Great week-end!

I have had a wonderful Thanksgiving week-end! My parents flew in late on Thanksgiving day. I picked them up from the airport at around 5 p.m., so by the time we got home it was almost 6. I had left T home to take care of the turkey, and getting the casseroles in the oven for the last 3o minutes to bake. Well, needless to say, everything was ready EXCEPT the turkey, so we had to wait until 7 to eat. It was o.k. though. Dinner was yummy, and we had a good time visiting while we waited.

Friday morning, T flew back to Indy to prepare for his defense. While it would have been nice to have him here to enjoy the week-end, I was very glad to have my parents here for company. We had a good time, and Little buddy loved every minute of it. Grandpa spent about 2 days working on raking the leaves in the backyard, and still didn't get it finished before he left today. He would have if I didn't keep dragging him off to go places. My nice neighbor let my dad use his leaf blower, so he had a great time. It was beautiful weather too, so it was nice to be outside. Little buddy got to help grandpa with the leaves. Dad scooped the leaves onto a tarp, and then hauled them out into the trees behind our house to scatter them in the "forest". Little buddy would get thrown into the leaves, and would just lay there as still as could be while grandpa dragged the tarp across the yard to the edge of the "forest". It was so funny! All you could see of the little guy was his face. I wish I had gotten a picture of it. He had a great time.

Saturday night I had to prepare my talk for church on Sunday. My topic was a very interesting one. It was "Peace and Safety come through Faith and Trust in God and God's kingdom on earth". I started my talk by talking about tornadoes, and how we have some warning to help us get to safety. I compared the tornado sirens being our warning, to the prophets on the earth today. They give us warnings to heed of the dangers to come in our day. If we heed their councils, we will have nothing to fear when the danger comes. We will be prepared. I also talked about building our faith and testimonies in order to help us have strong foundations. I mentioned how it isn't enough to rely on spiritual experiences we have had in the past, we need to be constantly working to increase our faith, and to find testimony building experiences. I told of my participation in th Hill Cumorah Pageant, and how I now have an unmistakable, undoubtable testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel...especially the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and the fact that Joseph Smith IS a true prophet. I cannot doubt the feelings I felt while there, and will always have that knowledge to keep me safe from the "storms". I know how hard Satan is working to knock us off our foundations. I know that even when we are doing the things we are supposed to, that life will still have its challenges and strong winds, but we will stay firm and sure if we have our foundation strong. I have heard too many stories lately of people who have let their faith waver, and they have let their foundation crumble. This has emphasized even more to me how much harder we need to work to keep ourselves strong.

Anyway...of course I referred to the wise man who built his house upon the rock, and I also had to add another example...the 3 little pigs. We have been telling that story to little buddy at night lately, so it was fresh in my head. If we work hard, and build our house of bricks, the big bad wolf, cannot huff and puff and blow our house down. If we try and hurry and just do the basics to get by, like building the house of straw or sticks, the winds will blow us down.

I referred a lot to a talk given in the October 2006 General Conference by Elder David S. Baxter called "Faith, Service, Constancy" http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-646-5,00.htm It's a great talk.

I was glad to finally have that talk over with, and I was able to relax and spend the time with my family. We spent yesterday visiting the visitor's center in Independence and then Liberty Jail. We watched the Joseph Smith movie, and it was really good. Logan sat through the whole thing, and was really good! It was over an hour, so I wasn't sure he would last, but he did. I think there was something about the spirit of it that kept him calm. He even asked me questions about things that were happening. I was so proud of him.

I have made this long enough, so I will sign off for now. T is home, and is finally done with his PhD! I guess I can now call him Dr. T! It's a relief!