Easter Egg Blues - and Backwards Day

I wanted to dye Easter Eggs, so on Saturday, Seth and I went grocery shopping, and I got an extra carton of eggs. But the store had no dying kits. So we went to CVS. They were out, but they had chocolate bunnies. So we went to Target. It looked like the Easter aisle had bee ransacked. But they had a transformers dye kit, and a sports one. We got the sports one, but they had no chocolate bunnies. My mom always got them for us on easter, and Seth wanted me to have one, so then we went to Walgreens. Lo and behold, right when we walked in we saw 20+ normal PAAS dying kits.... That was disappointing. They had tons of chocolate bunnies and easter items galore. That'll teach us for next time, go to Walgreens. We worked so hard that whole day, and we boiled the 12 extra eggs, and then I felt sick. So we didn't even dye them after all! How sad is that!? So now we have a dozen white hard boiled eggs. I guess I'll have to make eggs salad or something.

Well Easter was a wonderful day for us. I got so much out of church. Our Sunday School teacher had us all stand up, and said "Stay standing if you've read and prepared for the lesson." All but one person sat down. That really called me to repentance. We talked about how the Holy Spirit is the real teacher no matter who is called to speak or teach. The more spiritually prepared we are, the more we will be taught, comforted and edified at church, and in our daily scripture study. Seth and I made one of our famous apple pies, and went over to the Brimhall's (Seth's sister Angie's) for Easter dinner. The kids decided they wanted it to be backwards day, so we ate dinner backward, ending with the vegetables, and told the story of Christ's last week on Earth. That end with Him experiencing unspeakable agony and sorrow in the garden of Gethsemane, and the kids not wanting to eat their brocolli. Angie and Jeff did their best to make it a fun, educational and spiritual dinner, and I give props to them. But I don't think I will ever want to do Easter dinner, or the Easter story backwards again. There is a good reason dessert comes last, and an even better one that the glorified ressurected Christ comes at the end of the story. It is the best part! The happiest, most wonderful part! I like to have that part come last.

We got to talk to our mothers on Easter, and I thought about how much my family means to me. Because of Christ's great sacrifice, His atonement and resurrection, we all have the opportunity to live forever, eternally happy with our families. That is the very best news I know. It gives me a good reason to try my best every day. It gives this life a good reason for living. I am so grateful for the truth of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I know He lives, and He is directing His church. He loves all of us and wants us to be happy.

Spring! Spring! Spring!

Today was in the upper 60's! There are flowers blooming spontaneously, birds are singing, the air smells sweet, the sun shines! Hooray for April! (At least today). There are daffodils growing in our flower beds, just by themselves! I LOVE our house! It is so cute and cozy! I read my scriptures in a rocking chair on my beautiful porch, Seth and I ate Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner, outside for a picnic! (I say that voluntarily eating outside in any circumstance is a picnic. Seth disagrees because we used our card table and rocking chairs on our deck.) Then we played the Train Game outside! (Ticket to Ride), I won with 273 points. Brimhalls, watch out, because I am getting good at this game (maybe good enough to win against you guys!). Then we went on a walk around our beautiful neighborhood, holding hands. This is the life! What a great day. :)

Good News

It has been forever since my last post, I know. I have been travelling for over a month. It is so good to be home. While I was gone, I drove to Chicago twice, flew once. Flew to Utah, drove to Idaho, flew home, drove back to Utah, and flew home again, and I am here to stay, for a while! While I was in Chicago, I got to go to 2 of my little sister Martha's track meets. She is a shot putter. Right now, she is ranked 1st in the state for big high schools. At the first one, her name is on the wall for the best throw at that fieldhouse. At the meet she threw 43'2," so they are going to have to change the numbers. I also went to her MSL Conference. She won 1st, and no one was even within 2 feet of her throw. She has a full tuition scholarship to Illinois State University, and she'll go there in the fall. GREAT JOB MARTHA!

Well, during my trips, I didn't take any other pictures because I was very sick. At the end of February, I got this terrible virus (I'll spare you the details), and I was pretty much miserable for 5 weeks. I thought less about documenting my travels than I did hoping my head wouldn't explode and that I could sleep more than 3 hours a night. But now, I am getting better, and I am so grateful!

Now for my good news. I applied and was accepted into the Masters of Education in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at Cleveland State University, and will start my masters program the first week of June. I am so excited! I want to focus on teaching (legal) adult immigrants English to help them to have more opportunities for success in our country, and so they can give back to it as well.

Seth took me out to Dewey's Pizza to celebrate. These are my new glasses. :) My hair is getting long again too! Yay! Now I am looking for a part-time job, and as many scholarship/grant opportunities I can find.

Vacation Tribulation

The Bahamas were really beautiful, although it was too windy and cold to swim. Seth even ventured to play some sand volley ball. What a trooper!

This is the only picture I will post of myself on our vacation. I was so seasick, I did not look well, and would rather not keep those memories forever, and this one was pretty dark and far away. I lost my make-up case and all its contents on our cruise. SAD! Now I am doomed to use my very very old back up stuff I don't like, but at least I didn't get sunburned, so I can be very glad of that.

I'm sure some of you are probably wondering how our vacation turned out. Well, as you can see from the title, it wasn't exactly what we expected it to be. Over a year ago, we 'won a free cruise' to the Bahamas from Ramada Plaza Resorts, and Imperial Majesty Cruise Lines. Well, to say the least more than a year later, when we went to use our vacation, it certainly wasn't free, and it ended up being quite a scam. I won't go into to many details, but as a recap we had to spend a third of our time listening to sales pitches, and it felt like another third was spent waiting in line for 'comped' buffet meals that were less than quality, our cruise line was over 50 years old, and light as a feather, our room that we had to upgrade and upgrade which cost a lot of money and grief was more like a low rate motel on terrible seas, than the Veranda Suite we were promised. We got lost a few times, we both were absolutely sea sick the entire cruise, throwing up, feeling like our heads were going to explode, barely being able to stand up and walk, etc. (I won't go on about that too much more, but I will say that the crew couldn't find enough housekeeping staff and cat litter to clean up the mess on board, with the terrible ocean we faced. Needless to say the Dining Room was practically empty the first night, and we sure didn't make it to dinner.) When we stopped in the Bahamas we paid for an excursion to a beach resort, but it was close to 65 degrees, very windy, and mostly cloudy most of the day. We couldn't swim, and were really too sea sick to do much else.

Ok, now that is over with, I will tell you about the good things about our trip. When I was on the ship the first night, After the losing of our lunches, Seth and I were laying in our bed trying to ignore the feeling of rising 15 ft. in the air and then descending over and over, I remembered looking out into that dark abiss of an ocean. It looked like a terrible monster waiting to swallow us up. I was amazed at it's power. I had never been on a boat on the ocean, or a sea. I got to experience first hand, a taste of what it could do if angered. As I laid there, I was reminded that the Lord created the ocean, and has complete control over it. I think the ocean can be compared to the Lord in a way. It is so vast, man cannot even comprehend it completely. It contains such deep mysteries, and beauties. It can be so helpful, taking you across miles and miles to your destination. When it is angered, it is indeed terrrible.

I also remembered the scripture about Christ from Mark 4 in the New Testament:

35 And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.

36 And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.

37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.

38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, aPeace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great bcalm.

40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so afearful? how is it that ye have no bfaith?

41 And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

Jesus Christ is the master of earth and sea. All the elements obey His command. How is it that His children, most often do not obey? I want to do better to obey, and feel the peace, and calm He can bring to me as I follow.

I was touched by this feeling of how aware the Lord is of me, only one passenger, on one small ship in the deep vast ocean. I prayed many times, that if it were the Lord's will, that He would calm the sea. He did, and around midnight that night, I fell asleep.

Other great experiences we had on our trip. Throughout the many sales pitches we had to listen to, we got to know some of the people, and were able to share part of our faith with them.

Seth and I got to spend every minute of a whole week together. We had many deep conversations all about the US government, the welfare program, immigration, Pres. Obama, our life together so far, our future plans. It was nice to really talk.

We got to go to Universal Studios, and despite some lingering seasickness, we really enjoyed the Simpsons Ride, Shrek 4D, The Mummy (we rode that twice. it was the only roller coaster, and it was a very good one.)

My desire to eat did come back eventually, I renounced my vow never to set foot on a cruise ship again (as long as it is BIG and NEW!) My dizzy, lightheadedness did go away after about 5 days of being on land.

I learned a lot about myself on the trip. It just so happened that the only book I brought was called "Emily of Deep Valley," by Maud Hart Lovelace (one of my very favorite authors). Because of the sea sickness, and the bad weather we had, I had a lot of time to read. I ended up reading it 2 and a half times. I loved every page. I could really relate to my namesake character, and this book helped me figure out what I want to do now. I have some work to do, and preparations to make, but I will unfold my plan for the near future very soon.

The very last day of our trip had nice 75 degree weather with not too much wind. We went to a cool hotel resort called Gaylord Palms (for free! probably the only part of our trip that actually was.) We saw fish, and alligators in the atrium and beautiful plants and flowers. It was a really cool place.

I got a new jacket, bright red, and beautiful!, and some jeans that were very needed! Thanks Seth!

We got to drive our first rental car, a shiny new blue Ford Focus. That was the first new car I had ever driven. It was so powerful! Wow! I liked it a lot, almost as much as my red Miata (R.I.P). And we even got to enjoy XM radio with no commercials.

Seth and I didn't get to swim in FL because it was too cold and windy, but we did get to walk barefoot on the beach, hand in hand under the stars. That was wonderful. I learned more about Seth, and we grew closer on our trip, through the trials and all. I definately don't regret going. I learned and I grew, and I am better for it, and I think Seth is too.

It was so wonderful to come home. This trip made me realize how much I really love our house, Cleveland, our ward at church, our wonderful friends, living close to family, and just being able to come home with Seth is a blessing.

And now we will have a hilarious story to tell our children someday.

80 Degrees, Here we come!

Seth and I are going to Florida tomorrow to go on our Honeymoon we never had time for, and to celebrate our 2 Year Anniversary. We are getting excited for sunny 80 degree weather, swimming in the ocean at Ft. Lauderdale, going on a cruise to the Bahamas, and checking out Universal Studios, and maybe some Disney parks. Hooray for vacation!

My Favorite Books

My favorite book series to read (even more than Harry Potter, shockingly enough) is The Betsy-Tacy Books by Maud Hart Lovelace. There are 13 books in the complete series. I have read each one as of this week, and I am enchanted by them. Lovelace was born in 1892 and while she told her daughter of the stories of her childhood, she came up with this series. It is based on her life. I love to look back, as I read them, and see what it was like to live in those times. The first 4 books are wonderful for younger children. She starts the first book at the time when she turned 5 years old, the very last, Betsy's Wedding, ends when she is 25 years old. I urge everyone to read these books! When I read them, I am caught up in Betsy's world like I am really there. I laugh out loud many times, and Seth looks at me funny, but I don't care. I cry with Betsy and I rejoice in her triumphs. Although the books are considered fiction. They are very real to me. What a blessing it is to be able to read!

2 Year Anniversary

Yes, I know. It's been a while. Maybe it would be a more realistic goal for me to post every 2 weeks. Well, Seth and I are doing fine. Yesterday we had dentist appointments. The hygienist practically ripped our gums up. After she was done scratching and scraping, she flossed my teeth as if she were trying to saw down a tree. "Most people are too easy on their gums. It's OK if you see blood..." "Hmm," I thought "Will I have any blood left in my body after this appointment is over?" At least she was friendly though. Our dentist is the nicest lady. I like here a lot because she is so personable, and she explains everything to you so that it will actually help you. Seth hadn't been to see the dentist in 6 years! So, I said that not we have dental insurance, that he would be going every 6 months for a check-up. It was amazing that he lasted 6 years without going to the dentist, and only had 2 small cavities! Wagner genes are practically invincible! I hope our gets get all of Seth's health genes.

Then we had eye exams. Seth's eyes were fine, but they said that if he wanted glasses, he would have the very slightest prescription possible. So we had a good time picking out glasses with each other. It kind of felt like a fashion show to me. Then ladies who worked in the store came over to start giving their opinions. It was funny. So when we get our glasses, I'll have to post some pictures of what we picked.

On Tuesday, February 3rd, We had our 2 year wedding anniversary. We went out to Olive garden to celebrate. I love Olive Garden food. Yum!

When we got home, we continued our tradition of reading our journals aloud from the important days of our story together, like when we decided to get married, and our wedding day, etc. When I read our accounts of the night we had our first kiss and decided to get married, Seth finally conceded to the fact that he broke my heart when he changed his mind less than a month later, and then it took him a few more months to get his head on straight and ask me to marry him. We're both glad he did. It is wonderful to be married. It's good to write in a journal too. I don't know why I've stopped doing it everyday like I used to, but I have started it up again, and I'm planning not to miss a day for the rest of my life (give or take a few days.)

This is what President Spencer W. Kimball has to say about it.

"On a number of occasions I have encouraged the Saints to keep personal journals and family records. I renew that admonition. We may think there is little of interest or importance in what we personally say or do—but it is remarkable how many of our families, as we pass on down the line, are interested in all that we do and all that we say.

Any Latter-day Saint family that has searched genealogical and historical records has fervently wished its ancestors had kept better and more complete records. On the other hand, some families possess some spiritual treasures because ancestors have recorded the events surrounding their conversion to the gospel and other happenings of interest, including many miraculous blessings and spiritual experiences. People often use the excuse that their lives are uneventful and nobody would be interested in what they have done. But I promise you that if you will keep your journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to your children, your grandchildren, and others, on through the generations. Each of us is important to those who are near and dear to us—and as our posterity read of our life’s experiences, they, too, will come to know and love us. And in that glorious day when our families are together in the eternities, we will already be acquainted.

From time immemorial the Lord has counseled us to be a record-keeping people. Abraham had a book of remembrance, and Adam had one. You may think of them as not being as highly educated as we are, but they were well-trained people. Adam spent much effort being the school teacher for his children. He and Eve taught their sons and daughters. He taught them the gospel in their home evenings, and he taught them reading and writing and arithmetic. And they kept their books of remembrance. How else do you think Moses, many hundreds of years later, got the information? These records had been kept, and he referred to them and got the history of the world, which wasn’t in any library other than that. Can you see your responsibility?

You should continue on in this important work of recording the things you do, the things you say, the things you think, to be in accordance with the instructions of the Lord. Your story should be written now while it is fresh and while the true details are available.
Your private journal should record the way you face up to challenges that beset you. Do not suppose life changes so much that your experiences will not be interesting to your posterity. Experiences of work, relations with people, and an awareness of the rightness and wrongness of actions will always be relevant. Your journal, like most others, will tell of problems as old as the world and how you dealt with them.

Your journal is your autobiography, so it should be kept carefully. You are unique, and there may be incidents in your experience that are more noble and praiseworthy in their way than those recorded in any other life.

What could you do better for your children and your children’s children than to record the story of your life, your triumphs over adversity, your recovery after a fall, your progress when all seemed black, your rejoicing when you had finally achieved? Some of what you write may be humdrum dates and places, but there will also be rich passages that will be quoted by your posterity.

We hope you will begin as of this date. If you have not already commenced this important duty in your lives, get a good notebook, a good book that will last through time and into eternity for the angels to look upon. Begin today and write in it your goings and your comings, your deeper thoughts, your achievements, and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and your testimonies. We hope you will do this, our brothers and sisters, for this is what the Lord has commanded, and those who keep a personal journal are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives."

This is the link to find the full article.

Spencer W. Kimball, “President Kimball Speaks Out on Personal Journals,” New Era, Dec 1980, 26
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=024644f8f206c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=f5f3ba9ff599b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1
After reading this, and the talk Henry B. Eyring, “O Remember, Remember,” Ensign, Nov 2007, 66–69

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=88562bce258f5110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1

I decided that I was going to take that counsel and write in my journal to remember what the Lord has done for me. I want to write it for me, and for my family. I know that it will help me to know myself, and the Lord better, and see His hand in my life. I want my posterity to have those blessings as well. I want them to know how in love Seth and I are; I want them to know how we worked out our trials with the help of the Lord. I want them to know of our faith in the Lord. I know it is great to have a blog and post pictures, but I can't say all that is in my mind and put it up on the internet. We all have thoughts, feelings and experiences that are more personal than that. Every night that I ponder what I am going to write, and remember what has happened in my day, no matter how busy I have been, or if my day seemed good or bad, I can see the Lord working in my life to bless me, and all those around me. That is a great gift.

"And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins. " 2 Nephi 25:26