Ponderize scripture

I am currently reading in the D&C. I wanted to find a scripture from my reading toay.

D&C 93:1

The prerequisites for Heaven. We have been told that to love His is to keep his commandments. I think all of these requirements indicate love for Him.

Sometimes I wonder how I will stand when I see Him. I think I will just puddle up and loose any degree of strength to stand, strength to speak, strength for anything.

I think of the tears running from my face and nose and think I will be a bit gross and unable to communicate. I worry about dignity, but what is dignity when you are in front of diety.

I am afraid to ask what lack I yet, and yet I know I need to. That has been running around in my head since Saturday. Although we are promised line upon line and not the whole thing all at once, I shouldn't be overwhelmed. But I am overwhelmed. I try and think of things to offer up during the sacrament. This is just the next level. What would He have me offer up. His choice not necessarily mine.

The promised reward is what I want. I then must be brave and take the step into the darkness - my darkness. The darkness I hide within myself and refuse to acknowledge or rather hope to ignore.

Weekend

This weekend we had to get the second car in the garage. We had a pass to park the second car out on the street, but it was only temporary and we were running out of time. We knew that it would be towed, our friends who live here have said that they have been towed before. Not a happy thought.

So we have a stack of plastic bins outside under a tarp. Craig has to park both cars because they have to be perfectly straight and super close to the wall. I get a bit freaked out by that. So that is his nightly chore.

So we have to decide what we are going to do when Josh is old enough to drive. The way things are here in Cali, there are no school busses. So I am needed to drive Boaz to and from school. Josh has early morning seminary so Josh gets a ride with a friend to seminary and Craig picks him them up and takes them to school. On non-seminary days, like today, we do both ways. Josh is in cross country and so after school I pick him up when they are done, notified by a phone call. It will be wonderful when Josh can take himself to and from school, but we will have no place for him to park. We have a year to figure that out. That is enough time. So for now we are trying to fit everything in.

I also started the process to get my CA drivers licence. While I was there I took the proof of insurance and registration to get the car registered. The lady told me at first that we owed over $3000.00 to register. I was schocked. She then said, "Oh, I didn't put in the tax." Then she said thirteen something. Totally confused I asked if it was thirteen dollars. She said no, One thousand three hundred something. I was totally not expecting a number that high. Maybe $200.00. We bought a new car in April. Our old cars were too big and wouldn't pass emitions for CA. Anyway California has a law that if you buy a car within a year of moving here, you have to pay the difference between the state taxes. So they deducted the taxes we paid in Idaho and charged us the remaining 3.5 %. I am still reeling from that. I drove to Craig's work and told him our new bill. I also told him that I knew God had picked us up and moved us here, but that I hated California. Even days later, I am still feeling resentment. I still have to get a smog check because the car was purchased outside of CA. I am worried about the cost of that. This is an expensive place to live. New expenses just seem to pop up unexpectedly.

Saturday and Sunday we watched General Conference. I love General Conference weekend. Years ago in an effort to encourage my boys to love General Conference weekend too, I began making cinnamon rolls. I felt ready to try out my kitchen. I wanted to make extra and give some to our lovely neighbor who took Boaz to school for me while Craig and I were in Hawaii. I tried a new recipe. The air here is warm and humid, really condusive to yeast rising. I got distracted.

My dough popped the lid and dripped onto the tile counter top. I haven't had yeast respond like that ever. Anyway a little clean up and I was on my way. I delivered the finished rolls to my neighbor and still have plenty for the family. A good deal. Because of the tile, I had to roll the dough out on a mat. That is interesting. I will get better at it I'm sure. And I ran out of flour, so I pulled out some home ground wheat flour. They are not as smooth as pure white flour, but still delicious.

General Conference was wonderful. I am calmer and have found some perspective. Craig has picked his scripture to ponderize. I still need to pick mine. I think this new way to look at scriptures will bless our family. Some points that I remember are the three new apostles. I am so looking forward to getting to know about them and adding to the love that I have been feeling for them, even before they were called. 

I have been remembering President Nelson's talk. Thinking about him crying on the living room floor after the third child died from the heart condition that he could not correct. That story is so raw and honest. And then how he lead into the importance of women.

I loved Elder Bednar's talk. His tribute to the men that I love too, although not in the same way. I obviously didn't get to work with them. To hear him remember those lovely men was touching and I cried through the whole talk. I am looking forward to studying it when it becomes available. Elder Bednar speaks to my soul.

President Monson touched my heart. He looked so strong at the start of his remarks. I remember him from when I was a child coloring in my coloring books still in elementary school. His stories and his voice have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I feel - I am not sure what I feel. I have noticed he is getting weaker. I don't want to mourn what has not happened yet, but my heart feels sadness and loss. 

Just a few impressions from an inspiring weekend. I am fed. I need to be better. I can go forward and try again.

Perks

One of the perks of the new job was Hawaii. Craig has a group of doctors in Hawaii that he has to visit three times a year.

This last weekend, he and I went on the first trip. He prepared for his meeting and presentation. He has spent hours on the phone listening to what they wanted and needed. He has reworked several processes and corrected errors. But still the first time meeting annoied and unsatisfied people is a bit daunting. But all his hard work paid off. The presentation was a success and he met the doctors who are impressed with his hard work and the results. That was the main part of the trip.

The side lights. The ocean on Maui is maravelous. The water was calm and warm. I stayed in too long the first day and burned. I thought I had applied a liberal amount of sun screen, but I didn't reapply and  I lingered in the wonderful water. That ment that I was grounded for the rest of the stay. No more water and sun. So I took some pictures.

Fields of sugar cane line the highway from the resort to the town.

The resort had orchids all over the place. Yellow, purple and pink splashes of color climbing to the sun.

A lovely lilly pond.

Koi in most every water feature.

Plumeria sweetening the air and landscape.

These little lizards or geckos were everywhere. Craig and I saw them dash in and out of the hedge between the beach and the pools. They have a little red/orange throat patch they display when defending their territory. The smallest one I saw was about as big as Craig's thumb nail. One was on the wall in the hall leading to our room. I saw them dash about everywhere I went. I think they are charming.

An egret hunting my charming friends. A smallish bird, maybe up to my knee. He would move his neck a bit like a cobra. I'm not sure if that was to confuse the little geckos or hypotyse them. Then with a rapid strick with his beak snatch them up. He walked up and down the little hedge and even walked on the top of the foliage as he hunted his dinner. I found him charming also. I was sad to see him fly away.

These little purple orchids were left on the robes, in the bathroom on the soap dish, on the table with the roomservice menu and resort info. They stayed fresh and lovely for our entire stay.

I didn't swim around the rocks, but they added interest. The black lava reminded people of how the islands came to be.

The view from the elevators. Hotels in Hawaii are interesting to me. There are no doors into the hotel. People just walk into the open halls and find themselves in an outdoor lobby. Of course there are doors to the rooms, but the halls and public areas are half outside. There are no screens on the windows. We walked to a small mall and had lunch on our last day. Craig and I laughed to our selves as we watched birds discover an empty table and the bounty left there by the retreating customers. It took a few minutes for the staff to notice the birds eating off the table. They chased them away, but the birds merely retreated to the aisles where they looked for crumbs.

My amazing mother-in-law came and stayed with the boys. Craig and I want to take the boys sometime. They would love the ocean and the critters. We'll just have to save up for the airfare.

We were humbled by the beauty we were able to enjoy. Truely God is an artist.

Blessing

It is raining! It's been raining for several hours. 

I love it!

A great picture

We have survived two weeks of school, one week of early morning seminary and cross country and the first meet. We are all adjusting to an early morning.

Craig snapped this picture last night. We were listening to the BYU game.

Temple trip

We are closer to the temple here in California than we were in Idaho. A fact that blows my mind a bit. Craig and I planned date night and headed to the Newport Beach Temple. This temple requires a reservation. So I learned how to call and make a reservation for our session. The 6:30 session was already full so I chose the 8:00. 

It was a good thing I chose the later one. Josh had a timed trial to make the cross country team. I had thought it would be right after school, but it ended up being at 5:00. Craig and I loved watching him run and make the team, but we also had a bit of extra anxiety about making it to the temple on time.

No worries though, we were actually an hour early.

It is a beautiful temple. I love the pink stone and the wonderful arches. After more than 20 years attending, I am still learning deeper ways to worship at the temple.

Catch up

Wow! A lot has happened since leaving the farm. I have been without wi-fi and internet, so I was discouraged from writing. Not really a good excuse.

Brenda took me to Green Bay and we drove around Lambeau Field. I am not a Green Bay fan, per se, but it was rather thrilling to drive around the famous stadium. Then we set off in search of Lake Michigan. Green Bay is a shipping town tucked in the corner of Green Bay off of Lake Michigan. A huge, long bay that is a like a long thumb to the Great Lake.

With the Maps app on my phone we headed toward the Lake. We found a green area right on the Lake, but the Lake was hiding and we couldn't find the path that went down to the shore. So we returned to the truck and tried the other side. We crossed got out of the industrial area, crossed the bridge and headed toward the residential area. We found a little park that had lake access.

Looking out toward the bay.

My feet in Lake Michigan. Brenda and I gathered a few rocks. I found some lovely pink granite and brought them (rocks) home. The water was surprisingly warm. It was nice to sit and be.

We headed to the airport, once again using the Maps ap on my phone. Arriving there I found out my flight was delayed an hour. That made me nervous because I only had 1 hour and 20 minutes to change planes in Minniapolis/St Paul. I arranged with the gate agent an alternate route into Las Vegas if I missed my connection to Santa Ana. Craig and the boys were headed to Idaho to close out the house in Blackfoot. I would have three hours to make that and I felt better.

Finally the plane came in and I had to say good bye to Brenda. It was hard to leave her. I miss her tons, and I know that she needed my help. Her farm is lovely, but so much work.

I  boarded the plane, and we sat on the runway. A thunder storm had decided to sit on top of Minni. I think we waited for close to an hour. All hope for my connection to Santa Ana evaporated and I started to worry about making the connection to Las Vegas. Craig decided to get on the road so he would be able to meet me. We took off with a hope of hitting a break in the storm that ranged from Canada to Kansas, and we diverted to Eau Clare and sat for over an hour. My connection to Las Vegas took off without me. Craig was on the road and I still was trying to get to Minniapolis.

I think we were the last plane that made it into Minniapolis before they closed the airport for the night. It took over an hour to get the voucher for the hotel and catch the shuttle with the over 30 people waiting for the 10 passenger shuttle. We crowded into the second shuttle. I met people trying to get home to London, Norway, Washington State and Las Vegas. I was just trying to get home to my husband and boys.

I got up at 4:20 the next morning and caught the 5:00 shuttle to the airport. Eaves dropping on the flight crew that deplaned at our gate, I heard mention of mechanical problems. We changed gates twice. The first change was just to the next gate. The second change was to a different concourse. Honestly almost a mile away. That plane had to go through the morning security check and we were over an hour late getting off the ground. 

Meanwhile, Craig had got a hotel room in Vegas for the boys and ended up trying to sleep in the car with the cat. It was over 80 degrees in Vegas at night and the cat was nervous and cried all night long. Our poor Miss Mayo has traveled back and forth from California to Idaho three times and she doesn't really like it, but I didn't know what else to do for her.

I arrived in Vegas about 9 or 10 am and we immediatly got on the road for Blackfoot. We drove all day Sunday. We don't like to drive on Sunday, but we were up against a rather harsh timeline.

Not a fabulous picture. But we were happy to be together.

Monday and Tuesday we packed up the UHaul van. Wednesday we finished the straggling stuff and Craig got on the road back to California. Josh had plans with his posse. Boaz and I hung out. Huge thanks to good friends that feed us dinners those last two days while all our stuff was gone. We camped in the emply house and got on the road Friday morning.

Boaz loaded up with the camp chairs to return to the Bishop. We will miss them, they were great neighbors.

We stopped in SLC for breakfast with my mom and headed to Thanksgiving Point. There is a glass shop there that gives tours to curious people. I was amazed at the talent displayed in every nook and crany of that shop. They have done windows for about 40 LDS temples. Our lovely guide showed us the design progression in the approval process.  They are also in the middle of creating a huge 80(?) panel window for UVU featuring the history of the world. They had the first 12 panels up on the wall. Literally stunning. I will have to be sure to check out he finished project at the school and stop in for a visit each time we pass.

Back on the road headed for St Geoge over night at my brother's house. He wasn't there. He was out on one of the fires that is burning up Idaho, Oregon and Washington. We stayed with my cute sister-in-law and her boys. Once again we delivered some toys my boys had out grown and her boys reveled in the bliss of new toys.

Loving the new blocks.

Ba-ku-gan cards are way fun. Kade is looking through the case for his favorite two before Ben comes home from his friend's house. Carter is learning about the cards.

On the road again at 8 the next morning headed to our new life.

While we lingered in Idaho, Craig unpacked the truck and got the basics set up in our new home. This past week and a half we have unpacked a few boxes, gotten the boys registered for school, found a few cleaning supplies, and started school. Two days we got the wi-fi hooked up. The garage is still full of boxes. This weekend we will try and migrate some of them into the house so we can get the car in the garage. Craig has been back at work. I have been cleaning out all the stuff from the apartment over in Orange. We finally have everything in one location. Now we just have to get it organized and moved in.

We have missed our nephew's wedding today up in SLC. I saw some lovely pictures on Facebook. We so wish we could have been part of the wedding party.

Today Craig is going to sit around in the apartment in Orange waiting for the people to pick up the furnature he rented. I will be taking Josh to a timed trial to see if he can make the cross country team. Craig and I will attend the Newport Beach LDS Temple for the first time together. 

It is time to settle into our new life as Californians. I pray my boys will find good friends and that they will come to love this new home of ours.