If Only It Were Real...

Apparently today marked the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's famous speach, "I have a dream."  Well, we all have that same dream, in one way or another.  We would all like to see world peace, and not sound like a beauty contestant.
The problem is, his speech and his dream have become soooo different than what I think he meant for them to be.  He meant for all of us, whether colored, white, etc., would come to live in peaceful co-existence.  There would be no separate peoples, we would all be one race.
When you think about it, we ARE all one race.  The human race.  We are all children of a Heavenly Father who loves us and made us in His image.  If only everyone realized that and acted upon it.  The world would be a much different place.
I have often dreamed of a world without crime, hate, war and anger.  A world full of peace and happiness.
I realize that this dream is only possible with the return of our Savior.  We can come close - I mean, Enoch managed it with the city of Zion, and we are striving for that today, are we not?
But true peace, and amazing happiness will come with the return of Jesus.  I pray for it to come soon.
The world really - really needs Him.

Really?

I read a post this morning on Desnews website that made me groan and shake my head.  Now granted, I tend to read a lot of stuff online that makes me groan, and lots of it I'll shake my head at, but doing both at the same time?? lol

(sorry - found this photo a LONG time ago and don't know who to credit it to...)

Anyway - it was an article about soul mates.  Personally, I think her premise that there is no 'soul mate' for us is probably true.  The whole Saturdays Warrior thing is more romance I think, than reality.  I do think that there are those more likely to be right for us than wrong, and that we need to be selective.  But to say that Heavenly Father really doesn't have a say on who we marry, as far as encouragment, isn't quite there.

We know differently, I think.  I'm going to be a little personal here:
My patriarchal blessing told me that I needed to be careful in choosing my friends because I would choose my husband from my friends.
I tell you - that gave me BIG hope during my struggling college and post mission days.  Just because I wasn't dating didn't mean I wasn't going to get married.  My Heavenly Father knew I needed hope and He gave it to me in a way that I could always hang onto.

When I met my future husband, I was attracted to him, though I thought he was weird.  Apparently being weird is a qualification for being my friend.  Just so ya know...cause I guess I have several that are kind of weird...and my kids are weird, so we kind of passed it on... lol

Anyway - I met him for the first time when I was 18.  Didn't make much of an impression, and I didn't give him a second thought.  I met him again after my mission.  That's when I thought he was weird.  But, he was cute, and I could tell he was getting ready to go on a mission.  (a little late...some of us are slow in that department - he is 5 days older than I am)  We became great friends.  I could talk to this man about ANYTHING!

And that's something that I think is essential in a future mate.  He may not be your soul mate, but he is someone that you have much in common with, you can talk to him about anything, and you don't feel like you have to talk when you're with him.  It's comfortable just to be together.  Our Father in Heaven may not point a finger at a particular guy and say, "Hey!  Pay attention!  That's your man, now go get him!"
We do have freedom of choice, remember?  He also knows that there is the possibility of several men that we would find happiness with.  He will guides us in our lives to find those that we need.

I know there were several jokes going around when I was single about our husbands being killed in the war in heaven...or that our hubby was born in the dark ages and we missed out...  But each of us has a plan.  There are many variables in life, and there is a plan.

We learn and grow from everything we go through, and waiting to find the one that makes you happy might be your growing experience.  For those of us who never do find the man of their dreams, there could be all sorts of reasons.  Perhaps he never found you either and went through life alone.  Perhaps he was born on the other side of the globe and never did follow the guidance of Heavenly Father to find you.

I'm just glad I had that little sentence in my blessing so that I had hope.  Now 27 years, 7 children and 2 grandchildren later, there isn't much I would change about my life.  Definitely wouldn't change who I chose to marry.  ;)

And I know that Heavenly Father had everything to do with that.  Just saying.

We're Back! And We Survived....sort of...

Well...we went to Bear Lake last weekend for a couple of days of family fun and reunion time.  It was mostly...but it was also just a lot of driving.  ;)  We went up Thursday night -- about an hour later than we meant to start out, and got there later so we had to put the tent up in the dark.  That's always fun.  NOT.  Have I ever mentioned that I'm not really a camping fan??  My idea of camping is a trailer or a condo...just saying...
Anyway - spent the night laying there awake...as usual now...and then freezing as the temperature finally went down.  Then we got up a little earlier than everyone else, simply because we hadn't really slept well...and went for a quick bike ride.  It was a gorgeous day!
We came back and made pancakes, which turned out to be a great way to re-introduce myself to my nieces daughter.  ;)  She really likes pancakes...  Then we spent most of the morning putting my mother-in-law's new tricycle together (and I forgot to take pictures!!  It was great, lol) and then spent the majority of the afternoon helping everyone blow up their water toys with our car air pump. I got sooo fried!  I can't believe it - I spent the entire day other than my quick bike ride, in THE SHADE!!  But no, I've got this almost purple sun burn around my neck.  That makes things interesting...sigh.
We ate dinner, sat around and talked and then I decided to try and sleep as I was soooo tired.  Not happening.  They talked till past 1:30...and then we had changed the spot where the tent was, which made my head kind of down...so I had to switch ends so I wouldn't be sleeping on my head all night.  It was crazy!!  Finally got to sleep...
We got up later than we meant to because we were so tired, and then got most everything packed up and took off to come home.
We had my nieces baptism!!  So we got home and changed clothes and dashed up there only a couple of minutes late... that went really well, she is such a doll!
Then we went back home, changed clothes and ran errands that needed to be run before the Bean Dip that night.  This is our annual Bean family gathering on what used to be GG Bean's bday.  This year, all the uncles weren't feeling up to coming, so none of their progeny showed up.  That didn't bother us, it was still fun and we had a great time playing a game of Jeopardy that my niece created related to the family.  Then we went swimming at the Farmington pool, which is why it's called the Bean Dip...get it??  lol
Then we left early because we were so tired - to come home and get things ready for Sunday as we were going back to Bear Lake to spend the day with everyone.  We ended up not getting to bed till after 11...sigh.  But it was the best nights sleep I've had in a LONG time.  ;)
Then we drove up a little later than we'd planned, but it was okay - they were still doing breakfast when we got up there, so we made ours and then we ran to church.  I tell you - they know how to prepare for large congregations!!  They had two sacrament tables!  And 24 priesthood holders helping pass!  It was the most organized thing I'd ever seen!
Then we went to meet everyone at the beach, where we were going to spend the rest of the afternoon.  We ended up driving all around the lake...which isn't a bad drive.  It's kind of pretty!  And ended up down at Rendezvous Beach.  It was windy, but fun.  We walked up the coast a little - it was pretty crowded.  What really kills me is the garbage people leave behind...  I mean, really??  It's like their brains take a vacation when they're on vacation and they don't think about what their doing.  We figured it would make a really good Eagle Scout project to install garbage cans on the beach and clean it up once a month during the summer.  I just saw online though, that they have an annual clean up day in September...so perhaps they're on it.
Anyway, as we were packing up to leave the beach a dust devil picked up and blew our umbrella and another groups umbrella and a lot of their stuff down the beach!!  It was crazy. I thought 'Oh man!' and ducked down, afraid we were going to get hit with them.
We went back, made dinner, which took longer than expected, which I could have done a post about and might still do - only no photos!!  sigh.  why do I have a camera??  which is another thing - my sister-in-law has an awesome zoom lens that she found in KSL.  I'm sooo jealous!!  It was amazing!  I want a zoom...sigh.
here's an example-

this is the sail boat from where we were sitting before I switched lenses

and this is after.  See how much closer I get???  My lens just doesn't get any closer!!
here's a shot of them on the jet ski -

this is from before the other lens...

and after.  So...this isn't the best example because it looks about the same, but I can tell you that the second one is farther out...lol
Anyway, so we hurried up and ate, finished packing and headed home.  We played a scripture game on the way home with walkie-talkies, which I need to remember for next family trip.  It was so much fun!  and it made the ride go much faster!
Anyway - so, we survived the crazy weekend and are now trying to put the house back in order from Sherie and family moving into their own house.  So- we are back down to 7!!!  Which feels much nicer...lol
insanity continues...
2 weeks till work starts back up....:(  but I'm glad to have a job!! Which has actually turned into full time this year, and will be quite the challenge...sigh.  Life is always about change, right??  Yep.

And on an ending side note - I am SOO thankful for air conditioning!!  ;)

It's Hot

I just thought I'd clear things up about the weather, you know?  In case you had any doubts, in case you lived in a nice northwestern location that is usually green year round...lol  Or perhaps south eastern..sigh.  But if you live in the rocky mountain area of the world, it's HOT.  It's summer, and I'm soooo ready for fall.

I also got hired on in a full time job yesterday!  I have mixed feelings about it.  They had a full time position where I work open up two years ago, but they 'forgot' I was part time and didn't even offer it to me.  It was okay, I wasn't really ready for a full time spot yet.  I'm not sure I am now - I still have a kid in school!  But it is his last year, and he can handle it if mom isn't there for the first 15 min after he gets home...I guess.  :(  And then my oldest son reminded me that when my youngest daughter was a senior, I was working at a part time job in Salt Lake that I got home after them.  I had totally forgotten that!!  It was one of the reasons I quit that job...

Oh well...life goes on.

I'm also a little frustrated with my body and with life in general.  I've been unable to loose any more weight since my initial wonderful loss of almost 100 pounds three years ago.  I've also gained half of it back!!!  And I eat healthy!  Okay...I do have chocolate now and again, but my biggest struggle has been excersising.  I have so many things going on that I have a hard time getting it in.  I end up doing some time on the recumbent bike at 11:30...pm...sigh.

And I am not sleeping well.  I know part of it is stress - remember the post about all the people living in our house???  (which actually should start getting better, as they are officially moving out today!! I'm going to miss my little granddaughter...:(  )  And then keeping on top of two teenagers..and fixing meals for everyone when we don't want to cook - oh well.  I know many people have MUCH more stress than I do, it just seems to make me blow up like a water balloon.  I just don't know what to do.

I might have to go back on veggie shakes for a while.

Anyway - got to get stuff done.  I've been painting - trying to get something done for the fair, and I'm still not happy with what I've come up with.  Might need to try painting today....not like I've got nothing else to do, lol.

Random question - why is it that the wind blowing makes it look cooler outside???  lol