DQ tradition

 When I joined the Howe family over 25 years ago one thing I quickly learned was that these people know how to make desserts! Nearly each time we get together as an extended family we have a dessert buffet. We have new creations and have many repeat family favorites. Oh the joy! It's fun how traditions evolve. Another Howe tradition that I love is General Conference weekend DQ blizzards! In our faith we have a weekend long conference twice a year where we hear messages from our church leaders. Twice a year my awesome inlaws give each family DQ gift cards so that we can enjoy a sweet treat in our smaller families (this weekend on the app was buy one get one free, are you kidding me?!) I love a brownie blizzard and I absolutely love the diversity in our family. There are many varied interests, personalities, talents and faith. The General Conference blizzard started years ago. Gift cards are extended no matter the attendance of this conference because the biggest tradition of this family is a phrase that used to hang in their dining room wall, "Make room for everyone." Everyone. You don't even have to love sugar to have a seat at their table. But if you do, you've come to the right place!

A disciple of Christ

 The following examples are things I have seen the youth of our congregation do as they strive to follow our Savior. To the youth, if you think I am talking about you, that the example I have given is something you did... Well you are right. It was you!

A disciple of Jesus Christ…Invites all youth over to their house to play night games. 2 Nephi 26:33 He ainviteth them ball to ccome unto him and partake of his goodness; and he ddenieth none that come unto him, black and white, ebond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the fheathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.

A disciple of Jesus Christ…

Is helpful to a former friend even though that kindness is not extended to them.

DC 64:10 I, the Lord, will aforgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to bforgive all men.

A disciple of Jesus Christ….

Talks with a teacher to change an assignment that has inappropriate innuendo.

Doctrine and Covenants 15, 18 Wherefore, alift up your hearts and brejoice, and cgird up your loins, and take upon you my whole darmor, that ye may be able to withstand the evil day, having done all, that ye may be able to estand… be faithful until I come, and ye shall be bcaught up, that where I am ye shall be calso.

A disciple of Jesus Christ….

Shares their talents even when they are afraid or nervous.

Doctrine and Covenants 82:18-19 And all this for the benefit of the church of the living God, that every man may aimprove upon his btalent, that every man may cgain other dtalents, yea, even an hundred fold, to be cast into the Lord’s estorehouse, to become the common fproperty of the whole church—19 aEvery man seeking the interest of his bneighbor, and doing all things with an ceye single to the glory of God.

A disciple of Jesus Christ….

Bares their testimony.

Doctrine and Covenants 62:3 Nevertheless, ye are ablessed, for the btestimony which ye have borne is crecorded in heaven for the angels to look upon; and they rejoice over you, and your dsins are forgiven you.

A disciple of Jesus Christ….

Makes it a point to smile at school and to reach out to others whether close friends or strangers.

Doctrine and Covenants 9: spiritually-minded is life eternal.

A disciple of Jesus Christ….

Understands that others look at them and look up to themand walks away when they know something is inappropriate.

Mosiah 18:9… stand as cwitnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in.

A disciple of Jesus Christ….

Is cheerfully helpful at home.

2 Corinthians 9:7 Every man according as he apurposeth in his heart, so let him give; not bgrudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a ccheerful dgiver.

A disciple of Jesus Crhist….

Follows the Spirit when they feel inspired to change their driving route

Doctrine and Covenants 45:57 For they that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived—verily I say unto you,

they shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day.

A disciple of Jesus Christ….

Comes to church/seminary/mutual activities even when it is hard.

Of all possible choices, the one that matters most is the choice to follow Jesus Christ. He is the strength of youth. His gospel is the joyful way back to your Heavenly Father.

John 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, … that your joy might be full.

A disciple of Jesus Christ….

Says prayers of gratitude.

Alma 34:38 that ye live in dthanksgiving daily, for the many emercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.

I have a testimony of this Gospel. That when we strive to be disciples of Jesus Christ and yoke ourselves to Him we can accomplish great things.

I have great confidence in the youth of the church, specifically those who are in our ward. I see their goodness, influence and integrity. Heavenly

Father is mindful of each one of us and when we call on Him for strength and guidance he will provide it. We are here on earth to spread this good news

and when we choose to be a disciple of Jesus Christ we will have many great blessings and experiences. Amen.

Officially landed my 46 year...

 Guys, 46 is proving to be quite the rollercoaster!! Went to bed to a very dirty kitchen 😞, woke up to a squeaky clean kitchen compliments of Parkin 💗 Arrive at school to find the inside of my classroom decked out in birthday pizzazz 🥳 School starts and in walks the head dog to do an impromptu classroom observation...the Monday after spring break 😭 Good thing I'm awesome and crush the lesson 💪 Forgot the healthy lunch I packed the night before 🥴 Instead I ate the donut holes and vinigerchips that I got as gifts. Bummer that the flying party favors that I bought kept breaking (mostly due to user error) 🤦‍♀️ Luckily the pack of 50 I bought had plenty of replacement parts 🎉 Up down up down....what a morning?! (I hope these emojis made it easier for you to read 😜)

Now to the good part. Happy birthday to my amazing twin Lindsey Lou!! This is a throw back picture that she recently showed me. I think we are making a cake for each other. I got the egg and she's got the milk. We've always made a perfect team 💕

Lindsey wrote:

I've always been a rather social creature. I can only attribute it to the reality that even before I was born, I got to participate in slumber parties. On this special day, the birthday of my twin sister Lesley Holman Howe, I'm filled with gratitude that we were only separated by 3 min at delivery, and that my 19 years living away from the Old Pueblo (and my twin, and my AZ family, and the heat, and Eeggees) have come to an end. Happy 46th birthday to my womb mate, my first room mate, and fingers crossed, we won't be tomb mates anytime soon...also 10 points to Joyce Holman for bravely going from 2 to 4 kids in the blink of an emergency c-section. How much fun it has been!

When I got home from school Parkin and Adrian got me sunflowers and a DQ blizzard and Olivia arranged for the kids to pitch into buying me a pair of running shoes that are supposed to help with plantar fasciitis. So thoughtful! 

For the actual dinner Lindsey's family picked up Panda. Nana and Papa came over and Barbara and Ron. We had two desserts. Lindsey is in graduate school and will be earning a Masters in Social work. So Ryan got several cakes to bring to the school. He brought a chocolate cake  to the house that Ryan said he got for me....he scratched the "inds" out of one of the many cakes he got for Lindsey 😜 Too funny!  We ate and hot tubbed later. It was awesome. 

San Diego Spring break

Just the four of us went to San Diego for the last part of spring break with the last four Smiths. We soaked up all the California sunshine we could. Driving out to San Diego just outside of Yuma there is a natural hot springs. Pete recommended it saying it has restorative powers. It did!  When we were coming down the mountain in California it started to snow! It snowed hard enough that it stuck in the ground. It was beautiful and a bit nerve racking driving in it. We stayed with the Smiths in an Airbnb that they had actually stayed in several years earlier, what are the odds San Diego is huge! This property was original and the views were million dollar 👌 We went kayaking in the ocean for an hour and a half. It was fine and good except for the last half hour. I started to get real sea sick. I leaned over to puke and doing so tipped our boat and I fell right into my puke. The whole thing was nasty. I wanted to just stay in the ocean it was freezing but being in the kayak felt worse. We got back in and made it to land only to have my jaw lock up because I was so cold 🥶 I would still give the experience 4/5 stars because it was a fun adventure 😅 We went to Balboa Park on Saturday. So many free museums and fun places to explore. Parkin absolutely loved the San Diego Natural History museum, Adrian was happy we went to the aquarium and we got to see her beloved sharks. We had an absolute blast with cousins.

We went to church in San Diego they had someone who played organ prelude music and a different person played the hymns both people were incredible. Some real musical talent in that ward! The gentleman sitting in front of us turned around and told Benjamin he had an amazing singing voice. The Howe family would be proud. Several people came up to welcome us. The diversity of the congregation was also nice, they get an A+. 

Back to work on Monday!

Come anyway!

At the adult session of conference a young couple walked into the back of the meeting wearing jeans and  t-shirts. They looked very out of place. They sat right in front of me and I sat next to Sister Thomas. The whole meeting was about accepting people and creating a spirit of unity and out of nowhere some single adult walks up to this young couple and taps the guy on the shoulder and is doing this weird gesture with his pants in the aisle. I'm like what the heck is happening. Then I noticed the guy sitting down that his pants were to low.. So the single adult wearing his fancy suit is jestering for him to pull his pants up. The couple looked very embarrassed. I knew at the end of the meeting if this young couple was still sitting there that I was going to tap their shoulder and talk to them. The young woman had cute hair so I tapped her shoulder and saiid I had admired it all evening. I struck up a conversation with them and I learned that they are engaged and were actually planning on going on a night hike that evening when they remembered it was stake conference so they came anyway. In their jeans and t-shirt. I was so impressed. There's no way Benjamin and I would have done that we would have been too embarrassed and we wouldn't have gone. I told them about a time when Benjamin and I  were traveling and he was in a suit for some business meeting and we had time to go to the temple but I was just wearing jeans and a t-shirt and I thought I couldn't go in but Benjamin said I'm going to go ask the temple presidency. They said everybody's welcome doesn't matter what they're wearing! it just really brought home that Heavenly father wants us no matter how we come! If we have time to put on thoughtful attire and a prayer and general conference music playing in the background great but if we are literally coming in from outside during a rainstorm muddy and dripping wet he's just glad we're there! That suited YSA guy missed the entire theme of the meeting- but maybe he struggles socially or misses clues.

Under the Sea with Parkin

Parkin did his play this week. The Little Mermaid. He was in the ensemble cast and was on stage a lot. He was a sailor, dolphin, chef,  and frog. The play ran for three nights. Each night he was greeted by someone with a bouquet of flowers. He's a well liked kid. The Smiths came bringing swedish fish and Nana and Papa. 

Galentines

 Adrian has a Galentines party but two boys came so it was more like a Palentines party. Each person brought a charcuterie board. Adrian made a cake. The party was from 1-5....it was an event with almost all the girls from middle school. To quote Adrian, exclusion is for losers. I'm impressed she invited everyone. The rest of us kind of hid, Olivia too since she sleeps here on the weekends. Parkin periodically joined the fray, he was the cool older brother.