What if...

my Dad did not like basketball so much? Let's see...

He wouldn't have gone to play with the guys at church some years ago when he was a teenager.

If He hadn't gone to play, He wouldn't have made friends with the people there.

If He hadn't made friends with the people there, He probably wouldn't have been so willing to hear the missionaries.

If He hadn't heard the missionaries, He wouldn't have been baptized.

If He hadn't been baptized, His wouldn't family wouldn't have become active in church.

If He hadn't been baptized, He wouldn't have served a mission.

If He hadn't served a mission, He wouldn't have gone to a certain singles ward.

If He hadn't gone to that singles ward, He wouldn't have met my Mom.

If He hadn't met my Mom, He wouldn't have had Me and Noah,

and Noah and I wouldn't be here today.

Since my Dad's family have become active in church, they have adopted four kids, one of which is now serving a mission. My Grandma is actively engaged in family history, and the names are sent to temples to have baptism's, sealings, and endowments performed.

Noah and I were born in the church, and are preparing to serve missions.

My Dad has heard back from some of the people he taught on his mission, and they are going strong!

And it started with church basketball.

P.S. Christmas post coming soon! I'm just trying to find the camera!

Emily Needs...

I heard about this from a friend.

What you do, is you google "(your name here) needs" and then write the first ten results. Here are mine.

1. Emily needs help deciding how to cut her hair.

2. Emily needs assistance with dressing, as well as structure and monitoring for her activities.

3. Emily needs to be told "No, there are certain things that are just NOT allowed".

4. Emily needs is on facebook.

5. Emily needs to get her tortillas.

6. Emily needs Bernard's watch!

7. Emily needs prayers.

8. Emily needs a share in Liverpool.

9. Emily needs a middle name.

10. Emily needs a Naomi.

P.S. Pops left this morning. We'll miss him. He's headed for Phoenix Arizona, 70` weather, Uncle Dave and Aunt Erin and their kids.

No ice cream? That's okay.

Tonight there was a New Years dance. It was a blast. I danced almost every dance and Noah made up for the dances he didn't dance with the way he danced the ones he did. He was never wanting for a partner. We got in about 1:30 to find that Mom was/is sick. She hasn't been feeling very good lately, and now a fever has set in. If you can, can you please remember her in your prayers?

**********

With the new year here at last, it's giving me a chance to start over fresh. Or maybe to finish things up. Maybe something in between; starting to finish. Finishing to start.

I heard once (okay, more than once) that "each day is fresh,with no mistakes in it" but a new year is different. You measure long-term goals, and size up possible opportunities. Or maybe that's just me.

With the new year, I've decided to do a few things differently. These are mostly just s few things to keep in mind as I'm going about the day.

I would like to be kinder, and remember that the world is most definitely not going to end because of no ice cream, or because I am late. I would like to be more educationally oriented. I would like to read the scriptures every day. I would like to learn to laugh at my struggles, and look at them from a "five years down the line" perspective. I would like to listen. I would like to remember.

I am going to update this with all of the Christmas posts that I never posted. It will just come a little bit later.

I hope that your new year (it's new, so it doesn't have any spots on it. It's squeaky clean) is filled lots of lovely skies and lovely ideas. Have a wonderful 2010!

P.S. Pops is still here!! We are so glad to have him here for so long!

29`! woo-hoo

Yes, it's 29`, expecting 24` tonight. The snow started this afternoon and hasn't stopped since. We're going to have a white Christmas!!! (for the first time I have ever lived here!) (also, to clarify from the last post, the snow stayed for 1/2 and hour, not snowed for half an hour).

XD

P.S. Pop's came to Texas yesterday! He's going to be here for Christmas and possibly for the New Year. We don't know yet. We're just glad to have him here for the moment.

Let it Snow!!

Yes, you heard me right; it snowed!

"What? In Texas? But it was just 74` the other day!"

Yep! And today (actually this happened on the 2nd) we got good, solid, white, wet, snow!

We got a good solid 1/2 inch for a good solid 1/2 hour! I think it's an omen for this December. =)

Recap of more than a MONTH

I know I haven't kept this updated (Uncle Bob!) so now I'm updating it.

October 6th: Noah turned 16!! AAAAHH!!

He celebrated his birthday in the surprise fashion and was flown to Orlando Florida for a weekend full of adventure, wonder, and intrigue. The main event was the DEW tour finals (which is kind of like the X-games, except it tours the country) but they also went to other places like The Hard Rock Cafe and theElement store. The Hard Rock was cool (from what I heard) because there was so much memorabilia (like R.E.M's jeans, and Elvis's suit, and John Lennon's piano!) in the open, and because they were given a special tour of the Cafe which included seeing the Lennon room (apparently they don't show that to a lot of people) and the "fun room" that contains memorabilia/props that's too awkward or large to display downstairs, but too cool to just give up, so they store it up there. One of the cool things about the fun room was that you were allowed to touch everything. So Noah and Mom touched the yellow bike from Yellow Submarine, and the throne that was in The King and I, and Mick Jaggers guitar, and other mind-blowing items. Not to mention a lot of signatures, because the fun room is were groups hang out before a performance in the Hard Rock theatre, and it became tradition to write your name on the wall. Noah liked his surprise. A lot. When he got back he told us about all of the insane stunts that the athletes (are they athletes?) at the DEW tour performed; using wonderous skater-lingo all the while. For about 3 days after they got back they would start each sentence with "Dude!". That's what 500 skaters for 3 days will do to you. =) It's worn off now.

October 24th: Homecoming! Noah is a 16-year old now, so he invited his "good friend" Courtney, and they doubled up with Noah's friend Jacob and his date Nina. They're so cute.

The group.

Nina's older brother Jordan standing as a warning for Jacob with his harpoon gun.
Noah: always prepared

"How you doin?
(Please note the matching corsage and button hole pin. Courtesy of Mom, she's amazing)

After dinner the boys led the girls to a candle-lit dessert awaiting them in a nearby park. There were candles lighting the path down to the dessert, and we had a little girl in the ward dress up and throw rose petals as she led them down the path. She loved doing that, and Nina and Courtney (actually, the little girls name was Courtney too) thought it was adorable. Very romantic.

(sorry about the under-line. Again. I don't know how that gets here, so I don't know how to remove it.)

October 30th: Halloween! (I'm still coming off of my sugar-rush)

Noah went off with some buddies to explore haunted-houses, but we all went to the trunk-or-treat at the church. Noah went to his friends building to do their trunk-or-treat, but we all did one. There were some really great costumes this year. I love being the Nursery leaders daughter. Here are some photographs from the event (my favorite costume I didn't take a picture of: a kid said that he was a werewolf, and it wasn't a full moon. Very clever.):

Soooo-oo mucchh suugaarrr ->

"This never happened."

After that we went home and enjoyed Frankenstien until the wee hours of the morning. It was nice while it lasted. =)

November 25: The Gibersons (Sis. Gib, Katie, Tana, Duncan, and Thad) came over

(From left to right: Me, Tana, Katie)

and then I became ill. They left early so as not to catch whatever was causing my 102` fever. I saw a doctor on the 25th and they diagnosed me with either sever Bronchitis, or early pneumonia. I stayed sick all through..

November 26: Thanksgiving! The time when everyone comes together to remember all of their blessings. Specifically the blessing of sustenance. We had a small (as small as Thanksgiving can get) Thanksgiving dinner at home (so as not to infect everyone else) with a 8 pound turkey (compared to Aunt Lorie's beast of 22 pounds), and three pumpkin pies. =) We were eating leftovers all weekend long. Leftovers are the best.

I'm grateful for this holiday, and the time it gives us to sit down and remember how blessed we really are.

December 1: I hunkered down and posted more than a months worth of events! That's worth remembering. I was deemed completely whole yesterday so now I can go back to Seminary! =)

Now it's December and we're all busy with Christmas arrangements and holiday joviality! Tis the season.

Ignorance is bliss....

... in a few rare cases. One such case just happened to happen today;

My mom and I went away for the weekend for Girls camp, so the boys took full advantage of that and did all of the manly things that we never let them get away with (i.e. eat meat-only breakfast's, lunches, and dinner's & making knifes with buddies until the wee hours of the morning) and when we got back, we found to our horror, no more ice cream!
So I was overjoyed when I found a large bowl of vanilla ice cream in the freezer. I discreetly motioned to my mom and we made a break for it later that night when the boys weren't home. It was delicious. Especially with some brownie mixed in. We ate some of it while watching Pride and Prejudice last night, and the plan was to finish it off this morning (breakfast of champions right?). While we were obliviously munching away, Noah very suddenly walked in the room. He didn't seem very fazed that we were eating his ice cream. Little did we know that we weren't eating his ice cream at all! It was our good friend Bert's ice cream, who is a very energetic eater (lets not be gross, shall we?). He had a very selective memory until we had eaten almost all of it, and then,
"whoa! that's Bert's ice cream!"
Thank you. =)

General Conference was so goood this year!