Moses 1

I could not be more excited for this year to begin. I have been teaching the 14-17 year old Sunday school class for about a year and a half and can honestly say it is my all time favorite calling. I love all of the kids I have had the privilege of learning with. I have studied that last part of the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and this year I could not be more excited to study the Old Testament!!! So I am hoping (not promising) to share what I learn while I prepare the lessons every week. This week begins with Moses 1.

As he was working on the translation of the bible in June 1830 Joseph Smith was shown a vision. He was able to see an experience that Moses had been given. (moses 1-8) What a gift to all of us to be able to live these moments right along with Moses and learn from his experiences.

Moses 1 is by far one of my all time favorite scripture passages. We gain so much that we need to know about Ourselves, Our Father in Heaven, and about Satan. 

We begin with God revealing himself to Moses And then for the first of many times he calls Moses His son. (1:4)  The reality of God is in fact a reality. He is our Father and he loves us all. each and every one of us. I write in my scriptures, kind of allot, and on the side of this verse I have written "I am his Daughter"  And then in verse 5 I have underlined the words ' and I have a work for you'  Don't you think that is about all we need to know I think once we all realize we are Gods children we all will then need to know more. We will hunger for more, and we will find our way back to him because that is more important than anything else. When we realize that being his child is the most important thing we will try our hardest to learn what we can become. Moses realizes we are nothing without our Father in Heaven and the only way to get back to him is through our Savior. Then the Father departs and Moses is left to ponder and has what I like to call 'a book of mormon moment' (because that is what happens in the book of mormon everyone 'falls to the earth')

And when he awakes Satan comes to him and without knowing it gives all of the rest of us the keys that we need to overcome him. (thank you Moses for going through it so I can learn from you) Satan comes to him and says "Moses, son of man' (1:12) And I love verse 13 Moses shoves it back in his face and says "I am a Son of God" He contends with Satan as Satan tries to deceive him by using all of his same old tricks. Trying to get Moses to believe he is anything less than a child of God is not as easy as he probably thought it would be. Moses puts up quite the fight. And puts him right in his place. Telling Satan that he still is filled with the glory of God and he has can feel only darkness from him.

Now if only we could learn a thing or two from him and do the same thing. 

The next time we are feeling tempted or tried or, frustrated, or a million other things Satan tries to get us to believe, so we will forget we are children of God. We could just pull it together long enough to maybe say a prayer or sing a hymn or whatever we do to get back in touch with the sprit enough to say to Satan "Get thee hence, Satan; deceive me not; for God said unto me:thou art after the similitude of mine only begotten." (1:16)  That's the scripture for my mirror this week. Maybe I can remember it for a while yet. And maybe I could become a little more like Moses and learn to fight back with more vigor and less weakness. I want to be part of the kingdom of God more than anything else.  I really do, now I just need to prove it to myself, the Devil, and most importantly my Heavenly Father. 

There's a Book

So much fun!! I am so excited I was able to participate in the 'When I was young' segment over at There's a Book. I fell in love with this book when I was little and I read it every year. Go on over an check it out. But, you have to go there no more hints about it over here. .....

Survivor

Yes, I know I am an addict. But, I really can't help myself. I love Survivor. At the time it began it was such a grand idea. The show was such a thing of genius it pitted our most primal fears and anticipations against our desires to do what is right and then the whole world was able to watch as they all self destructed and turned into the things they all fear the very most. I have loved it from the very first moment I saw it. I loved all of the twists and turns the back stabbing and the heros who win their way through to the end. 

But, this season has taken the cake. Because of one player the guy who if you watched, you know who I mean. The self made millionaire who was able to convince all those around him he was a dirt poor fireman. He was also able to give the most brilliant performance in Survivor history. He manipulated every person in camp and single handedlly fought his way through to the end. He found hidden immunity idols with no clues an idea that is so simple when you think about it, then he made chaos for those around him. 

He gave me something to think about. He said "If I can control the way they feel, I control the way the think" Then he went on to dump out all the canteens and burn up their socks in the fire. He is a genius!! But more than that it really made me think. 

Isn't that what Satan does. If he can control the way we all feel he can control how we think and how we act. If he can make us all feel inferior to everyone around us. If he can make us feel not good enough, or rich enough, or pretty enough, or awake enough, or smart enough, or ______ enough. Then maybe he can make us yell at each other, and try to be better, and go into debt, or change our appearance, or pit ourselves against each other, Or a million other things that make us "FEEL" better. Who knows what he can have us do. What a crafty little devil. Only it gets worse. He knows us. I mean REALLY knows us. He has watched us for ever. He remembers how it was when our moms were to busy to listen, Or when we got left out of a birthday party, Or when we let a boy make us feel less than what we are. And he can manipulate our feelings to make all of that come screaming back. 

And what a fool I am to let him. How do I get back to the person I was when I chose this life. The person who would have really gone through anything just to have a chance at eternity. I need to remember THAT person. And throw it back in the devils face when he tires to make me any less than who I truly am. A daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves me and who sent his son here to die for me. So that I can live again with him someday. He wants me to come home more than anything else.... Do I? What am I willing to give up and give to a guy who wants nothing more than to see me miserable, in order to make me feel better for this tiny little moment. 

Christmas letter

The one thing I really do dislike about myself is how flaky I can be. I know if I were friends with me I probably wouldn't be, because of this exact thing. This year I have neglected my Christmas letter. I was very well meaning and wanted to send one out to all of the people I love and care about but, then the other day I looked up and Christmas was this week. Oh hannah! I think most of the people I love read my blog so here it is.  

Dearest family and friends,

We hope this year will find you all well in your own families. Here at the Short house we are doing well. We have had a great year. We have grown up a little and learned allot. Life brings challenges and surprises each and every day. But, together we enjoy the journey. 

Michael played baseball this year, during the summer. We discovered that six year olds playing baseball is allot like watching ants run for cover in a sudden downpour. They know they have something to accomplish but the goal is not half as much fun as playing in the rain, or running around the bases with all the dandelions you can find in your hand. He also started kindergarten and he seems to enjoy it. His teacher is great with him. She lets him read extra while the other kids work on phonics. I think if he did not get such a great teacher he might hate school, but she figures out ways to challenge him and keep him on his toes. 

Ora turned four and she is as sassy as ever. She loves Fancy Nancy so while we were visiting home she and her cousin got all dressed up and had their hair done then we took a tea set over to McDonalds where we met grandma for a birthday  lunch. It was only the start of a Fancy year for us, she loves getting her nails done and having perfect hair. I have no idea where she gets it from but she is all girl and I think we like it.

Jordan turns three Dec. 8th and he is doing well, he has been in speech therapy this year and seems to be doing better. We can understand him a little now but not all the time so we will probably continue to work on it for a while. He loves to play cars and to take care of his little sister, every time she wakes up from a nap he has to be the first one to go in and play with her for at least ten minutes before I can get her out of the crib. He is really sweet and nothing seems to make him happier than being a big brother. 

Abigail turned One Nov. 14th I am just a little bit sad, okay a lot bit sad. She is such a cute little baby and I think she is refusing to walk so that I can hang on to this baby phase just a little bit longer. She gives cute baby kisses and plays peek a boo. She likes to fold her arms when we have family prayer, and she likes to go to sleep with Ora at bed time. I am so grateful for her every day, our family would not be complete without her. She loves all of us so very much and shows her love every single day. 

Joe and I are doing well, we celebrated 7 years together this year and are more in love now than we have ever been. Joe likes his job enough to keep going every day. He works hard and we play hard. We had a Family reunion in July that I was in charge of putting together and that took most of our time this year. Then in Late July and Aug. Joe and I worked on the committee for the open house of the Oquirrah Mountain Utah temple. We were able to devote almost three months of our lives to serving the Lord in getting his house ready for the public to view it. I was awesome to be able to devote so much time to this position. And then for the dedication we were able to work inside of the temple while the First Presidency was there. To spend the whole day inside of a temple while it was being dedicated was worth all of the hours and headaches it took to get us that far. We are spending the holidays here in West Jordan and looking forward to visiting home again early next year. 

The most joy we have comes from our knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the role it plays in our lives. We are so grateful for our eternal family. The bonds that connect us to each other are more important to us than anything. we are so grateful for our knowledge of the Savior and our plan for eternal salvation through his infinite atonement. We are so happy to be celebrating this season, the season that brings us the joy of knowing who we are and how we can get back to being those people who would do anything to get back to being with our Father in Heaven again. Even go through the trials of this life and the messes that come with it.  Have a very merry Christmas and a Happy and healthy new year .

We love you all,

The Short Family

My Dearest Abigail

Yes, my darling!!! You are stinking cute however, We have got to come to some kind of an arrangement. You came into my life and five minutes later you nursed for almost and hour. Did I let the nurses take you? No, I let you have you fill and then they took you away and cleaned you up. When you came back to me you climbed right up to where you were camped out and had full blown milk in TEN (count them people) TEN hours. I know my love, You and I both have loved every minute of our time together. You have been wrapping your one little arm around my back, placing your other hand on my chest and staring into my eyes for thirteen months now. I have loved being forced to sit with you and feed you for the last year of my life. When I first became a mom I fell in love with breastfeeding. Your Aunts can attest to the fact that I love nursing, and maybe I talk about it too much but I do love it. I highly recommend it to all new mothers. I even took a hit from your doctor at our last visit. We had quite the discussion about you never having had any other form of fluids. I placed my well planned out arguments for breastfeeding in front of the doctor (yes for those of you I am sharing this letter with, I did have a discussion with a well educated physician about my  daughter getting the best form of food for her growing body. I actually used the phrase.. "Did you just check your bedside manner at the door!!! Don't you think there is a reason she has also never had an antibiotic in her body.") And you grinned the whole time. And then we went home and you nursed and went down for a nap! 

Now to our arrangement, You need to start going to bed and staying there. We are going to have to ween you someday but, I will continue (for a little while) as long as we figure out a way for you to sleep. That means, I think, we will no longer nurse to sleep! I am sorry to see this go but I think we will survive. And maybe it will keep you from crashing at six in the afternoon and then staying up till midnight.  

Dang girl I love you and hate to see this come to a slower pace. You are the light of my life, the joy to my soul. And I will love that you and I have hung on to nursing for this long, none of your siblings were able to. And you my darling, have decided to keep me a "baby" mommy for a while longer. It has made the transition from being a baby machine to a mom with growing kids easier. Thank you for walking later and nursing longer. I let myself believe you can feel my mourning and are helping through the heartache that never being a "new" mother again is bringing. You snuggle me while I sob and I think we will be bonded a little bit tighter for it. 

Thank you for your soul. You truly have completed our family and I cannot wait to see how you grow up. 

Love, Mommy

P.S. To all the naysayers out there (Dr. Lei) If she feels a need to take my boob to college then I will hear your arguments 

Timing and Satan's favorite weapon GUILT!!

I'm going to pretend like no one knows what has been happening in my house lately. Even though I know you all hang on every bit of information about me and my family. (come on I know you do!!) Right? No, okay let's just let my fantasy go for a minute and I will tell you what has been going on anyway! So Right around Michael's birthday (halloween) I started getting super frustrated with him. Not only was he getting super grumpy and having tons of tantrums (yes my 6 year old) But, I was done dealing with his problem of not eating anything I would cook for dinner. Other than Mac and Cheese, PB&J, and fake chicken nuggets. So we thought we would lay down the law a little and I told him that if he did not eat his dinner then he would have to go to bed early so that his body could get more rest because he was choosing not to give it any good food that it needed. So we sat him down at the table with Tatter tot casserole, something he would eat a little over 6 month ago. He sat there for about 45 minutes. And I finally was ready to put him to bed. So he started to cry and I told him that he needed to take one REAL bite and he could stay up. He then took a lick of dinner and I told him it was not good enough. He took a bite and then proceeded to act out a scene from survivor. You know the one where they make them eat cockroaches and then they gag and choke and then puke all over the floor. Only he puked all over my kitchen table. So my thought was, that is not normal. The next day I took him into the doctor, thinking he would just scare him into eating. And he told me that his tonsils were huge and so he probably could not eat. (insert punch in the mom gut here) We then were told to go see an ENT Doctor to schedule the removal of his tonsils. That appointment was this morning. Yes a month later. (in the mean time, He has been through the flu and strep throat and now we are quarantined to keep his huge bacteria grabbing tonsils from getting him more ill) So we went in and the doctor proceeded to punch me in the mom gut again. It seems to be that not only can he not eat but, his large tonsil in combination with his narrow airway are a perfect combination for sleep apnea. So he is not eating because he can't and he is throwing tantrums like a two year old because the minute he lays on his back in bed his airway slowly closes until he stops breathing completely and wakes up long enough to gasp for air and go back to sleep where it starts over again. So he's not eating, not sleeping. and now.... they will fix this problem when...... (drumroll please) JAN. 4th!! The first day back to school. YEAH he gets to miss more school and I am sure I will get to have another very pleasant conversation with his principle about parents being involved in their child's education by bringing them to school. So FUN!!! So pray we make it. I just might go insane from lack of getting away time. (oh I forgot to tell you I can't even leave to run because I have a stress fracture in my shin I get to rest up for three more weeks and get better too) Any ideas for indoor games or crafts or cheep movies let me know because if we don't do something more than watch qubo I will go crazy and go run and maybe then I will break my shin completely which I may want to do just for some excitement)

There's a Book

I have been wanting to put out a post about Theresabook.com and now I have the perfect opportunity. Because, she's doing a giveaway. Go over and check out this great new website. My friend had the best idea to review books, all kinds of books. Mostly children's books so far but, in the future she will be reviewing all kinds of books. She has great taste (even if she did like twilight, but most people did so I can't really blame her there)  Go check her out. And enter to win her giveaway from the Pioneer woman cooks. And while you are there read on for great ideas for Christmas and otherwise. look around and see what's on the menu. For your bookshelf of course. 

Christmas chaos

(this is not our house or our couch anymore but the picture is a good one for what has been happening at out house now)

We have our tree up. We have our stockings hung, by the heater vent with care. We also have a tonsillectomy in our future near. Michael is doing well, we are still quarantined until we can get the disease catchers out of his mouth. But, this whole quarantine thing had been kind of fun. We have hung out at home for the past few weeks. All together just watching movies and playing games here at home. We have endured strep throat, a nasty sinus infection, the flu, colds all around. And now we are just waiting for the next big thing to hit us. who knows what it will be. But, we see the doctor on Tuesday and I am just hoping that once he hears that Michael is choking and throwing up almost everything he eats. And still waking up at night at least three times a night because he cannot breath that we will get a pretty quick trip to the O.R. 

He is pretty miserable, but we really are having fun. We are watching more T.V. than normal and we are quickly making a list of the As Seen on T.V. thing we want. If I never hear another episode of 123 penguins I would be just fine. We have discovered Rescue Heros a show all about Firemen, and paramedics. And Avalanches and earthquakes. And Michael now loves it. So everyday at 3:30 if you are looking for us you will find us watching that show. And I have become okay with that. I love being able to give something as little as a thirty minute T.V. show back to Michael. Who has to give up more than any six year old should. He hears "hold on" more than a kids should have to. So I love that our time together is set in stone every day!!

Heres to hoping we can make it through till those nasty tonsills come out. 

The Post in which I talk all about....

One of our greatest catches...

Jordan

Because he is three today! He is awesome. So much fun and so much work!! When he was born he came to us kind of by surprise. The doctors had told me it would be extremely hard for us to get pregnant again after  I had a pretty horrible ruptured ectopic pregnancy. So we decided not to hinder anything in hopes that someday we would have another baby. Well the next month there we were, pregnant again. I had just come out of a nightmare after loosing the baby , I hadn't even realized I was pregnant and then I felt like it had been ripped out of me. Then they told me not only that but I would probably never have any more babies. I didn't feel like anyone understood what I was feeling, Joe kept telling me it was fine and it must have been meant to be. I didn't feel like anyone would ever get it. I may have never held that baby but it was gone I had had a baby and it was gone. I felt the loss.

And then I got sick one morning and knew what that maybe meant. It felt like the Lord had given me back a gift. I was gong to be a new mom again. I could not understand it, I did not understand why I had been given such a HUGE gift. I didn't understand why me. But I knew I would never take it for granted again. The fact that I was able to be a mom through my own body. I would never take that for granted again. And when he was born I didn't. Getting him here was not easy. I spent most of ten months on my living room couch attached to a constant IV drip and a medication pump to keep me from throwing up. My mom spent most of ten months cleaning and taking care of my house and my other kids. Thank Heavens for mothers. 

And at the end of it my Jordan was born. He came smiling and has not stopped a whole lot since. It is crazy how you can sense your children when they are given to you, even in those first few minutes, Jordan was funny! He is the one who makes us all laugh all the time. He realized early on what looks would make us smile and then those are the only looks he gave. Then he learned if he giggled we would giggle, So thats what he did. Always learning new tricks to make us laugh then repeating them over and over again.  Now, he is three and he knows when he says I love you I can't help but smile. So he is the child who I hear those words from the most. Not a day goes by that he does not tell me he loves me at least six or seven times. And now he is three, three!! He came into my room this morning and I pulled him up into my bed and asked him. "Jordan lets skip your birthday and then you can stay 2 forever, what do you think?" He said very sweetly "No, I want my lightning McQueen cake" So I guess there you have it, I had him give me his last kiss as a two year old and we got out of bed to celebrate the day! 

Happy Birthday Crazy Boy I love you!!

Goings on

We have had quite the last few months here in our neck of the woods. Between car troubles and health problems we feel like we have been rung through the ringer and then hit by a semi. And now we are quarantined till strep throat decides to leave us alone. So here I am sniffling a little but figuring I should catch up the old bloggy blog blog..... (that may be the medication talking) 

We had so much fun through the fall and now here comes winter. I feel like it has stayed away long enough and now it is bound to come on in full force pretty soon. Halloween was fun. We had a good time trick or treating, or I should say Joe and the kids had a good time trick or treating. I stayed home and got things ready for Michael to open presents when they got back. He made out like a bandit for his birthday. He ended up with something like 60-70 dollars from Grandparents and was intent on spending it all on one trip to the store. We were there for a while. But it was a fun trip. Then the next day I asked him if he was going to pay his tithing and he was just not so sure he was ready to do that. His exact words were "If I don't can I go to the store again" He debated and thought it through for a while and finally decided he wanted to pay it after all. It was so hard for me to sit back and just let him decide but in the end I think it was the right thing to do. I hope he will always remember the hard choice at six and the joy that followed. Then maybe it won't be such a hard choice later on in life. 

We came through November mostly unscathed. Our cars on the other hand are a little worse for the wear and they showed it to us the last couple of months. I a, so grateful for a husband who can crawl around under there and get things fixed. He is awesome. Although at one point he had the flu and had to walk me through how to change the starter. But I did it, he had to come out at one point to turn the wrench I could not turn but, we got it fixed and I decided I want to help him all the time. I had a blast and now I want to know more. 

We had Abby's birthday too. She turned one and I am sad to report I spent most of the week depressed about it. Knowing I am done having babies had been hard. But, she is great a making me feel better. She still snuggles all the time. And I swear is not walking yet just for me. I will post her birthday pictures later. 

Thanksgiving was great. Joe's dad came up and for the first time I had to do the whole meal by  myself. It went well, real well, up until I dropped the fresh rolls into the dishwater in the sink. Right as we were sitting down to eat. OH WELL..... It was still good. And I feel proud that I made it through. I made a fresh blackberry cobbler for dessert which was so good. It was something Joe's Grandma used to make for his Dad every year for his birthday so, we wanted to bring her here to our table for Thanksgiving. It was nice chatting about her and visiting with Joe's "pops" for the weekend. 

So here we are getting ready for Christmas, still no camera...(sorry) but, maybe soon that will change. We are saving up so we can get a nice one next. No more broken ones five minutes after you leave the store. So any advice in that department would be well received. Hopefully I will have Abby's birthday pictures up soon, they are on a friends camera so who knows....