June 24th, 2013

A long tiring day. Evelyn is not sleeping at all, and has decided to start teething early. I am guessing we will see little teeth in about a month.

Andrea is going on Trek tomorrow, and  getting ready for it all has been...an adventure. I get to go participate tomorrow for part of Trek. It should be fun, if I am not drop dead exhausted!

We had the missionaries over for dinner and FHE tonight. It was a lot of fun. The boys like to show off and get all crazy when we have missionaries over. They are such crazy kids!

Handsome Boys, Fort Fun, and Good Deal!

 Aren't they just the cutest things ever?? I love Benji's suit! 

 We got a new couch, which calls for lots of forts! The new favorite game, Chik Fil A. They love to play restaurant. 

This is my big find off of Craigslist. We got it for a heck of a deal and it is BRAND NEW. I love love love it!

Moving On

Yesterday was a bitter sweet Sunday. The 10th Ward Young Womens Presidency was all released. I was sad to be released from my wonderful calling and I will miss teaching my girls, but it was time for things to change.

When the Bishop released me, he said they were going to give me a break for a while and then get me going again a while after the baby is born. I honestly do not know what I will do with myself. Rex will be plenty busy though. He was just called into the Elders Quorum presidency as the 2nd counselor. It is time for him to have a super busy calling now :)

The girls are all pretty upset, but I know they will adjust as time goes by.

A Very Special Day

 Awwww... Love this picture

 Today was a great and special day. Trenton was baptized this evening and confirmed a Member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. IT was very wonderful!

How special it was to see the two of them set and ready for this special event. I am so proud of both of them. Rex was very nervous, but did great!

5 grateful things-Trenton and his good choices, GOOD friends who care, Reflection, A Worthy Husband, Choices

Recipe,I Like Math, LDS Quirk, and How Old Am I?

So Rex and I are attempting.....again, to eat more healthy and lose some weight.... again. So I found an AWESOME chicken recipe that resembles Chicken Cordon Bleu



2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 slices of Oscar Meyar ham lunch meat
1/2 cup kraft 4 cheese (shredded cheese) 
1 egg white
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 Tablespoon water
1 cup bread crumbs
2 Table spoons Smart Balance Light butter spread

Preheat over to 425
cut your chicken on the edge (length wise) across the width of the chicken but not all the way, (You are going to stuff the good stuff inside and fold the top layer of chicken over it if that makes sense)

Put 2 pieces of meat and 1/4 cup cheese inside the chicken.

in a bowl whisk the egg white and water together until a light foam occurs

in a separate bowl add bread crumbs and seasoning and mix.

take your chicken, while making sure you hold all the meat and cheese in, and lightly coat it in the egg white and then into the bread crumbs.

side chicken aside, and heat the butter spread in a skillet,
 when it is melted, add the chicken. brown chicken on each side
transfer chicken into a non stick or sprayed (with PAM spray) cooking pan.
Put in the oven and look for about 30-35 minutes or until juices on chicken run clear.

This stuff is AWESOME! and about 200 calories per serving. Nummy

Today was my first day of math and I think I finally found a teacher that understands the way I learn! I am getting the hang of everything and actually gave a hoot about math! HOORAY!

Speaking of Math, I felt like a dork today when I was thinking to myself as class was about to finish, " Okay, as soon as they say the closing prayer then we can go" WRONG CLASS THERE SARA! Geesh!

Another not so brilliant moment today was when I forgot how old I was. I actually had to do the math!! Good thing I gots me some of that good learnin' going on in my new math class.
 I need a nap.

5 grateful things
Toys Story 3 game for the PS3- helpful friends- tilapia- veggies-good music

My Favorite Quote

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, with long perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk's lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks, and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord the know I was really here, and that I really lived."-Sister Marjorie Hinkley

That about sums it up! 

Happy Thanksgiving all!

5 grateful things
friends* family* ANOTHER snow day! * hustle and bustle * throwback pepsi... mmmmm 

A New Sunday

Today was the first Sunday for the new 10th ward, and it was great overall. It was weird being in a different building, and going in the afternoon, the first day of the time change, but good. It felt like the first day of school. Seeing familiar faces and getting to know the unfamiliar ones. I was kind of in a daze with the time change, new ward, fast Sunday... and all this NEW whirling around me,I was a bit overwhelmed. I think it will be great though. I can feel the love already. I cannot wait for them to hand out callings. I am excited to see what I get.
In other news, our dear little friend Paris was baptized yesterday and confirmed today. She was beaming! It was wonderful! We had a nice dinner with her family tonight. What a busy weekend!
 I am beyond weary and ready for bed and it is not even 8pm.

Happy Sabbath all!

5 grateful things
* Baptisms * old good friends * fall excitement * sleep * A wonderful Bishopric   

Another Bomb Shell

Next Sunday 4pm... the fates of those in 6th Ward will be revealed. Today we got the news that the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th wards will be redefined and a new 10th ward will be established. It is nervous excitement in the Bateman house. It is GREAT that we are growing SO much in the church, yet, selfishly, I am worried of what will become of my friends and the new calling I JUST received. It is all for a reason I know, and it will all be for the best... but man, I love my ward. A LOT.    :-(





5 grateful things
* Rainy Days * Good Friends * Halloween * London Broil * Primary Programs 

Honesty

"When we are true to the sacred principles of honesty and integrity, we are true to our faith, and we are true to ourselves."

 My lesson for Sunday is on Honesty. Easy, right? WRONG. It is almost too straightforward if you know what I mean. I can go so many directions with this subject. I think I have a good lay out though. I just need an idea for a cute hand out.  I want to use the quote above for it, but I do not know what else. Any ideas??  I might also, or in place of the other quote use this:

"The Lord requires his people to be honest. May we desire with all our hearts to be honest in all our relationships and in all the things that we do. God will help us if we seek the strength that comes form Him. Sweet, then, will be our peace of mind and our lives. Blessed will be those with whom we live and associate. And God will bless and guide us with His loving care." (We Believe in Being Honest, Ensign, Oct. 1990, p. 5) 

I was thinking of attaching candy hearts ( If I can find them) to the quote. 

Anywho, that is all that is left on my plate for the week. Happy weekend all! 

5 grateful things 

* peppermint ice cream * advil * well behaved boys * fast mail * sleep 

New Calling! And a Can I Copy?

EEEKKK! I got THE BEST new calling today!! I cannot wait to spill the beans on Sunday!! Hipp Hipp HOORAY!!! I think I scared poor Brother Long when I shrieked with excitement! SO HAPPY!!!

Dearest Liz,
 May I be a copy cat to your 5 great things about today at the end of each of your posts? I think it is a great idea and I wanna do it to!

Your Loyal Blog Follower,
 Sara Copy Cat

PS- Remember when I wanted to change my name to Beth because you wanted to be called Liz instead of Lizzy? :-D

Life Is Good!

Rex and I just found out that we get temporary Temple Recommends, and we get to go to the Temple November 7th, to do service. We are so excited!!

Goings On

Not too much to report. We are on a 5 day break from school this week, and no soccer this week. It was sad the other day, I was talking with Trenton about soccer and playing, and he said " I like soccer mommy, but everyone else is a lot better than me, but that's ok. " He is a really good goalie , but I admit he is not that fast and does not score any goals, but he still helps out. Poor guy. He is ready for soccer in the spring still.
Ben is everywhere lately, and has a new found hobby; climbing! Yikes! We have baby gates everywhere but he still climbs on the boys' chairs and my step stool. crazy boy.
Joe is becoming a computer whiz. He can navigate around like no other and love to play games on PBS kids and Thomas the Train of course.
Next week I am going on a cooking venture. I am making more bread, pasta sauce, apple butter and home made apple pie/ I am looking forward to it.
tomorrow marks the 1st day of October. A great month, but SUPER busy this year. We have the boy scout auction, General Conference, the Enrichment party, Trenton is cheer leading at a football game (yes I let my SON be a cheerleader, and I don't care) 3 more soccer games, visiting teaching, and Halloween. There goes another month! I am looking forward to it though.
I really like visiting teaching. It is nice to talk with the other sisters outside of church and share a nice message. It is the same message for everyone, and everyone does visiting teaching, so it might seem repetitive, but everyone has a different perspective on everything. I love our faith and the people in it.

This was part of the lesson for September, and it is ringing so true as we live our lives and face mockery and persecution.

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin (1917–2008) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “Faithful members of the Church should be like oak trees and should extend deep roots into the fertile soil of the fundamental principles of the gospel. We should understand and live by the simple, basic truths and not complicate them. Our foundations should be solid and deep-rooted so we can withstand the winds of temptation, false doctrine, adversity, and the onslaught of the adversary without being swayed or uprooted. …

“Spiritual nourishment is just as important as a balanced diet to keep us strong and healthy. We nourish ourselves spiritually by partaking of the sacrament weekly, reading the scriptures daily, praying daily in personal and family prayer, and performing temple work regularly. Our spiritual strengths are like batteries; they need to be charged and frequently recharged” (“Deep Roots,” Ensign, Nov. 1994, 75).

I love that our church, while strong in it's convictions, places no judgment on other religions, or how other believe. The simple message is given to all of us when we do missionary work in our daily lives. Pray, and tell others to pray. Let the Spirit be with you and guide you, and just pray.

This is so simple and so true. In all the times Rex and I have talked with friends and family, these simple steps ring true and work.

So thank you to all who helped my family get to where we are now. we love our life and would not change it for anything

"

Stake Conference Story

This story was told today at our Stake Conference. It was very uplifting, especially at the time, because I was in tears, dealing with my 3 year old who decided to let everyone know, he was mad!

The Currant Bush

by Elder Hugh B. Brown
of the Council of the Twelve

You sometimes wonder whether the Lord really knows what he ought to do with you. You sometimes wonder if you know better than he does about what you ought to do and ought to become. I am wondering if I may tell you a story that I have told quite often in the Church. It is a story that is older than you are. It’s a piece out of my own life, and I’ve told it in many stakes and missions. It has to do with an incident in my life when God showed me that he knew best.

I was living up in Canada. I had purchased a farm. It was run-down. I went out one morning and saw a currant bush. It had grown up over six feet high. It was going all to wood. There were no blossoms and no currants. I was raised on a fruit farm in Salt Lake before we went to Canada, and I knew what ought to happen to that currant bush. So I got some pruning shears and went after it, and I cut it down, and pruned it, and clipped it back until there was nothing left but a little clump of stumps. It was just coming daylight, and I thought I saw on top of each of these little stumps what appeared to be a tear, and I thought the currant bush was crying. I was kind of simpleminded (and I haven’t entirely gotten over it), and I looked at it, and smiled, and said, “What are you crying about?” You know, I thought I heard that currant bush talk. And I thought I heard it say this: “How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. I was almost as big as the shade tree and the fruit tree that are inside the fence, and now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me, because I didn’t make what I should have made. How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.” That’s what I thought I heard the currant bush say, and I thought it so much that I answered. I said, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and some day, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down, for caring enough about me to hurt me. Thank you, Mr. Gardener.’ ”

Time passed. Years passed, and I found myself in England. I was in command of a cavalry unit in the Canadian Army. I had made rather rapid progress as far as promotions are concerned, and I held the rank of field officer in the British Canadian Army. And I was proud of my position. And there was an opportunity for me to become a general. I had taken all the examinations. I had the seniority. There was just one man between me and that which for ten years I had hoped to get, the office of general in the British Army. I swelled up with pride. And this one man became a casualty, and I received a telegram from London. It said: “Be in my office tomorrow morning at 10:00,” signed by General Turner in charge of all Canadian forces. I called in my valet, my personal servant. I told him to polish my buttons, to brush my hat and my boots, and to make me look like a general because that is what I was going to be. He did the best he could with what he had to work on, and I went up to London. I walked smartly into the office of the General, and I saluted him smartly, and he gave me the same kind of a salute a senior officer usually gives—a sort of “Get out of the way, worm!” He said, “Sit down, Brown.” Then he said, “I’m sorry I cannot make the appointment. You are entitled to it. You have passed all the examinations. You have the seniority. You’ve been a good officer, but I can’t make the appointment. You are to return to Canada and become a training officer and a transport officer. Someone else will be made a general.” That for which I had been hoping and praying for ten years suddenly slipped out of my fingers.

Then he went into the other room to answer the telephone, and I took a soldier’s privilege of looking on his desk. I saw my personal history sheet. Right across the bottom of it in bold, block-type letters was written, “THIS MAN IS A MORMON.” We were not very well liked in those days. When I saw that, I knew why I had not been appointed. I already held the highest rank of any Mormon in the British Army. He came back and said, “That’s all, Brown.” I saluted him again, but not quite as smartly. I saluted out of duty and went out. I got on the train and started back to my town, 120 miles away, with a broken heart, with bitterness in my soul. And every click of the wheels on the rails seemed to say, “You are a failure. You will be called a coward when you get home. You raised all those Mormon boys to join the army, then you sneak off home.” I knew what I was going to get, and when I got to my tent, I was so bitter that I threw my cap and my saddle brown belt on the cot. I clinched my fists and I shook them at heaven. I said, “How could you do this to me, God? I have done everything I could do to measure up. There is nothing that I could have done—that I should have done—that I haven’t done. How could you do this to me?” I was as bitter as gall.

And then I heard a voice, and I recognized the tone of this voice. It was my own voice, and the voice said, “I am the gardener here. I know what I want you to do.” The bitterness went out of my soul, and I fell on my knees by the cot to ask forgiveness for my ungratefulness and my bitterness. While kneeling there I heard a song being sung in an adjoining tent. A number of Mormon boys met regularly every Tuesday night. I usually met with them. We would sit on the floor and have a Mutual Improvement Association. As I was kneeling there, praying for forgiveness, I heard their voices singing:

“It may not be on the mountain height
Or over the stormy sea;
It may not be at the battle’s front
My Lord will have need of me;
But if, by a still, small voice he calls
To paths that I do not know,
I’ll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in thine:
I’ll go where you want me to go.”
(Hymns, no. 75.)

I arose from my knees a humble man. And now, almost fifty years later, I look up to him and say, “Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me.” I see now that it was wise that I should not become a general at that time, because if I had I would have been senior officer of all western Canada, with a lifelong, handsome salary, a place to live, and a pension when I’m no good any longer, but I would have raised my six daughters and two sons in army barracks. They would no doubt have married out of the Church, and I think I would not have amounted to anything. I haven’t amounted to very much as it is, but I have done better than I would have done if the Lord had let me go the way I wanted to go.

I wanted to tell you that oft-repeated story because there are many of you who are going to have some very difficult experiences: disappointment, heartbreak, bereavement, defeat. You are going to be tested and tried to prove what you are made of. I just want you to know that if you don’t get what you think you ought to get, remember, “God is the gardener here. He knows what he wants you to be.” Submit yourselves to his will. Be worthy of his blessings, and you will get his blessings.

Let the Games Begin! And A Great Church Family

Benji took his first two steps today!! YIKES! I am in for it now. I love the toddling stage though!
We are so blessed and grateful to have our church family around us. we got lasagna the other night from a Sister, and then tonight the Relief Society President, Kay bought us pizza and root beer and vanilla ice cream for root beer floats. All of this, just because I have been sick and Joe has been sick. Never have I had this before. It is odd, yet very nice of everyone to pitch in.
we are also seeing the blessing that tithing can bring. I do not want to boast, but this was something we were not too sure about when we joined the church, but I can see the blessings that it brings now, and I am eternally grateful

Pioneer Day!

This day was very fun. We are still learning all of the history of the pioneer trek and what they sacrificed for their families to settle in the Salt Lake area, but we can still appreciate this day of celebration and enjoy what we have now!

This is a handcart replica, of what the pioneers carried a very long distance to settle in a better place.

Making yarn!!


our missionaries and rex and doug getting ready for the cart race.


And they're off!



WOO HOO! They won!

Tough Guy shooting sprite bottles!

Such concentration


Stick pull!!



I let Rex Win




Crazy Missionaries!



Such a Happy Benji!


Trenton took on all the missionaries in this event


Lots O' People!

My favorite picture of Joe and his bud Spencer

Rex Hatchet throwing

So there are my pictures from Pioneer Day at the Stake. Fun day!

Day 2

Rex is almost at the48 hour point with not smoking. It is very very tough, but he is working through it.
We celebrated and ended our fasting last night with friends and family at a BBQ. I am so proud of Rex. I know how hard this is and for him to stop "cold turkey" it is amazing!
I am uploading and editing video and photos now of Trenton's Graduation and Last Day Of School. I will post them soon.
We have come to the point now too, that I feel comfortable enough, and are prepared with enough knowledge now to speak of our life changes.
Rex and I and our family are joining are in the process of joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. These decisions has been long thought and came about with much studying, question asking, and prayer.
We never thought we would see ourselves where we are today, yet here we are. We have learned and corrected many misconceptions we had about the church. Many stereotypes were corrected, and false accusations about the church overturned as we have studied. The more we learn the more it makes sense and the more right it feels for us.
We know that many will not agree, and heads will shake, but we are happy and we know this is right for us. We have gotten many answers through prayer and listening.
On that note, we are getting ready for a meeting with church members. I will keep posting and updating.