"Hoppy" Easter

Happy Easter!! I love Easter. It is full of so many great memories and traditions for me, like watching The Ten Commandments with my dad, or hiding freshly colored Easter Eggs with my brothers and sister. We never would quite find all the eggs we had hidden, and inevitably every year, someone would find a colorful egg under a rock in the back yard in the middle of July.  

When I was little I always looked forward to Easter Sunday. My parents always did a good job of making Easter centered around Christ, but I gotta admit that my favorite thing about Easter Sunday was the Easter Baskets, not because of the candy (although that was great), but because of the hunt. Yes, the "Easter Bunny," which we all knew was my Dad, took great joy in hiding our baskets, in the craziest places. All Easter morning was spent searching high and low for our baskets, while my Dad would laugh and drop hints of where they were.

Now that I am older, Easter has changed a bit.  But I still love it.  Owen is still so young, that we did not do a basket for him, or even hide eggs.  However, our stake did have an Primary Easter Party, so he did get to hunt for eggs, and make some bunny ears.  We had a beautiful Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School program today on the atonement resurrection of Christ.   

As I have gotten older, I have really truly come to understand and appreciate the importance of Easter.  I am so grateful that Jesus Christ atoned for all my sins, and then rose from the grave so that I can return to my Heavenly Father, and live again. What a true blessing.

General Conference in ASL.

I love General Conference. I look forward to hearing the voice of the Prophet, and receiving council from our Church leaders every 6 months.  It is such a spiritual and emotional feast for me, I am truly grateful for it.  

One of my favorite talks this conference was by Elder Robert D Hales.  He talked about Provident Living.  He had a lot of great advice.  I loved it!  He reminded us to "be provident provider for ourselves and our families; to joyfully live with in our means; be content with what we have; avoid excessive debt; and diligently save for a rainy day."  What great advise we could all do better to listen too, especially during this economic crunch.

Something that was unique for our family this conference was that we got to watch it in American Sign Language.  The sister missionaries assigned to our ward are also the ASL missionaries.  One of the the sisters, Sis Barnard, is completely deaf.  So they asked if they could watch conference at our house, with the ASL translation.  

Here is an example of what it was like, only this is from a couple conferences ago: 

It was great having the sisters over.  I have been signing to Owen since he was born, and I  sometimes wonder if he is picking up on it.  But whenever Sis Barnard comes around, he actually signs to her.  It is amazing to see a 14 month old communicating with someone other than his parents!  It makes me so proud!

Best Roommateship Ever

I had a lot of awesome roommates during my college years. Most of them I can honestly say that I absolutely loved. But there where two years, and three roommates that I will for ever adore. Megan, Malorie, Elyse, and I lived together at Andersen Apartments from 2004 to 2006. If you where to ask any of us, we would tell you that we were the best "roommateship" you could ever find. Not to say that we don't love other roommates that we have had, it is just that the there was something about the chemistry between the four of us. Maybe it is that we all got along so great, maybe it was because we had so much fun, maybe it was because we experienced soooo many things together. But what ever it was, there is something that has bounded us four on a forever deep level.

Last Tuesday, we all happened to be in Logan Utah, the home of Utah State University, and all our favorite roommate memories. This has not happened in almost 4 years, so naturally, we had the best roommate get together ever. We laughed, we cried, we reminised, we caught up, we dreamed, and then we laughed some more. I can honestly say that I love these ladies to death and back again. They are like sisters to me, and I am so greatful that I have them in my lives. I just think that we need to do these get togethers A LOT more often.

"Life is smoother with 'Thank You's'"

Today was ward conference, so the Stake Primary Presidency taught Sharing Time.  They did the cutest lesson about Mother's, and talked about how much mom's do to serve their families.  At the end they had the kids write Thank You notes to their mom's.  One of the kids asked if they had.  The Stake Primary President simply replied, "No, you don't, but your mom doesn't have to do all the things she does for you either. I think Life is smoother with 'Thank You's.'"  

Holy Cow, I love what she said.  I think I am going to adopt this as my new motto.  Everyone could hear "Thank You" a little more often, and we could all show gratitude a lot more then we do.  My sister-in-law, Sarah, keeps a Gratitude Journal on her blog.  She occasionally will post about something, or someone, she is grateful for.  What a great example.  I think that I am going to start doing this.  

Today, I am grateful for my calling, and all the simple life lessons I learn in Primary.