Southern Living

I never thought I would live in the South.

Those palm trees still look surreal to me. Am I on vacation? I ask myself that question often.

 We see wildlife all the time. Even when I take my trash out, I'll see ducks and other birds waddling in front of the path, or even an eagle soaring over my head.

I love how close to the water we are and the beautiful scenery we can enjoy on a regular basis.

We try to go on hikes as often as we can.

And we can get pretty close to the animals we find.

Sometimes those animals are too close for comfort, like this little guy hanging out on our front door. This is not an isolated occasion.

 I love the trees we have down here, with the hanging moss.

AND THE BEACH! 

This however, is something I never, ever thought I would see in all my days. 

This, I don't love. 

It did make us laugh pretty hard, though.

Ahhhh....living in the South...

I did not fall off the face of the earth...

Periodically, throughout the last year I've thought about my sad little blog. And then I'd think of something else and move on.

Today I thought I'd come on by, see the debris of my abandoned blog and try to clean up this place. Hopefully it is more inviting (to me and my typing fingers).

One whole year has gone by since I last posted. More than a year. Where did time go?!

Time to move forward now.
Time to document more.
I've emerged back to my blogging days.
I hope.
Heh.

Delve Right In

I have been on a Scripture Marking Spree!

I found some amazing scripture marking ideas from The Red Headed Hostess. AMAZING! And I love personalizing my scriptures. They are full of personal notes and comments about things in my personal life. I hardly ever let anyone use my scriptures, because they have so many personal insights in them.

When I first got my Quad (a set of Scriptures with all 4 Books of Scripture in one book: The Bible, The Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price) I decided that I would mark every reference from every hymn in the Hymnal in my scriptures. It was very enlightening to see how these scriptures could cross-reference with hymns. Hymns are a wonderful way to accompany your scripture study.

So now I found these "Page Titles" to add to the Book of Mormon. Basically, every page has a title that you write in to your scriptures. This way, you always know what's happening on a particular page and it can help you find scriptures quickly and read in context if you are just randomly selecting a page to read. I thought it was a great idea. I have been staying up late every night this week working on this project.

My workspace

It has really strengthened my testimony of the Power of the Book of Mormon. It's truths are so apparent, even if you are just summarizing events (or pages, in this case). You can feel the Spirit as you read, and write these notes. It has been particularly uplifting to go through the whole story of the Book of Mormon all at once. I was able to make connections and insights that weren't so obvious to me before.

I encourage you to make your scriptures your own, and make notes in the margins that will help you remember the inspirations you receive as you read. This way we will truly "liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning." 1 Nephi 19:23

*Drop me a line if you'd like me to send you a free, non-committal copy of the Book of Mormon.

Reading Every day

When I was expecting our first child, I was going through all of the "New Mommy" stages, where you begin to evaluate every single aspect of your life to make sure that you will be the best mother possible. I looked at the ordinary: child safety, proper bedding and vehicle restraints, etc. Then I began looking into the more personal and spiritual. How will I teach this child everything he needs to know so he can live a happy and good life?! So, I evaluated the basics.

We were good people, from good families that went to church and lived good lives. We magnified our church assignments and always tried to take the high road. But we weren't perfect. There were things that needed improving and one of those things was reading the scriptures every day. This needed to change.

So the hubs and I started reading at least one chapter of the Book of Mormon every day. We would read, and discuss what we learned. Every night I would have something new to ponder about and every night I felt strengthened by the Spirit that comes into your life when you read the scriptures. The Book of Mormon teaches you how to be a better parent. All throughout the book you read about how someone is teaching their child how to be better; how to follow the Savior; how to be closer to God. The Book of Mormon teaches what Christ taught here on earth. It expands on what we learn from His teachings in the Bible.

Reading this book intensely changed our lives. We were happier, we were more sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we were closer to one another and we felt it's power. We went through the book almost twice before our little one arrived. We felt so strengthened, and I'm so grateful we began this endeavor to read every day.

This is me.

I have not been very open to my specific beliefs on my blog before, for fear of ridicule or judgement. But this is who I am. My religion is not just my church, it's not just something I believe or follow; but rather it is who I am. Everything in my life is based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't intend to make this a religious blog, or anything like that; but I do feel that I need to devote some time to sharing what I believe. This month I am participating in a month long forum about the Book of Mormon. This book is another testament of Jesus Christ. It backs up the Bible and teaches about Christ coming to the Americas. I will be posting about this book all month long. I've given it a lot of thought, and I know I need to do this. If you don't care to know about what I think on this subject, then you don't have to read.

If you'd like to know about what other people think of this sacred book, then you can visit my friend Jocelyn's blog where she is spear-heading this forum. If you would like a copy of this book, let me know and I will mail you one, no charge, no obligation. I just ask that you read it. The Book of Mormon contains beautiful truths and teachings of Christ, and I don't know where my life would be without it.

Blessings never cease

Our baby had to be put to sleep on Saturday. It was gut wrenching. It was one of the most difficult moments of my life, if not the most. Smoochie was a few days short of being 15 years old. I got her from my parents the day I got back from my first Youth Conference. I was a freshman in High School. She brought much joy into my life, and into the lives of those around me. I remember the first time I was away from her. I had just moved to Indiana, and I would be away from her for about 5 months, until Ben and I would get married. I cried most nights because I missed her so much. I was so happy when we brought her back to Indiana with us after our honeymoon.

She helped me get through a lot of hard times in my life. She was there, comforting me, when I had such a hard time getting pregnant. She wanted to play when I was sad and she loved to cuddle in bed with Ben. She loved to play catch! Her favorite treats were fruit; she loved mango, and bananas and she would beg to no end for some apple. She would also bark and bark and bark at you if you were having popcorn. She loved popcorn! Her loss for me has been pretty close to unbearable. I have cried to the point where my head is pounding and my eyes are swollen. This is a pain and emptiness I would not wish on my worst enemy.

Smoochie was very sick, with an infection in her uterus, a severe heart murmur and some trouble with breathing. She had a very long, and good life. I am blessed to have had her in my life, to have shared her with my husband Ben, and to have her be such a big part in the lives of my children. I love her forever, and forever she will be my Baby Bear.

As I searched the scriptures for comfort the night she passed on, I came across some verses in D&C section 77. It talked about the eternal felicity of animals after they've gone. I was so humbled at the fact that Heavenly Father helped me find specific comfort. In a world where there are bigger problems and more awful trials, He cared enough to lead me to read something that was specific to my pain. He knows and loves me; He listens to and answers my prayers. I will see my Smoochie Bear again. And I will continue to rejoice at the love and the blessings that are poured into my life by a Father whose love and care for me is Everlasting, despite the pain or trial I may experience. We are never alone.

ZOORIFFIC!

We went to the zoo this weekend. We LOVE our zoo! It's one of the best we've been to. We are enjoying our yearly membership. So this weekend we decided on a whim to go to the zoo for a couple of hours. It was crazy hot, but we had a great time. The boys each got a fun little monkey at the end of the trip. They both love monkeys!

This is one of my most favorite things about Florida. The beautiful Palm trees ! Every time I look at them it feels so surreal that we're here.

Ben was hurrying to the car-it was so hot and we were ready to cool down!

The zoo also has botanical gardens inside. The greenery in this zoo is just amazing! They have so many trees and flowers, and lots of pretty things to smell and look at! So I took pictures of some pretty flowers to use as desktops.

BAMBOO!

They were gorgeous to look at and smelled good too!

This was one of my favorite pictures of the trip.

Here is the dock at one end of the zoo.

And the view off to one side of the dock.

Here the boys are listening to some live music. It was Earth Day at the zoo, so they had live music and some booths around the zoo from different organizations promoting "Green" living and things of the sort.

They're so cool. :-P

We got to pet goats,

and even brush their fur. The boys REALLY enjoyed this!

Because of the Earth Day celebrations, they also had this fun inflatable slide. This thing was huge! Ben had fun, but he said it was scary.

Ezra loved it. He tumbled at the very end of his sliding down and planted himself face first at the bottom.

Ben, the Daddy, went on it with the boys and he loved it, too. I had a turn myself, with Ezra (Ben didn't want to go on it again) and I squealed on the way down! That slide was way tall and waaay steep! But it was a blast!

There was a booth with Magnolia Tree Saplings. The boys got to plant one each and take it home.

They had a good time doing this. Ben did a great job putting dirt in his pot, but Ezra seemed to think it was yucky. They get into the dirt when you don't want them to, but when you want them to, they don't want to. Boys! Gotta love'em!

This is the best picture we got of the carousel ride. Ezra is looking away and I'm trying to peer over the moving alligator Benny was on. That carousel was PACKED!

Isn't this flower beautiful? It looks much bigger than it really was.

And this picture looks 10 times better than I thought it would.

Flamingos! They were fun to watch.

We had a great time at the zoo. They boys quickly asked when we were coming back. We'll be back very soon.