Thoughts on serving a mission

Following President Monson's announcement concerning the lowering of the missionary ages I received this Facebook message from my niece Natalie "Sooo, list of of pros and cons of going on a mission: Go!"  I wasn't surprised to hear from her.  She and I had talked about serving missions and now with the new age requirements she could leave immediately if she wanted to.  What did surprise me is my reaction to her request.  I told her that I would put together a list for her but the more I thought about it, I didn't think a list would work so I'm wrote her this letter instead.

Dear Natalie,

Pros and Cons of a mission huh?  If you had asked me this 10 years ago, I probably could have have given you quite the list of Pros and Con's, but 10+ years out I honestly can't think of one negative to serving a mission.  I don't know how much you know about my experience serving a mission but I had a pretty rough mission.  I had a few companions that struggled with health issues, both mental and physical.  Towards the end of my mission I was diagnosed with depression and every day was a struggle for me to go out and do the Lord's work.  When I got home I was a very angry, scared and bitter person.  I could think of SO many reasons for someone to NEVER serve a mission but with time and age has come a perspective that I never thought I would have.  

I look back on my mission and it seems as though all those struggles and trials that I went through weren't so bad.  They made me the person I am today and for that I am eternally grateful.  The truth is that I had probably been dealing with depression most of my life, but it wasn't until my mission that I understood what it was.  On my mission I learned things about myself that would've taken me years to figure out at home.  I learned how to recognize the signs of depression and coping skills that I still find useful and valuable to this day.  I know without my mission I would not be the mom I am today.  

Serving a mission brought me closer to my Heavenly Father.  While in the depths of my depression I remember calling out to the Lord and begging him to release me from this torment and pain.  I just wanted to feel joy again.  I remember feeling a great peace settle over me and I thought of Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail. This scripture came to my mind "My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversary and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all they foes. Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands." (D&C 121:7-9) "The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?" (D&C 122:8) I knew that the Lord had not forsaken me.  He knew my pain.  It was on my mission that I learned what the Atonement really meant to me, in my life.  I learned to believe Christ.  I learned to trust him, to love him, and to be perfected in him instead of doing it on my own.

So, here is my advice about choosing whether to serve a mission.  

1. Know that there is never going to be a good time.  There will always be school, auditions, family obligations, relationships, work.  

2. I know Josie and Amy said that if they had gone on missions they wouldn't have met their husbands.  I know that if I hadn't had gone on a mission I never would've met mine.  

3. Finally, just make a decision.  Decide Yes, decide NO, but make a decision.  Trust me, the Lord will let you know if you've made the right choice or not.  

I'm sure you already know that I had originally decided not to go on a mission.  For days after making that decision I had a weight on my chest that wouldn't go away.  When I finally knelt in prayer and told the Lord that I would serve that weight was lifted and replaced with a sure knowledge that I was supposed to serve.

Yes, it will be hard to leave your family behind and have minimal contact with them.  It is hard to leave your friends and all that you've known to go someplace new.  It can be a joy and a struggle to live and work with someone so closely day after day.  But the blessings that you'll reap, and that will be showered upon those you left behind, by your service are beyond compare.  They cannot be measured and are worth every sacrifice that you'll make.  

You will love and bless the people that you serve and they will bless you.  Thanks to this modern age, you will be able to keep in contact with them.  You will be able to see some of them, after accepting the gospel and choosing to get baptized, get married in the temple and start eternal families of their own.  The joy you will feel as you watch them progress in the gospel is indescribable and you will thank your Heavenly Father everyday for allowing you to be a part of their story.  Trust me, I know. 

I'm sorry I couldn't give you a concise Pro/Con list but I hope this will suffice.  

Let me leave you with this, I never have nor will I ever regret serving a mission.  I look back now and I see no cons to missionary service.  I only see the pros and how they helped me change and grow.  I am honored that the Lord deemed me worthy and capable of missionary service.  If you choose to go it will not be easy.  There will be times you want to quit but if you hang in there and spread the good news of the gospel, I PROMISE you, you will find joy in your journey.  

Love, 

Amy

S#x Education...Animal Style

Recently we make a pilgrimage to the promised land that is Utah.  We spent a glorious/gluttonous week in the cooler weather (in the 90's is cooler for us) touring temple square, going to the "beach" (a man-made reservoir with a man-made beach with trucked in gravel/sand), celebrating birthday's, eating dessert everyday, running because we ate dessert everyday, drinking real soda vs. diet, setting off fireworks, playing games, and mugging on the cutest baby with the sweetest dimples. (Gratuitous pictures to come...)

To celebrate Carma's 6th birthday we made a trip to Utah's Hogle Zoo.  We met 3 of my sister's there and had a great time catching up, looking at animals, riding the train and carousel, and getting a surprise/graphic lesson in s#x education courtesy of the gorilla's.

Upon arriving at the zoo Cyrus made it clear that he wanted to see the gorilla's.  So I made sure that one of our first stops was the primate building.  We were told that the gorillas are sometimes sleeping or hiding in the back so we may not see very much of them.

Well...

Not seeing very much of the gorillas was NOT a problem for us AT ALL.

Before I had made it all the way into the building my nephew Chandler came back out and said that maybe we shouldn't go in there right now.  I was like, "Why not?".  He looked at me with a goofy grin and whispered, "The gorillas are having S#X!".

I laughed. Ha ha ha! I told him my kids won't even know what is going on and if they ask, I'll tell them that they are wrestling. Come on, let's go in!

This is what we saw:

The gorilla's were quite clearly having s#x, the male was using some pretty powerful thrusts to get his point across.  But, in case we were confused about what we were viewing Cyrus, MY Cyrus told my sister, "That's a male and that's a female, and they're mating."

Say what?

Did my 7 year old just describe this s#xual encounter correctly?

Why yes, yes he did.

Thank you Netflix for your informative animal shows that I didn't even bother screening because I figured they were safe and educational.  Well, they were educational alright!

So, do you think we can consider the "s#x talk" taken care of?

Ya, I didn't think so.


*Please pardon the # sign in place of the e in s#x.  I don't want people searching for s#x and coming across my blog.

Urine Trouble! (but not really...)

This is Cyrus.

Cyrus sleepwalks.

It is usually the urge to pee that pulls him out of his bed in a sleepy stupor. Most often he comes into our room lost and confused. He tries to climb into bed with us, but I have learned through trial and error (and bathroom floors covered in an insane amount of urine) to steer him in the direction of the bathroom. I have also learned through trial and error that it is in my best interest to accompany him to the bathroom, lift the toilet seat, help him...ahem...aim and shoot, flush the toilet, wash his hands, and guide him back to bed.

We don't normally worry about Cyrus and his sleepwalking tendencies because he has, for the most part, always come into our room and made us aware of the situation. His relatively consistent sleepwalking routine lulled us into a false sense of security.

That is, until the other night that Dave found him sleeping on the couch at midnight.

 He roused Cyrus and asked him what he was doing on the couch. Cyrus said, "I just fell asleep." Well, we know he didn't happen to "just" fall asleep seeing as how we tucked him into his bed safe and sound at 7:30 pm. Dave put him back in his bed, then he did a quick check for any pee puddles in the bathroom and called it good. He came in and told me what happened. We giggled, said goodnight and went to bed.

I honestly didn't give Cyrus' strange appearance on the couch another thought until later that day when I noticed a strange smell coming from the laundry room.

Our "laundry room" if you can call it that, is basically the hallway that leads into the garage with the washer and dryer shoved to the side. As we left in the morning to run errands and see friends my nose was assaulted by an offense smell. I looked around for a forgotten poopy diaper, or a rancid washcloth. I couldn't find anything so I thought maybe it was just me and we left.

The smell was still there when we got back.

Every time I went into the laundry room or passed by it I could smell something awful. Through years of experience and missed aiming in the bathroom I was able to identify the smell as urine, but I was still at a loss to find out where it was coming from. I looked in the corners, checked for dried puddles, no luck. It is not a very big room and the smell was getting stronger by the minute.

I started sniffing around and using my Super Mom sense of smell I found the area where the smell was the strongest....

the Shoe Box.

I moved some shoes around and gagged both from the smell and sight of a large puddle of urine that had accumulated at the bottom of the Box.

All I could do was laugh/gag. And I laughed HARD. I showed Cyrus the results of his sleepwalking escapade. Thinking he was in trouble he tried to pass the blame onto Carma. That made me laugh even harder as I pictured Carma popping a squat over the Shoe Box to relieve herself in the middle of the night. When he realized that I wasn't mad he started to relax and started to laugh at himself as well.

I then spent the next 45 minutes cleaning out the Box and washing shoes. I also had to spray everything with disinfecting/odor neutralizing spray because even after washing everything I COULD STILL SMELL THE PEE!

Life lesson(s) learned:
No more water for Cyrus at bed time.
Make sure he goes to the bathroom before bed.
Put a deadbolt on the laundry room door.

Valentine's Day Happenings

Things have been crazy busy around here, but not too busy for some fun Valentine's Day Happenings.

Valentine FHE:

On January 31st, we had a Family Home Evening about Love.  We read and discussed Matthew 5:43-44.  For our activity I had cut out a TON of hearts from pink, red, and white construction paper.  On the hearts we wrote things and people we love/are grateful for.  Examples:  Each other, Family, Gospel, Days off Work, Jesus Christ, School, Jobs, etc....  Then we taped all of the hearts to our pantry door with signs that said, "We Love..."  We finished off the night with homemade Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.  It was one of those rare FHE's that was a success.  I see the start of a great family tradition.  Love it!

The 14 Days of Valentine's:


I used the FHE to also introduce another family tradition that I hope to continue, The 14 Days of Valentine's.  I found these cute little mailboxes in the dollar section at Target.  I cut out the kids' names in vinyl using my Cricut and put them on the front.

Here's how it goes, for the first 14 days of February when the flag is up on their mailbox, my kids will find a small treat or token in their box.  It's nothing big.  A Dove Chocolate, a Hershey's Kiss, a Valentine Pencil, a small heart balloon.  I found most of their treats at the Dollar store.  I also plan on leaving some notes to tell them something I love about each of them.  This new tradition has been a HIT!  The kids love it, and to be honest, so do I.

I have to admit, I've never really been one to decorate or really get into Valentine's Day or some of the other lesser holidays BUT my kids have changed me.  It's not the Holiday's that make the day special.  It's my kids that make the Holiday special.

Stay tuned for:
Handmade cheap Valentine's decorations
My first ever banner
Great gift idea for a friend
Our Valentine's Day Dinner
My second 5k that I trained for in a little over a month
WICKED....eeeeK!!!! So freaking excited!!! and....

LOTS of catching up.  (Seriously didn't even realize that my last post was three weeks ago!)

7:18 PM....

and I'm already in bed.  Yep, dinner is put away, kids are in bed, my contacts are out, and my benadryl and melatonin have been ingested.  I'm guessing that I am going to be in dreamland sometime after Happy Endings and before Law & Order: SVU.

There's laundry in the washing machine, but I'm ignoring it.
My family room looks like a tornado (aka the Beast) went through it, and I'm ignoring it.
My counters are dirty, and I'm ignoring it.
The sink is full, and I'm ignoring it.

Why?

Because it's been this kind of day:

Yep, it's official, I'm losing it.

It's been a long couple days.  My frustration level on a scale of 1-10 has been consistently at a 9 over the past couple days.  Cy chose to pee in the wood chips on the playground yesterday, Princess won't stop talking and asking me "Why?", and the Beast is in a throwing stage.  I've gotten pretty good at dodging flying objects like the TV remote, wooden blocks, and remote control cars.  I dragged all three kids to two stores yesterday where they repeatedly asked me for candy and other crap.  Any effort I make to clean up is immediately destroyed by the Beast.  I've been battling a migraine for two days now.  There's a painful bump on the top of my head that actually woke me up in the middle of the night, and I can't even remember hitting my head.  I worked late last night and then got up early this morning to work some more.  I'm tired and just plain done.

So earlier this evening while I was in the kitchen attempting to get dinner started and some muffins made, the Beast came and started pushing on my legs, pulling at my pants, and screaming "Milck".  I got him his milk and then I started to unload the dishwasher.  I noticed my mistake with the milk WHEN I went to put a stack of plates in the REFRIGERATOR.   A STACK OF PLATES IN THE REFRIGERATOR.

Click-Clack.  That was the sound of me punching my time card.  I'm officially off the clock.  I'm going to bed with a positive attitude that tomorrow WILL be better.

Tomorrow I will tackle my messy house.
Tomorrow I will exercise.
Tomorrow my head will FINALLY stop hurting.
Tomorrow Princess will ask "Why?" one less time then she did today.
Tomorrow my son will NOT pee in an inappropriate place.
Tomorrow, the Beast will be nice and obedient and he won't throw anything at my head.

Well, a girl can dream right?

The Rest of Christmas 2011-Instagram Style

After getting home from church, putting our jammies back on, opening all our presents, eating our traditional Christmas Breakfast (bacon and eggs, with a new twist, waffles!), and taking some much needed naps, we headed out to Gramma's house for Christmas dinner AND to spend the week with the Bergy clan!!!

It was a very Bergy Christmas, so EVERYONE came.  Some even from far off distant lands like Texas, Utah, and Colorado.  Very, very exciting!  

So of course I documented the rest of Christmas with my new Iphone, because like I said I am now addicted to Instagram!  So, here is it goes....

Over the river (the Aqua Fria River, that is.  It's bone dry.  The most water we see in it is some puddles after it rains and those usually evaporate within the hour it stops raining.), and through the woods (Woods?  What woods?  Who are we kidding.  This is the Arizona desert.  We're lucky if trees grow here at all!), to Grandmother's house we go (DON'T EVER call my mother-in-law Grandmother OR Grandma.  She says Grandma was her mother-in-law and she is Gramma. Honestly, I don't hear much of a difference when pronounced, but whatever makes her happy.

We had a very yummy dinner of ham, potatoes, salad, and rolls.  Unfortunately, we got there 2 hours late and everyone had eaten without us. C'est la vie.  Those naps were worth having to reheat Christmas dinner.

This my niece Katie.  She dislikes having her picture taken.  She asked me if I was taking her picture.  I told her no, that I was just playing with my new Iphone.  She believed me.  Silly Katie.

The Beast broke up crackers into little pieces and then handed them to Grandpa. It was a fun game, just ask Grandpa.

This is the Pit.  It is where all the Bergy's gather after meals to get horizontal and let the food digest.  

After dinner we exchanged gifts, ate goodies, and enjoyed each other's company.  It truly was a great Christmas. 

Dave had the week after Christmas off.  So we packed up and spent the week at Gramma's house. It was a busy week filled with bouncing (Gramma rented a bounce house), birthday's, cousins, games, food, and more food!

Decisions, Decisions

The Beast is sleeping.

Dishes?

OR

Downton Abbey and blogging?

Decisions, Decisions.....