Great Blessings and Revelation

Cory and I have been feverishly trying to find him a job the past several weeks. After interviews, and not hearing back from them, I started to panic. I knew he would find a job...eventually. It was the timing I was worried about. Last Friday was supposed to be his last day working on campus, so he needed a job by then. Let me just say, we have been incredibly blessed. Cory's boss on campus got the dean to approve an extended employment as a non-student. Once that happened, I panicked much less. A day or two after that, Cory was offered a job for Ancestry.com (a genealogy research company), then a few days after that, he was offered another job at a local grocery store. So now Cory has 3 jobs for the next month until he is finished working on campus. He'll be working at Ancestry in the mornings before I go to class, and working at the store after I come home. So, essentially, we won't be seeing each other for a little while. But, it's only temporary. Once I'm finished with classes in December, we'll get to see each other again. Hooray! The next two weeks are going to be extra busy as he's training and we're getting into the new schedule. This past Wednesday I got a call from the ward executive secretary to meet with the bishop. Cory and I walked over to the church (since it's a block away now) and the bishop called me to be the 2nd counselor in the Relief Society. Oh boy. As timid as I may feel about this calling, I had a sweet reaffirmation that this calling is for me and is from God. I also got to teach RS today (they called me to sub about 3 weeks ago). It was one of those moments where I prepared, and as I stood up to teach, felt prompted to just throw all my preparation to the wind and go with the Spirit. It ended up being a wonderful experience. I'm so grateful for those tender mercies. As it turns out, The RS president originally wanted to call me to be a teacher. When she went to pray about who to call for the 2nd counselor, she wasn't even thinking of me, but felt very distinctly that I was supposed to be that counselor. I just think it's amazing. I'm grateful, excited, and am definitely going to have to rely on the Lord for this one.

Olivia's Blessing Weekend!

What a busy and beautiful weekend! Saturday, all the family drove in. Cory's family (including his sister from Missouri) and my parents (and Aunt Sue came too!) all came and set up for the weekend. I got to spend a little time with my mom and Sue. Cory and I were busy getting all sorts of food ready for the luncheon for after church. Luckily, it didn't take too long to get Olivia to sleep that night. We had to let her cry just a little bit, but she fell asleep within 10 minutes. Sunday morning, Cory and I woke up nice and early so we could get out the door by 7. We wanted to make sure we had time to get Olivia fed and dressed as well as talk to someone in the bishopric and make sure any needed paperwork was filled out. Things got a little hectic right as church was starting, mostly because when you put the address of the church into a GPS or googlemaps, it brings you straight into a peach orchard. If I had realized that ahead of time, I would have sent out directions with the baby announcements and invitations. At least mostly everyone we were expecting was there on time, and everyone turned up eventually.

The blessing was simple and beautiful. I wrote down a little of it for Olivia's baby book so she'll have some record of it. Of course, I got a little teary-eyed. It was such a tender moment.

After Sacrament meeting, Cory and I went back to grandma and grandpa's to get the luncheon set up so people would be able to eat once they arrived. The luncheon went well. We took lots of pictures and I ended up with about twice as much food as I really needed, which is great so Cory's family will have some left-overs for a meal or two. I'm so grateful for all the friends and family that came, and to the Parkers for letting us use their yard (not to mention borrowing chairs from their neighbors).

Once we got everything cleaned up (really, Cory and his brothers cleaned up most of it since I was in feeding and taking care of Olivia), we started gearing up for Aubrey's baptism. Since so much family was already there, Cory's parents just decided to have her baptism there and then, which was perfect. I'm glad we got to be there for it. Cory played an arrangement I sang to, Grandma Parker wrote a song about baptism that she sang, Joshua and Jacob gave talks, and countless others held exhausted babies. Everyone helped out and made it wonderful. Aubrey and Jared (who baptized her) changed in record time. Aubrey really wanted to be there as everyone sang Primary songs so she could sing too. She really loves to sing and wants to be in the spotlight. It's a little funny, but mostly sweet. With some lessons, I think she'll be a really good singer! After the baptism, we went back to the Parker's and hung out for a while. Cory, Joshua, Dad, and I played Rook and watched the Olympics. Olivia started to get pretty fussy, and it was late, so we headed home. Joshua and Jared came down with us so Jared could buy Cory's car from him. Since Olivia was so tired, she cried the whole way down. Jared and Joshua tried so hard to sing her to sleep. It mostly worked until they started to sing a song about Star Wars. Apparently she's not a fan. Luckily, we were 5 minutes from home by that time. It was a wonderful weekend and I feel so incredibly blessed. We have so many friends and so much family who love this little girl. That really is the best feeling in the world.

Growing Pains... and Joys

Olivia has been growing SO MUCH! It's amazing to me. She seems so much older than she is. The hard part about growing so much so fast is that it's a little painful. For both of us. Olivia has been hungry all the time, and so tired that she cries until we can get her to fall asleep. It makes me so sad when she doesn't feel well and whimpers. Also, a nurse came to visit last week and Olivia was 10lbs exactly!!! The fun part of growing is that she's doing so much more and is so interactive now. Everyone has been amazed at how aware she has been pretty much since she was born. But now she's smiling a lot and starting to play with her voice, so occasionally we get giggles, but we also get a lot of squeals. I love it! It just warms my heart. This is why people have kids.She is also figuring out that when she's awake, she doesn't have to be eating constantly. What a relief to me! Sometimes she's just content wiggling around. I love my baby girl so much.