Make a Difference...

I am enjoying learning.

Today I went to a porn conference. . . It was on how to protect children and families from pornography, I was not viewing porn.

Anyways the most important thing I feel I got out of the conference was that this is a Battle we all need to fight with Humble Warrior Hearts, as spoken so well by Dan Gray. 1 Peter 2:11 warns us to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul... I am beginning to see the extent to which pornography is destroying families, as I am in this educational process. It is infiltrating homes, this is now an all out war that we must not give up on.
Many of you probably already know that Utah has been ranked number 1 for online porn subscriptions along with being ranked number 1 in looking up family values online. If we do not do something this will destroy more and more families.
I am grateful for the opportunity I will have to work with individuals and families facing pornography addiction, there is relief and there is help available now. What a blessing, yet what a responsibility we all have to help, to understand, and to protect our families.
I got a lot of information at this conference, if you know of anyone that needs help please help them realize this is nothing to be ashamed of. Help them see that getting help will set them FREE.
For parents or for any individual who cares about helping make a difference with this cause you can start by going to www.parentstv.org and see if there is a chapter in your area. This site helps to stop inappropriate images from being on TV. For parents wanting to educate their kids you can go to sexedlibrary.org and there are useful tools there. www.lightedcandle.org is another opportunity to help fight pornography.
Another network of help can be found at www.lifestarnetwork.org or www.lovingmarriage.com that has quite a few articles to help couples "love" marriage. Gosh there is just so much I could go on and on. If you want anymore info just email me and I'd be happy to help or direct you to the right places, no shame or money attached:)

Mothers...

This was on my friends blog, and since I needed to hear it, I figured I'm probably not the only one. So here goes...

MOTHERS

Real Mothers don't eat quiche;

they don't have time to make it.

Real Mothers know that their kitchen utensils

are probably in the sandbox.

Real Mothers often have sticky floors,

filthy ovens and happy kids.

Real Mothers know that dried play dough

doesn't come out of carpets or off the bottom of shoes.

Real Mothers don't want to know what

the vacuum just sucked up.

Real Mothers sometimes ask 'Why me?'

and get their answer when a little

voice says, 'Because I love you best.'

Real Mothers know that a child's growth

is not measured by height or years or grade...

It is marked by the progression of Mommy to Mom to Mother

As mothers it is probably best if we don't "should" on ourselves and just enjoy the journey, recognize we're all human and do the best we can!

More Spring Stuff....

This was my balloon and flowers from the boys when I got home from my last day of school this semester. Yay! only one more year to go!I love flowers of all colors and all kinds. Actually I prefer not to have a dozen roses but rather a variety and colorful! I love Daisies.We hiked Bridal Veil Falls again. It is so beautiful there. I love the mountains!

Dave and the boys look for fossils so they can show them to Grandpa Truman.Momma and her boys.Brothers.

Spring.....

First I must say that yesterday I turned in my last paper for the semester.
WooHoo!!!! One more semester over, two down, two more to go!
I feel so blessed. I know I could not do this all without some Divine help.
I am so thankful for the help I receive daily!

NOW, to the funner picture stuff.
Ready for a rainy Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday before Easter Sunday...I love these two boys! We missed the Easter Egg hunt at the park by about 5 minutes so we had our own when we got home.

Easter Sunday was a beautiful Sun Shiny day! This is just before church... I love to have kids in crisp new clothes, especially nice shirts like these (that only cost $5 at Wal-Mart).

After Church we had some family time outside enjoying the Sun!

I think they have the cutest faces and the Best big Brown eyes ever!

I haven't taken many pictures lately so when I had a day off from school I had them take a couple shots....
He wanted to get this tough look for some reason...

David Jr.
But he really is a softy sweet heart!

My little Men!
Look at that face...

Joey Truman
He is such a nice boy as well, he's our comic by nature.

So there are some pictures. I have a lot more that I'll save for another day...

What I have been doing...

This is an article from the Deseret News about a project that one of my classes has been working on. Check it out if you want. This just goes to show how Organizing really can get things done.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705298070/Mental-health-manual-for-clergy.html?pg=1
And then here is the link to the same project in the BYU newspaper. There is a picture on this link if you want to see some of my classmates and our professor. He inspires us all to "give a damn".
http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/72149
It is pretty interesting and something I have passion about. Social Work is Amazing!

The next Morning the Daily Herald had an article about us as well... click to check it out too!
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/306365/17/

This is our Whole class, but only 25 of us are doing the project.

Jazz Games Etc.

I have been trying to download a few more pictures but it keeps telling me a bad message error. Anyways here is some of what we have been doing lately....

Dave and his friend took their kids to a Jazz game. They lucked out because it just happened to be the Jazz Bears birthday and so they got to see a bunch of the NBA Mascots.

This is Brendon, Candace, his daughter, Joey and David. They had fun!

I am trying to post some pictures of us Iceskating, but those are the ones that won't post. Oh well. Life is good and here a couple pictures at least. :)

Easter Meaning

I was just looking on the LDS.org website to plan a little more for my lesson tomorrow and I saw this. Wanted to share. Enjoy some LDS Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpFhS0dAduc
(Click on the Easter Meaning, title of this post to view the clip.)

I was so thankful for this talk during conference. I found great insight and hope in these words.

Happy Easter,
Marilla and Family

So much has been happening...

Well hello to anyone who reads this. Noone has said anything about missing my blogs so maybe noone reads it. I just messed up the blog by trying to update the background and maybe I'll be able to figure it out, or maybe not.
Anyways I just wanted to say how grateful I am for the blessings in my life. There are so many little things that happen that I can not deny divine intervention. I know our Father in Heaven loves each of us, and am so thankful for that knowledge.

My camera has been broken, but I think I have figured out how to use Dave's so as soon as he gets some Easter pictures downloaded I'll post them with some more thoughts. Other than that I'll just stick to facebook.

Life is good! Busy, but good. I have been enjoying getting to know more people in my Social Work cohort at BYU. We have a great group to learn with and learn from. We have been working on some projects and I am getting ready for our closing social for the year. Finals are just around the corner, in fact I have two on Tuesday.

I loved Conference last weekend! It was so nice to have my mom here and my siblings, except the oldest, Joe. I ran in the Provo half marathon on Saturday morning. It was nice and snowy. Then we were able to go to Sunday Morning session of General Conference.
Love,
Marilla