Yesterday was me and The Hubsters 1 year anniversary! We don't really have any money but Friday night we went out to dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory! We got a little dressed up (so I could show off my new heels which are adorable!)
Saturday we spent most of the day with my family. Some extended family were here in town visiting so we all got together for a party. We had shishcabobs (sp) and I made delicous rainbow cupcakes. (I got the idea for those from here http://brightwishes.blogspot.com/2010/11/colored-cupcakes-tutorial.html who got the idea from here http://daintysquid.blogspot.com/2010/09/colorful-cupcakes-tutorial.html. They are so fun and I recommend everyone trying them out!)
After we ate we went for a little swim. we made a whirlpool which you may think it would't work in a big pool that is shaped like a kidney bean but you'd be surprised! Its not the best but it definitely was fun! Also, it is a fantastic workout!
My cousin Melissa was in Africa last year and was not able to attend my wedding so this year it was very nice to be able to spend time with her! I was able to put on my dress for her! Through a random chain of events, I acquired an extra wedding dress last year and had brought it out to show Melissa. She ended up trying it on while I put on my moms wedding dress! (don't worry, we got some pictures that I'll put up when I've downloaded them on my computer!)
Around 10:00 a few family members went to bed or left but the rest of us stayed up getting drunk on caffenetied root beer and Dr. Pepper while playing Apples to Apples. All in all it was a great anniversary! And while I can think of a few different ways I would have liked to spend my first anniversary, in the end I wouldn't go back and change yesterday for anything! I love my family!
Now, for my first Spiritual Sunday I would like to share a quote that I got in seminary one year. It is from Chieko Okazaki's book Lighten Up (pg 174 - 175)
"We know that on some level Jesus experienced the totality of mortal existence in Gethsemane. It's our faith that He experienced everything - absolutely everything. Sometimes we don't think through the implications of that belief. We talk in great generalities about sins of all humankind, about suffering of the entire human family. But we don't experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means Jesus knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer - how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to skid. He experienced that slave ship sailing from Ghana to Virginia. He experienced Napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism.
There is nothing you have experience as a woman that he does not also know and recognize. On a profound level, he understands about pregnancy and giving birth. He knows about PMS and cramps and menopause. He uderstands about rape and infertility and abortion.
His last recorded words to his disciples were, 'and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.' (Matther 28:20). What does it mean? It means he understands your mother-pain when your five-year-old leaves to kindergarten, when a bully picks on your fifth-grader, when your daughter calls to say that the new baby has Down's Syndrome. He knows your mother-rage when a trusted babysitter sexually abuses your two-year-old, when someone gives your thirteen-year-old drugs, when someone seduces your seventeen-year-old. He knows the pain you live with when you come home to a quiet apartment where the only children are visitore, when you hear your former husband and his new wife were sealed in the temple last week, when your fiftieth wedding anniversary rolls around and your husban has been dead for two years. He knows all that. He's been there. He's been lower than all that."
Now, I personally have not experienced more than half of these things but I think what Brother Okazaki is trying to say is that we don't always realize how much the atonement really does cover. We often only relate it to sins or the most common pains. But it covers so much more than those things. And I hope that we can all strive to remember that if we turn to him with ANY of our pains, he will help us to fix them.
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