Thought provoking...

I received this in an email last week and thought it was something we should all think about. Let me know your thoughts!

"Consider these words written by Abraham Lincoln as part of a
resolution in 1863:

"'We have been the recipients of the
choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in
peace and prosperity; we have grown in number, wealth, and power as no
other Nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten
the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched
and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of
our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom
and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too
self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving
grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us.

"'It behooves
us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our . .
sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.' (John Wesley Hill,
Abraham Lincoln, Man of God, 4th ed., New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, p.
391.)"

Topic: Gratitude

(Marion G. Romney, "Gratitude and Thanksgiving," Ensign, Nov. 1982, 50)


If this is what President Lincoln thought about his time, 145 years ago, what must he be thinking now? What changes must be made in our own lives to prevent this from happening further in our own homes??? We definitely can't do "life" by ourselves!!

Finals

Today I took my last final for this semester and a huge load has been taken off! The end of this semester was so stressful because we had a HUGE test evaluating everything we have learned since the first day of school - CRAZY STRESSFUL!! There wasn't really any way to study for it either since that was just way too much info - an entire year and 4 months worth of info could not be re-studied over just a few weeks. So, needless to say that I have been more stressed than ever - my poor family has put up with me so nicely (thanks my loves!).

But, no worries here...I PASSED with flying colors. YIPPEE!!! Whew!!! I am now at the point in school that if I wanted to I can take the state board exam to get my LPN license and work to get some experience, while continuing, of course, toward my RN. I'm contemplating that - I can hardly wait to be working again. Something to think about I guess. But for the meantime, I get an entire week off before starting again. YIPPEE!!!!!

Family from Washington

A couple weeks ago Mark's family from Washington came to visit. His parents, sister Jennifer and her son Davis were here for an entire weekend and we had alot of fun with them. I thought we had more pictures but I can't seem to find them, but here is one from our backyard. Thanks for visiting - it was a great time!

Little kicks

Brayden just started playing soccer with Little Kicks and he loves it! Little Kicks is designed for preschoolers so they can learn the basics of the sport without any competetive games. It is so cute to watch a bunch of 3-5 year olds run around the field with their little soccer balls - I love it! In just the few weeks that he has been participating I have seen a ton of improvement in his listening and following direction skills. He is also really good at handling the ball, instead of it handling him. Check him out!!

Football

Tarell has just finished a season (ok, just 6 weeks) of playing flag football. He had a blast and showed some real talent. Here are some pics of his adventures. As you can see, he even won a trophy and a medal for the most flags!! Way to go Tarell! He just might be a future NFL superstar!