Tomorrow's the day . . . hopefully

I add hopefully because with Ashlyn I was scheduled to be induced on the 19th of March and the hospital put me off for two days because they were so busy. I hope that doesn't happen tomorrow, but I am mentally prepared if it does.

Last Friday was the annual Leary reunion at Manor Lands in the Uintahs. My kids really wanted to go; I really wanted to go; I don't think Tyler was too keen on the idea of me going and possibly going into labor 1 1/2 hours from our hospital. The day before, I had an appointment with my doctor's nurse (Cindy) since Dr. Cannon was out of town for the week. Cindy was the NICEST and I walked away wishing she were my doctor. Not that I don't like Dr. Cannon but Dr. Cannon is just a little more professional and is in and out quickly (which I don't mind either). Cindy took time to listen to my concerns of taking a day trip to the mountains when I'm already dilated to a 3+, 75% effaced, and the head is very low. We discussed it and she ho-hummed but thought I'd be okay.

Then she asked me if I was a religious person. And I said I was. She said, "Maybe you should ask Him if it's okay to take this trip." That caught me off guard and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that it took a health care professional to suggest the idea. We talked about an experience she had had that week with the Holy Ghost while with her bishop and young women just that week as they were hiking. I resolved to do that very thing when I got home. I told God that if this baby did not come during the night and I woke up feeling like I have every other morning then we were heading to the mountains for the day.

Friday morning I woke up feeling great. Tyler was still very nervous, but I reassured him that I had prayed about it and felt okay with our decision. We would leave the cabin if I felt we needed to and we also scouted out all the hospital exits along the way (not that I wanted to have this baby in Evanston!).

It was a fabulous day. And I'm so glad we went. My kids were glad we went. I even think Ty was glad we went: the fishing was the best it's ever been at Whitney Reservoir.

*I thought this picture that Ty's dad took was pretty funny. Is he feeling sympathetic or what?

A side note:

Our house has some walls. It's been exciting to watch the progress move so quickly in just 3 weeks.

Waiting

Scout camp over.
13th anniversary celebrated.
Sharing time done.

This baby can now arrive any time. We are all anxiously awaiting his/her arrival.

Our beautiful backyard

For the Memorial Day holiday we wanted to go hiking up the Oquirrh mountains which are right in our backyard. I wasn't sure how well I'd perform at 8+ months pregnant. But I surprised myself and didn't need to stay behind at any point.

 We saw this: 

 The sego lily -- our state flower

 And this:

 And the view was spectacular:

 Stansbury Park -- where we currently live

 Lake Point -- where we are moving; you can even see our pile of dirt if you squint hard enough

"We're not in Kansas anymore."

Up to this point the whole house building process has been kind of a fairy tale like we've been playing make believe designing our dream home, but never really believing it would come to pass.

Not today.

I'm not in fantasy land anymore.

WE HAVE A HOLE!

I dare say this will be one of the more exciting parts of the build.

We went out a couple of times just to watch the excavator and let the kids play on the dirt piles. I'm tempted to leave a pile of dirt somewhere on our lot just for something to play in.

March of the Toys

Early this morning around 5 am I was awakened by Ashlyn crying uncontrollably as she tried to tell me something. My first thoughts as I tried to understand her were "she's thrown up" or "she's peed the bed."

 It was neither. Her toys were on the move. She literally thought her toys were moving in her room, and it had her petrified. I immediately put her in bed between Tyler and me, told her she was safe, and then she fell back to sleep.

We questioned her later about her experience. She repeatedly told me how she laid in bed watching her toys move, and then I told her how brave she was to get out of bed to come and tell me. We have no idea how long she laid there. The poor girl. But just look at her room. I would probably think things were moving to at 5 o'clock in the morning too.

An aha moment

Ever have one of those moments when the light bulb goes on?

Mine wasn't anything spectacular. Yesterday for Sharing Time we were talking about what the word GOSPEL meant and I had the kids look it up in the bible dictionary. They discovered it meant GOOD NEWS. So I asked what the good news was. Someone said the atonement of Jesus Christ and then we broke it down further into

1. We all will be resurrected and live forever and

2. We can live with our Heavenly Father again and have the life he has if we do what we should in this life.

Later that day I was thinking of the scripture in Moses 1:39 where Heavenly Father tells us that his goal is bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. And then came my aha moment: That is exactly what the atonement covers. It makes immortality and eternal life possible. Without it there would be no hope of attaining those two things and God's work and glory would have been frustrated.

I've always known to some degree what the atonement of Jesus Christ was all about, but I just never connected the dots between that particular scripture and what Jesus Christ did for me and essentially all of us. How grateful I am that HE chose to fulfill HIS particular mission.

60 Days or Less

To jump start my daily scripture reading again, I've decided to quit where I am in the Book of Mormon (which is somewhere in Alma) and start over reading the book in 60 days. How many times do people do that? How may time have I done that, start over with "I Nephi, having been born of goodly parents . . .".

Well, today I was reading in 2 Nephi 5. Laman and Lemuel are still trying to kill their little brother Nephi and the Lord finally tells Nephi he should probably move somewhere else. So Nephi says in verse 6,

"Wherefore, it came to pass that I, Nephi, did take my family, and also Zoram and his family, and Sam, mine elder brother and his family, and Jacob and Joseph, my younger brethren, and also my sisters, and all those who would go with me. And all those who would go with me were those who believed in the warnings and the revelations of God; wherefore, they did hearken unto my words."

So this little verse got me thinking a little. First, how many were in the group that left Jerusalem? Lehi, Sariah, Laman, Lemuel, Sam, Nephi, Jacob, Joseph, some sisters (possibly 2 or 3 or more), Zoram, Ishmael, Ishmael's wife, 5 daughters, and 2 sons. That makes a total of about 21. Lehi's family and Ishmael's family intermarry during their travel through the wilderness (8 years). They probably start families, but the oldest grandchildren of Lehi wouldn't be older than about 7 when they traveled across the sea.

Verse 6 says that Nephi left with his family, Zoram left with his family, Sam left with his family, Jacob and Joseph don't seem to be married yet. And I'm not quite sure about the sisters. So who are ALL THOSE WHO WOULD GO WITH ME? Nephi has just mentioned everyone who initially came across the sea and who have taken sides with him. I don't think he was referring to Ishmael's sons because they tended to side with Laman and Lemuel in earlier chapters.

It just seems to me that the ALL THOSE must have been other people who were living here at the time Lehi and his group showed up. I really don't believe Lehi's group was the first to people this land and for whatever reason, Nephi doesn't seem to feel the need to mention them, although it is quite possible they are mentioned in his large plates that contained the more secular history of his people. Oh, the have all the scriptures would be fascinating sometimes.

Anyway, here's my reading schedule I'm following for the next 60 days. They say it doesn't matter how many times you read the Book of Mormon, there is always something new to be learned.

1 1 Nephi 1-4

2 1 Nephi 5-10
3 1 Nephi 11-13
4 1 Nephi 14-16
5 1 Nephi 17-18
6 1 Nephi 19-22
7 2 Nephi 1-3
8 2 Nephi 4-7
9 2 Nephi 8-9
10 2 Nephi 10-15
11 2 Nephi 16-23
12 2 Nephi 24-26
13 2 Nephi 27-30
14 2 Nephi 31-33
15 Jacob 1-4
16 Jacob 5-7
17 Enos, Jarom, Omni & Words of Mormon
18 Mosiah 1-3
19 Mosiah 4-8
20 Mosiah 9-12
21 Mosiah 13-17
22 Mosiah 18-21
23 Mosiah 22-26
24 Mosiah 27-29
25 Alma 1-4
26 Alma 5-7
27 Alma 8-10
28 Alma 11-13
29 Alma 14-17
30 Alma 18-21
31 Alma 22-25
32 Alma 26-29
33 Alma 30-32
34 Alma 33-36
35 Alma 37-40
36 Alma 41-44
37 Alma 45-48
38 Alma 49-51
39 Alma 52-56
40 Alma 57-59
41 Alma 60-63
42 Helaman 1-4
43 Helaman 5-7
44 Helaman 8-12
45 Helaman 13-16
46 3 Nephi 1-4
47 3 Nephi 5-8
48 3 Nephi 9-12
49 3 Nephi 13-17
50 3 Nephi 18-20
51 3 Nephi 21-26
52 3 Nephi 27-30
53 4 Nephi, Mormon 1-2
54 Mormon 3-7
55 Mormon 8-9
56 Ether 1-5
57 Ether 6-10
58 Ether 11-15
59 Moroni 1-7
60 Moroni 8-10