What did you do on your 100 degree day?

Get Wet! OK not all of us, but some of us did!

After floating for a while, Jeremy and Mykie wanted to drive the boat. Mike told them that the first one that got into the water up to their neck could drive first. Girls, SHE ROCKS! Is that a look of why-am-I-not-wet on Jeremy's face?

These shots only make it look like I am in the water taking photos. Did I fool you? Did you think that I would take my nice camera in the water? Silly you! I will NEVER reveal my photo taking secrets! Am I so tricky or what?

My, What A Lovely Patio!

My dad and mom have a place for a hot tub in the backyard. It's a little cement patio. Problem is they don't have a hot tub, we don't have a hot tub so it was actually storage for "yard stuff". Last year we worked a bit on the area to make it more usable. But stopped short of the goal. It was turned back into the "yard stuff storage area."

This week I told the kids that if they would clean off the patio that I would go buy a fire bowl for the patio area and we could make smores until our marshmellows burned up (I was going for a phrase like "til the cows come home" but that didn't seem to make any sense there. I had to go with the marshmellow thingy.)

Mykie and Jeremy jumped at the chance, but it wasn't 10 minutes into it that Jeremy decided that it was hopeless. I told him that was fine. Just don't do it. We didn't need a fire bowl anyway. I told him to go back outside and put the tools and stuff away with Mykie. But Mykie is a go getter and wouldn't let him give up so easily. It was back breaking and sweat inducing, but they did it. Here is a photo of the hard workers and their area.

They are complete with their marshmellows and chocolate squares. Get done with the photo op and get the fire going, MOM!

Why Do You Smell Sweet As Sugar or What Kind of Air Freshener is That?

I have been busy this week. I have been in the kitchen for most of it. As many of you know I dabble in cake decorating. I really enjoy making edible art. So I was commissioned to make the wedding cake. Actually it was the wedding cupcakes and I needed to make over 100 of them. I baked them a few days ago and put them in the freezer to speed up yesturday's process. Good thing because it took FOREVER!

Usually it takes me about 2 hours do a cake. That doesn't count cooking or clean up. Yesturday I started at 10:00 am and finished at about 9:30 pm. I think my feet are swollen. I did stop for lunch and for about a 2 hour family bbq baby shower celebration, but when I got done, it was back to the frosting. You'd think that dots wouldn't be such a pain to make, but with fondant, they are. I hate fondant. It doesn't taste too good either. I think I will stick with frosting in the future.

Here's a photo of all my hard work (minus the mess I made)

They originally wanted just the small cupcakes, but I thought they needed a center or something, so I made a large looking cupcake. Mike says it looks fine, but I think it looks like a giant mushroom with chicken pox. Whatever, that's the great thing about cake as art. You eat it and no one remembers what it looked like, just what it was supposed to look like!

Mykie's bday is in October and I found this cupcake:

I think it would be so cute for her 12th-girlie-make-up-wearing-hair-dooing party. But I WON'T be making 100 of them!

Women's Conference

OK, I've been waiting to address this subject because BYU puts some of the transcripts from some of the classes on their web-site, but they haven't done it yet.
In short I LOVED WOMEN'S CONFERENCE (of course). It was great again this year. I went with Marci Christensen and that was SUPER. I called Mike when we got to Utah and said, "We didn't turn on the radio the whole way down." We just talked about everything. (Well, I guess that it wasn't about everything because we had plenty to say the next few days as well.) Mike's response? "That makes me tired just thinking about that." I told him that he'd be a better traveling companion if he'd talk like that. With only 1500 words to use a day, I am not holding my breath!

The first talk that I went to was Sherri Dew's. It was Awake, Arise and Come Unto Him (the conference theme.) Of course it was wonderful! She has such a terrific way of reminding us where we should be and gives us the confidence to get back on track. Sometimes when you have a talk that tells you you need to do better, you feel guilty. But Sherri has a way of making you feel that you are strong enough to change for the better.
Anyway, she spoke on many things, but a few that stuck out are the following:

::Our Spirits crave to progress. When we stay just like we are we are not happy.
::We are motivated to do difficult things rather than easy things. (True, I usually put off the easy things, but am willing to tackle a huge project.) She tells us to rally to the most demanding and difficult of challenges - the cause of Christ.
::We cannot escape the influence our lives influence others. We have gifts to influence with -
1- We bear and lead children along the path home
2- It is our nature to nurture
3-We have the unique opportunity to change the world with our gifts
::Take a little more time to become a little more worthy.
::With the Lord's help and our efforts - we will prevail!

I know that this is a very short rundown of her talk and I definitely do not do it justice, but I have been waiting and waiting for BYU to post her transcript. It has been a long wait because I have been dying to read and re-read this powerful talk. In fact, I teach RS in June and wanted to have this be my topic. Hurry up BYU!!!

The next class I went to was about Qualifying for the Influence of the Spirit. These two women were great. They taught that the Holy Ghost can illuminate our pathway, but most of humanity navigates without the illumination of the Holy Ghost. She referred to it as "Illumination in the Heavenly Element."

Sometimes we have trouble receiving messages. She gave an example of getting a new cell phone and how she didn't know how to get the messages that people were leaving her because she didn't have the knowledge to get them off her phone. She didn't know because she didn't learn and practice. The Holy Ghost is the same. Sometimes we don't recognize the Spirit because we haven't been practicing or asking for that help of knowing. Strive to recognize the feeling/voice of the Holy Ghost.

A mother can differentiate between her child's voice and someone else's child's voice. This is because she has been trained to listen, we must train ourselves to listen and ask Heavenly Father to help us in this righteous desire. He wants us to utilize this gift on our journey here on earth. He is willing to help if we are willing to be humble and ask.

The next class was one that Marci suggested because she actually had one of the presenters as her Institute teacher when she attended BYU. He was great (his name was Randy Bott). It was about Grace. "Then is His Grace Sufficient for You" which was nice because I get a little confused about grace. I didn't ever think about grace other than coming in at the end of our lives to be "saved" as other churches talk about. But God's grace gives us enlightenment and power according to the work to be done.

God's will is for us to overcome the temptations of the adversary. (D&C 50:35) He wants us to succeed down here, but we need to humble ourselves. We cannot succeed without divine intervention. Your abilities will be magnified through His divine, enabling power.

There was one on "Turning the MTC into a Review, Not a Revelation" in which I had my pen poised for taking a dozen pages of notes on just how to do this. I really didn't need to. I've known the answer all along. FHE, Family Prayer, Family Scripture Study, teaching the children the value of hard work, make home a loving and safe place. Could it be this easy? Yes - in the scriptures it tells us by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.

John Bytheway and his mom spoke on "Fear Not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them". Their talks weren't really what I thought they'd be on, but they were good none the less. Sister Bytheway makes me want to have hymns in my home more often. It has more power than the spoken word. Read the preface to the Hymn book if you don't believe me! John gave a great reminder that we must have follow through and example for what we teach. He shared this quote, "I can't hear what you say because what you do shouts so loudly in my ears." The choices you make make ALL the difference.
He also went on about faith. He said that whatever you need to do - it doesn't matter what it is - the answer is Faith in Christ. But we must remember that faith is not turning what we want into reality. We need faith in Christ to do his will. Aline your will with His and there is where you'll find peace.

The next class I went to was on Successful Family Reunions. Great info that I have got to get to my mom-in-law since she's putting on the reunion next year.

The greatest of all was the closing of the women's conference where we got to be with President Monson. It was such a great experience to be the Marriot Center when he came in. Here this large capacity building was packed with women. Needless to say, mouths were flappin'! But as soon as he walked in, there was silence. Then someone started to sing, "We Thank Thee Oh God For A Prophet" acapella. Then the whole place started singing, then the organist joined in. It was beautiful. There were more than us singing that day. So great.

Then he shared some wonderful teaching stories with us. He taught that we should:
::Never let a problem to be solved become more important than the person to love.
::Find joy in the journey
::Adversity is a necessary part of development. We learn, grow and become refined through hardships. God, our loving Father, knows this.
::Pause occasionally to reflect on the good that you've done.

All in all it was a great conference. But any of you that have attended before know what I am talking about. I told my ward that next year it was going to be an Enrichment Activity to go. All those poor hubbies left at home to deal with PB&J sandwiches and the nurturing part of parenting really do benefit from our going. Like Martha would say, "It's a good thing."

P.S. Next year's conference is on April 30-May 1. Are you free?

I truly love this day!

Happy Mother's Day!

I just love this day and my hat is off to all Mothers everywhere. You make the good in our world by the things that you do!

I gave one of the Mother's Day talks in church today. I complained about it a bit, but it was great because it was all about the lessons I learned from my great mom. She is one fantastic lady! Anyway, one of the quotes that I used came from a few different places, but I will credit it to President Gordon B. Hinckley from the Dec issue of the Liahona in 2007. He states the following:

E. T. Sullivan once wrote these interesting words: “When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn’t stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home and of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother’s heart, and she puts it into the baby’s mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are (mothers and their) babies.”

This is true. The goodness in the world comes from the nature to nurture that is from us girls. Good job MOMS!

I would like to share a bit of my mother's day with you. I have poets in the house that I would love to tell you about.

The first one is from Jeremy. He happens to be 13 years old and "super cool" at school, but he is NEVER too cool to hug or kiss me even at his school in front of his friends. He loves his Mama and he ain't scared to show it. He does have a mind of his own, but he is always obediant (even if he loudly voices his displeasure at the request for obedience, I can count on him to get it done.) His poem that he wrote for me is titled:

She Is

She is

A daughter who became

A friend

A Wife

A Mother

She is

A gardner

A Booklover

Not a fun killer

She is

Creative;

A sould who crafts,

Without worrying

A crafter who teaches friends

She is

Always my Mom

Never my enemy

Often my love

She is

Terilyn Nelson

Is that not so cute and pulls at the heart strings? I love that I have my very own poem written by a teenager!

Mykalyn also wrote me a poem on the cutest homemade card complete with paper tulips and glitter. Her poem was an acostic. And for those of you who are not still in the 5th grade and have forgotten what type of poem that is, I have included the definition:

a·cros·tic

–noun
1. a series of lines or verses in which the first, last, or other particular letters when taken in order spell out a word, phrase, etc.

Anyway, her poem was done using my first name:

True daughters have great mothers

Eternal love lasts forever

Remembering you makes me feel safe, happy, great

I will never regret being your daugher

Love is going to last forever between you and me

You really are a true friend

No other mother is better than you

Isn't that so sweet? I love that my babies took effort and their brains to give me something so lasting. (By the way, Jeremy also gave me a Skor bar and an Almond Snicker's bar just because he knew they were my favorite. Go chocolate!)

Tyler did try to vocalize his feelings in a poem as well. It had something to do with might, light, fight and a kite, but I couldn't really follow it. I was laughing too hard at the RAP effort.

I did receive many other things from my family, but I don't have to mention them all. All I have to let you know is that I received LOVE today and I hope you did too.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all! And thanks to those that remember us!