Surprise From My Two Favorite Girls

Happy "Golden" Anniversary!!!

28 years on April 28th. My parents have a marriage that is one to behold. I do not say this just because they are parents. I've watched many marriages and these two are impressive. These two literally spend all day together most days (they work together or as we tease Dadio works for the boss) and they still enjoy being together. This one fact alone is impressive! The hand of God in my opinion was involved from the very beginning since these kids only dated FIVE weeks prior to a proposal. Sorry folks but that is slightly (completely) crazy...these two kids are the exception. I could bore you with trivial reasons why these two are so cool such as they never fight, they look starry-eyed at one another across the room, or that Dadio is ALWAYS trying to steal a kiss...but while all these things are true I think the fact that after 28 years they are still best friends is most romantic. Thanks for being great examples of what a marriage should and can be like!

Why I Heart Gmail

One word: Labels

Two words: Bright colors

***I also love that at the very moment I snapped my screenshot both SJs were green back to back on gchat. The simple joys in life.

A Monday Full of Manna

When you wake up at 6 am for a conference call on a Monday morning and your power cord gets fried leaving you with a dead pc it is good to look for the manna in one's life.

1. Good morning scripture study

2. Emails from HM and PF

3. Lucy finding a spare power cord

4. Massage

5. Squash

6. Walk and Pinkberry with HN

7. Exfoliating!

For where [charity] is, there in some degree is heaven.

There is that in the heart of every man that resists and resents [charity] from his fellow creatures or even from his creator. We naturally want to be desired to be found delightful, to satisfy worthily some hunger in others. To receive a love which is purely a gift, which bears witness solely to the lovingness of the giver and not at all to our loveliness is a severe mortification. We desperately need to receive such love from God and even from our fellow creatures, but we don’t naturally want to. Our necessity and our wishes are in conflict.

No sooner do we believe God loves us than there is an impulse to believe that he does so not because of what he is, but because of what we are, because we are intrinsically lovable. It so easy to admit, but so hard really to believe, but we are mirrors that so whole are derived from the sun that shines on them surely we think, we must have some inherent luminosity of our own.

As we are to God, so more obviously are we to our fellows. It is hard to bear [charity] from our fellows and yet each of us needs us. There is that in each of us that simply can’t be loved with natural love. Nobody can be expected to. Only the lovable can be naturally loved. Men can’t be asked to like the taste of rancid meat. It can be forgiven and pitied and loved with [charity], but not otherwise. Every listener who has a good parent or wife or husband or child, may be sure that at times he is the recipient of [charity], loved not because he is lovable but because love itself is in the other party. This we must learn, first to believe, then to endure, and then to delight in. And without guessing about it either. Such I conceive is the world of [charity]: a world of unbounded giving and unchained receiving where all blessed creatures need and know that they need nothing but God. And are therefore set free to love one another disinterestedly and so their love shall be like his, born neither of your need nor my deserving, but of plain bounty. I think those are drawing nearer to heaven who in this life, find that they need men less and love men more. And delight more in being loved without being needed. For where [charity] is, there in some degree is heaven.

From The Four Loves by CS Lewis

Now This Is True Love...

When I saw this on Post Secrets I felt my heart leap just a bit! So it's love that can turn someone away from the devil (aka the Red Soxs), of course it is that simple. I'll forgo anymore gospel parallels so I'm not struck down on the Sabbath. I will however encourage those dirty red soxs fans, whom I do love, to just ponder on these suggestions. 1. Give up the soxs. 2. Yanks are greater (obviously this is proof). and 3. You'll be okay!

Triple PLAY!!! Go Yankees!

HELP Reach TEAM HYDRO'S Goal!!!

(Kate and her big bro, Pete)

Have you been thinking about ways that you can make a difference but can't come up with a good idea?

I've got a GREAT suggestion.

Donate to Team Hydro! Every dollar makes a difference. Help all those fighting hydrocephalus. Help my friend, Kate Finlayson, who's been fighting persistently each day amid difficult circumstances...always with a smile on her face. She's a modern day Joseph of Egypt in the way she faces each day, looking for the blessings in even the bleakest of hours.

To Donate click here!

Thanks!

Jess

Guest Blogger: Love One Another

Love One Another

In Leo Tolstoy’s final major novel, Resurrection, the repentant Prince Nekhlyudov muses:

“Men think there are circumstances when one may deal with human beings without love. But there are no such circumstances. We may deal with things without love – we cut down trees, make bricks, hammer iron without love – but we cannot deal with men without it … love is the fundamental law of human life.” (Tolstoy, Resurrection, Oxford World’s Classics 1999 edition, p. 383).

Far too often, we view another person as less than fully human. Perhaps, in the course of a political debate, an opponent falls from humanity to the lowly species of whichever party we happen to oppose. Perhaps an annoying coworker becomes classified in our mind as an irritant, an object which we wish would simply not exist in our life. Perhaps we feel obliged to publicly separate ourselves from an immature acquaintance, lest their social ineptitude reflect negatively on our own status.

Whenever we downgrade someone in such a manner, it is obvious that we might hurt that person. It is initially less obvious that we will also hurt ourselves. As Terry Warner has written, “who we are is how we are in relation to others.” (Bonds That Make Us Free, 41). When we treat any human being as less than fully human, we inevitably devalue all humanity – including our own.

On the other hand, when we love and serve those around us by treating them as fully human – as brothers and sisters – then our own humanity, in the fullest sense of the word, will grow. As Dieter F. Uchtdorf taught in the April 2010 LDS General Conference:

“As we extend our hands and hearts toward others in Christlike love, something wonderful happens to us. Our own spirits become healed, more refined, and stronger. We become happier, more peaceful, and more receptive to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit.”

The prophet Mormon prayed “that when [Christ] shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (Moroni 7:48) – like him, for He sees us as we are. To fulfill that prayer, we must learn to “see as [we] are seen, and know as [we] are known” (D&C 76:94). Each person in our life – each of His, and our, brothers and sisters – must become as real to us, as worthy of love, as they are to Him. This will demand an infinite expansion of our heart and soul, and may require an eternity to complete. Thankfully, such eternal life is within reach through the Atonement of the One who has already completed the journey. We can begin to live that eternal life now, as our hearts are softened by His Atonement and we see and love others, day by day, as He sees and loves them – as He loves us.

BC

Let's Play Ball...

Those three little words quicken my heart faster than another three little words (at least for now). The smell of grass, hot dogs, beer, pine-tar...it is like putting on the sweater of someone you love, taking in their smell, and feeling contentment. The only thing that could have made my first baseball game of the 2010 season would have been to watch the YANKEES.....oh wait, I DID!!! And we WON! And it wasn't too cold. And I had a hot dog (thank you Scotty R). And some ice cold DP (thank you Bryce).

Look at Germany and that big smile while wrapped in the YANKEES blanket!

Scotty R can really rock green pants (thanks for not wearing red soxs gear!)

I heart baseball (a lot!)!