Obedience is the First Law of Heaven

Obedience is the First Law of Heaven

Jeremiah 7:23-24
Doctrine and Covenants 130:18-21
Doctrine and Covenants 82:8-10
Doctrine and Covenants 59:23
John 14:15, 21
1 Corinthians 2:9

“Obedience, in and of itself, is a source of power. Man can achieve naught of excellence in matters material or spiritual except through the exercise, the utilization, of that supreme form of energy, obedience.” --James E. Talmage

“Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason thereof till long after the events transpire.” --Joseph Smith

“Obedience to God can be the very highest expression of independence. … Obedience—that which God will never take by force—he will accept when freely given. And he will then return to you freedom you can hardly dream of—the freedom to feel and to know, the freedom to do, and the freedom to be, at least a thousandfold more than we offer him. Strangely enough, the key to freedom is obedience.” --Boyd K. Packer

“We are individuals, but we live in families and communities where order provides a system of harmony that hinges on obedience to principles.”
--James E. Faust

“When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.” --Ezra Taft Benson

“Seemingly small acts of disobedience can result in longer-term consequences of unhappiness, regrets, and even fatal results.” --Elder Donald L. Staheli

“Freedom and liberty are precious gifts that come to us when we are obedient to the laws of God and the whisperings of the Spirit. If we are to avoid destruction, which was the fate of President McKay’s horse Dandy and his companion, fences or guardrails must be built beyond which we cannot go. The fences which we must stay within are the principles of revealed truth. Obedience to them makes us truly free to reach the potential and the glory which our Heavenly Father has in store for us.” --James E. Faust

If I continue to travel the road I am
currently following, where will it lead me
and what will happen to those I love?

Events to Share

Well, not much of import has happened lately, but we've had events, so I'll share those.

Knee Surgery Update

Rob is not off his brace yet, technically. He goes to physical therapy tomorrow and he expects he will be released from having to wear his brace then. This week is week 6, I think, so he's right on schedule. He's not been ahead, but he's not been behind, either. ... It's been interesting to watch his recovery. First, when he just had surgery, he'd try to flex his quads and they just didn't flex at all. Now they both will flex, but his surgery leg is obviously weaker and he can flex his leg and keep it straight, but it shakes a lot. That's been the slow-up with getting the brace off. His quad has to be "firing." In other words, it has to be responding when his mind and/or body says flex. ... He's been not wearing his brace for a week, though, except to school. Places he knows he won't have to walk very far, he doesn't worry about his brace. Rob can now do exciting things like not walk with a noticable limp and walk up and down stairs one foot at a time (you know, like without having to put both feet on each stair). He went to work out with me yesterday, which consisted of walking without his brace on a treadmill for 20 minutes, lifting weights on his upper body, and doing some abducter machine (I don't really know what they're called. It's the machine where you sit down like in a chair and push out with your legs like you're doing a butterfly movement or something). It was fun and it was good to see him able to do a few things.

Trip to Toledo

Rob's little brother, G, is going on a mission next month, so a lot of our recent activities, and activities we'll be doing later, center around that. I took the kids and went up to Toledo to see Grandma and Grandpa D so that the kids could have a chance to see their great grands that they don't get to see too often. It was a fun trip, but I ended up not sleeping like at all up there, which meant I was just really, really tired the whole time. They had me in a tiny, poorly-circulated room so I was too hot, on a bed not my own, with 2 kids, one of whom wakes up at least once during the night still (despite sleeping, actually, pretty well. He wakes up once, normally, but sleeps usually 4 - 6 hours, wakes up, then another 8 hours or so) and on top of that makes lots of baby noises through the night, and plus, the two kids don't know how to sleep in the same room together, so I had to treat going to bed as a 3 part process: get Elijah to sleep, get myself and Miciah ready for bed, then lay Miciah and myself down after Elijah was out, so that then they wouldn't just laugh at each other and keep each other awake. ... Anyways, I was so tired that on the trip back home I had Rob meet me halfway so I wouldn't have to drive the whole thing. Sad, but safe. I came home, took 3 Advil, 1 decongestant, and slept for 2 hours. I felt better after that. :)

Family Spat at Columbus

The next day, Saturday, was exciting. Rob and I (without the kids) went to the Columbus Temple. G got his endowment out and seemed to really be touched by the whole thing, which was great. We went out to eat afterwards and experienced an all-too-common family spat. There's a particular family member that has anger issues. Anyways, I expressed an opinion he didn't like (imagine me with opinions, I'm sure that'll be hard for you guys to envision), and he got really, really angry. Like, sudden rage. He started talking to me meanly, which Rob didn't like, so Rob told him so. Anyways, it ended with Rob covered in Diet Pepsi (Rob was wearing a nice white shirt and his suit pants), and the other guy leaving the room for the last half hour or so of the meal. So all-in-all, the day was interesting. :) Anyways, the family spat didn't ruin our day and Rob and I have since apologized for our part in the matter. Honestly, I can't imagine anyone being offended by my opinions. I hardly have any and they're so mild at that.

We spent Sunday with R & C, and B & R. It was a blast. We talked a lot about the reunion, which was a good thing, cause all the things I had questions about, they hadn't talked about yet. :) So it was good to talk about them.

Soccer on Memorial Day

Monday we went to a ward Memorial Day picnic. This is the reason I've been working out (lightly) for 3 weeks. Because they played soccer. Which is fun. The guy in charge loves soccer (he's from Columbia) and announced to the whole Elders' Quorum that I was excellent at soccer. Yikes. It ended up being a really good thing that I'd been at least making an effort for 3 weeks. Because I have been so sore that I think I would have died had I not been at least doing somthing exercise-wise before the game. Our team won. 10-9. I didn't score any. I played defense. But I did get to shut down a few of the other teams' best players. I won respect for girls (which has apparently been part of my call in life), scared a few of the guys on the other team, and won several nicknames and possibly a reputation that will follow me in this ward for a while. The best person out of the field was a little kid that my Mom and Dad know (at least they know his family). Drew, Missy's kid. I don't know how old he is, but clearly he's "too short" for his age. I sympathized. But only a little, cause he didn't need the height. He was awesome. Impressive ball control, composure, etc. He was just good. I shook his hand afterward. He wasn't impressed. :)

I'm going to keep exercising, though. Cause I've fallen in love with it again. Like L, I feel better about myself, I like being able to see my muscles when I flex them, I like the way my body looks better, and I'm on my way to meeting some of my weight/image goals. And I like all of that. Also, like L, I'm not working out hard core. Jogging, biking, light-ish weights (any weights for me must, by definition, be light). Rob says he's going to keep working out with me over the summer, so I'm excited. I've been debating finding a soccer league to play in. But it's expensive, apparently, to play. One league showed $425. Sheesh. Maybe an indoor league. I've heard they're only $50 - $100. That's a little more manageable.

Fish Tank

We got fish. Someone gave us an 20 gallon (high) aquarium. We're in process of killing all the fish we've introduced. It's a new tank, and we were told, of course, to wait to introduce many fish. Of course we didn't listen. We started with 6 zebra danios (my fish, if the family will recall from old times). These were the hearty species we decided to start with. Then we decided (I'd like to say Rob decided, but it was really an us decision. He didn't want to wait and I didn't think it'd be a problem) to get a few more fish. So 2 days later we got 6 neon tetras (Collin's fish), a Paul Scum-sucker, and a silver bala shark. Well, we lost a zebra first. Don't know why. Rob says he had an open sore a day before he died. Then we started losing neons. 2 were in the filter, but did they get sucked in or did they die and then get sucked in, we don't know. 2 just lost color and then died. Then, just last week, Ick arrived. Our last 2 neons got a little (one only had a spot or two), our bala was covered in it, and Paul was near-covered. Well, we lost little neon first. The 2nd neon is doing good. No Ick now, which makes me wonder if he ever had it (did we just make it up?). Bala shark died today. Rather, I killed him, since he would have died shortly anyway (he was really acting so sad it was unbearable for me to watch). Paul is going to die, I think, very soon. He doesn't look substantially better after 2 days of treatment, he's not eating, and he's acting really really weird. Like he'll stay in one spot for hours. Last night he was floating upside-down at the top of the tank, like he'd forgotten which way was down. I dunno. Anyways. The zebras are fine and I think they'll make it through the new tank process and the Ick. Plus, we've learned that once they've been exposed to Ick, they'll never get it again. The lone neon looks good, but I have doubts about a community fish doing very well on his own. Our tank will need a Paul, so after this one dies, we'll get another one shortly (after letting our tank chill for a while after the Ick attack). Apparently Rob and I are rather good at killing off fish, no matter the species. ... As a side note, family, which fish were whose? I thought I remembered that Budge's were Angel Fish (they're bullies so we don't have any). Everyone else?

That's our update for now. Next week Rob and I will be going back up to Toledo to do bonding time with G before he leaves on his mission. And a week before everyone arrives for the family reunion we'll go back up for the farewell. It'll all be fun. That's about all that's on our agenda for the next month. Rob's finals are next week, the 6th and the 7th. His 7th is his last final and my birthday, which is a WONDERFUL b-day gift. Being done with classes. Rob will start his P&G rotation, we just found out, on June 13th. We will be paid our increased salary starting August 1st (meaning that will be our first increased paycheck), which is as soon as we could have hoped for. In July he'll start doing stuff for the IGERT, so we're interested to see how all that will go. 3 people out of the 5 in Rob's program that started with him are on academic probation and will probably be gone in a year. Which is a bummer, but makes me feel proud of my husband. I've sometimes thought he wasn't as "bright" as others, but let's face it, to be doing well in Graduate School and get a fellowship, you can't be dumb. So I'm very proud of him.

We love you all and sorry this was so long.

Tamra and family

Two Pictures - a poem I didn't write

I didn't write this poem, but I was struck by it. I don't know if the story is true or not, and I imagine it's not. But I like the moral of the story. Enjoy!


Two Pictures
by unknown

Two Pictures hung on the dingy wall
Of a grand old Florentine hall —

One of a child of beauty rare,
With a cherub face and golden hair,
The lovely look of whose radiant eyes
Filled the soul with thoughts of Paradise.

The other was a visage vile
Marked with the lines of lust and guile,
A loathsome being, whose features fell
Brought to the soul weird thoughts of hell.

Side by side in their frames of gold,
Dingy and dusty and cracked and old,
This is the solemn tale they told:

A youthful painter found one day,
In the streets of Rome, a child at play,
And, moved by the beauty it bore,
The heavenly look that its features wore,
On a canvas, radiant and grand,
He painted its face with a master hand.

Year after year on his wall it hung;
'Twas ever joyful and always young-
Driving away all thoughts of gloom
While the painter toiled in his dingy room.

Like an angel of light it met his gaze,
Bringing him dreams of his boyhood days,
Filling his soul with a sense of praise.

His raven ringlets grew thin and gray,
His young ambition all passed away;
Yet he looked for years in many a place,
To find a contrast to that sweet face.

Through haunts of vice in the night he stayed
To find some ruin that crime had made.
At last in a prison cell he caught
A glimpse of the hideous fiend he sought.

On a canvas weird and wild but grand,
He painted the face with a master hand.
His task was done; 'twas a work sublime —
An angel of joy and a fiend of crime —
A lesson of life from the wrecks of time.

O Crime: with ruin thy road is strewn;
The brightest beauty the world has known
Thy power has wasted, till in the mind
No trace of its presence is left behind.

The loathsome wretch in the dungeon low,
With a face of a fiend and a look of woe,
Ruined by revels of crime and sin,
A pitiful wreck of what might have been,
Hated and shunned, and without a home,
Was the child that played in the streets of Rome.

More of the Knee Surgery Saga

Well, this last week has been trying. :)

Knee Surgery Update

Rob is feeling much better today. The amount that he can move around now as compared to the day of the surgery is amazing. He's doing, I think, as well as expected, but not as well as he expected. He thought he was going to just bounce right back, I think. On the contrary, he has missed school all week, we didn't go to church today, and he's still not as mobile, or out of pain (since you can be in pain, you should be able to be out of pain, too). We've invited a family over this week for dessert and games, more for my sanity than anything, and it should be just about all we can handle. We've had a lot of support from people, but it's still been a little overwhelming for me. I feel like a single mom with Rob just watching me do stuff. :) But every day it gets better and I'd rather have this problem than lots of others we could have. ... There's a trip we're supposed to take on Saturday that involves a one way 3 hour drive. I can't imagine we're actually going to make it. Unless Rob is miraculously better by then. I might just go without him, because he'll be well enough to take care of himself, but I'll have to take the kids with me. And me, alone, with 2 kids for 3 hours? I'm not sure I'm excited about that, either. :) We'll have to see.

Elijah is Sick

On Friday Elijah wasn't doing so well. He started the day with a fever of 99.5 and the last time we checked it before I went to an Urgent Care place at 7:30pm, it was 103. Sheesh. The double ear infections that he had 10 days before hadn't gone away. So we're on round 2 of antibiotics. Elijah is doing better. There's no fever and he's not as fussy, but I can tell he's not back to feeling well yet. He's mostly not fussy, but he's not happy either. And it takes a lot for him not to be happy. So tomorrow I'll be calling his doctor to set up a follow-up visit to make sure we get this taken care of. I'm afraid we're looking at never-ending ear infections and tubes in the ears or something like that. ... From the way Elijah's been acting today, I have a nagging feeling the 2nd round of antibiotics won't work either. I'll keep you all up on how that goes.

Getting a Raise

And we're still really excited about getting a raise. That's been a shining moment for this week. :) I'm holding up okay, but probably only because when it's time for bed I'm so tired that I sleep like a baby. I think that's been God's gift to me this last week. I'm remembering that there are just times in life where you don't think about much other than just getting through. My dishes are perpetually not done, the house is usually a mess, I haven't done any of the "fun" things I normally do to keep myself sane, and just today I finally got together enough to make dinner. :) ... If Rob and I had known how hard the surgery and circumstances would be, we would have done it differently. But, can't change it now, and we're making it. And for now, that's good enough.

We love you all.

Tamra

Knee Surgery and IGERT

I'll send a little more detail later as we get detail. But Rob was in contact with many people today about the IGERT Fellowship. They all were very willing to work with him and get things in order so it's worth everyone's time to take the Fellowship. Rob just officially accepted the Fellowship and is excited about it. What the scholarship means for us is a hefty raise, along with the prestige of the award, as well as hopefully opening more doors for Rob in his career in the future. Rob will still be able to do the Procter and Gamble rotation this summer that he's so excited about. And it looks like we'll be able to work out Dr. R (his mentor) paying for family insurance (the one major expense this scholarship would increase for us). They're also willing to decrease the amount of classes Rob will have to take and they said they'd be willing to let him take them slowly, like one at a time, so he won't miss a lot of time in the lab. So all's looking pretty good.

Other than that, Rob's knee is doing okay. He's still feeling crappy and he's not able to do much at all, but he's feeling better. Not much to say on it. I took a picture of it for you all to see. We just took off all the dressings today. The leg is pretty swollen, but there's not much discoloration yet. I'm sure that will come.

Tamra

Rob's Knee Surgery

Well, some of you already know all this, so forgive the repeat. But here's the news from today.

To start with, I was really bored. :) Okay, that wasn't a tragedy, it was inevitable. But nevertheless, it was beyond true. I was the third person there in the waiting room and not a single person who started there with me (or was there even soon after that) was there when I left. They had all left hours before. I have now seen more soaps in a day than I have in the rest of my life combined (which means I watched 2 today). I saw Ellen (she's really funny), watched the entire process of the Pope being elected, from the announcers saying, "Is it really white smoke?" to the announcement in Latan, to the Swiss Guard and all the ceremony following. It was REALLY cool. I wrote a letter, wrote in my journal, read 50 pages in a book, ate very little and slept not at all (unfortunately on both counts). And all of this BEFORE 2:30pm.

Now, what you want to hear about. Rob went in at 8:30am. He was in good spirits and we were laughing about stuff. They gave him a local block for his leg. (He's just now, actually, finally starting to feel the ice pack on his knee.) They did the surgery. I was talking to the doctor who did the surgery, Dr. Kenter, at noon. He showed me pictures which were cool. Basically, from what he said, there was some more damage in there than they expected to see. Not unusual damage, though. There was a little arthritis in there. And the back of the knee cap was really worn down, which he didn't expect at all. But, he said because of that, it's a good thing that Rob went with the type of surgery he went with (there are 2 options), the hamstring option. The other option that he didn't choose would have taken away some strength from the knee cap, and he said with the damage there it just wouldn't have been good. So, that was nice to hear, that we made the right choice. But in spite of the damage, he said the surgery went really well. He sounded really positive and was impressed with his own handiwork, which is good. He said we'll have to see how it heals, but he expected it to go well and was optimistic. He also showed me a picture that caught my eye. You know how you see like shark attack wounds when they're fresh, and the flesh is just shredded? That's what this looked like. I think that was supposed to be his ACL. I can't be sure about that, and I'm sure he'll tell Rob on Monday when he goes for a return appt., but whatever it was, it was DEFINITELY not supposed to look like that. It just looked like carnage inside the body. Wow.

So all in all, we're glad we did the surgery now before the damage got worse.

As for recovery, Rob has a brace that he's supposed to wear (I don't know until when) that keeps his leg absolutely straight. He can weight bear on it, and he's already done so to get up the stairs to our apt. He is supposed to do minor exercises for now and hobble around and try to get off crutches as soon as he can, like in the next week or two, I think. Really, it sounds good. I guess there are a couple different philosophies doctors can take after this surgery. For instance, my friend's doctor is apparently anti-brace. Thinks people can rely on them too much. Obviously Rob's doctor is okay with braces. And that's okay with me. The drug docs said the pain will be the worst tonight and tomorrow, and if tonight is any indication, Rob should be okay. Granted, he's only sitting on the couch, but that's okay for now. The doc sounded like Rob will really be able to go as full speed as he wants to, within some guidelines. And we now own some cool equipment--crutches, a leg brace, and some rad ice pack that's like a cooler that constantly pumps ice cold water into a pack covering his leg. He's supposed to keep ice on it for at least 24 - 48 hours following surgery.

Other than that, let's see. Rob is not very grouchy now, which is nice. He was pretty out of it and grouchy when he first came out, which wasn't so easy. I guess I just didn't remember that pain and drugs do that (I'm sure I was like that after the 2 C's I had). Oh! That's right. The other thing the doc said was that he was able to repair Rob's miniscus, which is good. It'll increase recovery time, though. He said normally for the surgery they start pretty agressive therapy right away, with full range of motion. Well, with this, it'll be about 6 weeks before they start doing that kind of stuff. He made it sound to me like Rob should not move his knee past 90 degrees for those 6 weeks. I'm sure we'll find out more as it goes on.

Really, right now we're just going with the flow. And hopefully tonight things go just fine sleeping, cause I'm really tired, and Rob's really tired.

And S, don't feel bad. Rob's Mom came down to help us with the kids, or I'd be calling in favors from just about everyone I know. :) As it was, she was at our house to watch the kids from when we left at 6:45am - 5:00pm. And my good friend across the way cooked dinner for us, which was really nice. Even though I told her not to bother, we'd have it all taken care of, it was REALLY nice to have it taken care of by her. And with me and Rob not so emotionally on top of the world, it's nice to have Grandma here to help with everything we still have to do--like be nice to our kids.

We love you all and we'll keep you updated as this goes on.

Tamra

The latest

Happy birthday, J. :)

Well, we're all doing okay here, meaning we're all alive and happy, so that's a good start.

I finally went to a doctor on Saturday for my sinus infection that wouldn't go away. I read a little on sinus infections and was seeing things like "chronic symptoms" and "could last for months to years," and I was inspired to go get an antibiotic. Lo and behold, the doc agreed that I was sick and gave me 2 drugs: an antibiotic and a decongestant-type. I feel much better and on Sunday, for the first time in a week, my ears didn't ring and I wasn't feeling a ton of pressure in them. So I'm well on my way to getting better (I hope). There's still some congestion, but it's so much better than it was, and my head is no longer throbbing when I get tired.

Elijah started getting a fever on Friday night. I didn't think much of it because he wasn't acting really cranky or anything. He was sleeping a lot and acting a little lethargic. I just assumed he was teething. Anyways, he had his 12 month visit yesterday, and by the time we got to the doctor's office his eyes were goopy and swollen and red and his nose was just gross. He still had the same low fever from 3 days ago (we hadn't given him any medicine). The doctor checked his ears and he not only has a double ear infection, but the doctor said it's one of the worst ear infections he's seen this year. So, how about that, my kid is a stand out. :) Luckily we had a doctor's appointment anyways, cause I probably would not have brought him in. ... Last night he woke up screaming in pain, and I felt really bad for him. It's brought back memories of an ear infection I had when I was young. I remember waking up in the middle of the night thinking I was going to die and being really mad at Mom for not taking me to the doctor RIGHT THEN. :) And I remember the pink medicine that I took religiously on time because I didn't want to be in any more pain. ... Elijah also picked up a hacking cough last night, so we set up a humidifier to try to help, again taking me back to my childhood. A humidifier is still a comfort object for me. :) ... After the doctor told us about the ear infection, I started thinking about what Elijah was doing to show us he had an infection. He hasn't been tugging on his ear, but he's been giving us and other people this weird sideways look where he scrunches up his ear down by his shoulder. He's also been occasionally grabbing his head with both hands in some sort of frustrated something (obviously, now, pain). I feel like a bad mom. But at least he's only been really sick since Friday.

As a side note, I called Rob's mom to tell her about how we were sick down here and she told me about Rob's sister and her family. They have 2 cases of strep, 2 kids with upper respiratory infections, and 1 kid (the baby) with an ear infection. So I guess our family is behind. :)

Anyways, the rest of us (meaning Rob and Miciah) are just fine. Rob is anxious for the surgery coming up, and we're semi-battling the insurance company to make sure they'll cover it. They sent him a form asking about pre-existing condition stuff. Everyone we've talked to in person says it should be covered because it doesn't qualify as a pre-existing condition, but they won't give us any guarantee. Well, we're going to make sure we have a guarantee before the surgery.

My friend that had the same surgery Rob is going to have is now in her 5th week since the surgery of being on crutches. She still can not bear weight on the leg. Let us hope Rob is not the same way. Her injury (though the same injury) was worse, and she was on crutches even before the surgery. She has 4 kids, including a 5 month-old. The ward has been helping her out a lot.

That's us. Hopefully next time I write, Elijah and I will be all better.

Tamra