Are you hungry?

As I was running this morning I was thinking about a talk given in church on Sunday. A Brother got up and started by asking us to imagine if we only ate once a day. And when we ate we only took a few nibbles. We didn't even get a whole bite in. Then we would go to a snack buffet once a week. We could eat for a while but there wasn't really a full meal there, only snacks. Then we only took a drink of water a couple of times a week.
Of course this isn't physical food he was talking about, it is spiritual food. Are we spiritually starving? I have been thinking about this a lot. When I am hungry and my blood sugar is low I am very cranky. Everyone annoys me and nothing goes right, ever. Then I eat and I am fine. I can be my nice, loving, friendly, patient self again. I think we are like that spiritually as well. When our spiritual blood sugar is low, nothing seems to go right. Our lives are not bearable and we want to give up. (at least I do) If we Feast upon the words of Christ, then our lives go smoother. Maybe it is just that we are able to deal with things better but no matter what it is, it is easier.
Then I thought I would test this theory. I thought about a lady in our little branch who is the gospel doctrine teacher. She studies the lessons 3-4 weeks in advance. She comes to class with pages and pages of notes about the lesson to share with us. She prays about everything. Lets just say she is someone I look up to spiritually. And I thought, She is NOT spiritually starved. And I wondered how her life is going. She has a severely handicapped daughter, she has MS, she runs her husbands business, she has 3 teenagers, she is going to school full time, her husband is not a member and guess what? She is HAPPY. She is always willing to spend time with you or give you something you need. She gets her visiting teaching done on time every month and she is HAPPY.
Is this just a fluke or are there other people I know that are feasting on Christs words and their life is good? YES!! Our stake president was just diagnosed with lung cancer. He is going through radiation therapy and things should be tough for him and his family. He is another person I look up to spiritually because he is making time to do the things that he knows he needs to do and he is happy. He came to speak to our branch 2 months ago and I couldn't believe how up beat and genuinely happy he and his wife were.
This simple analogy has made me want to be a better person. How many times has someone come over and all I do is complain? How is it that I can go through a whole day with out saying, "I love you." to my husband? Why is it that my kids can get on my nerves for the smallest thing? Why am I not better at fulfilling my callings?
Now I know the answer--I am starving. Are you?

SCATTERGORIES...it's harder than it looks! Erase my answers, enter yours, and post it. *Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...*They have to be real places, names, things...nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME: Jody
4 LETTER WORD: Joke
VEHICLE: Jeep
CITY: Jacksonville
BOY NAME: James
GIRL NAME: Jenny
OCCUPATION: Jockey
SOMETHING YOU WEAR: Jacket
FOOD: Jam
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: jacuzzi tub
REASON FOR BEING LATE:Just lazy
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: Jerk!

Thanks Sarah!

I would be a millionaire...

If I could bottle this energy and sell it. I know everyone would have to have a bottle of it and I would be famous the world over. If I could just figure out how to do it....


Other than that, there is not much happening here. There are only 3 days of school left for this year. Then we have 2 months off, then we start school again. Reese will be in Kindergarten. WOW!!! I went into Reese's room the other evening and this is what I found. I think Ryan is getting ready to move to a big boy bed but I want to keep him in his crib as long as possible. We put Reese in a big bed when she turned 2 and she never had a problem with crawling out. I have a sneaking suspicion that Ryan will not be that easy. I have already moved everything in his room to the closet and thanks to Carter we know what will likely happen when he is supposed to be in his room taking a nap and he can climb out of bed.

Reese

Reese is a funny funny child. She has a funny sense of humor. It is sooo cool to see how she came from us but she is definitely her own little person.
This past weekend was fathers day and she loves her daddy. Ryan was making a few funny noises with his mouth (because he figured out that he could) and Reese said, "Happy Farters day, Ryan!" Then we all rolled on the floor.

The other day we were walking outside and we heard someone cutting the grass. Reese said, "Don't worry Ryan, it is just a mow lawner."

She was walking around the house with a rubber exercise band on her head like a sweat band.

I love her creativity and that she has no preconceived notions about the proper uses for things.
And as soon as she realized what I was doing she ripped it off.

And it seems like the only time she will sit still long enough to have her picture taken is like this. (Unless I want just a picture of Ryan)



Isn't she cute though?!!

Whats that you said?

Golden found this and laughed out loud. (A rare occasion for him) I thought it was funny just to see the relief on the kids face.

Sorry

I know I haven't really been good about blogging lately. I really haven't been doing anything but trying to finish up with school and it is finally really warming up here so I have been outside more. You never really know how much you like to be outside doing things until you can't have it and you miss it and winter is here for 5 1/2 months. I never thought of myself as a real summer person but having to be inside for almost half a year makes you think, "I really am a summer person. I miss the sun."

We have been trying to finish up school but it seems to be dragging on forever. We still have 2 full weeks of school before we are out but the next 2 weeks are full of everything. We have a family picnic, trips to the museum, field days, parent appreciation days, kindergarten preparation day (they get to visit a kindergarten class and eat lunch in the cafeteria) and a few other things. Then school will be out.

Other news: Grandma Judy is coming to visit. She will be here tonight and leaves next Wednesday. Reese ran into my room first thing this morning and it wasn't, "Good morning mom." or "I have to go pee" which is usually the case but it was, "Grandma Judy, Grandma Judy!!!" She also told me that she is NOT going to have a cranky day so she can play with grandma tonight.

I have started running. I know, brace yourselves, pick your jaws up off the floor and keep reading. I have been reading some blogs and I was looking at a lady who lost like 100 pounds in a year just by running and eating right. I don't need to lose weight but I am tired of felling tired all the time and being cranky. I also have a friend who runs a couple of times a week and she says it makes everything go smoother. I also have a couple of friends who started a running club. It is mostly for the kids but I think it is just awesome and a lot of the kids from school and the neighborhood are involved. I think it is great and I thought about the example I was setting for my kids and I wanted to do better. Thanks Kevin and Amy. I just know that I feel better when I exercise and since doing gymnastics is kind of out of the question I thought I would run. Those of you who know me and know I didn't even run when I was in shape because I hated it that much will be shocked to know that I actually enjoy it. The first day nearly killed me and I have only been running a mile but today was easy (almost) and I think that I will start to increase my distance. I have found a park really close to my house and it is beautiful and shaded by all the trees and it has a nice path that has the miles marked in 1/4s so I know exactly how far I have run.
Ryan is still here and he is saying more words everyday. I love to see the expressions on his face and the things he tries to say. He really has his own personality.

A lady at gymnastics told me yesterday that she can't believe how alike my kids look. I don't think they look that alike but what do I know.

I know that a post really isn't good without pictures but in typical Jody fashion I have forgotten my camera every time we do something or every time the kids does something goofy. But I will post pictures any way. Enjoy.

Pizza, anyone?

Last night the young men in our branch decided to have a pizza bake-off. Everyone was supposed to bring an original pizza. One brought a grits pizza, one was a london broil pizza (with steak on it), there was a banana pizza (that was actually quite good) and there was a blueberry and oatmeal pizza. Golden decided he would take a pizza of his own design. It was a chili cheese dog pizza. Talk about barf. He first took some chili and spread it on the crust and then he took a whole buch of hot dogs and cut them up into little bite size pieces and spread them on. Then he took a lot of cheese and sprinkled it on top. Now, if you like chili cheese dogs maybe you would have been bold no brave enough to try it. It just made me want to vomit. The young men loved it. Go figure!!

I knew it

I have seen this going around and I knew I would be next. At least it is not about me this time.

Husband Tag
What is his name? James Golden Rugg
*How long have you been married? It will be #10 this summer
*How long did you date? 4 months
*How old is he? 32
*Who eats more sweets? Me definitely. I have a sweet tooth the size of my home state of Texas!
*Who said "I love you" first? Him. He whispered it to me when he was hugging me good night not long after we started dating.
*Who is taller? He is.
*Who can sing better? Definitely him. He says he likes my singing but I sound like an animal that needs to be put out of my misery.
*Who is smarter? He is!! He has a total math brain.
*Who does the laundry? Me, but he washed his own clothes before I became a SAHM.
*Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? When you are standing at the foot looking at it, I do. It is closer to the door and hence closer to the children when they wake up in the middle of the night.
*Who mows the lawn? Any one but him. Lately it has been a guy named Bob
*Who cooks dinner? I do and if I am not in the mood to cook we eat out.
*Who drives? He does. He LOVES to drive and complains about my driving so I would just rather relax in the passenger seat than be stressed out in the drivers seat.
*Who is more stubborn? Me
*Who kissed who first? He kissed me. But I wasn't going to stop him.
*Who asked who out first? He asked me out first. He called and asked if I knew how to braid and I showed him how. Then he asked me out to dinner and a show.
*Who proposed? He did
*Who has more siblings? I do, 3 bro and 4 sis. He has 2 sis and 1 bro
*Who wears the pants? He does on some things and I do on other things.

A day in the life of "The Un-doer"

This is how my day has gone so far.
Get up and get the kids some breakfast. While they were sitting at the table I unloaded and started to re-load the dish washer from last night. Before I could finish the loading process, Ryan was screaming to get down and so I got him down(my first mistake) I should have left him there screaming until I could get done with the dishes because it all went down hill from there. While I was finishing the dishes, Ryan went into his room and pulled all of the puzzles and books off the shelf and threw them around the room. Of course, as soon as I finished the dishes I went in to see what he had done. While I was trying to clean that mess up he and Reese went into the hall closet and played in there (which they do often) and they pulled all the towels out of the closet (which they do not do often) While I was folding and re-stacking towels, Ryan went into the kitchen and climbed up on the table and poured juice all over himself, the table, the chairs and the floor. I went to clean him up and then start in on the table and floor. While I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the juice off the floor, Ryan went into the living room and pulled all the DVDs and controllers to the wii out. While I was putting the controllers and movies back Ryan had gone into his room to get the wipes (which are on top of the dresser.) Apparently he had a stinky diaper and needed to be changed. He sat in the hallway and pulled all but one wipe out of the box. Reese went and stood on them all and said, "This feels good on my feet." When I heard that comment I had to go see what she was talking about and see what Ryan had done. As I was trying to salvage the wipes Ryan went in and spread my pile of papers to go through all over the living room floor. Then it was time to go outside and wait for the bus. Nap time is my saving grace. All this happened before noon today.

A day in the life of "The Un-doer"