Fishing, Falling and Fat Cats

This last week, two of my most favorite people in the whole world came to visit us in Rexburg! Jenna and Lydia (sisters 3 and 7 if you will) arrived in Rexburg on Saturday night and then Jordan and I finally got to see them Sunday night when we got home from Utah. It was great! They came over to our apartment for the first time, Skyped with the other five family members in Richland, ate a good amount of our food haha and then went back to Grandma and Grandpa's to sleep. And they definitely needed it for the crazy week ahead!

Monday

Jenna and Lydia came over after Jordan and I got home from work and school, and then Ashlee met us so we could all take a short road trip to Idaho Falls. We ate lunch at Chick-fil-A since Jenna and Lydia had never eaten there. Whaaaa? I know, right? Then we did a little shopping at the mall, rode up and down the escalator since it's irresistible, and drove home since Lydia wasn't going to last much longer. Then after I did a little homework (which was the last thing I wanted to do with family in town), we played mini golf at Fat Cats and ate dinner at Gringo's. Lydia absolutely LOVED their chips and salsa. I'm pretty sure she only ate one bite of her actual meal because she couldn't get enough. But who can blame her?! We finally ended the day with watching American Ninja Warrior. Talk about a great day!

Tuesday
I didn't have class on Tuesday so Jenna and Lydia slept over Monday night. We pretty much spent the morning sleeping in, getting dressed, eating breakfast and cleaning up a little. Once Jordan got home from work, we met Grandma, Megan and baby Cort at the hospital to eat lunch. I know that sounds weird but they have GREAT food there for a reasonable price. You can't beat it. So to anyone living in Rexburg, I dare you to eat there once and tell me you don't like it. Anyway, we then proceeded to go bowling at Fat Cats and spent quite a bit of money at the arcade haha. But it was really fun and we got to play with a baby so it was totally worth it. The girls and Jordan played some Nintendo while I studied nursing and then we made spaghetti for dinner and watched America's Got Talent. It was a great week so far.

Wednesday
Our activities that day started a little later because of classes and work but we still had fun! Jordan went fishing with Grandpa, the girls and Derek and Kyle while I stayed home to study and do homework. Apparently the fish didn't feel like biting very much that day but that's fishing for you. So we decided to go to Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner and stuff our faces with delicious food. But since Lydia isn't a big fan of pizza, she decided to just eat a salad composed of spinach, boiled eggs and ranch haha. Isn't she cute? It was good to just sit, eat, talk and laugh with family and get away from the stress of work and school.  Great end to a great day.

Thursday
Well this was probably my least favorite day for two reasons:
1. I had a twelve hour clinical so I pretty much spent all day at the hospital. And even though I really love working there, it was a little frustrating because I wanted to be spending time with my family.
2. Jenna fell off a horse and got a mini concussion. It was one of the scariest moments ever. But we'll get to that.
After I got home from clinical, Jordan and I met everyone at Porter Park for Beehive's annual picnic. We watched Lydia and Megan try to knock each other off pedestals and then went over to Grandma and Grandpa's to ride horses. Ashlee, Stephen and their dog Roxy even came over to join us! But it was all fun and games until Jenna's horse decided to start trotting and then bounce her off. It was terrifying to see her faceplant into the ground and not move for a second. At that moment, every possible worst scenario was running through my mind. But fortunately, she only came away with some sweet bruises and scrapes and a few sore muscles. We aren't sure, but we think she got a mild concussion because she couldn't remember anything about the accident and her head hurt pretty bad (no pupil changes or loss of consciousness though which was good). She was pretty shaken up by everything, especially by the fact that she couldn't remember anything. So I asked her if she would like a blessing of comfort and healing and she said yes. Jordan blessed her that everything would be fine, she would be at peace and that she wouldn't suffer any serious or future problems from the accident. It was a really sweet moment and I could tell Jenna felt much better from it. We decided to go get some food to eat and then went back to our apartment and watched "Dumb and Dumber" and basically pee'd our pants laughing. Too much info? Well if you've ever seen the movie then you can agree it's one of the most hilariously stupid movies out there. You can't help it because it's a classic. Looking back at everything that happened, it's obvious that God and a few others were looking out for us. And for that I am extremely grateful.

Friday
For the first part of the day I was extremely stressed and nervous. But once I took my nursing test and realized I had passed, all was well with the world! Haha I know that sounds pathetic but I can name probably twenty people who agree with me. Anyway, we ate lunch at Arctic Circle (since there aren't any in the Tri-Cities), played some Nintendo, watched some Office and suffered through the drenching rain to walk around campus. After getting a few things at the bookstore, we played a little pool and ping pong at the school! I think they really enjoyed that. Then we decided to eat dinner at Wingers (which I think was Lydia's tenth chicken meal for the week? What can I say, she loves chicken) and hung out at Grandma and Grandpa's for awhile. The girls decided to spend the night at our apartment and end the day with watching YouTube videos while I studied pathophysiology. Our great week was unfortunately coming to an end.

Saturday
After sleeping in a little, I took Lydia and Megan with me to the school while I practiced a few nursing skills in the lab and took a test. They wanted to come with me because they really wanted to play pool while I took my test haha. Might as well take advantage of the free stuff, right? Then we went home, watched more of The Office and ate my homemade Mexican casserole for lunch. I had to do more homework stuff so Jordan played Nintendo with them. Now that I'm actually writing this out, all of the days are starting to sound the same haha. But I guess that happens during the summer. Anyway, we met the rest of the cousins to go fishing and actually caught some! Megan caught one, Derek caught a couple, and Lydia even caught one. It was a proud big sister moment cause I just know she got her awesome skills from me. After packing all of their stuff up, we ordered pizza at eleven at night and watched one last Office episode before going to bed. It was hard because I didn't want the week to end and I didn't want to say goodbye in the morning.

But sadly, all good things in this earthly life must come to an end and we waved goodbye as two of my most favorite people in the world drove away. Luckily, we'll see them again in a month when we go up for Silverwood! Looking back on on the week, I think it's safe to say that we participated in some "wholesome recreational activities" which the prophets teach us are an important foundation to successful marriages and families.

*If you want to learn more about that, you can read "The Family: A Proclamation to the World"  at https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation

Today's society offers a lot of distractions that tend to compete with family time. Many people think that they need to spend hours and hours at work trying to make money so they can have nice things and go nice places with their family. Ironically, they end up spending most of their life away from their family. But in my opinion, this world would be a lot better off if more people understood that it's even more important to focus their time and energy on spending a balanced amount of quality time with their family. At first, I kept telling myself that my sisters chose the worst possible week of the semester to visit since I had two major tests, clinical and competency to prepare for. But now I realize that their timing was perfect because their company was exactly what I needed to get through the stress. They made the week much more enjoyable and manageable; they helped me learn how to balance my time and remember what's important in life.

After reading this blog post, I'm sure you can agree that we didn't do very many extravagant things this week. But we spent quality time together, made memories, played games that made us work together, laughed, prayed together and overall, became closer as a family. I'm so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ which teaches us how to prioritize our time and reminds us to keep an eternal perspective of what really matters most.

525,600 Minutes

About two weeks ago, Jordan and I ventured our way up to the Tri-Cities (Washington) to celebrate with Jenna as she graduated from high school! This was our second year in a row doing this and the third high school graduation in a row for our family. Crazy, right? One of my former high school teachers joked that my family would probably show up to graduation next year because we forgot someone wasn't graduating haha. 

Anyway, we kept up with the tradition of attending Lydia's third grade field day in the morning and watching her play around with her friends.Then later that night, a large group of us (about 20 or so family members) gathered at the Toyota center to cheer on Jenna as her name was called and she officially graduated. It was a blast! Jordan and I even joined Mom and Dad in helping at the Senior Party until 4:30 that morning! It was a crazy weekend with family and it certainly didn't last long enough.We'll just have to make it a yearly tradition even if no one's graduating!

Looking back through the last year it's crazy to think how much everyone has changed and everything that's happened in such a short amount of time. Just like the popular show tune from the musical Rent explains, there are only 525,600 minutes in a year. It might sound like a lot, but it's really not when we consider everything that could happen in such a short amount of time.

So what's happened in the last 525,600 minutes of my life? Quite a bit actually. Since the last high school graduation:

I started the nursing program at BYU-Idaho (and I only have six months left until I graduate)

Jordan and I got engaged and then married six months later

Alex received her mission call to central Salt Lake City and then entered the mission field about five months later

Jordan and I spent our first Thanksgiving in Utah and our first Christmas and New Year's together in Washington

Sammie turned 16

Shonna started her first year at middle school

Ronnie finished her last year at middle school

Lydia was baptized

Mom and Dad celebrated their 21st anniversary

Jenna (as well as three of her cousins) graduated from high school

Jordan and I moved into our first apartment together in Rexburg

I started a job at the Homestead Assisted Living nursing home

Now obviously, a lot more happened within the last year but those were the major events that I could remember. And interestingly enough, they were all about family (in some way or another). So that just means that in the end, family is what really matters. Sure, there may be activities or materialistic things that seem important and significant at the time, but sooner or later they fade away.

My grandparents gave our family a plaque for one of my parents' anniversaries and it's basically become our family motto. The plaque reads:

"What matters most is what lasts the longest and families are forever" (M. Russell Ballard)

In today's world full of distractions, it's even more important to remember our priorities and focus our time on the things that will last the longest and bring us the most happiness. This may present an even harder challenge since many of us are used to the instant gratification of today's modern advances which don't force us to be patient. But through personal experience, I've learned that the best things come to those who wait.

We never know how long each of us has here on earth. Our lives could end at any time. Through Christ's Atonement and His Gospel we can live with our families forever. But now is the time for us to strengthen those relationships and prove to God that we are worthy of that eternal blessing. We only have so many minutes in this life time to tell our family that we love them. So why waste any of them?

Honestly, I am quite pleased with the last 525,600 minutes. And I can't wait to see what happens next.

The Freedom of Forgiveness

This week in my family class, we're discussing the topic of forgiveness and its importance to the family. To be honest, I can't really think of many times in my life when I've had to forgive someone for doing something so terrible or detrimental to my life.
Except there was one experience almost two years ago.
A friend of mine got extremely angry at me for a situation I was involved in that had been full of miscommunication and upsetting assumptions. I did my best to apologize as much as I could and explain everything that happened but to this day I'm still not sure it was enough. And the whole situation made me angry at this friend for being unwilling to listen to me or even try to understand. To me it seemed that everything had been completely blown out of proportion. Friendships were tested and there were a lot of tears and harsh words involved. It was a mess and now almost two years later it still hasn't been completely resolved. But even with how angry and frustrated I was, I knew I had to forgive this friend if I was to move on and get some peace back into my life. So I forgave that friend even though I knew it would probably only be a one-way forgiveness. It probably sounds really simple to just forgive but to be honest it was hard for me. This friend had assumed some things about me and about the situation that really shook up my life for a few months without even trying to consider how it was affecting me. It was easier to just stay mad rather then try to empathize with this friend. But I forgave anyway because I knew I wasn't perfect, and if I wanted God to forgive me then I needed to forgive too.

Now you're probably thinking, "If you've forgiven that person, shouldn't you forget about it already?" but I disagree with that assumption. Many times we hear the phrase "forgive and forget." But I don't think that's an accurate statement and it's a phrase we often misunderstand. When people say "forgive and forget" it is almost literally impossible to forget the incident itself unless we go through some sort of surgery or head trauma that causes us to lose our memory. Rather, the phrase should be interpreted to mean that once we forgive, we forget those feelings of anger, resentment, bitter or maybe even hatred. We can't forget what happened, but we can forget those negative feelings. And that doesn't require surgery or head trauma. It only requires a lot of prayer, faith and trust in the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

I've included the following powerful YouTube video that I think perfectly illustrates the healing power of the Atonement. I don't know if I would have the strength to do what Chris Williams did after such a tragic accident, but if something like that ever happened to me I know I could do anything through Christ.

I'm sure he hasn't forgotten the accident, since he has daily reminders of what happened and who he's missing. But through the love of Christ he has forgotten those burdening negative feelings and has been able to move on with his life, as well as worked to improve the life of his offender.

According to the textbook we're studying, there are five steps to forgiveness:

1. Recall the hurt. In order to forgive, we have to be clear about the wrongdoing and acknowledge the injury.
2. Empathize. In order to forgive, it is important to understand the offender's feelings.
3. Offer the gift of forgiveness. It is much easier when the victim realizes his/her own shortcomings and recognizes the times they were forgiven.
4. Commit publicly to forgive. The victim has a better chance of successful forgiveness if he/she verbalizes the forgiveness commitment to another person.
5. Hold on to forgiveness. During this stage it is important to move forward. When thoughts about the painful injury return, remember that the decision to forgive has already been made and use that knowledge to replace painful memories with something more meaningful. 

(Successful Marriages and Families-Chapter 20: Repentance and Forgiveness in Family Life)

So next time someone offends or injures you---whether on purpose or as an accident---try to apply those five steps along with the power of the Atonement. Coming from personal experience, I can testify that it works and the forgiveness even in the worst situations is possible.