2/26/10

Utah visit day seven: 2-26-10
Went to curves again today enjoyed it again I really will miss this when i go back to Texas.
after working out i did what i do best which is eat, we meet up with nancy and bergen and went to a local chineses restaurant after some bad service we left and went and has some really yummy Mexican food, it was nice to get together. After lunch we dropped nancy off at work and the rest of us went and visited grandma and grandpa Bartschi they really love her as if she was another granddaughter, when grandma was in the hospital Bergen visited her everyday she could, and for that i will be forever thankful.
we dropped bergen off and kept driving since Abby was asleep, we went up at hardware ranch i loved the drive through the canyon.

Abby woke up and she got her first red vine she was a sticky red mess but she was happy and oh so cute!
once we got to the ranch they were still doing the tours around the elk, so we bundled her up and got on the sleigh she did so good, she kept pointing laughing and talking to all the elk, i was so happy to do this with her it was family tradition for us to go out around new years and have hot coco and dough nuts.





we went back to the Carlsen house and hung out with everyone, we ate at the old grist mill which has the best cookies, mmm. i love listening to Doug playing the guitar and singing, Abby would sit there and dance i will always remember that, i wish i had a picture of all of us, maybe next time.
today was another great day.

2/25/10

Day six of Utah visit 2-25-10
I went to curves again this morning, I am really enjoying talking and working out with so many people, all i know is my tongue and lips should be quit thin form all the talking!
After my work out i went to do my hair, i got it colored with i love! The cut i am still getting use to it, i didn't mean for it to be so short, but it will be nice for hot Texas summer and it will always grow back. what do you think?

Since today was a "me " day Amanda, Abby and Dustun, all went shopping, i needed new shoes which i never found any i liked, but i did get a new pair of pants which rang up for 6 dollars almost 20 dollars off! and a shirt, Dustun did good he got two new shorts and shirts they are different then anything he has every had but i like it!
After the mall we saw that the "HOT" light was on, so of course we had to stop by and get our free doughnut, man those things are to die for! mmm

When we got home, I feed Abby alot of jarred food, she hasn't been eating very well, then she had a nice bath, and a baby massage, i laid her down hopping to have her sleep all night.
Amanda watched her while Dustun and I went out on a date night. we went to a local favorite Maddox, i had a rolls with there famous raspberry butter! seafood cocktail with jumbo shrimp and a turkey steak so so good! I miss this place when I am gone in Texas.


After dinner we went and got another Slurpee for dustun, he loves these things, he drinks it while he plays id DS. what a kiddo.

poor Abigail is having a rough time sleeping i feel so bad for her i hope when we get home she re adjusts.

2/24/10

Utah visit day five

Utah visit day five 2-24-10
Today Dustun, Abigail, and I meet up with my BFC (best friend cousin) to eat in Ogden at El Maditor, it was some good Mexican food, Abigail ate some re-fried beans some tortilla and enjoy making people laugh, what a cute, goofy kiddio.

After lunch we said good bye, the we decide we would go surprise out friend from Texas who now lives in Ogden, her kiddos have grown so much, it was nice for them to meet the last time we all hung out i was pregnant and we went to eat and saw twilight, so it was good to see each other, I wish we could live closer so we could do things together more often.

When we said good bye, Abigail fell asleep so we started to drive around, so we went and paid our respect to Dustun Grandpa Boyd who passed away recently, we were unable to go to his funeral, but it was nice to have some last words with him.
Abigail woke up soon after so then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Lowe, house they were tickled to see us and Abby, Grandma bought her an Madame Alexander doll, they played the piano, When Abigail was playing the piano, she spread her fingers and very lightly touched the piano, it was so sweet, who knows maybe she will really play when she gets older, then she ate some home made bread and jam, I am so happy to be able to visit with them.






Then when we got back into Brigham we had to do out Traditional bowling trip, this wil be the last one with all of us fro two years, it was fun, i suck but i still have fun, dad go the high score for the week, so he got his name on the board. Abagail did really well she loves being a part of the group, and watching and interacting with people, I love that about her! It was way past her bed time so me and her left and everyone else stayed and played another game. I am happy we can all go do something as a family.



Abigail was clapping for daddy.

Abigail sitting with T-Rex, in the min golf area.


Grandpa Doug and Abby, he was playing with her, it was so cute she kept throwing the pen down and laughing, love it!

2/23/10

Utah visit day four

On February 23, 2010
I went to curves with mom, there was a lot of older ladies there today. It was nice talking to them, they all have stories of some sort.
After curves, mom, Amanda, Dustun, Abby and I all went to a newer Chinese buffet in Brigham and it was so good, i loved everything i put on my plate. Abigail on the other hand i must have pumped her up to much cause the last two days she doesn't want to eat anything, or drink her milk, i dont know what to do or why she doesn't want to eat, I figure I'll keep offering her food and when she is hungry then she will eat. After lunch Dustun Abigail and I went back to Logan for the afternoon, we met up with Bergen she offered to watch Abby while Dustun and I went out, so we took her up it, and we went shopping while she got to hang out with her auntie B.
once we got done shopping we picked up Abigail and we went to the Harley shop, and then to Grandma and Grandpa Prices house, it was so nice to visit with hem, she brought out some toys and Abigail pulled out one toy ant a time until it was almost all empty, then she did something she never has done before she put all the toys back into the container, it was so cute i wanted to cry, what a cutie. After she loaded up her toys she stood up and started to walk and push it around the room she was having so much fun laughing and smiling grandma and grandma really enjoyed having her. Grandma had made her a beautiful quilt, it was an early or late or when ever Christmas gift. Grandama has always mad blankets I have a couple from her, so this one will be a life long quilt that I hope she has her whole life.
Abigail passed out again we went over the canyon, she had her blankie and binkie and she was good.
when we got home we did some house work then Dustun played his DS while Amanda and I watch the stepfather. ( i also updated my blog and FB)
I hope tomorrow goes good, but I hope Abigail will eat a bit more.



Utah visit day three

On February 22, 2010
I went to curves with my mom and Amanda, it was pretty fun it was harder then I thought not as hard as what Candice makes me do, but I feel good doing it so that what matters, my goal this trip is to not gain any weight maybe stay the same or loose some weight. My mom has bought the a franchise of curves so I think that is cool.
Later in the day we went to visit my grandma and grandpa Bartschi in there new "house" they are now living in an assisted living facility i think it is great, grandma is able to use her jazzie all over and not have to try and stand or walk or wheel anything. They have all there meals prepared for them, there is activity's, and even church, so they never have to leave unless they want to, and to me the best part is doesn't stink like old people. They are happy there, which makes me happy.
Later that night, Dustun, Abby and I went to his parents house to visit, we had pizza and played with Abby, and listened to Doug play the guitar, it was nice being together, I wish we could more offten. Bergen was able to see Abigail for little bit but we were on our way out cause Abby was way ready for bed .
We had Amanda "watch" Abby while we went out at 9:30 at night while freezing for a Slurpee, and a drive it was nice to spend some alone time with him.






2/22/10

Travis farewell talk

boy howdy there are a lot of people here!!!

Today I was asked to talk on Faith and the Blessings of the Atonement. When I got this I was a little bit worried because these are really broad topics. But after I started getting into I realized that it was a really good one. It’s almost like the bishop knew exactly what I needed!

So to begin with, what is faith? I was going to sing that nice song from Carrie Underwood, about Jesus Taking the Wheel, but I figured I’d stick to the true doctrine. (Ha-ha) But faith is a spiritual gift that is necessary to our salvation. It’s a principle of action and power that motivates our day to day activities. Would we study and learn if we did not believe we could obtain wisdom and knowledge? Would we work each day if we did not hope that by doing so we could accomplish something? Would a farmer plant if he did not expect to harvest? Each day we act upon things we hope for when we cannot see the end result. This is faith. . Whenever you work toward a worthy goal, you exercise faith. You again show your hope for something that you cannot yet see. Like in Alma 32: 21 it says, “If ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” The power of faith is just as amazing. It’s nice when you can read stories of how faith works and seeing the end results too. Let me be the billionth to tell you, the scriptures are full of them! I mean in Hebrews chapter 11 it’s like a faith a palozza! Some of the stories it has are…

By faith Abel offered unto god a more excellent sacrifice than Cain and obtained a witness that he was righteous. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death. By faith Noah was warned about the flood and built the ark for the saving of his house. Through faith Sara received strength to deliver a child when she was past age. And out of Hebrews, there are more throughout all the scriptures and all throughout time. On a more personal level even, stories about the power of faith are all around us. My dad has always testified of two things in his life, power of the priesthood and temples. The power of the priesthood hinges on faith. If you don’t have faith that the blessings will have an effect on healing the sick they won’t work. They only work when both the person giving the blessing and the person receiving the blessing have faith in the lord and his powers. When my grandma was last in the hospital I had never had an opportunity to use the healing powers of the priesthood by giving a blessing yet. So she asked me if I would like to anoint her with oil and help my dad and grandpa give her a blessing. I was scared but I knew that because I had faith in the lord, I would be able to do it and it would help her. And that because she had faith enough to ask for a blessing and believed that it would help her, she was blessed to be able to leave the hospital and is here today to see me preparing to leave on a mission. Seas have been calmed, visions opened, prayers answered, and all through the power of faith.

In the 4th article of faith it says: We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. You need faith in your life; faith that you’re doing what is right, faith that you can do anything, and above all faith in Jesus Christ.

We must center our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What does it mean to have faith in Jesus Christ? To have faith in Christ means that although we have not seen Him, we believe that He lives and loves us and that we trust Him. When we read the scriptures, we can learn about Him. When we listen to the prophets, we can understand what we can do to follow Him. When we pray in faith for help to choose the right, we can know that our prayers will be answered. When we listen to the whisperings of the Holy Ghost, we can feel Him close to us and know that He loves us. We have to rely on him completely and trust in his infinite power, intelligence and love. Even though sometimes we don’t know fully understand, He does. He has laid everything down for us; we just need to be able to have faith in him. He is always ready to help us as long as we remember his plea in D & C 6: 36… When Gordon B. Hinckley left for a mission, his father handed him a card on which were written five words. They were the words of the Lord to the ruler of the synagogue who had received news of his daughter’s death: in Mark 5:36 “Be not afraid, only believe”. We don’t have to be afraid of anything as long as we have faith in Jesus Christ which is also having faith in our Heavenly Father. And when we have faith in Them, we will also have faith that the Holy Ghost will teach us all truth and will comfort us.

“Even so Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone” we all know that you can have all the faith in the world but if you don’t act upon it, it does nothing. Through having faith in the Savior AND through the act of repentance, we can make his Atonement fully effective in our lives.

In a talk by Gordon B. Hinckley he said. “[Jesus Christ’s] Atonement is the greatest event in human history. There is nothing to compare with it. It is the most fundamental part of our Father’s plan for the happiness of His children. Without it, mortal life would be a dead-end existence with neither hope nor future. The gift of our divine Redeemer brings an entirely new dimension to our lives. Because of our Savior’s sacrifice, instead of dismal oblivion, death becomes only a passage to a more glorious realm. The Resurrection becomes a reality for all. Eternal life becomes available to those who walk in obedience to His commandments” The Atonement is the most epic things anyone has ever done in this world’s history!

Jesus’s atoning sacrifice took place in the garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary. In the garden He submitted to will of the Father and began to take upon Himself the sin of all People. He suffered everything for us. He was only required to take upon him the sins of the world but he suffered much more. He suffered for everything. From hunger, thirst, and pain, to temptation, doubt and sin! Every broken bone, every paper cut, and hey even maybes everyone’s first heart break too, but I don’t know that one for sure. Every single thing we ever experience, just to know how to help us through it. All of this weighed down on him so much that he began to bleed from every pore. His sacrifice was not done there though, as he was later crucified on the cross and suffered death by one of the cruelest methods know to man. On the third day Christ took up His body again and became the first person to be resurrected.

Through the Atonement Jesus redeems everyone from physical death, those who have lived, are living, and will live. Everyone will be resurrected to a glorified perfect body and brought back to the presence of God for judgment. But the true blessing of the atonement is that if you are faithful in doings of the lord you will be able to overcome, not only physical death but spiritual death as well. We accept his Atonement by placing our faith in Him and repent of our sins, baptized, receive the Holy Ghost and obey His commandments. We are then deemed faithful disciples of Jesus Christ and are forgiven and cleansed so that we can prepare to live forever with our Heavenly Father. President Boyd K. Packer of the council of the Twelve shared a story of mercy and justice and how Christ makes this possible, as long as we do our part. But I wanted to make it a little easier to understand for me so….

So there once was a man that wanted a brand new Polaris snow mobile. He didn’t think of anything but getting it at all costs. But to get one I….I mean he had to take out a loan. He knew that he shouldn’t do that because it’s really hard to pay for it later but he didn’t care. So he signed the contract and wasn’t at all worried about the bank collecting on him, thinking that maybe the bank would just forget about him. But like always, they never forget and they wanted to have their payment, in full right then! As the snowmobiler thought, not only can they take away my snowmobile, but they can throw me in jail. So the snowmobiler pleaded with the bank that he could just not pay and they should show mercy to him and just forget about him. But the bank wouldn’t budge; they insisted that if they showed mercy then justice wouldn’t be upheld. So there they were, one wanting justice and the other mercy, neither could prevail except at the expense of the other. There seemed to be no way, but there is! The snowmobiler had a nice and wonderful dad who loved the snowmobiler so much he wanted to help. So he paid of the bank, that justice would be served. And he became the snowmobiler’s new creditor but told him that he would have to still work on the debt and it would be hard, but possible, which served mercy. Both laws stood fulfilled. Because there was a mediator, justice had claimed its full share, and mercy was fully satisfied.

Our sins are our spiritual debts. Without Jesus Christ, who is our Savior and Mediator, we would all pay for our sins by suffering spiritual death. But because of Him, if we will keep His term, which are to repent and keep His commandments, we may return to live with our Heavenly Father.

Like I said before and like in The Article of Faith 3 it says, “We believe that through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.” This means that having eternal life is a freebie, but eternal life in heavenly father’s kingdom is something that you have to do your part for. And our part of it is to have faith and repent. This reminds me of our 50 mile hike that we took as a teacher’s quorum to Kings Peak. And this isn’t a story about having faith that none of us would die but after hiking and walking close to 40 miles and on the 4 or 5 days all of us boys and leaders were just really dusty, dirty and smelly…bishop Mildenhal….but just downright terrible. And you all know what it feels like when you feel that dirty, that’s what it’s like when you have sinned without repenting. You just feel so gross you want to have that joy of being clean. So on our second to last day there was a lake that brother Hacking suggested, well no, told us to please go jump in and wash up and do some swimming if we wanted to. I think he was just tired of smelling us from the back of the group. So anyway, of course we jumped at the opportunity. I wish that everyone would feel that way about repenting. I know that it’s not as easy as just jumping in a lake with some soap but it feels about the same way as that did after so long of not being clean. When you repent you can get rid of your sins and become clean in the sight of the Lord and that is a great feeling! It truly is a blessing. I want to close now by bearing my testimony.


I have re read this a lot and thought a lot, I say thank you so much Travis for all that you have done, I love you little brother you will do great on your mission.


2/21/10

Utah visit day two

Day two of Utah:
On February 21 was Travis farewell talk, so we got up and got ready for church. There was so many people in the church house we had the over full of the over full open. Travis talk was very good, i am hoping to get a copy to put up here. I thought the talk was just like Travis, very spiritual with out it sounding like it, he had his little funny's in it.
A few family members skipped out after his talk so we could finish getting all the food ready. Once sacrament was over, the flood gates were opened, there was SO many people at moms house it was amazing to see all the family from both sides, church members, and friends and parents of friends show up in support of Travis. I would guess about 200 people. We all ate, talked laughed and enjoyed hanging out that's when i miss the family the most is when we have these get together.
I sent Abigail and Dustun to Amanda house to take a nap i could tell they were tired and over whelmed, they were able to nap for a few hours, when they got up and come back to mom and dads house it was just the family so we just hung out and talked and ate more, i swear i have gained like 5 pounds from all the meat, cheese, potatoes, pasta, cookies, brownies, fruits veggies and dips. good thing i am going to curves tomorrow.
Well Abby is asleep, and Dustun and I are going to relax and watch a movie then another "early" bed time.