apples and virtue

As part of my responsibilities in Young Womens I have the opportunity to teach lessons every other Sunday. This last Sunday was mine to teach and the topic was, "Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts Unceasingly" (from D&C 121:45). The lesson was basically a talk that Elder Packard gave back in the day and included an experience he had in which he had to help with the irrigation of his family's orchard. He was just a young boy and was having a difficult time because the irrigation channels had filled with weeds and the water was flooding in all directions. He tried building the banks up but then a wise friend helped most efficiently by removing the weeds. We likened the weeds to our thoughts and so I saw the perfect opportunity to make Bakerella's apple cake pops as part of the hand out. Because this is turning into a hobby of mine I thought I'd post a pic of the handouts...

Zoo pics

I realize I haven't posted anything since my birthday over 2 weeks ago...I'm not sure why, partly it's because I feel like not much has really happened, we are caught in the monotony of our routine and partly because I've been pretty busy. I got a new calling at church. I LOVE the way the church functions (getting an assignment to serve...can you believe how organized, efficient and functional the church is with NO PAID CLERGY!!! I mean common, there sure is a lot of dedication and love going on here!). Anyways, I am serving as the second counselor in the Young Women's Organization. It is a big change because the last ward we were in for 4 years didn't have any young women, but regardless, it is totally awesome. The young women here are amazing!!! So I've been busy teaching lessons, going to meetings and attending mutual, it's great!

And then this last weekend, on Tyler's weekend off we were asked to speak in church. We had great topics (daily scripture study and garnish thy thoughts with virture). So even though that occupied a lot of our weekend we managed to escape for a date. Here in San Antoni there are Alamo Drafthouse Theatres. It is FANTASTIC. The theatres have replaced every other row of seats for a long table so you can actually have a dinner at the movies! The wait staff was great and so was the food. Super FUN!!!

So, now that I actually sit down and think about it I guess a few things have happened. First and most importantly Tyler applied for Radiology residency. Things could work out to where this intern year in general surgery would count and then we would only have 4 more years.!!! We'll see. It was an extremely difficult decision. We were torn trying to decide between Surgery, the specialty that Tyler LOVES, he would be awesome at it, but it would require a lot more training (especially because he would want to specialize further) and a lot more time away from the family after residency, and Radiology. Radiology isn't something that Tyler is passionate about, but something that would okay and allow for a great family life after residency and he could specialize further and still get to do some OR procedures. We fasted, we prayed, we studied, we went to the temple and WE COULD NOT get a strong answer...It was frustrating. We even deliberated picking a specialty from a hat and calling it good. I felt especially hurt that we coudn't get a definitive answer as to what would be BEST for our family because they are quite different family life styles. We had a time limit so we picked Radiology for the family life and I struggled to find comfort in why we were left to decide for ourselves. I talked to Tyler and our parents and I couldn't find comfort in the way things went down. And then I talked to sweet Amanda her in San Antonio and she said something to me that just made sense. Obviously God let's us choose for ourselves often but WHY wouldn't it matter in this case. This was A HUGE decision for us!!! She said that God often only gives strong answers when the outcome effects our eternal salvation or would put us in harms way...So while we would have radically different family lives depending on Tyler's specialty we are left to decide for ourselves because either way our eternal salvation wouldn't depend on it...I know that God loves us and ultimately His plan is to get us back to Him and if anything, I'm glad to know that we are track.

Other events: Isaac started crawling! Super cute, he's quite mobile now and I think I need to upload a video soon. Ashton rode his first rollercoaster at Sea World...and had his first fire ant bite (so sad!)

Anyways, last week here was pretty glum...It rained almost everyday which really cramps our style because we go out a lot!! The sun broke free on Sunday and we have been go go go ever since! (We may have to chill out tomorrow though because we are pooped!) We made it out to zoo yesterday with some friends and while I didn't bring my camera yesterday, I realized that I didn't post the zoo pic from my birthday so here they are....