Last friday I was able to go to Bismark (4 hours away) to a Stake Relief Society activity with some friends. I went with my friend Mandy, her sis-in-law and my friend Jaime and my new friend Amanda. WE.HAD.A.BLAST! My sweet husband agreed to watch Mandy's 3 kids overnight! He has now decided that he definitely does NOT want five children! He was really good with them though. They played football out in the yard and he even took them all for ice cream! He cleaned out my car for us to drive and even had it washed and vacuumed it out. I was worried there for a minute that he was being TOO supportive of me going away for a day! He is so good to me and I am sure that I don't deserve it! I know you are all shaking your heads in agreement right now! :)
The laughing began as soon as the girls arrived at my house. I drove and they all gave me grief about my "crazy" driving. I let them know that there is a big difference between a "crazy" driver and a "bad" driver. I also assured them that I had never been in an accident or even had a speeding ticket. That all changed tonight. I just received my first speeding ticket! I knew when the day finally came that I would just smile and take it. I was only going 80 in a 70. I knew the cop was after me the second I saw him brake to turn around on the highway. I pulled right over. He gave me a warning for my registration that hasn't been changed to North Dakota yet and gave me a citation for 5 over. What a nice man! He really was super nice. He told me that he knocked it down to 75 for me because we were just starting our little family and I had pulled right over for him. I told him I wasn't into high speed chases! Oh yeah, the ticket was only 25 bucks! I love North Dakota!
In Bismark we stopped at Walmart for Jaime to buy jammies because she forgot hers and then we headed to the Olive Garden for dinner. We had a blast and laughed the whole time! Amanda has a fantastic laugh and snorts. This makes everything funnier and we just fed off of eachother and got louder and louder! We stayed at Super 8 on really crappy beds that night but still had fun! When we got to the hotel I remembered that I had decided at the last minute to wash my pajama pants and had left them in the dryer. I got to wear my jeans to bed! They all made fun of me because I was teasing Jaime that she purposely left her things at home so she would have an excuse to buy new things! At the hotel Amanda made a joke about me, myself and Amanda. It was getting confusing have two Mandy's and an Amanda. We were rolling. Maybe you had to be there! :) Mandy took a really embarrasing picture of Amanda and I asleep that I will not share with you. Our bed only had a flat sheet and no fitted sheet. In the picture there was no sheet visible and my blanket was wadded up over my head and I was flat on my back and looked dead. It was a rough night...what can I say?
We got up early Saturday morning and hit Hobby Lobby. I LOVE HOBBY LOBBY! It is sort of a love hate relationship though. I get so excited and overwhelmed just being in that store that I feel like my chest might cave in. I just have to remember to breathe! Then we went to Kohls for a little more shopping before the activity.
We (at least I) had a wonderful time at the activity. It was all about "treasures." The relief society did a great job and everything was well planned. We started with a talk and then a luncheon. The food was great and so was the company! Then they had 3 workshops. The first was on treasuring family. They talked about geneology and keeping memories. The couple that did this presentation were so cute and told some fun stories about their family. They talked about how sometimes it's the simple moments that your kids remember forever. You don't really have to go out and do big wonderful things to create lasting memories with your family. It was a great reminder to just slow down and enjoy my kids while they are little.
The next workshop was about treasuring the temple. Again...a very good presentation and lots of things to think about. They handed out the temple magazine from the church and had us look through it at the pictures and pick which one was our favorite. My favorite was a picture of the celestial room in the Idaho Falls Temple. It has big walls with murals of families together in heaven. It is beautiful. We had to share our favorite with the people sitting next us. Kelli (our RS president for our ward) was next to me and had picked the same picture. I had to laugh because an old lady behind me made the comment that all the ladies in the picture were thin and beautiful! :) Then they had us get in groups and read a story and share what the treasure in the story was. Our story was about an LDS woman whose mom had passed away. She was going to the temple to do her mom's work. She recalled bearing her testimony to her mom as she was passing away and telling her to share the gospel with those on the other side. She could feel her mom there with her as she went to the temple that day. Right now my family has some very important family work to get done. We are planning to do the work for my mom's 2 brothers and a sister that have passed. Through the entire meeting this was all I could think about. It was a very emotional meeting for me. They put Kelli, Mandy and I in a group with 3 older ladies. The one lady was very emotional and told us that it had been one year yesterday since her husband had passed away. She is getting ready to go to the temple to do the work for him. It is such a blessing in my life to have the knowledge of the gospel. I think that my knowledge of life after this and eternal families is the only thing that has kept me going through some very hard things.
The last workshop was presented by an older couple. The husband is a patriarch and talked a lot about patriarchal blessings. It reminds me that I need to get mine out and read it much more often. He told the story of a man whose blessing said he would be the president of a stake in his lifetime. He had returned home from a mission and was called to be a stake president. He told the Elders that he needed some time to get his life in order financially and to call him at a later date. He was never called to that position again. He talked about how blessings that we are given are totally up to us. We have to be prepared to accept callings and grow even when it is hard. Another story they told was about a couple who had bought a piece of land and were planning on building a home. They had to save for a long time to be able to start the building process. Just as they were about to start building the husband was called to be a stake president. He let them know that they were planning on building a home that would be out of the stake boundaries. He was told that it was the Lord that was calling him to this position and that he should take it up with Him. He did and accepted the calling. The couple was able to buy another piece of land and have a home built for their family in the same amount of time as their previous plan.
Sometimes it is hard to do what we know we should. It is hard when we have to make decisions without knowing what the outcome will be. It was hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that I was moving to North Dakota. But...never once have I regretted this decision. I know that we made the right choice and we are exactly where we should be at this time. I don't know what the future holds for us but I do know that it will be great if we trust in our Heavenly Father to lead the way. I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to go to this uplifting activity. I feel even luckier to have a wonderful husband who knew what I needed and did everything he could to make it happen. I am truly blessed.
After the activity we did more shopping of course! I had a great time with these ladies. It is so good to have friends!
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