Merry Christmas Y'al!

Hello Family and Friends!

Christmas is upon us again! Yay! We hope you and yours have felt God’s blessings upon you this year and are enjoying good health and the love and joy of family and friends - especially during this “most wonderful time of the year!”

We had a decent year and enjoyed a visit from my (Teri’s) brother, Billy, back in February (see picture above). It’s always so nice to be with family and get caught up on each other’s lives. He is doing as well as can be expected. Getting older ain’t for sissies! His feet and legs are still hanging in there, but give him trouble often. His deafness in the one ear is getting worse, and he still suffers from Tinnitus, which can be very distracting and frustrating. Bless his heart! He keeps busy with odd jobs and is a great help to George and Becky, his friends/landlords. He gets to go out with friends at times and is doing well overall.

BOB: Continues to work for AmerisourceBergen and loves his job and the people he works with. He is Director of End-Point Support for the Southwest Area and travels from time to time. He was the President of the Young Men’s organization in Church most of the year until he was released in October. He will sorely miss being so intricately involved with the boys he’s grown to love as his own. I think the boys will miss him just as much if not more, as they absolutely love him! He was a fabulous YM President! He also does “side jobs” for church, friends, and word-of-mouth-friends as DJ, Sound/Light Technician and Computer Mr-Fix-It. Serving others is like oxygen to him! He is the best husband and father we could ask for, and I certainly appreciate all his help where all those Honey-Do’s are concerned. 

JESSICA (28): Is currently working at Home Depot in North Dallas; lives with her fiancee,Taylor; is in the process of a divorce from Nate; and being a Mama to Orli (who lives with Nate) and Genna (who lives with Jessica & Taylor). We see her and/or the girls as time/schedules permit. Those girls are growing way too fast! Orli started Kindergarten this year! Way too fast, I’m telling ya!

JONATHAN (24): Is currently home for his “off semester” from BYU-ID. He changed his major to CIT and has been working this semester at AmerisourceBergen in an internship. He’s been blessed in that all his “post-mission” jobs have application to his major and have been incremental in importance/knowledge for it too. Good for the resume after graduation! Last semester he enjoyed being asked to be a Country Western Dance instructor on campus, and he’s thoroughly enjoyed that! He also loves to serve others and does so whenever possible, as well as making sure he takes time to spend with good friends doing things like making huge bonfires, off-road cycling, hiking, climbing, and other adrenaline-inducing things a Mama rather not know about until he’s home and safe! Recently he got to travel with friends to Arkansas for one of their mutual friend’s wedding. He’s also learned how to take apart rifles and completely sand/stain/update the wood on them. He did such a great job, that friends are asking him to do theirs! He’s a big help here at home too, and I am glad to have this time with him before he finally flies the coop! Especially when he sits down to play guitar and sing for us! He attends the Young Singles Ward in North Dallas and serves on the Activities Committee there. 

EMILY (17): Recently got her Provisional Driver’s License, meaning she has been driving ALONE now the past few months! “Mama, I feel so grown up driving around town everywhere!” It’s a bittersweet pill for this mama, as she’s our baby, and this marks a big milestone for us - nearing that Empty Nest stage. Emily keeps busy with her studies as well as the Dallas Millennial Choirs & Orchestras (she sings alto & they performed in the Tabernacle onTemple Square in Salt Lake City in April, and we hope she’ll make it to NYC this coming Summer to perform with them in Carnegie Hall), her two art classes (classic and modern), her piano lessons, hanging out with friends, and her church activities where she serves as the Laurel Class Secretary (16-18 yr olds) as well as serving on the Stake Youth Committee (youth who are responsible for planning/leading activities for all the Latter-day Saint youth in Plano, like dances and events). She also adopted her new best friend: Honey (3 y/o Parsons Russell Terrier/Miniature Schnauzer mix female dog). Honey is the sweetest, kindest, most silent & cuddly dog ever! We’ve all fallen in love with her. Those two could not be more each other’s “spirit animal”. They are two peas in a pod and they are inseparable. No, really! We love when Emily sits to play her ukulele and sing, and love it double when she and Jonathan sing and harmonize together! Heavenly! Another big event: She started her first job - at Chick-Fil-A! She loves it there, and I must say, they sure are a good employer! Second big event: She cut all her hair off! She just wanted something different. (See picture below) We think it is adorable and she pulls it off well.  Emily is a huge help to us around the house, as my lower back and sacroiliac dysfunction keep me from doing many things I’d normally do. She also loves to serve others and is often called upon to do so in many different ways. She’s known as the “reliable/responsible” one. She loves babysitting, pet sitting, and also quiet nights at home with a good book or movie and ice cream! Who doesn’t? Ha! She continues growing in her artistic skills and blows us away with her sketches, paintings, and even self-taught crafts she makes. Friendship bracelets have been a big hit this past year. 😉 

TERI: I just continue homeschooling Emily, keeping the family organized and in my spare time I am a Grandma, the Stake (City-wide church area) Public Affairs/Social Media Specialist running the website (www.mormonsinplano.com), Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram accounts, a Relief Society (women’s group) Ministering Sister and Relief Society Ministering Secretary (formerly Visiting Teaching District Supervisor), the Stake Center building Scheduler, Assistant Ward Newsletter Editor, Administrator for both the Texas Dallas MissionaryMoms and California Bakersfield MissionaryMoms Facebook groups, Attire Check Volunteer with Dallas Millennial Choirs & Orchestras, and friend to any who need one. I love to serve and help others any way I can. It just makes us happy, doesn’t it?

There is no doubt the world is in turmoil, yet there is still so much beauty and goodness to be found if we take the time to find it. So many seek lasting joy and peace, but seek it in the wrong places. We invite all to Seek Christ this Season during which we celebrate His birth and remember His life and mission. He is the way, the light, and the life. It is only through Him we can find that lasting joy and peace. We, and the world, need His wisdom, joy and peace more than ever before. Our prayer for all, as well as for ourselves, is that we will refocus this new year in seeking that Christ who is our Redeemer and our true Friend, who can fill our lives with lasting joy and lasting peace, while still guiding and strengthening us during our sojourn in this troubled world.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Y’all!

 

Walt Before Mickey

What a great movie!

ROE v. WADE The Movie

I cannot fathom being so selfish and self-centered and self-indulgent as to kill a baby within me, just so that I can go around having sex with whomever I choose, and not ever have to "suffer the consequences".  What a terrible, horrific world that would be.

The sheer selfishness and evil of doing such a thing is beyond my ability to accept.

Abortion is murder. Plain and simple.

But what about incest? What about rape? What about when the mother's life is in danger? To these questions I answer:  If it's incest or rape, it doesn't matter, it is still murder. If you don't want the innocent and pure baby, then give it up for adoption to a good couple who will raise the child and love it as their own. There are millions of righteous couples unable to conceive. This would be a way to be a blessing and help to them. Stop thinking of yourself only. As for the mother's life being in danger, those cases can only be decided between that woman, her husband, her faith leader and her God. Through modern prophets we have been cautioned that this might be the only time that abortion *might* be ok, but only when the Holy Spirit guides to that.

I hope millions of people will watch this movie and that millions' of people's lives will be changed and saved by this movie. Hundreds of millions of people have already lost their opportunity at life because their mothers murdered them via abortion. What a sad and terrible day it was the day that abortion was made legal in any nation of this world.

And what about that last question: If it's not legal, then millions of girls will seek illegal abortions in back alleys and it will usually end in their dying. To that I say: then so be it. That is their choice whether to spread their legs or not, and whether to take their OWN lives into their OWN hands seeking illegal abortions. It is less sad for a girl to seek an illegal abortion and die in that manner, than for her to kill her own child, an perfectly pure and innocent angel, in order for her to live. The fear of illegal abortions will stop many from getting pregnant in the first place, thereby reducing the need. That's a good thing in my book.

Shame on anyone who has had a selective selfish abortion. Shame! Shame! Shame!

Singing With Angels - The Perfect Sunday Movie!

  If you haven't seen this already, here is a perfect Sunday movie to watch this weekend!  It's wonderful! And it has the actual Mormon Tabernacle Choir in it! Inspirational!

'LOVE, KENNEDY" - A MUST MOVIE

  

If you haven't seen this movie, it's a MUST.

Trust me.

MUST.

I feel I can't even say anything more about it, or somehow it would detract from the amazingness, the sacredness, the significance.

TRUST IN THE LORD

    

I love this. I've made good and bad decisions, and I can say with certainty that when I relied on my Savior, my decisions were always the rights one, and always led to the best consequences and outcome. In hindsight, I could see they were the very best choices I could have made. Jesus Christ lives! It is up to each of us whether or not we will take Him at His word, study His word daily, turn to Him in prayer, and become His disciple.

Review: Tambora: The Eruption That Changed the World

 

 

Tambora: The Eruption That Changed the World by Gillen D'Arcy Wood
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

It was hard to push myself to finish reading this book, but I did so only because I don't like leaving things undone. The information in this book relating to the grand explosion of Mt Tambora is interesting in itself, and how it actually affected the world in terms of weather and how that weather, in turn, affected people and the choices they made. For example, the crazy weather influenced Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, into writing that book. There are plenty of other examples in the books and it all rather reminds me of the movie Forest Gump, wherein one man affected so many people and brought about so many goods all by being himself. The author tends to do that in regard to Mt Tambora - that because of Tambora's explosion, there as a domino effect throughout the world, which in turn helped bring about all these other things, like books, ships, political divisions, tyrants, artists, you name it.

However, though I'm not sure exactly how he comes to this conclusion (though he attempts to explain it in the book), the author goes on to intimate throughout the book that it is humankind who is at fault of "global warming"/"climate change". It makes no sense to me. First of all because I tend to agree with the honest climate experts that climate change is a millennia-long, needed pattern for Earth, and that man is not the one responsible for it (scientifically speaking).

Other than the author's strong "pushing" of this agenda of "climate change" where humans are the culprit, the book could have been more interesting. I'm glad I finished it. I would not recommend it, unless a person is directly interested in volcanoes and weather, and/or if a person is fully and blindly a believer in "climate change"/"global warming" and wants more excuses for how it's a "real" thing.

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