It's All in the Timing...

I am late for pretty much everything. Work, family get togethers, and basically anything with a start time. I am so bad about being late that in the four months we have lived in our new ward, we had not been on time ONCE. Sad, I know. Well, this weekend I had this conviction that I needed to change that and start being on time. It was branch conference and we had been instructed to bring a main dish, side and dessert. By 10:15 all the food was cooked and the kitchen was clean which in itself is a small miracle. (some credit for this is due to my sweet husband who made the brownies. :)) I got to bed by 11:15 and woke up at 7:30 without pressing snooze once. Waking up Cory at 8:30 was a bit of a challenge (our AC isn't working so he hasn't been sleeping well lately) but by 9:28 we were rushing out of the door. We walked in right as they were going over the announcements. Not right on time, but close enough for me! As long as I don't miss any of the songs I count it! :) I was so happy to be at church and on time too! It was such a great feeling. Our bishop was the first speaker and he is just wonderful. I really hope everyone feels about their bishop the way I feel about ours. I couldn't imagine anyone doing the job better! At the conclusion of his talk he said he wanted to ask a few people to come up an give their testimonies. I actually thought to myself "I'm sure glad that's not me!" about a second before he called my name. I have never been so shocked at church in my life! Even the time a very straight laced girl cursed in Sunday school while I was in the branch did not compare. I now felt like everyone was looking at me thinking "I'm sure glad that's not me!" I went up and gave my testimony which I'm sure half the congregation could not even understand because I was so emotional. (I blame my emotionalness on Naomi, I was never like that before we were roommates!) But for me the important part was that the bishopric had given my name to the stake presidency a week before and without knowing why I just knew I needed to be at church on time that Sunday. The experience not only allowed me share my testimony with my ward but also gave me the opportunity to make that testimony even stronger. I know the Lord guides my life and will prepare me for whatever challenges come my way. I am probably in for many more "not me" moments in my life but I know that the Lord will always provide a way for me to be prepared for them, even when I don't realize it. For that I am truly grateful.

Hello House, It's Nice to Meet You

We are finally starting to settle into our house and it really feels like home to me now. It is so funny that even though we worked on the house for months before we moved in, it still didn’t feel like our home. When we first bought it there was the period of discovering things the previous owners had left. The weird sheet in the cupboard under the stairs, the child’s writing on the back of the door, and even the stopped up tub. The house belonged to us, but those things weren’t ours. Through the months of remodeling, those things went away, but we were constantly discovering things about our house and its previous owners through our efforts. As I scrapped the layers and layers of wallpaper from the walls, I could imagine what the house looked like for all of the people who had lived there before us. To me, that stuff was a royal pain, but to them it was something that made the house their home. Now we have those things. I am so proud of the repainted fireplace, the colors I picked out and the new faucet where I was my dishes. All those things belong to me, and so does the house. Even though it felt like ours finally, it was still a stranger. Over the last few months I have gotten to know our house and it now holds many memories for us. It is the place where we had our first Valentines Day dinner and where I cooked dinner for my Grandfather for the first time, not mention the countless little everyday things that make our life together so wonderful. I am just as happy to see the handprint on the wall David left when he helped us move in and the nail sticking out of the one creaky step for the millionth time as I am the fresh clean paint and new fixtures. We have started to make our mark on the place with the help of those we love. I am so grateful for our home and the memories and life we have begun to build inside it.