Just smile and wave boys

It's been one of those days. Full of interesting events. Our rocking chair completely broke. It has been on it's last legs for about a week now and today it officially gave up. It is off its rocker. :)

Cameron experimented with Emily's lipstick. Sorry, Em! This pic was taken after he tried to wash it off a little.







Then he dumped his water at dinner. At least it was water and not juice, right? There's always a silver lining.

Then he and Spence bathed in my tub with the whirlpool jets on and made a sudsy mess. They looked cute tho. Again the silver lining.


This is Lizzie's first experience in her crib. She looks very skeptical about the whole thing.

Cameron's first experience in the big boy bed. Right after I took this he jumped off and I can't get him back in. I'm not seeing any silver lining on this one.


This may be the last photo you see on the blog for a while because as I was just typing the above sentence, Cameron grabbed the camera off my desk and threw it on the concrete laundry room floor. It will not turn on.

I was going to write a cute paragraph about Elder Wirthlin's talk from General Conference and how I have been able to laugh through my trials today but losing my camera is too much to bear. I am not smiling.

I can't take a picture of my frown, so this will have to do.


***Since this post was published 5 minutes ago. I was able to fix the camera. And Chris came home with a gently used La-Z-Boy from his mom to replace our broken rocker.

Here's the smile:



Never lose faith.

Weekly Top Five 11/17/2008

Top Five Favorite Animated Movies Not Disney

1. Iron Giant

2. Charlotte's Web--The classic one

3. An American Tail

4. The Prince of Egypt

5. Who Framed Roger Rabbit

I'm It

I got tagged.

8 Favorite TV shows
1. The Office

2. Worst Week

3.30 Rock

4.CSI:Miami

5. Bones

6. Seinfeld

7. Beverly Hills, 90210

8. The Mentalist

8 Favorite Songs
1. Here Comes the Sun--The Beatles

2. The Tide is High--Blondie

3. Hysteria--Def Leppard

4. Welcome to the Jungle--Guns N Roses

5. Julia--The Beatles

6. The Boxer--Simon and Garfunkel

7. Anything sung by my aunts especially The Wedding Song

8. Something in the Way She Moves--James Taylor

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Mancy's--Toledo, OH

2. Hunt and Grunt--Farmington, MI

3. Mitchell's Fish Market--Livonia, MI

4. Ideal Hotdog--Toledo, OH

5. Lawry's--Chicago, IL

6. Tony Packos--Toledo, OH

7. The Knight Cap--Lansing, MI

8. Sconecutter--Orem, UT

8 Favorite Movies

1. Gone with the Wind

2. The Truman Show

3. Sixteen Candles

4. Ferris Bueller's Day Off

5. Cast Away

6. The Godfather

7. Sense and Sensibility

8. Pride and Prejudice, The BBC/A&E version

8 Things that happened yesterday
1. I cleaned off my dreser

2. I ate yummy chicken for dinner

3. I caught up the laundry

4. I texted Anna

5. I played Scrabble JR. with the kids

6. I read blogs.

7. I took shoes to Emily.

8. I worked on my lesson for Sunday

8 Things I am looking forward to
1. Thanksgiving.

2. Chris having a new job

3. Summer Vacation

4. Playing a game with someone

5. Worst Week

6. Going to church

7. Halloween next year

8. My birthday

8 Things on my wish list

1. New Sewing Machine

2. Baby Trend Sit and Stand

3. New wardrobe chosen by me

4. Housekeeper

5. First floor laundry/mud room.

6. Someone to clean out my car every day

7. Bikes for everyone in the family.

8. Wii

8 people I tag
1. Emily

2. Anna

3. Jennifer Garner

4. Daniel Craig

5. Suzy and Mark

6. Joni and Chachi

7. Donna and David

>8. Obama

A family's faith-promoting journey toward peace, understanding and eternal promise.

This week I got a letter from a relative I've never met. He is a second cousin on my father's side and he lives in Washington state. He found me and my contact information on a submission I made on the Family Search website. I was so excited to know that there is another member of the Church out there that is related to me. I've been used to being only one of a few members in my family. For some reason, even though I don't know this man, I love knowing he and his family are out there being good Mormons too. He asked me to share my conversion story with him. I don't feel like it is my conversion story as much as it is my father's story. I sent him an email relating the story and I thought it was pretty interesting so I am posting it here too.

I don't have my dad here to confirm all the dates and details. I have heard this story a million+1 times but he didn't always give dates so they are estimates. Anna, if you see any glaring errors, let me know.

My dad graduated from high school in 1960 in Lansing. It was right after graduation that the missionaries knocked on the door of his parents' home. My grandma tried to say no and tell them to go, but something made my father stop and let them in. He had all the discussions and did not commit to baptism. Over the next 10 years, he served in Vietnam and graduated with degrees from LCC and MSU. He did not have contact with the missionaries during this time, but his parents did. The missionaries would visit them regularly. My grandma called them "her boys," and would take them out to dinner and knit them afghans. However, she and my grandfather did not commit to baptism during this time. My dad and mom married in 1972 and moved to Toledo. The missionaries knocked on their door a few years later and they heard a few discussions but my mom had been recently diagnosed with cancer and they were so busy with that problem that they didn't have time for the missionaries then. A few years later, my dad and his boss had a discussion about religion and the boss invited our family over for dinner. His boss was a bishop in the local ward. After being friendshipped by their family, my parents agreed to have the missionaries give us the discussions. We went through several sets before my parents agreed to be baptized. I was only 6 so I couldn't get baptized with them. My parents were baptized in August of 1981. I remember the day pretty well especially how shaky my grandma's hands were when I held them as my parents were being baptized. One year later on August 13, 1982, we went to the Washington DC Temple with that same bishop's family and were sealed together.

My parents' baptism day.

My parents went through quite a bit of persecution because of their decision to join the church. My mother grew up Catholic and came from a long line of very stalwart, faithful Catholics. Her parents were very disappointed with the choice she made to do this. There was quite a bit of tension between them for a little while. My grandma went on a Catholic retreat (For those of you who don't know what Catholic retreats are like, I'll post on it sometime. They are quite interesting.) to meet with a special priest. She talked with the priest about my mother and the choice she made to leave the Catholic church and what should my grandma do. The priest counseled her that as long as our family was going to church all together and was happy, then she should be happy for us and let us be. From then on, my mother never heard another negative word towards her decision. I'm sure that her parents were still disappointed and upset but they never showed it. I am thankful to that priest, wherever he is. My mother's family has never treated us any differently because of our different faith. They are people of highest character.

My father grew up a little bit of everything Protestant...Baptist, Congregationalist, Christian Scientist, etc... I think he was baptized in a Baptist church. While my mother was a faithful Catholic, he would not go with her to church. He took her and me to church every Sunday but he didn't go at all. I don't have any idea what he believed about religion before he gained a testimony of the Mormon faith. His parents were not upset with his decision to join the church. In fact, they wanted to join as well and probably would have in 1981 if it had not been for my uncle who is extremely anti-Mormon. I can remember heated arguments over our church between my dad and his parents and this uncle and his wife. Anti-Mormon literature was distributed at my mother's funeral by him and his children. They were hateful people. My grandparents finally decided to join the church in 1991 with the threat that if they did, this uncle would never speak to them again. (He didn't make good on the threat.) They were sealed in the Chicago temple, with my dad, a year later in 1992.

It took many years, many missionaries and many faithful members to do the work Heavenly Father needed for my parents to feel the Spirit and make the conversion. I don't even know the names of the first missionaries who contacted my dad that first time. I wish I did because I would love to let them know that their labors were not in vain. Because of their knock on a country door almost 50 years ago, 15 individuals are sealed together forever.

Thankful Thursday 11/13/2008

1. Surprise Leaf Rakers

2. Hand Me Downs

3. This talk. I REALLY needed it.

4. Mrs. Visser

5. Worst Week

And I think that they're bright, and sensitive, so I have no doubts whatsoever about their intelligence.

This week has been the annual parent/teacher conference week for the Vos home. Going to parent/teacher conferences has always been and still remains scary for me. As a child I worried about what the teacher would tell my parents. Now as an adult, I worry about what they will say about my children.

My teachers always said the same things about me. I was bright...gifted even. However, I talked too much. I remember my report card would be perfect with the exception of my talking grade. Yes, in Catholic school we had a grade in talking. I think it was titled something like, "Refrains from extraneous talking." I usually got an N. N meant "needs improvement." Occasionally I got an S-. The S- meant "A little better but still pretty crappy." I liked to talk a lot. I'll never forget in first grade in the beginning of the year, I sat next to this kid, Mike Kotnik. We were getting along pretty well, I thought. After a little conversation, he finally asks me my name. I was thrilled! I was making a friend! I told him and he immediatly goes up to the teacher and tells her: "Jennifer Ballard is talking too much." I got in trouble for the first time for talking too much. I learned to be more judicious about who I gave my name to from then on. I was also labled "The Talker." I guess I had alot to say. I still do.

None of my children, as of yet, have inherited my need to express themselves at inappropriate times during the school day. Their report cards/conferences were not perfect this time around. However, they were extremely satisifying for me and I am going to gush a little. Christopher's teacher talked about how enjoyable a student he is and how much he likes having him in his class. He talked about his maturity and how he always shows respect for the teacher and his peers. Calvin's teacher talked about how helpful and kind Calvin is during class. She told of a sitauation in which Calvin really shined. There is a boy in his class who is handicapped. He has an aide with him usally, but one day he was without the aide for a bit. Calvin stepped in unasked and did the things the aide usually did for the boy. He saw the need and filled it. Spencer's teacher spoke of his enthusiasm for learning and how well he listens and how he is such a good cleaner-upper. Emily's teacher gave their seal of approval on Emily by not requesting a conference with me. In middle school, no conference is a good sign.

Their cards weren't perfect; they all have stuff to work on and improve. However, their character...their behavior...the most important stuff to me is right on track and I left conferences last night and today on cloud 9. I felt like that LDS commercial from the 70s or 80s that says, "Mom, you're doing alright." I'm doing alright.

Weekly Top Five 11/10/2008

Top Five TV Shows That My Dad Would Watch That I Hated

1. Hee Haw

2. 60 Minutes

3. Lawrence Welk

4. Airwolf

5. Star Trek