What I'll do when I'm hungry...

This happened back in January.
We went out to eat for dinner on a day Mel decided to wear panties. Let's just say, I remembered that fact when it was too late and we were already seated at a table. So I took her out to our van in hopes of finding spare clean clothes or even just a diaper! There was nothing. So Mel is freaking out because she's tired, hungry, and cold and I'm trying to figure out a solution for this problem while Ali and Dan are still sitting inside IHOP sitting at the table with no clue to my predicament.
Before I go on, I want you to think what you would do in this situation...
Here's what I did;
I stripped my child down, put her back in her coat and arranged her sweater in such a way as to be disguised as pants. Then using a bandana (the only thing I could find), I wrapped it around her waist to act as a belt to keep her sweater-pants up.
(Think I'm crazy yet?)
Then we went into the restaurant and ate dinner.
Call me what you will, but when it comes to food and my hunger ...I sometimes do some crazy things.

Refiners Fire

I have really struggled lately in reading the scriptures and decided today to change how I study. Instead of reading it straight through, I want to study the scriptures by topic. I'm even roping Dan in on this so I can be accountable to somebody. We created a list of topics that interested us as well as the regular ones that's good to learn and relearn. Then we cut, folded, and each drew a topic from a jar. My topic for this week is the title of this blog (just FYI, Dan's topic is the Millennium) and I have always been ultra-curious as to how the refining process worked. I found this article on an LDS church lesson idea website which I hope you enjoy as much as I did. I'm looking forward to diving in the scriptures this week with a new resolve:

The following story is a great example of how the Lord teaches and molds us through life's trials.

There was a group of women in a Bible study on the book of Malachi. As they were studying chapter three, they came across verse three which says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." (Malachi 3:3). This verse puzzled the women and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out about the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible study. That week this woman called up a silver smith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest in silver beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silver smith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot--then she thought again about the verse, that he sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.

She asked the silver smith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silver smith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"

He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy--when I see my image in it."

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has His eye on you.

Author unknown

Happy Independence Day!

I remember around Christmas when everybody was saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". Apparently people got caught up in being politically correct or something. Now July 4th has become a "Happy Fourth of July". I'm a little saddened that we have replaced independence day for just another holiday or day off (I'm not intending to offend anyone, I too have been caught up in this). Then there are the people that claim July 4th celebrates the birth of our country. We have forgotten that it was the day we declared our independence. That was when we as a country were fed up with "taxation without representation" and yet now here we are several hundred years later threatening to pass the largest tax bill in history! What has our government evolved into?
I was very touched when I went to church yesterday and we sang all the verses to the Star-Spangled-Banner. What a great song it is and what a great country we have. It is my hope and prayer that our flag may always "wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave".

Fwd: Fwd: Fwd:

Some forwards are downright hilarious, and others take a more "serious" tone. I like the funny ones and every once in a while will forward one myself. I just don't understand how people can forward "warnings" about things without validating it first! So many people assume someone else would have checked it's validity and forward it themselves! Or- because it has a link to snopes.com at the bottom it must be true! I have actually clicked on the links several times only to find it was a faulty site, then in looking further I find it's completely false or it's blown totally out of proportion. Come ON people, have we as a society become so gullible as to believe everything that we see on the Internet???

And so it ends...

Yes, The library had a sale too good for Dan to pass up. He filled a plastic bag full of books (I'm surprised they made it out to the car without falling through the cheap plastic bag they gave him) and bought them for $5. Yup, my hunny is a book-bargain shopper! So alas our deal is broke and now I don't know what to do to help him curb his habit! No, he never spends too much at once, but we are running out of room to keep books, books, books! Any ideas?

As for this blog, I am horrible at blogging, so I will probably never change the background or do any of the really awesome things all my friends do with their blogs. I am just so technologically impaired that even posting on a regular basis is a challenge for me. I vow to start slowly -maybe once a week and then hopefully I'll get a hang of this...

Hey, there's something I can do!!

So, I've been all fired up over the government and the idiotic things they're doing and wondering 'I wish somebody would do something.' At first I blamed Pres. Obama for the liberal ideas he had and his fanatic agenda. It wasn't until much later I realized many Democrats and Republicans alike have become corrupt. I felt helpless watching our constitution being trampled on. It's frightening to see our rights disregarded. With some direction I stumbled over to this web site:
http://theglennbeck912project.com/
This site is built to unite our party affiliations in the upholding our constitution. If you are a supporter of our constitution, I recommend you check it out and see what you think.

Newsweek: Bible supports gay marriage??!!

So, apparently Newsweek has posted an article claiming that the Bible supports gay marriage. I do not feel this claim is correct at all. While most Christians may feel the article blasphemous or an outrage, I actually feel more grounded in the beliefs I hold. Why? because I feel that all it proves is that the Bible can not and should not stand alone in order to understand the true meanings. By itself, the Bible can be distorted. This is another reason why God intended for us to have continuing revelation! With additional revelations, we can understand the intended interpretations of the Bible. That's why I believe the Book of Mormon to be true, I believe it was written for our day. That's why I believe in living prophets. But hey, don't take my word for it...