Popcorn Popping

It's popcorn popping on the crape myrtle tree. I saw it this morning and it looked so beautiful that I had to take some pictures and post them.

Primary Class

I mention in my little autobiography on the side of the blog, that I am a Primary teacher for eight and nine year old children. Today at church, our Primary president did this wonderful sharing time about family history. My heart was very touched by how she did it. She had called all the children's parents that week and found stories about an ancestor in their line. I was amazed as I heard about the illustrious ancestors of these little ones some of which had crossed the plains with the early Latter-Day Saints and others who had served missions or in various wars. One girl had an ancestor who helped save the Liberty Bell during the Revolutionary War. As a teacher or parent trying to cram some fragment of logical knowledge into these children's protesting heads, it is hard to remember that these little ones are precious; more precious than jewels.

I had a very powerful impression, one of the strongest I have ever had, that those ancestors mentioned in Primary today are very much aware of their descendants. In fact, I think that they are much more concerned about what goes on in the primary classes of their descendents than they are about what happens in the meetings of the First Presidency of the church, or the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. They know that we, the lowly primary teachers, are the ones responsible for much of the gospel instruction that these children recieve in their formative years. They know that whether or not the children gain a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ, whether or not they enjoy coming to church, or whether or not they remain active members is dependent in part, on how we perform our duties. The very spiritual survival of their family tree is dependent on the teachers in Primary. I felt a strong desire to improve my teaching and make my calling a higher priority because of this impression.

I want you, my friends and family, to know that I believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that he lives and guides his people today. I know that the time and effort I invest into teaching in the Primary is a blessing to me and my family. I love you and thank you so much for reading this. God bless you all!

Summer Garden

Crape Myrtle

The crape myrtle is flowering at last! It should get even more beautiful because many of the branches have not started blooming.

Frosted Toothbrush

Layne was quietly playing in the kitchen. I knew something was up. I walked in to find Devin's spinny firetruck toothbrush head down in the margerine. Luckily the batteries are dead, or I may have had to clean margerine off the ceiling.

Anyway, I was about to clean it off when I remembered something my friend Emily told me. She said that I need to take pictures of all the crazy stuff my boys do and that those pictures will be some of my favorite pictures someday. I have decided to take that to heart.

FLDS vs. LDS Church

I read a disturbing story on the LDS church website. Apparently, the church did a survey about the FLDS church which has been in the news for the past two or three months. Thirty-six percent of those surveyed said that the FLDS church was a part of the LDS church and 29% were not sure.

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I want to make it clear that we are not affiliated with this small polygamist sect. We do not believe that one has to accept and practice polygamy to get into heaven. Quite the contrary, our church believes that polygamy can only be practiced lawfully with the Lord's direction. When God commands that it be discontinued, it is sin to continue practicing it. Such is the case with the FLDS church. When God commanded the church to discontinue the practice of polygamy, a group of people refused to follow the prophet's counsel and a century later, they have become the FLDS church, a doctrinal and ethical disaster.

It is easy for the people in a society to define right and wrong by the customs and traditions they have grown up with. For example, in our society, most people would not be appalled at meeting a young couple living in the same apartment, unmarried. On the other hand, those same people would be appalled at meeting a man who was married to two women. These people might consider their revulsion to be based in Biblical law, but it is not. Jacob had three wives and the Lord chose him as a Patriarch of Israel and forefather of the Savior himself. On the other hand, there has never been the slightest variation of God's condemnation of fornication, or the sexual relationship of two unmarried people, in the Bible. These people judge right and wrong, not by the Bible, or by God's prophets, but by society's standards.

Right and wrong is not determined by man and his wisdom and reason, but by God. If God commands a thing, it is right. If he forbids an act, it is wrong. Our responsibility is to be able to recognize God's commands and follow them. Hence, the importance of following the Lord's authorized servants or prophets.

One of the reasons I know that our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, is a true prophet of God, is that he is unique. There is no one in the world that leads a group of over ten million people and claims to speak for God. A creep like Warren Jeffs couldn't even lead a group of six thousand while claiming to speak for God. In fact, all the false prophets who have lived on the Earth for the last hundred years or so have all looked similar. They lead small groups of people, known as cults, commanding all kinds of crazy things like stock-piling weapons, practicing sexual perversions, and even engaging in mass suicides. No one of discretion or sense would seek to associate themselves with such people, let alone follow them. In contrast, Thomas S. Monson embodies the ideal of American values.

I think it interesting that those who seek to attack our church choose to pick at the past. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, two prominent leaders in our early history, are their usual targets. They are dead, and any eye witnesses to what they did or did not do are long dead. We are therefore, left to speculation. What of our leadership today? What of our living prophet? They dare not attack these men because they are among the most honorable men living on the Earth today.

Thomas S. Monson spent his time as a young husband and father caring for the widows of the congregation he lead and served without pay for many years. He took a week off of work every Christmas holiday so that he could personally deliver a dressed hen from his own hen house to each of the 85 widows in this congregation. Later, he would speak at every one of their funerals. He has been honored in many ways including the Eagle Scout award, the Silver Beaver, and the Bronze Wolf awards. The Bronze Wolf is the highest award in the International Scouting program. He was also outstanding in his career, working as the editor of a major newspaper in Salt Lake City.

What outlandish things does this man say when he speaks the commandments of God? He tells us to reach out to those not of our faith in love and tolerance, to avoid debt, get education and training, and save for the future. The membership of the church love him. His colleagues and family love him and follow him voluntarily and willingly. I defy anyone who would claim that they would not be proud to have him as a son, son-in-law, friend, or neighbor. Is this man not truly a prophet of God? I testify to you that he is.

It is wonderful news! It is a testament to the love God has for his children that he sends us his servants, the prophets, to teach us his word and show us the way to go in this wicked world. Those who seek to know the true commandments of God, and not just go with the flow of society's standards, the invitation is open to you to read the words of his true prophet. Click here for the latest message he has given to the world.

Crape Myrtle Blossom

One of the buds on the crape myrtle bloomed today. It kind of looks like an explosion of some kind. I'm sure that there will be many more soon, so keep checking back!

Grilled Salmon

We bought some salmon on sale at Albertson's last week and we grilled it on the grill last night. We used an old tried-and-true recipe for a marinade, but then tried grilling with a cedar plank. It is a good thing there wasn't more of it, or I probably would have just kept eating until I exploded. It was the best fish I have ever had! Ben said it was "better than sex salmon." I got the marinade recipe from Allrecipes.com. I have a link to their site on the right-hand side of the blog. The cedar planks were in the meat department at Albertsons. I had never tried cooking with a cedar plank before. The smell while grilling was incredible and it gave the salmon a moist, smokey flavor.

Grilled Salmon

Take 1 1/2 pounds of salmon and rub lemon pepper and garlic salt over front and back

Marinade

1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Put seasoned salmon in a plastic bag with the marinade. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

Heat the grill and soak cedar plank in water.

When grill is hot, put saturated cedar plank onto the grill. It will smoke and might catch fire. Use a water bottle to douse flames. Place marinaded salmon onto the grill. It may take a while for the plank to heat and cook the salmon. When the fish begins to accumulate bubbling juices along the side of the fillet, turn it and cook the other side. Fish is cooked when it is light pink and flakes easily.

If desired, you can use the marinade as a sauce for the fish. You will need to put the marinade into a small saucepan and bring to a rolling boil for ten minutes.

A Handful

I found this funny in the newspaper last week. Just substitute Devin for Jeffy. . . .

Dusty Miller

I took this picture of one of my dusty miller plants. I thought it was kind of cool.

Moonstone Rose

My newest rosebush has just had three blossoms open. I think the thrips might have gotten into them because some of their inner petals are misshapen. The roses look pure white, but they actually have some pink tint on the very edge of the petals. It is easier to see this tint when the flower is a bud. I am hoping the next flower to open will have better form and I can post a macro close up of it.

Flowers

My fence flower garden is doing so well! The vinca plants are really getting big and blooming profusely.
The canna plants around the property are blooming and getting bud stalks. It is very exciting to see these showy flowers strut their stuff.
Speaking of showy flowers, I am green with envy because there are crape myrtles flowering all over the metroplex and mine hasn't yet. When it does finally bloom though, it is going to be so beautiful! The entire bush is covered in these little buds.

Flower Pot

We got a pot at Home Depot for our new hibiscus. We had to drill three more holes in the bottom of it for drainage, but other than that, it was just perfect.

Answer to Prayer

Today I was feeling bummed. July 10th is Layne's birthday and we have been feeling so poor this month because of the gas prices and everything, I don't know how much we were going to be able to get him for his birthday.

We are always trying really hard to stay away from going into debt and living within our means and everything. I know that the Lord is pleased with that, but sometimes it is really hard. Anyway, I decided that I would try going to some garage sales this morning and try to find some toys for Layne for his birthday. Severe thunderstorms and rain were in the forecast, so I was worried I would be rained out, but the weather was actually very nice. We drove around for a while and I thought I should just give up because I wasn't seeing any garage sales. I said a prayer that I would find a place that was selling some toys. A few minutes later, I found a pink neon sign advertising a garage sale. I stopped at the house and they had a set of Imaginarium building blocks that had never even been assembled for sale for $5. I snatched them up. I was also able to buy a book and three wooden puzzles before I ran out of cash.

Anyway, I know that the Lord answered my prayers and I thought I would post my experience. I know that God helps us to reach our righteous goals.

Muddy Shoes

I was out mulching some plants in the front yard when I walked in the door and found Devin running through the house with muddy sandals, tracking dirt all through my freshly cleaned floors. Layne was filling cups of water from the fridge and dumping them into a muddy soup on the vinyl in the kitchen. They had obviously been doing this the entire time I was in the front yard, because it was a huge mess.

Added to the other stresses of my life right now, I was at the breaking point. I cried and cried. I knew that God wanted me to be an at-home mom, but I wanted more than anything to go back to work and have a way to escape the chaos of my children. Through prayer I felt reassured about the importance of what I am doing with my life. While cleaning up the mess, I saw Devin's little muddy sandals laying on the floor. I thought of how in a few years I would look back with fondness on those little muddy shoes.

Writing has always been a way that I have had of dealing with my trials. Many times some of my most painful experiences have inspired my best writing. Here is a picture of Devin's muddy shoes along with a poem I wrote. I hope it will help other stay-at-home moms that might be having a hard time.

Father's Day Cake

Here is the picture of the Father's Day ice cream cake we made. I would do a few things differently next time, but it was pretty good. There are a couple of videos and a slideshow of our Father's Day celebration on the Burbank Family Blog. There is a link to this site on the right hand side of the page under "Blogging Buddies."

Jokes

I tried my hand at scanning all the funnies I have found while cutting coupons in the Sunday paper. It worked pretty well. Just click on them and they will appear big enough to read.

More Jokes

Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day and we made homemade strawberry ice cream to celebrate. I also tried my hand at making an ice cream cake. I made a chocolate cake in the bread machine. That was a first. I torted the cake into three layers and put it in the freezer. Before the homemade ice cream was hardened all the way, I spread some of it between each layer. Tonight I am going to cover it with chocolate gnash, some strawberries and some whipped cream. I think it will be pretty tasty. I wil take some pictures and post them. It should be finished tonight. It is in the freezer right now.

Ben and I were up late on the church's family history site at www.familysearch.org. It was great to see how much work has been done in my family lines. On the other hand, every time I do family history work I lament the lack of information. In one of my lines I found a man named David Thorne. He was born in Worchestershire, England and died in Pleasant Grove,Utah. His first five children died before the age of ten. You can’t tell me that all there was to his life is birth and death facts! What is the story? Where can I find it? Someone has to have it somewhere. There is no way that a man could have gone through an immigration like that and not have a story to tell. His heart must have broken when his first born son died at the age of two. He must have loved his children. Did his faith in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ carry him through those terrible trials? Did he have a testimony of the doctrine of eternal family units? He had a story. I’m sure he told his children and they told their children. Surely someone had the sense to write it down? I did a Google search with his name hoping to find more information about it and all I found was a man named David Thorne that is in prison convicted of murdering a woman. Great.

I have always had an interest in the past and my progenitors. That is not all that uncommon I suppose. I don’t think most of us really care if our ancestors were royalty or peasants, famous or obscure, rich or poor. What most of us care about is that they lived, that they love us, and that they have a story. I’m not royalty. That’s fine with me. The royals are in too many headlines with too little good news. The closest I will probably get to famous is this blog. I doubt I will ever be considered rich. I did live, I do and will love my posterity, and I do have a story. I hope it will be heard that it might profit those who come after me. My lament is that I don’t have the stories of others.

I hope that Father's Day and Mother's Day will bring us to look with gratitude, not just to our parents, but also their parents, and their parents, and on and on. Write your story. Write the story of your parents. Tell those stories to your children that they might know that there are people who have crossed over death's dark veil who love them and care about their choices.

Triplets

Our Cherie plant had triplet blossoms this morning. We also had the first blossom from our canna plant. Our crapemurtle is also getting ready to flower. It is a fun time of year in the garden in spite of the heat. It was 98 degrees yesterday, so we are sweating down here. Our rye grass is totally dead and we requested a bermuda hydroseeding yesterday.

One Froggy Evening

Michigan J. Frog

When we were at Six Flags Monday, the boys rode a ride called Michigan J. Frog's Tinseltown Review. I was excited because now I had a perfect search term to find the cartoon on You Tube starring that crazy frog. Today I searched Michigan J. Frog and sure enough, "One Froggy Evening" came up. I watched it and got a good chuckle. I read a few of the comments below the video and found out that "One Froggy Evening" is based on a true story.

The real Michigan J. Frog lived in Eastland, Texas and had the misfortune of being sealed into a cornerstone time capsule. For the complete story see Texas Twisted.

Bullying

We have been smelling the flowers for quite some time, and I suppose it is time to ponder some of life's questions.

Ben and I watched Hope Floats last night. For those of you who haven't watched this movie, or can't remember it, it is very sad. I cried and cried. It is basically the story of a woman who goes through a tremendous amount of hardship and through it she is able to find herself and become a stronger person.

This movie has spawned a few thoughts. Bullying, one of the themes in the show, comes in two types, adult bullying and child bullying. We are familiar with children bullying and as a teacher, I was always on the lookout for it and was unusually strict about squashing it. In the show childhood bullying was personified in the form of "Big Dolorous," a particularly ugly, obese, and mean child with a dislike for Bernice, the new kid in town. In one scene, Big Dolorous follows Bernice home from school while surrounded by a large crowd of kids. She taunts Bernice until finally the child turns and smacks her with her book bag. It was the intended trigger that prompted Big Dolorous to pounce on her victim and punch her repeatedly while the other children yelled, "fight, fight, fight, fight!"

Compare this to the equally cruel, yet more subtle and infinitely more damaging adult bullying shown in the talk show scenes. Bertie is invited by her best friend to come onto national television to receive a free makeover. What she is not told is that she will be humiliated as her best friend and her husband tell her in front of the cameras that they have been sleeping together. The audience chuckles, gasps, oohs and ahhs in all the right places. Another short scene is shown of a different talk show with a different set of people. A woman tells her boyfriend or husband that she has been working as an exotic dancer behind his back. The audience is predictably both amused and mortified.

Why is it that there are some people that seem to relish the suffering of others? Like the brutal ancient Romans cheering from a blood soaked coliseum, these people seem oblivious to the fact that the lives that are destroyed in front of them belong to real people with real emotions, hopes, dreams, and desires just like them. Rather than feeling empathic pain for the victim, they seem to delight in the fact that there are people less fortunate than they are; people that they can feel superior to because, at least their lives are not that bad. Like Satan, misery loves company I suppose. There is nothing more bitter to a miserable person than to witness someone who is truly happy. The miserable get a rather savage pleasure out of seeing the high school beauty queen's marriage fail and her life fall apart. Like a black hole, they would suck all the pleasure and life and happiness out of those around them, not because they profit from it, but because they lack it and desire others to lack it as well.

Contrast this miserable class of people with the Savior of the world; a man so full of life, love, and happiness that it spilled over to fill the lives of all he came into contact with. He had but to touch another person and that life-force penetrated and healed them. His love was so potent as to fill every person through all the generations of time who would allow it to enter. Happiness and life and love were his and yet it was not enough for him. He had to share it with his fellow creatures. Like the sun, his light could not be contained within himself but radiated to all in his presence. He did not profit from giving it to others, yet because he had it, he desired others to have it as well.

Consider the parable of the talents. You can see what types of people the servants represent. The miserly servant with the one talent horded the small gift his master had given him. The miserable bullies of the world cling to their small happiness in their largely empty lives. They bury it up so it cannot see the light of day. All men see only their misery as not a smile graces their faces. The two profitable servants took their master's money and gave it away to the exchangers which would be in modern day, investments of various kinds. The followers of Christ in this world take the abundant happiness they have received and share it with others, making more happiness, just as a good investment returns a profit. When the servants were taken to account, the miserly servant tried to excuse his behavior with an accusation implying that he didn't receive enough to begin with. This still did not excuse his refusal to share what he had been given.

I suppose most of us fall somewhere in between the miserable bullies of the world and the illustrious Master. What counts is the direction we are going. When I find myself thinking things like, "serves him right," or "I guess her days in the sun are over," do I check myself and remember whose side I am on. Do I delight in the disappointments of my associates and friends, or their successes? The answer to that question might have much more importance than many people realize.

Front Yard

With a little help from Mom and Dad, I was able to buy some dusty miller and begonia plants to dress up our front flowerbed. I fell in love with the begonia flower as I have been looking around at landscaping arrangements that I like. I love their dark folige and bright flowers especially against green or sage plants. The dusty miller plants in the back provide nice contrast. I put down some no-float cypress mulch to help retain moisture.

Flowers

Our canna plant has sent up a flower stalk. I can't wait to see the flowers this plant produces. It should flower in the next week or two.

Our Presidential Red hibiscus bloomed for the first time on Monday. It looks just like our last hibiscus that we killed and we are so excited to have another one like it.

More Flowers

My new Moonstone rose bush has three new buds on it. This is a picture of the most developed one. We should be seeing our first blossom in a few weeks.


Our yellow rose bush has been really doing well with several flowers on it and new growth coming all the time.

Our vinca are doing so well. They are like cactus, they can really take the heat. My purple verbena is dead, but the white verbena is hanging in there.

More Hibiscus

More hibiscus pictures.

Hibiscus Explosion

This morning we had a hibiscus explosion. It looks like Hawaii on our back patio. We had three new flowers on the High Voltage plant and two on the Cherie plant. It is so fun to start seeing the fruits of all the hard work. Today is a much cooler day and the plants are loving it. Last night was actually cool enough to open a few windows. What a change!

High Voltage Again

This morning we had another high voltage blossom open. I took some pictures of it as it was just opening up. I love the ruffled petals and the pink blush. What a gorgeous flower!

New Flowerbed

We dug up the grass in our front yard, moved our landscaping stones, and created a new flowerbed. We planted a crapemurtle tree surrounded by three Chinese varigated privet bushes. I think it looks really nice. I included a picture of what our front flowerbed used to look like with just the boring hedge, and what it looks like with the new plants.

Battles Again

We are still doing battle with our Oleander bush. The canes actually look worse since I trimmed off the infected foliage. There is some new growth that looks good though, so that is a good sign. I gave the plant a Bayer 3 in 1 treatment and then sprayed it down with the strongest fungicide I could find. Hopefully we will see an improvement soon. The nursery worker I asked about it said that the plant was dying. I hope we can still save it. I included some pictures of a healthy stalk of oleander buds, a badly infected one and a half infected one.