23 Pslalm

I have been working a lot the past few days. The stress of the extra time at work is hard on my family. It is hard on me, but I have the blessing of working with and for amazing people. We work on a lot of veterans in our office. I had a WWII veteran in the office yesterday that shared this story, and it was so great I wanted write it down so we can all have a reminder of what real sacrifice is and how blessed we are, even in our darkest hours.

I am going to write this in first person because it reads better like that.

"There were 40 men in my platoon. We saw more combat than any other platoon in Europe. We were at the battle of the bulge. We then joined Patton's 3rd infantry division and marched through the middle of Germany, 400 miles, and then met up with the Russians. That was an interesting experience. We didn't trust them, and they didn't trust us. We hit the Germans in the middle and then flanked them on either side. They didn't know what hit them. We lost most of our platoon. There were five of us left and we were in a forested area hiding from the enemy. Out of nowhere came and explosion and shrapnel rained down on us. Four of the men were badly injured. I made my way to a clearing and saw a farmhouse. I ran to the house and removed the door from the hinges and motioned for the people inside to come and help me. There was a young girl (probably about 15, and I was 18), her mother, grandmother and grandfather. We carried the wounded men on the door back to their farmhouse where they tended to them as best they could. Those women sat there and held the hands of those men for three days until they died. The grandfather went out back and cut a piece of pork (there was no refrigeration) and made soup with pork and potatoes. I hadn't eaten in three days and it smelled wonderful. They motioned for me to sit at the head of the table. We were all sitting and I quickly bowed my head to give thanks and was startled when they did the same. They were pouring out their hearts to God. As I watched them pray I was reminded of the 23 Psalm "Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of mine enemies". God has been good to me, I have no regrets."

My cup runneth over. I run into a lot of people who don't hesitate to share with everyone their love of Jesus Christ and how he has restored their souls. They are a great example to me. The Lord is my Shepherd, I just get busy sometimes and forget that I need to let him lead me, and not the other way around.

Here is a link to the 23 Psalm, in case you need a refresher.
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ps/23

Happy Birthday Allison!

Today is my sister Allison's birthday. Actually it was yesterday because now it is past midnight. I thought I would write some wit and wisdom. I found and old journal the other day and as I was scanning found a poem that I wrote about Allison on the occasion of her 18th birthday.

Your always there when times are tough
Always kind (but sometimes gruff)
Although I sometimes muff
you're always there 'cause your made of the right stuff

You are still great Allie. Here are some other gems I found
Feb 1983
"Tonight was the etiquette dinner. My escort was Brian Ostler. I had fun but Allison had Brian Ball for an escort and she came home crying."
Feb 1982
"Allison baked peanut butter cookies and I couldn't have any. This diet is really getting to me."
"When I came home I had to do the dishes that Allison and Tiffany didn't do." (you are my sister, I couldn't just put the good stuff, no one would believe it)

Hope you had a great day!

value menu

Today I was at work and Reed was in charge. That meant attempting to accomplish meaningful tasks while entertaining kids and keeping them from injuring themselves and others. After calling no joy on yard work, he packed the kids up to take them to Home Depot to do a project. He had not eaten breakfast because we were out of milk and bread and most other essential food items, so he decided to go through the McDonalds drive through and get himself a $1 breakfast burrito. Molly started to fuss that she was hungry (she had just been retrieved from a sleep over) and after listing off several menu items she decided she wanted a fruit and yogurt parfait. Then everyone wanted one. Reed got to the window to pick up the food and decided that the parfaits would be wasted and make a mess, so he offered to get the kids donuts instead. He then had McDonalds refund the money for the parfaits ($1 each), went across the parking lot of the shopping center to Circle K and got the kids donuts, because they were a value ($.79).

Let me state now for the record that usually when I take the kids to McDonalds I get them hamburgers and parfaits because it is a healthier option than fries and way less messy that apple dippers. Reed always gives me a hard time because he is convinced that they are not healthy, and are surely loaded with extra sugar.

So I listened to this story, and we had the same discussion about the questionable nutrition of the parfaits, and of course the burrito ("it is small,there's not much sausage, it can't be that bad for you"). My response "Next time, please spend the extra $.20 on the parfait."
Knowing that the last word had not been had, I went downstairs and started cutting up fruit for the High Priest Luau this evening(which was awesome for a HP get together) and had to stop and look up the nutritional values of the items in question, for ammunition really. So here it is:
-Reed's breakfast burrito-280 calories, 20 grams of fat
-Parfait-130 calories, 4 grams of fat
-glazed donut- 200 calories, 12 grams of fat (that is for glazed, which is usually the least offensive.)

The take home: life is a zero sum game. The value that will save you pennies now, will cost you later. (There are greater implications to this theory, but I am not an economist and don't want won't bore you with my views on things of this nature)