Carl Bloch Exhibit

For family home evening last night James and I visited the BYU Museum of Art to see the Carl Bloch exhibit. If you think you don't know who he is, you would be surprised how many of his works you have actually seen. The church uses so many of them in Ensigns, book covers and many other published works. Some of my most favorite portrals of our Savior, I found out last night were his works.

The exhibit itself is a work of art in itself. Many of the pieces that they have there are the actual altar pieces from different churches and cathedrals in Sweden and Denmark. They are huge and absolutely beautiful. I feel like this is one of those opportunities that is only available once in a lifetime and I would encourage anyone that is within a decent traveling distance that you should see this exhibit. It is free but you do need to get tickets to see it. You can do that at http://moa.byu.edu/ . You can also learn more about this exhibit.

Both James and I felt Carl Bloch share his testimony with us through his works. As well as the care that was putting the exhibit together was a testimony from all those involved.

For posterity's sake...

There you go. I'm gettin' huge and uncomfortable.

Reality is setting in...

I've been pretty sick this last week, all starting Monday with the stomach flu and a quick visit to the Hospital. I thought I was feeling better, but my body has not figured out how to be regular again. I guess this is what I get for having a fairly easy pregnancy. I really have started to wonder if this is what most pregnant women experience everyday. Either way I am grateful it hasn't been so tough.

James picked up the movie "Being Dad" at the library that he and I watched together last night. It's actually really great and I'd recommend it to all my expecting friends and their husbands. However, reality really started to kick in, and I am starting to freak out just a little bit. It's one thing to grow the baby, it's a whole other thing to get the baby out. Lots of women give birth everyday, but it's all still "the unknown" to me, so it's a little scary.

HOPE

I love that when the sun shines through a window, it can warm up a room or car even when it is cold outside. Last winter, when I wasn't pregnant, I would often lay down on my stomach right where the sun would hit the carpet and fall asleep. I would usually wake up sweating, and honestly, I don't think I've ever had a better nap.

Today when I woke up I opened the window blinds and let the sun shine brightly in my room. I don't really know why, but this really charged me up. This experience reminded me of hope. No matter how cold it is outside, or how dim the day or challenge can seem that we have ahead of us, we can find hope in our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the source of all hope. When life seems impossible or the challenges too tough to overcome, it is through Christ that we can find the energy we need to make it through anything that life throws at us.

It is during this Christmas season that we celebrate Him who provides all hope to everyone on this earth. What a blessing it is to have a knowledge of his life and the blessings that He can bring to our life if we learn to live like he did.

Why I'll never forget Veteran's Day

One year ago today, James proposed to me. It was a Wednesday, he had class the next day, and with Thanksgiving break only a couple weeks away I would have never suspected it. (which, I think was his point) It was a red letter day for sure. We were married 6 months later and haven't wasted any time taking the next steps in life. I have never been happier.

On a side note, I remember after I got engaged how frequently I was asked "How did James propose?" I retold that story time and time again and it really never got old. After I was married the question was always, "When are you going to start a family?" I was always uncomfortable answering that question, and usually just lied and said, "I don't know, we'll see." When in fact I did know, and didn't feel it was anybodies business to ask. Now that I am pregnant the question I hear more often than any other question in the world is, "How are you feeling?" I get asked this a dozen or more times in a day from, co-workers, people I rarely associate with in the office and at church, and by strangers wherever I go. I find it interesting that people care so much about how I am feeling. And how the question changes drastically from the regular "how ya doin'?" to how are you feeling? when you are pregnant. And maybe I have found this question so strange, because other than the fact that my belly is getting huge, I feel great and really haven't felt too bad the entire time I've been pregnant. I guess I could complain about the heart burn, the fact that none of my pants will button up and how I am hungry all the time, but the truth is I really do feel great. I am happy and very excited to be a mother and especially to watch James be a father.

Never a bad time to be grateful

I guess I don't update my blog because I think I always have to have something significant to write about, and the perfect pictures to accompany my thoughts. I am going to throw away that notion that I have tonight and just write a little bit about some of the things I am especially grateful for tonight. I don't think there is ever a bad time to show a little bit of gratitude.

Sometimes I hate that other people's tragedies have to be reminders of why I should be grateful for something that I have. I know that God gives us individual challenges that our individual strengths help us to overcome. Often time it's hard being the one looking in on someones life wondering how they can ever get through such a thing. A lot of the problem is just that I personally was not given the right juice or the right stuff to handle such a tragedy at this time. But still I can trust that if given the same trial that the right juice would be provided by a loving Heavenly Father. I have faith that that is the case but it does not change the personal challenge that we each feel when trying to help friends and loved ones during these hard times.

With all of that said, tonight I am grateful for my dear James. I came home from a very long day of work, errands, grocery shopping, fully expecting to find the house as I left it this morning, (a smelly mess, with laundry needing to be done) only to be pleasantly surprised by a clean orderly house with laundry done and folded. James has been sick and out of commission for a couple of days so this really was a surprise, but I was so grateful for it.

I am grateful for the gorgeous fall weather. It was sunny today and I ate my lunch out on the lawn of the park next to my work. It felt wonderful.

I am grateful for a really great job. I hear constantly about people finishing school, only to be unable to locate any type of employment. I have been extremely blessed in this area of my life. I've been able to find a job at the right time at the right place for the last few years since I've graduated. It really is a miracle that I can't attribute to anything else but my Heavenly Father.

Working with children and people with disabilities, has made me ever grateful that my brain is able to send the correct signals to my arms and legs that make them move in the way that I choose, that my eyes are properly attached to occipital lobe that allow me to see images wherever I am, that I can see someone crying and understand what it means to be sad and provide some sort of comfort for that person, and that my mouth will produce the sounds that are appropriate for what I am trying to say. The brain does so many wonderful things, and it is very difficult to not take advantage of all the functions that it performs each day that allow us freedoms that some will not have in this life.

This has turned into a much lengthier post than I anticipated, but there are my thoughts tonight none the less. I am grateful to be an expecting mother, and with the growing pains of pregnancy I will be grateful also when I get to experience the pains of motherhood.

Fall is in the air and It's BEAUTIFUL!

Can you hear that?? It's the sound of crunching leaves underneath your feet. Can you smell it? It's the smell of stoves being turned on for the first time of the season. Can you feel it? Oh man, I can. It's the crisp air that screams IT'S FALL!!! I love fall. I wish it would last longer, but as I mentioned before I made a goal to just enjoy the season while it is around and not worry about what follows.

I loved the carving pumpkin family home evening we had the week before Halloween each year. I cared a lot less about having the most creative pumpkin, and mostly just enjoyed sitting on the back porch with the family. James and I had our pumpkin carving FHE a week early. We have zero holiday decorations, so at least we feel a tiny bit more festive with our pumpkins sitting outside our door. We still haven't bought candles to put in them, but they sit there looking pleasant and orange none the less.

I get to drive all over Utah County for my job. I have particularly enjoyed my drives this week. I have visited some fun neighborhoods. I wish I was more like my mom, and always had a camera on hand, I would've taken a picture of a few of them, with the leaves starting to fill the streets and pristine halloween decorations outside each of the doorways. I pictured myself with my family settling down some day in a neighborhood similar to the ones I visited. Maybe not in Saratoga Springs, or Lehi, but I just really enjoyed growing up in the neighborhood that I did, and I would wish the same for my children one day in the future. I'm not in a hurry to settle down, we've still got lots of school left, and lots of renting to do before we ever live in a house, but still I look forward to that later in life.