GRATITUDE

So today in YWs we learned about being grateful.  By the end of the lesson my notes said this:

• "Attitude of gratitude." -Pres. Monson
• D&C 46:32 -How can I show my gratitude?  Service, honoring the people I am thankful for, thank you notes, writing what I'm thankful for down, sharing my talents
• Luke 17:11-19
• Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
• Alma 34:38
• "Trying to remember [how I had seen His hand in my day] allowed God to show me what he has done" -Pres. Eyring

I love the YW leader who taught today because she always has lots of scriptures and gives new perspectives on stories we've heard a hundred times.  The Luke scripture above is the story of the ten lepers.  She talked about lepercy and how it affected them.  She said that it was common to get lepercy when you were a child and since in verse 12 it says they were men, they had probably had it for years.  And in that same verse it says that they stood afar off, meaning that because of this disease they had they had been forced to leave their homes, friends and families and live far away without associating with anyone. So along with getting this terrible disease that they had to deal with, they pretty much lost everything.  So after Jesus healed them, why did only one out of the ten come back and thank him?  After naming some things we thought, do we sometimes use those excuses to not give thanks?

I am grateful that I have the scriptures, that I get to learn more about them every morning and that I understand them!  I remember why I was a new beehive in YW I was so confused when people talked about how much they love the scriptures and how much they help them and I really didn't get it.  I didn't understand what they meant, there was no way I could love them like all these other people seemed to.  I just thought that that wasn't one of my gifts and I would go my whole life not understanding.  Boy was I wrong.  I am now one of these people that love reading my scriptures as much as the book I'm currently reading and I don't bear my testimony at testimony meetings, YW or youth conferences without mentioning how much I love them.

I am grateful that I finished Jane Eyre.

I am grateful that I got to go a Halloween dance last night, even though it wasn't a very good turnout.  I dressed up as Dorothy and actually got quite a few compliments on it.  I invited my friends from Pasadena and even though it was Stake Conference for them so they all had to babysit they came late.  So that was fun.

I'm grateful I read an entire Shakespeare play for my Shakespeare class that I'm taking.  Taming of the Shrew.

I'm grateful I'm a member of the church and that I've had the opportunity to learn and study this in my youth so that I may be able to know it well enough to share it with others now and on my mission later.

Random Happiness

Here's some random things that are making me smile lately.

This post about happiness in itself makes me happy because it's the sixth post in two months and that's a major major improvement for me!  This new goal is working!

Conference is this weekend.  I really really love conference.  I haven't always loved it.  Until recently I don't think I really understood why it was necessary to listen to 8-10 hours of talks over the course of the weekend twice a year.  One thing that I think opened my eyes was the attitude that one of the YM in my old ward had toward it.  In seminary and Sunday School you always have the 'primary answers,' reading the scriptures, going to church, take the sacrament and stuff like that.  His answer was always General Conference.  "How can we know the Lord's will?"  "Watch General Conference."  "What can bring us closer to the Savior?" "Watch General Conference."  "What should we do when we're sad?"  "Read a General Conference talk."  Once my teacher asked him about it and he said, "I'm being serious.  General Conference is the answer to everything."  And I think he followed that profound statement with something like, "It's the bomb, man!"  Eyeroll.  So anyway, I'm really excited about General Conference, especially since we missed part of it cause of Gracie's baptism in April.

I'm really progressing with my crocheted quilt.  I've sewn enough squares together to complete three rows and have sewn two of them together.  Getting closer. : )

Fall is here!  It's October, the beginning of the holidays.  It's Halloween season, after which comes celebrating fall and Thanksgiving, the CHRISTMAS!  I'm so excited and even though it's not really fall weather yet here, it's getting closer.  We're more into the 80s and 90s instead of late 90s and 100.

To celebrate fall I made my first pie the other day!  And we were going to take a picture, but by the time we remembered there was one lone piece left that really didn't look very pretty.  I'll make another one and take a picture soon.  This one was peanut butter with a layer of fudge sauce on top.  It was delicious.  I made Grandma's pie crust because she showed me how to make it while she was here and it turned out really well!  The sides didn't fall in and it was nice and flaky.

I learned something in seminary that I wanted to share.  It's in 2 Nephi chapter 4.  This is the end of Lehi's farewell speeches (Patriarchal or Father's blessing, however you'd like to think of them) and then he dies.  And what do Laman and Lemuel do after he dies?  They start complaining against Nephi (cause that's their specialty).  So here's Nephi, grieving his father's death, because whatever his brother's think, he did not want that to happen and he's not happy about it either.  And what does he do?  In verse 15 it says he reads the scriptures which his soul delights in.  Then he thinks about the things of the Lord which his soul delights in.  In the mist of discouragement and sadness he ponders the things which his soul delights in and counts his blessings.  From verse 19 on he focuses on the things that the Lord has done for him that fills him with delight.  This is known as Nephi's Psalm, a song or poem of worship or praise.  Then in chapter 5 verse 1 it says he 'cried unto the Lord'.  So if you could ask Nephi what to do when you feel like nothing's going right, when you're sick or your heart is broken.  He would say, "I already wrote it down for you because God told me you would need it.  You should read the scriptures, count your blessings and pray to the Lord who knows how you feel."

Steve's getting so close to opening the hot dog stand!

Jason's three week mark didn't present him ugly.  He grows cuter by the day and he's starting to give us smiles more frequently.  It's amazing how truly angelic they are, especially with their toothless grins.

I am enjoying the leftover lasagna that I'm eating for dinner. : )

If you haven't noticed, I've renoticed all the cool things you can do to your posts that are at the top of the page!  So I'm enjoying using those, too.

Inspiring Scriptures

I hesitate calling this 'Inspiring Scriptures' instead of something more specific because, what if I post something else about scriptures that I can't get more specific than 'inspiring'?  Oh well. : )

So I'm taking a Shakespeare class from the woman who taught my CC class last year.  Her daughter loves Shakespeare so her mom's doing this class for free for specific friends this year.  It has been awesome so far and we haven't even started a play!  So far we've just been studying Shakespeare's life, his language and the time period he lived in.  We start Taming of the Shrew in October.  So in preparation for that we were given some assignments to study up on this week.  One of them was to read the list of scriptures given on Gender Roles/Marriage and Beauty (we're studying Shakespeare with a Christian view).  I was really inspired by what I read and I thought I'd share it.  I'd really encourage you to look them up yourselves, but I'll just share the main point of each scripture.

Gender Roles and Marriage

• Ephesians 5:22-33 ~ These scriptures tell wives to be submissive to their husbands and tell the husbands to love their wives as much as they love themselves.  Make sure to look at the second footnote in verse 33 where it helps to replace reverence with respect.
• Genesis 3:16 ~ This verse talks about a woman's role to have children.
• Proverbs 31:10-31 ~ The first of these scriptures is the one that says "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies."  And the verses that follow describe what qualities a virtuous woman should have and what her duty is to her husband. In verse 30 it mentions beauty. These are really very beautiful scriptures and I would like to add something that I researched.  I was curious about the value of rubies so I googled the worth of them compared to other jewels.  Rubies are more rare and of more worth than any other jewel.  Here's something I cut and pasted comparing rubies to diamonds.  "Thus, while a 1-carat ruby is worth twice as much as a 1-carat diamond, a 3-carat ruby of the first quality is worth ten times as much as a diamond of the same description, that is to say, that while a 3-carat brilliant of the first water would be valued at about $16,300, a ruby of the same description would be worth about $160,300. The value of a 5-carat."  I thought that was quite fascinating and made me feel very special.
• 1 Corinthians 7:4 ~ My interpretation of this was husband's and wive's responsibility for one another.

Beauty

• 1 Peter 3:4 ~ It's the inside that counts.
• 1 Samuel 16:7 ~ The world looks at the outside appearance, but the Lord look at the heart.

I also learned something in Sunday School today that was very fascinating and moving.  You might already know this, but I've never heard it before.  So by the end of the Book of Mormon the Nephites are all destroyed, but the Lamanites aren't.  Yeah, the Lamanites are good at the end, but when you add all the years of iniquity that they both went through they seem to be equal.  Well in Jacob 2:35, 3:5-7 talk about how the Lamanites are not destroyed because they stay loyal to their wives and the Nephites don't.  Sometimes it may seem like women aren't talked about a lot in the scriptures, but if staying loyal to their wives or not is the big tip off for getting destroyed or not, I think just in those few verses it testifies very strongly how precious and important women and marriage is.  So there's my inspiring thought for the day. : ) 

September Must Have

Well, things have been kind of chaotic in my house lately so I haven't had much spare time, but I new I had to post at least once in September.  And I was doing so well in August (for me anyway) and I don't want to mess that up.  So.

Little Jason may have tossed up our schedule, but I love him so much.  He is so adorable and he NEVER cries.  He fusses when he needs to eat, but that is literally all.  We have been so blessed and I think it's cause Heavenly Father knew that our life was busy enough with our homeschool and church schedule and hard enough since we just moved (not just, but recently).  I wish I could put into words how adorable he is...but I can't. : )

Seminary is going awesome.  I think I even love it as much as I loved last year which makes me so happy because I was so worried that I would be disappointed after having such a good experience my first year.  My ward is put together with the 0 period class that starts at 5:50.  Even though I was really bummed that I only got 5 more minutes than last year I thought that I should attend seminary with my ward.  So I went the first day and came back heartbroken.  Because it was the 0 period class everyone was dressed for school except me and it was a class of something like 25 kids.  It scared me.  We called the person in charge and I switched classes that night.  The rest of the stake meets at 6:50, divided by grade.  So now I meet with all the sophomores in the stake and we add up to 15 kids.  It's so much better and I totally love all the kids.  There's actually more boys than girls which is a major first for me.  In every single boy/girl group I have been in the girls always outnumbered the boys.  Now there's 9 boys and 6 girls, so that's fun.  My class is taught by an older couple and I just love them too.  I love learning from them.  I love the scriptures so much.  It seriously breaks my heart if I miss a day because that means I've missed digging into a chapter in a way I haven't before.  Seminary is really one of my favorite things.  Without it, I don't think I'd be able to be happy after this move.  It makes me happy.

I finished Driver's Ed!!!  I passed the final test on Friday and the certificate was sent.  So as soon as it comes I can go take the test at the DMV and get my permit!  I'm getting excited (though I'm still terrified) though now I'm just nervous about passing the permit test.  Wish me luck.

I have finished all the squares for my crocheted quilt and am now working on sewing them together.  This has been such a project.  I've been working on it for over a year!  It will be so refreshing to work on something else when I'm done.

I've completed 4 of the 8 values in Personal Progress and will have completed another one as soon as I finish my quilt!  This makes me really happy because I want to finish it and have time to get an Honor Bee (the reward for doing the extra mile requirements) before I leave YW.

I got a regular babysitting job that starts in October!  The woman that teaches Anna and Gracie ballet has four beautiful blonde children and the two youngest need a babysitter during one of the weekly classes.  They are the sweetest things and I'm so excited for this!  I'll be babysitting them a couple hours a week and she said she hopes to work up to $10 an hour!

I think that's enough for now.  Love you all!

Getting Used to the Best of Both Worlds

I moved with the intention of going back for all the dances and making sure to still see my friends regularly.  Which is a little difficult because after spending a night with them it makes it really hard to come back home because I miss them so much. :( So I'm trying to get used to it so that I can see them without getting depressed again, because there is no way I'm going to stop seeing them.

I spent quite a bit of time with them last weekend with them.  I got dropped off at a friend's house at six where we all met then drove to the dance.  We were super early which is always kind of awkward at dances cause people don't start showing up till about an hour late anyway.  But it was super fun being with them all again.  And just fyi, I danced 5 out of the six slow songs.  4 out of the 5 were friends (which I prefer, it makes talking easier).  And 3 out of the 5 asked me to dance, not the other way around. 

Since we were getting back so late we decided that I could just stay the night at one of my friend's houses.  It was very thoroughly talked out and contemplated before I was given the okay.  Which was fine because we didn't even do anything.  We got back after dropping everyone at home after midnight, washed our faces and went to bed.  I would've totally gone to church with them, but Elder Perry was talking at our stake conference in Azusa so I couldn't exactly miss that.  So I was driven straight to my stake building in Azusa to hear Elder Perry (which I will talk about later) then we all went back to Pasadena for the Girls Camp fireside.

Now, I hesitate to talk about this because I don't really want to tell you about it and I'm not going to be very positive, buuuuut, I'm pretty sure my mom emailed you all the What Makes You Beautiful video that the boys made for the girls in Pasadena.  Well, someone decided that the girls should do a response video...and that it should be filmed at Girls Camp.  Soooo, we filmed a video for the boys to a song none of us had ever heard before...at Girls Camp.  This whole thing made me mad because the whole point of Girls Camp is that you don't have to impress anyone because it's just girls and the video completely ruined that.  And the boys did not appreciate it at all.  Except for literally one or two sweet guys all they did was laugh and point fingers.  We showed it to them at the fireside, which is another reason I had to be there, cause everyone insisted.  The video ended up not being that bad.  I was hardly in it at all, which I was happy about, but it was nothing compared to the boys video.  Their's is so much better.  So there's that.  And trust me, this was me being positive about it.

Onto being more positive.  I am planning on meeting a friend at the mall sometime soon.  It was gonna be tomorrow, but we had to reschedule so we'll see.  And there's a stake dance in my new stake that I'm gonna invite my friends from Pasadena to!  Since they got mad at me when they found out I had one they didn't invite me to. :) Haha.  Love you all.

The Positive a midst My Tragedy

So, on of my best friends I've ever had left for New York yesterday. :( So so sad.  Buuuuuuuuut, I got to spend a good last day with her on Saturday.  They were super busy with cleaning and packing and yard selling so I helped them and just hung out.  We watched the last episodes of the fourth season (the last one we have).  And we also watched 17 Again, which we both love.  She loves Winnie the Pooh so I crocheted her a stuffed Pooh bear to look like the original A.A. Milne's one.  I was a bit disappointed with how it turned out, but she loved it so that's okay.  I'll miss her, but I won't lose touch. :)

I'm working on an online driver's ed course and though miserable, it is slowly progressing.

I finished my knitting Personal Progress goal!  So now I can continue with my crocheted quilt, which I am STILL working on as soon as I can get the book from the library.

We went to Lizzie's this past week, which was super fun!  We haven't seen them forever and I've missed them.  Elle was actually pretty easy to get along with.  Usually it's not very easy to get her to like you, but she totally loved us this time!  We watched the old Freaky Friday, which was super funny.  Lizzie made totally delicious food for us.  We had gourmet pizza, crepes and peanut butter brownies.  They were all wonderful.

Seminary starts on Monday!  And though I'm nervous for reasons I don't want to focus on I'm glad it's starting soon.

I'm going to babysit the two most adorable little boys I've ever known, ages 1 and 4, in Pasadena tonight.  I'm so excited!

The Good Happenings of the Past Two Weeks

I changed my blog not quite a week ago, but didn't make an effort to actually post any optimism, which defeats the whole point of changing it.  So, I'm going to start by looking at the bright side of the past two weeks and remembering the fun things I did.  Hopefully I can remember most of them.

Well, on the 27th I got to go to a musical that one of the young men in my old ward was in.  It was called the Tavern Keeper's Daughter.  It was actually a really good play and he had a good part in it.  I went with his mom and three of my friends from my old ward and aside from being with them it was fun to hear him sing in a play.  He has a pretty beautiful voice.

Last week we had a fun mutual activity.  We worked on Personal Progress and there was a contest to see who could wear the most P things.  I didn't win, but I think I should have won most creative.  I was the only one with a pumpkin pin. ;)

Our library has an amazing stock of movies so we've been educating ourselves by bringing home as many musicals a week as we can.  We've watched lots of Fred Astaire ones and are starting on Howard Keele ones this week.

Mom set up a new chore schedule and we've actually been doing it and keeping the house clean!  I really don't mind chores that much as long as we do them regularly because I love living in a clean house.

One of my best friends is moving to New York in less than to weeks.  It's a major tragedy for me, I'm not really being optimistic about it.  But I did get to go to her family going away party on Sunday and see her for the first time in a month since I was at my dad's.  And then she came over the other day to watch Avonlea with me!  When I found out she loved Little House and the Waltons I just had to introduce her to Avonlea and she absolutely loves it!  We're on the fourth season right now.  She is totally in love with Gus. :)

There are probably more, but this is all I can think of for now and I don't want to post pone actually posting this to think of some more.  Ta ta!