Happy Birthday, Ira!

Last week Wednesday was Ira's 15th birthday.  It also marks our 2 1/2 year anniversary in the States.  Go us!  It has been quite a bumpy ride and I'm sure the bumps aren't anywhere near over, but we have 2 1/2 years in our belts.  Happy 15th, my Ira!

Since she is now in seminary her dad and I got her some nice scriptures.

Little One got her some new earphones.

Mom and Dad got her a scripture bag and some hair things.

She has been wanting cereal for an after-school snack so Uncle Kyle got her some, plus a little cash. LOL

Little One and I got her a gift certificate for a pedicure. :)

And...we are all very lucky to have Mom to make desserts.  Ira picked a lemon chiffon cake.  SO yummy!

Divine Help Through Others

You know, I've always tended to have trouble with Sunday School.  I know, I know.  If I'm bored then it's my problem for not having prepared myself as I should.  That rarely means with having read things ahead of time and mostly means having a good attitude.  (Disclaimer: I love our SS teachers!  They are both very well prepared and bring a wonderful spirit to the meeting.  It's NOT them, it's me.)  However, there have been little tender mercies peppered throughout Sunday School lately.  Interesting that the Lord chooses that class to send down a little jolt of understanding/comfort rather than in Relief Society (though I have had them happen there too.)  Surely there is some significance to that that I have yet to discover.

Back in the beginning of August there was a scripture read that was perfect and just what I needed to hear.

"Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. ...Be still and know that I am God."

D&C 58:3, 101:16

Today it wasn't even something that the teacher said but out of the blue the Lord handed me something I prayed for a few days ago.  I have a new friend who's blog seems tailer-made just for me.  She has a way of putting things that is amazing and very comforting.  She has been praying for understanding in some of the trials going on in their lives.  Honestly, I remember thinking that it was nice the Lord gave her some understanding but I don't think He's going to just tell me "why" if I ask.  But, I asked Him anyway.

The new friend's latest post is about accepting grace and I've been pondering it the last few days.  One thing that really struck me was her question to herself.  "How can I ever accept the grace of Jesus Christ if I cannot accept the "grace" of those around me that are very willing to save me?"

Now, to back up a little here, I've had lots of "grace" given to me over my whole life, but LOTS over the last couple of years.  Some things are easier for me to accept than others.  There are a couple of instances where people are continuing to give me opportunities I would never be able to have otherwise and, as nice as that is, it's been very hard to truly accept.  I've known people throughout my life that, even with a full knowledge of their actions, say things in such a way, hoping that people will do just that.  Give them a handout.  Talk about taking advantage of people!  I never, ever, ever want to EVER do that to anyone and so when something so kind is offered my brain automatically tries to figure out what I did/said that made them offer this thing.  I must have subconsciously been trying to take advantage of them.  No matter how many times I'm told that it's fine, that they want to do this, that it isn't a problem...I still seem to think I must have done something and even if they don't now, they will someday be offended and wish they'd never offered.  Silly?  Maybe.  Maybe not.

Back to Sunday School.  The teacher asked if we'd ever given service and NOT had it accepted.  Yeah.  You think you're doing something nice and someone is offended you offered to help them.  Sure makes you not want to ever offer again, doesn't it?  Then it hit me.  By not truly, way down, accepting someone's offer of help, am I not doing that very thing?  I know when I'm on the giving end I get as much pleasure, if not more, from helping as they get from what I'd offered.  Am I then taking away that blessing from someone else if I don't take what's offered?

Lastly, the Lord gave me one more little tidbit.  Sometimes we pray and pray for His help but fail to remember that most of the time our prayers are answered through other people.  The Lord must get so sad when He tries to help us and we turn around and refuse the help of others, the very means He is using to answer our prayers.  Then we tend to think that He doesn't even care about us because He didn't answer our prayers when in reality He did and we didn't recognize it.

I still think I have a ways to go.  I'm not quite sure where that fine line is between taking advantage of people and humbling accepting help.  I'm working on it though.

Ray Park

Three years ago, when life was being lived in Disney World, I got to go to a very cool martial arts show in Hollywood Studios.  Being Star Wars Weekends, they had Ray Park there.  In case you don't know, he played Darth Maul in Episode 1.  Honestly, I really don't like the first three movies.  They don't even feel like Star Wars.  The originals (4, 5 and 6) are MUCH better.  However, this show was AMAZING.  It was probably about 45 min to an hour long and very, very cool.  Ray Park is such a nice guy.  Not that I really know him or anything, but he was so cute with the kids up on the stage.  Gotta love the accent too. *sigh* ;)  So worth the line we waited in.

A couple of weeks ago my brother came to tell me he'd just bought tickets to Salt Lake's Comic Con.  I had no idea we even had one and was kinda bummed that I couldn't go.  As a consolation prize though, he told me he was willing to take something to get signed if I wanted.  As soon as he told me Ray Park was there, that was it.  That was what I wanted.

We rummaged around the house as I tried to think of something I could have him take.  I don't like the movie, and therefore don't own it, so it's not like I could give him that to have him sign.  Kyle has this cool Star Wars Weekends messenger bag he could have used, but that's his bag and not mine.  Still no go.  I thought maybe my sparring gear helmet!  But, this had to be something that he could carry around with him the whole day so that didn't work either.  I don't have any weapons for him to sign, but that finally reminded me that Little One has a pair of padded chucks.  Sweet!  I gave Kyle those and told Little One I'd replace her chucks.

Kyle was pretty excited to tell me about getting them signed.  Apparently, Ray Park was very impressed.  He told Kyle that no one had ever brought him something so cool to sign.  He even got up and played with them.  Kyle has a little video of it, but he hasn't sent it to me yet.  I guess he was also very impressed that we'd seen him in Disney World and now Little One and I are taking karate too.  I hope he comes again next year and I'll be sure and go meet him myself.  I still won't be to black belt yet, but a year close than I am now. :)  I'm not sure what he wrote after his signature, or what the marks on the other chuck mean, but very cool still.

Homeschool Has Begun Again!

This year for science we are doing chemistry.  Mom's favorite. :)  Specifically, we are learning about atoms and molecules.  Little One is really enjoying it too.  Here are a couple of the experiments we've done so far.

First we learned what atoms and molecules are and then we made some with colored marshmallows.

Here we learned that molecules move faster than cold ones.

Is there space between molecules?  Why yes, there is!

We are also very lucky to be able to get together with a group of homeschooled kids every week.  We've had a get together day and then our first official day of classes so far.  We will be studying a different subject every month.  September is the human body.  The fun thing is that she does karate with a couple of these kids too.

The kids tie dyed shirts.

Little One and Hunter playing with soap bubbles made from dry ice.

Dry ice filled bubbles!

Of course, we had to do the classic "coke and mentos" fountains.

Zip line fun!

Muscles and how they work.

The digestion process.

Seeing how much grass a cow stomach can hold.

The 5 senses.

Here are the kids (minus one who wasn't there) with their tie dyed shirts!

I wish I'd looked at my camera settings first so I'd known they weren't quite right.  Cute kids anyway though. :)

Karate Summer Party and Visit From Laurie Ann

This summer in karate was AWESOME.  We did so many fun things.  We had a "karate in the park" week, a weapons week (!), a "spar wars" week, and all kinds of fun stuff.  At the end we had our annual end of summer party.  It was really fun, but since I was wet a lot of the time I didn't take many pictures.

Little One and I had fun racing on this.  She did it with a lot of the other kids too.

Over Labor Day weekend, my very good friend, Laurie Ann, came up for a visit.  We had a blast together!  It was a great mixture of relaxation and fun.

After church on Sunday we drove around town.  We had to stop by the temple, of course.

We went on a bike ride.

And then finished up with a couple of hours at Cherry Hill.  So fun!

I'm so glad she came!

Art Work

Here are a couple of things the girls have done.  Ira did her self-portrait from a picture I took of her.  It was an assignment for her art class last year.

Here is a watercolor Little One did this year for art.

After church one day I saw this outside.

Here Ira was trying to teach Little One to draw a tree.