Finer 'n frog hair!

I really enjoy reading everyone else's blogs - Thanks for sharing!

We had a productive weekend. I spent most of Saturday organizing and cleaning up the basement. I took a brief time-out after hitting my head on a metal bar. I found out it was bleeding after I walked upstairs and showed Roger :( He thought maybe it needed a stitch or two, but we opted for liquid band-aid goop instead and it seems to be healing fine. I had him take a photo to post on the blog, but it's not very pretty so I'll leave it to your imaginations.

Yesterday Roger attended our ward for the first time in many months. It was very nice to be able to have him there. We decided to go in one car so we could spend even more time together and because he thought he'd be done by 1:15 (only 1 1/4 hours after our meetings ended.) Well, when we actually left at 4:15 I was still happy with the decision to ride together, but I don't think I'll make the same decision in the near future. We'll see...

Anson & Maureen, our home teacher and his wife came to visit shortly after we got home and by the time we got around to dinner it was already dark. The weather was perfect so we decided to eat out on the deck anyway. As I sat down, I saw something on the patio table right next to my plate and thought it was a piece of broccoli. I tried to pick it up and was shocked when it resisted. It wasn't broccoli - it was a tiny frog!!!!!!! I was freaked out and after making several strange, shocked sounds, ran inside to wash my hands, leaving Dad to take care of the frog. How in the world did a teeny tiny frog make it up our deck?!

On a much brighter note, tomorrow we are going to the temple with a widowed sister from England whom Dad home teaches. I get to be her escort and afterward Dad is going to be the proxy for her husband. What a treat!

Some quotes from Philmont that are inspiring me this Monday morning:

"The best way to get what you're looking for is to slow down and allow yourself to find it."

"Be good, take care of yourselves... and don't leave the path..." - Gandalf & Sis. Dahlquist

"Let us be silent that we may hear the whisper of God." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hope this is the start of a great week for all of you!

Plimsoll Marks

I just finished reading a book recommended by Megan - The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. It's a children's chapter book but appeals to all ages. It's about words and numbers; very cleverly written and a lot of fun. It would be fun family reading too. I picked up The Host as a book on CD from the library and will start listening to it when I run errands later today. It's for our book club group but I just realized I'll be working at temple when they meet.

As I was unpacking and putting things away yesterday I came across some of my notes from Philmont. On one page I read this excerpt from a talk Elder Holland gave in a BYU Devotional in Feb 2000 about love and marriage:

"No serious courtship or engagement or marriage is worth the name if we do not fully invest all that we have in it and in so doing trust ourselves totally to the one we love. You cannot succeed in love if you keep one foot out on the bank for safety's sake. The very nature of the endeavor requires that you hold on to each other as tightly as you can and jump in the pool together. In that spirit, and in the spirit of Mormon's plea for pure love, I want to impress upon you the vulnerability and delicacy of your partner's future as it is placed in your hands for safekeeping--male and female, it works both ways.

...the prophets tell us that true love "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7). Once again that is ultimately a description of Christ's love--He is the great example of one who bore and believed and hoped and endured. We are invited to do the same in our courtship and in our marriage to the best of our ability. Bear up and be strong. Be hopeful and believing. Some things in life we have little or no control over. These have to be endured. Some disappointments have to be lived with in love and in marriage. These are not things anyone wants in life, but sometimes they come. And when they come, we have to bear them; we have to believe; we have to hope for an end to such sorrows and difficulty; we have to endure until things come right in the end.

One of the great purposes of true love is to help each other in these times. No one ought to have to face such trials alone. We can endure almost anything if we have someone at our side who truly loves us, who is easing the burden and lightening the load. In this regard, a friend from our BYU faculty, Professor Brent Barlow, told me some years ago about Plimsoll marks.

As a youth in England, Samuel Plimsoll was fascinated with watching ships load and unload their cargoes. He soon observed that, regardless of the cargo space available, each ship had its maximum capacity. If a ship exceeded its limit, it would likely sink at sea. In 1868 Plimsoll entered Parliament and passed a merchant shipping act that, among other things, called for making calculations of how much a ship could carry. As a result, lines were drawn on the hull of each ship in England. As the cargo was loaded, the freighter would sink lower and lower into the water. When the water level on the side of the ship reached the Plimsoll mark, the ship was considered loaded to capacity, regardless of how much space remained. As a result, British deaths at sea were greatly reduced.

Like ships, people have differing capacities at different times and even different days in their lives. In our relationships we need to establish our own Plimsoll marks and help identify them in the lives of those we love. Together we need to monitor the load levels and be helpful in shedding or at least readjusting some cargo if we see our sweetheart is sinking. Then, when the ship of love is stabilized, we can evaluate long-term what has to continue, what can be put off until another time, and what can be put off permanently. Friends, sweethearts, and spouses need to be able to monitor each other's stress and recognize the different tides and seasons of life. We owe it to each other to declare some limits and then help jettison some things if emotional health and the strength of loving relationships are at risk. Remember, pure love "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things," and helps loved ones do the same."

Isn't that powerful?! I am grateful to be married to someone who helps me recognize my capacity at varying times, and who appreciates me. Thanks, Roger. I love you. You can read the whole talk at

http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=1618

Thanks for the memories!

Well, I finally did it - At your request, I started a blog. Thanks for all the encouragement and offers to help. As you can see, I am only doing the basics for now, so I am open for lots of advice and guidance. But not yet, as I am facing piles of bills, laundry, and phone calls today. I want to use our family web site more and this is a way to do that. I'm undecided about whether to leave this open to anyone or have it by invitation only and would appreciate hearing your opinions.

We have lots and lots of photos and video from the trip, so I'll see if I can figure out how to add those in a few days. If not, I'll be begging for your help.

We went to bed at 10 last night and woke up for the first time at 8 this morning. If Dad didn't have to go to work, I think we'd have rolled over and gone back to sleep. Our flight home started at midnight and ended at 9:30 after which I got to play with Cheryl and kids, shop in Danbury, and then visit with Ann Rawlings as she drove me home. Dad got to drive back to NY, work half a day and then mow the hayfield that is once again our lawn. I'm not sure how he did that. After work tonight he has stake meetings and will probably drive home around 11. It's a good thing we're so young!

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful visits along the way. We're the only family members who got to see everyone since our trip began and ended at the Roper's, so we are the luckiest of all. The only thing we'd change is to spend more time with each of your families and all together. Thanks for all you did to make us feel loved and comfortable.

Well, I'm going to do my gospel study and then start on those piles. I love you all!