God Moves in a Mysterious Way

These past two weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind of trials and blessings. I've further realized, as I've always known, keeping the Lord's commandments is the safest road. I have seen time and time again that if we are doing what the Lord asks of us, we will be fine. If we are not, we won't be ready when life's storms fall upon us, as they can and always do.

It all began on Monday, June 7th. I had a final dentist appointment in a series of long, painful appointments to fix several cavities since becoming pregnant. One of the teeth had been given a root canal weeks prior, which sucked up my entire dental coverage for the year. I still had seven fillings needed, all to be paid out of pocket. Brenton and I had been keeping our emergency savings in tact, a lesson learned from our parents and latter-day prophets, so we were covered. "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear" (D&C 30:38) we thought, and so I went in for the appointment. After a few hours of intense pain and tears, the fillings were done, and the month-long ordeal finally over. Puffy and swollen I went to pay the bill. In an act of mercy we found that it would only cost 15% of what we had originally planned. I was overwhelmed by the Lord's love for us, and grateful that we did not have to dip into our savings at all.

We contemplated that night over Family Home Evening why the Lord let us keep that money. We saw it as a tender mercy and expressed sincere gratitude to Him. We did not know at the time how much we would need that funding later.

Friday of that week, June 11th, I was in my very first car accident. I miscalculated for one second, another driver did not watch the road, and 10 seconds later I was hit on both sides, pulled over on the road in complete shock. It was absolutely terrifying, and I remember the instant feeling of monumental regret and shame. Miraculously, no one was hurt, or issued a citation. Brenton raced over from work as I dealt with the damage, questions by police authority, and panic because I couldn't feel my baby kicking. Looking back now, I see how the Lord completely numbed my emotions allowing me to answer and deal with the situation until Brenton could be there. Then he dealt with calling our insurance, getting the car towed, and getting a rental car. Husbands are amazing for those kinds of things.

I've never been so grateful for auto insurance. They were wonderful every step of the process. I was still a nervous wreck after leaving the accident, and couldn't close my eyes without reliving what happened. It was pouring rain at the time and I hadn't eaten in several hours. We received help everywhere we needed it, and I was able to get food, then get to the doctor's office to check on our baby. It wasn't until the nurse placed the doppler on my belly and told me Ryan's heartbeat was just fine that I finally broke down into body shaking sobs. Anything else I could handle, now that I knew he was just fine.

As the next few days passed I mostly struggled with an overwhelming shroud of guilt and regret. "If I'd only done this," or "why couldn't I have just done that." I was so grateful that Brenton forgave me instantly and the only person left for forgive was myself. I poured my heart out in prayer begging for the ability to emotionally move on and get past it. As I prayed I was lead to the words of the hymn, "God Moves in a Mysterious Way." The verse that meant the most to me was this. "Ye fearful Saints, fresh courage take; the clouds ye so much dread, are big with mercy and shall break, in blessings on your head." My mind was opened to see where the Lord had blessed us every step of the way, and I was able to let go of the guilt in myself. It was a powerful step in moving on.

Earlier this week we learned that our car was assessed as a total loss, even though it was still drivable. While that brought on a whole new wave of guilt for me, we took it for what it was and began to look for a new car. In yet another blessing, we were given far more from the insurance than we were expecting, allowing us to place a significant down payment. Wednesday, June 16th, we were driving home in a new car within our financial means. It's a wonderful car, and we are very pleased with it.

And so I sit here, a full week later from the accident, reflecting on how smooth the week has gone. I've once again learned that we were blessed because we were doing the right things beforehand. The Lord knows us, is aware of our circumstances, and loves us dearly. He will protect and take care of us. He knows we're not perfect. I had no idea we would need that money from the dentist towards purchasing a new car, but the Lord did. Since we cannot predict our lives, we need to do everything we can to keep His Spirit and guiding influence with us. So that when the "mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall" (Helaman 5:12). For me, those storm clouds were ones filled with mercy, that did, indeed, break with blessings on my head.

Our Photo Expedition Week 1

Last week I received an e-mail from Kodak Gallery, and they mentioned a photo expedition sweepstakes they were promoting through Facebook. I clicked on the link and found that each week this summer, Kodak will pick five random objects for contestants to take pictures of and submit. Brenton and I figured we didn't stand a chance winning, but that it would be a fun thing for us to do to record the summer we had Ryan. So, we spent the day on Saturday taking pictures of the five things for last week. They were an umbrella, a cupcake, a sunset, a U.S. flag, and something with polka dots. Although it's not a requirement, we decided that both of us should be in each picture, something definitely doable when you have a tripod and a timer on the camera. It was a blast. Here are the pictures taken in color. To see the pictures in black and white, with the certain object highlighted, see my Facebook profile.

The first picture we took was the cupcake. We went to "The Sweet-Tooth Fairy's Bakery" in Provo, and picked out the prettiest cupcake we could find. A kind lady at the bakery took this picture for us. The cupcake was incredible. Very, very tasty.

Next, we took a picture of the umbrella. We came up with the idea because we recently bought a hose attachment for our garden called a "rain-maker." So we watered the garden with me under the umbrella. Also note, those are my new gardening/rain boots, and I LOVE them!.

After the garden, we took a picture of something with polka-dots. Really, it just ended up as an excuse to eat a root beer float. We filled up my big frosty mug, put in two straws, and oh yeah, I put a polka-dot ribbon in my hair from an Easter gift basket my mom gave me back in college. It actually ended up being my favorite photo of the whole set.

Our last two photos proved more difficult. We looked up online to see when the sun was setting, and thought we'd try and take the pictures down by Utah Lake. However, we went the wrong way and by the time we realized it, we would miss the sunset if we turned back. So we found a pretty field, set up the tripod, and took a quick picture.

Our last picture proved to be the hardest. We just couldn't seem to come up with a nice way to take a picture with an American flag. It has so much symbolism in it, and so we didn't want it to look cheesy or disrespectful. As we were driving back from the sunset field, we saw an elementary school with a flag. Brenton pulled up, and said, "This is the flag we're using. We'll make it work." With minutes of daylight left, we set up the tripod and just, stood there. It took a few tries to get one with the wind blowing, but it turned out ok.

It was a really fun day. We're excited to see what this week's five objects are, and create more memories for our first summer in Utah. On the off chance that we win, I'll be sure to let y'all know.

Fruit Tarts and Gardens

We had a wonderful three-day weekend. Of course, it never seems long enough, but ours was just the right balance of relaxation and projects we'd been putting off. We got a lot accomplished, and I'm starting the really see the benefits of getting up a bit earlier in order to enjoy more of your day.

One of the fun projects I was able to do over the weekend was to make Martha Stewart's fruit tarts from her May issue. I've been trying more and more of her recipes, and I never seem to get them just right. Last month I attempted to make her rhubarb cake, which turned into rhubarb cobbler. This month, I wanted to make one of her tarts because it looked so good in the picture, and I love tarts. I even had little ones served at my wedding reception. So I got all the ingredients, complete with two little tart dishes from Ikea, and began to follow the recipe. It's pretty time consuming, with a lot of hurry up and wait preparation. Much to my chagrin, even though I followed directions explicitly, the crust did not turn out like it was supposed to. But it tasted delicious so instead of popping them out of the little pans, I just kept them in there.

The final product actually turned out pretty fantastic. The filling was amazing, and I think they turned out very similar to the picture from the magazine. So I'm going to call this one a success, even though the crust didn't turn out perfectly. Either way it was fun to make. I've always felt that baking is more enjoyable than cooking. Brenton feels the opposite, so we make a great match in that respect. Here are some photos of the finished product, one with the article's picture of what it should look like. It's the top right one in the article.

Another one of our projects that we finally accomplished was the planting of our garden. I am so excited about it. From talking to friends in the area, tomatoes do very well in Utah soil, so we planted some of those, along with some herbs and zucchini. I love the summer, and I'm really thrilled to watch it all grow and eat the delicious vegetables over the next few months. I've always wanted to plant a garden, and our landlord already rototilled a piece of the yard for us. It'll be interesting to see if we'll have challenges with bunnies or gophers, because I'm not at home during the day to keep an eye on it. We also share the yard with our neighbors who have three children that seem to think everything we own is theirs too. So that will also be interesting. Those factors aside, we're really hoping this will be a fruitful venture for the summer.