Foster Care Update!

We are scheduled for our home study! J FINALLY passed his background check. We've got two weeks to finish up some projects and we're ready to go. Wish us luck!

Mormon.org

I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Church gives us answers to the most important questions. I know who I am and where I am going and I am happy. Joseph Smith entered a grove of trees and God the Father appeared to him with His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. The knowledge of this singular event has been a guiding force in my life. God hears and answers prayers. God knows me by name. God loves me and He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to show me the way back to live with God some day. We can be with our families forever. How grateful I am for my opportunity to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints. If you'd like more information on the Church or have questions about what I believe take at look at mormon.org. It's a site designed to answer questions with videos, article and even live chat.

Today I have visiting teaching appointments. Unfortunately they are the first in about 5 months. I have a lot of good excuses, wrong numbers, isolation in Primary, sickness, visiting family, vacations, holidays...I have more, need I go on? None of those are really important. Because I haven't been going on appointments I haven't been reading the message. I was preparing for these visits, thinking about the sisters I'd be visiting and what they should hear. Flipping through the Ensign, I was reading titles and snippets from articles trying to reminding myself of the messages we heard in October. We were out East for the General Relief Society Meeting and did not attend. I stopped and read "Happiness, Your Heritage" by President Uchtdorf. As I read tears were brought to my eyes as he spoke to those who were weary. I sometimes feel weary. And I am weary at my own hand. As I've struggled through life I have found that God sometimes won't give us the desires of our hearts-not because he can't but because he won't for our good. These last three years I have been told to wait, and wait and wait for the desires of my heart. And as I've waited, knowing the God has the answers to my questions and will lead me in the best paths, I've become weary with disappointment. As my spiritual well of faith is being drawn upon, I've neglected family and personal scripture study. That has been the cause for my wariness, trying to overcome with prayer alone without utilizing the power of scripture study and fasting. I don't need to fast, study and pray for a change in answer but to have the faith to accept it with happiness. I am grateful for the many blessings the Lord has blessed us with and I am grateful for the Holy Ghost that whispers to our hearts the messages we need to hear. Elder Uchtdorf did not talk about fasting and scripture study in his remarks to the Relief Society, but scripture study and fasting is the message I received. I hope you can find the answers to your questions as you study the General Conference Ensign this month and the months to come.

Aida Twilight and Girls Night Out

I'm not cool enough to remember my camera when I go out on nights like this. I had an amazing night starting with HCTO production of Aida. It was so well done especially considering space! I can't wait to have season tickets to the Hale!

On a Twilighter 1-10 scale of obsession I am firmly at a 5. I've read the books a couple of times- even stood in a midnight line to get the last book. But I don't wear T-shirts or dream of the main players. That being said, I was so excited to go out with the girls and see the midnight showing last night after Aida. I really think the movie stayed true to the book. But if I hadn't read the books I don't think I would have enjoyed it. In my mind it's not a stand alone movie. There wasn't enough dialog to support the romance for me. My opinion is not popular though. I'd love to know what you thought of the movie. Come on we all know you'll see it.

I am also a big fan of Aplebee's after 9. Whooo Hooo for half off aptz and virgin daiquiris!

Ward Choir

So, anyone that's visited our ward when the choir sings will know that it is not something taken lightly. Typically it feels like the entire congregation is getting up and going to the front while a few remain to listen.

It's a wonderful choir and they just recently released our director of the past 3 years. He did a wonderful job and we sang some wonderful songs.

The new director made a comment this morning that really made me think about why I participate in the ward choir. I used to think it was because I needed to keep working on my talent or lose it. Our director said that the chance to sing in church is to raise your testimony in song. I think at times we lose sight of that and it I thank her for bringing that to mind again. She also mentioned that when we focus on the words and the testimony being sung, it's much easier for the mechanics of singing to just flow rather than being forced and words will be pronounced correctly and the song will not only bring the spirit in but it should uplift all that listen.

I hope that I can keep that in mind as we move into the Christmas season and begin practicing songs from that wonderful night so many years ago when the Savior of the World was born among men. He is our true example and I give my testimony that He lives and loves us.

J

Here it Comes!

The Cougars did it, they managed to come back from a slow second quarter and get fired up for the second half. They rattled off 21 unanswered points in the second half to beat Air Force 38 to 24 setting up what is probably the biggest game in the history of the BYU-Utah rivalry. Never have both teams been ranked this high going into the game with the conference title on the line. They have both been ranked before but not like this and it's setting up to be something special. Both teams are fairly evenly matched in that the strengths of one team plays to the strength of the other and weakness goes against weakness.

Who will win out? I have no idea but it's going to be a great game. BYU holds a 2 game win streak after pulling out miracle plays 2 years in a row. One of the good things is that Utah has more pressure on them to win because they are currently undefeated and BYU will be the underdog going into Salt Lake. I give Utah the slight advantage since the game is on their turf, but in this rivalry, anything can happen.

BYU 34 Utah 28

Go Cougs!!

Undefeated at home for 3 years

BYU finally showed up on defense and proved the opponent to be what they were supposed to be, not good. BYU 41 SDSU 12. We've been making so many not so good teams look much better than they actually are that I was starting to wonder if we'd be able to pull this off. However San Diego State is just plain bad and it was a great confidence booster for the Cougs going into the toughest stretch of the season.

The great thing was the final home win marked the third straight season that BYU has gone undefeated at home, a new school record. We said goodbye to 22 seniors and while they will be missed, there are plenty of players ready to step in and take over and should give us another great year of football next year too.

Next up is at the Air Force Academy which despite being a young team has played really well this season and provides quite a few mismatches against our D. I still think our offense is good enough to win this one in the end and I'll look to our D to get just a couple stops so the O can capitalize and give us a cushy 2 score lead.

After AFA is Utah at Salt Lake. This is not going to be easy. The Utes have a great defense and an offense that plays to BYU's defensive weaknesses. The equalizer here is that it is the rivalry game and anything can happen. We're holding a 2 game win streak over the Utes and would like to make it 3 along with being the first team to put them behind on the scoreboard at the end of the game.

Go Cougs!!

SO I've also been thinking about the election and I don't agree with what J has said. I do think that many Americans have done the research and voted with their conscience. I also know that Republicans have BLOWN it. I never said that John McCain was a great choice and had a hard time in the beginning choosing whom I would vote for. When it came down to it, it was the platform I voted for. I had to dig deep and decided what Governments job is and then try and align myself with a candidate that believed as I did. I hope that is what the majority of voting Americans have done. America was hungry for a change and we have many problems. I had to decide which solutions I could and could not support. Some answers came from the Left and some from the Right and again it came down to the platform. A local radio commentator said it best for me. "Government's job is to be the referee and not to suit up and play the game." Government has made some bad calls. If I was at football game I may have even stood up and booed at times. That said I still believe that Governments job is to ref the game not play it.

Our economic crisis reminds me of the crisis form the 1830's. Real estate speculation, inflation, failing banks.... except today we feel like we need the government to fix everything and not let it run it's course with little government involvement. Economic ups and downs have always been present with the freedoms we enjoy in this country and will continue to come in varying degrees as long as we have a capitalist society. On the flip side we will also have great high times of longer duration. I agree with J that we have been warned by a Prophet to get out of debt, collect food storage and become self reliant. I think that is great advice for individuals, institutions and governments.

E

Post Election thoughts

I've been thinking alot about the results of the election yesterday. I'm not overly excited about our new President and the policies of his party, but I realize that we must all come together to move forward because we cannot change it now. Let's just hope that we get to keep enough of our hard earned Halloween candy and that it doesn't all go to those that were too lazy to go Trick-or-Treating. ;)

Some of the most important things we can do is to continue following the advice of the prophets to get out of debt and build our reserves so that we can survive tough times which are bound to come. We will probably see tax increases that will affect all of us in one way or another, but if we are saving and building our food storage, we have the promise that we'll be blessed to survive the tough times.

One thing everyone is right about, tough times are ahead and we will all have to sacrifice, be it in different ways. I know that our family is going to focus on getting out of debt and building our savings. That's been something that's been tough for us to do as we've continued to prosper since we were married. My job is steady and fortunately, the company continues to grow, but we do need to be aware that things can always change.

The main stream media is such an easy source of information these days but it is extremely biased and has leaned toward extreme liberalism in its view over the last 10 to 15 years. Hopefully we, as the new generation of voters that supposedly turned out in record numbers, will realize the importance of doing our own research and not relying totally on the Media for information. We have so many more tools out there to see beyond what the Media reports that we should become the best educated electorate of all time. We all need to start educating ourselves because no matter where information comes from, it will always have some bias from the source.

Anyway, just my 2 cents. Follow the Prophet, don't go astray.

J

Defense wasn't as bad as it looked

Now that I've had some time to look at the game objectively, I've realized that despite giving up 42 points and scoring 45, our defense didn't look that bad, but our offense didn't look as good as it could have either.

The score will be deceiving because it doesn't tell you that there was a fumble returned for a touchdown or that 2 other turnovers late in the game turned into another 14 points almost immediately.

The blessing for the team was that CSU scored quickly after the interception leaving Max Hall and Co almost 2 minutes to drive the field and I'm sorry but against an offense like that, that's a silly move.

In the end, the plays were made and the Cougs pulled out a win. It was a nerveracking but very entertaining football game and I'm looking forward to our final home game against San Diego State this weekend. Unless they pull of the game of the century, this should be an easy win. SDSU lost to Wyoming 35 to 10. We beat Wyoming 44 to 0. hmmmm

A little late

Aimee called me yesterday looking for spooky treats for her family. I gave her a couple ideas, but most needed store items or were labor intensive. I went looking today and found this great site. Check it out for next year! http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/special/specialfeature/halloween_ms_food/