July - bring it on!!

June (last month) is always a busy time of year for us because it seems like there is always something going on. At the beginning of the month we had some pretty wicked weather – typical for spring. One evening Dylan was out on the trampoline reading a book, when the clouds became dark and streaks of lightening started to appear. Since it wasn’t raining, he decided to stay out there. Randy and I were just inside watching something on the DVR. Suddenly there was a flash of lightening outside and a big burst of light in our family room. The electricity stayed on – the lights and TV didn’t even blink – but we stopped and just looked at each other. .. Dylan came in the back door white as a ghost. He said he thought at first that he had been struck! He said that even his hair stood up on end for a fraction of a second from the electricity in the air. Then it started to hail – about the size of grapes – and then our sprinklers came on by themselves! Luckily, Dylan was NOT hit and the only damage that we noticed the next morning was that our DVR was not working correctly, so we had it replaced. One block over, our neighbors were not so lucky. They also had a lightning strike, but it took out their TV, computer, freezer and automatic garage opener!

Randy and I celebrated our 31st anniversary a few days ago. It’s hard to believe we have been married that long! Sometimes it seems like only yesterday that we just got married. We attended our Stake Conference last weekend. A member of the Seventy was the visiting General Authority (can’t remember his name!). The meetings were all very good.

Jesse had his 29th birthday – I cannot believe I have a child that old! He had to work that evening and spent that whole weekend making a super-hero movie for a film contest that he entered. Tyler had his 27th birthday and celebrated it with friends at a party where they dressed up like ‘old folks’ and played Bingo and wrote rhyming obituaries! We were able to take him out for his birthday dinner this week. Heidi has been able to get quite a few days off from the university, although she is also working at the zoo for the summer. One evening she was able to go rock-climbing with a large group and really enjoyed that. Ingrid has lost around 20 pounds using Herbal Life and is helping Jeff with his remodeling jobs (she quit her job at the daycare). She also had a great missionary experience where she talked to a friend from the daycare about the church, didn’t see her for awhile, but then heard about her baptism and was able to attend it. Dylan has been spending his time playing a lot of volleyball and learning to do a bunch of acrobatic moves -including flips off walls. He hasn’t been getting a lot of hours at work, so he is looking for another job.

Last year our home teachers gave my mom and Connie small rose bushes. I planted them by the pond and they are growing like crazy! We love having our new fence on the east side and we’re hoping to finish it on the west side of our backyard soon. When I think that our backyard was mostly dirt, weeds, and ant hills when we moved in here 3 years ago, I can’t hardly believe it. I wish I’d taken ‘before’ pictures! We’ve added a shed and cement base for it, air conditioning (to replace the swamp cooler), a pond with waterfall, doubled the amount of cement in our basketball area, planted grass, added automatic sprinklers, added a small raised area for tomato and strawberry plants, and planted trees. I love to go outside and just sit and listen to the running water – it’s so peaceful.

I just finished reading the Book of Mormon again. Each year I like to read it from cover to cover between April 5 and June 30 – that’s the length of time it took Joseph Smith to dictate the translation to Oliver Cowdery. The rest of the year I usually study it by topic. My testimony increases each year. I also read a few verses in Psalms 41:1-2 this morning where it says that he who considers the poor (ex:fast offerings) will be delivered in time of trouble. I know that this is true. Years ago I heard a speaker challenge everyone to double their fast offerings – I did. Within a year, I heard another speaker give the same challenge. I did this again – hoping to not hear another speaker on this subject for a long time! We have been able to increase our offerings over the years and I can truly say that we have received many more blessings than I could imagine! This life is a test, so we should not expect to go for very long without challenges or we would never grow. But, we have been given a way to be sure that we will always be delivered, through our payment of fast offerings. Cool.