Tender Mercies of the Lord

I am so grateful for the Lord's tender mercies in our lives. I have been so concerned about our financial situation. My husband lost his job at the end of October and has been unable to find sufficient employment. I had a job for the holiday's at a retail store but it ended last week. Tuesday we went to the temple and I began a special fast that we would be able to find employment. Yesterday I ended my fast and about 2 hours later I received a phone call from my holiday job. They were wondering if I could help them out for the next little bit with a permanent position probably opening up soon. What a blessing! I know that the Lord hears and answers our prayers. I know that even though times are hard right now there is great purpose in our struggles. Just when things start to look down we need to look up and we will know where to turn.

Some thoughts about blogging....

I love blogs. I love reading other people's blogs. Funny isn't it how something like the internet when you are literally at such a distance from other's can make you feel so connected? It's certainly an interesting phenomenon the 20th century brought. The problem with blogging is that you actually have to do it consistently, and I'm not sure I'm willing to be that consistent. I'm also not sure how much of myself I'm willing to put out there for complete strangers to see-I'm going to have to think about that one a little longer....

Christmas is in ....4 DAYS!!!!!! How did that happen? All I can say is that this has been a VERY busy holiday season for me! I still have to get gifts for my parents and in-laws, but our Christmas shopping is done. I won't tell you what we got but I'll give you a hint:

Isn't it great? I'm SOOO excited. And that's all the Christmas we're going to be getting!

And of course let us not forget the real gift this Christmas; a little babe born in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. I will love Him forever.

Doesn't this look fun?

Doesn't this look fun?

Oh, I would give almost anything right now to have a couple of toddlers to do this fun stuff with.

My husband thinks he's so funny!

ME: I love Tchaikovsky's music. It's some of the best ever!

HUSBAND: Yeah. Wasn't he on Star Track too?

ME: Puzzled and confused stare.

HUSBAND: Yeah, he was like a pilot or something.

ME: Puzzled and confused stare.

HUSBAND: (With a hint of sarcasm) Oh yeah, that was TUVOC!

Pumpkin carving

My husband and I at last had the chance to spend a much-needed day together. At first I wasn't sure sure how my sweetie would feel about pumpkin carving for the first time in many years but it turns out that we both had a great time. Now my next task is to bake the seeds we saved!

Can you guess who carved witch pumpkin?

O, Canada!

With my husband's crazy absurd work schedule it's been hard to find time together. Today, though he didn't have to go to work until later in the evening so we got to go to a place that has been and will become very special to us.

This is the site of the new Vancouver, B.C. temple. (This picture was taken a little over a year ago shortly before my husband asked me to marry him at a nearby park.) We just found out on Sunday that we will be in this temple district! We are so excited about this because it is an hour closer to us than the Seattle temple. All this time we thought for sure we'd still be in the Seattle temple district being that Canada is a whole different country and all (even though our Stake touches the border and is quite close to the new temple site). As far as I understand we're the only stake in the U.S. that belongs to a temple district in a different country! What a blessing for us, and for our friends to the north as well, aye?

This is pretty much what it looked like today...

...and this is what it will look like upon completion.