Where is the Pavilion?

Today we had a wonderful lesson in Relief Society and Priesthood separately on a talk called, "Where is the Pavilion?" by President Henry B. Eyring.

Before R.S. started I was feeling a little down and a little nervous because pretty much my only friend in the ward had moved out and this would be my first Sunday having to "brave" making new friends. I had a prompting that I should sit by a girl that was sitting alone in the front row. I felt like if I were her I would want someone to come sit by me. I immediately joined into a conversation between her and another sister and felt comfortable.

I said the opening prayer in R.S. and was again prompted to ask Heavenly Father to help us all feel welcome and included as sisters and that we could all make friends.

As the lesson started I volunteered to read the first paragraph of the talk.

"In the depths of his anguish in Liberty Jail, the Prophet Joseph Smith cried out: “O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?”¹ Many of us, in moments of personal anguish, feel that God is far from us. The pavilion that seems to intercept divine aid does not cover God but occasionally covers us. God is never hidden, yet sometimes we are, covered by a pavilion of motivations that draw us away from God and make Him seem distant and inaccessible. Our own desires, rather than a feeling of “Thy will be done,”² create the feeling of a pavilion blocking God. God is not unable to see us or communicate with us, but we may be unwilling to listen or submit to His will and His time."

This was an "aha" moment for me as I realized that especially now, I have been wondering, "Where is God, when will our blessings come?" When in reality it is me that is being unwilling to submit to His will and put my complete trust and faith in His plan for me. 

I shared a few of my feelings and texted Jer during the lesson (bad I know) some of the quotes I really liked. Turned out they were having the same lesson and Jer was going through the same thought process as I was.

The girl next to me shared a personal story about herself that brought her to tears and was very near to her heart. What she struggled with was something that we have in common. It was then that I knew that however small, it really was a little tender mercy to both of us that I was prompted to sit next to her at church. 

There are many other trials in my life much less trivial than feeling lonely at church, but I felt like these little promptings and blessings given to me today were a reminder to me of how mindful my Heavenly Father is of me and my righteous desires, and the struggles I have. It is not that He has abandoned me, it is that I often abandon Him as my own motivations bring me farther from God.

"God is close to us and aware of us and never hides from His faithful children."

I'm grateful for the reminder today that the Lord's hand is in everything, we just need to be willing to let Him in. 

You can find the full version of the talk here. 

Nailed It

Anyone seen this before?

Every time I see this I laugh my head off. I have said this so many times after trying out a new Pinterest idea, "Welp that definitely looked better in the picture."

I feel like Jer and I have had a lot of "Nailed It" moments in our life as of late. Some kind of funny but others we feel like we really nailed!

Nailed it #1:

 Jer planned the best late Valentines date. Dinner at the Veranda, ice cream and a movie.

AND this beautiful ring, it was exactly what I wanted and more. He went above and beyond on the gift. Nailed It!

Nailed it #2:

 Totally found my long lost retainer from high school while FINALLY organizing our bedroom and second bedroom.

After 2.5 years, we got a bed frame, organized our storage under the bed, AND put our bed frame on our bed. Sad? Sure. Feel accomplished? TOTALLY! Nailed it!

Nailed it #3:

 A successful baby shower Court and I threw for Alison. AND the blanket I made for her sweet baby girl on the way. This was a Pinterest nailed it for sure.

 Court with her masterpiece carseat cover.

 My second Pinterest nailed it from the shower: apples and daisies. So easy and cheap and looked really cute. Probably would have done bright green apples if I had it to do over.

 Third baby shower nailed it: Costco pinwheel sandwiches. Nailed it!

Nailed it #4:

 A successful proposal.

 We helped Meg's now-fiance propose to Meg at the Hale Center Theater by singing "I Can't Help Falling in Love with You."

She said yes. :o) Nailed it!

Nailed it #5:

 Jer totally nailed his interview with American Crafts and was immediately offered a full-time job with them as a Project Manager. We are so excited for this new opportunity. Totally Nailed it!

Here's to more "Nailed It" moments to come!

Tempting Tuesday

Well, I wanted to start bringing back some of my Wednesday winners but I couldn't wait another day to share this recipe with you all. I think the title fits it pretty well. I found this recipe of Pinterest.

Let's talk for a moment about the easiest most delicious recipe I have tried in a while:

(This is totally not my photo by the way, it came from the blog that I got the recipe.) Find the recipe here.

*I loved this because these looked good, but seemed pretty involved with my experience making carrot cakes from scratch. Much to my delight, I realized this recipe starts with a carrot cake mix! Awesome. So delicious. And the frosting is TDF. It is cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Hello?!

Love Is In the Air

I wasn't really looking forward to this Valentines Day because Jer went into work at Chef's table at 10 this morning and won't be back till after midnight tonight, but because of some of the lovelies in my life this has turned out to be a really nice day.

 I made the card on the left a long time ago while Jer was on his mission planning to send it to him and then found it a couple weeks ago so I decided now would be an appropriate time to give it to him. :o) The top right photo is a mini apple pie I made for dinner group last night in honor of this week of love. My mom got me a mini heart pie mold from Williams Sonoma a couple years back and this is the first time I've used it! I'm obsessed. Bottom right is part of the Valentine package my mom sent us. There is little I love more than Sees candy. My mom knows me so well.

 The top picture is Jer's spread of gifts. He hasn't gotten to open them yet but he will soon! Bottom left is a picture of a gift my neighbor/friend brought up to us. She is so sweet, it is for Jer and I to open together. And bottom right are the flowers from Jer that were delivered to my doorstep this afternoon. It totally brightened my day and made me so happy.

 

And last but not least, my little Valentine for the evening. I got to babysit little Rocky while his parents went out for a little while. He is such a sweet little guy.

I think my favorite thing about Valentines Day is that now that I'm a little more grown up, this day has become more than just hoping for a flower from my crush of the week. It has helped me reflect for the past couple days about the people I love and that love me and how grateful I am for those people in my life. I hope you all know who you are and that you are loved on this special Valentines Day.

The fun continues...

After not seeing each other for a while. We finally got together with the Gibbs again. They had a couple extra tickets to the Harlem Globetrotters and invited us along!

We had great seats, yummy treats and a whole lot of fun! So fun to get together again and enjoy a great show!

And today, we got to spend the day with two of our favorite kiddos. Harper and Beck. When Court asked me to babysit I was so excited!

They were seriously both angels and we had so much fun playing with them! Harper is so smart and Beck is so happy, always smiling.

Jer and I have loved being out of school and being able to do things like this. It is such a change from the schedules we kept while in school. We never had a free evening on a week night to go to a game or a day to babysit. We could get used to this!

The Barton Kids Party with the Pendletons

Jer and I had the esteemed privilege of staying with his younger siblings this weekend while his parents partied in Palm Desert. This was the first time we were able to do this since before now we have been soooo busy in school.

On Friday night, Caleb and I taught and performed as the solo couple with the back-up touring team at a big stake dance, for the adults! They had a live dance and a full show by us. I LOVE this! Why don't we do this anymore? I remember as a kid when my parents would go to a dance together at the stake center. Let's please revive this, people.

The weekend pretty much consisted of this:

 Cam tearin it up on the bball court. (They won!!!)

 And this: Lots of games including Settlers and Nerts. (Jer likes to spell things with his roads.)

 This: Taylor dancing and dating (A LOT).

Oh and did I mention this? Eating lots of fun treats including but not limited to homemade pancakes for dinner and the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (that's their name, not tooting my own horn ;o)) on Sunday evening.

This was so fun for us and we were glad we could do it this time!

Texas Chili Cookoff

 Chelsey read this story to us that was sent to her a while back. We were laughing so hard we were crying. There are a few instances of choice language so read at your own risk:

If you can read this whole story without laughing, then there's no hope for you. I was crying by the end. This is an actual account as relayed to paramedics at a chili cook-off in Texas

Note: Please take time to read this slowly. If you pay attention to the first two judges, the reaction of the third judge is even better. For those of you who have lived in Texas , you know how true this is. They actually have a Chili Cook-off about the time Halloween comes around. It takes up a major portion of a parking lot at the San Antonio City Park . Judge #3 was an inexperienced Chili taster named Frank, who was visiting from Springfield, IL.

Frank: 'Recently, I was honored to be selected as a judge at a chili cook-off. The original person called in sick at the last moment and I happened to be standing there at the judge's table, asking for directions to the Coors Light truck, when the call came in. I was assured by the other two judges (Native Texans) that the chili wouldn't be all that spicy; and, besides, they told me I could have free beer during the tasting, so I accepted and became Judge 3.'

Here are the scorecard notes from the event:

CHILI # 1 - MIKE'S MANIAC MONSTER CHILI

Judge # 1 -- A little too heavy on the tomato. Amusing kick.

Judge # 2 -- Nice, smooth tomato flavor. Very mild.

Judge # 3 (Frank) -- Holy crap, what the hell is this stuff? You could remove dried paint from your driveway. Took me two beers to put the flames out. I hope that's the worst one. These Texans are crazy.


CHILI # 2 - AUSTIN 'S AFTERBURNER CHILI

Judge # 1 -- Smoky, with a hint of pork. Slight jalapeno tang.

Judge # 2 -- Exciting BBQ flavor, needs more peppers to be taken seriously.

Judge # 3 -- Keep this out of the reach of children. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to taste besides pain. I had to wave off two people who wanted to give me the Heimlich maneuver. They had to rush in more beer when they saw the look on my face.


CHILI # 3 - FRED'S FAMOUS BURN DOWN THE BARN CHILI

Judge # 1 -- Excellent firehouse chili. Great kick.

Judge # 2 -- A bit salty, good use of peppers.

Judge # 3 -- Call the EPA. I've located a uranium spill. My nose feels like I have been snorting Drano. Everyone knows the routine by now. Get me more beer before I ignite. Barmaid pounded me on the back, now my backbone is in the front part of my chest. I'm getting s***-faced from all of the beer.


CHILI # 4 - BUBBA'S BLACK MAGIC

Judge # 1 -- Black bean chili with almost no spice. Disappointing.

Judge # 2 -- Hint of lime in the black beans. Good side dish for fish or other mild foods, not much of a chili.

Judge # 3 -- I felt something scraping across my tongue, but was unable to taste it. Is it possible to burn out taste buds? Sally, the beer maid, was standing behind me with fresh refills. This 300 lb. woman is starting to look HOT ... just like this nuclear waste I'm eating! Is chili an aphrodisiac?


CHILI # 5 - LISA'S LEGAL LIP REMOVER

Judge # 1 -- Meaty, strong chili. Cayenne peppers freshly ground, adding considerable kick. Very impressive.

Judge # 2 -- Chili using shredded beef, could use more tomato. Must admit the cayenne peppers make a strong statement.

Judge # 3 -- My ears are ringing, sweat is pouring off my forehead and I can no longer focus my eyes. I farted, and four people behind me needed paramedics. The contestant seemed offended when I told her that her chili had given me brain damage. Sally saved my tongue from bleeding by pouring beer directly on it from the pitcher. I wonder if I'm burning my lips off. It really ticks me off that the other judges asked me to stop screaming. Screw them.


CHILI # 6 - VERA'S VERY VEGETARIAN VARIETY

Judge # 1 -- Thin yet bol d vegetarian variety chili. Good balance of spices and peppers.

Judge # 2 -- The best yet Aggressive use of peppers, onions, garlic. Superb.

Judge # 3 -- My intestines are now a straight pipe filled with gaseous, sulfuric flames. I crapped on myself when I farted, and I'm worried it will eat through the chair. No one seems inclined to stand behind me except Sally. Can't feel my lips anymore. I need to wipe my butt with a snow cone.


CHILI # 7 - SUSAN'S SCREAMING SENSATION CHILI

Judge # 1 -- A mediocre chili with too much reliance on canned peppers.

Judge # 2 -- Ho hum, tastes as if the chef literally threw in a can of chili peppers at the last moment. **I should take note that I am worried about judge number 3. He appears to be in a bit of distress as he is cursing uncontrollably.

Judge # 3 -- You could put a grenade in my mouth, pull the pin, and I wouldn't feel a thing. I've lost sight in one eye, and the world sounds like it is made of rushing water. My shirt is covered with chili, which slid unnoticed out of my mouth My pants are full of lava to match my shirt. At least during the autopsy, they'll know what killed me. I've decided to stop breathing. It's too painful. Screw it; I'm not getting any oxygen anyway. If I need air, I'll just suck it in through the 4-inch h*** in my stomach.


CHILI # 8 - BIG TOM'S TOENAIL CURLING CHILI

Judge # 1 -- The perfect ending, this is a nice blend chili. Not too bold but spicy enough to declare its existence.

Judge # 2 -- This final entry is a good, balanced chili. Neither mild nor hot. Sorry to see that most of it was lost when Judge #3 farted, passed out, fell over and pulled the
chili pot down on top of himself. Not sure if he's going to make it. Poor feller, wonder how he'd have reacted to really hot chili?

Judge # 3 - No Report