I love seminary!!

It only took 7 years since I graduated from seminary to love it...but I do!! This year has been so much fun. I have a great group of students who are absolutely amazing. When I get to class every morning they have the class set up and everything ready to go...I almost feel like some of my college professors that just walk right into class, pull the lesson plan from their roller bag (I haven't digressed that far yet...) and then say let's get started. Its great.

This year I wanted to do something special around Christmas time and knowing how musically gifted my students are I suggested something of a musical morningside. That is about where my input ended. The students ran with it and came up with all of the musical numbers and the entire program. We made cute invitations to invite family and friends....


and had a great turn out. It was more of a success than I could have imagined. I hope that everyone left that morning feeling as edified as I did. Thank you to all of my students who bore testimony of the Savior through both music and written and spoken word. You bore a powerful witness of the Savior's birth, life, death, and subsequent resurrection...what a wonderful reason to celebrate.

I love my job...

I love my job for so many reasons...the greatest of which is probably free tickets to great events! No worries Bishop...having a great boss is still high on the list!



When I found out that Celine Dion was coming to the valley I told Whitney I would love to go. (I wanted to see her show in Vegas, but we never had a chance) As luck would have it Whitney never had a chance to buy tickets because the concert was sold out in a matter of minutes. I was disappointed, but quickly got over it. Then I met Judy from Cigna...boy has she got the hook ups!! She called in a few favors and got me suite seats to the Celine Dion concert. Whitney was quite the trooper and joined us old ladies for the night! Thank you hun for entertaining my childish fantasies! I owe you some tickets to the FBR open...I'll see what Judy can do!

Moms Work Party

My mothers work always rents out Castle and Coaster for their employee appreciation celebration. They have been doing it quite a few years so all the family attends and we have a great time. This year was no exception.


Fun and food thats how we roll.
Kamee and her Daddy along with Mom and Mindee. This was her first time on a roller coaster and she was not even scared.

Mom and Cardon, Hana and I are in the back hanging on for dear life.

Kamee enjoying a ride on Dad's scooter.
Mom and I more alike that I will admit to.

Jayces first time on the free fall. He does not like scary rides and I belive that this counts.

Creating a Masterpiece

Last year my mothers Christmas gift to each daughter and daughter-in-law was that sometime soon we would go a pick out a ceramic Christmas Tree to make and have as our very own. It must have been the constant bickering about who was to receive her tree at the time she passed that spurred her on to making it happen.

We were supposed to go in July but were sidetracked by dads illness. So our tree making began in October. We attended classes and learned to scrape, sand, and wet down our Christmas Trees. Some were more patient than others. I was in the later category. It was like I had the patience of a gnat. We had a great time as we sat around laughing and covered in ceramic dust.

For anyone who knows my mother, she likes things a certain way and does not care to be rushed when she is painting. Also she is sort of a perfectionist.
The stess of sanding her christmas trees has made her eyes cross. I hope she loves this picture.

My sister and sister-in-law showing us the right was to get things done.

Living Waters

Having spent all day downtown, Whitney and I had some time (actually quite a bit of time) to just sit and ponder. During these quiet moments my mind was often drawn to the sounds I could hear... families laughing, missionaries teaching and singing hymns, children splashing in the newly formed puddles, and also the voices of those who would try to distract from the spirit of conference weekend. As noisy as you can imagine our surroundings must have been there was one sound that captured and held my attention. No matter where we were on the grounds, I heard it. At times, our surroundings became so noisy, that it became difficult to hear, but nevertheless, if you trained your ears and really listened you could hear it. I was deeply impressed with how many places you could hear the sound of WATER. It was used everywhere. It was used in the landscape, in the architecture, on the seating outside the conference center, at the drinking fountains, in the reflection pool, and so much more. We even heard the young man in the Salt Lake temple watering the potted plants.

Maybe it is the seminary teacher in me...but my thoughts went in this direction...

Why Water?

Why so much?

What is the significance?

I thought about the MANY references to water in the scriptures. I thought about how it is used in saving ordinances (both in and out of the temple). I thought of the prophecies of water and how it will eventually flow from the temple in Jerusalem to heal the Dead Sea. So many ideas ran through my mind. The more water I heard the more thoughts kept coming.


Having studied and taught the New Testament this year, the story of the woman at the well came to my mind. She went to draw water at Jacob's well where she was instructed by Savior (whom she did not know) to give him a drink. The woman, confused by his request, desired an explanation and in the course of the conversation she comes to know that she is speaking to the Savior (a prophet) who can provide "Living Waters" that shall be "in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life"


Am I thirsty?

YES, I want to drink from the "Living Waters", and like the Samaritan woman I want to share it with others that they too may "come see Christ" and "believe on him"

How grateful I am that I had the opportunity to take a sip from the fountain of Living Waters this weekend.

Our weekend adventure!!

And boy did it live up to it's title! Whitney and I took a few days off work before general conference and decided to pack up the car and head up north. We had a destination in mind, but had no clue how to get there! Getting out of phoenix wasn't the hard part, it was making it to Salt Lake that proved quite difficult. After a phone call to dad, a few questions to the Wendy's drive-thru man, and some more U-turns we finally made it to Utah!!

And we wonder why we got lost... curse this blog thing. If we had paid as much attention to the road signs as we did to the camera we may has saved ourselves a conversation with Jorge at Wendy's!!

We spent most of our day in downtown Salt Lake and had a delicious homemade meal atthe Lion House for lunch.

I loved the food...and everything else that we were able to see and tour. My most favorite part of the day was my first experience in the Salt Lake temple. Whitney and I wanted to do a session but when we went in the matron asked us if we would be willing to do sealings...It was a wonderful opportunity that was full of emotion. I thought about how hard those early saints had worked to have a place where they could leave the world and the persecutions behind and worship in peace. How grateful I am for their sacrifices and that I now have such a place to retreat from the world. It also brought back great memories of my own sealing and how happy I was to be able to spend be there with Whitney!

That night were were able to attend his missionary reunion with his mission president who just recently got home from his mission. We had a great time! To all the missionaries he served with and especially to President and Sister Teixeira.... Thank you for inspiring Whitney to be the great priesthood holder and husband that he is!

We have friends!!!

May sound surprising to some of you that know us very well, but we really do have friends, they just happen to live 600 miles away (I wonder if that is merely a coincidence?!?) Ati Rachelle and Kuya TJ stopped by for a visit on their way to New Mexico. It was great to share memories of the Phillipines and we hope they come back soon! Ati...I promise a better bed next time!

Labor Day Weekend

Like every year, my mom's side of the family holds a family reunion up in Strawberry, Arizona. Mom & Dad weren't able to come this year, but us kids went and had a great time!!

We took a trip to the local goat farm and had an interesting time learning how to milk the goats. All I can say now is...WOW I am grateful for cows and modern technology!

If you've got a pest problem we've got the solution! With bug catching nets and tweezers Kamee and Jayce were our fearless bug catchers...with a little help from Aunt Hana and Margayle.

Whitney and Kyle trying the "I'm too cool to smile for the camera" pose while waiting for the other boys to go on a ride.

What is a family reunion without feeling like a senior citizen in Mexico? Hana and Justin talked us into playing Mexican dominoes. Not sure where the mexican in mexican dominoes comes from, but we sure had fun playing it!

We managed to snap this shot while our lives were being threatened by javelinas. Even a few wild animals couldn't come between us and a warm gooey s'more. It sure was worth all the trouble!