An Inspiring Reminder

I was inspired at church yesterday, but not only by a talk or lesson like usual. I sat by a lady from India who was visiting from a different religion and after only one meeting, I really admired her.

She introduced herself and said she was visiting with her husband because they believe (like we do) that we are all children of God, and you can grow closer to God by worshiping together with your brothers and sisters.

Throughout the meeting, Carson played peek-a-boo with her, threw cheerios, and was generally active-like he usually is. Even though he was quiet, I was feeling a bit embarrassed and turned to her after the meeting to apologize if he'd distracted her. She said something like, "I love children, they are never a distraction. We have a saying in India something like, 'Children are in the image of God.' They are never distracting, only reminding us of God."

I completely agree with her.

My Genius Husband

Taylor passed the CFA level 1 test!!!

He took this six hour long test back in December, and we just found out the results today! He passed! With flying colors I might add. Passing is enough (only 37% of people who took it passed), but he also scored in the highest percentile range in seven of the ten sections! Yipee!

Just a little fyi: CFA stands for Chartered Financial Analyst.  Before tackling the next two levels of that test though, he's planning on taking the CPA tests (to be a Certified Public Accountant).

I'm so proud of him.

A Day in the Park

The weather has been pretty nice here in Atlanta, so yesterday we drove into midtown and spent a while at Piedmont Park. It was a really nice park and we got a few pictures. Here they are:

Carson's favorite part was the dog park, especially the big dogs that could catch frisbees.

This last one wasn't at the park, but I thought it was a great picture from last night. 

And Carson has started saying, "ball"- which is cute.

New Blog: 3 Excuses

Hello, world!

Recently, I have spent a lot of time trying to decipher what are the "best" things to do with my time, because there are always too many "good" things to be able to do all of them. A blog always seemed like one of those "good" things, but maybe not one of "best" things. (As you may have noticed), I have recently changed my mind, and am FINALLY starting a blog. Here's why:

1. This is the first time I've really lived far away from my immediate family and friends. Keeping a blog (and assuming they're reading it) will help me feel connected to them. And, (if they do read it) they can stay better connected to me and my family by knowing what is going on with us.

2. I want to share a lot of pictures, videos, and bragging-like news of Carson without flooding the Facebook feeds of everyone who doesn't care to see them. This will also serve as a good history of our lives since even though I keep a journal, it doesn't have those pictures and videos previously mentioned.

3. My "last but not least" reason is a quote I read recently from Pres. Uchtdorf: "The Lord...entrusts a testimony of the truth to those who will share it with others."I hope this blog will be a good way for me to think about and share the things that remind me that God lives and loves us.

I will try to keep the posts interesting and optimistic. If you're lucky, you might even hear from Taylor every now and again.

To start things off, here's a picture of our accomplished pianist: