By divine design

Jill taught Relief Society today (and brought some of the most delicious chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever eaten in my life... holy cow they were AMAZING) on the talk “by divine design.” So many people shared their experiences of things in their life that could be considered coincidences, but were actually very clearly seeing the Lord’s hand guide their lives. I didn’t share any comments because other people were so willing to share theirs and I love hearing from other people, but of the many experiences that came to my mind, one was the clear winner of my thoughts.

I kept thinking about when I was a freshman at BYU. I was rooming with a very nice girl who had very nice friends and I’d enjoyed hanging out with them those few days before school started, but I could tell that they just weren’t my type. They reminded me of my private school friends, spending a lot of money and focused on having nice things, and I knew I would never fully feel comfortable being myself around them. On the first day of class, I was walking up that path from Helaman halls to campus but wasn’t sure if I was headed in the right direction and was feeling hesitant that I would be able to find my way to class (American heritage) since it was on the opposite side of campus. I saw a girl walking confidently in front of me and felt prompted that I should ask her for directions/help. Amazingly, she was going to my exact same class and knew the way (I forget how though!) and so we walked together. Class ended up being in a giant auditorium with at least 300 people. Amazingly too, she was also in my science class that I had right after. We walked and talked and she was so nice. Most amazing of all? She was in my ward! She lived in my building on the floor above me! And she had a great group of friends. She was very down to earth which was a huge blessing to me. Each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, she would come to my dorm room and pick out my clothes (I wore a uniform in high school and had a lot of trouble adjusting to picking out what I should wear each day to class), and we would walked to American heritage together. The next year, we roomed together in Liberty square (a very fun and down to earth apartment complex... not at all the super nice and high end apartment complex the other group of friends lived in and tried to get me to live in with them). Well, that was where I met Chris, which changed my BYU experience (and entire eternity) even more. My roommates were all friends with his roommates and we had SO much fun that semester. Really, the rest is history, but it’s amazing to think back to that first morning walking the path up to campus and acting on a prompting to ask for directions. Because Sarah was put in my path and I know it was not a coincidence. I would have never in a million years guessed how that one tiny little experience could have changed my entire life so dramatically for the better.
And bonus: sarah is just a really great friend to have.

Andrew is 9 months!

andrew is 9 months old!

Abigail actually woke up and came to me this morning to get started on getting ready for school. this is a MIRACLE and happens once in a blue moon and it just was such an amazing surprise and set an awesome tone for the day.  I helped her get ready and she was able to walk to school with the neighbor kids.

Brady is really into money and having money and earning money and spending money and learning about money.  I need to compile a list of things that he can do to earn money but the tricky part is that I want it to actually be helpful to me.  not just a busy job that creates more work for me.  the only job I currently have for him to help with (besides laundry, which he does not get paid for) is unloading the dishwasher.  his job is to put away everything he can reach... the rest of the things, he has to stack and group for me to put away in the up high places.  I love this because it's such a time saver for me and mostly because I don't have to do any bending over (my back has been so annoying lately) to get stuff out of the dishwasher OR to put it away in low places.  we only run our dishwasher every couple of days and Brady is so excited when he can unload it.  he gets 25 cents for a job well done.

a little after nine, I dropped Elizabeth and Brady off for a playdate with this older lady in the ward.  she watches her granddaughter turning the week until 4pm and has started inviting the kids over for playdates so her granddaughter can have more friends.  it's a win win for everyone involved.  hopefully we can return the favor and have Lillien over sometime.

in the elevator heading up for Andrew's 9 month well check, I looked at my watch and saw that we were perfectly a few minutes early for our appointment and it made me feel so accomplished.  someday, I hope to be so punctual that being on time no longer feels like such a huge success.  until then, I'm just going to love my successes whenever I can get them!

we had a great appointment.  we met with a PA that we'd never seen before.  our doctor that we've had since moving here recently relocated to Indiana and I don't love our new doctor.  she was a little too concerned about Andrew's weight at his 6 month appointment and honestly, it got me stressed enough that I thought I would have to quit nursing. so even though the doctor was not at fault, I wasn't super intent on seeing her for this appointment... I just chose the time slot that was most convenient for me.  I liked the PA that we saw.  she was polite and friendly and asked all the important questions about how Andrew is doing and said that Andrew was growing on his own curve and looks to be just fine.  he did a great job and was so content and cooperative.

my guess is that Andrew's weight would have been closer to 13lbs 13ozs if he hadn't refused to eat before the appointment.  he ate at 4:30am but then wouldn't eat after he was awake for the day.  he actually wouldn't eat until after the appointment when we were in the room waiting for the nurse to come with his shots.  the paper doesn't get that specific, but I think I heard the doctor say that he was .03% when we were reviewing his chart.  he's just a real skinny little guy.

also, I was amazed that he got four shots and stopped crying the second I picked him up.  I think that's a record for the fastest time for any of my kids to stop crying after getting shots. and he actually cuddled with me.  it was amazing.

so then we stopped by the library to get a bunch of books on hold (Abigail is doing a little project at school on Helen Keller) and then to Safeway to get milk (but they had a limit of 2 on the sale price... who does that?!) and somehow also walked out with four packages of various kinds of Oreos (it's a bad idea to go shopping when you're hungry) and I'm super excited about all of them.  I got mint, coconut thins, golden, and regular.  I opened mint in the car and they were delightful.

we went straight to get Elizabeth and Brady who were loving life with Gayle and Lillien because they were playing play dough, had balloons, had done a variety of st. Patricks days crafts (including making a necklace of fruit loops) and also got sent home with a pack of skittles aka rainbow seeds.

we went straight to school for Brady's parent teacher conference and it went great.  the teacher actually apologized that she didn't really have anything to tell me.  "he's doing really great and it's not like we had any concerns before or anything..."  ha.  but it's really great that she said he's come a long way in the classroom, socially.  he's much more outgoing with friends and able to resolve conflict whereas before he would have just conceded and walked away.  her one suggestion is that he work on becoming more of a creative open thinker because he's so literal and so by the books.  but I already knew all of that.  ; )

we had lunch, quiet time, Abigail walked home from school, we all watched a 30 minute movie on Helen Keller, and I got ready to go to the temple with friends from relief society.  didn't make it to the gym but it was a successful and fulfilling day.