.  I enjoy spending time alone going out but the $50 babysitter pmt still hurts.  :)  We have an adult session Stake Conference on Valentine's Day.  I would say that's not what I had in mind when I wanted to have a romantic evening.  We get to go to the rodeo on the 17th and are going to see some band called Newsboys.  They are alright...not my first choice.

At church today, we had our financial audit and had no issues identified...I kind of cheated and looked two weeks ago to make sure all the support was there and everything was signed....I gave the lesson on prayer in Elder's Quorum, which went well.  I have had several good experiences recently with prayer, but one in which we were watching a Netflix show called Prison Break.  It was rated TV14 and was a little bit violent.  The plot was amazing and I was really getting into it but I couldn't sleep for two hours after each episode and would cause huge amounts of anxiety.  One time right before we were going to watch it, I heard the words in my mind say, "are you sure you want to watch it?  You know what it does to you.."  During the two hours while I was waiting to fall asleep, I pulled open Section 2 of President Benson's talk on prayer and read that the Lord tries to persuade you to follow him but doesn't force.  I realized that the thoughts in my mind, were in fact the Lord persuading me to not watch it.  I finally had the strength to stop watching the show, which had one of the best plots ever.  I went on wikipedia and read all of the remaining 60 episodes. :)

Another Day

Well, things are going well.  Heidi’s back has been having problems and so I have been getting up to help Miles, meaning less sleep. We need to find a good chiropractor for her that has therapeutic massages included.  In the mean time I have been tasked as a substitute.

We had a missionary come home today after two weeks in the MTC.  He mentioned that he wasn’t sure if a mission was right for him.  That kind of made me sad since a mission means so much to me. 

We had our friends from Houston come and visit us and had a pleasant time.  We played bananagrams and Jenga.

We talked about obedience today at church today and I realized there sure are a lot of blessing that I am missing out on by not doing everything 100%.  Luckily as a finance clerk I come pretty close so I can almost cross that one off my list J.

Carter is so sweet.  He will come up to you and say Big Kiss, and then give you a big kiss, and then say Big Hug, and give you a Big hug.  Halley sometimes doesn’t know how to react to it.  So I have to tell her that he is giving her loves.  She seemed surprised when we told her that she was Carter’s best friend.

I realize that there are several things that I need to do better.  Among those is to connect immediately with my wife when we get home.  She is first.  I also need to make sure that I talk nicely about my wife and show her off.

8/31/2014

Well, we are spending time at Grandma and Grandpa's and the kids like all of the new toys.  The familiarity of our home has Halley wanting to go back and be there for some reason.  We ate at Los Tres on Friday and got to see Kevin a little bit.  Kevin and I are going to do frisbee golf tomorrow, which will be nice.  I haven't done anything with Kevin in a long while.

The Lord has been really good to our family.  We were starting to go into the red a little recently; however, the Lord dropped an unexpected pile of money on our lap this last week that put us positive.  I accredit that to the Lord caring about us, our obedience, and paying of tithing.

At church today, after hearing about Jonah, I thought the Lord always knows what's best for us.  Sometimes when we ask for his advice and we second-guess His answer, I am sure he just shakes his head.  His ways sometimes appear to be the most difficult but in fact they make us the strongest.

8/24/2014  Well, my birthday is coming up in two days.  It is crazy that I will be 32.  That seems so close to 40.  We watched Spiderman and Divergent and both were really good; however, Divergent won over.

I gave an excel class for continuing eductation CPA credit and of course slipped up on a few topics that I thought I could "wing"; however, if I were to ever give the class again, it would go pretty smooth.,

I got quite a few things done around the house.  I drained our water heater, which took about 13 hours to drains since it was partially plugged by hard water deposits.  Surprisingly, I turned it back on and there were still clinks within the tank.  So I will have to do it again and if that doesn't work, either get somebody to come in or pour a chemical down the water tube to try and break up the deposits. All my trees and hedges are trimmed, the backyard sprinkler and hoses working, etc.

There is a lump on the back left side of my neck that I need to get looked at.  It could be my posture but even when I am sitting with my head up it still is there, albeit not as much.

I had a prompting to go in Target and Del Taco yesterday since I have been trying to trim back a few areas of spending. We have had a lot of things go wrong with the house when we first bought it, Miles' hospital stay, and as of late several of Heidi's teeth. Del Taco has 59 cent tacos that were better than Taco Bell.  We got food for the whole family for only $10.  Then at Target, Gogurts were on sale, pizzas, and orange juice.

One of the speakers made the comment today that we shouldn't be looking at the clock waiting for the time to go by but that we should be In the moment.  I understood what he was trying to stay.  Sometimes the picture taker isn't spending time with the kids but spending more time tracking what their kids are doing...however, I kind of wished that he might spend a sacrament meeting or two with my kids, while they are tired and hungry and see if he is looking at the clock to know when sacrament meeting ends.  I might go on facebook a little more so I can comply with Elder Bednar's, Elder Nelson's, and Elder Ballard's challenge to talk more about the gospel.

8/17/2014

Well, what I get out of church and Dad gets out of church is completely different.  Of course, I wonder what would happen if you plop a baby who hasn't napped onto his lap during the meetings? I am sure he has been there already though.

Priesthood meeting we talked about the Holy Ghost again...we did the same lesson two weeks in a row.  I thought a little bit about the word communion.  If I have the opportunity to eat at a dinner table with God and Jesus Christ, why don't I do so.  Why don't I take my fill instead settling on the crumbs that fall from the table.  I have done better obviously, but don't ask for the Lord's help or think how the Lord would handle a situation in all circumstances.

Heidi had a temporary crown put in only to find that a week and a half later it started hurt again.  Luckily we have a great neighbor who came in and did a partial root canal after hours for no cost.. Wow.  Great to have good friends.

I have an excel class that I am teaching on Wednesday and Thursday with out 35 participants...somehow I deleted my ppt slides and IT can't recover them...yikes.  So back to the drawing board.  At least I have my outline.

8/10/2014 Well today is Halley's birthday.  I appreciated everyone that visited yesterday for Halley's birthday party.  We had a good time.  She was so excited that everyone came to see her.  She really likes spending time with Emmanema and Lizzy.

We set up the indoor plastic basketball hoop for Carter and he kept slam-dunking it for a few hours a day.  I feel sorry that he has only been able to eat Yogurt for the last 6 days or so.  I hope his molars come through soon.

Heidi hasn't been sleeping very well lately.  Every time she gets up to fix a bottle for Miles, her body thinks it's awake and she can't go to sleep for another two hours.  I will try and research a little today and see if I can find anything on it.

I am teaching an excel class at work for a 30 something people in a few weeks.  I still need to refresh myself on a few of the different formulas and create some of the lesson.

Life-Easter 2014

Well, after listening to conference there are several things that I would like to do.  One of those  is family history.  Grandma was almost one of God's messengers whenever she dropped off one of those binders with all of the family history to me whenever I was in college.  That was a neat experience when I started researching it.  Then once again, Grandma gave me a list of things to copy that had a list of records from Ancestry.com, many of which have not been put into familytree.  I am grateful for Grandma for doing that.  I am also grateful that come mid-2014 all members will receive a free subscription to Ancestry.org.  That will really hasten the work.  I have paid for it years before and it has several censuses and other search capabilities that we simply did not have.  The church must be paying quite a handsome fee but it will be worth it.  It will truly hasten the work not only in the US but in all of the world.

I am glad Mom and Dad are coming down for Easter.  I enjoy family.  As much as I acknowledge that in many ways our family grew up disjointed,the Lord has helped strengthen our family.   That is entirely due to the covenants and faithfulness we have made before the Lord.

There has been a lot going on.  I head to San Antonio a week from today, hoping to have my house on the market by then.  Who knows if that will happen.  I still need to see if that will work.

Luckily, I have all of next week off before I start at USAA. I am leaning towards both selling my home and buying a new house with my real estate license.  That will probably save me around $15K.  It only cost $700 since I saved up for it two months ago.  Not a bad return.  I probably could help out when Janet buys her home.  It will probably save her something around $9K.   I have to put everything back up on the walls and do some deep cleaning and finish packing.  I also have to take my 15 hours of classes to activate my real estate license and take any training mandated by the broker so I can be listed under him.

We are all sick trying to recover from colds so that doesn't help either.  I also need to focus on helping Heidi and our three kids as they are a handful.