Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and you are ready to spread some holiday cheer!!

It was my turn to carve the turkey this year. There were only a handful of us together and I was a little nervous, but luckily we had plenty of turkey(13lbs) for the 6 of us. Needless to say, I didn't have to cut every morsel of meat for us the get plenty of Turkey, but we could sure use my dad next year!

We still have a few leftovers, except the rolls, if anyone ran out already. :)

So you wanted to raise a boy . . . ?

This has definitely been a week of surprises for me. I feel ashamed I every second guessed or tried to find fault in my leaders--I guess I still have little growing to do and apparently I haven't been pushed quite to the edge yet. This morning Emily and I met with the Bishop and I was asked to serve as the Young Men's president. Now the kicker is that I was release from my previous calling to serve in this one==how do you like that--I bet the bishop was wondering what all my complaining was about. What a whiner!

Well, the Lord is in the details of our lives. See at the beginning of the year if I had been asked to serve with the youth I may have said no. The youth are intimidating and I didn't think I would do well. Well, at the beginning of the summer I decided I was going to start camping again and wound up camping multiple times with the young men. I believe it was the Lords hand that led me to spend those handful of nights with the young men so that I might feel more comfortable around them. Now, ask me how I feel in a couple of months. :)

I'm here to release you . . .

That's what President Anderson said to me Wednesday evening. After serving as the "EQP" for almost 2 and 1/2 years, I was done. I was in and out of his office in less than five minutes. Just before we met, I thought I was getting an assignment to speak in stake conference . . . How clueless I was!

Needless to say, I was shocked--and a little hurt. Here I had been on the inside all this time and the next minute it's all gone; with a nice thank you of course. I was upset I hadn't gotten some type of warning, especially since I thought my release would have come next summer. My emotions told me I was being let go a little too early, that I had somehow lost favor . . . I still had young men to advance and brethren to strengthen.

Of course, the next day and with each new day I see the wisdom with how the Lord works. Not that I liked it, but I believe it is all for the best and wisdom prevailed. The bitter taste of pride I had is gone and I am looking forward to a little R&R, no telling how long that will last. I have come to love about 90% of my quorum really well (the other 10% have a face only a mother could love. :) ) and I will miss certain aspects of my calling and HT reporting will not be one of them.

While it might have been nice to 'know' beforehand, it instead come at the right time, by the right person, in the right place. Ok, where did I put that tissue . . .