March 7, 2010

Dear Family,

This week has been more quiet. Dad is still busy with bids and trying to get notice above all the companies that come in with lower bids but don’t give as nice of service. Most everyone is looking for a bargain. He has at least two jobs booked which is fantastic; that may take us through March since he tries to do so much of the work on his own!

Katie’s free trial membership to 24 hour Fitness expired last week so she has been doing a lot of running instead of going to the gym. She signed up for a marathon (half marathon) in Seattle in June if anyone wants to join her. She is still on the job hunting marathon and just about done with her online class. She signed up for an online networking site called Linked In to get her resume in front of more people. In order to see her full page, I had to sign up. It was kind of fun. Katie had me check a box that searched my email addresses for other people in Linked IN. Wow, I didn’t realize the far reaching affects of my email addresses. There are even marching band people still in there; I should do a spring clean up!

I have been busy with lots of Primary assignments this week; trying to visit each one of our 8-11 year olds in their home to talk about the Faith in God program. It is really training for their parents so they will realize that the Primary is here to ASSIST the parents to help their children reach their goals. I also am in charge of sharing time this month so that takes some extra preparation.

Since I was making cookie dough this week for my primary visits Eden Whisenant came over and discovered that goodies were to be had. (I took a cookie sheet with chocolate cookie dough balls to the children’s homes. When the cookies were done, that was our signal to be done with our visit and I reminded the child to regularly “chip away” at their Faith in God progress.) So, we had lots of “Eden visits” this week; she is such a sweetheart to have here.

Eden and I had the funniest conversation one day as she was telling me where her baby brother sometimes sleeps. She called it the “fix up” room. As I tried to understand what that could mean, knowing that Chris Whisenant is a carpenter, I envisioned it was where he kept his tools especially when she described it is where you fix holes. But, in the end I realized it was the sewing room when she said the room had a “fix it machine” and she said something about cloth! She is a very fun girl.

I had another nice institute class this week; a different teacher but sometimes a change is refreshing. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and agency. He had some interesting thoughts from a personal study that he had been doing. He worked in Washington DC during the Watergate era and knew Howard Baker personally. During the investigation, Howard Baker became famous for his two questions over and over again, which were, “What did the president know and when did he know it?” So, our teacher took those same questions when he did an in-depth study of Adam and the principle of agency. It was quite interesting. He came up with his own anachronism of thoughts:

L- Law based on the Lord’s commandments (2Nephi 2:26)

O-Opposition (2Nephi 2:11)

C-Freedom of choice (2Nephi 2:27)

K- Knowledge (2Nephi 2:26)

All these things are necessary for us to be held accountable in the exercise of our agency. In Alma 29:5 it explains that we can’t be held accountable if we didn’t have the above knowledge. I am so thankful for the knowledge of the gospel in my life.

Dad and I had a quiet but enjoyable anniversary this week. We didn’t take our usual trip this year; we figure Spain is a great celebration! We did give each other a gift of a nice dinner out, somewhere we would never go otherwise, Morton’s. They had a special that I saw online that was amazing; it was very nice to try something new.

With a few good days of weather, Dad moved my lilac tree to one of our new planters in the front. It was temporarily in the garden for too many years! It is going to be so pretty to look out the front windows and see it in bloom.

Dad received a text message this week that Nate rocked his GMAT exam. Dad was so excited for Nate; he had a wiggly voice as he told me. We didn't even know that Nate was taking the exam! Even though he received a great score, he decided he will take it again and this time he will study. Oh, how nice it would be to be able retain knowledge like that!

March is a big month ahead with all the birthdays ahead: Bryson, Klaire, Dad, Bill, Adrianne and Rebekah! Happy Birthday month all of you!

I love you, Mom

"See what you can do about bringing a little joy and happiness into others lives and create great and wonderful friendships to sustain and help you through life." Elder L. Tom Perry