Merry Christmas to you from me...

I just want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. For my post today I want to share some of my most favorite Christmas songs. Hope you all have a great Christmas.

































♥♥♥ Always,

Wordless Wednesday

Love,

It's Aloha Friday, no work til Monday...

Oh wait, I'm a stay at home mom so I guess that doesn't apply to me since basically Saturday is my busiest working day..LOL.

~~~~~~sighs~~~~~~

Yesterday was the last day of school for the kids. As of today, they are officially on their Christmas vacation. Does anyone know what that means? Besides the noise and the constant refereeing that I have to do?! My favorite of all things when the kids are on school break.....I get to sleep in. No more getting up at five or five thirty-ish to drive kids to seminary and then hauling more kids off to school an hour or so later. I love me some sleep and haven't been able to enjoy some serious slumbering because of the early morning schedule my high school kids keep.

So today, I actually slept til ten thirty without anyone knocking on my door, jumping on my bed or calling my name to wake me up. I tell ya, it's heaven. And of course the kids were so happy to get a break from school, they practically laze around all morning doing, practically nothing, ok cross that, they were doing whatever their little hearts desire. And I get to sit around too after I woke up and just enjoy the slow and laziness of the day...no appointment to rush off to, no commitment to keep, Nada, zip, zilch.

I took my final yesterday so you could say I'm officially on a school break too...although since there was only one class I was taking, it didn't feel like much. And last night, our ward had a Christmas party. It was called a night in Bethlehem..we had to dress up in Biblical times and started off the evening with the Primary kids doing a skid of the Savior's birth. We were told in advance to bring canned goods to give to the Bishop, in turn, he and his helpers give us a bag of coins(those fake candy coins) that we can use in the market place to buy food and other merchandise. I tell ya, the activities committee did such a beautiful, it actually felt like you were in Jerusalem peddling goods or bargaining for goods. They even had a live nativity scene set up in the Primary room for anyone to go and have their pictures taken. (Kaitlin fell asleep and my boys each took off on different directions to enjoy the night, we didn't have our pictures taken. And I also forgot to take my camera with me...bummer!) I actually like the set up...there was no Santa in sight, which I think it's very fitting since this party was taken place in a place of worship. I'm glad that someone actually thought to plan a Christmas party where the main focus is on the Savior...not that I have anything against Santa, mind you.

Oh yeah, my daughter Jenn went to Sadie Hawkins and it was so cute she asked this cute boy to be her date. She actually put time, money and effort into this dance. You wanna know how she asked the guy to be her date? She got a shirt, wrote on the front "wash me" and on the back she wrote "Sadie's?". And then she wrote a bunch of girls' name with washable markers and she wrote her name with a permanent marker. And then she had some random person gave the shirt to the boy she wanted to be her date. You see how that worked right? When the boy washed the shirt...all the washable ink disappeared except for her name. He responded by texting one of Jenn's friend that "yes" he will go to Sadie's with her.

Jenn then went out and bought two red t-shirts(red is the boy's favorite color) and have their names written in blue(blue's Jenn's favorite color) on the shirts. So they went to the dance in matching t-shirts in their favorite colors combined. Now, you wanna see what her date looks like?

Don't they look cute together? Yeah, I think so too and I'm not just saying that cuz she's my daughter...LOL. Yep, while we were traveling the road to Bethlehem last night and bargaining for goods in Jerusalem, my daughter was hanging out and dancing her little feet off with some cutie..ahahah. Makes me all the more excited to see how her prom would pan out.

Now, I'm off to plan out a fun night with my hub. It's our date night and Steph's taken all the three little kids with her so I am free to go out and enjoy being with my hub. Hope you are all enjoying the season. Have a great weekend!! ☺

Love,

Post-It-Note Tuesday

"Of Things that Matter Most"

Today I just want to share the talk given at General Conference, October 2010, by Pres. Uchtdorf..he's actually one of my favorite Speaker. I think his talk is very fitting for this season. The message delivered in his talk is one I thought most of us parents can benefit from, especially the mothers with Christmas right around the corner.

We tend to take on a lot on our plate and we can justify that we rightfully do so since it is our duty. We tend to be so caught up with our daily lives that sometimes we overlook those things that matter most. I am quilty of that so that's why I like this talk. I hope you enjoy it as much I as I do/did.




Hopefully this is something you all can take into consideration. While you are preparing for Christmas, shopping, cleaning, decorating, baking or cooking, or even preparing for visitors to your home, take a little time out to sit down and ponder Pres. Uchtdorf's message.

Love,

Where's the Line to See Jesus?

Newest Christmas song that came out this year. I literally had goosebumps from listening to it the first time so I thought I'd share with you all. Actually, my hub brought this to my attention and he thought is was such a cool thing that the singer's name is the same as his mom's maiden name..Becky Kelley.



True uh? Christmas is afterall Jesus' birthday and yet we don't see people lining up to see him. A couple years ago, our family went to downtown Honolulu to see the Christmas display at the City Council or Honolulu Hale and we saw all kinds of Christmas decorations and out of all those decorations, we only find one small nativity scene made out of fake candy cane at the back of the building. I think it's sad that the real reason Christmas was created was to celebrate the birth of our Savior and yet more and more people and entities are trying to take HIM and His name out of the picture completely.

Anyways, I didn't mean to go on and on, I just thought I'd share this song with everyone....It truly is a beautiful song. Hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I do.

Love,

Sisterly Love

I came across this video my girls made and posted it on their FB. I thought it's kinda cute how they actually coordinate themselves on this video.

In Honor of HER

Aloha all,

Hope y'all have a great weekend. My weekend was pretty relaxing. I was going to post yesterday about the beautiful lesson in Relief Society but the computer was tied up by the kids all afternoon...well, that is what was left of the afternoon, after 3 hour of church and a few more hours at the Laie Temple Visitor's Center battling with the kids to pose into the camera and smile plus a few thread about Christmas presents this here being mysteriously disappearing if no one is cooperating with mom..LOL. So I will post that beautiful lesson next Sunday...I think everyone will benefit from it, (well, there are two of them actually) they are very fitting for the season.

So today, I am going to talk about something else. If you look over there on the side bar-------->
you'll see a voting button from my friend. I've mentioned her on here a lot because she is one of those bloggers who has a way of making a person laugh every time you set foot(in this case, your eyes) on her blog. Yes, my funniest dummy(she's actually one of the smartest person I know but she like to make people think she's a dummy) who is so full of wit is trying to get a job as a Good Mood Blogger. In order for her to get the job, she has to jump through hoops to round up people to vote for her. She's up against a whole lotta other bloggers so it's a very sizzling race...there seem to be a lot of pushing and shoving(LOL). This is the final week and the judges will pick the winner in a couple of weeks so I'm asking any of you to go vote for her. If you haven't read her stuff, go here. I assure you, you will not be disappointed. And while you're there reading her, you can hop vote for her.

Anyways, this week, she's having a video contest for her readers and she's giving away money on her blog too for whoever leave the most convincing comment for why she should be the next Good Mood Blogger. I was going to make a video for her to help rally up some vote for her but I ran out of time. Plus a friend of mine just entered a video her kids made and I happen to be in it too and because that kinda create a conflict, I'm not going to make a video so I can support my friend's video(that's how I roll, people..**wink wink** But I wrote a lyrics to what I would've put on the video so I'm just going to post it on here. You all can be creative with it and rap or sing to it. So here goes....

Deb, this is for you.

Debbie has a little pup,
Whose hair was spun from straw.
And every time that Debbie blogs,
Her pup was sure to pop up.

Debbie also has four kids
Who really are superstars.
And her hub is one hunk-a-jock
Whose getup comes with a Stet.

Now she wants to win the Good Mood Blog Job
We're here to root for her.
So go and vote for her,
She'll knock your socks off with her wit.

Go Debbie!!!

I know, kinda suck, doesn't really rhyme but it kinda sums her up. I was going to have kids rap to this using the Mary had a little lamb song as a guide only in rapping form. If you don't like this one, you can always watch her video she made.


Here's the video she made to help her get the job, enjoy.

Doesn't that just make you want to go vote for her? So get your gears on, head over her place and vote for her.

Mahalo,

Forgive me Miss Blogger

My Dearest Blog,

If I can compose songs ♫♪ in your honor or even spew some Shakespearean love tragedy story for you, I would, to express how deeply sorry I am for neglecting you for so long. But alas, I can't make anything rhyme nor can I sing in the right tune. All I can say is I'm sorry, so sorry..

If it would help may I just say that life caught up with me and have been dragging me through all kinds of traffic?LOL Would you even permit me to tell you what's been happening to me these last few months? You would? Oh thank you...you are the BEST!! ☺

So where do I even begin....oh gosh. Well, first off, I am really excited that Christmas is upon us. I just ♥ Christmas, not the gift getting or the hectic shopping part, more of the feeling that I love about it. I love what Christmas represent and it seems people are a bit more sweeter and kinder this time of year. I love the feeling in the air that Christmas season brings, the beautiful music that comes with it. I could sit and listen to Christmas music all day long. I especially love that my kids would sit at night with all the regular lights off and only the lights on the Christmas tree is on, they would even forgo watching TV or playing on the computer just to sit in front of the tree and talk story. And of course, don't forget the baking smell pastries. (OK, so I haven't been baking anything yet nor has my daughter but still, just the thought of it...*****sighs*****.) And oh another favorite, me making Christmas cards to send to families and friends. I've got loads of fun card ideas and I'm thinking I will be showcasing them as the days draw close to Christmas. (I think even you, Miss Blogger will forgive me of my trespass once you've seen my creation..right? *wink, wink*)

Our Thanksgiving this years was great as always. We spent it with friends at a potluck, OMG, the food. There were so much food and in so many variety, I can honestly say that everyone stuffed themselves like a turkey. And as customary, there were dancing too. That was supposedly a means to work off some of those food we stuffed our face with. So there were lots of eating, visiting, dancing then eating visiting and dancing again. And to close the day off, we had karaoke in the evening. Talk about a bunch of stuff turkeys gobbling into the mics, that was a sight for sore eyes...LOL. (I guess I should count myself lucky that none of those at the party reads my blog, even my family or I would've gotten an earful from that last line...don't tell OK? LOL)

Oh and I forgot...we celebrated a very important birthday this year...a milestone. My son Daniel turned 8 in August so he was baptised.
(He's the one with the candy leis...I think he's more excited to delve into all those candies, lucky kid. LOL) It was a very special occasion for him. I couldn't be prouder of him for making such a mature decision. Since the beginning of the year, he's been reminding me that he's turning eight this year, to make sure I mark on my calendar for a baptism date for him. (Aww, my little baby boy is all grown up and making adult decision...proud of you son.) Talk about birthdays....my Stephanie celebrated her 19Th birthday this year. OMG, I have a practically adult child in my home. What the heck happen?..it seems like it was only yesterday that I came home from the hospital with a pink bundle in my arms and look now she's all grown up. That was practically how old I was when I got married....I am definitely getting old. (Father Time, you need to slow down, my kids are growing bigger and bigger every time I blinked.)

Speaking of which...just before the summer ended, my hub and I went on a camping trip. A scout camping trip, just the two of us along with a bunch of other old people like myself, up on the mountain for two weekends without any kids to speak up and played boy scout for two weekends in a row. I tell ya, it was the absolute best. Just us the old folks, a bunch of trees and tents in our oh so cute boy scout uniforms...no kids in sight. No peeps from any little voices and oh the peace and quiet. Traffic noise was completely unheard of too. And I've learned a ton of useful things mostly on how to be an effective, fun and oh so wonderful scout leader. A greatest tool I picked up which I try using each day since then is the evaluation of self called Stop, Start, and Continue. Basically, every night before I go to sleep, I have to evaluate myself, check what I've done or have been doing throughout the day, month or year, whichever you prefer, but I stick with day(less stressful if it's on a small scale) and decide what I need to stop doing (in this case, stop procrastinating on just about anything, for example), what I need to start doing (I need to start blogging more...you get the picture) and what I need to continue doing if I am already doing good at it (continue smiling, just to make it easy, but you get the picture right?). We did this as a group tool at camp so I just adopt it to use it on myself...my hub who is always thinking on a larger scale is involving the rest of the family. It's a working progress.


And oh...did I mention? I am taking a class @BYUH. It's a Religion slash Relationship class and I am taking it with my hub. It's been a very eye opening and full of very useful information class. It's not a hard class. I am planning on going to school once my little Katie's started Kindergarten so I thought I'd get myself reacquainted with the classroom. I have been having a lot of fun and the professor totally ROCKS!! I think I'm going to stick with one class at a time til Kaitlin starts Kindergarten next school year. I gotta tell ya, it feels absolutely weird sitting in a classroom with kids my daughter Steph's age and it's been interesting.

Anyways, I know dear Miss Blogger I've practically bored you to tears with my attempt at this apology but I just thought I should at least explain a bit of why this lack of blogging all this time. I will definitely START blogging more and seriously STOP abandoning you like this again. DEAL? Will that be enough for you to forgive me? Please pretty please? ☺

Mahalo Plenty,

Eclipse and Some ramblings

So, my two girls and I went to see the movie Eclipse on opening night here in our own little comunity. Yes, we waited in line(but I hear we had the shortest line compared to all the other theaters out there in the US of A). Let me just say that we(meaning our family) don't usually go to opening night..don't particularly care about waiting up for mightnight showing and waiting in line for movie, but my daughter Jen wanted to go and she paid for mine and Steph's tickets so it's not something I could pass up. Plus, my girls went to opening night of Iron Man 2 and they said they did trivia before the movie started and it was fun so they wanted to see if they would do the same thing for Eclipse.

I gotta say, I think I had more fun before the movie than during it..LOL. The workers walked around asking questions from the book and rewarding anyone who answered correctly with candy. They even had some door prizes that they were giving away. Two of the door prizes were the life size cardboard pictures of Edward and Jacob. No, we didn't win any prizes but a friend of my son won the life size image of Edward. So he called up my son Chris to go over and take the picture off his hand. Chris thought it would be a really good idea to get reactions out of his sisters.

First night we got Edward, he waited til his sisters went to bed, then he snuck in their rooms and stood Edward up by their beds. Yes, I think you can imagine the reactions when they first opened their eyes to see a man standing in their rooms...LOL. Jonathan has then joined in on the fun by placing Edward in some parts of the house where when one walks in the door, there's Edward about ready to launch at you. Stephanie has attacked Edward more often this week, she's lost count of it. She has even thrown Edward out the window but he kept coming back in the house(LOL).

(This is the exact cardboard image we have at our house right now.)


Now here's the funniest part of the whole thing....both Chris, Jonathan along with their dad are on a Boys Scout camp this week, they left Sunday evening and will not be back til sometime Saturday or Friday. So, Edward has been scaring us girls. I moved him to stand by the back door and every time the girls got up from the living room to walk to the kitchen, they would jumped back a step and muffled a little cry and then of course, a few seconds later, they would clutch their chest because for a minute there they thought someone was in the house...LOL. Jen kept thinking her dad had come home and didn't bother to announce his arrival(yeah, the pasty white complexion of Edward could easily be compared to my hub's skin complexion..LOL). I think I've more than once had my heart jumped a few times yesterday everytime I exited the living room to go out the back door. I guess maybe our family may be a little twisted sense of humor because we all enjoy scaring the wits out of each other. I can almost smell a bet going on in our house about who would get scared by Edward life size cardboard image the most.

Which reminds me....I actually like Eclipse way better than New Moon. I am glad that I was able to go with my girls on opening night and the line was worth the wait. My girls are already thinking for the fourth movie, instead of watching it in Laie, we're going to hit up one of the big theaters in town. I need to re-read the fourth book, it's actually my favorite one of them all. What about y'all, did you see the movie Eclipse and what did you think about it?

BTW...happy belated 4th of July. Hope y'all had a great 4th of July weekend, ours was very quiet, just the way I like it.

Could This Really Be?

Jen's friend showed this video to her and she thought it was such a sweet video, she couldn't wait to share it with me. I have to agree with my daughter, this is the cutest and sweetest thing ever. I guess love really has no bounds. I thought I'd share this with y'all. Actually, watching this, I wanted to go out and find me a little cub too. Enjoy!

Happy blogging and God bless!!

Weeks of Creativity

I did again...I've neglected my blog again. I've noticed that I haven't posted in a month. I can't seem to shake what ails me(LOL)...I guess I'm just not a diligent blogger. Oh well...

Anyways, I've been trying to be productive around my house to make it look like there is really an excuse for my looking busy when I'm actually not doing anything..LOL. Our card group is meeting again tonight and on top of that, we have Cub Scout pack meeting tonight also...I'm supposed to help my den come up with some talent for tonight. Let me tell you something, I am not that in the spotlight kinda talent person. I suck at dancing, singing, and just about anything that would have me up on the stage. Yes, we're talking stress here people. So, to get my mind off this stress that would've eventually put me in a psych ward, I decided to focus on the card night because let's face it, that is my best cure for stress.

Our Card exchange theme for this month is either Graduation or Wedding. So I camped out online looking for some very elegant, creative and beautiful technique and came upon a technique I just had to try. And what makes it even better was that I have all the supplies in my craft supplies. The next image is my card that I will be exchanging tonight...it's a wedding card, called a Double Pocket Card. (Click on that bold phrase if you want a tutorial of this card.)

There are two pockets on the front of the card where I put a tag for whatever sentiments anyone wants to put on it and a gift card in the other pocket. Creative uh?


I actually had so much fun with the above card, I decided to make a matching Cable Box as seen in the picture below. Now, I just need to find something in the theme of wedding to put in there. Totally fun and very elegant box, don't u think?


But it doesn't stop there...I was still having so much fun, I made another box. This is a 3" x 3" Note Card Tote. I used a cute stamp set called Forest Friends..a set I got for free from StampinUp. Yeah, I haven't made the note cards yet, but I will do that when I figure out who to give this to.


Next up is a 3" x 3" Notecard Box. Go here if you want to make this box too.


Next up is a little treat box that hold little Chirardelli square chocolate called Chirardelli Box. I need to add a little sentiment to it and maybe a little more embellishment in the front, maybe a little decorated latch to keep the box close.



A couple months ago we had a legal problem with our neighbors and there were a couple of guys who helped us out with our battle so my hub asked me to make them a couple of thank-you cards and maybe make something for their wives too. I finally got around to making them some assorted cards to give as gift and I made these two boxes below to put those cards in, to make it look more like a gift. These two boxes are called Card Purses...see how perfectly the cards and envelopes fit in the boxes? Cool, uh? And the neat thing is when they peruse all the cards, they can keep purses and use it for some other stuff...I love things that has multiple uses. (Thanks Laura for helping me with the cards.)




There is a running joke that I always tell people about myself. And that is, when I get overly stressed out about something, I tend to want to do something creative and I found that niche in my card making. I find that the more stressed out I am (I tend to want to make complex cards) the better and more creative my cards look. I kinda went crazy all of last week and this week making all these boxes and cards. Yesterday I thought I was done being creative, but instead I ended making the card in the next image. It is called a Magic Card. I have to take a several pictures of the card so you can see by what I mean when I say this card is a magic card.

Here's the card at first glance...completely boring looking, right? But look, there's a tap to pull it up...let's see what happens.


Here's a little pull....


and another pull...see any changes?


..more pull on the tap...


..and here the tap is pulled out completely. Whoa, how did that image end up in full color? Cool, uh? I had loads of fun making this and even more fun showing it off to my family. Everytime I show one of the kids the card, they just look at it with no interest and then when I started pulling on the tap, the expressions on their faces was worth all the hard work put into this card.


So there you have it folks...my little bits of creativity for the time being. If any of you are interested in making some these cards and boxes, you check out the gallery and tutorials on Splitcoaststampers website. They have a weekly challenge that host every week, I've joined it but I am not as diligent in posting the stuff I made in their gallery. Mainly because most of the time when I make the items in the challenge, I often forget to take pictures until after I've given the stuff away. Something I need to work on.

Hope you enjoy what you see...have a great Memorial weekend and God bless!!

P.S. It's She said/He said over at the Venus & Mars blog today and I'm going the She Said perspective...check it out and let us know your feelings of flirting while in a relationship.

Friday Confessional

Psssst...see that sign up ↑ there? A fellow blogger is doing a confessional Friday every week so this week I've decided I want to give it a try. I'm new at this so bear with me. I've heard that nothing rejuvenate a person more than confessing some secrets onto a total stranger(ok, so I made that up, maybe somebody said that but for the life of me, I can't remember who).

Maybe I should do this confession thing Catholic style so here goes nothing;
Father, forgive me for I have sinned:

• I attended a funeral today and instead of being overly sad for the family, I was feeling a bit angry. Angry because the man who passed away was a good man...he's made a great positive impact on all who knew him. I can't really understand why good people had to die while there are awful people who live to implict pain on others still live.
• I stayed up late into the night camping on the computer and then when daytime comes, I'm too tired to do anything worthwhile or productive.
• I am now addicted to the game Farmville on Facebook...as if I don't have enough addictions already.
• I am the least consistent person. I can't seem to stick to a daily routine.
• I get bored of repetitious stuff...which explains why I'm the worst house keeper in the world.
• I've gained more weight in the last few months than I did over the years.

There ya go...my first patch of confession for this week. Oh yeah...today over at the Mars/Venus blog is meet the blogger day and yes, you guessed it..I'm the blogger squirming on the spotlight chair today. The floor is totally open over there for anyone to ask me any question they want to know about me. So head over there and shoot some questions my way.

In the meantime, enjoy your weekend.

WIMTS-Week 5

So, it's been a while since I last did one of these. But since it's Wednesday today and I'm in the mood to say what's really on my mind, this is just perfect. Feel free to check Chief out and play along.

My son, Jon lately has been going through the whining and complaining stage. I don't know, maybe all the hormones or whatever it is that comes with puberty is hitting him from all sides or something. Seriously, the boy complains and whines about everything. It doesn't matter what it is, whether chores, homework, a little errand, if I ask him to do anything, I will be hearing his whining and complaining til I just want to beat my head against the wall.

Last week, he had been complaining and whining pretty much non-stop and I just let it go. A couple days ago, I told him to wash the dishes, OMG, you should hear him whine. First, he tried coming up with an excuse not to do it, then he asked why couldn't I ask his older brother to do it and when he realized that I was standing my ground, he had no choice but to do the dishes, he started crying and then throw in my face about how unfair I was and that I love his brothers more than him that's why I was making him do chores and I'm a mean mom.

What I did..I just told him it's not true, I don't love his brothers more.

What I meant to say and should've have said was....

"Yes, I'm a mean mom and I'm sorry that I'm unfair, life is unfair so deal with it. And I must have hated you so much that I am trying my darnedest to raise you to become responsible human being so that when you do get married, your future wife won't complain to all her friends and family about what a terrible husband you are who can't even wash his own dish and can't do anything. Yes I guess I must have hated you so much that I am pushing you to be a better human being, that you'll learn to be successful in whatever you do so that you do not grow up to be a menace to society."

There ya go, my WIMTS for today. I mentioned before that I would like to send all you nice ladies beautiful hand-made Mother's day card so if interested, hit me up through email. I still have some of yours from last year, I do would like to send to all of you who follow me..FIRST PRIORITY to me..anyone else interested, send me your physical addy through email.

Have a great day and happy blogging!!

Charitable Acts of Two Angels

My husband and I got married in Texas and lived there for the first eighteen months of our married life together. It wasn't long after we got married that I found myself pregnant with our first child and suffering through the worst morning sickness ever. I had morning sickness (why anyone would call it that when it was practically an all day and night type of sickness is beyond me) pretty much all nine months of my pregnancy.

So here I was, married to the love of my life but living so far from my family, in a strange place where everything is different from what I was used to. My husband was working two jobs so that we can save up money to go back to school so his days started off at six in the morning when he leaves for work and didn't come home til nine at night. I didn't know anyone except for my in-laws. I didn't know how to drive so pretty much anywhere I needed to go, my hub had to take me. So I just kept to our apartment.

My first Sunday in our new ward, a beautiful red-head introduced herself to me and not long after that, she started visiting me at my apartment. As it turned out, she was assigned my visiting teacher. That first visit to my place, I met my other visiting teacher. These two ladies ended up being two of the most charitable ladies I've ever known. They were not the regular kind of visiting teachers who just come to visit me once a month and then relayed the message and then I don't see them til the next month's visit.

They started taking turns to come visit me if not everyday, every other day. On those days that they didn't visit, they would call me to see how I was doing. Phone would ring and I'd pick it up and it's one of them calling...

"I'm heading out to the grocery store, I thought I'd come pick you up and bring you along in case there might be something you'd be needing from there." or

"I'm taking my kids to the pool, want to come along and keep me company?"

One of them home-schooled her kids so she would call around lunchtime.."I'm making my kids lunch so I thought I'd come pick you up to join us...how's tuna sandwich sound to you?"

The other lady would call and say.."I just got a feeling to call and see how you're doing. How about I come pick you up and you can hang out with me, keep me company while my kids are in school and we can visit?"

Little things like that, totally meant a great deal to me. I was alone during the day and they kept me company. And they might make it sometimes sounded like I was doing a favor when in reality they were the one helping me. They had gone beyond the call of duty by taking me under their wings and did some of the things that I couldn't have done by myself. And mostly, they have shown such great love and compassion by being wonderful friends who would go out of their way to make a stranger feel welcome.

A few weeks before my baby was born, they called me up to let me know they wanted to throw me a baby shower but they wanted me to pick the date I wanted. Where I come from, we celebrated the 10Th day of a baby's life...something about when a baby is ten days old, he/she is kinda out of harm's way (I'm not even sure if that's true or not). So these two wonderful women went out and invited every RS member in our ward (only a handful of them I knew) to come to the shower. They had instructed each woman to come with a gift(any gift of their choice) plus a blanket and then on the side, they had gotten together with these ladies also to make a baby quilt for my baby. I went to the shower and had the one of the best times of my life and came away with almost two carload of baby stuff.

It was the most generous thing any one's ever done for me. I was humbled and in total awe of these two ladies' incredible compassionate attribute and their generous act of kindness. They reached out to me when I needed it most and even in all those times they were helping me, to help me fit in, they never once make me feel pathetic like I was some helpless child. Everything they did for me, I could truly feel the genuineness of their act. To me, they were like these guardian angels sent to earth specifically for me. To this day, I will always remember these two angels masquerading around on earth as humans who had taken a very young and unsure bride and mother under their wings to care for her as if she were one their own. Because of what they did for me in that early year of my married life, I hope that one day (I am always looking for ways to help anyone who might have been in my shoes back then) I can return the favor and show the same act of kindness to someone else who may need it.