Old Mcdonald had a Farm

I am finally home from vacation! I actually have been home since last tuesday but since my internet no longer works at my apartment I haven't been able to update everyone on how my vacay was. So here is my story..of one week spent on the farm.

Tuesday morning we hopped into my dad's spaceship (that's what we have always called his suv) and started the 24 hour drive from here to small town Geneseo, Illinois, where my entire Dad's side of the family lives. The drive up wasn't too bad, I read all of The Other Side of Heaven, which I really enjoyed, and got to nap for a good chunk of the drive. As we passed through Iowa we noticed that there was water pretty close to the interstate and once we got to my grandma's house we saw on the news that there was severe flooding in Iowa and they had to close down the highways and whole towns were underwater, it was really sad to see.

Basically the whole time I was in Illinois I did one thing. Played cards. I think it must be a midwest thing but my family LOVES to play cards! I taught my grandma how to play this game where everyone plays a kind of solitaire but everyone plays on each others aces and she loved it! I tried to get her to play spoons but she said it was too intense lol. I learned a lot of fun solitaire games while I was up there, my grandma knows about a million card games!

The weather was ok..except for the extreme humidity! I felt sticky constantly! day, night, hot, cold, no matter what it was humid! The only time I really enjoyed the weather was the night it was about to T-storm and Alli and I sat in the driveway watching. There was one night that it was storming so bad, it looked so scary outside, and we were watching the weather channel and there were some tornado warnings in the area, so I kept waiting for the moment when we would all get to run into the basement, but the time never came and we slept through the night safe from tornadoes.

Probably within an hour of us arriving at my grandparents' farm I found the one thing that would make my journey complete. Family history! I found a book that had our family tree in it with birth dates, death dates, etc. going back up to my great great great grandparents, and I also found some laminated copies of newspaper articles that were about family members, which my grandma let me keep and take home. There are a lot of newspaper articles because when my grandpa was 16 there was a car accident that killed both of his parents, both of his grandparents, and his brother. So him and his siblings all had to take care of the farm on their own. All of the articles were pretty inspiring, "Taets Orphans show that when there's a will there's a way" and stuff like that. I can't even imagine what my grandpa must have went through at 16 having to drop out of high school to help work on the farm and raise his younger siblings. It's just amazing. I also was able to go to the cemetery and see the headstones of about 5 of my ancestors, which was also neat. My sister did not enjoy that visit. "Madi, we are walking on someone's face right now!" she kept squealing and whining haha. this last friday I had the pleasure of taking 4 names to the temple for baptism/confirmation that I had gotten from my grandma's records, and it was such a great experience!

That pretty much sums up my vacation, other than other minor activities and meetings. Here are some pictures of the farm and such, thanks to my little sister, since all of my pictures are on my computer that I can't use since I have no stinkin internet!!!






love, Madison

What a year..

Today is the day I have both anticipated, and dreaded, for well..a year: the one year anniversary of my baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Anticipated because this milestone proves to me that this is something I can do, although it has been hard at times, and Satan loves to do everything in his power to try and throw me off track, thus far I have maintained my death grip on the iron rod.

I am also pleasantly suprised at how much I have changed, and how much those who I come into close contact with have somewhat changed. A year ago today my family saw my baptism as a phase, something they did not approve of nor did they understand, but after a year I think they are finally realizing that it was a life-long decision, and they are beginning to respect my values and alter their behavior in order to accommodate my standards. My dad has probably shocked me the most. A year ago he was slandering the church and mainly our beliefs on the Book of Mormon and on Joseph Smith, but lately I see a change in him, I think he is at peace with my decision to join the church, and may even respect my decision. Recently my grandmother, my father's mother, heard the news that I was now a Mormon and spoke to my dad about it, and expressed that she wanted to sit me down and talk to me about this choice as soon as we get to Illinois this upcoming week. My dad gave me the heads up and said he has told his mother that she could not argue with me or attack me on the subject. I am so grateful that even though he doesn't understand why I chose to join the church, and doesn't understand our beliefs, he loves me enough to trust my decision and defend it. I am so grateful for that, and I really hope one day he will let his guard down a little bit and let me express to him why the church is so amazing, and how much of a good it has worked within me.

Recently at work a new manager was transferred to my store, Mando, but he was not new to me because I had worked with him about a year ago in Avondale. While waiting for it to be 5 o'clock, time to clock in, someone at work had jokingly said how mean I was, and Mando didn't really laugh, probably because I kind of was mean last year. The Madison that works in Tempe is waaaay different than the Madison who worked in Avondale. At my old store I would complain all the time, and I would get so stressed out and frustrated that I would just snap at the people I worked with. The only thing that could explain this change in my work habits is the church. Through the gospel I learned of patience, kindness, obedience, and started unknowingly applying them to every aspect of my life, including my crazy job at In-N-Out. I also applied these gospel principles to the way I treat my family and friends. This one is still a challenge sometimes. I am a very very independent person. I enjoy time with just myself, I do not rely on friends or family to make me happy but choose to create my own happiness, which is a good trait but it kind of makes me a bad friend. I love my friends and family but because I have always been so dang independent I have a hard time putting forth the effort to call my friends/family just for no reason other than to show that I love them. But now that I have the church I think I am working more at being a better friend, and family member, and I think my family really sees that change in me. They would look so surprised when I would call just to tell them I love them, or when I would give them a big hug whenever I would see them. I hope I can continue to grow in this area, and give my family a great example of what the church is all about.

Dreaded because I have now ended my reign as "a new convert". I think that term when applied to me felt like a sign I wore around my neck that would explain to everyone why I am so stupid when it comes to gospel knowledge. I was really hoping by now that I would be like a scripture encyclopedia, but of course that would be ridiculous, but still, I feel like I know pretty much nothing in comparison to those who were raised in the church. Especially church jargon, I get things so messed up somtimes, and now I will have no excuse when I make the mistake of telling someone that I am a home teacher, which I have done lol. So, I guess the goal for this year, besides the obvious one of just growing spiritually and becoming more like Christ, would be to blend in. Since my convertness won't save me anymore, I need to catch up and gain enough knowledge so that when I speak in church or in institute people won't think "convert" or "idiot". I realize that I relate way way way too many things to my conversion or my baptism and I need to have new spiritual experiences that will make my baptism seem like I was just dipping my toes into the spiritual swimming pool..this year I need to do a cannon ball!

I hope after reading my ridiculous memoirs of being a has-been convert, you will know how much I am truly grateful for this gospel and the church itself. I am so thankful for all of the churhc leadership, for their wisdom in advice and compassion, love, and concern in their teachings, but most of all for the priesthood they hold. I cannot even count how many times I have gone to home teachers, institute teachers, sunday school teachers, ward mission leaders, missionaries, and so on for a priesthood blessing. Each time I receive a blessing, my faith in the priesthood, and in a loving Heavenly Father, just sky rockets. I also have grown to appreciate the Book of Mormon, more than I have ever appreciated any piece of literature. After recently reading 3rd Nephi for the first time, mainly the part where the multitude comes unto Jesus to feel his wounds, to know of a surety that He is the Christ, wow, what an amazing experience! (I don't know why the heck the missionaries didn't just have me read this on day one!)I love this gospel. I love this church. I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior. I love my life.



And I love you all, Madison

A balanced diet..

Ashley is amazing. I never would have expected anyone to get me a gift for the one year anniversary of my baptism but of course, Ashley does the unexpected. She knows me so well, me and my crazy cookie antics, always freakin baking.



She went to a hardware store and got the tile cut, ordered the vinyl stickers and put them on herself! and then put a glaze over the top of it. Wow. This was one of those many moments where Ashley completely shocks me, and does something I had no idea she was capable of doing! I love her.

Madison

I'm sailing away..

Not much has gone on lately...I have worked 8:30 am to 5pm the last four days, and now I don't work for the next two weeks! I am so excited to finally get a break! I finished another great book, also by Kay Mangum, called When the Bough Breaks, you should read it. I just started reading The Other Side of Heaven and am really enjoying it so far, I just realized that I probably look like the biggest geek for only reading lds books lately, lol, that's ok I am a geek and I enjoy it. I am pretty excited for tomorrow..I am getting my hair cut in the morning, then going to Kathy's wedding reception in the afternoon, and then Ash is staying the night, yay, I have missed her so. Saturday is the big barbeque out in Avondale, I hope everyone comes! I will do my best to make it fun, ha ha, I have never hosted a get together like this so we'll see how I do. In other news...I have felt so totally out of it lately! Maybe it is from lack of sleep or who knows what but I just feel like totally out of character, like I catch myself acting so unlike myself, for example: when I show up to work I paste on my biggest smile, do everything my manager tells me and then some, and always am just bright and bubbly with everyone at work, but this week I feel like I have been really whiney and irritable and just overall cranky. Which is weird because I have nothing to be cranky about! I actually feel really good about just life in general right now, so hopefully now that I realize I am being weird I will make myself cut it out lol. I think I really just need this vacation, on tuesday I leave with my dad and sister to stay in illinois with family for a week, on my grandparent's corn farm to be exact. I cannot wait to sit underneath this big tree in their yard and just feel the breeze on my face, do some reading, and pondering. Just thinking about it give me the goosepimplies lol. Right now the weather there is so nice, I could wear a sweater! So excited! Well, I love you all, goodnight.
Madison