Honor Choir and Other Happenings

Joseph and Jesse sang in the local "Honor Choir".  It was where all the smaller schools in the area had choir students audition to be in this Honor Choir.

All of the students from our high school that participated in the choir.  Jesse is on the bottom row on the left, and Joseph is near the top row on the left.

They rehearsed on three Monday nights, and all day on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then performed on Wednesday night.  For the concert they sang four songs, and they were very unique and beautifully done.  I loved that concert.  So did Joseph and Jesse.  Jesse said she was as happy singing up there as she had ever been in her life.  She does love to perform!  And Joseph - we had several friends comment that they couldn't keep their eyes away from Joseph because he look liked he was having so much fun.

During one of the songs, the conductor, unrehearsed, told the choir members to join hands.  Joseph never heard him say that.  The irony of it was that Joseph was standing right next to a really cute girl that he has had his eye on for awhile now.  When he found out that he could have held her hand for four minutes and fifty five seconds, he couldn't believe his bad luck!  Ha ha  Oh, we had a good laugh over that one. Jesse did hear the conductor say that, and got to hold the hand of one of her good friends who's a very handsome fellow.  She said that wasn't so bad.  :)

Josh is home again, and this time to stay for nine days for Thanksgiving.  He has been playing the guitar non-stop, and it's beautiful.  He told me that his roommate Stephen said, "Josh, you can play Silent Night a million times, but please play something in between."  Ha ha!  Uncle Craig was nice enough to let Josh borrow his guitar this semester.  I guess that will have to be a future purchase for Josh since he's getting so good.  Thanks Craig!  Speaking of Craig, he and Jennette went up to visit Grandma and Grandpa, and took a small side-trip over to visit Josh.  I wish we could have been there.  Thanks guys for taking the effort to go and see Josh!

Bruce and I spoke in Church today.  My talk was based on Elder Richard C. Edgley's talk "Faith - The Choice is Yours" from October Conference.  I chose to focus on faith over fear, and I told three different stories.  I told of when the missionaries were killed in Bolivia, when there was that trouble on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where Palestinians were killed, and then when that guy threatened Pres. Hunter in the Marriott Center at BYU during a devotional.  The parallel I drew between all of them was that when frightening things happen, the adversary attempts to distract us from our work and fulfilling our purpose by using fear as a tool.  Fear is immobilizing, and is the opposite of faith, which is motivating and gets us moving and working.

Bruce spoke on Elder Richard G. Scott's talk, also from General Conference.  One of the poignant images I had from the talk was when Bruce described our faith as fine pottery that we have worked very hard to create, and that has gone through the furnace of affliction.  Even so, it can be shattered in a moment by transgression.  Thus, we have to be ever-vigilent and careful to keep it safe.

As a follow-up on my eating too many calories trying to keep myself awake, I found this week that I could drink water and get a similar effect.  So I made sure I had a water bottle on hand all the time.  And I also realized that if I make sure I have vegetables on hand, I can eat all the veggies I want and that will help keep me awake without contributing to an overload of calories.  I also worked really hard on getting to bed on time this week!

This is a fun picture that I didn't add last week.  I think Josh is the coolest in this picture! I'm gonna get grief about that from all the other kids, including Bruce - ha ha.

It's been snowing today!  I like it when it snows.  If it's going to be cold, I like to see white instead of brown and gray.  I am so grateful to have a warm home and to be here with all my family in it, and another family as well!  We have been blessed, and continue, every day, to see the hand of the Lord in our lives.