Women's Conference

Saturday night our church had it's worldwide women's conference that was broadcast from Salt Lake City. The women in our church 18 yrs and older belong to the Relief Society, the largest women's organization in the world. We had several speakers and their messages were inspirational, but rather than share something in particular about what they said, I wanted to share something that occurred to me just in the time I was listening. Many people who read my blog are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I hope those who aren't will bear with me talking a little spiritually today.
I think many friends and family can identify with the fact that sometimes your faith in God and the gospel message seems strong and other times it seems weak. Sometimes you are growing in knowledge and your beliefs and hopes and testimony and sometimes it just seems to stagnate. Frankly, I had such great times of growth in my teen, young adult years and serving a mission for my church that in comparison, the last 6 years have seemed a bit lacking. This is most definitely my fault as I have slacked off in my study and prayer.
I decided Saturday night during that conference that I wanted to make a list of all the experiences that led me to believe in God, that he knows me and my name, that I believe in my church and the Gospel we preach. I have had little and big experiences my whole life that my testimony is based on. Each testimony building experience is like adding another block to my foundation, something that keeps me solid in faith. I love that I often reflect on these experiences, but I wanted to see them grouped together on a sheet of paper and see how powerful they looked when built on one another. Like the memory of when I was 14 years old - I had a great experience listening to a speaker at a youth conference where I felt Jesus' love for me and just knew He had died for ME or the time on my mission in the Philippines when I prayed so hard asking God why I felt like He left me all alone out there and it was like He came up behind me and whispered in my ear that He was right there and always would be.

I know this list will be a treasure I always keep. I wanted to share this experience in church Sunday and in our Relief Society meeting there was about 2 minutes of dead space when I could have easily gotten up and shared, but I waited and I missed that chance. I just didn't want to let it go without recording it and hope maybe it would help someone else as well.

September 18th 2010

Happy 6th Anniversary to my honey. More about our anniversary to come in a later post . . . .

She's her father's child

When Odessa kept pulling out these 2 green items and insisting they matched because they were both green, I vaguely remembered having the same discussion with her father a couple times about shades of green. Chalk it up to another "you're your father's daughter moment" She is so much like him, it's uncanny.
(btw- the pants are much more olive green than the camera picked up, I promise! lol)

Slackers do not work on Labor Day

I've been a slacker lately. My sister Alyssa and her husband Jeff were here for Labor Day weekend and we had SO MUCH FUN with them. I did not take any pictures. Such a slacker. See, these pictures would help convince the rest of you how much fun you would have if you came to see us in Seattle. So I can give you a play-by-play until my sister sends some of her photos . . . I will warn you- I think one of the best things about Seattle is food and actually food tours are one of the most popular tourist attraction around here.

Saturday we went to Fisherman's Terminal to buy some salmon and I finally found out the difference between like 5 different kinds of salmon- the guys down there are awesome. Then we went to the Lockes and saw some salmon trying hard to head inland and not get killed and eaten by us . . . we ate lunch in Ballard (some of us even had salmon for lunch) then headed off to the Pacific Science Center- fun for kids and adults! Plus now we have like 12 IMAX tickets, who wouldn't want to get in on that action? They have the coolest nature IMAX shows there. We cooked our salmon that night with green beans from the garden among other things . . .

Sunday Alyssa and Jeff hopped on the ferry to attend Jeff's brother's wedding in Poulsbo. If you come and don't have a wedding to attend in Poulsbo, we will take you there. You need to ride on a ferry and see some of the quaint towns on the penninsula and islands that are so cute and so Scandinavian.
Monday we picked them up from the ferry and headed straight to Pike Place market. Being yocals, we know to get in line at Beechers for some cheese, get in line at Pike Place Chowder and get some chowders like smoked salmon and seared scallop and then cry when my favorite fruit and veggie stand is closed for Labor Day and I can't get the peaches I've been talking up. Seeing as how the cream from the chowders was seeping into our bloodstream, I couldn't tempt anyone to stand in line for the mini doughnuts- but when you come, we'll get some. We enjoyed the rest of the market, most especially the flowers and the fact that we were stroller free. On the long walk back to the car Alyssa and I used a coupon at Dahlia's bakery to buy a most scrumptious loaf of flax pecan bread. HELLO. Meanwhile, outside the bakery, Stephen pulled Odessa's loose tooth out and she jumped for joy for 5 minutes that she was finally getting a dollar from the tooth fairy. We drove them to Gas Works Park where we walked around and then by request, we drove across the 2 floating bridges that cross Lake Washington (Jeff's an engineer ya know). We all got so hungry in the car we tore off chunks of the flax pecan loaf and ate it with Beechers cheese curds. With one last stop at Cupcakes Royale, we were set for the night. We had a BIG salad, the rest of the bread and cupcakes for dessert. We bid them a sad goodbye Tuesday morning- there were still so many places to see and foods to eat!

Thursday was Stephen's birthday! It was a small fanfare year.
The girls kept calling him BIRTHDAY BOY! and giggling

Looking at the photo book from Mom and Dad Hunt

He requested carrot cake and on his birthday we walked down on Alki Beach

Saturday was Volunteer Day and I went up to the Seattle Center to help with the Alzheimers fundraiser- memory walk. They raised almost $320,000! I got to block traffic at an intersection for walkers- it was so much fun. I felt like a traffic cop.
Saturday afternoon we went to the Puyallup Fair and had the best time we've had with kids so far. No stroller (can you tell, Stephen really wants them to toughen up?) and we just had a blast doing mostly the things they were interested in doing. There was a whole building of dog breeds with one of each out for you to pet- heaven for the girls. They got to see the miniature ponies and watch a bunch of dance classes perform on stage- another thing they dream about. We got to eat our favorite foods and see some horse showing and we ended up staying past 8- which was way longer than we planned. SO FUN. Sigh. I love fairs.
This dog was seriously twice as big as Odessa and could have fit her head in his mouth

She was so good at milking the cow that the dairy maid offered her her job

You should have seen Odessa, she would turn the wheel and lean into the curves just like she was really driving. A dad close to me noticed and pointed it out to his wife "watch this girl, she holds the wheel on the straight-aways and turns on the corners!" I told him we were signing her up for Drivers Ed soon.

Give the world your gift of Art

Thanks Kristin for posting this, I think it's absolutely fabulous. At first I was thinking 'what kind of art can I share?' but I think everyone has creativity to offer the world