encroaching upon 100! (95 posts)

Life in the fast lane..............!

really- i've had a bit more time to do things without elm fork and i've enjoyed it a bit, too.

so far- the time hasn't been so much for me. i've spent some time helping a friend of mine- michael (israel) finish up his business here as he is moving to north carolina this week.

things with his partners went south and to be honest- watching this has been an eye opener! i told the police officer that israeli's follow their own laws and seem to be choosy about ours. and i'm not even going into why i had to talk to a police officer- or the rest of this drama. lol.

i failed to write tay last week. i blame it on not feeling well and having a medicine head. i'd say: i'm going to do 'this' and write tay next. but then a new 'this' came into my head and i'm not sure where i put tay. it honestly made me sick...and this time not anything that a med can help with! additionally, my classes had their make-up days last week- the first falling on the day that tay and i exchange emails. i guess it was just too much- it happens! BUT you should see the make-up letter i sent him...it's forever long!!!

if you're not following tay's blog, he's doing awesome. he has several contacts that he's keeping in touch with along with progression of actual investigators. his heart, mind, soul, and spirit are all engaged in serving- i couldn't be more pleased with him. he is confessing a sadness- transfer time is coming up. he's been in the same companionship and member home since he arrived in his mission. his companion has been amazing and the family has been a blessing! so...i'm sure he'll have a heavy heart when he writes this coming tues. stop in and drop him a note (leave a comment) on his blog- he'd love to hear from you! :)

i went to see the family that tay told me about. my friend lindy came along and we enjoyed getting to meet them! we're looking forward to introducing them to the scout leadership along with the bishop next sunday. and, hopefully they will join lindy's family, mine, and the missionaries for dinner a week from monday.

speaking of the missionaries- em and i made cookies and took them all over last week- including the missionaries. i also put a big bag of valentine goodies together that i ended up with from being a teacher. the elders were thrilled! i then had signed up to feed them the following wed. it's been a week of service over here!

finally- em was ranked in school. she has a 4.0 and a 105.00 point average and out of (just shy of) 900 kids placed 97th. i'm so proud of her! that emily is a hard worker, self motivated, and extremely bright. all of that and a 97 tho...i can't imagine what has to be done to move up to number 1. she's taking pre AP in three classes...! lol...oh well, we're excited that she's navigating her freshman year so well!

this week i gained two photography jobs and i'm very excited about them...

and that is the end of post 95. have a great week y'all!

deepak

set up: my yoga instructor has the class in corpse pose (back down, lying flat, palms up) on our mats...listening to the music tape she has started. instead of hearing the normal- this yogi plays a thought- calling it our daily 'purpose'.

most of the time the thoughts are very pleasant and quite thought provoking in the best sense...but this time it is even more so.

a man's voice began by saying that we are part of a ecosystem web of life: the trees are my (our) lungs. the rivers are my (our) circulation. the earth is my (our) body and the air is my (our) breath. that this is wisdom...

it struck me as beautiful. i don't know how many times throughout my lifetime i have felt connected to the world in a deeper way than just feeling responsible and respectful. this thought voiced- even articulated what my soul has known all along.

so i googled it.

to be honest- i almost didn't write this post when i learned that deepak chopra was the man who this came from.

i associate him with the new age...2000 and beyond hippies.

but, i guess i'll fess up! i liked it and it is to his credit!

great things...

sometimes i feel that i really have to sift through my days to find good happenings.

this week has been that- even so, i feel gratitude.

saturday was my last day at elm fork. i could rattle off many reasons for this- but i would like to leave it with that simple statement.

sunday i went to church and was so uplifted by the meetings! we had a welcome home talk by kyle t*. what a great kid! he gave an outstanding talk and i really just couldn't help but look at him and think of my tay and feel such love for these young men who are giving their hearts daily to the Lord- regardless of how their hearts are being received by the people they seek. it's such a lesson to me- and a reminder to me that i can do better!

i then went on to teach my sunday school class. we had all of kyle t*'s cousins join in with kyle's sister in my class- which made it HUGE. additionally, we had a investigator come for her second week. it made for a challenge- especially teaching about the Holy Ghost.

thankfully, i felt guided in my approach and was able to bring their focus in to the Spirit. it felt successful, and was confirmed as i overheard my investigator (kadee) tell her missionaries that she had a great class. the timing was there, so i walked over and hugged her letting her know that i'm open to answering any questions she may have as i teach.

and, a fun thing too! all of those t* kids are distant relatives! we shared that together and the experience helped us all bond together.

i already love that class.

yesterday evening the adult singles had a dinner and fireside with our area 70 speaking, Elder Martino. i had the pleasure of sitting in on a talk before and very much enjoyed the company of my single friends followed by his inspiring talk.

tomorrow i look forward to hearing from tay. it's all i think about starting the sunday before. :)

i'm going to visit the family that he asked me to go see tomorrow, being that they have not contacted me. pray for a good outcome!

thank you to my friends and family... your love and support mean everything to me and our little family!

such a FUN thing!

tonight i received a phone call from a strange number- ringing in from california. i answered and was blown away to learn that a family from tay's mission had called me to talk about tay!

they had just had our elder and elder murley over to a lasagna dinner (per the boys request) and when it became time to go (they were supporting another companionships baptism tonight), bro. krause told the elders that if they wanted, he would call and talk to their families after they left for the baptism. :) :) :) :)

how fun is that?!?

what a sweet man bro krause was to think to do that. so- he mentioned (and i have to paraphrase because of my silly emotional memory) what a good elder tay was... how he could really see how tay would be flying after the awesome training he was getting from elder murley...what a great team they were...how awesome in general tay is, (and during the convo bro. krauses 15 year old daughter was being silly in the background)and that the boys worked hard and were impressive. he seemed to really enjoy our tay- and the family has had them over for dinner 3 times already. he also spoke of their tight ward, and how they really cared and looked out for their missionaries. the krause family has an elder in idaho, 5 months now.

it's just such good karma...and loving thy neighbor...!

i'm feeding our missionaries on the 18th of this month- and really looking forward to it!

okay- so i finally posted some pics to go with our 'big' ice storm. it doesn't look in the least bit dangerous to me. all my friends took their kids out to the malls and such... i mean, what do you think?

there were more accidents than they could count from this. oh well! the funniest part of all is that this was just last tues and wed. and then on fri we were back to 70's and enjoying gorgeous weather yesterday and today, too !!!!

a note to dad...it's never to late to stop in and leave a comment. i LOVE to hear from you!