Thanksgiving 2008

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving was Excellent this year. I thought I would have to cook, but only ended up helping a little here and there. I mostly did the dishes. I have a husband that was more than willing to get down and dirty in the kitchen. I have to say, the turkey turned out really good and so did everything else. Our very first Thanksgiving alone was a success!!

The Bird before...
During...
Dinner is ready!!
We love the timer on the camera.
Bella was thankful for bread.(she is her mother's daughter!) That is all she ate pretty much.
Joshua was thankful for our family and Jesus Christ.
Dwight was thankful for the Pittsburgh Steelers :) jk.
*Notice Bella's lovely center piece (A small branch with some crispy leaves she found on our walk to the bus stop, I stuck it into an empty Izze bottle and tied an upside-down bow... Voila!)
Yeah... I was totally ready for a nap. I had a little fake booze buzz!
Bad case of Tryptophan! He will be mad I posted this one...LOL :)
Friday, Lake Gaston, NC

On black Friday, which is usually my day to shop shop shop, I slept slept slept. I don't know about you, but I just don't find it to be any fun to shop when I don't have any money to spend :-S
Dwight went out for a gift for Josh and was successful. He was satisfied.

Later we joined our friends from PA at their family reunion at Lake Gaston and spent the rest of the day together. It was so fun! The kids got to fish (we had a couple of false alarms) but caught no fish, and Joshua got to go on a boat ride with his buddy Addison. They were so happy to see each other again.



Joshua and Addison
Adam & Dale.
FUN, cool people.
Off they went
Half-way into the ride Joshua asked "How long is this going to take? I miss my mom" Awwww :)
Happy to be back.
Dale, Bella and I
Josh and Bella loved roasting marshmallows with Daddy.


Bella really enjoyed the smores, Joshua not so much... weird kid!


Saturday, Thanksgiving part II at my sister Giselle's
We feel so lucky to have moved and still have some family near by. Giselle was gracious enough to have us over and prepared a delicious dinner for us.
My contribution... rice.
We had a great evening chatting, eating and watching the kids play. Josh & Daysean at some point went next door to the neighbor kid's house, so Bella and Brandon had nothing better to do than to tear up the place.


Isabella is totally responsible for the bruises on this poor kid's head.

Thanksgiving was wonderful and I'm truly blessed to have such a wonderful family and such great friends.
I am so thankful for the gospel and it humbles me to know how lucky I am to have it in my life.
I am thankful for a country that allows us to worship whatever way we see fit, and for the freedom we enjoy here.
I am thankful for everything else that I may have forgotten to mention :)

Tender Mercy

This is not one of those totally cute posts... It's very long too ;)

Today was a very emotional day for me.

It started with me crying, then smiling, then crying because of sadness, then crying again because I was humbled.

For most of you who know me... I am an open book. I wear my emotions on my sleeves and what you see is what you get.

This post is about a part of me that struggles, but through with the amazing love of the Savior and his grace, my faith was increased.

Since I've been in Chapel Hill, I decide to make a better effort in things of the gospel... Not necessarily jumping in head-first, but easing my way in with more consistent FHEs, personal prayer (there is nothing like trying to sell a house in this market to motivate someone to pray pray pray) reading scriptures etc... etc...

Looking back, somehow I managed to dodge the TALK bullet for a long, long time.
Yeah, I would bear my testimony in RS, but it's been years since the last time I actually had a large audience older than 11 years old.

So a couple of weeks ago a member of the Bishopric came by our apartment to formally welcome our family to the ward. Inevitably I was given a calling in primary and asked to speak. The topic I was assigned was "The healing power of the gospel" Easy right? That's what I thought. Without any hesitation I said "Yes and yes" and so the week started. I had two weeks to prepare this talk. The first week, let's just say I thought about it... um... a lot.

This past week, I started to read talks and jot down some notes. I knew that I didn't want to get up there and talk about doom and gloom, and tell a wonderful story about someone else's experience where they were healed by the power of the gospel. (Honestly, I never really care too much for talks that tell too many personal experiences... they lose me... I always end up visiting La-la land when that happens)

By Thursday I started to get butterflies, and got strangely nervous. The weird part about it is that it seemed like I had a bad case of Adult ADD or something. Every time I thought I was going to get to my talk I ended up NOT for whatever reason.

Friday, I finally sat down and wrote some things down, but something was lacking... (The spirit maybe?) I prayed and typed and prayed and typed, but everything I wrote sounded so silly. I thought about my audience, and went into a panic.... A lot of very well educated people, people that know a whole lot more than I about things like this.

Anyway, Saturday night come around and here I am still struggling to get past the first page.
Dwight came to the rescue a couple of times; giving me ideas and ways I could approach the subject...

At 1 in the morning I lost it.

I freaked out.

"I can't give this talk!!". To me it seemed like such a monumental task that all I wanted was to have a terrible case of diarrhea and puke so I didn’t have to go to church the next morning.
I cried so much I think I may have freaked out Dwight a little. :S

Anyway, I was exhausted, but I knew I had to do it. There was no diarrhea in the horizon to save me.
I prayed and prayed and prayed.
I typed and typed.
I finally went to bed at 3.

A few hours later I got up, showered, and got into my talk again.
Church starts at 11. I finished my talk at 10. I got the kids ready in record time and was at church by 10:45.
I still wasn't feeling like my talk was any good.
I prayed and prayed and prayed....
Finally I gave my talk.

It was a BLURRRRRRRR....

At the end of the meeting something very unusual happened. A lady that was visiting our ward came by and said "I really enjoyed your talk..." (That’s not that unusual, I know... but just wait...)
"... I was taking notes and..." (WHATTA????? That has never happened to me(that I know of)... NOTES????)
She asked me for the name of the talk that I referenced by Elder Scott about the power of faith in times of uncertainty. (HELLO!) I told her I would email the link to her.

I almost removed that quote. It was one of the parts that I thought didn't really fit, but you know... I needed to fill in those10-12 minutes so...

That did put a smile on my face. I thought to myself... "Hey, maybe it wasn't all that bad."

I thanked my Heavenly Father.
I also emailed the lady
Later on, at home, some things came up and reality quickly set in. I cried again.

But the lord wasn't done with me yet.

I decided to check my email, and this is what I found...

Dear Aline, it is interesting how the Lord answers our prayers. I have a daughter that has a trial at this time. My husband and I have been praying, temple roll ect. for her. I know the scriptures teach that as we serve we bless the lives of others. Last night my husband and I were on the internet choosing what ward meeting to attend. When I heard you speak I knew we picked the right one. Today you blessed my life and hopefully hers with your spirit filled talk. Thank you, K

I cried again.

uh...

Talk

I was asked to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting next Sunday. I knew it was coming... perks of being new in the ward I guess.

My Topic is The Healing Power of the Gospel.

I like it, but i think it is a little vague and it can be taken in a few different directions.

I sort of liked the idea of maybe adding a little Thanksgiving twist, since it is the Sunday before, but not sure yet.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Good talks or experiences that might help me out here a little??

Heaven on Earth

Last night the kids and I had the chance to visit the Raleigh Temple with my dear friend Karen.

Karen and I go WAYYYYYY back.

She was in the YW's presidency when I was a Mia Maid or Laurel in NJ, and we've been great friends ever since.

Karen was also my Matron of Honor.

She has always been a great example to me, and I love her for it.

One of the best examples she has set for me is Temple attendance. If Karen ever happens to be M.I.A, then we know she must be at the Temple.

Another reason I appreciate Karen is because she is such a great listener. I know that is one of her gifts. She gives you all of her attention, even if you have the silliest thing to say. (Which I often do :)

I've never lived this close to a temple before. I must admit I was shocked by the size and location of this temple (DC is still #1 in my heart), but it was as beautiful as any other temple and the peaceful feeling was the same.

So much is going on in our lives, and it was great to just "drop by" the Temple. It gave me that boost I needed to handle whatever comes our way. No other place can do that. It truly is like Heaven on Earth.Joshua took this picture, I think he did pretty good :)

Bella was asleep in the van :)

The Stick

Recently the stick was entered into the Toy Hall of Fame.
Here are some of the reasons why:

I couldn't resist adding this picture of Bella... She was miffed the big kids didn't want to play with her. She told me, "I'm having a bad day, those girls won't talk to me!"

Skills

Bella came up to me the other day and said...

"Mommy, Mommy... Check out my Awesome knee skills"

I said, "WOW, let me get my camera, and you can show me that again ok?


So there you have it.

A cute picture of Joshua

Joshua is getting so big so fast.

But he will always be our baby.

We love you pumpkin.

Halloween 08

We had a lot of fun this Halloween. Probably one of the best we've had. From the ward trunk or treat, to carving pumpkins to the actual trick or treating day. The kids had a blast and we enjoyed every part of it. Here are some pictures.

This was the first door we came to. Bella didn't know what to expect I guess, so she put her hand to her mouth and said... "Oh no! I'm so scared"

Yeah... that lasted about a second until she saw the bowl of candy...

Our front door

Joshua and his buddy from Russia, Alex.

Some folks that actually got into it :)

Trick or treating in our complex was NUTS... a huge bunch of kids and their parents caught up to us and made things very interesting.
They were mostly Asians, and all of the grown ups had some sort of camera, camera phone, or video camera. Every time we came to a door, it was like Britney Spears was giving out candy...
The poor kids were blinded by so many flashes :)
Yes, I was a paparazzi too!

Someone yelled out "THERE'S Candy over here" and the kids took off running...
Reminded me of when I was a kid.

Joshua and Bella enjoying their loot.

Carving Pumpkins with Daddy!

Dwight did all of the dirty work. The kids didn't like the icky texture of the pumpkin guts :D

Bella REALLY wanted a Muno pumpkin. She even picked the nubbiest one she could find at the pumpkin patch.

The RESULTS...

Ward Trunk-or-Treat

Joshua was Bumblebee from the Transformers animated series.
We teased him a lot that he was going to be a bumble bee. He did not appreciate that :)

Brandon's first trick or treating :)

My sister Giselle & nephew Brandon

Off course Dwight chose to be Polamalu from the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He looked absolutely Hilarious!!

Bella chose not to dress up for the Trunk or Treat. She just wanted the face paint, tail and ears... We'll call her a calico cat ;)

Yeah... I don't know what was thinking either. And No, we did not decorate our trunk... We looked freaky enough!

Bella is very selective. She would not let anyone help her with the candy. If someone tried to hand her one, she would dodge their hand and get one herself.... stinker.

Joshua on the other hand was very polite and made out like a bandit!