Paying Attention and Loving

So many changes that have happened in over the year since I last posted. First we are in Utah and we doing better. Our little family has grown and we are blooming family of four. We are a fun and silly bunch which I'm glad to say that I learned from my family that I grew up in. Evelyn is a cute toddler who understands two languages, French and English, and speak one and a half. Julie Leanne joined our family four months ago and is a happy little girl who has thus far decided to Daddy's little girl and Evelyn has taken claim of Mommy.

I love to expound on the ways that our lives have gotten better but some of them are too personal to address on here. I will say that I have been doing some "Wii exercises" as one of my friends used to joke with me. I have also cut back on my reading which has helped me focus on families and friends. Wendy and I have made friends in our ward or congregation and we intend to only get more because we are greedy like that. I do want to say that I am married to my best friend who is wonderful and who is bent on helping me be a better man. I love flirting with her. Also if you haven't have listened to the song "Beauty and the Beast" it's awesome. My favorite line from it now is "learning you were wrong". I like it mainly because my first impression of the beautiful woman who would become my wife was not a positive one at first. I've had the good experience of learning just how wrong my first impression was of her.

I do want to mention that I am excited for the Pokémon Go App. I will only mention this topic in passing to warn anyone who might have an inclination of talking to me about it, as I might talk your ear off about that subject. I do want to mention that Brandon Sandersen has become my favorite author is another subject about which I could talk at length.

The title of my post is based on something I realized from an experience with my second daughter Julie. Wendy had just given birth to our daughter, I had clamped the cord and Julie was off to a great start. As always the nurses needed to check all of Julie's vitals and make sure that she was healthy and ensure that she could indeed survive on her own. I remember that there were three nurses checking all of the monitors and looking at Julie to make sure would be fine. In the midst of all of these screenings, I remember hearing Julie cry for probably the second time in her short little existence. I glanced at Wendy to ensure she was alright and then went over to little Julie. She was crying, red and flailing. I put my hand out to her and she grabbed my finger in her tiny little hand and suddenly stopped crying. As I reflected on this experience I realized that three very caring people were all paying attention to Julie but I had to reach out in love and that's what she felt. I think that we often tend to pay attention to what someone is saying or doing or we are thinking about our response. I think that we often forget the vital part that we need to love them. I'm not saying that things two things are mutually exclusive but I am saying that we tend to do one rather than the other. As both the Apostle Paul and the Book of Mormon prophet Moroni taught that if we don't have charity we are nothing. While we do need to pray for charity, I think that it is also important that we exercise the muscle that is love towards our brothers and sisters. I pray that as you go through out your week that you will exercise that muscle of love towards your neighbor. I know that as you do so you will touch the lives of others in positive ways and you will start to reflect the love our Heavenly Father and Christ to others.

Where True Richness Lies

It's been almost a year since I last posted. I really should stop trying to set some sort of personal record for how long I can go before I post. I would say that I was busy but that's not entirely true. I won't get into those details right now. The big news is that my little family and I moved to Georgia. And our little girl is almost nine months old.

For reasons I won't list here, my little family is on the low end financially. In the entire time that Wendy and I have been married I don't know that we've ever been poorer than we are currently. That being said, I've realized something. I've realized that I already am rich. I have riches that money can't buy. I'll list just a few of them here.

I have my wonderful daughter Evelyn. Her smile is a wonderful thing to which to wake up. I love watching her explore and learn about the world around her and her little laugh is worth thousands at least. I love watching her make new and different expressions; it's cool because then I realize that I am indeed dealing with a strange, new, tiny human being who is just starting to be capable of showing me her personality. I look forward to seeing more of it.

I am especially rich because I have my wife. I get to wake up to her beautiful face every morning. I get the opportunity everyday to love her and try and love her better than the day before. I get romance her everyday. I never realized how easy it is to court a new girl every couple of months until I've been dating my wife for over a year and a half; marriage is an awesome challenge in that respect. I get to have fun with her and hear her quips. I get to kiss her everyday. I get to eat her cooking which is on par with the French cuisine I had. Most of my reads should know what a compliment that it is in it's own right. I get to see her play with Evelyn as she makes her laugh. I love it.

I am also richly blessed to have my parents and siblings. My parents support and encourage me despite my failings. I love talking to my siblings and getting their different ideas. I know my siblings and I don't always have much in common but it is awesome to see how we've all changed and how in some odd way we've stayed the same.

I want to be clear to my reader that I do realize that I do need money to maintain my richness. I just want to help my reader understand that in my eyes, I am already richly blessed. I hope that y'all can recognize where your true richness lies! I love you and hope that you have a good life until next time I post!