My Life Really Isn't So Bad....

I have a lot to be grateful for. I know that. I recognize that fact quite often in my life. But lately, I've been a bit dragged down with a few difficulties that popped up at the same time. It has been a yucky week.

One of them being...we need a new roommate badly. We've been looking for a couple of months now, and we've even had a few potentials, but nothing has panned out. Now we're looking at moving out. My roommate would have to move home--which she really doesn't want to do. And I don't know where I would go. I don't have anywhere to go.

And that scares me...a lot. Like panic inducing.

The last few years have been filled with me searching for roommates. Not fun. Seriously. It's really, really frustrating. I've always been able to find one, or find some place new to live, but it's never been this close to actually not happening. Basically I have 30 days to find someone new. We're even putting in notice that we're moving.

My roommate and I went over the lease the other night and realized how much we're going to have to do to move out. Our prior roommates had done a lot of painting and so we're going to have to do a lot of un-painting. Yucky. And we have to deep clean 5 years of dirt, grime, and dust. No bueno.

I'm feeling really overwhelmed.

I'm tired of being the one that gets stuck behind. Stuck with cleaning and emptying the house/apartment. Stuck with scrambling to deal with what to do with my stuff.

Now would be a great time for Heavenly Father to answer my desperate prayers for a roommate so I don't have to be homeless.

This isn't a very fun time of year to be stressed out either.

But then I get phone calls from my clients who have no income and families to feed and provide shelter. It puts things into a bit of perspective. And then I learned that a friend of mine's husband has cancer. They found out 3 weeks after they got married. Yeah...

I have a lot to be grateful for. I'm healthy. My family is healthy. My sister is having a baby in a week (or so) and she has had an easy pregnancy. I have a job. And I can cover my bills (as long as I find a roommate).

I don't mean to be a big complainer, but this is what has been going on this week. I'm keepin' it real. I literally have been taking it one day at a time. It's a really good thing that the christmas presents are done because I am not motivated to work on any projects.

Last night I went to the temple, hoping to feel better and maybe have a solution magically pop into my head.

I did feel a little better, but no solution. I read my scriptures while I was there, flipping through them. Oddly each of the verses that I was able to actually absorb were talking about the people that fight against Zion will fail. I mean, I read that verse in the every page I flipped to in my scriptures. Weird, right? Yeah...that doesn't have much to do with the roommate situation. Though, interestingly, it did make me feel better about another issue I have to deal with soon.

I think the take away lesson from my visit to the Temple was the feeling that somehow things will work out they way they are supposed to. But I don't know what way that is, and I don't know if I'll like it when I do find out.

But I do know that it will work out. Some how.

Relief Society Lesson/Handout

Last Sunday I gave a lesson in Relief Society out of the Gospel Principles manual. The lesson? The Final Judgment. It was such a fun topic to teach about and discuss.

So a quick recap of the lesson. I started out by summarizing the Plan of Salvation and then went into the lesson and we talked about Judgment and why it's necessary and when it's good and when it's not.

Then we talked about the three Kingdoms of Heaven, based on the verses in Doctrine & Covenants Section 76. We split into groups and discussed each one and then talked about the Celestial Kingdom together as a class. Because, really, that's where we all want to be. :)

So the fun, cheesy part was at the end when I concluded and told a story about a lesson I learned when I was in Seminary.

My teacher, Sister Grim, taught a lesson similar to this one and at the end she told us that we were all celestial material and because of the Atonement, she said that we all had the ability to live in the celestial kingdom. Then she gave us a scrap of fabric that has suns and moons and stars to remind us that we were celestial material. (Get it?!) So cute.

This was the first time that it even occurred to me that I had that potential. I figured that I never would be able to because I was a mean, angry child and teenager and didn't think that would even be an option. Becuase you have to be perfect to be there. Well no one is, and that is why we have the Atonement. :)

So I wanted to share that beautiful message with our Relief Society and so I found "celestial material" at the store and made a cute handout for everyone. I put gold star garland wrapped around the top so that I could attach the "You are Celestial Material" tag (font is called "Inspiration") I had printed to the fabric. My roommate suggested that it be an ornament so I added hooks to it. :) Thanks to my sister for helping me make them, I think that they turned out pretty cute.

So just remember that you, too, are celestial material. :)

Pictures from This Weekend

So here are some random pictures from this weekend.

There's this house in Lincoln (3rd Street by the railroad tracks) that times the lights to music. So cool!! I snapped a picture, but I wish I had video. :)

Saturday I was working on my handout for my lesson (I'll share that later) that I taught yesterday in Relief Society and I needed pinking shears, so I ran over to Michelle's borrow her's. Kevin was home and so he INSISTED that I post a picture of him and Tucker on my blog. So here you go, baby boy. Here is the picture that you DESPERATELY WANTED on the internet. :) Love you! (He's so cute!)

Here is Michelle's photo wall all done up for Christmas. It looks sooooo good!

And she was finally able to hang up her teacup collection with the words I made for her last Christmas. :) Looks awesome, right?

After I was done at Michelle's I went over to Cait's to have her help me with putting my handout together. It wasn't hard, but I did want it to get done faster. Thanks, sis!

Steven showed up after we were done and we hung out for a couple of hours.

I convinced Cait to let me take a picture of her at nine months.  Isn't she so cute!?! I love her baby belly. She only has 2 weeks left!! Steven also decided to make his presence known. :)

Nick decided that he wanted pomagranate salad and Cait made him put on an apron. He was so cute, I couldn't resist snapping a few pics. But he realized what I was doing, so I got several pictures of his backside. Definately not what I was aiming for. Eventually I got this shot. Adorable, right? I thought so. :)

So then today was interesting. I found out, thankfully, I don't have to give a talk next Sunday, like I was asked to. So that was nice. And I think that my lesson went pretty well. I just got some 2 bits of uncomfortable news and I'm still trying to digest. And I'm not real happy about it.

But thankfully, It will be okay and I'm not dealing with it alone, so that is always good. :) Good thing I know Heavenly Father loves me. :)

So Excited!

Last night I stopped by my local scrapbook store, Green Tangerines, to take a look around. I had some free time and wanted to window shop, and it had been a few weeks since I had been there. As I wandered around dreaming of what I wanted to make with all the beautiful papers and scraps and inks and thingy-ma-bobs that make scrapbooking super fun, I ran across this...

Awesome right?!?! You may recognize the page from a few weeks ago when I posted it here. The store displayed one of the pages I submitted!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!

That was a fun surprise I didn't expect! Then of course I had to go around the entire store again to see if anything else I submitted was displayed. Nothing else was, but I don't care. One was!! :)

Gingerbread Houses

For FHE last night we made Gingerbread Houses. They were made out of graham crackers--so they were actually Graham Cracker Houses, but that just doesn't sound as festive. Any way, some of them turned out amazing!--others not so much. :)

Below, Patty, April, and Christiana working on their houses:

Patty's house: It had a porch, complete with a gummy bear holding a double barrel shotgun while sitting on a rocking chair. Now that is legit!

April with her two story mansion with bay windows, complete with a gummy bear sledding in front of it.

Christiana with her very detailed birdhouse, complete with a perch and a welcome sign. So cute!

There were some other fabulous little houses, but I didn't get pictures. It was such a fun activity and we laughed the entire time. Christiana was out of control again. I think I better not take her out in public anymore. ;)

So now we have a beautiful edible birdhouse in my kitchen. Yes. Dreams come true. :)

Saturday Night

Saturday was really fun. :)

I went to the mall (insanity, I know--it was december after all) with a friend and looked for jewelry for her. Actually, it wasn't all that bad. There were parking people and so we actually found a close spot. Yay! Yes, there were masses of people, and after the 45 minutes we were there, I was completely ready to leave. But the decorations were pretty and it was kind of fun to observe the people there.

Then immediately after, I went down to Loomis to hang with my peeps, the Strocks & Hoopers. I heart Summer and Riley. :) Have I mentioned how much I love Loomis?
This year they had a Christmas tree lighting party and Summer invited me to come. Little did I know that it would be FREEZING and all I had was a light sweater. I didn't stay for the whole thing. But I did get some tasty toffee and carmel popcorn! MMMMMmmmm!

There were hay rides driven by tractors. See? This is why I love Loomis. Because there are tractors. :)

 The Grinch made an appearance, but I never got a picture of him looking at me.

 Santa welcoming Christmas to Loomis.

 The tree and the station all lit up. So fun! For dinner I treated myself to have a burger at Taylor's (the new Cagles!) across from the Station. So delicious! And the best part? They have over 100 different flavors of shakes and malts. Even Bacon flavored (I haven't been brave enough to try it).

On my way home, I saw High hand Nursery Garden lit up for Christmas. It is so beautiful in there. I've wanted to eat dinner there since it opened, but it is quite pricey. Maybe some day. :)

So that was my Saturday. Fun friends, cold wind, and the Grinch. This is going to be a good christmas. :)

Decorating the Office

Today I decorated our office for Christmas! Yay!

Every year everyone expects some one to do it, but won't do it themselves. So I end up doing it. Not that I mind, but it does take a bit of time and I'm pretty busy, ya know, working.

Well I did it this year anyway. Last year we didn't even have a tree because the person that had a truck wouldn't bother to pick one up, but yet complained all last December that we didn't have one. Silly.

Anywhoo, this year I found a 6' tree in my garage left by one of my old roommates so it got pulled into service this year in the office. It's kind of a sad bit of tree, but it works and it's festive. :)

I made the wreaths and the centerpiece a couple of years ago when I got permission to buy a bunch of decorations. (I love spending other people's money!) The red and gold one is my favorite. I love that ribbon!

Our little Christmas Tree. The tree is red and gold with some blue to match everything else. And the lights are twinklie. Love it. :)