Nephite Pride Cycle

On our way back to Chico from Sacramento last night, Corrina and I were discussing many things and Corrina had an epiphany that we were then able to elaborate. She said something along the lines that we can see parrallels between events in the Book of Mormon and what is happening to the USA today, specifically regarding Heavenly Father's promise regarding the land. IT was an amazing moment of clarity and understanding that I thus expanded on it with regards to the Nephite pride cycle. What we came up with follows:
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In innumerable places within the Book of Mormon, the Lord promises the prophet at the time "inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land, but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence." (cf. 2Ne. 1:20) That promise isn't exclusive of the Nephites or even of antiquity. The Book of Mormon, remember, was written for OUR day.

Additionally, the term "Nephite Pride Cycle" is a misnomer. There is nothing uniquely Nephite about it. What it should be called is "The Curse of the Promised Land". Just as it says in the Book of Mormon:

11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things (emphasis added). If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.
15 And to bring about his eternal purpose in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter.

Any time a people is given the blessing of receiving a promised land, the curse that follows inevitably with is is the pride cycle. You are given a land just for you, you get prideful about it, you get slothful, you get destroyed, you repent, it starts all over. The Nephites weren't the only ones that this happened to. It happened to the Jaredites thousands of years before Lehi. It may have even happened to the Mulekites, although they kept no records so we're not really sure. It happened to the Israelites when they were given their Promised Land. The author of the Proverbs said it succinctly:

18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

And we would all be very naive if we thought that we, as citizens of the United States, are immune from this curse. Nephi saw our day and received a revelation of the colonizing and founding of this country. Could we not then say that we were given this as a promised land?

12 And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.

13 And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters.

14 And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles upon the land of promise; and I beheld the wrath of God, that it was upon the seed of my brethren; and they were scattered before the Gentiles and were smitten.

15 And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance; and I beheld that they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people before they were slain.

16 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them.

We have become prideful and slothful and are letting the central government take more and more power away from the citizenry. And what has the government been doing with this power? sowing the seeds of destruction: spending money it doesn't have, bowing down to dictators, refusing to admit that we have enemies, shirking its responsibility to be a force to be reckoned with on the global stage. The list goes on and on. Let me know what you think. Am I right? Am I off base? Let me know

Fooled by the Media

We parked next to this car at our local Costco and when we noticed the bumper stickers, Corrina said "Now that's something to blog about." Boy is she right. Either this lady has drunk so much of Obama's Kool-Aid that she doesn't realize exactly how fooled by the media she is, or she is just as evil and socialist as the current administration. I'm not sure which is worse.

Three Things:

First:
As a preface, I know this is old news and nobody cares about it anymore. I'm untimely in my reporting, etc. But who cares. This is my blog and I'll write about anything I want to.

Second:
Why did the Mainstream Media (MSMspend so much time reporting the type of dog the Obama's were going to get and from where they were going to get it (breeder vs. pound)? Was that really the most important information we, the people, needed to know? I expected that type of buffonery from the tabloid news shows like "Extra!" but not the MSM until I realized they are so entranced by the Man, the Body that they are practically reading the scriptthat B.O. has written for them. Especially ABC who recently decided to broadcast a special about Obama's universal heathcare plan straight from the Blue Room of the White House without letting opposing views take part in the spectacle (can we say PRO-PA-GAN-DA, children?). Hey Charlie (Gibson), did B.O. let you use his own personal teleprompter? Why don't you just climb up on good ol' Barry's lap and let him whisper in your ear?

Third:
If B.O. can't even keep his campaign promise to get his dog from a pound, what makes anyone believe that he will keep any of his other campaign promises?

I'm becoming my dad!

With every passing day I begin to realize more and more just how much like my father I'm becoming. The evidence:

1. I have to carry a pen around with me everywhere I go
2. My joints, especially knees and ankles, creak and pop when I walk
3. I get my children's names confused
4. I listen to conservative talk radio
5. I wipe my children's snotty noses with the handerchief that I carry in my back pocket
6. I fall asleep in front of the TV no matter how much activity is going on around me

That's just what I've noticed lately...I'm sure I'll find more later. I guess you could call this belated Father's Day wishes since Father's Day was on Sunday.

I love you Dad!

Adventures With Pay For Parking

I was not going to blog about this, but since Dave mentioned in his blog that he would leave this up to me to tell, I feel obligated.
Yesterday, Dave took the PCAT in Berkeley (read Dave's blog to fill in the blanks). I dropped him off at 8:30am (he mentioned I had to kill 4 hours of time. That was incorrect, it was 5 hours) and went back to our hotel to partake of the free continental breakfast. I then took Lara back to our room and fed her, let her play a little, and then she went down for a nap. Lara had woke up every 2 hours during the night, so I was tired; therefore I joined her for the nap. Lara fell asleep around 10am, I fell asleep about 15-20 minutes later and woke up at 11:25am. Checkout was at noon, so I got everything ready while Lara still slept (she woke up about 10 minutes after I did). Dave had forgot to pack my change of shirts (all I had was a polo that I had worn the day before), so I looked up where the local Old Navy was located (it was in Emeryville) and headed over. To my surprise, you had to pay to park at the mall. I had no cash, in fact I had only a credit card, but the machine that you pay at said that it took credit cards, so I parked and proceeded to Old Navy. I thought it was great because I got the closest parking spot to the elevator and the Old Navy was right by the entrance to the mall by my elevator. Perfect! I did my shopping and the went to the machine to pay. I insert my credit card and a message pops up stating it cannot take my card. What!?! I try again, same message. This cannot be happening! I walk into a store and ask if I can purchase something with my credit card and then get $2 cash back because the machine is not taking my card. I'm told they can't do that, but the store next door can. I walk over and ask, the cashier says he does not know, so he tries calling his manager. Manager does not answer. He tells me he won't do it because he could not get a hold of his manager and tells me I should walk to a grocery store down the street and see if they can. Hello! I'm from out of town, I have a baby in my arms and a shopping bag. I leave the store trying to hold back tears because I don't know what to do. I sit down in a chair outside with Lara on my lap and cry. I'm stuck at a mall over 3 hours away from home, I have no cash, no ATM card, and no way to get a hold of my husband. I remember that we had brought our check book. I walk back to the car and find it. While waiting at the elevator, another person tries to pay by credit card and has the same problem. So, I go back to the first store I had asked, they do not accept checks. I see Harry and Davids, they have to take checks and can let me write it for more and get cash back. I go over and ask. The clerk tells me that they do not have the capability to do that. That was the straw that broke the camels back! I sat on the bench in front of the store and just cried, trying to not be hysterical. The clerk sees me and asks if I need the money for parking. I tell her yes. She asks if I need $2, I say yes. She says she had that in her purse and then goes to her purse and hands me the money. I was so grateful, but I could not stop crying. Hormones, they'll get you every time. She offers me some coffee, I tell her that I do not drink coffee. She offers me iced tea, and I tell her that I do not drink that either, but thank you. I head out, pay at the machine, get Lara in the car, and head to UC Berkeley to pick up Dave. I was still fragile when Dave finished and came out to the car. I told him that and told him he better not do anything to me. He asks me what happened. I tell him, but still could not do it without crying. I must have had a lot of things pent up, because it sure did seem like I cried a whole lot more than I should have. I'm glad everything worked out and that I received help when I needed it. Heavenly Father really does bless you when you REALLY need it.

Update

Well, its been a while since I've posted anything, and its been even longer since I've posted anything non-political. The last three weeks I've been taking a summer school class and really focusing on that. (Did you know that the masseter, zygomaticus, buccinator, digastric, and sternocleidomastoid are all muscles of the skull, as well as the orbicularis oris and orbicularis occuli?) I still have three more weeks of this but decided to give a quick update because this has been a crazy weekend that's not over yet.

Friday we drove down to Sacramento to drop Jaron off at my sister's place for a sleep over. After spending some time with them, we said good bye to Jaron and drove down to Berkeley. The purpose for going to Berkeley was so I could take the PCAT. Its kind of like the MCAT for for medical school but the PCAT is for pharmacy schools. After checking into the hotel, we had to run to Target to buy some Genteal Gel eyedrops because I forgot mine in Chico, after which we went out to eat. Saturday Morning, I was almost late for the PCAT because UC Berkeley is confusing and Google maps were a little inaccurate. Fortunately, they were only reading the general directions and filling out the front cover of the answer booklet with name, date, etc. etc. I have no idea how well I did and I have to wait ~6wks for the results to be mailed but it seemed more difficult than the practice test I had taken online earlier in the week.

Corrina dropped me off at the test center and went off to kill ~4hrs while I was testing. After the test, she comes and picks me up and tells me about her adventures with the pay-to-park parking lot at the Emeryville Mall. I'll let her give the details...I'll just say that it must have been really stressful, I would have flipped out.

After the test I call my sister to see how Jaron did: overall, pretty good, however:

• He fought going to bed from 7:30 - 10
• At ~2am, woke up screaming and had to be held (right?)
• STILL woke up @ 6am
• Was doing fine that morning, they went to my parent's to go swimming and he was having a great time.

It was ~1:30 when we called and he hadn't gone down for a nap or anything. We we got there @ ~4pm, he had just barely gotten wiped-out and had fallen asleep. We then drove to Corrina's Grandma's house because Corrina's mom, Corrina's brother's girlfriend and their kids were visiting from Wyoming.

Jaron didn't go down til late again and woke up screaming @ 2 or 3. I think he was partially traumatized from not having us the night before and the room being so dark he couldn't even see tat we were there with him. All his crying woke up Lara so it was quite the struggle to try to get them both to calm down and go back to sleep. Now we are goig to go to church, then off to Corrina's Aunt's house for a family get together. And after that, drive back to Chico today to start the week all over tomorrow. Oh, and did I mention that Lara is REALLY tired of the car seat? Fun times :-)

It Fills My Heart

One of the greatest joys I have experienced lately is being able to watch Jaron and Lara play together. They are so cute together. A few days ago, Jaron was crawling around so that Lara would chase after him. When Lara decided she was too tired to chase Jaron, Jaron crawled around where Lara could see him. Lara laughed and squealed in delight. Yesterday they stood up on their knees in front of the TV to play with the VCR and TV buttons. It makes my heart feel so full to watch them play. I hope they continue to enjoy playing together and not have many disagreements (like today when Jaron did not want Lara to touch anything he felt was his). Maybe I'll be able to capture these precious moments with the camcorder one day.