Jenna Lately

The only thing really exciting since Easter was our trip to Monterey, which was wonderful but not very eventful. So in lieu of a wordy post, pics of Jenna lately. (Sorry some are blurry.)

Easter 2013

This Easter was a very good Easter. Two Easters ago we were moving here from Utah and our celebration was a box I had prepared a few weeks before. Mostly just candy. And a religious quote. But I think that holidays are better with little kids who walk around and can interact with you. To be honest, I don't remember what we did last year. I think I try to block most of the memories from that first year (it was a long one for me).

Anyway, we had a more commerical celebration on Saturday and so we were able to focus on the true meaning of Easter on Sunday. I love that we did it this way. I will definately continue this tradition if we ever move away from Fresno and family.

Of course I am terrible at taking pictures (the Easter baskets were adorible!), but here are a few from Jenna's very first egg hunt. We didn't need to encourage her to hold her own basket. Oh, and on Sunday I taught Sharing Time and brought a basket of plastic eggs as part of my lesson. Jenna got ahold of them afterward and it was so cute!

Here are way more Easter pictures than need to be posted.

Kitchen Cupboards Painted - Check!

When I first saw my new kitchen cupboards I had two reactions. The first was that I loved how many there. I loved my new kitchen! I loved that the sink was under a window. I loved that the oven was up high. I LOVED all of the counter space (you should have seen our apartment). My second reaction was completely 180. Repulsion! The cupboards were this seafoam green and made me feel a little ill. (And I wasn't even pregnant. Though when we officially moved in I was and the color of the cupboards still made me feel sick.)

Now, 2 years after moving in (Easter 2011), they are completed! Steve and I did the light pink (Carribean Coral) and I did the darker color (Wine Barrel) on my own during Jenna's nap time. I think they look much better and the best part is that the color no longer makes me feel ill. They are darker, but for some reason it works and isn't too oppressive.

Side one before:

Side one after:

Side two before:

Side two after:

 

The next kitchen project? Maybe tile. It depends on how long we stay in this house. Which depends on what Steve ends up doing for work. We have a couple of different options. We'll see. 

Recently

Recently we have done a lot of sitting.

When my sister was in town we sat at the Fresno temple:

We sat around the house (even more):

 

Occasionally, we walked:

Independence, MO

Sunday, January 13

and 

Monday, January 14

and 

Wednesday, January 16

 

Independence is a place full of history. It was a place where the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lived for a time. And what a time it was! It is the headquarters of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was where many people officially left "civilized" country when they headed out on the Santa Fe and Oregan Trails. Former United States President Harry Truman called this place home. The Civil War was fought here. Wow, wow, wow! So much history!

And not only history, but important history. History that has changed the course of so many lives across the world. History that helped abolish slavery. History that settled the land and made it possible to become the United States. History that set in motion God's Church again on the earth, with revelation, prophets and priesthood. Wow, wow, wow!

I have gone to many history spots. I have been to my fair share of tourist traps. Places that you feel have tried to eek out a little bit of something to make a few coins. But this place was different. The very air felt different to me. On Wednesday as I was driving out of Independence for what I figure will be the last time ever, I was a little sad. I think I may have driven a little bit slower. I didn't want to leave so much importance, so much history, behind.









In the LDS visitor's center driving a LDS Pioneer wagon

Sitting on the Independence Temple site













 Sitting on a field with wagon swills (where many wagons took off on their journey west)

 

 


 


                     Truman's house

On the right: A plaque honoring the start of the Oregon Trail

In the middle: A statue dedicated to Harry Truman

Building on the far left: The site of the former W.W. Phelps print shop where the pages of the D&C were saved

 

Sacred

Something that is set apart, declared holy, worthy of respect.

On our trip we also went to sacred places. We went to the Far West Temple site. Posted on a plaque was Doctrine and Covenants 115:7. It reads: 

"Let the city, Far West, be a holy and consecrated land unto me; and it shall be called most holy, for the ground upon which thou standest is holy."

 

When I read that I got little shivers and and kind of wanted to step off the grounds. There are only cornerstones right now, but I was a little intimidated. I wonder why God had consecrated that ground. Not that it matters. Just wondering.

 

 

We were able to take a tour of the reconstruction of Liberty Jail. This place is known as a "Prison Temple". Many revelations Joseph (especially a famous one of comfort) were given here and therefore it is a sacred place.

We also went to Adam-ondi-Ahman which is what is now referred to as Spring Hill.

  

 

This shot is overlooking the valley.

 

Here is an interesting map of the area. We took the above picture on Tower Hill.

Jenna and I went to another sacred spot, the Kansas City, MO temple. Of course I had a little bear so I couldn't go inside, but the outside was beautiful. And sacred.

I am grateful that God has given us sacred spaces and has given us the Holy Ghost so our homes can be sacred too.

Richmond, MO

Saturday, January 19

Steve and I had a late flight out of KCI so we decided to take a side trip to Richmond, MO. Of course Jenna came with us. It is a small town about an hour or so outside of Kansas City which has a few church sites. We went in search of the graves of Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer Sr. and David Whitmer. Oliver and Peter were buried in the Pioneer Cemetery and David was in the main Richmond Cemetery.

We went to the Pioneer Cemetery first. When we go there, we walked up to a monument and read that the Pioneer Cemetary came into existence due to flooding in another area. It was later abandoned and some graves were moved to the Richmond Cemetery. Since it had been abandoned for so long many of the headstones were destroyed. After 70 years of abandonment, the Church bought the land and tried to fix it up as much as they could. Try as I might, I couldn't find the head stones of Peter Whitmer or Oliver Cowdery. The monument we had seen earlier honored this spot as Oliver's burial place and his role as one of the Three Witnesses.

So I got to thinking about the permanence of a burial spot. It had never occurred to me that once your spot was honored with a headstone, that it could be forgotten. I had always assumed that once it was marked it would be known as your spot forever. But I was mistaken. Whether due to natural disaster (flood, earthquake etc) or just the passage of time, that spot will not always be known by the living world as your spot. That was a little disconcerting to me.

Of course. it doesn't really matter where Oliver Cowdery was buried. His memory, his legacy, lives on because of the mark that he made on history. Because of the import he had as a person on his fellow beings. That is what matters to the world. What he did with his dash and that it was written down and remembered.

I just want to find all of the lost, forgotten souls and give them a big hug and hear their stories about their lives and what they were able to accomplish. Then I would write them down for the world to remember. So the world would remember who they were, that they were important and that their lives had meaning.

 

Obviously the a soul will be remembered in the eternities, everyone will be remembered and accounted for, but right here and right now I think it would only be fair for them to realize that with the living on the earth right now, they are important.