Time Out!

Last weekend I was able to attend Time Out For Women. This year’s theme was ‘Infinite Hope’. It was a great experience. If you have never gone to Time Out For Women, you should definitely check it out. It is a Friday night and Saturday filled with uplifting and inspiring talks and music, as well as plenty of laughs, too. We went last year, and I think it was even better this year!

There were so many great speakers that said so many great things. But, I will only post one little tidbit each speaker said. Hopefully something posted will touch your heart and help you out today. By the way, Pam, when I was taking pictures of each speaker I totally had it in my mind to do this, but then you beat me to it! Oh well…great minds think alike, I guess. ;)

FRIDAY NIGHT

“ Get rid of comparison. Comparison is the fast track to misery.” – Virginia H. Pearce

 

“How would you do something as a holy woman? Choose one activity a day and do it in the way a holy woman would.” – Wendy Watson Nelson

“ The Lord knows better than we do, and can make us & our life better than we could even dream.” – Dallyn Vail Bayles.

(AWESOME singer, by the way. Check him out!)

“Who influences you? What kind of influence are you having?” – Sheri Dew

Jillian, Jenn & Pam

SATURDAY

“ Adopt a pattern for a while. If it’s a good pattern, positive changes will begin to happen. If it’s a bad pattern- the opposite.” - Deanne Flynn

 

“ The Lord does not expect us to go it alone. We just have to accept His invitation to help us”

–Mercy River

(An AWESOME musical group. Such fun music and great harmonies.)

“ God’s love for us is not because we are good, but because He is good.” – Brad Wilcox

Okay, one more from him, ‘cause his talk was just amazing…

“Jesus doesn’t make up the difference, He makes all the difference. He doesn’t fill the gaps, but fills us.”

“ Turn to the scriptures when you feel sad, hurt, scared, alone or upset. The scriptures have all the answers you need until you are with your Heavenly Father again.” – Mariama Kallon

(Her story is INCREDIBLE. Read about her here.)

“ What is the Spirit you bring to whatever you do?” – Amanda Dickson

no pic. :(

“In the midst of chaos, the one thing we have control over is our attitude. Choose to be cheerful.” – Merilee Boyack

Pam, Jenn, Jillian, Carissa

Like I said, it was a great event. All the speakers and performers were great.

During the lunch break we had a little picnic at a table outside of the convention center. The weather was perfect, as well as the company. I can’t wait to go next year!

Go Eagles!

The kids are playing on a soccer team right now. They’ve had a couple of games so far.  They are enjoying it, especially Michael. It’s funny to watch little 5 and 6 year olds playing soccer! Their coach is really good about rotating all the kids through every position, so they all get a chance to try everything and get about equal playing time.

The first game, I felt, was a disaster, but Scott said it wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t anything too horrible, just running the wrong way, sitting down on the field, not paying attention…stuff like that. I need to take them to the park to practice a bit more, aside from their weekly team practice, but it’s just hard getting everything in, between school, homework, etc.

Here are some fun pictures from their games. I love the one of Emma giving me a thumbs up as she runs down the field.

Emma & Michael Monkeyin’ Around

Usually when we go to the park the kids have me hold their legs and help them across the monkey bars. But, the other day when we were at the park, Emma & Michael just started swinging across by themselves!

 

It might sound weird, but seeing them cross the monkey bars like that took me by surprise and made me think, again, about how fast they are growing up! I swear, something hits me everyday that makes me realize they are actual KIDS now. KIDS!! Blows. my. mind.

Red Eyes

I posted this note on Facebook back on April 8th, but I don't think I ever posted it to the blog. Enjoy!

This conversation just transpired between Michael & I:

J: Bud, why are your eyes red?
M: Dead? My eyes aren't dead!
J: No, bud, red. Your eyes are RED.
M: My eyes are red?! Like my favorite color?!
J: Yes, your eyes are red.
M: Really?! GIRLS!! My eyes are red like my favorite color!!
E & K: Cool!
M: I'm gonna go look in the mirror 'cause my eyes are so red, like my favorite color.
(singing) I have RED EYES!! 

I guess kids can see the positive side of everything.

Updates

Hi! So, I've haven't really done any kind of update for a while, so I figured it was about time.

Things have been good. We've just been getting into the groove of school. The kids like their classes and are learning a lot. I'm happy that they all have recess together. That's nice. I've been trying to volunteer in each of their classes, and now I'm a co-room parent for Katelynn's class. What does that mean? Basically, another mom and I help out the teacher in whatever way we can, like organizing parents to come help in the classroom, planning class parties, putting together little gifts for the teacher & the aide on their birthdays...you know, stuff like that. My co-mom is pretty cool, and it turns out that her husband knows Scott! They worked together at school. Small world, eh?

Speaking of Scott...he is now done with the classroom phase of his schooling!! Technically, he still has to go to school for the next couple of weeks because they are having their Radiology rotation at the school, but after that it's on to rotations!! It's exciting to be moving in to this different phase, and for Scott to actually start applying some of the things he has studied!

What else has happened? Hmmm...Well, the kids are playing soccer, which I'll do a separate post about. Had a fun craft night with friends the other night. I'll probably post about that on my craft blog. Other than that, just enjoying the cooler temperatures now. We actually went to the park today during the day!

Five Minutes...

We don’t remember our births, but the stories we’ve heard about our birth or adoption are our natural starting point. What have you been told about your birth or adoption? Who told you?


I don't know a ton about my birth. I am the oldest child in my family. When I was born we were living in Honolulu, Hawaii. My Dad was stationed there with the Air Force. I was born in Tripler Army Hospital, late at night. Because we were living in Hawaii, my parents considered naming me Leilani, but went with Jillian instead. I believe Jillian was a character on the soap opera "Brian's Hope" or "Ryan's Hope"...something like that. I wasn't named after the character per se, but that's just where they heard the name and they thought it was pretty. My middle name was a famous French singer, and is nod to my Grandma Fern, who is French. Once I was able to read a letter my Dad sent to my Grandma Coleman (his mom) after I was born. In the letter he said that he wished he'd been able to write down the prayer he said to Heavenly Father that night, because it was a beautiful poem about how grateful he was for me to have been born and how blessed he and my mom were to have a child enter their family. 


I was born almost 3 years after my parents were married. Before they were married they weren't members of the Church, but found the gospel together. My Dad was raised Southern Baptist and my Mom was raised Catholic. After they got married they started talking about having children. They knew that they wanted to raise their children in faith and with religion of some kind, but didn't necessarily believe the faiths they had been raised in. One day, they found an insert in the Reader's Digest from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints about the importance of families, and how families can be together forever. There was an address in Salt Lake City to write to for more information. They were discouraged, though, because at the time they were stationed in Crete, an island off the coast of Greece. Turn around time for mail to the United States was about 6 months. At work, a few days later, my Dad mentioned the insert to his supervisor, who happened to be a member of the church! He invited my Dad & Mom over for dinner with his wife, and had the local Branch President come over, too. (At that time, there were no missionaries in Greece.) That evening they went through all seven discussions (lessons about the doctrines of the church given to investigators) in three hours! My Dad's supervisor and the Branch President were blown away. Usually it is many weeks before people finish all the discussions, but my parents knew everything was true right away and were very excited about it. The Branch president made them attend church for two weeks (maybe it was a month. I don't remember.) to make sure they really wanted to be baptized, and that they weren't just pulling his leg. They were finally baptized one beautiful evening at sunset in the Mediterranean Sea. After they came back to the States, they were able to be sealed in the Washington, D.C. temple. I decided to wait to come down to Earth until after they were sealed in the temple, so I could be born under the covenant. :D

Your Life in Five Minutes

A friend of mine saw a speaker who has a blog called "Your Life in Five Minutes". Every day on the blog there is a prompt question to help you write down some of your life history. She thought it sounded like a neat idea and invited me to join in. So, the goal is to write a little something every day. I think it will be a great way to pick up on my blogging, which has been pretty slow lately, as well as a way to write down some of my memories.

You guys should take the challenge and join us! It's going to be fun... (said in a sing-song voice)


UPDATE: Yeah, so I guess it's actually a weekly thing, not daily. Oh, well. It's still going to be fun.