Vacation Please

For the past few days I have been wanting so badly to go on a trip. It's very strange for me because I am usually such a homebody, but I just want to go somewhere with my husband. Hopefully we'll get to go somewhere this summer! We're shooting for Disneyland, but we'll see how things turn out.

The one vacation I have been on with my husband is our honeymoon. It was so much fun. So to get rid of my vacation needing blues, I've decided to post a few of my favorite pics from our day in Zion National Park.

Weeping Rock

I can't remember what this place is called...

The beginning of our trek through the narrows.

An awesome picture Patrick took of a waterfall in the narrows.

His bum got a little wet after taking the picture. Oops!!!

Remember Lot's Wife

About a month or so ago Elder Holland came to BYU to speak at devotional. I loved his talk. It was so powerful and full of the sincerest, deepest love for God's children.

The talk is called "Remember Lot's Wife" and I wanted to share a few of my favorite quotes from it. It's a great talk and I would suggest anyone read it. You can get it off speeches.byu.edu.

"There is something in us, at least in too many of us, that particularly fails to forgive and forget earlier mistakes in life—either mistakes we ourselves have made or the mistakes of others. That is not good. It is not Christian. It stands in terrible opposition to the grandeur and majesty of the Atonement of Christ. To be tied to earlier mistakes—our own or other people’s—is the worst kind of wallowing in the past from which we are called to cease and desist."

"When something is over and done with, when it has been repented of as fully as it can be repented of, when life has moved on as it should and a lot of other wonderfully good things have happened since then, it is not right to go back and open up some ancient wound that the Son of God Himself died trying to heal."

"Dismiss the destructive and keep dismissing it until the beauty of the Atonement of Christ has revealed to you your bright future and the bright future of your family and your friends and your neighbors. God doesn’t care nearly as much about where you have been as He does about where you are and, with His help, where you are willing to go."

"Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the 'high priest of good things to come.'"

"Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform your life today, tomorrow, and forever. That is a New Year’s resolution I ask you to keep..."

I know that the power of the Atonement is real. And I pray that I can keep the past in the past and move forward with an unshakable trust in God knowing that the best is yet come. He is in control and He is watching over us all.

Valentine's Weekend

When I told Patrick I was starting a blog for our family he told me that I'm in charge of writing about what happens in our lives while he is in charge of recording his thoughts. So, I'm fulfilling my duty as the family historian and writing about our Valentine's weekend.

Pat had a basketball game on Saturday morning, so we went to that bright and early. The team didn't do so well...but Pat played great. After that we finished the second season of Lost which we have been working on for a while. Although it's a little confusing because I have never seen the first season, I really like it and secretly want to watch the the third season. But don't tell Pat because I can't admit I like it...

We went out to eat at PF Chang's for dinner, which was delicious of course. We had almond and cashew chicken and of course the lettuce wraps. So good!!! The best part of dinner, however, was when Pat spilled his full glass of water all down his front! :) Okay, maybe that was me, but he had a little spill too.

We came home and watched Casablanca--one of my favorite old movies that Pat hadn't seen. And played our new favorite game (which I got for V-day), Carcassonne. Pat bought it for me for V-day about 2 weeks ago, but we definitely didn't wait to open it because we love it too much.

Unfortunately I am no good at taking pictures, so we don't have any photos to document the day, but it was a great Valentine's Day. We have now been married 6 months (can you believe it!) and are loving every minute of it. I am so blessed to have Patrick as a husband.

Oh and I almost forgot one of the best parts of the day. Patrick got me lilacs and they are so pretty. They make our entire apartment smell so good.

Post the First

Well I never thought that I would be writing on a blog, but thanks to my awesome wife that took the initiative here I am. Well for the most part I think that I want to use this blog as a space for me to share my thoughts. I am not a faithful journal writer but I am hoping that this blog will help encourage me to write just a little of what I am thinking so that I will have a means to reflect and grow, and if my thoughts seem to catch anyone else's interest that will just be an added bonus.

So I have been thinking a lot about things in my life that have brought me to this point in my life, and one of the most important things that I have is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

One of my new hobbies since getting married is watching the news and trying to stay up on current events. I do my best to follow the news about the economic crisis, I try to follow the doings of our new President, and try to follow the other leading stories of the day. It is all quite interesting and makes for some great conversation.

There is a side effect from all of my news watching, I actually become more aware of the world around me. With my growing sense of the world, I become more and more grateful for that "Rock" (the Gospel and Christ himself) that I have been able to build my life upon. The soundness and correctness of the Gospel seem to shine brighter than ever before. The wisdom in keeping the commandments seems so much more obvious to me. I look around the world and see many troubling things. Daily you hear about horrific acts of violence. The core moral values of nations around the world (especially America) seem to be sliding down a slippery slope. But because of the great Gospel of Christ I am full of hope and not fear. I look forward to making my positive mark on this world. Leaving my small patch of this earth better then when I found it.

Whatever the problem I know that the Gospel is the solution. So I will hold fast to it. It is an exciting time to be alive, and I am so glad that I am apart of these times.

Here It Goes...

Well, we're jumping on the blogging train. It's about time--wouldn't you say!!!