"Master, the tempest is raging"

I love Sundays. And since my weekend was all of one day, I particularly relished in today. I read this talk by Elder Oaks this morning that really brought me peace. Hope you enjoy these thoughts, and if you want more, you can find it here. 

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).

Healing blessings come in many ways, each suited to our individual needs, as known to Him who loves us best. Sometimes a “healing” cures our illness or lifts our burden. But sometimes we are “healed” by being given strength or understanding or patience to bear the burdens placed upon us.

....

At times we may despair that our burdens are too great. When it seems that a tempest is raging in our lives, we may feel abandoned and cry out like the disciples in the storm, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” (Mark 4:38). At such times we should remember His reply: “Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?” (v. 40).

The healing power of the Lord Jesus Christ—whether it removes our burdens or strengthens us to endure and live with them like the Apostle Paul—is available for every affliction in mortality.

Game Day

College GameDay

Lougee Family Style

That's my game face, I guess.

Go Cougs!

And I guess Ducks, too.... :-)

Cool Kids

What I learned from Birthing Class Round 2: 

All the cool kids meet up 

in the women's restroom. 

True story.

You should've seen that place during our break. Every. Single. Expecting. Mom. Was in that little barf-saturated pink-saturated restroom. 

I also had to inwardly smile when they showed video of live births and all the men got wide-eyed and traumatized.
And they don't even have to squeeze out those melon-heads.
. . .
Thanks a lot, guys. 

Round

Wow, we had a full weekend and this week has already gone by so quickly! 

We spent Saturday in La Grande/Union visiting with the fam and meeting this little guy. 

Wyatt Bond Smith

We got to celebrate his 1st birthday with him. Fortunately, we didn't have to eat the destroyed, baby-handled cake. Unfortunately, he got the yummy vanilla cake and I had to eat the chocolate kind (if you know me, you know I love me some yellow/vanilla cake with chocolate frosting). 

After gorging ourselves on delectable foods, Eric then spent a couple of hours getting beat by my 9 year old brother at some Madden Football. 

We got home very late. 

Sunday we were able to spend the day in Umatilla.

Eric's sister Liz was in town from Rexburg ever so briefly. 

She's due with a baby boy just two weeks after our due date.

It was fun to swap pregnancy war stories.... 

Then I did hours of stats homework. 

And in case you didn't know, The Pendleton Round-Up has hit Pendleton. 

That means I've lost 82% of my sanity and have 3.5 days left to lose the rest. 

Tonight is round 2 of Birthing Classes. And then maybe I'll catch some of this, if I'm lucky. 

Whew.

From Long Neck Bottle to Mason Jar

Well, here is my 22 week photo. It's only 5 days late, but I took it on Saturday so it's fairly accurate. I put my 20th week photo on there for comparison.

20 Weeks

22 Weeks

I particularly like my face in the most recent photo. Eric was taking forever, so I'm giving him the impatient eye.

In other news, we had our first birthing education class last night. It went until 9:45 PM!

PM, People! 

That's like 15 minutes before I'm usually down for the count. And by count I mean counting sheep.

I kind of felt bad for Eric. I'm sure that's more information about the uterus, the cervix, dilation, and effacing than he ever knew he would know. I kept thinking, "This is really sexy, isn't it?"

There were three other couples there and I felt like they had to be wondering why I we were there when they all looked so much more pregnant than me. We did introductions though, and there was one couple who actually had the exact same due date as us! They're having a boy. She totally had a discernible baby bump and I was torn between jealousy of her bump, but also feeling good that I looked so good for being two days shy of 6 months pregnant!

The best part was the part where I got to lay down, take lots of deep breaths and have Eric instructed to give me a massage for about 20 minutes. De-light-ful.

P.S. The title of this post is more graphic than you realize. 

Blackberry

Last Sunday we ventured to the Umatilla Nature Trails to see if the blackberries were finally ripe. 

You'll recall last year, they were ripe back in July!

We took the berries over to the Barkers' on Monday night for some post-homemade pizza 

homemade ice cream. Not my best batch, but still, MMmm.

Some things I really love about summer. Like the bounty of fresh, in-season produce around. 

Particularly the free kind.