Even babies have a story to tell...

If only we could understand what they have to say!

I don't know if that's bad or good...

Jared just received his MCAT score and definitely didn't do as well as he'd hoped. It is a devastating blow to both of us because he worked so hard to prepare for that test...many, many hours of preparation. Of course we question why he wasn't able to do better after working so hard and after all the prayers and fasting that were done in his behalf. Recently in our stake conference there was a talk that has stuck with me ever since. I think it is particularly important in our lives right now.

There was once a wise Chinese man who had one son, one horse, and one acre of ground on which he made his living. One day his son went out to feed the horse and left the gate open and the horse ran away. All of the man’s friends and neighbors came to him and said, “Oh that’s too bad. You’ve lost your only horse. How will you make your living?” The wise Chinese man just said, “I don’t know if that’s bad or that’s good.” But they insisted it was bad.

A few days later, the horse got thirsty and came back to the corral bringing 9 other wild horses with him. Now all his friends came over and said, “Oh, isn’t that good. You’ve got 10 horses.” The wise Chinese man said, “I don’t know if that’s bad or good.” And they insisted it was good.

A few days later, the wise Chinese man’s son went out to break one of the wild horses. In the process, the horse reared up and came down, severely breaking the son’s leg. This time all the neighbors came over and said, “Oh, that’s too bad. That’s your only son. What will you do?” And again the wise Chinese man said, “I don’t know if that’s bad or good.” And they insisted it was bad.

A short time later, war broke out in the country. The government came through and gathered up all the able-bodied young men and marched them off to war where they were all killed.”

Our speaker then went on to say "Of course, this story can go on indefinitely. This is the story of your life and my life, our lives."

I don't know why Jared wasn't able to do as well as he'd hoped, but I do know that we are both trying hard to follow the Spirit and do what the Lord has in store for us. There is a reason why this didn't work out at this time. Although this seems like a bad thing to us now, there is a reason for everything, and maybe in the end it will turn out for our good.

Last day...

For about the past three months I have been working from home every other day. I worked for my Brother-in-law that owns a business called my4closures.com. Well, ever since Jared went back to school the job has been very difficult for me and sometimes very stressful because I don't have him here to help me out with Caleb during the busiest times.

I haven't wanted to give the job up because I felt like we needed the money, but I finally decided it wasn't worth it anymore. Today is my last day and in many ways that is a huge relief!

All I know is I just want to be a good mother. Nothing brings me greater joy and I didn't like having something that was taking me away from that. It is definitely a blessing that Jared has a good job to provide for us. I was blessed to have a mother that was always a stay at home mom and I hope that I can give that to my children also. I thought this job would be great because I could work completely from home, but in many ways it still took me away from Caleb. I'm so grateful to be able to move on. Hopefully I can be a better wife and mom now.

Enjoying the campfire

We went camping over labor day weekend. The first night we got there it started pouring rain as soon as we got the campfire going to make dinner on. We'd planned to make foil dinners but obviously mother nature didn't want that to happen. It rained and hailed for so long everything was soaked! We decided to go spend the night at Jared's parents cabin in Pinetop. We sure enjoyed nice warm comfortable beds that night!

The next day turned out to be really nice so we went back out to our campsite. That night we built a fire and enjoyed sitting around it, singing songs. We also got to enjoy our campfire treat...SMORES!! They were yummy! Camping is just not the same without a campfire.

I definitely didn't take enough pictures out there because it was so beautiful and green after all of the rain, but here is one of Caleb and my sister Jamie.