2nd Annual Stone 5K

Is everybody ready for the best 5K race ever organized? J

Yes, it’s time again for the Stone 5K! Everyone who ran it last year can attest to how awesome it was. Once again there will be T-shirts for all participants and the one dollar prize for all finishers may return.

Date: Saturday, August 24, 2013

Time: 10:00 AM

Place: start/finish at the top of the driveway (same course as last year)

The kids race to the gate and back, approximately ½ mile, will follow the 5K. Approximately 10:45-11:00  AM.

Come join the fun!

20 Years

20 years ago today I flew home from Tampa, Florida after serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints for 18 months. That experience was a pivotal time in my life. It was tough but I wouldn’t change it for anything. Serving a mission is something you never regret. In fact, serving a mission has such a profound effect on your life that you tend to separate your life into, before my mission and after my mission.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since I stepped off a plane in Salt Lake City to greet my family who were eagerly awaiting my arrival. That was back in the days when family could actually  greet you at the terminal when you stepped off the plane. I still remember it quite well.

Serving a mission is such an accelerated learning/growing experience. I have always said that I learned more in the 18 months in Florida serving the Lord full-time than I did during four years of college. There’s no substitute for that kind of education.

I was also contemplating what a privilege it was to be called as a full-time servant of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And to wear His name on a little black name tag every day that proclaimed to the world that I was His representative. A lot of people think of serving a mission as a responsibility or something to do to please others. But I see it as a privilege that only a select few, worthy people get to do. It truly is a blessed privilege. And I am so thankful that I was worthy to be called on, and serve, a mission.

The prophet at the time, Ezra Taft Benson, signed my mission call. Which is the same thing as if the Lord himself had signed it.  

Doctrine and Covenants 1:38 What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my ^aword shall not pass away, but shall all be ^bfulfilled, whether by mine own ^cvoice or by the ^dvoice of my ^eservants, it is the ^fsame.

 To think that the Lord himself called me to represent Him, is very humbling. But if you think about it, all of us as members of His church are called to represent Him when we are baptized and each week when we partake of the sacrament.

These are a few of my thoughts on this day as I reflect on my full-time mission. Any of you who are contemplating serving a full-time mission, do everything you can to be worthy to do so. It truly is a privilege that not many people have the opportunity to fulfill. As with all blessings from the Lord, we always get more out of it than we put into it.

Mosiah 2: 24 And secondly, he doth ^arequire that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately ^bbless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?

That’s my two cents.

Earth Life Is a Nanosecond

I was reading the current issue of the Ensign the other day and came across this article entitled, “Living for the Eternities” written by Elder Keith K. Hilbig who was serving as a member of the seventy at the time. Part of that article stuck with me and I mentioned it to Mom. I couldn’t remember where I read it because I read several different church related things that day. But I decided to go find it again and put it on my blog.

Here’s the first part of the article:

 “How different and difficult is the world …today when compared to the …world of two or three generations ago. Many challenges today did not even exist, or were much less intense, than when I was in college.

But you are here now, in this moment. You are pressing forward as your elders are passing into the eternities. You are here at this time not by chance but as part of an eternal plan—designed, agreed upon, and implemented before the earth was ever created.

How fortunate you are to be aware of the Restoration of the gospel! You know there was a premortal existence in the presence of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. You were schooled and tested. You learned of the laws that would allow you to progress and advance. You followed those laws, and thus you were entitled to come to earth, placing you on a course leading to exaltation, dominion, and godhood.

You understand the purposes of mortality on earth, and you have been taught concerning postmortal opportunities. In short, you have the perspective of the eternities—you can look back, and you can gaze forward.

The majority of your …peers who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the world in general, know little of these realities. They live as if in a box defined by two events: birth and death. They make decisions and engage in behaviors circumscribed by a limited perspective. Essentially they live for the moment—the length of time between their births and their deaths, which is a mere nanosecond in the scheme of eternity. They likely know nothing of their premortal existence and little of eternity.” – Elder Keith K.Hilbig, served as a member of the 70 from 2001 to 2012, from a devotional address given at BYU Idaho March 20, 2007, July 2013 Ensign

The last paragraph is what made me think. I began thinking about some of my relatives and certain people I’ve met who do not have the gospel. I thought about how their lives have no direction or purpose other than to have fun and live for the moment. This scripture came to mind: “2 Nephi 28: 7 Yea, and there shall be many which shall say: ^aEat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us.”

Then I started thinking about how long this time on earth really is, it seems like it’s always related to the blink of an eye compared to eternity. But, if you take Elder Hilbig’s quote about our time on earth being a nanosecond compared to eternity, the blink of an eye comparison is much too long.

Let’s break it down. A nanosecond is 10 ^-9 seconds or 1 billionth of a second (1/1,000,000,000). A human eye blinks at the rate of 300 to 400 ms (a millisecond is 1/1000 of a second). Which means that the human eye can blink about three times per second. So, the blink of an eye is the equivalent of 300,000,000 to 400,000,000 ns (300-400 million nanoseconds). So putting this in perspective, we could live 300 million to 400 million lifetimes in the blink of an eye, if our lifetime between birth and death is only a nanosecond compared to eternity.

Thinking about it this way, it makes all of our choices during mortality even more important considering how short this test of mortality really is. Everything that is not related to following the Commandments and not helping your eternal progression is irrelevant.  Not only that, but doing anything contrary to the will of God is extremely detrimental. Considering how short this test is and how important each decision, thought, and action is in our eternal destiny, we should all be doing everything we can to live the gospel by following the commandments the best we can and helping others to do the same. Perhaps this is why there is such a push for missionary work right now. Time is short, and those of us blessed with the gospel in our lives have a great responsibility to share our blessings, the blessings the gospel brings in our lives, with others not as fortunate.

Doctrine and Covenants 18: 15-16

 15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one ^asoul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

 16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the ^akingdom of my Father, how great will be your ^bjoy if you should bring many ^csouls unto me!

 That’s my two cents.

Chicken Pot Pie

Yesterday for FHE we had homemade chicken pot pie that was to die for. I found a recipe from my favorite food network chef, Ina Garten. We made a few minor adjustments to the recipe, and here’s the result:

Chicken Pot Pie

Adapted from a recipe by Ina Garten

 

Ingredients:

• 1 pint canned chicken
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• Salt-and-pepper
• 5 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes
• ¾ cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 cups yellow onions, chopped (2 onions)
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups medium-diced carrots, blanched for 2 minutes
• 2 cups diced potatoes, boiled five minutes
• 2 cups frozen peas (10 ounce package)
• 1 cup diced celery

 

For the pastry:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1/4 pound cold unsalted butter, diced
• 1/2 to 2/3 cup ice water
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
• Salt-and-pepper

 

Directions:

Drain canned chicken, reserving broth for sauce. Place chicken in large bowl. Add olive oil and sprinkle with salt and Pepper. Mix together thoroughly. Set aside while preparing vegetables. Add vegetables to chicken mixture.

 

In a small saucepan, heat the chicken stock and dissolve the bouillon cubes in the stock. In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and sauté the onions over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until translucent. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the hot chicken stock to the sauce. Simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring, until thick. Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and heavy cream. Add to the chicken, carrots, peas, potatoes and celery. Mix well.

 

For the pastry, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add the shortening and butter and mix quickly with your fingers until each piece is coated with flour. Pulse 10 times, or until the fat is the size of peas. With the motor running, add the ice water; process only enough to moisten the dough and have it just come together. Dump the dough out onto a floured board and knead quickly into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic and allow it to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

 

Pour filling into rectangular casserole dish.  Rollout dough into rectangle to cover casserole dish. Crimp the edges. Brush the dough with egg wash.  Cut slits in top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for one hour or until the top is golden brown and filling is bubbling hot.

 

*to make two extra large glass casserole dishes, we tripled the recipe for the filling and doubled the recipe for the pastry.

Alternatively you could use puff pastry from the grocery store in lieu of the homemade pastry topping.

Delicious!

Random thoughts on Independence Day

I have several random thoughts to share today. First of all, let’s not forget the obvious – happy birthday America! (And Samson) it is somewhat bittersweet to think about this wonderful nation in which we live. From the beginning declaring our independence as a nation to where we are now as a people becoming more and more dependent upon our nation i.e. government. Somewhat ironic. Anyway, happy Independence Day!

Another thought that has been in the back of my mind is the whole Paula Deen witch hunt. It is totally ridiculous what the liberal, low information, Obama loving, mainstream media is doing to Paula Deen. Now I don’t know Paula personally, nor do I know much about her except that I’ve seen her cooking show several times. But I challenge anybody to find someone who is 60+ years old and especially those who grew up in the South who has not uttered “the n word”. Times change. What is acceptable to society changes. Often times for the worse. But how can you condemn someone for something they said many years ago which, if the truth be known, was totally acceptable to society at the time. And even if it was something more recent or something meant derogatorily. Don’t we all make mistakes? Don’t we all say things we wish we hadn’t? Things we wish we could take back? I just think the media is going way overboard with this whole thing. It’s like they are on a witch hunt.

I read an article in the Salt Lake Tribune about a brawl in an LDS chapel in Weber County Utah. It’s been a few days but if I remember correctly there was a missionary farewell and baby blessing going on at the same time. Therefore the chapel was very crowded. One group related to the baby blessing was saving seats. Not members of the Ward. A Ward member came in and sat in the supposedly saved seats. An ensuing brawl broke out and law enforcement was called. I believe there were some arrests.

Anyway, I found this interesting because I think it is something we can all relate to even though it is outrageous behavior especially in a church. But, haven’t we all been inside church buildings where people save seats? And don’t we all get somewhat irked by that behavior? Or is it just me? Doesn’t it seem like no matter what Ward you are in, there are certain pews that are off-limits because they are a certain family’s pew? It’s like an unwritten law or something.

I’m the type of person who would deliberately sit in a pew that was “someone else’s” even though it was empty and unoccupied. Just to ruffle a few feathers and teach people a lesson that it really is not their bench. But that’s just me. Of course I would never come to fisticuffs over it. But I can totally see how it could happen.

People are creatures of habit. But is it really that bad to have to sit in a slightly different place? I don’t mind if people get there early to get their bench. But saving seats when there are people who need them (seating is limited) and the people who you are saving them for are not there, and may never come-- is just plain wrong.

Obviously you think people would try to be on their best behavior at church. Interestingly enough, they aren’t. I guess this is why we have to have locks on the cupboard doors in church buildings and even lockers at the temple.

These are a few of my thoughts today.

That’s my two cents.

The Lamanites Shall Blossom As the Rose

I heard an interesting tidbit on the news last night. As of yesterday, there are more Latinos in California than Caucasians or any other race. I know when I lived in Downey, California that I was most certainly a minority. And that was over 10 years ago.

The news report said that California’s the second state to reach that status. New Mexico being the first several years ago. And Texas will be next. Within the next decade they said.

When I heard this report on the news I immediately thought of the prophecy in the Scriptures.

Doctrine and Covenants 49:24 “But before the great day of the Lord shall come, ^aJacob shall flourish in the wilderness, and the Lamanites shall ^bblossom as the rose.”

It’s obvious that this prophecy is being fulfilled. My interpretation of that Scripture is that the Lamanites (Latinos) will Blossom in righteousness. Or in other words, will accept the Gospel. Now with the great increase in missionaries, this will happen at an accelerated rate.

Anyway, these were the thoughts that went through my head after I heard the news report yesterday.

That’s my two cents.