Oveson Family

I sure hope all you ladies out there were able to go to the General Relief Society Conference on Saturday night – it was so good!  I look forward to this meeting every year!  I just love to get together with the sisters – to eat, to talk, and then to be spiritually fed by our leaders.  It’s just not the same to watch it alone at home.  And this year my mom was able to come up and go with me – which was really neat.  I was glad to have her there!  Anyway, I just wanted to share a couple of my thoughts and feelings about the conference.  I really thought it was such a powerful meeting – I can’t wait to read it again!  I really came away feeling like there is an important work for me to do and that I need to find that importatnt work and get busy doing it.  Anyway, here are just a few of the highlights that stayed with me.  Hope it’s not too long and rambling!

• I thought the Sister Beck’s talk was so powerful. I feel like she has this scope and vision of what we as individuals and the relief society as a whole could be.  I thought it was kind of a “call to arms” to step up and be what we are meant to be. I also came away thinking that we need to strengthen ourselves and stregthen individuals so that we can strengthens the whole.  She really made me feel that the things that we as women can do are absolutely essential to the work of the Lord.  And since I serve in the primary, I liked how she said that by serving in Young Women or Primary, we are fulfilling the purposes of the relief society because we are serving and strengthening individuals and families.  Can’t wait to read her talk again!!!
• The thing I really came away thinking from Sister Allred’s talk was that I am amazed when I hear stories of people sacrificing so much to go to the temple.  I think I’ve been spoiled, always living so close to a temple.  I love the temple so much, but I have never had to sacrifice very much to be able to go.  And because of that, I think I tend to take it for granted sometimes.  It’s so EASY for us to go to the temple, but I think that because it’s so easy we don’t always do it or focus enough on it.  So that’s my goal from listening to her talk – have that same dedication and fire in my heart for the temple.
• I loved Sister Thompson’s talk too – I think she seems like the sweetest lady.  Doesn’t she?  Anway, I think she also kind of brought us back and refocused us on what Relief Society is suposed to be.  I’m so grateful for such inspiring and in tune leaders!  She talked about being dedicated to Relief Society and how we don’t need to look on the other side of the world for grand ways to serve.  We need only look as far as our families, wards, and neighborhoods.  She said we can do something extraordinary today.  And I also loved how she said that Relief Society is not just a class on Sundays – it’s the Lord’s organization for woman, and it has a divine and important purpose.   One quote I really liked summed it all up: 

“Sisters, now, more than ever we need women to step up and be strong. We need women who declare the truth with strength, faith, and boldness. We need women to set an example of righteousness. We need women to be anxiously engaged in a good cause.  We need to live so that our lives bear witness that we love our Heavenly Father and the Savior Jesus Christ and that we will do what They have asked us to do. We need to “rescue all that is finest down deep inside of us” so that as daughters of God we can do our part to build the kingdom of God.”

• Last but not least, how could you not absolutely love Pres. Uchdorf’s talk?  He was awesome!  I could just copy and paste the whole talk in here and say I loved it all!  I loved how he talked about happiness being our heritage, and how we don’t need to apologize all the time for what we think is a lack of perfection.  I loved how he talked about creation and compassion. It made me want to come home and create something beautiful!  And I loved how he talked about the importance of going about answering prayers, not just praying them.  He was just so good and so powerful – I can’t wait to read  this one again as well!

On Tuesday our preschool went on a field trip to the fire station!  The kids were so good and they had so much fun!  And the firefighters at the North View Fire Station were so cute with them!  Here are some highlights:

The boys were playing outside today and yelled in, “Mom, there’s a really big zucchini out here.”  So, I told them to pick it and went along with what I was doing.  Well, when the boys walked in I burst out laughing.  This is what I saw:

Have you ever seen a zucchini that big!?!?  I haven’t!  It weighed 14 lbs! Guess I need to pay a little more attention to my garden!!  Zucchini bread anyone?

Mary tagged me so I thought I better post sooner rather than later. Here’s some info about me:

JOYS:

1. Time with my family.

2. Seeing my kids learn new things.

3.  Watching people utilize the Atonement in their lives.

FEARS:

1. Not doing “enough”

2. Heights – but not flying

3. Losing any or all of my family members

GOALS:

1. Be a good husband and father.

2. Finish school.

3. Make a movie that makes people feel.

CURRENT OBSESSIONS/COLLECTIONS:

1.  Mail addressed to Bishop Oveson

2.  Phone messages for Bishop Oveson

3. Homework

FACTS:

1. I have a new car, as of today.

2. My wife is the most beautiful, caring, understanding, patient, supportive, hard working, creative, brilliant, all-other-good-superlative-adjectives-imaginable, woman ever.

3.  I think Zach is my clone.

JOYS:

1. Good quality time with my family (nights with no meetings, soccer practices, or anything else!)

2.  Hearing my kids laugh – especially little Kyle!  There is nothing better than baby laughter!  But I love to hear my other kids laugh as well.  Preston gets laughing so hard he can’t stop!  And Zach loves to laugh loud like Dad!

 3.  The gospel

 
FEARS:

1. Losing one of my kids

2. Spiders – yuck!

3. Getting into too much debt!

GOALS:

1. Finally finish decorating Kyle’s room.  Yes. he’s 5 months and we’re still “getting the nursery ready.”

2. Lose that stubborn baby weight

3. Start scrapbooking again so I can preserve all our family memories

CURRENT OBSESSIONS/COLLECTIONS:

1.  I am a little obsessed with children’s books and buy way too many of them!  And then I have to buy new book cases to hold all the new books!  And then I need new books to fill up the empty space on the book case.  It’s a vicious cycle.

2.  I collect piles of laundry.  It’s a great thing to collect because everyone else helps add to my collection! What a generous family I have!
3.  I get a little obsessed with taking pictures of my kids.  I think since April we’ve taken about 6100 picutres.  Thus, my scrapbooking goal…

FACTS:

1. I love rainy fall weather!  Today is a perfect first day of fall!  I’m so glad summer is coming to an end!

2. I can’t stand white walls!  There are no white wall in my whole house (except the bathroom I haven’t painted yet – but it won’t be white for long)!  Beige, yes.  White, no!!

3.  I love to sit and talk to my husband for hours on end – I don’t think we ever run out of things to talk about.  It’s one of my very favorite things to do.  Although, some nights he wishes I wouldn’t talk quite so much so he can get to his homework….

I tag…. anyone that wants to do this really.  But, let’s see, I tag my husband, Liz, and Cortney… and everyone else that wants to!

Yesterday my Mom turned 60!!  Hooray!!  I think it’s a pretty big accomplishment to make it to 60 – and not only make it to 60, but be so young and vibrant that people say “WHAT?!?! You’re kidding!!  There’s no way you are 60!!”  

I was hoping that I had a baby picture of her to post, but I don’t.  So instead, I found a  picture that I happened to have from when she was younger.  So, here’s Kathy WAY WAY WAY back when (hehehe – just kidding Mom!  :>):

And here is Kathy last night at her surprise party:

Does her face look red to anyone else? :>  She reacted really well when she walked in!

Happy Birthday Mom!!  We had such a fun party!  

We sure love you and think you are the best Mom and Grandma ever!  

You are wonderful!

Our cute, sweet nephew Nicholas Stephen Staten was born today!  He weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long.  He surprised us all by joining us 4 weeks early (he also added a lot of excitement to Liz’s Relief Society retreat – what a funny story that is!!) .  Since he was so anxious to get here, his little lungs weren’t all the way ready to be out in this great big world.  So, he’s currently in the NICU with a breathing tube and an IV trying to get strong enough to come home and be with all of his big brothers.  But he already looks like he’s improving, and we’re grateful that he has such great doctors and nurses taking care of him!  We believe the sign outside the NICU that says “Newborn Intensive Care Unit, Where tiny miracles happen everyday!”  We sure love our sweet little nephew and can’t wait to kiss and cuddle him when he’s out!

Zach had his first soccer game this past Saturday. He’s started playing in AYSO and is mostly enjoying it. We got off to a bit of a late start on Saturday, which didn’t help the situation. We were running late and that kind of stressed Zach out. He got onto the field and was doing his best to play. It was his first game though so you can imagine that he might be having a bit of a hard time knowing what to do. He got the main point of trying to kick the ball, and did a rather good job of following it around the field. Getting in and taking it away from the other team was more challenging, but he still tried as best he could. He was getting frustrated at several points in the game, as he was not able to do the things he intended to do. Whether that was taking the ball away from others or scoring a goal, he had tears in his eyes when he wasn’t able to “do it right.” He did a great job though of hanging in there and he just kept trying. He would wipe tears away from his eyes as he ran down the field. It was an emotional experience, but I think he did great. 

I used Zach’s soccer game as an analogy this Sunday in our testimony meeting. I talked about how Zach tried to do his best but still faced disappointment when things didn’t go the way he wanted them to. I compared the game to our own lives. Heavenly Father sends us to earth, tells us the rules, gives us everything He can to help us know what to do and succeed, but he turns us lose to actually play the game. We have coaches (parents, teachers, leaders, etc) and teammates (all of our brothers and sisters) and we also face an opposing team. Satan and his followers don’t want anyone to win, and they don’t play fair either. Luckily, we can know the rules and through working as a team within our families, wards, etc. we can make it through this life and “win the game” by returning to our Father in heaven.

I think the love that Heavenly Father shows us is incredible. It’s hard to be a parent on the sidelines and see your child on the field, crying and frustrated. It would be nice to step in, to stop all of the other kids from pushing your son, to help him learn how to take it away and kick it into the goal. But you can’t do that. You have to let your child play alone. You can yell encouragement and maybe even advice from the sidelines, but the game is played by your child out on the field. Agency is given to all of us, and we have the opportunity to use it as we wish. We might get confused sometimes and start kicking the ball towards the wrong goal. Or we might even fight against our own teammates, trying to get the ball from those we are supposed to be working with. It’s all our choice. What a great gift it is, and how wise our Father in heaven must be. I’m sure that when he saw his Son, beaten and ridiculed by Roman guards and rejected by the Lord’s covenant people, that there was great sadness in his heart. How hard that must have been for the Father of us all to watch his Son be nailed to a cross, or to suffer for our sins. What great love our Father must have for us, to allow such things to happen and still allow us agency. This encourages me to make my choices more carefully, and to encourage and lift my “teammates” around me.

We’re all in this together, and we can all “win the game” and return home again. This isn’t a soccer game where there must be a losing team. We can all win. Helping each other out is the only way to do it. I am so grateful to have so many people around me, especially my family, that help me along the path back home.