Saturday, July 9, 2016

Oh beautiful

Three day weekends are a wonderful invention.  I could probably stop writing there, but I HAVE to document the past few days.

First of all, with Luke being a full time student/being broke we rarely if ever go on dates.  And temple trips are even more far and few between.  Pretty much every night, while we crawl our tired bodies into bed, I tell Luke I NEED a date with him.  Lately things at school have been going pretty smooth for him, and we have found another couple to do date swaps with, so we FINALLY got to go on a date AND to the temple!  Hallelujah.



Saturday morning we dropped Lottie off with the sitter and drove to Los Angeles to attend a session in the LA temple.  It felt like we were no longer in the heart of crazy LA, but instead transported to the most peaceful and FRIENDLY place on earth.  Friendly.  No one here is very friendly (excepting our ward) so it felt ten times better to be on those sacred grounds.  If it wasn't for the fact that I missed Lottie I would have stayed there all day.  After the session we were able to speak for awhile in the Celestial room.  The Celestial room is the most sacred room in the entire temple and as such the spirit can be felt very strongly there.  We were able to talk about things important to us, our trials and woes, our joys and triumphs, and remember that there is One who is in control of EVERYTHING!  Trials stink people.  I'll be the first to tell you that.  But just as how I know what is best for my daughter, my Heavenly Father knows what is best for me.  So I'm going to trust that EVENTUALLY I will learn whatever it is that He wants me to learn and overcome anything coming out of it the better and more refined from the refiner's fire.
After the session we grabbed a quick bite to eat in the temple cafeteria.  The most peaceful place in the world to eat.





Sunday we attended church (Charlotte is doing so much better going to nursery).


{Swinging under the branches of the olive tree}


Monday I woke up early to workout (I like to get it done first thing in the morning so I can be with my people the rest of the day).  For breakfast we made delicious eggs with avocados for the topping.  After breakfast our friends the Stecks came over so we could all walk to the parade together.  Charlotte had no problem making herself comfortable with complete strangers around her as she would stand by them on the curb.  Whenever she got excited (which was often), she would jump up and down, consistently pat them on the shoulder until they gave her their full attention, and would repeatedly yell, "Truck, truck, truck, truck, truck......." Over and over again until they realized that she wanted validation and they would respond, "Yes, truck."  Is this a phase she is going through?  Where she just repeats and repeats and repeats until you say, "Yes, that's a such and such.  And only then is she satisfied.  It can be exhausting sometimes.


After the parade we ate lunch and napped (Luke and Charlotte).  The rest of the day was very relaxed and low key.  That night, after we put Charlotte to bed, Luke and I climbed onto our roof and set up some camping chairs to watch the fireworks.  I ended up on Luke's lap, both of us wrapped in a blanket, and talking quietly till the show started.  We wondered where we would be next July 4th, and if our lives would be any different then.  I felt so close to him and wished that moment could've lasted longer.  We could smell the fresh blueberry tartlets I had cooking in the oven and that drew us back inside.  We finished watching the show from our porch.

There have been a few new and somewhat big things coming up in my life recently that have thrown me somewhat of a curveball.  Moments like last night though help get me through tough times.  In other words, God knows He needs to throw some tender mercies in there every so often to remind us He is still there.  Riding the waves of life with us.

If you made it through this entire post - this is me giving you a hug over the airwaves.

xoooooxo





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