Elphaba

Isn't she adorable? We call her Elphie. 

We only have a few problems...for example.

My shoes were ready for the dump as it is, and I just haven't had the time to go shopping for new ones. But I have a funny feeling she's going to help them on their way...

She loves chewing on things. Unfortunately we can't exactly get rid of all the wires, considering that we have laptops and cords up the ying yang...but that's why we have a spray bottle. It's almost unfair, I don't think she can tell a wire from a string. Robbie says we should just let her until she learns her lesson and is electrocuted. I don't think so...

She's ripped up tables...

Squirt bottle.

Eh. I don't mind as much. Not as expensive as a table.

(You should see all the other pieces on the floor)

Who me? Yes you. 

She also likes to attack, and I mean full on attack, feet, hands, hair (you think she's all cute when she's climbing on your shoulders and then you realize she's eating your hair), couch, keyboards, books, phones, the spray bottle, elbows, clothing...Pretty much everything. Including the coffee table, that's her favorite. She plays on the ring (you can see it in the background of the third picture), and hits her head on the bars as she's running by too quickly. She's a little crazy.

I can't stand leaving her for most of the day because she just cries and cries, she doesn't want to be left alone! And I wouldn't either. I come home and she knows someones there and she just cries and cries to be let in. If you leave her sight for more than a minute she's crying and following after you.

She's only really calm when she sleeps. Which, as far as I can tell, is only from about 3-5 in the afternoon. I can't do anything without being interrupted, which is nice and so annoying all at the same time. 

She likes the bird party in the back yard from 5-7. It's the weirdest thing, we just get this huge flock of birds that sing for us every day. 

She loves to watch television. Weird, right?

I love her. She's driving me nuts, but I love her.

She was guarding it so I would stop squirting her...and she fell asleep, 6:30. She just goes and goes and goes until she poops herself out. 

Oh my dearest Elphaba.

Annual Pismo Trip

I love this tradition my in laws have...and I love my family...and Pismo.

They kinda speak for themselves.

 Just in case this one is not clear, our feet were blue.

 Can't you tell he loves me?

Good stuff.

Plan to Keep Your Faith

Friday Forum was awesome. 

Bishop Tucker? from the Fresno YSA ward was awesome. He could have written a small book of all the little things he said in half an hour. What stuck out to me the most was

"We don't ever plan on becoming inactive"

For those of you who have no idea what that is, "inactive" or "less-active" is a term we use for members of the church that have fallen away and have lost or misplaced their faith. 

He told us stories of his six best friends, and how back in the day they were thick as thieves. They all went on missions except one, they all got married in the temple, and twenty or so years later three of them fell away. Two asked for their names to be removed from the records of the church. 

Did they sit down one day while they were young, planning out where they wanted to be in five, ten, twenty years and say: "When I have done this and turned this age I will abandon my faith and turn against everything I ever learned"? No. They didn't. But did they plan on keeping their faith? No, not exactly. 

I had never thought of that before. I knew that people usually stopped doing what they needed to, like reading their scriptures, praying, going to church, and such, that it's a gradual process of forgetting your faith and then eventually, losing sight of it completely. But I'd never thought of planning on when you would lose it, or that you could plan to keep it. Plan to do the things that will keep your testimony alive and well, not sickly and dying. 

Plan to keep your faith alive and well.