It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Confession:  These decorations have been up for a good week or two but I now feel brave enough to blog about it!  Since we are going to be in Cali half of December and through Christmas we wanted to enjoy our Christmas decorations as long as possible...well most of us...I'm not sure Cooper loves his reindeer antlers, haha!  But he'll be all set when we finally pull together our Grinch, Cindy Lou Who & Max costumes for one of these next Halloweens!

And in other news, Ryan, Shale and I went to see Frozen today!

I was blown away!  The artistry in this movie is exceptional and the music was great!

I love that it highlighted the relationship of sisters and the power of love.

It made me so grateful to have been able to enjoy the experience with my sister and to know I have her in my life, in general!  Shale and I want to dress up as these ladies for Halloween as well!  Cant wait to see her with red hair...it'll be interesting making mine white! but I'm excited!  I'll have to costume search while we're in California!

Never Truer Than Today

Cooked my First Butterball!

Kay, I don't know if my turkey was technically a butterball, but I do know that I appreciate all our former Thanksgivings just a little more now that I've finally hosted one, myself! A lot of planning goes into these and cooking a turkey is an art form that takes real talent.  Ours was good but I'll admit I have much to learn! I was lucky to have a good group of helpers! 

Dad was on Cooper duty.  You can tell by the way he talks to Coop that he has a major soft spot for him. Mom helped me time everything right, took care of all the odds and ends and set the table. Shale made the yams & sweet potatoes and Ryan cut his first roast beast and then took care of dishes!! 

We talked about all we are thankful for and each of us mentioned family. I feel so fortunate to have my parents around...that they are healthy and close. I tear up every time I think that there will be a time when they can't just be reached by phone or hugged whenever I want. I try to soak up every moment I can with them. Shale and I have had lots of fun playing this year and I'm grateful for our closeness and that we share a past and get to share a future. She is so kind, generous and overall wonderful. And of course, I'm more than blessed to have such a loving, patient, doting husband. We talked about our appreciation for our freedoms in this nation, for our safety and security. We talked about the joys Cooper has brought to the family. We talked about our jobs, our homes, our vacations, etc etc etc. There is so much to be grateful to our Heavenly Father for. 

After dinner, dessert, and our little discussion we played Aggravation as a family and I got absolutely demolished!!! But we had a blast. I can't wait for the next excuse we find to celebrate together. My family is the best!

What are the Limits of Your Love?

We were fortunate to hear from a very gifted speaker in Sacrament Meeting today.  Being a psychologist by profession, I suppose he knew how to reach heart strings and tug just enough to make you evaluate things and feel inspired to change and become better.

He started out by inquiring about those who were NOT invited to our Thanksgiving tables.  Those who, for whatever reason, could be considered broken branches on our family tree.  He asked us to consider the limits of our love.

Utilizing cases from his past, he painted pictures of young people troubled with addictions who cause scenes in church.  He talked about adult members who fall less active and show by their tattoos, colorful language and body piercings that they probably aren't living the values the church teaches.  He asked how we would react if these people were to enter our chapel.  Would we be nervous?  Excited? Curious? Critical? Warm? Offended? Inviting?

Then he painted a very different picture.  He talked about the Smith family...you know...the ones that do ALL the right things.  They have a beautiful home, rewarding professions, weekly FHE and daily scripture study.  They are always perfectly groomed and even their youngest children (the ones who can't read) walk in with their triple combinations in tow.  They have "important" callings and just all in all seem like the measuring stick that we all evaluate our righteousness by.  How do we feel toward them?  Envy?  Admiration?  Guilt?  Gratitude because they are the ones you want to snatch up for callings before their names are even read before the congregation? Perhaps a little irritation?

What are the limits of your love?  Who do you choose to invite into your circle and who do you exclude?  and why?

He said that it is important to separate someone's worth from their worthiness.  Worthiness comes on a sliding scale...sometimes our efforts to live the gospel bring up our worthiness and sometimes we may fall short.  We are human.  We work these things out with our Heavenly Father and with a loving bishop. Worth, by contrast, is not changeable. Worth is a constant, it always remains the same.  A 12K diamond is always a 12K diamond.  A child of God is always a child of God.  Where we stand on the sliding scale of worthiness should not cause us to question our worth in God's eyes, or permit us to question the worth of others.

We are charged with the responsibility to show love.  Love is the strongest power in the universe.  We are taught that by showing love, we qualify ourselves for eternal life.

Starting in Luke 10:25: 

25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit ^aeternal life?

26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy ^aheart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt ^alive.

If we can manage to see past ourselves and to love those who challenge that ability, we become better qualified for the kingdom of our Father in Heaven.  We can do NO HARM by showing love to others.  Our Heavenly Father does much the same by loving each and every one of us, fiercely!

I'll admit there are some in my life, more particularly in my past, that I should learn to love a little more than I do.  I'm sure each of us can think of a few of these people.  I, for one, commit to the find love in my heart for these individuals and hope that it will bring peace to my heart and good to their lives.  No amount of love is wasted.  

He shared this poem in closing:

                                    'Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house

Not a creature was praying, not one in the house.

Their Bibles were lain on the shelf without care

In hopes that Jesus would not come there.

The children were dressing to crawl into bed.

Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head.

And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap

Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.

When out of the East there arose such a clatter.

I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!

When what to my wondering eyes should appear

But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.

With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray

I knew in a moment this must be THE DAY!

The light of His face made me cover my head

It was Jesus! returning just like He had said.

And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth,

I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.

In the Book of Life which He held in His hand

Was written the name of every saved man.

He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;

When He said "it's not here" my head hung in shame.

The people whose names had been written with love

He gathered to take to His Father above.

With those who were ready He rose without a sound.

While all the rest were left standing around.

I fell to my knees, but it was too late;

I had waited too long and thus sealed my fate.

I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight;

Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.

In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;

The coming of Jesus is drawing near.

There's only one life and when comes the last call

We'll find that the Bible was true after all!

Remembering Pepper

My sister organized a little memorial service for the 1 year anniversary of the passing of her young dog, Pepper. He suffered from some serious hip problems that doctors could not find a solution for so she ultimately decided to allow the pain to leave him.  Ryan and I were away on vacation during this time.  It was nice to have this memorial so that he and I could formally pay our respects to this beloved family member.

Pepper was a hoot! and he LOVED people.  You could coax him to stay near when he passed by other dogs but if he saw a human, good luck!  He was just too eager to make everyone's day with his infectious smile and piercing blue eyes.  He hated birds.  The second you gave him enough space to get through the sliding glass door into the backyard, he would bolt!!! and chase every bird he could find off our property.  It always made us chuckle.  On a good day, his stomach made a great pillow.  I was on my mission when Pepper joined the Hawkins family so initially I was a little nervous that he would feel the need to protect them from me when I returned a year later.  I was surprised, though, that I was immediately adopted into what he saw as his family and I didn't spend a day feeling like an outsider.  He always caught a ball in the air...I thought of it as a great talent!  He loved playing in the park.  He was the first of any of our family dogs that I ever remember obsessing over his toys.  He LOVED to play.  There was just so much to be loved about this guy.  Our puppy, Cooper, would have had soooo much fun playing with Pepper.  I hope they met in heaven before Cooper came down!  

The night before his service, Ryan broke down a little and mentioned how much good Pepper did for his opinion of dog ownership. He said Pepper was the first dog he ever felt emotionally connected to. Because of his fondness of Pepper, he became a lot more willing to consider Cooper...so in a way, Pepper is responsible for so much of the joy we feel in our home these days. I'm very grateful to him for that.

Shale was a trooper as we shared our fondest memories of Pepper. I know it was hardest on her.  They were best friends and he came into her life at a time she needed him most.  He loved her most, as evidenced by every time she walked in the door!! He would drop everything to run to her and maul her down and Shale ate it up every time, but I realized today that I could have probably been considered his mistress, haha. To preface this story I need to mention that Shale has always been the lizard of the family, liking her living spaces to be 1000 degrees hotter than I.  My room was known for being cooler than most other rooms in the house...which is just the way I liked it.  We are complete opposites in this way, much like the Heat Miser vs. the Cold Miser.  

Anyway,  Pepper would always start the night sleeping in Shale's room but after an hour or so he would sneak out of her room and upstairs into my bed! This little habit of his was not Shale's favorite thing.  I think Shale just kept her room too warm for him so he came up to the cooler space, but it still brought me lots of little smiles.  I enjoyed teasing Shale about it from time to time, saying it was her snoring or something goofy like that.  

To sum up, Pepper was one in a million.  He sincerely loved everyone and brought us lots and lots of joy for the short while he was with us. He is sorely missed but we really enjoyed reflecting on the good he brought to our family today.  Love you Pepper! 

Officially Part of the Family

We had our office Christmas party at Ruby River tonight! It was perfect! I am so grateful I belong to an office where the staff is so warm, gracious, and fun to party with. I've worked at offices where staff members didn't want to spend time together outside of work and it made me sad! Here, we truly are family...we even had "family pictures" taken and Dr. Felt gave us copies as a Christmas gift this year. We had delicious avocado & steak egg rolls as an appetizer (divine!), steak & crab for dinner with these awesome baked, breaded & fried baked potatoes, and cookies/ice cream/creme brûlée for dessert! We had a Christmas exchange and Katie had my name. She gave me a Maurice's gift card and this little gem...

Apparently, there's a longstanding tradition of gifting this beaut to the newest employee each year and I'm told I need to be a great steward of the thing until we bring another employee to the office. Fantastic! I will make her beautiful...you wait and see! Now where to put her???

Rumor Has It You Aren't Using Floss Anymore!

WARNING: Contains gross dental images.  Don't say I didn't warn you.  
AND ANOTHER FULL DISCLOSURE:  I can be quite corny and if you read this post, you have to promise to feel the same about me as before you read it. Haha.  

Alright, for those of you that don't know...I am a Dental Hygienist and we see all kinds of smiles.  Some are spectacular, making me proud to know awesome people; but other smiles can seriously make you dry-heave. There have been a couple times that I've needed to put scentzy wax inside my mask to keep from gagging.  And trust me, it works a lot better than Lysol spray.  I speak from personal experience.  Trial and error. 

One day I was subbing as a hygienist for an office in SLC when Rumor Has It comes on the radio.  I'm cleaning the teeth of a man who clearly doesn't understand the value of practicing oral hygiene habits at home and suddenly I'm picturing myself standing up and modifying the lyrics of Adele's song to put him in his place.  I pictured everyone in the office stopping what they were doing to do the same thing with their patients...like a flashmob-type of thing.  I couldn't help but audibly chuckle at the thought while I was cleaning his teeth and he probably thought I was nuts, but oh well.  I would LOVE to belong to an office that would have the courage and enthusiasm to do something like this.  Heck, I'd even settle for a group of us to make an entertaining music video about something like this happening...and post it to youtube.  :)  

Here are the lyrics I came up with (sing to Adele's "Rumor Has It" melody):

What's...this I hear?

You haven't been in for a cleaning in 3 years?

They're lookin' stranger

Teeth are s'posed to be white and pretty but you must not remember.

Sure, you've got em all but tell me is this (show a pic of severe perio) really what you want?

Bless your soul, you've sent your teeth underground

They make a fool out of you and, boy, your probe depths are down

You make my heart sick cause they're filth to the core...

And rumor has it, you aren't using floss anymore.

Rumor Has It...Rumor Has It...Rumor Has It...Rumor Has It... (X2)

 She (show old lady pic ^ ) is thrice your age

But I'm guessing HER teeth will outlast yours at this stage...

I know you've been lyin’ to me...You’ve been claiming things you know you shouldn’t be.

Your breath creeps me out, and plaque's all around,

Haven't you heard the rumors?

Bless your soul, you got your head in the clouds

You think your teeth are just fine because decay's not around.

Your gums are beet red and they bleed more and more

And soon you're gonna find your pearly whites on the floor.

Rumor Has It...Rumor Has It...Rumor Has It...Rumor Has It... (X2)

All of your teeth whisper in my ear

Tell a story that I cannot bear to hear

Just cause you said it...it don't mean that you meant it

Home Care does crazy things...

 You know I said it...I promise I meant it...I know you heard it

Rumor Has It...Rumor Has It...Rumor Has It...Rumor Has It... (X3.5)

But rumor has it you don't have your teeth anymore.

Christmas Card Ordered!

Stationery Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Feeling Close...and Honored

My mom surprised me with something incredibly special today...the wedding ring of her mother and my grandmother, Grace (Belliston) Jeppesen (shown above my own)!

My grandmother had a very regal personality.  I never saw her looking anything but her best and she always wore a smile.  She loved pearls.  She decorated a white tree with fake candles every year.  She drove a white convertible.  She would hum cheerfully throughout the day.  When we were younger, she would hide frosted oatmeal cookies in the bottom drawer of the kitchen for the grandkids...where our parents would never expect them to be.  She invited me over for a sleepover one weekend and took me to the fabric store to buy any color of yarn I wanted so that I could show her how I had just learned to braid.  She warned me not to come back to the car without a candy bar...that was the first time I ever tasted a charleston chew.  She owned a daybed and I loved napping on it as the sunlight carried in through the window.  I felt her presence near me in a very real way during my mission and knew she was watching me from heaven.   

I remember her fondly and today I felt very connected with her when my mother had me close my eyes and placed her mother's wedding ring in my hand.  "I want you to have it," she said.  I immediately started crying.  I have admired my grandmother's ring for a long time.  After her passing, my mother would wear it to church and I would ask to try it on all the time.  I would imagine it as my wedding ring, and when I was about to become engaged to Ryan I asked if she would hate to part with it...and while she said it was intended for me, she wasn't ready to pass it on, which I understood.  I purposefully patterned my wedding ring after hers, having 7 diamonds from each band circle the center diamond.  I am humbled, flattered and honored to have such a cherished possession of hers.  I loved my grandmother very much and I look forward to remembering her while I wear this precious family heirloom.  

Proof Positive -- My Husband is the Best Ever

Ryan left his google drive open on my computer this morning and I saw a document entitled "New Aspects of My Life." Intrigued, I opened the file and here is what it read:

These are a few things that my wife has introduced to my life:

Being more spontaneous
Giving more on tips at restaurants
How to appreciate the life stories of older people, especially grandparents
Being more open to spending money on fun things
Eating more healthy more often
Spending more that 30 mins in a mall
Learning that only a woman can find an item that has been placed in the bottomless pit that is a woman’s purse
Having our house decorated by Tanya is more appealing than my style of bare walls
How to be silly with her
Trying new things
Ichibon
Kimchi
How much you can love a dog
Professional spa massages
Her mission friends/mission president/reunions
Manila, UT/Flaming Gorge vacations
Fishing
Swing dancing/Zumba
Car rides
Taking the scenic route

Reading this warmed my heart and nearly made me cry! Ryan is so wonderful. He wrote it on some random day in October.  I’m grateful that he takes time to reflect on the good I bring to his life, independent of any special occasion or me coaxing it out of him. I am a blessed woman.

Delivered from Heaven

Well, I bawled.  ;)

http://www.youtube.com/v/dCToSWHpTEM?autohide=1&version=3&autoplay=1&attribution_tag=4PiWujzlPrCnusvrSOd8bA&showinfo=1&feature=share&autohide=1

Happy Halloween!

We've done lots of celebrating this year!  We've been to a few parties and later today we are going to make an attempt to turn our puppy into a mummy with toilet paper!  Wish us luck.  Here's some fun pics of our shenanigans.

If you can't tell what I am, you need to watch Despicable Me II.  

So glad Kara Goodwin and Reo Garn came to the party!  Love these two!

We found some friends.  Yay for legions of minions!

A Date for Every Month

I wish I would have planned ahead a little better and captured pictures from all of our dates this year...

I sealed an envelope with an activity Ryan and I can do together for every month of the year.  It has been fun watching him open them over these past months and doing the activities together.  I will write about each of them in a little more detail later.

For August, we were supposed to have a picnic on the beach.  I fell a little behind but was determined to see this through so we went to the beach last weekend and had a picnic in our coats.  This was Cooper's first visit to the beach and he wouldn't stop running circles around us!  He was so tired that night.  

I'm having some major niece hunger pains! #Gratefultechnologykeepsusconnected!

I found myself missing my nieces a lot today!  Kenzie is starting Kindergarden and is having a really fun time learning how to spell her colors while she learns some fun songs.  I can't wait to see these gals in December!  We are spending this Christmas in California!  

Systemic Formulas Work Party with Shantele

Shale invited me to her work party at Snow Basin this fall!  I love attending these events with her!  We had an incredible meal and lots of fun playing a photo scavenger hunt!  The dessert gave us an awesome idea...we made our own creme brulee soon thereafter.  Love playing with blowtorches, haha!  

Meet our Cooper!

After 3 years of pleading my cause, I finally got a puppy!  Ryan, who at first worried about costs, allergies, time commitments, etc (all the practical stuff)  he has fallen completely in love!  Cooper, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, brings us so much happiness!  At last we can say we are parents...

My family loves watching this guy!

He didnt love this bed at first, but now he drags it wherever he wants to lie in it! 

My favorite times with Cooper are when he is cuddling with us in his sleep!

Trying to find crafty ways to keep a very curious and hyper puppy contained while I try to get chores done!  

Cooper has filled our hearts with a new kind of love and it makes us even more enthusiastic for a baby!  And probably a little more prepared!  Anyone who can't find the parallels between puppy parenting and human parenting probably needs to have their first puppy.  The correlations are pretty obvious and super educational!  

Introducing James Morgan Isle, our newest "Nephew"

Our friends Dan and Cami had their first child on September 4, 2013.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE little James Morgan Isle!  And I think he loves us!  I had the great honor of helping Cami bring him home for the first time, because Dan had to work.  I was also told that I was the first person they called after the delivery!!!!!!!  Anyone that knows me knows how much that gesture means to me.  I love this family and can't wait to start babysitting my little "nephew."  

Hawkins Family Pictures

We found a neat little window of opportunity to get family pictures while Jadon and Michelle were visiting Utah.  It was their first visit in 4 years!  We were thrilled!  I was especially excited for these family pictures because the last official ones taken were back when I was in diapers and they were always an important thing in my eyes.  Josh and Tami came to take them with their fancy camera and they were taken at Beus Pond in Ogden.  I can't wait to have them developed.