Prayers Needed

Last weekend, my Aunt Mary-Margaret went to the hospital after coughing up blood only to find out that her left lung had collapsed. After additional testing they determined that a benign tumor is blocking blood flow to the left lung and is having effects not only on her lung, but also her heart. They are waiting on additional test results to see if there are any other abnormal growths in her chest cavity. The results will be coming in on Thursday.

As a result of the collapsed lung, the top lobe of the left lung has to be removed. They will not know if the lower portion needs to be removed until the surgery is performed. If the lower portion can be spared, then it can actually grow and fill the entire cavity, thus allowing her to maintain her normal lifestyle. If the entire lung does have to be removed then her activity level will be reduced dramatically. They are doing additional testing on her right lung on Thursday to see how strong it is and to see if it would be able to provide enough oxygen for the body on its own.

Her surgery date will be determined on Friday after the results are examined and discussed. It will probably be sometime early next week. She and her husband have 7 children to care for, and would appreciate all of your prayers and fasting in their behalf. Please, whatever your faith, please include their family in your prayers. Pray for the doctors that they will perform the surgery well. Pray for Mary-Margaret, that she will be able to recover quickly, and pray that she will be able to keep at least part of her left lung. I know that God hears and answers our prayers, and I have faith that a miracle can occur for my family if it be God's will. Thank you so much for all your faith and prayers in advance.

Good Times

So, can I just say...I LOVE the weekends! This weekend was great! We just hung out on Friday at home, and on Saturday morning, Kenneth did some yard work, while I cleaned inside. Then, that afternoon we got together with out dinner group for lunch. I always love our dinner groups and look forward to them! It is so fun to get together with friends and to get updated on things going on in our lives, and to see how much the babies have grown since the month before! Love it! Afterwards Kenneth and I went rockclimbing...he did 1 climb - an 11d, and I attempted a 10d or something...Kenneth completed his, and I only made it half way up mine, but we were both SOO sore afterwards!

Saturday evening I attended the General Relief Society Broadcast. It was amazing! I learned a lot of things, and it really gave me an extra desire to try to be better. Here are so highlights from the different talks:

Sister Julie B Beck

We need to understand the mission of Relief Society, which is to organize, teach and inspire Heavenly Father's daughters to prepare them for the blessings of eternal life. She then gave 3 things we need to focus on:

1. Increase in faith and personal righteousness
2. Strength our families and home
3. Serve the Lord and his children

Sister Silvia H Allred

Sister Allred spoke about the importance of temple and how we need to return often to continue to learn, and to prepare to go if we have not been able to yet.

Sister Barbara Thompson

Sister Thompson spoke about how we need to be devoted to Relief Society, and how if we are, then we will be able to do extraordinary things.

President Uchtdorf

President Uchtdorf spoke about how women often undervalue their abilities, and how we need to focus on our accomplishments rather than how we should have been better. He said that we need be happy, have peace and joy in spite of burdens we are asked to bear. He said that in order to achieve God's happiness we can work on the following 2 things:

1. Creating something beautiful - doesn't mean being able to paint, sing, or play the piano. Rather, we need to create things of beauty, something that was not there before - a home that is organized and where love can be felt, a garden, creating laughter, generating smiles, etc. He also told us to not let critics paralyze you EVEN IF IT COMES FROM WITHIN. I know I have major issues with that, and is something I am trying to work on.

2. Being compassionate - he stated the following quotes which I LOVED:

"Work will cure your grief - serve others!" - President Hinckley
"Those who bring the light of sunshine to others cannot keep it from themselves."
"Often small acts of service are enough to uplift and stregthen another." - President Monson

He also noted that the Savior did not care to have others notice him, and did not compete with others - another thing I need to work on...

Anyway, those are some of my thoughts. I am so happy that I went and that I was able to feel the Spirit as God's chosen people spoke, and I cannot wait for General Conference this upcoming weekend!

Lastly, Sunday we had church (excellent!) and that evening our friends Danny & Heather came over for dinner, chatting, and games. It was so much fun! Good times!

So...I guess I'm a PM now...at least for a few days

So, I showed up at work yesterday, and found out that I would be covering for a project manager while he was out of the office...now, please be advised that I am NOT a project manager! So, I was kind of thrown in to cover through Friday. My-oh-my! My boss, DeeJay said that this would give me the chance to see if I would like to become a PM...and if not, I have permission to slap him up-side the head! Hilarious! Thank goodness it wasn't bad yesterday, and today seems to be going well...though I am SO busy! The time certainly does fly as a PM!

Weekend Fun!

So, this past weekend was SUCH a fun one! On Friday we went to a concert at the Conference Center where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra played. It was great! They did a lot of classic American songs. It was a ton of fun!

On Saturday, I went to the church to put on an activity for our Primary kids (4-11 year olds). We practice our Primary Program and then made "I Am A Child of God" picture frames and then ate popsicles. Afterwards, I went to a baptism for one of our Primary kids, Jake. It has been a long time since I've been to a baptism. It was so sweet! He is such a cute kid! I'm so glad that I was able to go. Afterwards, I went to the temple while Kenneth did some homework, and then later that night we went to a Real soccer game! It was so fun to watch them play! We didn't win though...1-0. Too bad.

Sunday was the day of the Primary Program...I was SO nervous that kids wouldn't show up (we have a REALLY small ward) but much to my suprise, and in answer to prayers, almost ALL of our kids showed up!! It went really well! The kids did great at their speaking parts, you could hear them sing (which you definitely couldn't when we practiced the day before) and the Spirit was definitely present! I am so happy that things went well!!

Anyway, that was pretty much our weekend!

Beautiful Jewelry!

Hi Everyone! My friend Mariah has started making her own beautiful custom jewelry and I wanted to let everyone know about it! All of it is handmade and it is GORGEOUS! Here is a picture of one of my favorites:

If you would like to see more of her BEAUTIFUL creations, click on the two links I have for "Mariah's Creations" under my favorite websites list. Enjoy!!

Wedding Pictures

These are for you Ashley! Here are some photos from Kenneth's cousin's wedding we went to last weekend. It was gorgeous! Aubrey...I hope you don't mind that I stole your pictures for my blog! :)

The Bardsley Family (Kenneth's aunt, uncle and cousins)

The beautiful bride!
The beautiful colors of the wedding

The awesome tent the reception took place in. I love the orbs!

Family Fun!!

So, Tuesday evening we were able to meet up with my Grandma Adams & Aunt Yvonne who came into town from California. We met up at my Aunt Mary-Margaret's house in Highland, UT. It was SOO fun! I've been bad, and haven't visited my cousins in awhile either, so it was great being able to catch up with everyone! I love my family!

My Grandma...she is the greatest! Every time I see her she has one of her pretty scarfs around her neck, and we were all remembering all of her great stories! She seriously has met all kinds of fascinating people! And she always has such great advice, like how you'll scare away boys if you have any debt, and how if you put your arm out of the window on a school bus, it might get cut off by a car passing by! So great! Love it! It was so great to see her!

My Aunt Yvonne is so cool! She and my Uncle Erik have done all kinds of fun, crazy things! They went skydiving a little bit ago, so I of COURSE had to tell her of our Hawaii skydiving adventure! She was so thrilled to have another crazy couple in the family! She told us we HAD to try scuba diving, so we've definitely added that to our list!

Lastly, Aunt Mary-Margaret...it is always so interesting visiting her! She is great! She has 7 kids though and they are certainly full of energy! I was really close with that family growing up. In fact, my sister and I lived with Aunt Mary-Margaret the summer my uncle died and helped take care of the 5 kids. She later remarried a wonderful guy named Dave, and they had 2 kids together. It was SO fun to catch up with the older cousins as Kenneth kept the little girls entertained by playing boggle, Chutes & Ladders, tag, jumped on the trampoline, played "horsie", etc. It was a great little mini reunion! Gotta love it!