Valentines day

On Valentines day Conner got cards from his classmates.  I really like this one.  "You are the nicest friend ever!! It made me happy to see that!!

Love one Another

Today is Valentine's Day!! My family is everything to me. I love them all so much.  Even though we are ALL imperfect and have our moments, "I love them all".

 I have been preparing the Relief Society lesson for this coming Sunday.  The lesson is on the Holy Ghost.  I came across a talk by President Uchtdorf.  In his talk he asks, "What is truth?  Truth is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He is the way the truth and the life."  He said that one of the reasons we were sent here to earth is to find the truth.  It is an obligation for us to discover the truth for ourselves. "Expecting that we search, ponder and evaluate and come to a personal knowledge of truth-through prayer and under the direction of the Holy Ghost," he said.  "As you accept the responsibility to seek after truth with an open mind and a humble heart, you will become more tolerant of others, more open to listen, more prepared to understand, more inclined to build up instead of tearing down and you will be more willing to go where God wants you to go," he said.

We need to live the gospel to have the Holy Ghost in our lives.  We are not perfect though and because of that we have our Savior, Jesus Christ, who invites us all to repent and he will forgive us because He loves us so much.  I am so thankful to be a member of the church and to have the Holy Ghost to guide me.  I have felt his influence in my life and in my  family's life.  I have much to learn and a lot of weaknesses to overcome, but I am trying my hardest.  I know my Heavenly Father loves me and is aware of me and my sorrows, trials and adversities.  I have felt His love for me!  

Ashley shared a talk by Elder Wirthlin with me, The Virtue of kindness.  That is the most wonderful talk I have heard. It starts out with a story about a man who when he was a young boy he was acting up in his class at church.  The teacher became angry and pulled him out of class and told him not to come back and he never did.  This made me sad.

I remember a time not long after we were baptized.  I was in my primary class and my teacher was doing a true and false questions game.  I did not know much about church history yet.  I did not know the answers.  She had given each of us  2 slips of paper one said true and the other false.  We were to show which one we thought was the answer.  I waited for the other kids to raise theirs before mine because I was not sure what to answer.  My teacher got mad and told me not to do that, she told me that I should know the answers.  I was embarrassed, I felt it was not my fault because I was new.  I was mad! After that I did not feel comfortable around that teacher.  I obviously did not stop going to church.  But I can see how you can get offended when things like this happen at church and specially to a little kid. To this day when I think of it, it still hurts. I am not mad at the teacher but I hurt because I think of how embarrassed I felt. My friends did not care, they felt they were helping me. 

Elder Wirthlin says in his talk;

Kindness:

Is the essence of greatness and the fundamental characteristic of noble men and woman.

Is a passport that opens doors and fashions friends.

It softens hearts and molds relationships that can last a lifetime.

Is the essence of celestial life.

It should permeate all of our words and actions at work, school, at church, and especially in our homes.

Kind words not only lift our spirits in the moment they are given, but they can linger with us over the years.

He said "The things you say, the tone of your voice, the anger or calm of your words-those things are noticed by your children and by others."

He said "Even when we think we are doing no harm by our critical remarks, consequences follow.  

He said "The church is a place where imperfect people gather to provide encouragement, support, and service to each other as we press on our journey to return to our Heavenly Father."

He said "Each one of us will travel a different road during this life. Each progresses at a different rate.  Temptations that trouble your brother may not challenge you at all.  Strengths that you possess may seem impossible for another."

This I like a lot, he said, "Never look down on those who are less perfect than you".  It frustrates me when others feel they are better than those who are struggling and don't go to church.  I know I need to work on that, but it is frustrating.  He said "We are all children of our Heavenly Father and we are here with the same purpose: to learn to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves."

I love this one too, "if you are criticizing others you are weakening the church. If you are building others, you are building the kingdom of God. As Heavenly Father is kind, we also should be kind to others. When we are filled with kindness, we are not judgmental."

I am guilty! I have a lot to learn and much to improve in my life.  I don't go around pretending that I am perfect, never have and never will.  I try to be fair to every one and to treat them with kindness. I don't go around criticizing people. I am a decent person. I have lots of wonderful friends that love me and like to be around me. My husband and children love me. Again I am not perfect!! My problem is that when I see others not doing the same is frustrates me and I want to change them.  I can't do that, they must want to do it for themselves.  I like things to be fair!! It bothers me when things are not fair!! Again, something else I need to work on because lets face it, Life ain't fair! All I can do is my best!

Elder Wirthlin said "Jesus, our Savior, was the epitome of kindness and compassion."  He said "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

I am thankful for Jesus Christ and His example and love for me.  I am thankful that He is patient and loving towards me. He knows me and how hard I try and that is good enough for me!

Helping Conner

Conner has been going to therapy for a while now and I can see some improvement.  He is starting to try some new foods and if he doesn't like them that is fine with me because he at least has tried it.  The therapist has a schedule for him.  On this particular day (in the picture), he was to try 3 grains of rice and 2 spinach leaves. He eats the spinach leaves really good!! But the rice is another story.  He has never wanted to try rice but I am happy that he at least tried it.  He will only eat hamburger meat, no ketchup or buns with it, but it is his favorite meat.  He also loves tostitos. He wont eat pasta, breads or rice so I give him tostitos.  He has recently started therapy to help him with his social skills.  Every Thursday we go to therapy for an hour, one hour for food therapy and also to help him with his motor skills, his hands are weak, he has a hard time tying his shoes and then another hour for social therapy.  On Mondays he is taking tennis lessons to help his hands and legs get strong.  He walks kind of funny and turns his legs inward when he runs, which is typical of kids with Aspergers.

Avocado spread

It is funny that growing up in Puerto Rico,  my mom. dad and my brother loved avocados.  They ate them everyday.  I on the other hand did not like them.  But now I love to eat avocados and I actually put it in my salad everyday.  I also like to eat it on toast.  I mash it and add some garlic powder (not garlic salt) and some Mrs. Dash garlic and herb seasoning. It is so good!!

Blue and Gold

We had the Blue and Gold dinner this past Wednesday.  Conner got 1 gold and 2 silver arrow points.

I had an accident

I had a little accident on Sunday.  I was taking a shower, getting ready for church when my razor fell and broke. I stepped out of the shower for a second to get a new razor and when I was opening the shower door I slipped on the tiled floor and fell on my right hip. As I was falling I was holding the metal door handle and then let go of it.  As I fell I tried to grab on to something, it all was so fast that without thinking I grabbed the glass door and it just sliced my finger.  The force made the door slam on my hand too and that is when I saw the cut and the blood. I grabbed a towel and went to get Brent who had to help me get dressed and then took me to emergency room.  The doctor and the nurse were so nice and made me laugh.  He gave me a shot on my finger to numb it and that was extremely painful.  I forgot to ask how many stitches he gave me but we counted 7.  Yesterday the pain was really bad, my whole hand was hurting and pounding.  Today I am doing much better, but it is still painful and the tip of my finger feels on pins and needles.  They told me that if it doesn't get better by tomorrow I need to go back and have it checked.

Piano Federation

Today Conner had piano Federation.  He did a great job, he got Superior!! We are so proud of him!!

Practicing before his turn.

Waiting for his turn.

On our way back from Federation, Conner saw a plane writing "Jesus Loves You" in the sky. I said that it was a nice thing to write.  Conner said: "there are two reasons why it is good to write it in the sky, because Jesus is somewhere up there in outer space and because everyone can see it up there in he sky".  He is so funny!