Dear David Jr.

Dear David Jr.,

I Love you! You are such a sweet boy. Thank you for being my son and my buddy. I am so proud of you. You are so smart at school; reading, math, and writing. I have noticed you practicing your writing. You are such a sensitive boy. I hope that you stay just the way you are; smart, sensitive, sweet and caring. I love how you are so honest. I love that you make friends wherever we go and you are so friendly to others. I love that you come and talk to me whenever you need to. I am sorry that I am not always in the best mood and sometimes I get mad at you, BUT I Love You!

This week at work I have been helping some families who have sons who are addicted to drugs. I hope that you will listen to the Holy Ghost as you choose friends and as you make choices that will affect your future. Stay close to your Heavenly Father and He will always help you make good choices. If you ever find yourself in a bad situation making bad choices I hope that you will come to me and ask for help, but most especially I hope you will go to God in prayer. I hope that we can always be close and be friends. The moms that I have been working with this week said they never imagined their sons to make these kinds of choices and be hurting so much. The dads spoke of their "little buddies" growing up who are now adults making choices that are bad for them. You are you're dad's little buddy and always have been from the day you were born. I hope if we ever find our family in a similar situation that we will work together like these families are.

I love you so much. I love how you talk almost non-stop. I love how silly you are, how you are afraid of the dark, and what a great big brother you are (most of the time). I will always remember the day you were born and how much of a blessing you are to me and to your dad. I am so happy to be your mom, learning with you as you grow and as I grow too. Thanks for being patient with me!
Love your forever mom,
Mommarilla

A Healthier You?

I am thinking about doing this...

8 weeks to a healthier/better you.

Click on the title of this post to see.

There is $money$ involved.

See what you think. :)

One of my dreams...

Growing up I always imagined having a home where people felt welcomed.
I always dreamed that when I grew up and had a home of my own people would want to be there. (I once had a palm reader tell me my home would be a place of refuge/comfort for visitors.)
I hope that someday my home is a place where my children and all their teenage friends want to hang out. They want to be here all the time already, but it is so nice outside that I send them out.
I think Dave and I have created a welcoming, comfortable home where people like to visit and hang out.
We have family visitors all the time.
This weekend one of my older brothers and his wife were here with their 4 children. My sister and her best friend stayed a night, my cousin, my younger brother, and one of my uncles also stayed here this weekend.
I am so glad that people like to stay here. We have company just about every other weekend and I love it. Our parents come stay here, our siblings, our cousins, many family members and our friends.
Thanks People. You are all welcome anytime.

10 years...

Me and my BFF.
(I actually have a few BFF's.)
We went to our high school reunion together, it was fun!

Another friend, Lauren, at our reunion. Lauren's camera is the one that took these photos. Thanks Lauren. Remember our senior trip :) ?

Silene and Marilla.

I love this girl and do not know what I would have done without her.

She has always been the best righteous example!

Today is her birthday and I count my blessings to have her in my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just for fun

Today we went on a bike ride as a family for the first time... It was a blast!
Dave got a couple more bikes this past weekend so now we have one for all of us :)
I had no idea how much fun that could be.
So sad I do not have pictures to share :(
I am planning to get a camera for my birthday next month.
Any suggestions?

I am Reading...

These are two books I recommend.
For me, reading them together, sort of simultaneously, has been rather enlightening.
Both are helpful concepts for doing therapy if you ask me.

Enjoy them if you dare and if you can find some time to read :)

Yesterday's News

The other day what I learned was how important it is not to judge people.
I realized that when I am worried about what my neighbor is doing or not doing I am not worried about loving my neighbor.

Judging interferes with Love in my life.

When I am worried about what my husband is or is not doing I am not focused on loving him as the Savior would want me to. I loose focus of what matters most to my relationships and my salvation and that is L.O.V.E.

I guess that is why the judging is left up to someone more perfect than I. :)

Good for you...

A thought I had driving home today...

First off, If this blog bores some of you, sorry.
If this blog helps even one person, GREAT!
And you know what, this blog helps me so that's enough. I'll be honest I really like to put pictures with my posts, but my camera is broken and my desktop computer is too. I do not have many pics on my laptop so I just journal in my posts. I do not like to read many blogs, I like pics, so I try to keep this interesting, but if it's not for you, that's ok.

Today the ah-ha thought went like this... I was driving home from work and I past/passed a lady who's car had a bumper sticker that said "my grandkids are cuter than yours." I thought good for you. I. do. not. care. I am NOT a competitive person. In fact I really dislike competition! I am happy with who I am and I hope you are happy with who you are. We are all different and different is good. Different makes life more interesting!
I like to play games where everyone wins. I like to play games just for fun, not to win. (That is why I cheat when I play games, cuz it makes the game funner, funnier, and more interesting for me :).
I love to laugh and have a good time! I do not like to compare myself or my kids to you or anyone else(s).
Love you,
Marilla

More to it...

In addition to the surrender and release post here is more... I love my job because I get to practice what I preach and learn stuff as it comes out of my mouth, which I give thanks to the Holy Spirit for that guidance...

So I was talking to one of my clients the other day who was worrying about a lot of little details that do not really matter. She received an answer to her prayers and she was worrying about how it was all going to work out. I was telling her "let go and let God...surrender and release...You got your answer now just move your feet." (That goes along with the saying, "We can't expect God to guide our footsteps unless we're willing to move our feet.")
Then it started making even more sense to me as we were talking, we need to surrender and release because God sees the bigger picture and if we are worrying about all these tiny little details and wanting to take care of the bare necessities, we may be missing something BIG. God has WAY more in store for us than we can comprehend in our finite minds.

I recognized after our conversation that I need to take my own advice and trust God's guidance for me. He always has taken care of me and I doubt He's planning on quitting anytime soon :)

Life...

This is a quote I keep in our office/extra bedroom.

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, most jobs are often more dull than otherwise. Life is like an old-time rail journey: Delays, side tracks, smoke, dust cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas, and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."
- Gordon B. Hinckley

Someone gave this to us years ago and I have not checked the reference. It may be one of those made up things that someone attached Pres. Hinckley's name to... either way I like the quote.

And I'll add to the quote, finding joy, gratitude and smiling in the rail journey of life makes it all a little more worth it!
Sometimes my job is emotionally draining and I need little reminders. :)
I love my job! I love helping people and listening to their concerns.

Surrender and Release

This was an answer to some prayers of mine...
Card Meaning: Let go and allow God and the angels to help you. Everything that you release will either be replaced by something better or will return to you healed.

When you hold tightly to a part of your life that's not working, it has no room to heal. Whether you're unhappy with your love life, finances, career, home, or health, ask yourself to let go. If you hang on to these aspects of your life because of fears such as "what if I can't find someone or something better?" then the situation will only worsen.

However, if you're willing to open your hands and allow the situation to be freed, one of two situations will occur: either it will be washed away from you and replaced by a better situation, or the situation will heal in a miraculous way. The angels ask you to try not to control the outcome of your troubling situation(s). Let go, and Let God help you!

Cup cakes :)

So I have been eating really well lately,
Fruits and veggies, protein, dairy and little to no sweets.
Until the Sweet Tooth Fairy got new flavors.
This month Peach Cobbler, Peanut Butter n' Jelly, S'mores, & Chocolate Chip Cookie.
Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm, Peach cobbler is delish!