The Day After

I know I have been gone for awhile and will I eventually get caught up. But today I wanted to post about my experience with the election last night.  I love this county, I love our founding fathers, I love our history, I LOVE the Constitution of the United States.  And to be honest, I truly believed that there were enough people who believe in electing righteous men left in this county that we would elect a righteous president.  So at about 9:30 last night when  it looked like Romney was going to lose Ohio, I started to get down.  If I keep being honest, I had hope that I would wake up this morning and after ALL the votes had been counted, we would have a different president in January.  But that is not the way it happened.  I was texting with a friend around 9:30 and she told me I had to have faith and to keep praying.  So that is what I did.  I knelt down and said a prayer.  As I prayed, I felt so much peace wash over me.  The thought came to my mind "Stephanie, remember who is in charge, you have to have faith".  I started to think of the scripture in Isaiah(I think) about the stone being cut from the mountain, that can not be stopped.  That the Lord will win this war.  Jesus Christ will come again.   As long as I remain on the Lord's side.  I will not lose.   He will not be defeated.  I also realized that we will have some hard times and that I will need to stand up for what I believe in.  When I went to sleep last night I had peace.  When I woke up this morning, I still had peace.  I feel that peace tonight.  I know that this has been a blessing for me from the Lord.  I am a very emotional person when it comes to the things I feel strongly about.  I have been known to lose control of my emotions every once in awhile.  So I know that I have been blessed.  It is November, a month to help us remember to have gratitude.  I am thankful for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  I know that he lives.  I know that loves me.  I am grateful for the power of prayer and the gift of the Holy Ghost.  I know that my prayers are answered.  I am grateful for modern day prophets, to guide us and show us the way.  There is a video of one of President Benson's talks, a friend of mine posted on facebook.  In it, President Benson talks about the struggles ahead of us.  He says that the Constitution will be saved, but that we are going to have to have courage.  I know that I can have the courage I need to speak up, to defend my beliefs, to stand as a witness of God.  So as the Lord tells us in the Doctrine and Covenants, "Fear not, for I am with thee"

New Blog

I have a new blog.  I will still keep this one as well.  My new blog wont have pictures or any personal information.  I have been thinking for a long time about something I can do to make a difference.  So I will be blogging about this wonderful country we live in.  My first post is up and it explains the blog a lot better then here.  So PLEASE take the time to check it out . Give me any feed back and if there are any topics you all want me to research or talk about.  

Thank you!

www.libertyordeathfreetochoose.blogspot.com

Traditions

My family has a lot of traditions. I happen to like traditions. Several years ago I started a new one for myself. When ever I would travel somewhere, I would always look for something to bring back as a souvenir. Something different then a T-Shirt. On my first trip to Orlando with my cousins, I found a Christmas ornament. (We where there in October). Ever since then, I try to find an ornament when I travel. It is actually pretty easy to find one. Every Christmas when I decorate my tree, I get to remember my vacations.

This is from the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor

Disney World 2001

Orlando 2008-Universal Studios

New Orleans 2004

Disney Land 2007--Okay, so Mickey and Minnie weren't really ornaments, they were key chains I turned into ornaments. :O)

The glass ball is from the Venetian in Las Vegas

This one is from the white church in Boston. I LOVED Boston.

Christmas

Christmas this year was a lot of fun. I loved spending time with my family. Jeff and Jennilynn got a puppy from Santa this year. Boy is she adorable!!!! She's a boxer.

Her name is Lisle-I'm not sure how to spell it. Boxers come from Germany originally, so Jeff and Jennilynn wanted her to have a German name.

We ate lots of food and played games. I even convinced some of my family to play nerts with me. It's a card game I played A LOT when I lived in Provo. I have a hard time getting others here to play with me. However, Katherine likes the game, so hopefully she will keep playing with me. :O)

David brought over his race car video game. I thought it was a lot of fun. Denise got me a new game for the Wii. It is the Resort Sports. We had a great time playing the Archery game. I got Denise the video of Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding. It was kind of a joke gift, but kind of not. Some of us (me, Denise, Scott, Brian and Steve) stayed a little bit later on Christmas Eve to watch most of it.

While we were waiting for everyone to get to mom and dad's house on Christmas Eve, we decorated a ginger bread house. Gabrielle ate more candy then she put on the house.

Grant had fun playing with Uncle Brian's new car.

Today

I know I have been catching up on the last few months, but I feel like I need to talk a little bit about my day today. Earlier this week the father of friends of mine died. I was blessed to get to attend his funeral today. The church was filled with love and the spirit of our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for the testimonies that were shared. I am so grateful for the Plan of Salvation, for eternal families. The example of Brother Kotter throughout his life is wonderful. The example of his children today was amazing. Brother Kotter served the whole community, the Lord and his family. I hope that I can live my life like he did.

Thanksgiving

I had a great Thanksgiving. We played a little football, watched football and the grand-kids here in Idaho got to open their new Christmas ornaments.

That night some of us went out to brave the midnight opening to Black Friday shopping. I think I prefer all the stores opening at 5 am instead of at midnight. Lynne, Denise, Steve and I stood in line at Target for about 45 minutes. It did rain for a little while, but it wasn't cold, so we all had a lot of fun. We were able to get what we needed. After Target we hit a couple of Walmarts and then went to bed for a little while. In the morning Mom, Lynne and I finished up our Black Friday shopping. What a great weekend!

I know.....it's about time

I know, it has been quite a while since I had a post. I am back! For the next few days, I will be trying to get caught up. In August my family held our Annual GFL Draft weekend festivities. "What is the GFL?" you might ask. Well, many years ago my brother Scott started a fantasy football league for our family. When we first started we would get together on an afternoon and draft different players, follow our scores for the season and hand out a trophy in December for the winner. There are 12 teams in our league. My dad has one, each of the nine kids and their families have one, as well as my Uncle Rick and cousin Phil-(Phil inherited his team a few years ago). I still remember Denise being 7 or 8 years old trying to draft a team. Here were all these older kids and adults and we just let her go on her own. She is impressive!
So what started out small, has now become a weekend reunion. On Friday night we usually have a get together at my house with some sort of competition between the Western Division(my division) and the Eastern Division. For the first time in several years the Western Division won this year. We played Sports Scene It. For some reason we didn't get an award for that like the Eastern Division has in the past??????
On Saturday morning any one who wants to go, meets at the golf course for an early morning 9 hole Golf Tournament.

Here are the competitors for 2011. I did come in second place in the Net division of the tournament. Which means, my dad factored in a handicap for each of us. I didn't get to play my round with my dad this year, he always makes me a better golfer. I missed that. He keeps me calm and knows what club I should hit. He ALWAYS finds my golf ball when I don't hit the fairway. I did lose the longest drive, closest to the pin and longest chip competition to the only other girl on the course----Denise. I know, I SHOULD lose to her every year, she is a MUCH better golfer then me. But I still don't like it!!!!!

Later that day, we all met at the pool for some swimming and pizza. This year a friend of Scott and Brian's let us use their pool. It was a TON of fun. We had an impromptu diving competition. I ended up being declared by the single judge(Steve) the winner. I won for a VERY poorly timed flip with a twist. I hit the water HARD!!!!! Not really the dive I wanted to win with, but I'll take it.

This is not the winning dive, I am soooooo grateful that no one got that one on film!

In the afternoon we had our draft and gave out the awards for last years season. It was so much fun. I had high hopes for my team this year. The Utah Saints started out okay, got better for 2 weeks and then had a horrible rest of the season. There is always next year! Congratulations to the Toronto Yodas. Back to back champions!