I'm a slacker so here are some pictures!

Big Black Bear

The Smith Family came for a visit over Memorial Day! Just Love that family!

Ashley and Amanda had their piano recital!

Amanda started taking pointe classes. Here is her shoe before it got all mucked up from Dancing.

One of the Only pictures not at the bottom of the Bay!

Austin! He's just so cute when he sleeps. What an angel...till he wakes up and turns into a terrorist!

So Dustin went on his annual fishing trip with his brothers this year. They always go in April during Rock Fish Season. One of those things I don't complain about too much because usually they bring back a big old Rock Fish, cut it all up, and share it. Sooo divine! Yummy! Artichokes, lemon butter and Rock Fish! Food of the Gods!

This year however, right after our Myrtle Beach Spring Break vacation, Dustin took the camera with him fishing. In his excitement to catch a great picture of, I'm assuming a fish? - I haven't seen it, since the picture now sits at the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay. Yep, you heard me correctly. My camera slipped, plip plop, right into the bay as Dustin grabbed the side of the boat when he almost fell overboard. All (or most of) our vacation pictures are now at the bottom of the bay. The ones I have were taken with Ashleys ipod touch, hence the low quality pictures...I'm totally bummed and am now shopping for a new camera. Any suggestions? Something with a floatation device would be nice...

I've been such a whiner lately!

Have you ever just laid in your bed in the morning wishing you didn't have to face the things that you commited yourself too? Well, I have. Sometimes... ok, I always have a hard time saying no to people...and even worse, when I say no and someone argues their point as to why I've made a poor choice in saying no, I totally do what someone else thinks...then I get annoyed. This really bugs me that I do this, so I have been being very stubborn lately. Almost to the point of revolutionary. Yeah! Pretty much I've been a big grump and putting my foot down a lot when it comes to my own opinion.

But, thankfully, someone else is watching out for me and sending me good people to surround myself with. And opportunities to be blessed in spite of my cranky attitude.

What is that scripture? "If you give a gift begrudgingly, it is better that you had retained the gift?"...hmmm! I wonder how many blessings I have missed out on because of THAT one. HA!

Well today I woke up thinking I was in for a day of drudgery...and consequentially, it turned out quite the opposite of that.

I've always been in Young Women so I never knew the difference, but in the Relief Society, there seems to be lots of these little jobs (or big ones) where you seem to be just giving and giving. You know, playing Henrietta Homemaker, and Sammy Service... Totally not me. I know I'm going to sound like a big jerk, but bear with me, I'm just being honest...Compassionate service is not a strong point for me, unless its my idea. The serving random strangers I don't know is more difficult for me. I have a hard time pushing past the "I'm annoyed" feeling in the beginning.

But today I was truly touched and humbled. It was the Sparta Ward's turn to cook a lunch for like 180 Missionaries for their Zone Conference today. We did tacos. After browning half a cow, and driving the hour to the Stake Center, we prepared for 2 hours and then served the Missionaries their lunch. Like I said before, I was having a hard time getting out of bed this morning and facing it. How I have managed to get out of these things for this long I don't know, But I'm so glad I didn't get out of it this time. As these young men are going through the cafateria style line, a lot of them seemed truly thankful that we were there. One of them said, "this is the best food I've had in a long time. I'm tired of living on pop tarts and cereal"...Awwww!!! I was touched that a lot of the Missionaries that had served in our area before and left remembered my name...I had to look at a lot of name tags... Then at the end, they called all the serving ladies in to the cultural hall to thank us.

The army of Missionaries sang us "Called to Serve" and after, yelled, "Thanks for Lunch!" It was kind of cool to look out into the sea of Elders, recognizing the ones that had served in our ward, who looked truly happy to be singing to us. I was touched. What a cool experience it turned out to be when I would have rather stayed in bed. Kind of glad I didn't.