Together Again

Oh how we will miss our sweet prophet.

 

 

I attended our stake Relief Society fireside last night, Sunday January 27,2008. It was the annual Stake Presidents fireside where John and Faye Hunt speak to us. Just before Faye was to speak Pres. Hunt announced that Pres. Hinckley had passed away, there was a collective sigh and a strong witness of the spirit that Gordon B. Hinckley was a prophet. The tears flowed as we thought of never seeing our sweet prophet again.

My sadness is overcome by my joy that he will be able to be with his companion again. It was easy to see that he missed her terribly and at times it felt wrong to pray that his health would be sustained.

I love Sister Hinckley - I want to be like her! No plastic surgery for me, I'm thrilled with the wrinkles. Maybe it's because I love my grandmothers so much. See how their faces are so pure and sweet and beautiful? They have His image in their countenances. Oh may I live long enough to have happy wrinkle on wrinkle. This is true beauty and I can't help but think that everyone recognizes it.

President and Sister Hinckleys legacy will endure for eternity. It's a happy day of reunion for these sweethearts.

I have vacuum issues...

So when we built our house we installed a whole house vacuum. It was great until someone stepped on the hose and put a dent in it. No big problem until one day it would not suck - a very bad thing for a vacuum.

 

After many attempts at clearing the hose with no success I performed surgery! Cutting a hole in the hose at the clog (we figured out where the clog was by sending a penny down the hose) which of course was right at the previously mentioned dent.

Guess what I found? A sock - yes someone had sucked up a sock! How hard is it to bend down and pick up a sock? No no just suck it up in the vacuum and no one will ever know. Of course there was quite a back-up of disgusting unidentifiable other stuff that had been sucked up against the sock.

Since then the vacuum just hasn't been the same - the duct tape repair and the dent plus subsequent dents - (can't we just walk over the hose? Must we step on it??) have me pulling all sorts of things out of the dented areas at regular intervals.

I won't even get into the disgusting carpet that must be replaced - I blame it all on the vacuum troubles.

I do have a tip from a friend regarding vacuuming. She suggested leaving the vacuum out so that if someone drops by they think you've been busy vacuuming and if the carpet is dirty they assume you just got started. Isn't that a nice Suzy Homemaker idea?

The Last of the Mohicans

 

The last of 5 boys! Doesn't he have a cute tongue?

Blog etiquette

OK you can tell I'm new at this - 2 posts in one day! I see I have issues with my photo showing up - can someone tell me what I did wrong?

Anyway I'm wondering if there's blog etiquette. For example, are you supposed to ask people if you can link to them on your blog? Since I already linked to Bon's blog I may have already messed up. You experienced blogbabes lend me your wisdom...

BODY IMAGE??

A friend was talking about the new show - “How to look good naked”. It has me thinking a lot because I’m in the biz of helping people lose weight. Should I not be encouraging people to get healthy and fit? Should we just be happy with our bodies the way they are and forget about all that it takes to get into the healthy BMI range? Here are a few of my thoughts:

We came to earth to get a body - it’s the Sunday School answer. Our spirits have lived for a very long time, our bodies are relatively new. Our spirits are spiritual, our bodies are physical. One of the big jobs of earth life is to get these two elements working together - otherwise what’s the big deal about having a body? Instead of getting them to work together we spend a lot of time at war within ourselves. The spirit wanting one thing, the body wanting the other.

This war is a great distraction - the adversary loves it. His work and glory is to get us to hate and destroy our bodies. After all if he can’t have one then why should we enjoy ours? He’ll take it either way - obsess because you hate your body (and tell everyone all about it - I’m going to scream if I hear one more beautiful woman say - I’m so fat and ugly and worthless.) or obsess because you love your body. Either way it’s out of balance. Until I realized that my body and spirit are on the same team and that to be successful they had to work together I felt as if I was fighting a losing battle. Wanting to be healthy and fit in order to serve my family and friends but feeling like I was never going to get there and tired of trying.

This coming together of body and spirit is a lifelong process but you know how wonderful it feels when the body and spirit are in balance. When you have control of your body - not in the tugging and pulling way like trying to get a stubborn mule to move but in the kind and gentle way of walking together, arms around each other. (I must admit that at times it sounds like I might have a split personality disorder but hopefully you know what I mean.)

I had to learn to love my body - all 215 lbs. of it! Keep in mind we’re stuck together for all eternity… I’ve learned so much from losing 65 lbs. (you could totally figure out how much I weigh - and I don’t mind! Woo Hoo). I learn new things every day. What I know is that this body is a blessing and it will respond to the gentle nudges toward health and fitness. It feels so good to have both parts of me physical and spiritual on the same team - working together (trust me it’s not perfect but we keep trying…) The result is health and with that health I have more energy to do what I came to the planet to do - it unfolds every day and it’s a blast!

Eternity is going to be fun!

Cousins

Isn't this a great picture? Catch the fisher price roller skates. Playing in grandma and grandpa Hopkins front yard with the cousins was the best. Happy days... Next time the cousins are together we'll need an "after" picture.

The secret of life

In the category - words to live by - I have adopted the thoughts of that great philosopher James Taylor. The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time. As I've surfed the blogs of my friends and their friends and their friends friends I realized that I must get my piece of this world so I can really enjoy the passage of time. So here's where it begins Lanette's Blahddy blah blog!