The Blessing of Repentance

Jarom and I taught a lesson in our 12-13 year old Sunday School class today that was on the blessings of Repentance.  I came across this story while preparing the lesson and liked it so much I thought I would share...

"A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill? Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 bill to one of you but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up.  He then asked "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air. "Well," he replied, "what if I do this?" and he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air. "My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson.  No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value.  It was still worth $20.  Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.  We feel as though we are worthless.  But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in God's eyes.  To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to Him. In other words, the worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we are, but WHOSE we are.  We never lose our worth!

I am so grateful for the Atonement, and the opportunity we all have to repent of our sins, and draw closer to the Savior and our Heavenly Father.  I love having this calling to teach with Jarom.  This year we are studying "Preparing for Exaltation." Sometimes I think we learn more than our kids do, but it has been a good learning experience for us and a great reminder of the things we need to be doing in our daily lives to remain true to the covenants we've made so we can be worthy to live with our Heavenly Father again someday.

The Church is True.

And now a few random pictures for good measure...

 Real Salt Lake game...

And this one, just because it is so precious.... 

Celebrating Jacie's 17th Birthday with some Wingers Asphalt Pie...
I can't believe my baby sister is 17 years old!

And last but not least, my kid brother, because I miss him,
even though he steals my sunglasses...

This past week, was Jaroms "spring break" so he didn't have his night math class at all this week.  It was so nice to have him "back" again.  :)   Since the weather has been so amazing, we had a picnic in the park, and last night we were able to go to a Real Soccer game at Rio Tinto Stadium and had a bon fire with our friends Welcker and Mare.  I even did some spring cleaning this week thanks to some suggestions found on pinterest....

And in case anyone needs a good laugh, this video is hillarious....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jouORmNWu1Y

Cheers.

I hate when people take advantage...

One of my current annoyances is that people have been hiring more and more people part time, with no benefits, no time off,  no nothing, but require them to work just shy of, if not actual full time hours, just because they can and they know people are hurting for work. Jarom loves his job working out at the airport, but lately he's been asked to take on the role of a supervisor, (of course with no raise or added bonus to him, just the fall out and responsibility should something go wrong) extra shifts, double shifts...in addition to already working every weekend. It's getting ridiculous. I know I speak for us both when I say I can't wait for Jarom to be done with school! Jarom and I have saved up for a vacation, and we can't even scrounge up a day or two let alone a week to getaway because of his inability to get time off and his wierd work schedule.  Alright, no more complaining fom me, my husband is just a busy man, but I'm so proud of him.

Jarom's been great about making time to sneak in a few date nights.  Last week Jarom and I went to a Jazz game, which was really fun. We even won that one! Later that week we played some miniature croquet at the Beach Resort in Provo, had dinner at Shoots, and went hot tubbing with some of our good friends, Welcker and Mare.  This week we flew some of our 3-D airplane kites (thanks Costco), worked on Jarom's bike, and hit up our favorite Texas Roadhouse.  I'm so glad it's finally warming up! I can't wait to go for a ride on Jarom's motorcycle.

Because Jarom has been so busy, I've been trying to stay busy myself so I can let him get his homework done, and avoid going stir crazy myself. This past month I've been working on a professional development award through work, and was able to do some educating and teaching for our yearly RN and CNA skills labs. Also, Timpanogos just opened a brand new, state of the art level III NICU, which is amazing.  They have been extremely busy, so aside from working in pediatrics, I've been able to do some crosstraining and have floated and picked up a few extra shifts working down there. I love feeding, cuddling and caring for the precious premie babies.  I really do have the best job ever! I have been given so many opportunities at Timp, which has allowed me to work in so many different capacities.  I can't help but smile when people ask what area of nursing I work in, because I've done a little bit of almost everything.

This week Jarom and I were able to watch our cute little nephew Bridger. It was so fun to have a little person to hang out with while Jarom was at class.  Bridger is growing up so fast, and did so great hanging out with us.  We don't get to see him or Jarom's family very much, so I'm glad he took right to us and wasn't shy.  Right now at work, there are like 10+ nurses who are expecting.  It has become a joke that there must be something in the water, or that it must be contagious. I hope I catch it soon...! ;-)

Fell in love all over again today...

Today I fell in love for the second time With the website www.mint.com. If you have never heard or it, you should seriously check it out. It's changed my life in just one night. It's a site that allows you to view all of your checking accounts, credit cards, savings accounts, property, car loans, student loans, investment accounts, and anything else you can think of, all in one place as a read only file. Although it's a read only snapshot of your finances, I love being able to look at everything from one screen. And its not because our finances look fantastic, because if you know us at all you know we have massive amounts of student loan debt, but looking at it, and facing the truth head on and doing something about it feels so much better than hiding behind it hoping it will go away or will be dealt with later...which I am also guilty of doing.
The site also offers financial advice, allows you to set a budget, reminds you of upcoming payments, and so much more. I spent hours today going over our finances. For fun! I'm such a nut, my poor husband has had to listen to this all day long....but it feels so good to set and reach goals.

About a year ago I wrote a post about Suze Orman's book "The Money Class" I've referenced it a lot the past year and finally got some retirement accounts going for Jarom and I. Although I consider myself conservative, I love spending money. But what Suze says is true...the pleasure of saving CAN be equal to the pleasure of spending. It took some convincing, but it's true...it is possible to live below your means no matter how much you make. It's all about how you choose to spend your money.

So, thank you Suze Orman...cheers to that  :)

And now I must get to bed because I have to be up for work in 4 1/2 hours.  Awesome!