New Haps

Not Feeling Well
I'm pretty sure it's a combination of allergies and asthma. But my medication doesn't seem to be managing my symptoms very well. And every time I think of making a doctor's appointment or actually make the appointment, I start to feel better. My symptoms come and go. I just feel so tired, sleepy, and without energy to do much of anything. Luckily, I've been getting breaks here and there but overall, I feel somewhat useless. And it's discouraging because I'm not getting much done around the house on my bad days. Sometimes, my lack of feeling good gets the better part of me. But I know things will get better. It has to! :-)

Conference & Callings
One of the General Conference speakers said that typically, only one of the spouses in a marriage will have a more demanding calling. Kevin & I chuckled about it and agreed that we aren't typical people and we don't live in a typical ward. The needs in our ward our great. But we aren't shrinking before the task. I admit, I didn't always feel this way when we first moved into the ward. Kevin has truly inspired me. He is 100%, completely devoted to ALL of his church duties. He doesn't slack at all and is HAPPY to fulfill his responsibilities. He amazes me! Now that the kids are older than they were when we first moved into the ward, I have felt more motivated to shoulder my responsibilities and fulfill my duties.

These past few years, I have felt the Lord really working on me and giving me so much opportunity for growth. I have been inspired by those around me, and our good neighbors in particular. They, too, are completely devoted to their responsibilities and living the Gospel standards. I have felt strengthened and beyond what I've dreamed possible. I have been educated in so many ways and I'm grateful for that! I have always had a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But now, I can completely relate to one of Joseph Smith's quote: "A (wo)man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing h(er) family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race." I am so excited about the Gospel and I love it so much! It is truly an honor and blessing to serve God, to work out my own salvation, and assist my family and others on their pathway back to our Heavenly Father.

That being said, I was recently called as the Relief Society President of our ward. I feel a little too young for this (Hi Meredith! LOL!) but I trust in God and I know He will qualify me for the calling when I do my part. I have fabulous counselors: Judy Plata, Julianna Iverson, and the secretary is Kathleen Revoir. I feel like this is going to be more fun than work! I told that to the former R.S. President, Wendy Kellogg, and she said she felt the same way with her counselors. That made me feel like I wasn't entirely out of line, LOL!

Another sweet sister in the ward was telling me that she was talking to Wendy Kellogg and asking her how she does her calling so well. Wendy responded by saying that she had a good Relief Society mother. That got me thinking about my mother and how she is and was the same exact way! If I turn out to have a fraction of the Christlike qualities of my mother, I will consider myself extremely lucky!

I am finding that the challenge is not in my calling because it's not difficult at all. The challenge is to have the calling and be a wife and mother and homemaker all at the same time. I know things will get easier once I get into the swing of things. Kevin's really been pitching in and helping out more around the house and enlisting the girls into helping. It's been so nice!

One thing I really love is going to Ward Council meetings. Kevin loves it, too. People think we're crazy but we love meeting with the leadership of the ward and know what's going on in the ward. I haven't been in Ward Council since I was the Y.W. President 7 years ago and I have missed it.

On a side note, this has become one of my favorite quotes on charity. It was part of a talk given by the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, during the last Relief Society General Broadcast.

"I consider charity—or “the pure love of Christ”—to be the opposite of criticism and judging. In speaking of charity, I do not at this moment have in mind the relief of the suffering through the giving of our substance. That, of course, is necessary and proper. Tonight, however, I have in mind the charity that manifests itself when we are tolerant of others and lenient toward their actions, the kind of charity that forgives, the kind of charity that is patient."

My mother is the epitome of this. She always gives people the benefit of the doubt and tries to always assume the best in others. She taught me by her example through her love for others.

Hail!
A month ago, we had so much hail, it almost looked like snow. The picture doesn't quite do it justice. It was awesome!


Cultural Hall Fun
The girls wanted to play basketball and the remote control helicopter. Since it was wet and cold outside, we went to the church and met there with the Bishop, his wife, and his grandkids. The Bishop brought his remote control trucks and cars to race around. We had fun!



A few weeks prior to this, some kid at school told Tara she sucked at basketball. She was hurt and bothered by it. It was a rude and insensitive remark but Tara didn't let it get to her for too long. She asked us to buy her a basketball so she could practice and get better. We did and she wanted to practice all the time. She's been playing in our neighbor's basketball court and on the school grounds as well as at church. As a parent, I am grateful that she took that opportunity to improve herself and make "weak things become strong." She didn't let it keep her down. She decided to prove wrong the kid who made that comment. I am so proud of her!



Just a beautiful sunset from our backyard! (There are a few tiny good things that come from air pollution.)


Reading
My girls love to read, especially Tara. She is always finishing a book. The school has this reward system where if you read enough books and earn 75 Accelerated Reader points from quizzes on the books you read, you will get a limo ride and lunch with the Principal at the end of the year. Well, so far, Tara has more than 150 points. She's doing so well!


Brynne needs to get her baby all settled in for the night before she starts reading. :-)



Now, on to reading the scriptures. This is our nightly routine.

Tara reads from Kevin's PDA.


Kevin ROCKS!
One night, after a daddy-daughter date Kevin had with Brynne, Kevin painted Brynne's nails for her (one of her favorite things ever). I'm so grateful that he's such a good dad!


Another reason Kevin rocks...
Kevin has kept all his hundreds of cassette tapes from his childhood. They've been taking up all the space in one drawer and one large shelf space where we keep our media and games. Anyways, we have CDs and mp3s of most of the music that we love. So I asked him if he would finally throw them out if I bought mp3s of all his songs. He agreed. Then I did the math. Ouch! That's not going to be kind to the bank account. Well, we decided to space out the purchases. So that we could get rid of the tapes soon, I decided to type out and graph all his songs so he would know what he had and we could purchase from that list. During General Conference, Kevin went to the Priesthood Session, as usual. It is his favorite session of all of Conference. He takes notes and shares what he learns with me afterward. It's a wonderful bonding time as husband and wife. He felt impressed and inspired to not worry about all those songs and to just get rid of it all (without me typing out the list after all), including the cassette player he got from his Grandpa, who has since passed away. If you don't know Kevin very well, he has a sentimental attachment to EVERYTHING.... the bolt he found on the street, a dirty wrench someone left in a field, the half-torn piece of paper he wrote something on. So for Kevin, this is HUUUUUUUUUGE!!!! He gave this pile away to a c0-worker who wanted it (I felt sorry for the co-worker's wife). I felt so loved and grateful that he was able to part with it so willingly.


Another reason Kevin rocks...
Kevin came home one night and found that the water heater was leaking and not working properly. He remembered there was a warranty on our old one (even though we were not the original purchasers) and called the manufacturer. They gave him authorization to purchase a new one *free of charge* at our local home improvement store. So he removed the old one, took it to the store to return it, brought the new one home, and installed it. We consider that a tithing-blessing! We saved ourselves almost $500. Actually, Kevin saved us the money since he remembered the warranty and is talented enough to install it himself without having to hire anyone. We are so blessed!


Time Out For Women
It was wonderful! I took lots of notes and pictures. Here's some of us at lunchtime, eating across the street by some businesses in downtown Fresno.
L-R Christine James (family friend from North Edwards), Evaun Swann (my MIL), Anna Moore (my SIL, pregnant with my nephew), Cheryl Nilsson (my SIL's SIL), and two other ladies who were friends with Cheryl (don't remember their names).
Kevin brought Dog House Grill goodness to us for lunchtime. It was awesome! The ladies were commenting on how well I had Kevin "trained" to do favors like this. I told them I couldn't take credit for it, he was like that before I married him and that's one of the reasons why I married him! They were so impressed with him. :-)


Okay, this lady is fabulous beyond fabulous! If you do not know her, this is Mary Ellen Edmunds (center). Kevin, my mom (pictured on the left), and I have loved her for decades. We have learned so many wonderful things from her. We listen to her books, CDs, talks, etc. We laugh, then cry, then laugh, cry, etc. She's humorous and spiritual all at the same time. We especially recommend her book "Love is a Verb." If you haven't read it, buy it now, and read it asap!


Woodward Park
I took the girls here to have their pictures taken. (Photos to come later on my photography blog.) After pictures were over, I let them change their clothes, feed the ducks, and play on the playground. I love taking pictures of them playing together. I love to watch them be sisters and friends. I have always wanted a sister of my own and never got one. (But I think I did really well as far as brothers go.) So I live vicariously through my girls.

A Trip To Papa & Grandma Swann's House
This last Friday, Kevin's Dad flew to Fresno to pick up Kevin & the girls (I didn't go since I wasn't feeling well). Papa needed Kevin's help with the electrical stuff on his refurbished VW Bug. The girls were pumped to go and get rides in the new jeep/tractor/4-wheeler thinga-ma-jig. Here's Grandma, ready to take them out.


Papa's working on the bug.

The new engine, just installed.


The weather did not cooperate for an airplane ride back to Fresno so Kevin borrowed a car and took pictures along the way. (Yes, I've already questioned him on how "safe" it is to drive and take pictures.) This one is in Tehachapi. The sun rays are coming through and you can see the windmills in the background.


I love driving through Tehachapi and seeing the green hills in the springtime. It reminds me of Ireland. I've never been there, just from what you see in the media. Going there is on my bucket list, though.


Another pretty sunset, coming down the Kern grade into Bakersfield!


Easter
Kevin & I are always looking for ways to make holidays a little more meaningful. The girls love getting notes in their lunches so we decided to give them love notes in the eggs. We also thought cash would be another fun thing to give them. It was cute to see them open their eggs and go for the love notes first thing. (We explained that the Easter Bunny dropped off the eggs since he had other places to get to so he asked us to hide them for him and said we could add things to the eggs if we wanted. ;-)


A New Camera
Kevin & I were excited to get a new camera recently. Here it is, the Nikon D7000. We wanted to upgrade our megapixel and the ISO capabilities. We're still keeping our D50 (Kevin says it will be his camera) as a backup and we are still using it fo sho!


It's a little bit larger than the D50, but not a whole lot. I also got the battery pack that you can see attached to the bottom.


I bought the Jill-e bag from Amazon but was disappointed that the fabric on the inside was polka-dot, and not plain as it shows in the picture on the website. Oh, well. I guess that's why it was discounted so much.

But I luuuurrrve the outside!!! Without spending $200-300, it's a great bag for the money!


Even after getting a new camera, I think my interest in marketing myself and my business is waning. With a new calling and other things pulling for my attention and for some personal reasons I'd love to rant about but I won't, I think I might just keep it a hobby. I'm still happy to take pictures for family and friends, but I'm not really interested right now in putting myself out there and meeting all the high pressure demands. It's not like I've done a ton of work lately anyway so I'm sure no one will be that disappointed. I still have some sessions coming up but for the most part, I think I'm going to be a hobbyist and just enjoy myself and the fun of it again. Don't get me wrong though, I'm still charging if people hire me. :-)