March 2nd and before

Today is my son Erick's birthday.  I think that he is 31 years old today.  Time certainly flies.  It seems like yesterday he was just little, like his son Ryker.

Today is fast Sunday, which means that we fast for two meals or 24 hours.  As I ate an ice cream bar at 7:00 p.m. last night I guess that means I have a lot of time to work on the blog before it is time to break my fast.

We had fast and testimony meeting today and as I will be speaking in church next Sunday before we leave on our mission I did not bear my testimony publicly.  There were a lot of good testimonies today.  We had twin missionaries come home this week and they bore testimony and their Mother also.  There were a lot of children that bore testimony.  Not the standard child's tesimony of I love my family and I know the church was true but sincere testimonies telling how they came to learn of the truthfulness of a principle by something that happened to them.  But I was particularly appreciative of one testimony that bore witness of something that I already knew but needed to be reminded of.  Sometimes we go through hard times so we can help others who will go through the same thing later on.  I had asked Heavenly Father in prayer this morning if I was just not a good mother or if my children where going through some of the things that they are for another reason.  I felt like he said that I need to have these experiences so I can help other Mother's who have the same problems.

I know the restored gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true.  I know that Joseph Smith knew Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as well as other prophets of the Bible and that he translated the Book of Mormon under the power and authority of God.  I have seen the Gospel turn people's lives around for the better and I know that it is the power of the Holy Ghost that gives them the power to change.  God is there for you and he has provided a way for us to overcome our sins and weaknesses and trials through the atonement of Jesus Christ.  His plan works and provides the happiness that people seek through following the commandments of God.  There is not anything that is too hard for the Lord.

In Sunday School we talked about what it means that Women have the power to nurture their children.  We agreed that women have a special ability to do for their children things that cannot be done by even the most loving of Father's and that if women are blessed to be home full time the can provide a stabilizing influence in their children's lives.  He quoted from a talk by Elder Holland about how we need to become worthy to teach our children so that they can be taught by Heavenly Father without us interfering.

In Relief Society we talked about all the things that we should be grateful for and what it means to be contented.  There were a lot of things that were brought up like having a body that functions, being able to be with family, having enough and to spare, having spouses that are loving and comforting etc.  I know that I am so contented right now but my heart is drawn out to my children with all of their problems.

Kirsten called when we got home and said that Jon's dad had to have surgery last night when he went to the hospital to get checked for the pain he was having.  He is battling some kind of cancer.  I hope he can get feeling better but we all need to pray for him.

I haven't written since last Sunday so I will try to update a few things that happened this week.

The first thing that we did Monday was to go and see if the Layton AT&T had the kind of phones that we had decided we wanted.  BJ had talked us into switching with he and Holly to AT&T 4 for 160 plan.  They didn't have them in but they said that they might get them in.

We went to Weight Watchers and I was able to lose 1.4 lbs so I am only a lb away from the goal I have of getting to an ideal weight which is 174-139 for me.  I know it helped to be exercising more to lose the weight but I didn't want to exercise on Monday.

At eleven I went to Hairplay and had Laurie give me a body perm so that my hair would look better curly.  Because we had sold the mailbu Larry dropped me off and then went to see if their could fix the alarm on the Chrysler that had been giving him problems.  When I got finished he was not finished so I walked home.  It was only a mile.

I was supposed to go to the doctor at Utah Digestive Health to go over some tests I had at 2:00 p.m. but I had to reschedule because Larry could not get back in time.

Larry got home about 2:30 and said that AT&T had called and that they had our phones.  We went to the Layton Store and waited for a while but then we started working with BJ and the people in the Hawaii store and it seemed like it took forever.  I think it was because both people we were working with wanted the commission on our phones. Our person told us that it could have been done so much faster if it had been done her way and the sales person in Hawaii told BJ the same thing.  But when it was all said and done we got it done and because we chose to get new higher priced phones we are paying the same amount but BJ and Holly are saving money.

Then we got ready in our missionary clothes and went to Morgan to have Amanda take our pictures so we would have one for the missionary board at church. We were a little late but Amanda was nice and offered to feed us dinner but we had planned on eating with Kirsten so we declined.  If you want to see the pictures you can go to this link http://riversedgephoto.smugmug.com/View-your-Pictures/Pressers/i-rwHb9fc

When we finished up with the pictures we went to Kirsten's and had Fajitas with them and then we had another Family Home Evening where we taught the principles of the gospel from "Preach My Gospel"  We had a good time but I wish that Jon did not have to work so he could be there.

When we got home we got ready for bed and read our scriptures and said our prayers but I could not go to sleep for a long time as I was coughing so much.  That night and when I got up the next day it felt like the cough was moving into my chest.  I decided that I needed to sleep the next morning and I slept until noon.  I felt much better when I got up but I was still coughing.

I spent the afternoon writing curriculum and Larry went to the dentist to get his teeth worked on again.

That evening our home teacher, Winston Freeze and Brian Sullenger came to visit and to give us both blessings so that we could get over the cough.  We were both promised that we would get well and have a wonderful mission.  Larry is pretty much better but I still have a deep cough that seems to be improving gradually.  I decide to not work out this week to see if that would help but then later read that exercising can help you overcome a cold.

Wednesday Larry went to get some things done on the car again.  He also bought himself a new wedding ring because he lost the one he had.

 I stayed home to work on curriculum.  I also had to work on the bills because Monday I had not been able to finish.  After 11:00 a.m. I called an old high school friend Marsha Hazelbaker and talked to her for about an hour and a half.  She had called when we got our mission call and I couldn't talk so I had promised her that I would call her back when I could talk.  We had a good talk.  She is one of those friends that you don't talk to for a while and then you just pick up where you left off.  We have both had similar things happen to our children.

I worked late on curriculum that day to make up for the time in the morning.  Larry fixed a yummy dinner with steak and salad.  The steak was so tender.  I was able to finish up the writing and have Larry proofread it that night.

Thursday I went to Utah Digestive Health in the morning and everything was great with the tests.  I have felt good also since I started eating yogurt everyday.  The doctor and I started talking about our mothers and I mentioned that my mom was so lonely.  She said that assisted living had cured that for her mother.  I told her I had been against assisted living because Mom was in such good health.  She told me that is what assisted living is for.  It is not for the very sick.  It is for people that just need a little help.  It is like living in a good hotel she said.  So I guess I have to change my opinion on whether mom should go.  Apparently it helps those who are so lonely after the death of a spouse.

That afternoon I worked on curriculum for about 4 hours.  I was putting in the questions and quizzes for the chapter I just finished.  But Larry came in about 4:30 and said that we were going to go to the show and dinner.  He had found some tickets and a gift card to Applebee's that Maren and Landon had given us.  He wanted to go to a movie called "The Nut Job"  I wasn't sure what that meant but I finished up and agreed to go.  It was a cute animated movie about how we all need each other to help us.  It had some cute animals in it.  It was a South Korean movie it said at the end.

We went to dinner at Applebee's and ordered the Weight Watcher's dinner on the 2/20 menu.  It was twelve points just by itself but then I ordered the Caeser side salad with dressing that was 8 points for appetizer and thought I was getting such a deal.  Then I realized that was 20 pts.  Fortunately I was not hungry for dessert and so I actually turned out okay on the day with the 7 extra points that you have if you need them.

Friday we went to get our third hepatitis immunization in the morning and then we went to the gym for a while.  I had read that I needed to exercise by then.

In the afternoon I worked on curriculum but also worked on getting a family history gift ready for my grandchildren that evening.  I got the new "My family "books from the distribution center and then I went in and got the pictures of my ancestors and John's ancestors for our grandchildren and I got Larry's ancestors for Larry's children.  I had been working on it before but I finally decided that we were not going to find a picture of Edward Eli Presser for Larry's side and that Michelle would not have time to put up Diane's ancestors before I needed it so I just printed the out and got Michelle's children's ready for that night.  I had already given Erick and Kirsten theirs for their children.  Today I got the rest ready to mail on Monday to the other grandchildren.

Larry called and got someone to come and fix our garage door that afternoon so now you can open the left one more smoothly.  They wanted $300.00 to fix the right one so for now it is the same.  If it is plugged in it will open with the other one.

Kirsten had organized a family party for our kids and their families that live in Utah on Friday night.  She had everyone bring the things for the sweet pork tacos like Cafe Rio makes and then we had a cake and brownies for the March Birthdays and February birthdays.  Of those that live here  that was Erick and Heather and Kyle.  We had the party at our house.  We had a lot of fun but I forgot to take pictures so I have nothing to show for it.  I showed Jon Hayford the book that I had got for Kennedy and Brooke and tried to explain what they needed for pictures of their ancestors on his side.  He seemed to like the idea and said he would have to talk to his mom to help them.

Landon called when we were dishing out cake and I talked to him for a while.  He is in Europe with the ship it was 3:00 a.m. there so we did not talk long.

Kirsten had promised Nathan that we would Skype with him and he was still up but it took us more than an hour to find him and get to talk to him.  Kirsten and I talked to him for a few minutes but he was so tired that we got Erick to talk to him before he was too tired.  Erick spent the most time talking to him because he was so tired.

Saturday we slept in because we do not need to go to the Family Search Center.  We showered and got dressed and got ready to go to Mom's even though she had told us not to come.  When we got there she had already planned to do some things with Keith so we talked for a while and then we decided to go look for some clothes for me for the mission.

My skirts

I told Larry that I wanted to go to Dillard's because when we were searching for a suit for BJ's wedding I had seen some that I liked but could not afford that were really well made at Dillard's.  We stopped at Dillard's and started looking at clothes but they did not have the nice suits like I remembered.  They did have a few but nothing that would work.  Most of the suits for women are now pants suits and I cannot wear pants suits on the mission.  We started looking at skirts and I found a black skirt like I needed to go with the things I already had.  Then we found a couple of black and white skirts that were fun and frilly so I got those.  I think I should be okay now until we get to San Antonio and I may need to buy something not so hot.

We came home and Kirsten came over for a while and I talked to her.  I showed her the skirts and she liked them.  I sent pictures to Maren because I knew she would like them because black and white are her favorite colors.

Larry went to get something for a while and I started watching "Bones" on TV and trying to make a chart for the curriculum that I needed.  I got it all done and it looked good but it would not insert in the curriculum where I wanted it without being lopsided so I finally deleted it and decided that I will have to do it another way.  So except for seeing a couple of TV shows I liked I basically spent 3 hours on nothing.