I love getting occasional reaffirmations of truth...

Heavenly Father is so real and he loves us. I already know this. I have known for sure since I was 14. I have been fortunate enough in my life to never doubt that there was a God. I have never really understood when people that I have chanced to meet in my life (some close friends like Stuart and Chris) that don't believe there is a God. Chris even believed there was a devil but no God. I felt bad for him and tried to help him understand what I know to be true. I don't know what would motivate you to get up every morning if you didn't know there was an eternal purpose to your life, where you came from, why you are here, and where you are going. I am so grateul that I have been given the gift of faith to get me through this life and help when others' faith is faltering. Luke and I cannot think of anything that could happen to us, even if one of us were to die or something really bad happen, that would make us blame God and deny our faith. That is not to say that it wouldn't be hard, but I know without a doubt that our Heavenly Father loves and cares for his children and we cannot see the purpose or timeline for events and challenges in life. The gospel and plan of happiness has been given to us to help us cope and hope for things better and teach us how to serve one another. To me, everything in life shouts evidence that there is Grand Design and Diety watching over us. It only makes sense that we are God's children and he cares for us and wants to bless us with everything he can. But he also has to let us learn on our own no matter how hard it is on us. It is easy to question when we have challenges in our life why we have to go through things but it is to prove something to ourselves and learn truths about ourselves or about life. It reminds me about a question I asked is in seminary once- "If God knows everything including what choices I will make and the consequences and how I will end up, then why doesn't he just judge us and put us where we belong right now instead of going through this life?" The answer is, "Well because we would be upset and not believe that our result is really what we deserve because we didn't have a chance to prove ourselves to... ourselves. We would always think that things might have gone differently had we been given the chance." I loved that answer because it makes sense for why we are here. And that God loves us enough to let us suffer through pain to learn for ourselves, and be satisfied and feel real joy (Gracie's middle name) when we choose the right. I am grateful that Jesus Christ is our Savior and provided a way to come back home after proving ourselves.
Oh man, I am getting off on my testimony of the truth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. I was just going to get on and tell you how I love to get occasional reaffirmations of the truth. (But since I just bore my soul and it is typed now I will just leave it.)
I have been so worried about my wedding ring that has been missing for about a week now. I started getting really worried about it on Sunday and I have been looking all over and trying not to think about it at the same time. Today I woke up and searched a little and kept telling myself I need to pray. Like when I was a kid and would lose something and would always find it shortly thereafter. Well the morning got away from with the thought constantly nagging, just stop and pray to find it and you will. So finally I put Gracie down for a nap, and walked out and knelt down on the floor right there. I was frustrated with myself because I should have just done this earlier because I know he will help me find it. Well I started thanking Heavenly Father for my blessings and how he always helps me through things and then I told him my problem. I told him where I had looked already and that I knew he could help me find it. Then I said, "The only places left to look are..." I paused and all the sudden a disconnected thought came to my mind "beach bag front pocket" but then I kept thinking more and said, "so I could look in my beach bag and my purse and if they are not there I don't know where to look. I need your help." And I closed the prayer. Then being silly me I still looked in my drawer again and my medicine cabinet till I finally was like, "What are you doing Hollie? Duh, the beach bag was the first place you were told to look." So I ran downstairs found the beach bag, and sure enough, my wedding ring was inside the front pocket. I have NEVER received such an IMMEDIATE answer to my prayers. The answer was given to me right in the middle of the prayer. So crazy and awesome! I love my Heavenly Father and I am so grateful to find my ring. SO QUICKLY I can't believe it. Here's my ring and this is where it is going to stay. I am so giddy right now I wish I could bottle it up and save the extra for another time when I need it. I better watch out or I will hurt myself.

New 11 month pic...

She does this face all the time and sometimes with a little sound effect "oooh!" I love it. It made me realize how much her parents do it to her all the time when she finds new things or learns something new. And hey this one is free again.

Look What I Made...

I put this new birthday banner that I made up a little early. There are 4 people that I love whose birthdays are this week. So happy birthday to you... Haylee (my niece and I am her middle namesake)-27, Nixon (Gracie's boyfriend)-28, Karl (turning an old man)-29, and Luke (turning 28 and having a pre mid life crisis)-29. Have a special day!
Look at my new model since my usual one was unavailable. What do you think? Also the bibs are reversible with terry cloth on the back to give the wearer super absorption powers!! Yes way!
This one is thanks to the inspiration from Kara's and $3.00 at DI!

I am mentally challenged!

Luke came home from work today and said, "Maybe I should stay home and be the mom and you go to work because you like being mentally challenged."

We both smiled and laughed out loud. I think he was scared at first what reaction I was going to have because the words came out wrong but he didn't know it until he said them. It was so funny! I do like a good mental challenge and I miss that about mommyhood!

Not a Black Widow! I have no guts...

I am not gutsy enough to take closeups or even look at them for very long, but Luke is. This was right on the left side of our doorstep where Gracie stands all the time while I water our garden. Scary! I am glad the missionaries spotted it and Luke killed it, well he tried. It got away but Luke then sprayed the area thoroughly. After Luke drowned it in Ortho Home Defense it came crawling out slow enough that he could squash it. I did have enough guts to clean out his web. And I do have guts to do other usually stupide things just not buggy things. What about you? Do you have guts?

I definitely don't want to but...

It has been brought to my attention by some sweet someones how some things I write and post could hurt us if they got in the wrong hands. So just to get rid of the minute chance that something could go wrong, or my child was endangered, or I could get arrested, I am sadly going to make this blog private. I have resisted for a while because I didn't like it when others went private and it is such a hassle to have to log in to see a blog and not know when it is updated. I am always too optimistic about the goodness of humanity. But I do want the freedom of saying anything I want and posting anything I want because this is like a journal for our family. So for my family and the people I care about's security, please comment with your email address if you wan to have permission to read this blog. Also let me know YES/NO if you want an automatic email notice that "Hukenlollie" has been updated. That is the only way I can see around the inconvenience of going private. So sorry guys! You can give me a swift kick in the kiester when you see me next. Understand?

Our AC went out and I stayed in my swimsuit for over 24 hours!

It stopped blowing cold air about 4:00 pm on Thursday. We didn't know what was wrong but the AC guy couldn't come until the next day. So I still (stubbornly) followed through with cooking the ribs I had prepared with homemade BBQ sauce even though the oven would have to be on for an hour. If it's hot, why not just add a little more?
Then after eating we decided to go swimming to cool off, but then the missionaries dropped by and they left right before 9:00. We just went for a quick dip anyway. It felt so good.
We came home and watched Rush Hour cause Luke just bought it in the $5.00 bin. (Don't you love/hate that bin?) I fell asleep during the movie which makes me feel old and pathetic cause I never used to fall asleep during movies, even if I wanted to- you all know those times when you were trying to fake that you were asleep or the movie was just so boring you wish you could sleep...
So I pooped out on Luke in my swimming suit. He woke me up when the movie was over and I hurried up to bed trying not to wake up. Which means... YES, I slept that night in my swimming suit and I didn't brush my teeth or take my contacts out. It was a really hot night though and neither of us slept very well. It makes you really grateful for the AC. I wouldn't get anything done without it. The AC guy came at about 8:00 the next morning, thankfully. Then the whole day I was planning on going swimming with Gracie so I just stayed in my swim suit, but naps and other things took precedence and things got canceled. Then finally at about 7:00 pm after dinner, we went with our friends Kara and Clay and Nixon, swimming. Then we came home and got changed to go play volleyball. (I still hadn't gotten dressed for real.) We hurried over but the church was being used for a wedding. Dang! So what do you do if you can't burn calories? You go eat some. We ate very few calories, though, cause we went to Golden Spoon. It was delicious. After a good day and night with our friends and Gracie past bed time, we finally got back home. And I got dressed "for real" after taking a shower. It has been a very long time since I have worn my swim suit for that long and I am not planning to repeat it. We love cold AC!