Layout from yesterday's Photoshop 101 class

I did a layout from the pictures I took yesterday at our little Photography class.  I think it turned out awesome if I don't say so myself.

We had an awesome lesson by President Newman today in Sunday School.  It was the 2nd half of the Sermon on the Mount lesson that we started last week.  Today we mostly discussed forgiveness and repentance and the Atonement and how they all work in our lives.  The discussion was very good.

It reminded me a lot of the talk I gave on the Atonement a couple of years ago.  It was good to have those things brought back to remembrance again.

A couple of the scriptures we discussed were D&C 64:9-10
9 - Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.
10 - I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.

We also talked a lot about forgiveness from Matthew 6 in the New Testament.

These are the notes I took about the discussion we had - It doesn't matter what it was, we HAVE to forgive them in order to fully partake of the Atonement.  Even if the person who wronged us or hurt our feelings or sinned against us hasn't repented or shown remorse, it is still required that we forgive them. or we are under the greater condemnation.

What I learned today..............

My sister Heidi and I did a digital scrapbooking workshop today at my ward.  We had about twice as many people as we originally anticiptated showing up for it.  There was quite a bit of interest.  It was fun but really hard to teach very much with only 3 hours.  I'm sure many of them left frustrated and lost, but don't give up ladies!  It just takes practice.  We are hoping to get a little group together to meet once a month to help each other along.  I think it will be fun!  It will make us get some scrapping done and keep it fresh in our minds.

Then, we had lunch.  Yummy soups!  Thanks everyone who brought some.

Then we had a photography 101 class from Ashley Taylor, our ward resident photographer and this is what I learned
F-Stop
ISO
White Balance
and what it means to open up all the way, blow out the sky and a bunch of other stuff too!  It was so fun!  We had awesome models from our ward and these are two of my favorite shots I did.

The thing I didn't learn was how am I supposed to get my boys to cooperate like these girls did for a photo shoot? That is the big mystery.

Cub Scouts

Well, I'm going through co-Scout leaders like crazy.  #2 down and ready and waiting for #3.  I didn't know I was so difficult to work with!  Just kidding, the last one moved a few blocks and is now no longer in our ward!  Have fun with them 5th ward!

My Scout den is full of energy!  It isn't so bad, because there are only 4 of them, they are all actually pretty fun to be around.  Very different personalities though.  It is interesting.  Two meetings ago, we worked on our Indian Lore achievements.  They made paper bag Indian vests and wrote a story in Indian picture drawings on them.  I should have taken a picture of their backs because only one of them wrote on the front.

Last week, we had them practice the skit they were doing for the Blue and Gold Banquet and this week was the actual banquet.  They did pretty good on their skit, but they kept turning around and weren't facing the audience, so I don't know if anyone heard them or not.
The gist of their skit was, they were going on a hike, one of the Scouts stops and yells, “I think I’m

having a heart attack!” then falls to the ground. The other Scouts start rescue breathing and chest compressions to save him. The one that is doing chest compressions says, “I’m getting tired, maybe we should switch,” then they all get up and rotate spots, including the one that was having the heart attack. When I first read through it, I didn’t get it, I thought only the ones doing the saving were switching, but it was much funnier when the one having the heart attack switched too. They all wanted a turn, so all four of them ended up having a heart attack. Then at the end, (they added this on themselves) they all stood up and said. “Oh no! I think I’m having a heart attack!” and then all fell to the ground. They were pretty cute!.

The Fudginator

We had our annual Ward Blue and Gold Banquet tonight.  Trevin made a cake for the cake auction.  Supplies were limited by the time I found out he had to make a cake, so we went with what was on hand.  He had fun making it and he won the award "The Fudginator" for his cake.  He thinks it looks like a giant chocolate donut with sprinkles.  There were some fun cakes this year.  The dinner was good, the Scouts did great with their skits, we didn't win the cake we really wanted, but we did end up with one.

In addition...

.....to the post Sunday about serving and being the answer to other's prayers, I saw this great quote on Facebook today and thought I'd share.

"In the end, the number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness, but the number of prayers we answer may be of even greater importance." - President Dieter F. Uchtdorf



Isn't that a great quote!

Fat Cats

Several months ago, we bought a GROUPON coupon for Fat Cats.  It was like WAYYYYY cheap for 2 hours of bowling, 2 pitchers of soda, a large pizza and breadsticks.  We finally used it on Monday for family night and had a blast!  Maybe I just say that because I WON round 2!  We were able to get in 3 full games of bowling.  Tyrel won the first and last round and mom unexpectedly won round 2.  Yes, that would be me, the mom.  I'm not proud or anything.  Really our scores were pretty close and it was anybody's game all the way to the end of each round.

I love hanging out with my boys!

Service Lesson

Liz gave yet another great lesson in Relief Society today.  The lesson was on service.  She gave us all cards to write who we were going to serve this week.  I have mine written down and it is something I've been going to do for about a month now.  So, now that I have it written down, I'm definitely going to do it this week.  Here are a couple of other things I wrote on my paper that she mentioned in the lesson.

"WE are the way that Heavenly Father answers the prayers of others."

Why does the Lord have us serve?  Because He can't be here to take care of us Himself, it is through others that He takes care of us.

I didn't mention this story in class, but it reminded me of when Trevin was a baby.  It was the Saturday before we were blessing him in church, we had company coming and I ended up getting mastitis.  Not fun.  I was achy, chilled, running a fever and had all the preparations to make for people coming and dinner after the blessing.  Both of my brothers were coming on Saturday and staying over and I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner.  Right about the time I was ready to burst into tears, the doorbell rang.  Maxyne Haskell stood at the door with a giant family sized Stouffers Lasagne, salad, french bread and something for dessert that I can't remember.  She was apologizing that it had taken her so long to get over with a meal and she was feeling bad that he was almost 2 months old and she was barely bringing us dinner.  But, I knew why it took her so long..... until that day, I hadn't needed help with dinner, that was the day I needed it the most and that was the day Heavenly Father sent someone to help me.  Thanks Maxyne!

Thanks Liz for the great lesson and the kick in the pants to get me to write about that great act of service and helping me recognize the tender mercies we recieve from our loving Father in Heaven!