Braaaaains!

Today has been a little rough.  I have a cold, which lessens my tolerance for Theo's griping when he wants something to eat, or wants me to hold him, or wants to go outside when it's raining, or wants a pacifier (we're weaning).  Pretty much all I wanted to do today was sit around.  All you mothers who have had toddlers know, that's not happening. 

I made an executive decision that it was a pizza night.  I pretty much never do this, so I didn't feel bad letting one night of not cooking slide.  Plus, we got to go to campus with our tasty dish and share with Daddy!

Corbin loves showing off his cute son to all his friends, and fortunately Theo was in a mood to show off.  We even went down to the psychology floor, and look at the case of brains on display. I think they are the brains of fancy Cornell people from like a hundred years ago.  That's when you know you've made it big, when you're so cool they want to put your brain in a huge jar and stick it next to other jarred brains.

Guys, real human brains are surreal.  Theo didn't care for them much, but I think they look fascinating!  (for about 5 minutes.  Any longer, then I start feeling queasy.)

The day ended much better than it had begun.  I can't wait until Corbin takes his last qualifying exam on Monday, so we can have the whole summer to play!

Here is a bigfoot-esque picture of a deer in my back yard.  Ithaca is getting green and luscious.  However, it's almost June, and we haven't had any consistent warm weather.  It's nearly summer here, yet I don't have the confidence in the weather to turn our heat off for the summer season. I guess that's why we're going to the west coast in a couple weeks!

Also, I'd like to give a little eulogy for our incredible neighbors who moved away yesterday. We've only known them for about 10 months, but they have been the greatest blessing in our lives since coming to Ithaca.  I was so nervous about coming to a brand new place, not knowing anyone.  But having the Gullys right upstairs, in almost the exact same situation, we became fast friends.  I don't want this to sound bad, but they were also such convenient friends!  We could count on each other to watch a baby for a few minutes if scheduling got messy, or pass off a baby monitor if we wanted to go out after baby bed time.  Baby swapping for date nights became a sort of granted.  When Valentines day rolled around, we knew that Corbin and I would go out one night, and let Theo play with Ava.  The next night, we swapped.

But even more than that, they are just great people.  Darin made me laugh (mostly on the inside).  Ava gave be sweet snuggles when my own baby would wiggle away.  And Leslie and I had much needed girl's nights away from the bustle of home life.  I will certainly miss them, but I hope they have a wonderful time in Bloomington settling down and making a life there.

What's Up with the Bible?

 Warning: All the questions in this post are rhetorical. 

I tried to distract him from his grumps one morning by showing him my camera on my phone.  It obviously didn't work.

I'll start this rant by saying that I believe in the eighth article of faith:  

 "We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God."

But nothing has challenged my testimony of the Bible like actually reading it.

Corbin and I are reading through the New Testament for couples study, and I'm reading through the Old Testament for my personal study. You must remember that I did all four years of early morning seminary, and I've attended Sunday school every year of my life. I even took a couple classes on the Bible in college. I've studied Bible stories pretty thoroughly. I've never actually sat down and ready the whole Bible before, though. Until now.

Genesis. First book in the Bible. It contains some super crazy stuff! I'd only been taught the nice things that happen, or heard stories with a clear lesson involved. But what am I supposed to get from the story of Lot's daughters making him drunk and getting it on with him to further his seed? Or Noah Cursing his son for seeing him laying drunk, uncovered in his tent?

Of course these are crude estimations of the stories, but still. People in the old testament are outrageous! In my opinion, they over react, make stupid decisions, and aren't punished. In fact, this segues into stage two of my rant. I always thought Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were so often talked about in the Bible because they were super righteous prophets. God covenanted these awesome covenants with them, promising tons of blessings. However, in my opinion, they were not super righteous.  How could they deserve these covenants?

Don't even get me started on the sons of Israel. Their tribes are so important to the church that I thought each of them would be an awesome guy and worthy to have generations and generations of saints looking up to them. I guess I never had connected that these were the same guys who wanted to murder their brother, then ended up selling him into slavery. Plus, before the Joseph story even happened, these guys were killing people, sleeping with people they shouldn't, hating on each other. It's madness.

But maybe God's options weren't that great back then of righteous dudes. Or maybe the Lord covenanted with lots of people, and this is the only record we have of a situation like this. Any way you swing it, God's ways are mysterious.  Especially to me right now.

Corbin keeps telling me that the culture was so different back then, that it's not all going to make sense to me. Plus, many of the plain and precious truths have been lost in translation, etc.

Why does the church take such stock in the Bible, then?

It makes me feel a bit like a hypocrite, to take some of the passages of the Bible so literally and believe in it so strongly, and then turn around and completely ignore some passages.
Just last night we were reading 1 Corinthians 14. Verse 33 is so beautiful, and I find it so true.
"For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints."

The very next verse says,
"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law."

Maybe these two verses are an example of doctrine vs. church policy.  Doctrine never changes, God's eternal principles.  But policy does change from time to time, like letting young men and women start their missions earlier.  The trick about the Bible is being able to tell the difference between the two.

 If I didn't have a testimony in the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, and modern revelation to show us how to run the church today; if I only had the Bible to go off of, I don't know that I could believe any of it fully. It would be so hard to pick out the nuggets of truth and wise principles out of all the crazy cultural and inaccurate business that goes on.

I have a lot of studying and pondering to do before I can fully integrate what the Bible is into my beliefs and my testimony.

 Your reward for reading this post (or even scrolling to the end), is Theo playing peek-a-boo!

And yes, he did have an intense encounter with the pavement.  But he is nearly all healed up, so no worries.

Waterfalls and Babies

We got to babysit Hal yesterday.  He kept us company while Corbin was taking finals at 4 and 7. We had a great time, although Hal had a rough go of it.  Ava and Leslie even came outside with us and partied. Hal is such a cool dude.  

While Daddy went to band practice at Juan's house, Theo and I walked around Cornell campus.  Theo walked around, entertaining tens of people. It was such a beautiful evening. 

There was a waterfall behind Juan's house.  There was a sheer cliff to the falls, and all Theo wanted to do was walk over it.

Theo has been learning lots of great skills lately, like identifying his head, ears, and tongue.  He is an expert at signing please, milk, juice, and tons of other things.  We think he says woof when we're looking at dogs.  He has finally said his first word, mama!  Although I don't know if it means me yet.  He's an all-around happy guy, so easy and fun to be with.  I am a very lucky mommy. 

The Sun Makes Life Happier

This pic is dedicated to Aunt Carlie

 Scattered through this post will be photos that have nothing to do with what I'm talking about.  Enjoy!

Theo put on this "necklace" all by himself!

 Spring is in full swing around here.  There are sweet little leaves everywhere; all the flowering trees are even starting to drop the petals in exchange for them. We have had sunshiny days for almost a week straight!  That is so impressive, because there were times in the winter when I doubted I would ever see the sun again.

Look at those precious eyes

 We go on at least one walk a day, and freak out with excitement at every dog we see (we see quite a lot of them). Shrieking, flailing, running then freezing. It's a to do! I'm glad my little man is so happy and excited about the world.

One of us is happier than the other

 Last Wednesday was Corbin's and my third anniversary.  It was wonderful.  We went to a Japanese Steakhouse for dinner, did a little shopping afterwards, and ended the night with a carton of Moostracks ice cream. It was so nice to have him all to myself, and not be distracted by a small man running about.  Thanks, Gullys, for taking him!

But maybe we can do a little smile for Daddy's sake

 In fact, I got to spend quite a bit of Theo-free time last week.  I sure love him, but it was a good break.  I got to go to the temple with some ladies from the ward, while Theo and Corbin played at home. 

I love the peaceful feeling in the temple, and the sense that He has a plan for me, and that everything will work out. I love feeling so close to the Lord whenever I go.  Usually when I attend the temple, I ponder more eternal-based plans and timelines.  But on Thursday, I focused on what it all meant for me right now as a 24 year old mom and wife.  I think peace was what I most needed, and I felt it there in a way I couldn't find anywhere else.

A little off the shoulder number

 Then on Saturday I went to the Stake Relief Society Women's Conference.  Again, Corbin stayed home with Theo for the whole morning.  (This is a big deal, because he usually had band practice then.  Also, he has his big exams coming up, so I appreciate the time sacrifice he made.  I love that guy!)

I got to sing in the main meeting, Everywhere I Go. I had a lot of tender mercies shown me through this song.  One being that my throat had been hurting pretty bad for a while, and I was worried I would be worn out by the time I had to sing.  But I had a burst of clarity and sang it as well as ever.  I think it added to the spirit of the meeting, and I knew it couldn't have happened without Him.

 This week, I have tons of goals I will try to accomplish.  I want to clean at least one portion of my house every day.  I want to study the scriptures every day.  And I want to exercise every day.  I think these are reasonable goals to set in a week long timeframe. 

 I've been exercising every day for about two weeks, doing various things.  Today I went running for the first time in a looooong time.  Part of me is tempted to belittle myself by saying, "you only 'ran' one mile, downhill, then only powerwalked the mile back, and you felt like you wanted to die when you finally got home." But the other part of me cheers, "you got out of the house at 8 AM with a toddler and got active!  That is one step closer to being 'fit,' and that is awesome!"

I'll admit, I was excited to blog about that, because running is something I like, and I wanted to share that with you.

 Plus, look at my running track.  The winter was so so so long and cheerless without the sun, but it helps me appreciate this beautiful spring that much more.  I'm grateful to live in such a beautiful neighborhood of a beautiful city.

And yes, I did feel like dying a little bit when we got home, but I lived to run another day!!!

I suppose this isn't the best note to end on, but I saw another mouse in our bedroom last night.  I don't feel like my house is any messier or food-covered than any other home with a toddler, but I also feel like we get way more mice.  Am I just a slob?  Little mice, go outside now.  It's warm and pretty, and I don't want you here!

All in all, I'll take a little sour with the big sweet I have.