CHAMPION General Conference Eve (TgIF #5)

I read, in this months Ensign, how Elder Anderson celebrated "Conference Eve" on the Friday before General Conference while raising his family to help his kiddos get excited about General Confetence.  I especially liked the fact that he emphasized not to expect children to sit through 6 hrs of conference. I love how realistic this is and that he was able to stull convey the importance of it to them.

Here's my grattitude journal for this week:

Coleman's a wake-up cuddler with a 4am, "I just knew you needed a hug dad," I do love you moment, even at 4am.
Medications that work(i've had some that didn't, which makes me even more grateful for these that do): my muscle relaxent, anti-insomnia, & antidepressant

Theraputic cleaning, of myself, my thoughts and my surroundings, I tend to be a product of my environment and am grateful that I have the control that I do over my environmentand am not confined to a bed or even a wheelchair.
Sleeping through the night, thanks to a working medication. I unfortunately know why this i'd used as a torture technique.
Norwex body cloths that help me keep clean between showers. A shower chair and Lex's help with it. It suctions itself to the tub floor, which makes it safe, but also impossible for me to move out one-armed.
My CHAMPION Cuz Arron's example of serving others in the homeless shelter. He text me and told me that he ran one of his friends to the ER because "he was in a bad place."
Dr. Robinson telling me how it is with my pride, "Curtis, you need to take a humble pill, apparently life hasn't served you enough of one."
Jam from Christine Tate, rasberry-peach, yum. It's like Christmas came early.
Mary Myers commenting on my blog. You make me want to keep writting. Thanks

Thoughts on pride

I was suppose to teach a lesson on pride from the Teaching of our Times Ezra Taft Benson manuel lesson #18 on Sunday in Elder's Quorum, but only had less than 20mins. So, I ended up starting a discussion with this quote that President Myers sent me:
As I share the following questions that President Spencer W. Kimball asked a group similar to this, consider your own humility and the sincerity of your own prayers: “Do you want guidance? Have you prayed to the Lord for inspiration? Do you want to do right or do you want to do what you want to do whether or not it is right? Do you want to do what is best for you in the long run or what seems more desirable for the moment? Have you prayed? How much have you prayed? How did you pray? Have you prayed as did the Savior … or did you ask for what you want regardless of its being proper?”
For me, when I read through the lesson, I was struck at my need to be willing to be teachable.

President Kimball then continued: “Do you say in your prayers: ‘Thy will be done’? Did you say, ‘Heavenly Father, if you will inspire and impress me with the right, I will do that right’? … Did you say, ‘Father in Heaven, I love you, I believe in you, I know you are omniscient. I am honest. I am sincerely desirous of doing right. I know you can see the end from the beginning. You can see the future. You can discern if under this situation I present, I will have peace or turmoil, happiness or sorrow, success or failure. Tell me, please, loved Heavenly Father, and I promise to do what you tell me to do.’ Have you prayed that way? Don’t you think it might be wise? Are you courageous enough to pray that prayer?”
President Myers told me that the discussion went well for the amount of time that we had. I felt like I let him and the quorum down, but that's the recovering perfectionist.  I'm glad that this quote helped to invite the Spirit and "prime the pump" as President Myers likes to say.
My therapist Dr. Jeff Robinson told me to take a humble pill. I asked him if he didn't think that life had already served me enough humble pie? He looked at me directly and longingly said, "I want to be clear, apparently not Curtis."
So with that I'm looking forward to General Conference this weekend and mentioned to the Elders in class that I felt that the lesson was a CHAMPION way to help me get ready for it.

Knit-picky progress(TgIF #4)

My last physical therapy session with my President Pa Baugh, I was able to work with a student at Neuroworx,  James who is a pleasant chap from England, and I notice that we were working on little, nitty-gritty things, like hip placement for weight shift on my left side, and I thought how far I have come , which excited me, yet I'm still frustrated at how far I still need to go, but that's just the recovering perfectionist in me.
Here's my grattitude list this week:
Answers to prayers at stake conference, post in the works.
Being sick so that I know to be grateful when I'm not.
My BFF as my Pa, we still go every Thursday morning to Neuroworx.
Sam, a student seeing me and telling me the progress he sees. I worked with him 4 years ago.
Laura Bigler, our home teacher's wife mowing our lawn with her son. I've got the best looking yard on the street. Thanks also to Joe Fernandez for organizing my old Elder's Quorum president and Bishop from West Jordan, to come on a Saturday and weed, remove a gable and repair the railroad ties on my terraced garden.
My redicovered massagechair, how have I surrvived with out you?
Weekly addiction recovery meetings and the missionaries there encouraging me to become a facilitator.
Opportunity to HT with President Myers & his friendship. I joke with him that I'm his "project," but he reassures me that I'm likeable and helps me to fight my cabin fever with luch dates every week.
My Amers time, dropping off Coleman to preschool and slurpee run still, even though her Jaylee is in kindergarten now.
Wednesday pizza night and catch up chat with my Mommsy.
Riding paratransit to drop off Coleman to preschool,he being so excited that I told him that it was better than a ride at Disneyland and he believed it! He turned,looked at me and said, "yeah,  Abby and Max will be  so sad that they didn't get to come."
He woke up this morning so excited that he was going to preschool and was hoping that we would ride the bus again with me.
We had quite the adventure together. There's a learning curve with everything. I discovered that you can't just drop someone off, that there is a hour limit before they come back to pick me up. I'm grateful that I was able to have this test run with an enthusiastic Coleman, that it wasn't freezing cold outside, and that Ms. Jani, his preschool teacher, allowed me to stay and teach the kids Spanish until my pickup time. A win-win.

LDS General Conference Prep

My CHAMPION friend Joseph Fernandez text this to me one morning. It is exactly the reminder that I needed. The Lord hears and answers prayers. Please join me in  watching conference on Oct. 3rd and 4th. I know we'll be blessed as we do. There are Prophets and Apostles alive today.

There's a Solution

I confided in my Aunty Becky my recovery from addiction and she emailed me this:
"It's our faith that He experienced everything- absolutely everything. Sometimes we don't think through the implications of that belief. We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don't experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means he knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer- how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virginia. He experienced the gas chambers at Dachau. He experienced Napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism. (All Addiction)
Let me go further. There is nothing you have experienced as a woman that he does not also know and recognize. On a profound level, he understands the hunger to hold your baby that sustains you through pregnancy. He understands both the physical pain of giving birth and the immense joy. He knows about PMS and cramps and menopause. He understands about rape and infertility and abortion. His last recorded words to his disciples were, "And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28:20) He understands your mother-pain when your five-year-old leaves for kindergarten, when a bully picks on your fifth-grader, when your daughter calls to say that the new baby has Down syndrome. He knows your mother-rage when a trusted babysitter sexually abuses your two-year-old, when someone gives your thirteen-year-old drugs, when someone seduces your seventeen-year-old. He knows the pain you live with when you come home to a quiet apartment where the only children are visitors, when you hear that your former husband and his new wife were sealed in the temple last week, when your fiftieth wedding anniversary rolls around and your husband has been dead for two years. He knows all that. He's been there. He's been lower than all that. He's not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people don't need a Savior. He came to save his people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He's not embarrassed by us, angry at us, or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief.
You know that people who live above a certain latitude and experience very long winter nights can become depressed and even suicidal, because something in our bodies requires whole spectrum light for a certain number of hours a day. Our spiritual requirement for light is just as desperate and as deep as our physical need for light. Jesus is the light of the world. We know that this world is a dark place sometimes, but we need not walk in darkness. The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and the people who walk in darkness can have a bright companion. We need him, and He is ready to come to us, if we'll open the door and let him."
-Sister Okazaki
It is my hope that I believe, even in my imperfection,  this and open the door for Him. I hope that you will too.

First exposure

My kiddos love having the scriptures come to life with this.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gabe.android.BookOfMormon

Thx to Matt for this one

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2015/09/the-temple-and-the-natural-order-of-marriage?lang=eng
Yes, I read this at 3am for the first time, and will have to reread it, hopefully with Lex.

Compensatory blessings are real

My Bishop recommended this to me:

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/neil-l-andersen_a-compensatory-spiritual-power-for-the-righteous/

I tend to get caught up in the negative and am grateful that Elder Andersen emphasizes the positive. Please share your thoughts with me about what stands out to you.

TGIF #2

Nanna, my mother-in-law, loves to serve. She  helps me  with my kiddos  and walks them to school 4 days a week, fills my wheelchair tires so that I am able to go with them too, She takes Coleman and I on outtings to help me fight cabin fever.
My BFF as my Pa. I never thought that he would be, but am pleasently surprised. He loves to serve too, and I am the major benefactor.  I was feeling really fuilty about all he still does for me and he text me and asked if i'd rather he serve strangers or a son that he loves?
A high school friend that I can text @3:30 in the morning. Thanks Biggs
Music:Peter Brienholt, Lex found the CD and hooked up our stereo downstairs. My kiddos love to see me sing along and blast it.
Neuroworx open house and Jan & Dale's graciousness
Heather and Kevy filling my "bucket" they took me to the open house and took my Colester to their home to play with the their Janson and get watched by their babysitter. When they came and waited for me to shower, they swept my kitchen floor and folded laundry. Who does that?
Laura Bigler mowing our lawn with he son Lucas.
Redicovered massagechair, it was a gift from my uncles and Pa when I got home from the hospital.
Joe coming with me to addiction recovery meeting. He's a CHAMPION friend.
Swimming at My Uncle Mike's and torturing Coleman. I had way to much fun seeing the terror im his eyes.
A clean basement, thanks to Lex cleaning with the kiddos, instead of me just yelling at them.
Cucumbers coming out of our ears. My kiddos love them.
Opportunity to HT with President Myers. He is the man and gives me the opportunity to serve.
Audiobooks, I can listen to them while doing anything.
Lonliness, it helps me to appreciate my kiddos even when they annoy me.
Text from family and friends. They helps me to feel connected.

Neuroworx's new home

I was there at the ribbon cutting and haven't ever met more gracious people than Jan Black and Dale Hull. I love their example of giving others hope. Check out the place here