... food.

Today I had chocolate doughnuts with Rachael for breakfast, a chicken sandwich for lunch, fruit and muffins at a get-together, potato skins at another get-together, and pizza for dinner with Ryan. I'm so stuffed I probably won't need to eat until Tuesday, at least.

I had a fun get-together with some of the college girls in our ward this afternoon. They are so fun to be with. Then we had another group of girls that went to Applebee's for appetizers, where I got to know someone that recently moved into the ward. (If she would call me back I will invite her and her husband to dinner. I reminded her of this no less that 1,000 times this afternoon. Think she'll call?) All in all very busy, but lots of fun. And filling!!

... missionaries.

A friend of mine has a husband who is not a member, but is getting baptized in about two weeks. She didn't think he would ever join the church, but the missionaries tracted into them a few weeks ago and you know how the story goes from there. I'm just so excited for her and her family! And I'm grateful for the 50,000+ missionaries serving missions to bring souls unto Christ. Seven from our ward!

http://www.lds.org/

Tonight we had the missionaries over for dinner. One is from SLC, the other from Idaho Falls. We had hamburgers and french fries with fry sauce for dinner; I think they are grateful for fry sauce tonight.

... neighbors.

A little over a week ago we finally got some new neighbors that moved in next door. The house has been vacant since last summer, so we are glad to at the very least have it occupied. Come to find out, they are members of the church (albeit inactive). How lucky are we?! We moved clear out to Richmond, KY and we have members on either side of us, which is more LDS neighbors than we had in our neighborhood in Colorado. (This includes some that live on the next block, too).

We're looking forward to getting to know the neighbors.

... the fact that our house is still standing.

Last night we awoke at about 1:30 in the morning to a serious storm system moving through the area. (You may have seen some of the damage it caused much further south of us). We even lost power for awhile last night. We had blowing wind, hail, lots of rain, the whole 9 yards. There were some tornadoes in Kentucky, but a little south and west of us. I can't believe how many tornadoes there have been this winter... I'm not used to that in the winter months! Anyway, the power came back and we're all safe and sound, just a little sleep deprived.

... email.

Today I worked on some Relief Society things, planned a get-together for the college age girls in our ward, and checked on some details for Rachael's birthday, all without leaving the sofa. I'm amazed at all I can do with a few emails!

Of course, doing this all from the sofa probably isn't so good for me... guess I'll have to start being grateful for exercise again. We did move our Bowflex back into the guest room, so now I have no excuse not to get back on the wagon, so to speak.

... and "My Big Redneck Wedding."

I'll admit, it has utterly no redeeming value. But, we ran across this show on CMT the other night, and I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard - for almost 30 minutes! It's just so absolutely classy.

... the Family Home Evening Ghost.

Tonight we had our Family Home Evening. Ryan did a fantastic job with the lesson; it was about the Liahona, and he even got out a compass as an example. (Having an Eagle Scout in the house is occasionally handy). He ended by telling us if we were righteous, too, we would have the Holy Ghost to guide us. Now, we have talked about the Holy Ghost before, but somehow Rachael has gotten it crossed with our little FHE book, so when she put the book back, she called it our "Family Home Evening Ghost." We hope he's around often.

...opening doors.

Rachael learned how to open doors all by herself earlier this week. I was not thrilled, actually. But this morning when she woke up she got up, opened her door, and then opened our door to our room. I wasn't ready to get up yet (even though it was 7 am) so I pulled her into bed with me. It was so cozy to snuggle for a few minutes before we got out of bed!

... organization.

Today I helped prepare some food for a private event at our ward building. I'm glad the the organizations in the church are set up in such a way that when there is a need, it can almost always be met. Need some help moving? No problem. Need help packing boxes? We can do it. It's an amazing system.

On a much larger scale today, the church was able to hold a funeral for our beloved prophet, Gordon B Hinckely. With the technology that is available today almost everyone that wanted to be a part of the service could view it in some form. What a marveolus time we live in.

... 35 posts!

Wow! 35 posts in the month of January... that's pretty good since my goal is once a day. On to Feburary: at least 29 posts, hopefully! Time to print and make a journal out of it... somehow...