Gratitude

I'm always late on the Holiday things. I was just thinking about all of my blessings and thought I should express gratitude for some of them now.

Family
People who love you despite the lame things you do and say... or as an old friend said: people who know everything about you and love you anyway. Mostly the people who are there to help shoulder the burden even when it's a burden that causes those you love most difficulty themselves. It's humbling to be loved in that way. It's painful. I hope to be able to measure up to what has been given us sometime. In the mean time, I work hard to do right by these people.

Friends
Or the people who can make you laugh and see the color in life. I love my friends!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ
I'm usually not one to do this so publicly but I want to share my testimony.
I know that God lives, created the heavens and the earth and loves each of his children in a way that is only possible from an omnipotent and omniscient being. I know that Jesus Christ walked the earth, humbly lived his life by the will of the Father and sacrificed all for each of us. I am so grateful for that sacrifice. I have a testimony that the boy Joseph Smith truly saw the Father and the Son, that he acted on the inspiration of Deity and did receive the keys of the priesthood. That these keys are on the earth today and we have access to a living Prophet of God. I also have a testimony that through this power of the priesthood, we all can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost to bare testimony of the truth of all things.

The Temple
How blessed I am to have the sealing powers of the House of the Lord! It is here that I have been sealed to my beloved family for all eternity and have experienced a peace and a feeling of being loved in such a deep and profound way that words fail me. It is here that I have been involved in service that can only be described as transcendent.

Nature
I'm a nature girl to my core. I'm most content being in the wilderness surrounded by the various beauties that this earth provides. I find deep comfort and joy in the sounds, smells and visual beauty that cannot be imitated. I love to feel the earth in my hands when I garden; I love to observe and interact with animals and experience with thanksgiving what they provide us in their various capacities.

Music
I cannot describe the experience of making music. It is the ultimate. I am rendered speechless to explain it. It is like a prayer- a sincere and joyful expression of love. It is such a part of me that I don't have a single period of life where music wasn't an integral part of who I am.

I could go on and on... In short, I am one blessed woman!

The Winds of Change are a Blowin

Life is an enigmatic thing for us OB1's. We make careful plans only to be vigilantly guided as far away from what we thought was best to something better. It's never static or boring. I hesitate to say what's up with us because we are only beginning the process but I will say... we are practicing hiragana, brushing up on our international etiquette, and beginning the process of storing/giving/arranging. Scary? Well, sort of. Peaceful when you wouldn't think. Keep checking in, I'll reveal the layers as they come.

Gratitude

I'm always late with holiday related posts. Anyway I'm making a long list of gratitudes today. It will not be complete but I hope that I'll remember to include all of the most recent things.

Parents

Seriously, I don't know where we'd be without the seemingly endless sacrifices of our parents. Without getting

Pictoral Update :)

Here are a few pictures to catch you up with what we've been up to:

Owen's Birthday

On our trip to North Carolina. This was taken somewhere in central Texas.

It rained the entire time we were in North Carolina due to Hurricane Ida. As we were leaving, the rain let up just long enough while we were at a rest stop for me to capture a few shots of the tail end of autumn in NC.

Tennessee proved to be a humorous place for town names. Owen particularly enjoyed this one.

Rest stop at some lake in Tennessee.

We stopped in Memphis to try and get a picture of the Mississippi River. It proved impossible to capture the majesty of the river with the lenses and vantage point that we had. We did get to stop at a few kitchy shops there and capture some fun.

The Mississippi River. Arkansas is on the other side.

We stopped at this really great shop on Beale Street in Memphis Called A. Schwab. It's been open since 1876 and had wears for sale that has been around since then all the way to the present. I found a package of men's underwear from the 1950"s, A truckers hat from the 1970's complete with a pom pom on top, and so many other cool sundry items that I nearly had to buy something. Here is Owen and Dylan trying on a few of the other hats they had for sale.

Visiting the king. Graceland was egregiously priced so we settled for a public statue.

November so far...

Pictures

Here are a few pictures from our trip. They were mostly taken at rest stops due to the fact that it was raining constantly the whole time we were in North Carolina. It's a sham because it was very beautiful there. Enjoy!