Thanks to my momma!

I have been thinking about my mom a lot lately. I played the piano for a funeral today and was reminded of how important it is to enjoy the time we have with those we love. My mom's birthday is coming up on August 1st and (don't tell her, but) she is getting pretty old. ;) She would kill me if she heard me say that. She is so excited because she gets to be a grandma pretty soon (not me! Kimberly is preggars). Not that she will let anyone call her a grandma, she is adamant that our kids will call her "big sister." She has battled breast cancer, raised her family in America far away from her family, and started her at home business (the day care). I have learned a lot from my mom over the years and I am so grateful for the wonderful woman she is and the lessons she has taught me. I figured I should write down a few of those lessons, or rather, my twist on things that her example showed me:

I love my little Thai mom! ( I love my dad too. He is wonderful)

• Always jump in and help when you see people in need and don't leave till the job is done. 
• Treat everyone as if they are important regardless of what they, others, or even I may think.
• If one friend is good 1000 friends is better (if my mom had a facebook account she would have sooooooo many more friends than I do) and each of those friends is important.
• Love the world around you (even when it smells like cows outside). 
• Take lots of pictures of the food you eat (so you can remember how good it looked and why you ate it when you realize you put on weight from it).
• Take lots and lots of pictures....
• Lots and lots of pictures....
• No really lots of pictures..... (I think its the Asian part of her coming out)    :)
• If you do for others and give to others with genuine intent to be helpful and caring, they will give back (remember the lines of people at our wedding?! Whew!)
• Laugh a lot
• Love a lot more
• Cheer for your favorite basketball team even if they are losing. And if you can't continue to say anything nice about them, change the channel. :) 
• Even though your are thousands of miles away from home, you can make "home" anywhere as long as you have family, friends, and love.
• Be your best and do your best always. If you didn't do your best, you didn't work hard enough. 
• It's important to provide your family with nice things when you can. 
• Keeping a house neat and tidy really is best (even though I'm still working on that skill). 
• Never return a dish empty.
• Always do a little more than you promised. 
• Always play April Fools jokes on people, even if they aren't very convincing. 
• Give every single person you know a Christmas gift, even if it's just a homemade plate of cookies. 
• Openly express your love. 
• Welcome new people into your life with open arms. 

People say I look just like her. I think it's pretty close. :) 

This picture is absolutely one of my favorites. My parents absolutely love Lyle and he loves them back. They are so happy to have him as a son. (I love his parents too, of course, they are wonderful). 

My mom and my sisters. I love all of them. :)

I have been blessed to have such a wonderful family and to have such a great mom. 

"Hope Ya Know, We Had a Hard Time"

You know those days where you wish you could just hold up in a blanket, stay and bed, and just pray that tomorrow will get here already? Well, today has been one of those days, and it's only noon. What on earth am I going to do with myself for the rest of the day? That is one of those questions that I have asked myself every single day for the last few months. I look around me, in a house where we are guests, in a town where I only know about 5 people, and I know that it is going to be another day of being my own best friend. The funny thing is, that even when I feel so miserable and I want to cry (and may have been crying all day, so far), I am always reminded that I am never really alone. While I was sitting here on the couch, this phrase came to me, "Hope ya know, We had a hard time." I went and looked up the talk by Elder Quentin L. Cook from October 2008. It's funny how words from an apostle of the Lord, who doesn't even know me, are written just for me in my times of need. Incase you don't remember it, or haven't heard it, I'm going to quote a little of it :

"Last winter my daughter had a white-knuckle experience driving in a severe snowstorm. She reminded me of a similar situation I had with my two sons many years ago. My youngest son, Joe, was three years old, and my son Larry was six. We were traveling by car from San Francisco to Utah in June. The weather had been very good.

As we started our ascent to the Donner Pass summit in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, suddenly and without warning an enormous snowstorm hit us. None of the drivers was prepared. A semitruck in front of us had jackknifed and was spread across two lanes. Other trucks and cars had slid off the freeway. One lane was open, and many vehicles, including ours, were desperately trying to gain traction to avoid the other vehicles. All traffic then came to a halt.

We were not prepared for this blizzard in June. We had no warm clothing, and our fuel was relatively low. I huddled with the two boys in an effort to keep us warm. After many hours, safety vehicles, snowplows, and tow trucks began to clear up the massive logjam of vehicles.

Eventually, a tow truck hauled us to a service station on the other side of the pass. I called my wife, knowing she would be worried because she had expected a call the prior evening. She asked if she could speak to the two boys. When it was the three-year-old’s turn, with a quivering voice, he said, “Hope ya know, we had a hard time!”

I could tell, as our three-year-old talked to his mother and told her of the hard time, he gained comfort and then reassurance. Our prayers are that way when we go to our Father in Heaven. We know He cares for us in our time of need."

Elder Cook continues and quotes Elder Harold B. Lee: “Sometimes the things that are best for us and the things that bring eternal rewards seem at the moment to be the most bitter, and the things forbidden are ofttimes the things which seem to be the more desirable.” ⁴


As of this exact moment, I'm still having a hard time and I don't expect that to change in the next few minutes. However, I can face my hard times now and in the future with a positive attitude and faith that I am not alone in my trials. I am grateful for these little reminders of my Heavenly Father's love. 


I know this is not a sunshine and sparkles post, but hopefully it helps some of you now or in the future. :)