The Little Man Turned 3

The little man turned 3.

Where did the time go? That's how many years I spent in high school in Utah, how many years I spent at my previous job, how long it took me to grow out of my awkward middle-part hair style.... all these things passed so slowly, they were never-ending. But time has absolutely flown with Mr. Rafe Henry. Just yesterday we were waking up in the wee hours of the morning for nursing time, and watching episodes of The Office together. His first time sleeping through the night was November 22nd, he flew on his first plane to the east coast on September 25th, he began walking shortly after that trip... about a year after that we flew to the west coast for another trip.... he is one lucky little boy! He stops me in his tracks with how smart he is, how much he remembers. He loves everyone in his life. He may be stubborn and not want them to hold him at certain times, but when we get home and sit together talking, he is constantly talking about everyone in his life.

A few photos throughout the years...

mamma & Rafe 

GilmoreNetGirlsFlix

So Gilmore Girls is coming to Netflix tomorrow and I could not be more excited. I would love more than anything to follow the example of one of the funnier men at the office and take PTO to watch a season... or 7. Instead, I'll just write about my favorite moment across all the seasons- and that is when Sookie gives Lorelai a prep talk about her train-wrecked marriage to Christopher.

She says, "If there were no Luke... would it be Christopher? I mean, would he be 'the one'?" (Season 7 Episode 14)

I am such an advocate for a relationship course being taught in high school. It should be one semester Sex Ed and the next semester Love 101. Actually, reverse that. Love 101 first, then, "if you don't learn your lesson in Love 101 you could end up with all these nasty STD's and a body that will never be the same after an unplanned pregnancy" Sex Ed course. But I digress.

Single ladies, don't play with hearts. Isolate each situation. If there were no Luke, no lover who scorned you or never met your expectations or whatever the reason was, would you be rushing into the arms of the next batter who steps up to the plate? People will do what they want to be happy. But just make sure you're after a happiness that will last a long time, not just till a previous heartbreak is healed. Because just look at Lorelai. She ended up with a divorce, which I've heard is the white elephant gift that just keeps on giving.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy Gilmore Girls on Netflix :)

maybe I should talk to someone about being paid for this advertisement

....

Pie

So, my son has turned three years old and with that landmark came the time for him to spend every other weekend with his father. This was the second weekend where that happened, and it wasn't much easier than the first. Wise women keep reminding me that I'm still a mother when I'm without my son. And of course, there are families who go without children every day due to tragic loss. But I guess my thoughts turn to who I am when my son isn't around. And this weekend, I was a cook.

Though absolutely terrible when I was younger, I've always had a desire to have talent in the kitchen. My end-life goal is to be the grandmother who has freshly baked goodness waiting in the kitchen every day, the one house on the street corner where everyone and their dog (seriously, I love dogs) know they can go for a home-cooked meal. Fortunately I have given myself till grandma-years to accomplish that feat.

Except for help with dicing chicken, I did each step all by myself! Even though I wasn't wiping up goop, playing cars, going to parks or handling a toddler meltdown this weekend, I felt accomplished with this 😊 

This recipe came from the classy Ann Romney and her beautiful cookbook. My parents were coming home from vacation, and with the rainy weather I wanted to make something warm and comforting. Of course by the time it was all prepared the sun was out and my hopes of a cozy gloomy meal were out the window, but it was still delicious. 

Wrapping up the evening with a taste of Cider. 

Welcome, Fall.

Oh, Canada

I had the lovely opportunity of traveling to Canada about a month ago. I left the baby boy behind for the first time like ever, took THREE whole planes back east, flew through a thunderstorm, spent waaaay to many hours running up and down the Southwest terminal in Midway, Chicago, performed baptisms for the dead in the beautiful Manhattan Temple, spilled mustard on myself in the middle of Times Square, found a fellow Mormon on the subway (she had her Doctrine & Covenants out for reading... so I pulled out my Book of Mormon and flashed her my CTR ring) spent evenings chatting away with my amazing grandmother, and made way too many references to the Swiffer commercials with Morty & Lee with my mom & grandpa... "I've been livin' in a fool's paradise!". Here are some photos, it is far too late at night for me to try and make them all centered in the middle of the page or what not (10:33.... you know us parents. party animals)

Just a little slice of heaven on the corner street.

Peggy's Cove

Old Family Home

The Dingle. Lots of Stairs. Ran to the top.

Weird sculpture in the Dingle.

Beautiful Church

Teacup. My Grandma is classy.

Tim Hortons... the best.

Considered making an offer on this home and moving here with Rafe...

Gorgeous Church

Walking the Boardwalk

Canadians like Harry Potter, too.

The library where I discovered my deep love for Nancy Drew... spent a whole vacation checking out those novels here.

Such a tiny plane.... I did not enjoy this one bit.

And I took a blanket that Bubba sleeps with along with me to Canada... I missed him lots.

Throw Back Thursday

Can you have a 'throw back thursday' blog post? I don't think there are any rules. At first "rule breaking" was considered rebellious, then hailed as "thinking outside the box", and now I really don't know if society has many rules at all... but I digress.

Throw Back to last Thursday

just kidding

Throw Back to Last Year

Exactly a year ago this month I had the opportunity to attend the General Relief Society Meeting previously held once a year in October (it has now become the General Women's Meeting, including girls ages 8+, how cool is that?!). Our seats were up at the very last section in the Conference Center and we were shifting our heads from side to side to view the speakers being projected onto the big screen, and finally my favorite speaker came to the pulpit, Linda Reeves. I have loved this counselor since her very first conference address and have always felt as though her words were prepared with me in mind. She began to deliver a beautiful talk adding further to the theme of this presidency, honoring our covenants. I wont lie, being all the way on the very last row my mind had wandered a bit during each talk and I would find myself staring off from time to time, but during Sister Reeves talk the spirit was pounding on my heart, urging me to pay attention. Suddenly, she spoke the words I knew I was meant to hear that night, "Come to the temple, dear sisters, and claim your blessings!" These words rang a bell in my mind, it was as though I had been shocked by lightning, and felt impressed that going to the temple, receiving my endowment, and claiming those blessings, was the next step in my life.

That thought wasn't the apple to my cider at the time. As clear as the impression was that came to my mind, I struggled with it. Was this really the next step? Was I ready? I had only returned to activity in the church two years prior... did I have the strength to honor and hold those covenants as dearly as is necessary? Did I even understand my baptismal covenants well enough to move forward with the next ones? Would those I shared this impression with encourage me to wait till marriage, as most single LDS women do?

Well, I don't have much to say on that last thought. If we turn our will over to God, He will take us down the path best suited for us, and your life will be more blessed for it. My life is more blessed for it. Preparing to go through the temple was not easy. It took time for me to share this impression with others, and even longer to bring it up with the appropriate leaders. I kept revisiting the talk by Sister Reeves, hoping for strength to press forward with this decision. A few gems from this talk in general:

"The trials and tribulation that we experience may be the very things that guide us to come unto Him and cling to our covenants so that we might return to His presence and receive all that the Father hath."

'Sisters, I testify that the Lord has a plan for each of our lives. Nothing that happens is a shock or a surprise to Him. He is all-knowing and all-loving."

"I testify that as I have listened more intently and tried to exercise my faith, the Lord has been merciful to me and has helped make my burdens light."

"Perhaps at no other time do we feel the divine love of the Savior as abundantly as we do when we repent and feel His loving arms outstretched to embrace us and assure us of His love and acceptance."

"As members of the Church, we may sometimes feel that we need to be part of a “perfect LDS family” in order to be accepted by the Lord. We often feel “less-than” or like misfits in the kingdom if we feel we do not fit that picture. Dear sisters, when all is said and done, what will matter to our Father in Heaven will be how well we have kept our covenants and how much we have tried to follow the example of our Savior, Jesus Christ."

This last quote especially stuck with me as I prepared. I don't need to elaborate why.

Fast forward a year later and then throw it back to last week. There were bumps and bruises along the way, and the week leading up to September 4th, even the day before, it certainly felt as though every power in the world was working to prevent me from going through. But finally I found myself walking through the gates of Temple Square, taking in the beauty all around, stepping through the lobby doors and finally, entering in to His house.

When I began this blog, it was my hope that it would illustrate just how much God loves us. I grew up in an active Mormon family, attended school where the ratio was 500 members to every 1 non-member, graduated Seminary and participated in all church activities. These things never made me a perfect person, nor did they make me impervious to temptation or sin. God knew this, He allowed me to make my own choices, and He made a way for me to come back home.
#becauseofHim, even someone as flawed as myself can return to His presence.

"My dear sisters, the Lord allows us to be tried and tested, sometimes to our maximum capacity. We have seen the lives of loved ones—and maybe our own—figuratively burned to the ground and have wondered why a loving and caring Heavenly Father would allow such things to happen. But He does not leave us in the ashes; He stands with open arms, eagerly inviting us to come to Him. He is building our lives into magnificent temples where His Spirit can dwell eternally"

#mytemple

Happy Thoughts

I woke up this morning and could smell Fall. I have caught a little sniff here and there of the Fall fragrances the past week, but this morning I laid in bed unable to fall back asleep due to the party going on in my nose, caused by the smell of Fall. 

When the summer sheds it's humidity and yields it's sweatyness to Fall my love for everything and everyone in my world kicks into turbo mode. Dinner with friends is that much more exciting because of the colors and fashions we then are sporting, walking into the office becomes as lovely as a stroll through Flourish and Blotts, even looking at a recipe for a Fall themed meal warms you up, and a pumpkin steamer in hand makes any challenge worth accepting (like raising a soon to be 3 year old... What??) 

It is my favorite season and I literally cannot sleep, I'm so looking forward to the transformation of the little valley we call home. So breathe deep, dear reader. Fall is in the air, even if the scent just lasts for a moment.

Nostalgic.

The Apartment

So, in January of this year I was searching, as I usually do, on KSL for cute little apartments. I've been doing this since I was 17. I love going online, finding cute little homes, then looking at Ikea and Target at all the lovely things I could fill those places with. I had a running list for about two years of what items I would need to purchase to furnish a home, and how much each item would cost from their respective stores.

Well, in January I found a beautiful little place. The contract was set up the way I wanted, utilities included in the price, a family-friendly area, the church building right across the street, parks and pools within the community. It just seemed too good to be true. I went for a tour of the place and my heart was sold. The layout felt like it's own little house, not simply a hallway with rooms off to the side. A bathroom for Rafe and even one for me, and situated just perfectly in respect to the sun. (no, the windows did not face full west, thank you very much Lady Catherine DeBurgh)

We (well, me... Rafe doesn't bring any income to the household... someday though he'll be on the paper route, right?) put a deposit down on the place and set the date to move in on February 1st. I never got around to blogging about this cute little first home of ours, aside from Rafe's first home in life, and then living with my parents for a few years, and now that we have left I figured I would put together a little "goodbye tour" of the apartment I loved so much.

It was magical being able to create a place of my own with Rafe. Designing his room, putting together a bathroom he would love, creating little spaces in the laundry room or kitchen that were exactly my style, taking pride in the little chores that helped keep the place clean and tidy (most of the time....). And although that adventure has come to a close, I know it was the right thing to do. There were a number of reasons to leave. Maybe I'll write about them all in my biography some day. But coming back to the safety of the parents home, having a little extra support with Rafe, a little extra money for schooling, and returning to a ward that is so beautiful and loving my heart burst with gratitude while sitting through our meetings today, those are all very good reasons. Although not comparable in any way, as I was packing up boxes and deciding what to keep and what to send to the storage unit, I had a greater appreciation for the pioneer women who left houses and furniture completely behind, never to see again, and most likely to be destroyed by the mobs. It must have wrenched at their heartstrings. But choosing the right was worth it. Pressing forward, obeying the word of God. It was then and is now worth it, and always will be.

Rafe and I will live in an apartment again someday I'm sure, and it will be another unique and lovely adventure of its own.


But for now, a storage unit.

And a photo of the Temple, taken this morning in the rain.