Einstein Lives

As you can see, our child is brilliant!!!! Doesn't he make a great Einstein???

Have you ever seen such a cute Einstein??

I went as Rosie the Riveter, since I am teaching WWII in social studies right now.

Noble opted to go good ol' fashioned trick-or-treating with his good buddies from school. The best part is when we get back, and they start the trading process. Noble just loves it because it makes him feel like he's got two brothers to bargain with.

Noble's Rite of Passage

An eleven-year-old's last sacrament presentation.

One of my favorite talks from President Monson during this last General Conference was the one titled, "To Learn, to Do, to Be." In it President Monson talks about a letter he received from Theron W. Borup. This letter talks about how Brother Borup had a desire to live his life in a way that he could always have the Holy Ghost. He wasn't sure when or why he would need it, but he wanted to be prepared.

During WWII, Brother Borup was an engineer gunner on a B-29 bomber. Because of heavy enemy fire the crew had to bail out of the plane over the ocean. As he was parachuting down to the water's surface, he had some trouble opening his life raft, so when he hit the water he began to drown and then passed out. He came to momentarily and cried out, "God save me!" Again he tried inflating the life raft and this time he was successful. Once it had folded out he rolled over on top of it too exhausted to move. He floated for three days with his crew. Then a storm came up with 30 foot high waves that almost tore the rafts apart. Another three days went by with no food or water.

That evening they saw a submarine that they thought had come to search for them. It totally missed them and passed on by. As the submarine left the area, he heard the promptings of the Holy Ghost, "You have the priesthood. Command the sub to pick you up." In a few minutes the submarine was along side them. When they were on deck the captain said, "I don't know how we ever found you, for we were not even looking for you."

I learned from this story that as long as you live worthy to keep the Holy Ghost and honor the priesthood that all things are possible. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Noble will turn twelve in April and receive the priesthood. I often hope and pray that we have prepared him for this rite of passage. Today as he told the story and bore his testimony, I saw a four-year-old boy dressed as Adam the Prophet for his very first primary presentation. That little boy was very frustrated during that first program because he wanted to be Lehi instead. I have seen him participate in 8 different programs. He has learned many songs, though, he only sings them at home. I have watched him sway back and forth to the music, much to the chagrin of his primary chorister. I have been amazed at his ability to speak fluently and with emotion in front of a large congregation. He has incredible timing in his talks and often improvises for comedic affect. I got rather teary-eyed this morning, as I relived his primary years. When he finished, he looked so grown up in his jacket, white shirt, and tie. He looked almost ready to be a deacon, a young man growing up so very fast.

I'm an Esme!

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You are thoughtful and care very deeply for your family. A loving home is of great
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Super Blog

School is off and running. We just finished our first six weeks, and I cannot believe it. For once, I am not wishing the school year to go quickly so that I can get to summer. I am trying to savor each day and as many moments as possible. After listening to conference today, and especially President Monson's talk, I know that I need to slow down and concentrate on my family and building special moments with them. Life is just so darn good at getting in the way. I always feel so inspired after conference, with a strong desire to get everything in order. I need to learn to keep that desire all year long, or at least for six months at a time. I am sooooo excited to have Noble this year, and I want so much to remember every detail. At the same time, it is always so crazy for this working mom to figure out how to balance it all. I have sooooo much to do each evening and even more on the weekends. It just never seems to stop. I want to spend time with my family, but John works every Friday and Saturday at his second job. He tries hard to spend time with us on Sunday, but by the time church is over and he has eatten, he is usually so tired!!! Noble has homework. I have papers to grade, lesson plans to write, science labs to practice and plan, laundry, a house to clean, the dreaded grocery store trip, two church callings, which I love, but must prepare for, and anything in between. In the meantime, I would love to be reading a book, scrapbooking, daydreaming, gardening, decorating, or any other things that are all about me. I also need to love and nurture my adorable eleven-year-old son who is growing up so fast, and I feel like I am missing so very many opportunities to just be together. Ugh!!! Can anyone relate???!!!? ; ) I didn't even mention friends!! I don't know what to say about that. I know that I can be a good friend, but it seems to be last on my list. It can be a lonely existance without them.

The day after my last post my mom passed out while visiting a sick friend in the hospital in Odessa. She was on her way here to help alleviate my decorating woes and help me paint my china cabinet. She decided to stop and see a church member from Alpine who was in ICU. She is that kind of person!! We are really glad she decided to act on her prompting to pay this sister a visit because she passed out and landed chin first on the hospital floor, breaking her bottom jaw in half and separating the two jaw bones that connect to the top jaw. Rather scary and anxious times. She is now the proud owner of two titanium plates and a mouthful of wires and rubberbands. She stayed here with me for the rest of the week after her surgery. She was nervous about being in Alpine so far from anyone that could help or answer questions until she got used to her mouth full of metal. I took the week off from school, and totally loved being able to take care of her. It was a nice change. She celebrated her 60th birthday the day after she got out of the hospital. We celebrated by blenderizing a few things so that she could sip them. Yummy!! Another great thing about her being here with me, was that I got to see how many wonderful people care for my mother. She received numerous flower arrangements, meals, cards, visits, emails, and phonecalls. She still has a ways to go, and it is taking some time to adjust. We are still not sure why she passed out, and have some additional testing that will be done to look into that. She is a strong and loving woman, and I am so glad to be her daughter.

Noble got to go on his first 11-year-old campout. It was in one of his leader's backyards, but the boys had a blast. He had so much fun, and learned alot. He also got to finally go to the CAF Air Show with Chief. He has been several times before, but really wanted to go with his grandpa. They had a good time, and he bought another airplane to go with his collection.

We are slowing but surely working on some things in our yard and in our house. We are hosting Thanksgiving and are trying to have some of it ready before our guests arrive. It will be fun to have my family in my home for this holiday. It is hard to believe that it is already October.

Happy Fall Y'all!!