I Had My Wealth

A few years ago I had an experience that I was reminded of when I read my journal recently. At the time, I was living in Morgantown while Matt was in dental school and I was pregnant. I was among about 16 girls in our ward who were pregnant at the time. Many of us shared the same doctor, a wonderful man who was not a member of our church.

One day, while I was reading my Ensign, I felt a gentle prompting to share the gospel with my doctor. As I began to think more and more about it, the prompting grew to a strong feeling of what I should do. My mind opened up to a scene where I was sitting in the doctor's office holding my Ensign in my hand. The doctor would walk in, ask what I was reading and we would share a conversation about my faith. I resolved to take my Ensign with me to my doctor's appointment, which I had that very afternoon. As I considered further what I might say, I wished I had some enticement to invite the doctor to church. In fact, what I most wished was that I was giving a talk in church that Sunday so I could invite him to come and hear me speak.

Just as this thought process was happening, my phone rang. It was a dear friend, Holly Ashby, who was also pregnant and shared this particular doctor. Her call was unrelated to the issue, and upon hanging up, I regretted not mentioning the prompting to her. I was just pondering calling her back, when the phone rang again. Holly. I quickly told Holly everything that had been running through my head over the past few minutes. I concluded by telling her that I wished I was giving a talk on Sunday so I could invite our doctor to hear me speak.

"But I'm giving a talk on Sunday!" Holly and I were both very excited by now. I promised to invite our doctor to come and hear her speak when I went to my appointment that afternoon.

Armed with my trusty Ensign, I headed to my doctor's appointment. And, just like the scene in my head, everything played out how I had imagined. I was reading my Ensign, he asked what it was, we talked about my faith. And then I said, "Holly Ashby is actually speaking in church this Sunday. Would you like to come and hear her speak?"

And he said no thanks. That's it. End of story.

Well, not exactly the end of the story. When I got home that evening I spent a lot of time thinking about it. Was I crazy? Did I not understand how to recognize promptings from the spirit? Did I make it up in my head? And then the gentle voice of the spirit again.

I spoke to you.

I am so grateful to have a loving Heavenly Father who communicates with me. Surely, he knew how that story would end. It wasn't about my doctor that day. It was about me. He spoke to me. What a rare and precious gift! It reminds me of a poem my Grandpa Emery wrote:

Life # 1

The mountain stood like a desert crown,
Green and red, then yellow brown.

With thirst cracked lips and blistered face,
I searched for water at its base.

But when I could stand no more,
I raised my arms, God did implore.

Through desert wind and summer heat,
He told me, “Dan, dig at your feet.”

I dug down and found a pool,
Drank my fill of water cool.

Then I saw beneath my hand,
Yellow nuggets in the sand.

But one, I put them back the same.
I had my wealth, he knew my name.


Dan D. Emery
Idaho Southwest 1947

I'm grateful to know that Heavenly Father knows my name. My Grandpa's right, that's all the wealth any of us really needs.

Baptism

Sweet little Merrody turned 8 this week. I can't believe I have a child old enough to be baptized! I'm going to have to step up my parenting game a bit. She got a new set of scriptures, a journal, and a CTR ring. Last night she was baptized. It was a beautiful program. Matt's siblings and parents were all there as well as the neighbor girls across the street and tons of people from the ward. We had excellent talks, a beautiful musical number and delicious refreshments. Most importantly, her Dad was able to baptize and confirm her. It was a perfect night for our little girl.

Oh, and my Mom made these darling skirts with matching purses for the occasion! I love them, Mom!

What Little Boys (and girls) Are Made Of

Meet Cody, Tiny and Teeny, the newest contributions to my children's summer entertainment. I'm usually not a pet person, but I had to hand it to them for catching them in our back yard! So today, I took them to the pet store and bought a plastic box to keep them in and some crickets. Those pigs ate them all up in no time. I guess it's back to fireflies for them...

Yellow Creek

It was another beautiful Saturday yesterday so we headed out to Yellow Creek State Park. It is a beautiful park with a grassy area followed by a sandy beach followed by 50 feet of shallow lake water to swim in! We set up our lawn chairs, blanket and cooler and the kids swam all afternoon. We loved it so much we stayed until bedtime!

Fourth

Nothing was on the schedule for the 4th of July weekend as of Friday morning. Sunday is a lame day for holidays in general, especially the outdoors kind of holidays. Matt had to work on Monday, so leaving town was out. Carey just had a brand new baby so there would be no family gathering. We were pretty much resigned to the fact that we would actually spend the holiday weekend like any other--at home.


But our lame planning skills were going to be thwarted. Matt's office advertises on our radio station and with that relationship comes a few perks. Perks like Disney on Ice tickets. Perks like tickets to Idlewild--a really fun amusement and water park about 1/2 hour from here. That's how we ended up doing something cool on Saturday.




Matt and I took turns riding rides with the kids. Norah was too small to ride most of the rides.

That's me looking totally calm as I climb into a ride with Jack and Norah on either side. A ride deemed safe for anyone old enough to walk.

See those two metal bars? That's all that's holding us in. No seatbelt. Still calm and happy...

Merr and Joel are smiling too. That's all before the ride goes 30 feet into the air and flips you upside down! In order to keep myself from falling out I had to hold on tight to the bars. How was I supposed to keep my 18-month-old from falling out?! I'm not easily flustered, but I was shaking like a leaf when we climbed out of that ride!

And the little princess loved every minute of it!

We had been at the park about 15 minutes when all of our kids insisted on buying cotton candy. Not one bag, of course. They each had to have their own.

This is what Dad's are good for, huh?

After the scary ride incident, I was ready to put the kids on something a little more tame.

I took the kids on the "rollo coaster". It was actually pretty scary. Do you think I've lost my nerve?

Sweet Norah was pretty patient waiting for her siblings in the stroller.

"Mom, can I spend all my money on drinks and snacks and stupid games that you can't win?"

"No, Joel."

"I hate you, Mom."

After that, we changed into our swim clothes and went to the waterpark side. Matt took the kids down a cool waterslide with a 25 minute wait.

They got under a huge wooden bucket of water as it tipped over...

See Matt in the middle with Norah in his arms? She didn't like it at all.

Then we took the kids over to the swimming pool for a while.

Merr was the only kid tall enough to ride the bumper cars.

The last ride we did was the "Loggin Toboggan" ride.

...And off to the concession stand for Icees and soft pretzels.

On Sunday we headed over to the local baseball stadium to watch the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra perform a free concert/tribute to the soldiers/fireworks show. It was outstanding.

Not too shabby for no plans, eh?

Happy Fourth!