this i believe

last month i read this book for book club... This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women. which was based from a radio program on NPR.

i really loved reading it. basically it's a collection of essays written by people from all walks of life. teenagers, receptionists, college professors and movie directors. even einstein. one of the things i loved about it though, was that they were all so different. although maybe some of the basic beliefs were the same they each had a different way of expressing it. and then there were some that were just completely different (than my own beliefs). but, there's something to say about letting people just say exactly what they believe. pure, honest, raw feelings. that come from experience. which comes from just living life....

so it got me thinking about what it is that i believe...

of course, i immediately think of my religious beliefs. my belief in God. my belief that i belong to Him. He is my Father. but then i was wondering why? why do i believe that? what makes me believe that i truly am His child.

i believe that because of experiences in my life. not only do experiences help me to make sense of it..but they help me to feel His love. i feel it when i am sad in the form of a silent moment of peace and comfort. i feel it when something starts to make sense in my mind in the form of clarity and understanding. i feel it when i am looking back at the past in the form of gratitude. i feel it when i am connecting with someone in the form of friendship and love. all these things create experiences that remind me that i am loved in big ways and small ways and sometimes even sideways by Him, who created me. and i am not just another pawn, what happens to me matters. it matters to me and it matters to Him. so i trust.

and you know what else i believe?

people need to be reminded of this. often.

sometimes i forget that. i forget that i have the power to strengthen and lift others...
which makes me sad that i keep to myself so much of the time.

now tell me people, what do you believe?

camp lizzie

i just LOVED having the little dudes at my house every morning at 7:30 {ish} and playing with them all day until 4. we did so much and had great fun though i'll be the first to admit there were moments of "errrrrr" and "ahhhhhh" and according to steve, way too many "no's"....but heck!

i never said i'd be good at this.

nevertheless our week was jam-packed with laughs, smiles and big big hugs.

we played blocks in our jammies.

we went swimming everyday. even if we never dared to leave the steps.

we drew chalk pictures on steve's nice clean driveway.
we took naps. very badly needed naps.

we played hide and go seek.
we went on time-out.

we watched movies and ate popcorn.
we jumped on steve!

and we went on little walks.

we had such a blast! and then i woke up on saturday morning and realized...they aren't coming anymore...i was so sad.

i miss their little voices, their giggles, yousef's active imagination, and ammon's tight hugs.

there were so many times during the week that yousef had me rolling. he's such a silly and clever little boy...

and now i leave you with some of my favorite yousef quotes:

i told yousef, please don't touch the tv because steve likes his tv very clean with no finger prints on it. so he took his hand off quickly and said "oh, okay." a few seconds later he looked up at a picture of steve and i by the tv and said "steve's looking at me...he looks grumpy."

both ammon and yousef were sitting at the bar eating lunch and ammon wanted to get down. he couldn't because our chairs are high. so i noticed yousef give him a little push as i was trying hurrying over to help him. ammon fell to the ground but was okay. i said "yousef you can't do that to ammon, he's too little he needs an adult to help him get down, okay?" i must have sounded mad because he just looked at me and then said "you hurt my feelings." i totally started laughing and walked over to him to try and explain that i wasn't mad but i couldn't even talk i was laughing so hard. then ammon hit his head on the corner of the chair and started crying and yousef sighed and said "now what?!"

but my all-time favorite was this..."lizzie, when i have my next birthday, i'm going to marry you. and then when ammon turns 14 he can marry you too."

awww..i miss...