Time Out For Women

Last weekend some friends and I went to Las Vegas for Time Out for Women. We had such a fun time Friday night after the first event. We went to Caesar's Palace and walked around the shops, then down to a yummy ice cream place called Serendipity 3. We had no idea how huge the ice cream was going to be. Sandra and I ordered one to share, and Katie ordered one. We could have all shared one and still not finished it. That was dinner. I had a huge sugar rush after that!! Saturday night we went to Benihana's for dinner with one of Sandra's friends. We met people there that made it an interesting night. Have you ever played the 6 degrees game? Well, we all had connections on so many levels it was crazy. Sandra and her friend Krissy knew the same people as the chef and the lady in the picture below. Her husband was raised Mormon, his aunt works at the MTC, she grew up in SV and went to MV, and her husbands' parents live a mile away from Katie's parents in a po-dunk town in Arkansas. The guy sitting next to them had met Sandra at her previous job. How random can you get???? It made for interesting conversation, to say the least.My favorite speakers were Ardath Kapp, Mariama Kallon, John Bytheway and Kris Belcher. Their stories were amazing and it made me so appreciative of the life I've lead and made my problems all seem so insignificant. Mariama's story, especially. My favorite quote that she said about wondering why she never married or had children was that "we all can't have everything". I guess you can have a different perspective when you have seen your family tortured and just be glad you escaped and live a wonderful life in this country. So many of us take that for granted daily.
I will always treasure the time I had on my "time out" and am thankful that Katie invited me to tag along.

23 years....

Wow, 23 years ago today I married my best friend. I can hardly believe it that it's been that long. I think I love Jamey more today than the day I married him... hard to believe but it is true.
23 things I love about him (in no particular order)....

1. He treats me like his queen.
2. He is the most generous person I know.
3. He never thinks of himself first.
4. He is the best father.
5. He loves his kids unconditionally.
6. He is a hard worker.
7. He is fun to be around.
8. He bears an awesome testimony.
9. He makes me feel safe.
10. He takes good care of me & our boys
11. He will watch TV with me & let me watch whatever I want & never complain.
12. He likes to take me shopping.
13. He enjoys making me happy.
14. He takes our boys with him on work tours (all summer long).
15. He encourages our boys to do good, in all things.
16. He gives me time with my girlfriends.
17. He loves to spend time with me.
18. He works on becoming a better person everyday.
19. He is stuck with me for eternity!
20. He puts up with my selfishness (I am working on this- see #21).
21. He encourages me to be a better person, wife, mom...
22. He compliments me daily.
23. He makes me feel beautiful.

I could go on & on but I promised only 23 this year :) I'm thankful that we didn't listen to "some people" who thought we wouldn't last 6 months.... Happy Anniversary my love! XOXOXO

Haunted House

The person in charge of activities in the single's ward has fond memories of David's haunted houses from the past. She asked if David would put on another one for their ward party. Yesterday we spent the day preparing for the event. Here is some of the outcome. The first room was Eric laying on the table with Thavee chopping off his leg and Don shooting them with the nail gun (no nails, of course, only air). Then they crawled through a maze. Jessica hid around a corner with a rat that rolls and flashes its red eyes. She would scream as the victims came by and set the rat off. Then in the next room Robert and Mark would scare them out the door to Jason who chased them with the chainsaw (again, no chain).

I really like this guy!! Mark sat in the empty chair holding still to look like he was fake too, until they walked by.

Hopefully the singles enjoyed the fright.

Called to Serve

Troy received his call letter yesterday to serve his mission. He is going to the Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission, Tongan speaking. He will report at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on March 30. He will serve for 2 years. At the MTC, he will learn lessons and practice speaking to people, as well as start learning the Tongan language. Here is a link to the website where there is more information about the MTC... http://www.mtc.byu.edu/. Several people have asked "Where is Tonga?" Here's a map. Hopefully you can zoom in. It doesn't appear to look very large here. It is near Samoa & Fiji, between Tahiti and New Zealand near the international date line.We are so excited for Troy to have this opportunity to learn more about the gospel, share it with others, and grow his own testimony. I can't imagine a more exciting place to him to go. Of course, I automatically think of the movie, "The Other Side of Heaven", which is based on a true story of one of the first missionaries sent to Tonga. It was quite the experience. I am a little afraid for Troy, but I know that was many years ago and I'm sure they have updated things a little bit more there, and hopefully rats won't eat at his feet!!

This is the LDS Temple in Tonga. I was a little surprised to find there was even a temple there. That's so exciting! Mormonism is the 2nd largest religion in Tonga, with chapels in almost every village. Troy was so excited and asked an elder in our ward who is from Samoa if there is lumpia there. The elder said that lumpia is "this big" and held up his little finger, and that they will feed him "the whole pig", and said that Troy will be fed 2 meals every day by the members. It looks like we will need to get elastic church pants for that boy!

It seems like March is so far away, especially since we got his paperwork in almost as early as we could thinking he would go right near his birthday in January. We will need to get him a passport and visa, I think, and finish preparing our first child to pack his bags and head to a foreign land where the people are humble and embrace the church. I really do believe that Troy is meant to go there, that our Heavenly Father has lessons to teach him, and in turn, lessons for him to teach others to help him become the man, husband and father that he is meant to be. I am so thankful for the friends and mentors that he has had in his life to help him get to this point. It takes a village to raise a child, and now our child will be going to a village to help others. So thanks to everybody that has helped us get him this far. We are truly blessed to have so many loved ones in our lives.