I myself am often surprised at life's little quarrels.

I do believe our lives are works of art. They are colorful and varied. They can be simple and yet captivating to the deepest part of the soul. They can be layered, rich, dissonant, harmonious, moving, stagnant, pleasing, and stressful. They reflect the colors of those around them and the slightest change of light opens a new world of thought and emotion. They take time and practice with loving patience. They take discipline and skill for accuracy in technique and a bravery and daring to try something new and let go of control. In all things there must be balance. If everything is bright then nothing is bright. If everything is dark then nothing is dark. How does one become balanced? How much detail or simplicity? How much light and dark? What colors? What other works of art do I surround myself with to create perfection? Perhaps there is no right answer. All ways may be different but each one beautiful in itself. I wish I could see them all.

Got some catching up to do.

So, I've been meaning to post again for a while now, and finally decided to postpone it no longer!! Hah. I've gotten a number of pictures from Emily, and I'm sure most of you guys have already seen most of them. I've asked Emily which pictures she does or does not want posted on her blog, but she never really responded. She's really busy being a great missionary and all, and seems to get distracted easily with other things-which is totally ok. :) It is quite entertaining sometimes, actually. I'll get great big long letters with deep in-depth stories, then a random change in color of ink mid-sentence-usually followed by "I got distracted and don't remember what I was saying anymore"...

Anyways, without further ado, here are some of the pictures I've gotten from Emily! These first two are from the Mission President, just after she arrived in Spokane! (Nov 15th, 2011)

This is Sister Baron. She is Emily's first and current (as of this writing) companion in the mission field.

The next ones came from Emily on Nov 21, 2011. The first one is from the MTC-The other sister's name is Sister Middleton, and if I remember right she was Emily's MTC companion.

Emily's first commercial airline flight! (She was really nervous about it but was brave and did it anyways)

Emily in Cheney, WA! With her new companion, Sister Baron.

These ones came from Emily on Nov 28, 2011. This one is of the Spokane Temple.

I'm not exactly sure what this is, but it's pretty so I thought I'd add it. ^.^

This was actually when Emily first met Sister Baron. This is what Emily said in her email about this picture:
"Cool story, Sister Baron said before we met, she was praying for me and about who I would be and What I would look like and everything. We talked for a minute and she said I was exactly the person she imagined when she prayed right down to my looks and my hair and everything. Pretty sure we were a match made in heaven. We've decided that we are spirit twins since we are pretty much the same person and have everything in common. Except she has an ulcer from stress and I rarely get stressed about anything."
Hah, it was kind of funny to go back and read that. I think Emily has been stressed out a number of times since then. In fact, this last week has been her most stressful week of her mission. She told me she spent hours freezing while digging her car out of the snow, missed a lot of appointments, had to deal with Sister Baron's health issues (She had surgery for a gallstone, but is now back on her feet and back to full time missionary work! Yay!), and lots of other things that I wont go into, hah! I think she's stronger than she realizes, though. She will be ok. :) The Mission President thinks very highly of her, too! He said he doesn't think any of the other sisters could have handled dealing with Sister Barons situation as gracefully as Emily did. Yeah, she's pretty much amazing.

 

Sister Reedy and Emily at the MTC. Emily said "She was sort of our MTC residence hall mom." about her.

The next several pictures are of the family Emily and Sister Baron had Thanksgiving dinner with. They seem like quite the entertaining bunch, haha!

This is "The Doll House". It's the house Emily stayed in immediately after arriving in Spokane. It's completely doll themed, and totally creepy if you ask me. I think the look on Emily's face suggests she'd agree with me. Hah!

I have a whole bunch of other pictures from Emily, but I think I'll stop for now. Otherwise this post will get very, very long. I'll post them at a later date, but hopefully not too much later! I have a lot more catching up to do still! Anyways, all in all Emily seems to be doing great! She's been teaching a lot of people, even though she's in a small town where everyone seems to be either already a member, or wants nothing to do with them. She's always been amazing at everything and missionary work seems to be no exception! Yay Emily!!

Ready for the long haul...

Or at least I'm trying to be! So, I don't know how many people actually read this, but... Emily asked me if I wanted to take over her blog while she's on her mission. (Note the new addition to the "contributors" list of this blog). Now that you know that, half of you are probably gonna stop following this blog, hah! Just kidding. I hope not, at least. ;) In all honesty I'm doing this mostly for Emily, maybe when she gets back it will give her something to smile about. :)

So as everyone probably knows, Emily reported to the MTC on Wednesday. I had the opportunity to go with her and her parents to drop her off. It was a great experience! But also very hard for me. We went to iHop for breakfast.

Took pictures at the Provo Temple. (There was supposed to be one of just Emily and I but I don't know where it went!)

Then it actually happened. The day we both knew was coming for the past year actually came, and I don't think either of us were really completely prepared for it. I'll never forget watching her walk into the MTC, with her white jacket and missionary bag. She looked happy and scared at the same time, hah. She looked like an angel! I was fighting back tears all the way home. Really embarrassing, especially considering her parents were in the car, hah! At one point Tom looked back and patted me on the knee as he said, "This has gotta be pretty hard for you, isn't it?" I was so choked up I could barely get an answer out! I managed to get a sheepish "Yeah" out, though. I'm planning on serving a mission myself, which I have to wait a year for. So this last Wednesday marked the beginning of 3 years that we probably will not see each other. I think I can speak for both of us when I say it's not going to be easy. I hope I have the strength to get through it!

I've known Emily for going on 4 years now. Emily (and her family) has been an instrumental "support group" for me during my investigation of the church, and still are to this day, really. Actually, probably even more so now, now that I've moved out. There were a lot of little things that ultimately led up to my investigation. I grew up in a "fundamentalist mormon" environment. So I have a somewhat unique conversion story. It has been a hard process getting to where I am now, and Emily was there for me through a lot of it. And actually, looking back at things in retrospect, I realized she was there exactly when I needed her to be, and wasn't there exactly when I needed to be on my own. At first, long before I ever started investigating the church, we "butted heads" quite a bit if we ever discussed religion. So, naturally, we tried to avoid it. We spent the majority of our friendship like that-avoiding deep discussions completely. Though sometimes it would unavoidably come up, especially since we both come from strong LDS backgrounds and lineages (besides me being "fundamentalist", Orson Pratt is my great, great grandfather). One day, yearly last year, Emily said to me via text, "I really think you should be LDS". She intended it to be nothing more than a compliment to my character. I was deeply offended though, as I thought she knew how I felt about the church and couldn't understand why she would think that. Ironically, it was those words that eventually did lead me to investigate the church. It took me almost a year from the time she sent that text, but in December of last year I decided I wanted to find out, and learn for myself. Exactly 10 months later I was baptized. I guess you could say I was Emily's first investigator! We've both had a lot of ups and down through this whole process. I'm certainly glad that she's been there for me, though. And I'm glad I've been able to be there for her however I could! She is an amazing person, and will make a great missionary!

This picture was taken in front of President Neilson's Office, just moments before she was set apart. I going to miss her dearly! I look forward to seeing her again! I love you, Emily!

Fairy party!

Last week Rebekah hosted a fairy party at her house :)

We wore fairy wings



And had a cupcake decorating contest



Brooklyn was the most entertaining to watch


We watched a Tinkerbell movie. I promise I was not the only one mesmerized by it. Everyone else just happened to look away at the exact moment the picture was taken.


We had yummy food too

Halloween funness

These pictures are blurry and dark because they were taken with a phone. And it was dark.

Adam and I have been to three different haunted houses and a haunted corn maze in the last week or so. I think we're trying to make up for me being in the MTC on Halloween. To be honest, I'm getting Halloweened out already. But it has been quite fun!


We actually chased this guy down. We saw him before but he was too far away to get a picture and we had to wait in line. So after the haunted house we saw him again and chased him. I think he was a little caught off gaurd when two crazy people appeared at his side and turned him around for the picture when he was in the middle of scaring other people waiting in line.




This guy actually managed to scare Kim twice just by standing next to her. He didn't jump at her or anything. Just stood there. And she screamed. Humorous? Yes. I'm so glad we took her.

A long awaited day.

About a year ago my best friend, Adam Pratt, started investigating the church. For those of you who don't know, he comes from a fundamentalist background. No, not the FLDS. Or any other famous polygamist group you're thinking of right now. Its a group called the Order. They're not well known because they're pretty big on secrecy. They blend in and look and act just like you and me. You may have even met one or several and not known it.
I've known Adam for almost four years. He's an honest, genuine, good friend. Since he started investigating the church, there have been a lot of ups and downs. He gave up the support of his staunch fundamentalist family and a lot of friends. But he's gained a lot as well.
I've waited and prayed and studied right along with him for the last eleven months and its been a big testimony growing experience for me as well.

Here is the result.....



Adam was baptized by Rob Goates (my neighbor that took him in when he moved out of his parents house) and confirmed by my dad in sacrament meeting the next day.

Momma's Takin' Us To The Zoo Tomorrow, Zoo Tomorrow, Zoo Tomorrow

Not really. But Adam and I did go to the zoo as our first official date after getting back together. Here is the resulting silliness and fun!













both of us making weird faces in this one was not on purpose! It just happened.