What is the Purpose of Life Here on Earth?

Have you ever asked yourself that question?  What is your purpose here on earth?  Why am I here?  What am I suppose to be doing?  And if you already know, do you ask yourself that question enough?

For those who visit my blog who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I want to tell you that there is a reason why we are here.  When people start to talk religion, many people are turned off and believe that they don't need a church to go to, or that they don't believe in God, or that they are happy with their own religion.  I want you to know that there is a real purpose and meaning as to why we even exist here on this earth.  I want you to know.  I share this with you so you can know too.

We lived in Heaven before we came to this earth.  We lived as spirits, and we have a Heavenly Father who created us.  We looked like our Father, only we did not have bodies of flesh and bone as he did.  We wanted to be like him.  Our Father in Heaven loves us, so much in fact, that he wants all his spirit children to have what he has and to become like him.  He prepared a way for us to become like Him.  He would allow all his spirit children who wanted to come to earth, to receive a physical body like His.  While on earth, we would be tested and tried to see if we would use or physical bodies properly and be able to obey all the commandments he would give us.  We would be allowed to choose what to do with all we have.  If we choose wisely, we would be able to enjoy all the blessings and glory that our Heavenly Father enjoys.

Lucifer, commonly referred to as Satan, and a third of all of Heavenly Father's spirit children (can you imagine how many billions of spirits that would be!) did not like the idea that they could possibly not have the opportunity to be like God because of their actions and choices on earth.  They did not want to risk it.  Satan wanted a way that would force everyone to be good so we could all return to live with our Heavenly Father.  But what sense does that make?  What would you learn?  How can you prove that you would use your body correctly or that you would be obedient?  Satan and his followers were sent out of our Heavenly Father's presence and chose not to come to this earth to receive a body.

Heavenly Father is very wise and loving.  He knew it would be hard to live on earth, we would make mistakes, we would give in to temptations, and because of unbelief and the apostasy of the past our circumstances may never even give us the opportunity to have Heavenly Father's knowledge in our lives.  Jesus Christ was chosen to come to earth and suffer and die for us, so that every single one of us, if we choose to, can return to live with our Heavenly Father again.  We will all live again after we die, this was a free gift that Jesus Christ gave to everyone by allowing himself to be crucified and then being resurrected three days later.  Whether we will receive all of Heavenly Father's glory and to have the rights and abilities he has, is totally up to us.  We can choose that.  For those of us who have the knowledge of the gospel in our lives, we can repent (or tell our Father in Heaven we are sorry) and continually work at being a better person.  We are not perfect, but we are trying.  This is were the word Atonement comes in.  Because we are not perfect, we sin, and no one with sin can be in the presence of God.  Jesus Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane by taking upon him ALL the sins (and I meaning everything!) of the world.  He took on the pain and punishment of everything, so that when we came to earth and inevitably would sin, we could repent of our sins and Jesus Christ would take the punishment upon his shoulders, and then we would be worthy to be in our Heavenly Father's presence again.  Well, what about all those people who didn't have the opportunity to have the gospel taught to them?  Always remember this:  Heavenly Father loves every single one of his children.  He knows each one of us individually and wants each one of us to return to Him.  If we don't have the opportunity in this life to understand or hear His plan, He will give that opportunity to us after we die.  We will have the opportunity to be taught the gospel after we die, and have the opportunity to accept it or reject it then.

Having this knowledge of the reason why we are here on earth, this purpose of life, is the reason why we live and believe the things we do.  This is why we believe in living chaste lives. This is why we don't smoke or drink.  This is why we go to church every Sunday.  This is why we read our scriptures.  This is why we try to do our best.  We aren't perfect, we all are making mistakes, but we keep trying.

Please visit www.mormon.org if you are curious or have more questions.  Please feel free to leave a question in my comment box as well.  I hope you will come to understand your purpose in life too!

Emily turns the big 1-0!

Emily has entered the realm of being a double digit number.  No longer will she be a single digit.  For the rest of her life she now will have two numbers, unless she really lives a long time and is blessed to have triple digits!  Emily doesn't care for cake, so she loves to have donuts instead.  Now that Emily is 10, she gets to have her own military ID card!  Woohoo!  Not that we've ever needed to use the kids' cards because we don't live on or even near a base, but you got to have one!  So we should probably take care of that real soon.

Emily loves ferrets right now.  She wishes she could own a ferret.  She has done a lot of research on them, and unfortunately (fortunately for us) they are banned in our little town.  She is hoping daddy gets stationed somewhere where it is legal to own one.  As far as I know they are legal in San Antonio, but that doesn't mean you"re going to get one Emily!  Thankfully, she is content with a stuffed ferret.

Are You Prepared?

On January 26th, we had a snow storm pass through that left us with about 8 inches of snow.  The snow was extremely wet and heavy and caused power outages all over the city due to falling branches.  Here in our front yard, you can see one of our front trees had three branches come down.  A further out you can see the tree in the middle of the cul-de-sac had a branch come down.  And beyond that you can see another neighbors tree with branches down.  We even had a neighbor who had a couple of large branches fall on top of his house, but luckily they did no damage.  We lost power that night at about 9 p.m.  It did not come back on until Friday night for only two hours.  Then on Saturday evening we had power for about six hours.  Finally, on Sunday morning we had power restored for good.  It wasn't easy, but we made it through!  The first night wasn't so bad because for some reason, I knew the power was going to go out, so I cranked up the heater and just let it run.  I guess you know you are going to lose power when the lights start flickering and you see branches falling everywhere.  It would probably have been easier to deal with if you didn't have to do anything, you could just snuggle up in bed and read a book or have a good excuse to sleep.  But kids still need to eat and dishes still need to be washed.  Luckily we have a gas range and gas water heater so we could cook and have hot water.  Washing dishes by hand wasn't all that great, but it did keep you a little warmer!  We even fed the missionaries without power!  We made Navajo Tacos by candle and lantern light.  The hardest part was when the sun went down, and because it's winter, the sun goes down early.  It's too hard to do things by candle light or lantern light, except read.  So any chores that needed to get done needed to be done before the sun set.  I sound like a pioneer or something!  The kids spent a good part of each day playing outside in the snow.  It was no warmer inside than out.  We finally broke down and built a fire on Saturday morning.  We don't know when the chimney was inspected last, so we were a bit leary, but Todd shined the flashlight up the chimney, didn't notice anything clogging it up, and decided to go ahead and build a fire just this one time.  It was nice to have a fire going.  And thanks to many years of experience in building fires at Girls' Camp, I kept that succor roarin'!  It warmed up part of the room a little, you kept nice and warm right near the fire.  When the power came back on on Saturday, I started to do laundry.  I didn't know it was going to go off again later that night!  Thankfully all the Sunday clothes were washed.  Nothing go ironed, but they didn't look too bad.  And I think that Sunday was the only Sunday I have gone to church without washing my hair.  I took a shower but because we had no electricity I couldn't use a blow dryer so I didn't want my hair to get wet.  It didn't look too bad and we didn't really smell like smoke, right? hahahahaha  The frumpy, smoke smellin' family comes to church on Sunday!  It was definatley an experience.  I never even thought about breaking into the 72-hour kits.  Todd said he thought about it once, but since we had gas and could cook, saw no need of getting them out.  The things we learned were number one priority was heat or some way of keep warm.  Second priority was light.  Our third priority was food, but this wasn't a big deal at the time, but in another situation it could be.  We have also concluded that the basement is the warmest part of the house in the winter when the power goes out because it is insulated by the earth.  This is were we will sleep next time when and if the power goes out.  And most importantly, the children have learned that they can entertain themselves without the use of electronic devices, a very painful lesson I'm sure they'd say!

Update on Seth

So, I guess I should post something about Seth. It's been 14 weeks since Seth had his CI surgery. And it has been what, about 10 weeks since activation? So, when he was activated, it's like the beginning of hearing. So, his listening age is about 10 weeks. I am happy to report that Seth is doing better than expected in speech and listening. In fact, our auditory/verbal therapist says he is doing so well, that instead of seeing her twice a week we only need to see her once a week. Our therapist is really good and demanding, she wouldn't cut back his therapy unless she really thought he was doing well. Not only is this wonderful for Seth, it's wonderful for me too, I don't have to drive to Virginia twice a week anymore! Hooray! Stress level cut back a lot! Some things that Seth says are: Tartan (Karsten), Aya (Alex), Dane, Emanee (Emily), and Day (Kate). The K sound comes from the back of the throat which is harder to make than the sounds from the front of the mouth like "buh" and "mmmm". So Seth doesn't quite say the "ck" sound, but considering he's only a ten week old in speech and listening, I'd say I've got a little genius on my hands! Alright, he's already had a little hearing in the left ear, but he has progressed A TON since activation. We are trying to get him to spontaneously say two word phrases. He will repeat a phrase after it being modeled for him, most of it is just the intonation. Apple, open, all done, more, dad, mom, mmm for milk, up, jump, baby, doggy, bubbles, ball, down, and night-night are some of the other words he says pretty clearly. W is a hard sound too, it comes out as the y sound, but if we practice, he can get the w sound out. So when he says yah-yah he means water. He sings Twinkle-Twinkle pretty well, as well as Itsy=bitsy spider. We have some other songs that go with the therapy we do that he will sing. I love when we sing, "Blink, blink, blink, your eyes, blink your eyes together, blink, blink, blink your eyes, blink your eyes together." He really blinks his eyes! And he is trying so hard to do it, that you can't help but laugh. I will have to get that one recorded. That would be fun to watch. Ok, so anyways, that's life. Lots of running around to doctors and therapy. I have a neighbor who is just entering the life of having a special needs child and all the medical and therapy that's involved. She is just entering this new world, and I guess I've been here so long, I can't even imagine what life would be without all the craziness.

Kate and Her Violin

On December 27th, Kate played with a group of young violinists at the Washington D.C. LDS Temple Visitor Center.  She was very excited to be a part of it.


Here is a couple of videos of her playing.  These are only a few of the pieces they performed.

Activation Day

It has been almost two weeks since Seth was activated and I am very slow at getting this posted.  Here are a few videos of Seth's activation.

The first video is activation of individual electrodes.




The second video is activation of all electrodes.  He doesn't freak out, but he does turn to me as if unsure of what's going on.



Because Seth has hearing in the left ear, sound is not new to him.  This is great in terms of getting him to understand that sound has meaning.  I'm hoping this will make the process of teaching him to talk and listen a little easier.  In the last two weeks Seth's personality has really bloomed!  It's like having this new hearing opened up a something in him and he's so funny to watch.  He's getting new words as well.  His newest words are eyes, nose, and mouth.  The other neat thing is that he has taken an interest in television.  Before the CI, he had very little interest in watching anything.  Now he loves to watch The Backyardigans. He'll even sing the song when he wants it!  He doesn't sing the words necessarily, but the the tune is there!


This next video is of Seth opening a card given to him from a sweet sister in our ward.  It was for his activation day.

The above picture is us with Dr. Rivera, the surgeon who implanted Seth.  

Here is Seth with his Koala.  His Koala got his CI the same day Seth did!  So cute! 

Happy Happy Birthday Alex Dear!

So Alex just celebrated his 13th birthday!  He's officially a teenager, but always a kid at heart!  Now, what did he get for his birthday?  He finally has the complete series of Walker, Texas Ranger, capping it off with season 7.  (There are 8 seasons all together.) Yes, Alex received them out of order, but that's the way he wanted them.  He likes that there is more of Syd and Gage in Season 7.  If you are a follower, you know what I'm talking about.  With the money Grandma and Grandpa Stailey sent him, he bought 4 Archie comic books (I don't have a clue where this obsession started) and we went to the thrift shop and found ANOTHER Little People's Bus and several more Little People for his collection.  We have awesome thrift stores.  We tried to get Alex to have a couple of friends over for his birthday, but he wasn't interested.  Of course we had pizza, his favorite food, and cake and ice cream.  He could care less about any of the decorations or singing, he just wanted cake and ice cream and his Walker movies.  He's too funny.

 Alex watching Daddy light the candles!

 Staring at the cake while we sing to him!

 I love his mouth in this picture because he's trying not to smile while we are singing!

 It looks like Alex is thinking, "Oh, I can't wait to eat that cake!"

Trying to blow out the candles!  He had a hard time blowing because he was laughing so hard.  So the other kids helped him blow it out!

Ok, here's Alex's birth story, as I don't think I've ever posted it.  I copied and pasted it from a scrap book I'm making. 

 Alex wasn't due until around the 5th of December.  On the night of November 9th, I started having some different kind of contractions, not like the Braxton-Hicks contractions I was use to.  I had no idea what was happening.  The contractions were about a half hour apart.  I was a bit concerned about this because I still had three weeks to go!  I called the nurse at the hospital and she told us that we shouldn't be too concerned until the contractions were about 5 minutes apart.  Alex's labor was text book.  Contractions started about 30 minutes apart and slowly and gradually they got stronger and closer together.  Of course, I was in denial the whole time that I was actually in labor.  All the next day on the 10th, we just kept waiting and timing the contractions.  I really was in a lot of pain, but I really didn't think I was in labor.  We went over to my parents house and I told my mom what was going on and after she watched me go through a contraction, she told me she thought I was really in labor and maybe should go to the hospital.  So, we went home and finished packing my bags and headed to the hospital, which was only a couple of blocks away from the house.  Still in denial, I told Todd to leave all my stuff in the car because I didn't want to be embarrased if this was a "false alarm".  We got up to the labor and delivery floor, got checked in, and the nurse checked to see how far I was dilated.  We were all shocked when she told us I was already 9 cm dilated!  I was handling the contractions ok, and we'd thought we'd be able to get through the rest of labor and delivery without any pain medications.  The doctor arrived pretty quickly but was a suspicious  that Alex wasn't

facing the right direction, that is, head down.  We did a quick ultrasound, and sure enough, his bumb was wanting to come first.  So, we were advised that a c-section would be the best way for Alex to come.  Since I was already so far dilated, preperations for the c-section were quite hurried.  It is really kind of a blur to me all that went on.  I was prepped with IV's, taken to the surgery floor, given a spinal block, and drapped with all the blue drappings they use!  After I was given the spinal block, it was a relief not to feel the contractions anymore.  I just layed back and waited.  I didn't even know that had started the surgery until I asked a nurse if they had started, and she confirmed that they were will into it already.  When they pulled Alex out, he did not cry.  They took him and begun resucitating him. Of course I didn't know this at the time.  He

must have finally gave out a cry because I remember being reassured about things, but I don't remember exactly.  They wrapped him up and brought him next to me, took a quick picture, and they whisked him off back to the nursery.  After that, they put something in my IV that made me fall asleep as I don't remember anything afterwards until the next morning.  My mom and sisters watched the nurses bathe him from outside the nursery and mom said that was the only time she heard him cry.  Alex slept from them on.  We couldn't get him to wake up or nurse.  They had to put a feeding tube down his nose and had me pump milk to feed him.  Something wasn't right and the doctor was running all sorts of tests to figure out why.  After three days, they let me go home but not Alex.  This was a Friday.  On Saturday they had Todd and I

both come and talk with the doctor about transporting Alex to University of New Mexico Children's Hospital for further testing.  I was so scared that he was going to die, but the doctor and nurses kept saying he was ok in that regards, we just needed to understand why he wasn't wanting to wake up and especially eat!  So, Alex was transported by ambulance to the local airport where he then was flown up to Albuquerque to UNM's Children's Hospital.  I decided not to go with him, as I had no way of getting there, and no place to stay, and still recovering from surgery.  I felt he would be ok.  The following Wednesday, Todd and I drove up to Albuquerque to see Alex and we had the opportunity to speak with one of the doctor's there.  She was a geneticist and specialized in Prader-Willi Syndrome.  She told us she suspected he had PWS, but did

not have the results back yet from a blood test they had done.  She was pretty confident in her assumptions, and a few days later she called to confirm it.  We were glad for a diagnosis, but still sad that he had something wrong.  But more happy that they were going to let Alex be transferred back to the hospital in Alamogordo.  When he got back to Alamogordo, it was decided that Alex didn't need to be in the hospital to monitor his tube feedings as this could be done at home.  Todd and I could tube feed him just as easily.  He was also on a little oxygen, but that was no big deal.  We were so excited to have Alex finally come home!  After three weeks in the hospital, the day after Thanksgiving, Alex got to come home! 

A quick picture after being checked over by the doctors and successful resuscitation.

Another quick picture with Mom before heading to the nursery.