Bows

I made these bows for my girls. They are for pictures on Friday. Our color was red and I wanted to add some personality. This is one bow set.

 I made the white sparkly bows to match Anneke's baptism dress that I made her. (Pictures will come soon. I am quite proud of it.) The Batman bows were inspired by the Spiderman bows. It was fun.

I used bottle caps leftover from IBC root beer and puff paints. I think I may start saving more bottle caps. It was a lot of fun.

Batman

Anyone that knows us well, knows that Andy is a big Batman fan. This last movie installment has him worried, though. Basically, he doesn't want them to change his super hero. (Which is why I am having a hard time wanting to see the new Spiderman. But that is a whole other story.) It looks really dark to me. One of our friends went to the midnight showing. Andy briefly thought about going, but for many reasons stayed home. The next morning we heard about Colorado...


I realized a few things as I pondered the situation. Colorado has more than it's fair share of mass shootings. When we lived there, for only 2 years, there is 1 that I can think of for sure but I thought there was another. Plus, they have had a rough summer with fires, too. Poor state. It really is a lovely place. It is where Andy and I consider home to be. 


I also realized that if Andy had been in that situation whether with me or someone else he would probably be dead. He would have charged the guy or tried to protect people. It is who he is. That realization made me both happy and sad. I am married to an amazing man, even if he isn't a "super" hero, he is my everyday hero. 

SONK

I like to have my back rubbed, my arms, my hair played with, etc. I would always have my mom rub my back and arms while we watched movies. With my husband it's my legs. I swing them into his lap and have him rub them. I think it annoys him sometimes, but he always indulges me.


The other night we were watching a movie together and I had my legs in his lap as usual. All of the sudden my knee had a sharp shooting pain run through it. Seriously, I have never felt pain like that. (Andy said I started doing my labor breathing.) I couldn't bend my knee or extend it without extreme pain. Andy went and got me some ibuprofen. I got a headache and nauseated almost instantly. I was praying and trying not to throw up or cry. It felt like a muscle had caught on something. We looked up what it could possibly be on the internet. The first hit was for something called SONK. We are still not 100% sure what it stands for, but it is fun to say, so that is what we are calling it. Before we got too far in our search, the pain went away and I could bend my knee again. The same thing happened the next day and then went away. Bizarre.

What's in a name?

I have almost finished the Book of Mormon again. Our goal as a family was to finish it individually before Anneke's baptism. Subsequently our bishop asked us to read it through again by the end of the year. Then our stake president challenged us to read it by next stake conference (August 19th). We have been working hard. Reading as a family we won't make our stake president's goal. We have increased the amount we read but the attention span of the younger two is not great enough. We should make our bishop's goal, though. In the light of all this I have been thinking about 2 scriptures. My oldest and youngest child have names I chose in part because of my scripture reading.


Before Marcus was born I was reading through the New Testament again. We knew that if he was a boy his name would be Marcus Andrew. But, as I was reading I read 1 Peter 5:13 (The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth MARCUS my son.) and knew it was supposed to be his name. It is not an extraordinary scripture, but it spoke to me.


One of my favorite scriptures is in the book of Ether in The Book of Mormon. When I was pregnant with Mallory I was trying to reach a goal of reading the book of Mormon cover to cover by a certain time. When I got to my favorite scripture I knew I wanted part of my baby's name to be Hope. The hardest time of year for me here is the summer. I have seasonal depression and ironically, the least sun exposure for me is the summer months here. That made the name, pregnancy, etc. more poignant for me. Ether 12:4 "Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety HOPE for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which HOPE cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."


I need to find scriptures for Anneke and Luke now. Well, Luke has a whole book. ;)