The Book Of Mormon

I just wanted to take a few sentences to describe my appreciation for the Book of Mormon. It is such a wonderful book and blessing to me. As I prayerfully read it's contents, I am happy and feel close to god, my days truly go better, and I am more able to feel the spirit and make good choices. There are so many important truths found in the Book of Mormon. I know Christ better because of reading it. I understand the plan that god has for me better because of reading it. It is an amazing tool that has blessed my life.
It's interesting how much evidence has been discovered to verify it's truthfulness. Here is a good website that has some interesting information: http://www.jefflindsay.com/BMEvidences.shtml I suppose there are also critics that claim to have "evidence" of it's falseness. That is the amazing thing about the book though. It is not pretentious enough to ask people to believe in it from it's mere existence, but we are to take the challenge, each time we read the Book of Mormon, and ask god in humble prayer if it is true. I've taken the challenge, and know that it is true, and what a wonderful gift it is.

Tornados and Turning 7

We have had a plethora of thunder storms lately. The other night we were jovially awakened by severe thunder storm and tornado warnings. I have never experienced a tornado before and so all I have to compare them too, as Mike likes to point out, are the movies. So in my mind all I can think of is "Twister" and "The Wizard of Oz". I am still sticking to my guns though that those images are not too far from the truth.:) So being in my first "possible" tornado made me pretty nervous and Mike was just ready to go back to bed. Before doing so though he was kind enough to look up how to respond to tornadoes on the Internet. I think we both got a better idea of what to expect. We are now going to be hiding in our downstairs closet every time the tornado alarm goes off.:) The next morning came oh so soon.
We are preparing to take a summer trip back to Utah and I can't wait!! The closer it gets the more I just want to get on a plane and leave today. We will be staying for 10 days and will be there for both of our families camp outs as well as going to our new nephew Hollands blessing, and the Sugarhouse fireworks. It will be a busy week and a half but we are sure looking forward to spending time with family. My mom has already drafted us for house work. We are going to be helping her take down some old shelves in "the new fruit room" and replacing them in "the old fruit room". I guess this will allow her more space for storage, as well as easier access to food storage. I found it interesting with all that has been going on this week that I had a dream last night that we were in a tornado and we decided to hide out in my mom's "old fruit room". For those who don't know it is a hole that goes under our stairs and into a dirt covered space under our house. So as we were hiding in the "old fruit room" our house was picked up up and away like in the Wizard of Oz. I think we landed a block or two away over by Harris Market. It was pretty funny.
We have also had a busy day today. We planned a birthday party for a girl in our Primary class. We only have 4 students and I remember my primary teacher Lavae would always have us over for homemade birthday cake on our birthdays. It was the highlight of the year and I thought it would be fun to continue the tradition. (minus the homemade, mine came in a box) The girl in our class is a very special young lady. Her mom has a disability and so is unable to get around too well. She is also a convert and really strong. Her kids only come to church every other week and so we are really trying to reach out to her and help her as much as possible. We love our primary class, but 2 of our kids are moving, so we will only have 2 kids on a good day. It will be a big transition in January when the next class moves up because there are 15 in the class below us. We luckily have a rather large primary. So anyway, for the party we played bingo, apples to apples, hot potato, and the Sharp birthday dance. (Thanks Manda for your suggestions) We then had a cook out and ate cake. For our first experience things went pretty well.
So the count down begins now. 6 MORE DAYS UNTIL UTAH!!!

So We Think We Can Dance

(The Posting Blitz continues)

So we started a ballroom dance class on Tuesday. It was really fun, pretty good, and fairly cheep. We get to go 4 times for $20. Tuesday we learned the Fox trot, Western Swing, and some other move. There were only 4 of us, so we got some real one on one attention. We figure that by the end of these 4 lessons we'll be ready to try out for So You Think You Can Dance.

In other news, we splurged for the 10 dollar bunny ears from Radio Shack that will only let us watch TV for the next 6 months before everything goes digital. It's been worth it to watch our favorite reality dancing show. We thought that last night's show was especially amazing. Our favorite routines were the white costume one, and the modern one with Gev. Feel free to comment on your thoughts of So You Think You Can Dance.

In other news the misses is warming up to the idea of a cat. The finger crossing seems to be working.

Detroit Trip

Our Detroit Trip was very sweet. We ate a lot, saw a lot of old friends, and got to see the new chapel that was just built. Saturday night we stayed up about 45 miles from the city with Sister Hobbs, who Mike knew on his mission. She has 3 cute amazing girls and 4 little dogs. That night we went to a carnival. It was a lot of fun to ride rides, get sick, and see fireworks. They had an amazing petting zoo there where we got to pet sheep, and goats, a camel, a buffalo, a giant tortoise, kangaroos, llamas, and lots of other cool animals.
On Sunday we got to go to the new chapel that was just built in Detroit. It is a million times the upgrade over the old 6 story bank that the branch used to meet in. It is interesting because it is in such a rough area, all of the doors and windows are bullet proof. It has an electric fense around the whole building, and security cameras watching the surrounding areas. It's not very inviting, but what you have to do to keep a building looking nice in the heart of Detroit.
We were able to see a lot of people. It was lots of fun. We can't wait to go back!!!

Celtic Euphoria

WARNING: Extreme amounts of sports content that will probably bore you.

It all started in 1997 for me. I was at a Jazz game of all places, roaming around the gift shops at half time, when a sweet looking hat caught my attention. Of course it was green, my favorite color, and had a sweet leperchaun guy on it. Although I knew little of the team, I bought the hat, and became a Celtic fan. It's interesting how favorite sport teams are chosen by 14 year olds. I was a Jazz fan, and that is for sure. Still am, always will be. I guess that one team was not enough to fill the fanitical mind of teenager with endless amounts of time. I was looking for an Eastern Conference favorite, and the Celtics fit the bill. Although they were a horrible team that would not get me in trouble of, "bandwagoning", they had just hired a promising new coach Rick Patino, had employee #8 as their up and coming star, and a handful of first round picks to surround Antoine Walker with. They were a fun team to watch and follow, although they never lived up to their potential.
To say that I was fanatical about the Celtics in high school was an understatement. I had celtic jersey, celtic hat, a celtic clock, celtic key chains, and a celtic warm up jacket. I remember at least three reports I wrote for middle school and high school about Bill Russell, Red Aurbauh, and Larry Bird. I've definitely toned down since then, (I'm much more fanatical about the Jazz these days), but I've definitely been excited to see them excell this season.
It's been a tough ride as a Celtic fan, filled with mostly dissapointment. Even that brief stretch of a decent team between 2001-2003, I was on my mission and couldn't enjoy it. So this season seems like a little bit of redemption for all my misery.
I got to say that I've been a pretty lucky sports fan recently. In the past 3 years, the Chicago Bears went to the Super Bowl, the St. Louis Cardinals won the world series, the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup, and now the Celtics have won the NBA championship. It doesn't get much better than this. (unless the Jazz won the title of course) Here's to the LA Lakers not winning another championship, GO CELTICS!!!

Mr. Mom

Amy is always so good at using her day off to clean the house. I decided that since I have the rare opportunity today of taking the day off of work, that I would clean the house while Amy is at work. I found out that taking care of the house is not as easy as I thought...

Here I am doing laundry.


Here I am sweeping the floor.


Here I am making a nutritious meal. (notice it is Whole Wheat Bread!)



This is when I was looking for a cat that we could adopt who would be too irresistible for Amy to refuse. (cross your fingers, Amy is being stubborn).


THIS IS TOUGH WORK!

Water Day!!!!

So this is a picture of what our preschool kids had to play with today. Needless to say that they were exstatic. It was so much fun to see them climbing and sliding all over the place. There was a water gun at the top that a couple of the kids used especially to squirt Miss Amy. Every Friday will be Water Day so that gives everyone something fun to look forward too. Last night Mike and I finally took a dip in the apartment complex pool. It wasn't extremely hot outside, but it was nice to go anyway. Luckily there weren't too many people there. On the weekends it looks pretty crazy.
Last week was our first chance teaching our Primary class. It was so much fun and very rewarding. It is amazing the difference in teaching when you can actually talk about the truths of the gospel. We are teaching the 6 & 7 year olds. There is one girl in our class who is being picked on by a girl at school. As she was telling us this story another girl in the class decided that we should all tell the this girl something that we liked about her to make her feel better. It was a lot of fun and wonderful to see the happiness that it brought to the child who really needed a boost. We are going to Detroit next weekend and are really excited about that. I'm excited to see all of the people and places that Mike new on his mission. We are especially excited to see the husband of one of the ward members baptized. I'm sure we'll post more details about this next week. Well, life is good here in Columbus. It is 90 degree weather with a lot of humitity, but we are loving it. Take care