9/11

"Are these perilous times? They are. But there is no need to fear. We can have peace in our hearts and peace in our homes. We can be an influence for good in this world, every one of us." -President Gordon B. Hinckley, October 2001 General Conference
I'm sitting here seriously sobbing. I just watched a few videos on You Tube about 9/11/01 and I was doing ok until I watched one that a little girl is narrating. There are pictures of that day and the song Heaven playing and the little girl is talking about her dad who died that day. I can't get over it. It is heart breaking.

Even after 7 years, the events of that day still impact me greatly. I remember exactly what happened that day, where I was and the sick feeling I think most of us felt as we watched our country come under attack right before our eyes. I think of all those families who lost loved ones and all those kids who miss their moms and dads. I also think about all those who have lost family members in the war that we have been fighting since then.

September 11th will always and forever be a somber day. A day that we will all remember. A day I hope that we never forget.

I have stood on that sacred ground and it is a horrible, but hopeful place. As I sit here crying and remembering and pondering I can't help but also remember and ponder about the plan of happiness that our Heavenly Father has prepared for us. These are hard times, but the Lord has his eye on us; on this country. I pray for those that are serving our country and the families of those who lost their lives that fateful day.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

This is my family at Ground Zero last summer and with a firefighter who was there that day.

I Heart Archie!

...and I'm not ashamed of it!! Seriously, he is the cutest kid (don't believe me? read this article) and has the most incredible voice!!!!! But I totally love Cook too, and actually loved more of the Idols than I thought I would.

The American Idol concert was July 15 and Jessie, Kristin and I made a night of it. We left work a little early and went to The Pie for dinner. J had never been there before and she loved it, of course.

K and I were smiling and giggling like little schoolgirls as we were waiting for the concert to start! well, excpet for when we thought the concert was going to start, but it was actually a man in a pop tart suit. not cool to get our hopes up like that.

We were all so excited to be going to the concert. It was kind of pathetic. We had heard such awesome things about the concert the night before and couldn't wait to see and hear it ourselves. The format of the concert was basically 10 mini-concerts. Each contestant (starting with Chikeze, since he was the first of the top 10 to be voted off) got to do about 3 songs. They did some that they had done on the show and a lot that they hadn't. It was cool to hear them do more of their own genre and not be forced to sing a style or specific artist. They definitely are all very different. And all very good! My favorites were Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Brooke White, David Archuleta and David Cook. (Archie got to do 4 songs and Cook did 5) I was pleasantly surprised with Chikeze, Kristy Lee Cook and Jason Castro. The only ones I didn't really like were Ramiel and Syesha. Not that they don't have good voices, I just didn't like them on stage so much.

Anyway, we had so much fun and I ended up losing my voice because I was screaming so loud and K and I sang along with everyone. Such a blast! The crazy thing was when David Archuleta came out...I have never heard anything like it. The screaming was incredible. And he was so cute about it all. You could tell he really loved being in his home town.

I am not ashamed of my love of David Archuleta. In fact, I'm listening to all the songs of his that I downloaded on itunes this very minute.

(I borrowed a couple of your pics Jam...I wish I had that good of seats!)

but first...

Ok, so I know I said I would start catching up on everything, but I just got back from the saturday night adult session of State/Regional Conference (as I'm sure many of you also went to) and I want to first write a little about what I learned/felt tonight.

I moved into a new ward and stake in the last few weeks, so this is the first occasion I've had to listen to the Stake Presidency. All I have to say is WOW! I am so impressed and very grateful for what they taught this evening. The talks generally revolved around sustaining our leaders; local and general. But what I loved the most were the first two talks given by women in our Stake. They spoke on being examples. Here are some of my thoughts from their talks...

• we set examples for those around us whether we realize it or not, whether are examples are good, or not.
• we are blessed for doing the right things in the right place at the right time
• we cannot fall when we build our foundation on the Savior (Helaman 5:12)
• EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY! life will not be perfect, but as we follow the Brethren and the Lord, everything will be okay.
• we cannot pick and choose the commandments and counsel that we live
• don't delay following counsel!

It was a wonderful meeting and I am looking forward to tomorrow to hear from the general leaders of the church. I am also getting really excited for General Conference. Can you believe it is in just four weeks?!?

Anyway, I hope you don't mind me sharing my thoughts with you all and you'll just have to wait until tomorrow for more posts. Sorry. So I will sign off tonight with one of my favorite quotes from last October's general conference.

"When we choose to follow Christ in faith rather than choosing another path out of fear, we are blessed with a consequence that is consistent with our choice."

so sue me...

i know, i've been an absolutely horrible blogger the last month. so sue me. just kidding, i know that i haven't been good and i promise that i have meant to do some blogging it just hasn't happened. and right now i really need to go get ready for stake conference, so here is a quick list of the gems that you will get to read about if you haven't completely written me off yet...

*American Idol concert
*family vacations
*the Olympics
*moving & my new apartment
*Grey's and Veronica Mars
*my new bed!
*shoe parties
*BYU FOOTBALL BABY!!!

so get excited and when i get back from stake conference tonight i promise to at least start working on that list.