Visit from Tim's Grandparents

The last weekend in September, Tim's Grandparents came down for the baptism of Amanda, a close family friend. (She is more like a granddaughter for them, and a niece to me and Tim.) Amanda's dad is a convert who was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when we were up visiting Tim's home town this summer. Amanda is studying at a LDS affiliated university near where we live, and so they made the trip for the momentous occasion and we were able to spend a few hours with them and go out to lunch.

We ate at Texas Road House (delicious!!). Upon hearing others order a salad, Brodrick requested a salad to eat as well.  Grandma and Grandpa were surprised to see that little guy excitedly devoured his salad and was rather uninterested in any other food we offered him.

Tim, Amelia, and Grandma Kieko

Miles, Grandpa Glenn, and Melanie

Eating at a restaurant is an exciting adventure with our three busy young children. We had a lovely visit before, and after our visit to the restaurant, but during was a little more stressful. It is always so wonderful to see family that live far away. Their trip was a quick one, and we were blessed to be able to have spent some time with them!

Saori- A new addition to our family!

No we have not adopted a baby, but this is probably the closest we'll get to international adoption for the time being.

While on vacation this summer visiting Tim's parents, my mom called and mentioned that she received an email from a friend of hers, who helps students from Japan find host families to stay with, and that there was a student coming at the end of August who was needing a host family. I asked Tim (while my mom was on hold) if he would be interested in hosting an exchange student. He asked for the phone, and said without much thought, that yes, we would host this student. We didn't know anything about the student at that point, other than that she was female. Once home we got an email with a bit more limited information.


We had a few weeks to prepare a room for her to stay in. We decided clean out our office and put things in storage, and a computer in our family room so that she would have a place to stay. Then at the end of August, I went to pick our student up from the airport.

Saori became a member of the church in 2009 and then served a full time mission in Japan till March of this year. On the ride home, I learned that she was less than a year younger than myself. She has a degree in Psychology from a university in Japan, and wants to attend graduate school here in the US. In order to do this, she needs to improve her English (which she is already quite good at speaking- we communicate just fine- but not to the level necessary for grad school). She is attending an international school in our city for her English studies.

After only a few days in our home, it was crazy to think that she hadn't been living with us all along. She is a great friend, helps with chores, enjoys playing with and engaging our children, and has even cooked a few delicious Japanese meals for our family.

Home with us for two days, needing a picture of her host family to send her family back in Japan.

The kids waiting patiently at Walmart while we got Saori hooked up with a pay as you go cell phone.

Amelia and Saori decorating each other's hair with flowers.

Delicious Japanese fried rice!

More girl time outside.

Another meal, this one- prepared as part of my birthday dinner. The kids, especially Amelia, all enjoyed eating it.

Another outside picture of Amelia, Saori took while they were spending time outside.

Saori with two of my nieces at a family birthday party.

Showing off the boys to a friend on skype. (Really, they wouldn't leave her alone and instead of getting frustrated, included them in what she was doing.)

We have loved having this new addition to our family. She enjoys calling me her "host mom" even though i feel like we have more of a sister relationship than a mother-daughter relationship. (Remember, we are alike 10 months apart.) Unlike others who have host/ed teen exchange students, I don't need to remind her about chores, homework, etc, which is great.
Its been great fun having a continuous taste of another culture in our home. We are just waiting for our amazon order of chopsticks to come so we can implement those in our daily eating. And I'm sure with time/weather changing, we will also adopt the use of the house slippers. 

Modesty and Being a Lady

Modesty is important to me as a woman. Having a 5 year old daughter who feels pressure and desire to wear things that might not be modest, and having two sons that are starting to notice immodest dress, makes modesty important to me as a mother.

As a member of the LDS faith, it is something that is talked about. The Friend magazine my church puts out each month for children ages 18 months- 11 years old. I know it can be a touchy subject for some people in the church, when it come to small/young children.
About two years ago there was a story about a girl who was given a dress that didn't have sleeves and described how she wore a shirt that had sleeves on under the dress to stay modest.  Two years ago, Amelia and I read the story and discussed the outcome.  The next page had a modesty check list the standards of modesty that should be expected.

Here is a modesty check list that was published in The Friend.

• ▫ My shoulders are covered.
• ▫ My shirt covers my stomach.
• ▫ My shorts or skirt go to my knees.
  
• ▫ My shirt is not low-cut.
  
• ▫ My clothes are not tight.
  
• ▫ I don’t look sloppy.
  
• ▫ My hair is combed.
  
• ▫ My clothes are not saggy, torn, or holey to fit in with a style.
  
• ▫ Labels or words on my clothes are respectful, not rude or offensive.

I love this list. Amelia and I have talked a lot about two years ago and since then, our family has had the rule of not wearing clothing outside that does not cover our shoulders, and everything else listed in the check list. Amelia does however, have some shirts that don't have sleeves that she can layer over something, wear as undershirts, and wear to bed; and also has short shorts to sleep in or layer under her skirts for time when she is climbing trees in a skirt.

On a day last week, I told Amelia to go get dressed for her day. She came back wearing just a tank top. She said something like "See what I'm wearing?" referencing to her shirt, and asked, "Is that ok? Can I wear this?" Amelia knew it was not ok, we had talked about this and she knew our rule. However, I didn't want to disagree or make it an issue, after all, as parents, we need to choose our battles. I was reminded of the quote by the Prophet Joseph Smith that says, "You teach them correct principles, and them let them govern themselves." So I told her, "You know our rules and what I expect from you about the cloths you wear. I will let you decide to wear it or to change." Amelia was VERY surprised, and left the room. I am happy to report that she went and put a short sleeved shirt on underneath her tank top. She came back to me and said, "I decided to wear a shirt that would cover (touching her shoulders), and the tank top." **Proud Mom Moment**

And now for some thoughts on modesty Found on Pinterest:

Well, well!!

Thought I would do a little post to update on what's been going on here with us.

For starters, we have been well!! No new illness to speak of in the last 9 days! This is a new record for our family. Regardless of the season we succumb to sickness seriously all. the. time. (Our whole family was sick the month of June 2011.) I attribute this in large part to the fact that we have started using Norwex cleaning products. They are super fine microfiber cloths that trap bacteria/fungi/mold well and have silver embedded in the cloth so they clean themselves. They have been a huge game changer for keeping my house clean. No chemicals, and have cut my cleaning time in half! Huge blessing for us.

A little about the company if you're interested:
Norwex company is relatively new here in the US and one can only get product through independent consultants, so I signed up to sell the products. I know what ya'll are thinking, another MLM, but they are not your average Mary Kay or Pampered Chef. Whether we like it or not, everyone needs to clean their house. Norwex products save you time and money, improve your quality of life (our improved health is proof of this for me!) and is healthy for the environment. Consultant benefits: Even if you sign someone up under you, you don't get any $$ benefits from them unless you are currently working and staying active in the company yourself. That I love, because we all hear about the ladies who first signed up with those other companies who now sit back and do nothing while the little guys ladies under them do all the work. Not fair. Those are just a few of the things I love about Norwex! And it will be a great way for us to start saving for an adoption- hooray! If you have questions or want to learn more, please feel free to ask me.

Friday/Saturday the weather turned windy and cold. We had a crazy snow storm roll in on Sunday that dropped 4-5 inches of snow. Thankfully it warmed up again quickly so the snow is gone. The grass is turning green and it is so nice to be able to spend more time outside. Hooray for Spring!

Sunday also marked my and Tim's 6th wedding anniversary!

After we just walked out of the temple. Notice the white umbrellas reflecting behind us. It started POURING. My hair did not stay like it is in this picture for long...

 Its incredible to think of all that has happened in the six years since we have been married. A BS in Physics, three kids, grad school, bough a house, sold a house, moved three times, apologized and forgave each other countless times, argued/disagreed and met each other in the middle, laughed together, cried together, made mistakes, and accomplished huge victories! Marriage sure is a challenge, especially with kids in the mix but it is also one of the greatest blessings I've ever been a part of.

To celebrate we went to church for the first time in over a month and survived (barely) Sacrament meeting with out our church bag, which was hidden is some box but has since been found. The first time back after a long absence is always the hardest. More than one of the five of us shed tears during the meeting (and not for spiritual matters) but we made it! Hey, we sometimes need to focus our victories rather than on our shortcomings.

Sickness Haze

I finally feel like we are coming out of a sickness haze. On Sunday the 5th, Tim left to attend a convention in LA. The whole family got out of bed to take him to the airport. His departure coincided with terrible sickness on my part. I had a bit of a cough a day or so before he left, but that Sunday, things got really bad. Unproductive cough, could barely breath, massive sinus pressure and drainage, and horrible aching all over.

Normally, our sabbath day involves going to church, and if we watch TV at all, its movies, and usually movies that are produced by our church. The Scripture Stories are our favorite. (If you don't have them, definitely worth the investment.) Going solo with all three kidos is intense, but doable. But since we were sick, it just wasn't going to happen. Sadly, or maybe not so sadly since its because she was feeling well, I could not get Amelia to sit still and rest. (Glad that antibiotic was working so well for her ear infection.) Because it was a survival time, I made an exception and allowed some Veggie Tales on Netflix.

Breaking our family rules to survive sickness and being without daddy.

Miles came up to me while I was laying on the couch and said he wanted to snuggle. Within minutes he was out cold.

Sunday we thankfully had left overs to eat. Monday, I was finally feeling well enough to make some more food. I made some vegetable soup. Amelia is currently LOVING red cabbage and so we decided to put some of that in the soup. It turned the broth a cloudy color, but the bright purple was pretty. The soup was just what we all needed.

Temple Square and The Church History Museum's Children Exhibit

Jan 17-23 we had family in town. Tim's parents came down for a visit and Tim's sister Annie and her husband John also came to Utah to visit his parents who recently had a house built here. It was wonderful to see be able to see them all. Annie and John finally met Brodrick, which was extra fun. One of the days during the visit we drove up to John's parents house for dinner. To beat rush hour traffic we left early and decided to stop off at Temple Square. We walked around and went over to the Church History Museum where they have a children's exhibit set up for the next year.

The Salt Lake City Temple where Tim and I were married. It took 40 years for it to be built.

Both boys fell asleep on the drive to SLC.

Amelia liked going into the tabernacle.

Fact: children are drawn to water...

Brodrick loved running around to try to keep up with our walking. He was very excited and enjoyed being outside. Sadly, he tripped several times. This picture was taken right before he fell onto the pavement. Note the happy face.... After he fell he just lay on the cold concrete till we could walk over to get him.

I sing songs to the children every night and Miles' favorite song is I Love to See the Temple. He has been asking for weeks now to go see the temple. I told him we would be going to see the temple, and he exclaimed "Wow! Thanks mom!" It was just tender.

Miles loved seeing the temple.

Brodrick by the reflection pond.

After circling the temple, we went over to the museum....

Amelia checking out a replica of the Gold Plates.

This section of the children's exhibit was about Lehi and his family crossing the ocean.  It was a favorite.

Miles catching fish

Brodrick driving a little truck.

Not pictured was the skirts and dancing part of the exhibit, which Amelia got into just as we were leaving. We had a great little visit to Temple square and expecially enjoyed the exhibit at the museum.

The LDS Church History Museum (which is just west of Temple Square) is free to the public and is open Monday-Friday from 9a.m.-9p.m. and from 10a.m.-7p.m. on Sat/Sun. The children's exhibit will be there until January 6, 2013.  I would definitely recommend a visit.

Great Information about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

I know a lot of speculation goes on about what members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe. I recently received this information in an email and thought it would be a great way to share accurate information about my church, that was written and distributed by a company who is not directly affiliated with my church. Usually I would not recommend this, as there are a lot of people and sources who give inaccurate information to read about what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes. So, for an unbiased, purely information stand point here is some information about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 

Following is an interesting article written by Ford Motor Company for its employees. It was presented by the ‘Ford Interfaith’ group as a message about the LDS Church .
 
Ford Motor Company – Message About The LDS Church (Mormons)

The Ford Interfaith group promotes unity by sharing information about all faiths and features these types of articles about various religions and faiths.

QUICK FACTS & INTERESTING TIDBITS about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Fleeing continued mob attacks 158 years ago, the first Mormon pioneers desperately started their Westward trek from Illinois in the dead of winter. Of the 70,000 who began this 1300-mile journey, 6,000 were buried along the way, including many children. The following are quick facts and interesting tidbits about this now flourishing church.

OVERVIEW
* Named “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”; informal nicknames are “LDS” or “Mormon” -named after the prophet-historian

* Believes it is the Lord’s restoration of original Christianity as foretold to occur before Christ’s Second Coming.

* Core focus is that Christ and His teachings bring happiness in this life and exaltation in the next.

HISTORY
* In 1820 14-yr-old Joseph Smith told of a vision of God and Christ foretelling a church restoration.

* Organized in New York in 1830, the church moved to near Cleveland, then near Kansas City, then Illinois .

* Fleeing Illinois , Mormon pioneers founded Salt Lake City in Utah and over 600 other Western communities.

SALT LAKE CITY
* Temple Square in Salt Lake has over 5 million annual visitors, more than the Grand Canyon .

* The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is the world’s most famous choir and has the world’s oldest radio program.

* The Salt Lake Temple is the most famous, but there are 128 other temples built here and around the world while others are under construction.

* Home of the world’s largest genealogy database; visit it online or
through 3,700 free branch libraries.

ACTIVE CONGREGATIONS
* Sunday services entail a three-hour block of three meetings; about
27,000 congregations exist worldwide.

* Highly vibrant programs exist for youth, children, singles, men, and women; very strong family focus.

* Everyone has a calling; some surveys show LDS have the highest U.S. attendance and service rates.

* Families receive personal fellowship visits at home from other members on a monthly basis.

FINANCES
* Members tithe 10 percent, plus donate generously to the needy the first Sunday of each month.

* Clergy and all other congregational positions are unpaid (however, much of the janitorial is paid).

* The church has no debt; all buildings are paid for in cash (average of two new congregations a day).

* The paid positions in Salt Lake are famously low-salaried; funds are frugally used and tightly audited.

HEALTH CODE
* With a health code from 1833, LDS avoid alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs, coffee, and tea (herbal tea is ok).

* This 1833 code also teaches grains (especially wheat), fresh fruits and vegetables, and sparing use of meat.

* A UCLA study showed that active LDS live longer than most Americans, men by 11 years, women by 8.

* Utah is 50th in smoking, alcohol consumption, drunk driving, heart disease, cancer, and sick days.

EDUCATION
* With four colleges, Utah ‘s BYU with 30,000 students is the largest
single-campus private college.

* BYU Independent Study with 130,000 students is North America (340 web courses, 530 via mail).

* Seminary, a daily class usually held around 6:00 A.M., serves 376,000 high school students.

* There are Institutes of Religion at 1,950 colleges worldwide that serve 367,000 college students.

* The church operates schools in parts of the Pacific Ocean and Mexico for 10,000 students.

* Utah is 50th in spending per pupil, but first in adults that graduated from high school and attended college.

WOMEN
* In 1842 the “Relief Society” was organized; it’s the largest women’s
organization in the world.

* Wyoming was first to allow women to vote; Utah was second, two months later, in 1870.

* Women preach from the pulpit and serve as organization presidents, teachers, committee chairs, etc.

SHARING CHRIST’S GOOD NEWS
* 61,000 missionaries serve in 165 countries; 93 percent are college-age; 22 percent are female.

* Unpaid and paying their own way, most work 65 hours a week for two years, often in a new language.

MEMBERSHIP DISTRIBUTION
* LDS are 70 percent of Utah, 30 percent of Idaho; after Catholics, LDS are the largest sect in 10 states.

* The church has 5.5 million members in the U.S., making it the fourth largest individual U.S. denomination.

* Some memberships: New Zealand 95k, Japan 115k, UK 175k, Philippines 500k, Brazil 900k, Mexico 925k.

* Worldwide 51 percent are female; about 55 percent are not Caucasian; about 70 percent are converts.

MEMBERSHIP GROWTH
* For the last 15 years, every day an average of 800+ people worldwide joined the LDS church.

* Half of the growth is in Latin America, but the rate of growth is highest in Africa and the former Soviet bloc.

* Worldwide membership just passed 12 million, a tenfold increase in 50 years.

* In 1984 a non-LDS professor estimated 265 million members by 2080; so far growth has been faster.

* As this growth has been steady, it will be the next major world religion since Islam.”

CHARITY/SERVICE
* Members in need obtain welfare from the LDS Church (thus Utah
government welfare spending is very low).

* LDS donate time at 220 welfare storehouses or canneries and about 400 farms.

* There are 210 employment centers placing over 175,000 people annually, and 64 family service centers.

* The church operates 46 thrift stores, in part to provide employment for the disadvantaged.

* The 61,000 missionaries spend half a day each week doing

HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
* Over 200 million pounds of food, clothing, and medicine were donated in the last 20 years in 147 countries.

* Almost all of this help is to non-LDS; LDS charities also work with and donate to many non-LDS charities.

* Very rapid disaster relief has been given in 144 major disasters since 1986.

* Almost 3,000 welfare “missionaries” work without pay in 55 countries (farm instructors, doctors, teachers, etc…).

* LDS charities fund a wide variety of projects like drilling water wells or funding small business startup loans.

* New in 2001, members in poor areas can get low-rate college loans; 10,000 loans have been made to date.

GRAB BAG
* Utah is first in: charitable giving, producing scientists, household computers, children with two parents, and birth rate.

* Noted LDS included five senators, and other famous dignitaries
(click on link)
the Osmonds, Gladys Knight, Steve
Young, and the inventor of TV -Philo T. Farnsworth.

* LDS played a key role in the 2002 Winter Olympics; the chair was the former governor of Massachusetts .

* Hawaii ‘s #1 tourist site is the LDS Polynesian Cultural Center ( Tonga and the Samoas are one-third LDS).

* LDS have sponsored Boy Scout troops since 1913; 23 percent of all Scout troops are LDS.

* The BYU Women’s Cross Country were national champions or in second place each of the last seven years.

DETROIT AREA
* The Detroit metro area has 30 congregations; the Dearborn chapel is on Rotunda by Ford’s Building #5.

* Detroit has a temple, storehouse, cannery, employment and family
service office, and family history libraries.

* LDS include former Governor Romney, three former Lions quarterbacks,
and hundreds of Ford employees.

A member of Ford’s Interfaith Network,
the author of this note sends out monthly interfaith notes to thousands of Ford employees who have asked to receive them.