for selfish reasons...

I'm posting this. If you haven't noticed some of the buttons on the side of our blog..you should. They are some great ones I've come across and "Make it and Love it" is doing a giveaway of another blog "LilyLane" I follow. I get entered into the giveaway for doing this. I've mentioned before that I know the ladies from LiliyLane and LOVE their stuff. So cute. You should check them all out!

Quilting a memory

15 years ago we had what I think was our final family reunion on my maternal grandma's side. My Great-Grandma was the best homemaker around and made EVERYTHING from scratch. She canned, baked, gardened, farmed, sewed.. she did it all because that's what you did in her day. Because she was getting older and losing the use of her hands, she decided to make a quilt top for each of her grand and great-grandchildren. This was like.. over 20 I think? Anyway.. we each got one full of scraps from her collection. It was up to us to quilt them. I'm sure many never got quilted.. but I'm proud to say that mine is going to be done soon! My aunt helped me put it together and I'm quilting it BY HAND around each square. My goal is to have it done by the end of the year.. I'm excited to keep her memory in mind and appreciate her hard work.

May? Seriously?

It doesn't feel like May.. or maybe it does. We got some frost the other night and it's in the 40s as it is planning on raining all week. This puts off my garden planting for a few days. Oh well, both Sarah and I have a little case of the sniffles and I'm more than happy to stay inside and turn the furnace back on. For journaling purposes, let's recap the month of April since I posted nothing about it! It was just way to exciting..hahaha.

...I'm actually drawing a blank for events.. sad!
well, I suppose the most memorable thing is that Sarah is taking some steps and is starting to do it unsolicited. She's way wobbly but it's adorable and she think's she's hot stuff.

We've done some work in the yard, namely getting our garden plot ready to go. I'll post pictures when we actually plant it. I'm excited to have fresh veggies but nervous because everything I plant dies, gets eaten by rabbits or blown over by the wind. No joke. Hopefully a fence, better weather and sheer luck will let something grow even if it is only giant zucchinis.

Kurtis went on a weekend scouting leadership training for 3 days while I got to see an old friend from high school who was in MN. Kurtis is planning for their upcoming high adventure canoe trip with the scouts this summer. They're going up to the boundary waters. He's soooo excited!

Can I just vent for a minute about the mass exodus of people from our ward at church? Over the past year, we've had over 100 people (including children) move from our ward for lots of reasons. I know residencies end and people move.. but come on! Watching the primary go from almost 60 to 20 is pretty sad. Also having some good friends move has been hard. And the feeling that you're being left behind to hold things together is no fun.. but we'll make it and things will be fine. We're just being pruned for extra growth in the future right? sigh...

I guess in other news, we've decided to stay in Rochester and completely Kurtis's MBA at the local University of Minnesota campus. It's still an accredited program and allows him a good education that IBM will most likely fund. This means we'll be here at least 2 more years, possibly 4. We're excited to not have to move and deal with that stress and to get going on our future! Kurtis has started a new position at IBM and is liking it more than his last one. He's working more with pricing government contracts and has great potential to move up. We're very grateful for this.

I'll leave with some pictures of the lovely Sarah. She doesn't particularly like the grass, but has relented and started crawling on it lately. It was a pretty funny process to watch.

This is her Easter dress and bunny her neighbor got her. She adores that thing!

Family Time

My mom graciously offered to fly me home last week in honor of my birthday last month..but I know the real reason was to see Sarah. I didn't mind and hopped on the plane to Gig Harbor, WA. Sarah was surprisingly good on all 4 flights (we changed planes in Denver), considering all she wants to do is crawl around and bounce on things. I chose my seats carefully and sat next to some wonderful ladies who played with Sarah and gave me a few moments of relief. They all commented on how impressed they were by the diversity of things I had in my bag to distract Sarah.. from a wisk, to Mardi Gras beads, to lots of books and Cheerios.

Grandpa reading about the Old Testament to Sarah.. she lasted a few minutes and then tried to crawl away. "This is boring Grandpa!"Aunt Pat, Me, Aunt Kathleen, Mom

My Aunt Kathleen with SarahSarah and Woody. Poor dog did NOT want to be around Sarah. Don't blame him. My cousin Steph and I

Easter DinnerPlaying with my cousin Syd's daughter Saffi

I spent the week lounging at home, watching cable TV, being pampered by my mom, taking a few refresher piano lessons, talking with Dad, seeing Aunts, Uncles and cousins I hadn't seen in a while and just relaxing! It was pretty cold and rainy the whole time but so GREEN! I couldn't get over that. There was moss everywhere, caking the trees like fuzzy, green frosting. We're just starting our spring in MN so it was nice to see some green for the first time in months. We also had a nice Easter dinner and got to watch Conference. What great sessions!We also surprised my Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Steve at Easter dinner with a little celebration of their 20th wedding anniversary. Yay!! 

Sarah had a great time playing with Grammy and Grandpa, Aunts, Uncles and cousins. Thanks Mom and Dad for having us! We had such a wonderful time. We love and miss you already!

Attitudes

No, this post is not in response to my 9 month old's needy attitude.. although she has been lately..

Kurtis and I both had our birthday's this month.. 27 and 25 respectively! Crazy that another year has gone by. We didn't really do much.. just a few nice things for each other, lots of treats and a couple little buys. I also don't have any pictures because our camera has issues.. lots of them.

I do have some thoughts on life..with my newfound wisdom of another year.. hahaha! It really comes from this month's Ensign, which I thought was excellent! I'm only going to put in a couple quotes that caught my eye.. ironically about trials. I feel so blessed with my life right now that I feel bad when I complain about things. How selfish and impatient am I! But eventually we will have trials, and the Savior can be there with us, no matter what size they are.

Apostle Orson F. Whitney explained "No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called children of God...and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we have come here to acquire." (having patience is my personal trial I think...)

Elder Richard G. Scott taught that "the Lord is intent on [our] personal growth and development...Progress is accelerated when [we] willingly allow Him to lead [us] through every growth experience [we] encounter...If [we] question [every unpleasant challenge]...[we] make it harder for the Lord to bless [us]." (Ahhhh.. so true! I'm a questioner.. and complainer.. and whiner.. which brings me to my final quote..)

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland wisely counseled, "No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse."

So, having an attitude of gratitude and patience is good. Thoughts for you on this sunny day.. gotta go, baby's unhappy! ahhhhhhhhhh grant me patience please! :)