Be Prepared

Since I plan on writing on my blog every day, I don't really have a certain theme in mind. I just want to reflect back upon the day and feelings that I may have felt. Today, I title my topic, "be prepared." An incident occurred today in which I didn't have a diaper for Emma (I know this may sound a little trivial, but hear me out) and I had to leave for an hour, then come back to get her. I had a small prompting in the back of my mind that Emma may need a diaper and wipes, but since I was just driving up the street, I dismissed it and thought, "if there's a real emergency, I will be called and I can be there in 1 minute." Well, she did end up having a messy diaper and a diaper was found for her, but there were no wipes. When I picked her up 45 minutes later, she was crying and had a raw bottom. I felt so bad and put her in the bathtub at home, thinking that would relieve the redness. However, she kept crying and crying and I kept thinking, "if I had only left a diaper and wipes!" Because of my unpreparedness, my daughter was in pain. Although this is a minute incident and Emma was ok after a few hours, I thought, "maybe this is a warning sign for the future when something bigger comes up and I'm not 1 minute away." I need to be prepared to the best of my ability and ALWAYS listen to any promptings, no matter how small. This small experience reminds of a bigger experience in which we need to be prepared to meet our Savior. Because we know not when He will come. What if He comes in 5 days? Will we be prepared to look Him in the eye and tell Him that we've done everything we could to live with Him in the celestial kingdom? I wouldn't be prepared, so I hope that He doesn't come in 5 days, but I need to have this mindset because there will come a day when He does come in 5 days.

Till Death Do Us Part

I went to a wedding yesterday for one of my friends from high school. The wedding was perfect- from the flowers to the readings to the bridesmaids' dresses to the music, except for one thing: the priestess said they would be married "until death do you part." I tried to imagine how I would feel if I was the bride and heard that during the ceremony. I think that I may feel very sad - that I would lose my best friend when I died. I tried to think about feeling the Spirit in the ceremony, but it just wasn't there. There wasn't any animosity in the room (I would hope not during a wedding ceremony), but the overall feeling was one of happiness, yet bitterness. An image of the couple at death was one where the two were floating apart forever and ever and could not come back to each other. Then I imagined what the feelings would be like if the couple was getting married in the temple. How the Spirit and the love of Heavenly Father would be present. I can't describe in words how thankful I am for the blessings and covenants that we receive/make in the temple! Even though the path of my life has taken a different unplanned course during the last few years, I have never been more thankful for the temple and the promises that we can receive if we are faithful!

I even thought it was interesting that a woman was performing the ceremony; however, I did not think it that odd as I was thinking of certain experiences in the temple. I have gained a deeper understanding of the importance of temple work and how I need to be going as often as I can and to make it a priority. Don't we all want to end up with glory sitting next to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the celestial kingdom? What greater way to do achieve this than by going to the temple and truly understanding what the true love of Christ means. I hope that I never take these temple blessings for granted (I'm sure that I have and that I do) and that I can always have the desire to attend the temple.

Quick update

Quick update: Finally finally finally bought a camera on Black Friday. Canon Powershot 1200 for $129. I was really proud of my find, in spite of waiting in line for an hour (really not that bad for Black Friday). So I'm back and I am taking pics like crazy all the time, so I'll try to post more often. It's going to be one of my New Year's goals.

Below: a few pics from the last 2 weeks.

In loving memory of Mr. Fur

Blazer (Babes, Peaches, Sweet guy, Pooches, etc.) died at 13 years of age on Oct. 7, 2009.

Ems and I loved him. Here are some pictures of him.

Photo shoot

Here's a photo shoot that Ems and I did last month. I didn't think that I could post the pictures on my blog. I also put them on FB, so sorry for those of you who've already seen these! It was kind of fun this time because Emma knew how to smile when I asked her, and she wanted to hold her sheep and run to me. We got the pictures done at Picture People at the Santa Anita Mall. I recommend them. They're very affordable and you usually get a free 8x10. I also entered one of the pictures into a photo contest that they're having. I don't know what the prize is, but I thought it would be fun.

Summer pics

Sorry that I haven't put up more pictures. I still haven't gotten a new camera, so I've been borrowing my mom's or brother's, whoever happens to be around. Anyways, hopefully I'll get one within the next couple weeks and I'll be back to more posting. :)

Here are some pics from the last 2 months.

Fires

We almost had to evacuate last week from the La Canada fires. I heard that it was the

#3 story on the news all around the country. Whenever people ask where I live, I say the

Pasadena area because no one has ever heard of La Canada. Well, I guess they have now...

Here is a picture of my friends' house. I live about 1-2 miles away from here. Houses were

evacuated 2 blocks above me.

52 homes have been lost so far, 2 firefighters have died (one's wife is 8.5 mos. preg), over

140,000 acres have burned. I guess this is one sacrifice you make if you want to live in sunny

southern CA: to deal with fires and earthquakes.