Erica's 33rd

The Birthday Girl

So Erica Foster turned 33 yesterday and we celebrated by attending her party at her favorite restaurant Roy's. It is a Hawaiian fusion restaurant. It is delicious. We had a nice time seeing some old friends from Big Brothers that I haven't seen since really I left last April, as well as I made some new friends.

I didn't take any of these pics - I have no clue what happened here with the coloring

The gift Omar and I gave her - it might not be what you think, I bet Jeff was dissappointed!

The group at Roys

Erica and her husband Jeff will probably only be stationed here for a few more months since Jeff is in the Coast Guard. Erica is really one of the first friends that I made when I moved here and I will really miss her when she leaves. She is so spunky, outspoken, fun, and sometimes adventurous (when you force her to be). I have celebrated her past 2 birthdays with her, I hope to celebrate many more with her.

Part 2: The Lord's Blessings, The "Hard" Things

Brother Rowland did not end up having surgery. When he was first taken to the hospital a pace maker was put in and it seems that the pace maker is doing well. Brother and Sister Rowland felt that at this time the surgery is not needed to fix the problem with his heart, as it is a very risky procedure. My mom is Lena's (Brother Rowland's daughter) seminary teacher. My mom shared this with me regarding seminary this past week...
"I love that Lena likened it to D & C 82:3 (a scripture mastery) - "I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, when ye do not what I say ye have no promise"  She said her dad's patriarchal blessing said he would live a long life if he followed the Lord.  This experience was a witness to that."

I have thought about Michael, Brother Rowland's oldest son, who is on a mission currently in Italy. I find it interesting that "hard" things seem to happen when missionaries are away from him. I am not sure if Michael is aware of what happened, but I think that maybe the Lord allows these things to happen while someone is serving Him and His children full-time so he can bless and help the family. Sometimes those blessings and help are not what we would desire or see as a blessing or help.

I think back to the "hard" things that happened in mine own family while I was serving and there are a few lessons that I learned.
Hard things:

*Help prove the faith of the one serving. To realize that the Lord is in control, and even though the missionary might think it is best to go home and help, that really there is nothing they can do to help and the best help is by being the Lord's hands so he can take care of the family.

*Teach the missionary to decide who is #1 in their life, the Lord or their family. Our goal ultimately is to return to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, if we live worthy for our family to be eternal than we will be with them later FOREVER, we need to prove now who we trust so we can accomplish an eternal family. I think of Elder Bednar's (one of the 12 apostles) triangle that he shared before. Even with our own spouse, the Lord is the tip of the triangle and the only way we will get closer in the triangle to our spouse is by getting closer to the Lord. When things happened to my family on the mission I created something to help remind me of this and sent it out on May 1, 2006.

*Allow us to give our will to the Lord. When Christ was on the cross he said, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done (Luke 22:42)." Christ always did the will of the Father, and we must become like Christ. The only thing we truly have to give is our will.

*Strengthens testimony. Something that hit me on my mission was when Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (one of the 12 apostles) came a few weeks before the end of my mission to speak to us as his best and oldest friend is my mission president. He asked us why serving a mission is so important. His answer was a surprise to me. He told us that it is great that we find souls looking for Christ and we baptize them, but ultimately the importance of a mission is that they, the Prophet and Apostles, truly care about saving our souls - the missionaries!!! I was astounded.

The scripture in D&C 18:15 is true: "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" That one soul is me, He cares about my soul first before I can go help save the souls of others. The whole goal of a mission was to truly convert me. Hard things help that conversion because you have to trust the Lord is in control. If you are not able to trust that then you are not truly converted.

*Sometimes cause us to question, "WHY?", when really we need to question, "What am I to learn from this?" This is still something that I sometimes struggle with the "hard" things that happen to me.

Blessing of Being Where the Lord Expects You to Be

Sometimes I feel I have become lazy when it comes to the Lord. I dread sometimes the things that brought me so much peace and joy before...my church meetings. I could probably give you some good reasons as to why maybe it would be okay for me to have a break and not be where the Lord expects me to be. This week, however, I have had a good reminder of how the Lord blesses those who are doing what he asks and expects.
Jim Rowland, my old Bishop,and my family's current home teacher (who diligently visits every month) for I think now over 10 years is someone that I admire. He is such an example to me of someone who is optimistic, serves others, a great father, and constantly thinks of others.

Well my sister called me the other day and told me that Sunday he passed out at church. Everyone tried to take him home, but he refused and had someone drive him to his Stake High Council meeting. In the meeting he blacked out and actually died for a few minutes. The current stake president began doing CPR on him.

That same Sunday there was another ward member who was a doctor who had surgery on his leg and had been out of church for 2 weeks. He was going to take this Sunday off, but thought he should come. He by random had an oxygen tank in his trunk and they used that to give him while the ambulance arrived. The paramedics had to shock him a few times to get his heart going again. They said that if he hadn't been there and those doctors along with the oxygen hadn't worked on him that he would have not been able to be revived. Basically if he had been at home when it happened he would have died! Heart disease runs in his family and I believe his father died in his early 40's.

Here he had passed out and could have easily said that he should go home and rest, but he was adamant about going to his church meeting. Then there was someone still recovery from an injury and went to church and ended up saving someone's life. Tomorrow he has open heart surgery and we are fasting for him. I have a strong testimony of the power of the fast. I know that everything is in the Lord's hands as to how things will go...but this has been a testament to me of how important it is to be where the Lord expects you to be.

New Year's Resolutions

This year we actually remembered to do my family tradition of eating black-eyed peas. Here was our meal...not too shabby.

So now that we are going to have good luck...here are a few of our New Year's Resolutions...(we tried to be realistic). Each month on Fast Sunday (the first Sunday of the month) we are going to try to make a tradition of checking up on how our resolutions are doing.

Kate: Run a 10K, debt free by August 1st, develop a relationship with the scriptures again, travel out of the country, read at least 5 non-fiction books
Omar: Eating no more than 2 times/week fast food, not spending money from his checking account with exception of bills, give Kate a massage every week, improve personal scripture study, try to look like I did on the mission (I'm not sure how realistic this last one is...have you seen him?) let me show you.


Omar in NY on his mission prior to 9/11 (see the Twin Towers)

 First of all he has hair...I would die for him to have that again!

No New Year's Kiss

Our New Year's have been cursed it seems since we have been married...not once have we kissed when it turned midnight...
*Our first year we were in Utah and Megan Spilsbury (sister-in-law) and I were in a huge crowd watching David Archuleta sing while our lame husbands were upstairs in the VIP area sitting on a sofa
*Our second year we went to a party that ended early and we were so tired that we went to bed
*This year Omar watched the FSU game and then he went to sleep again. (there seems to be a trend)
So one of my New Year's resolutions is that we will be together this time...I think maybe we will have our own party...I'm thinking: games, fondue, and kissing at midnight!

2010 "OK" Highlights

So a quick re-cap of some "OK" highlights for 2010...

*Kate got a new job as a sales consultant for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida
*We went to Utah to visit Omar's family
*Kate went to Sarah Squire's wedding in Utah
*Our first year in our house
*Omar got his 60" TV
*1/2 way out of debt
*Got our 8K tax credit (FINALLY!)
*We have a new nephew, Tage Spilsbury
*Omar went to New York for a week to visit the Osorios.

Christmas 2010

I worked Christmas Eve until 3pm and we drove straight there to Kissimmee to spend it with my family. On the way there, it was cool because we saw Santa driving a brand new yellow Porsche that even had the just bought tag on still. He must have been delivering someone's Christmas present!

Our Christmas this year was a smaller event then normal it seemed. Christmas Eve is the big day and then Sunday is usually just presents, making mom birthday breakfast (since she is a Christmas baby), going to a movie, and relaxing. However, Christmas Eve, we didn't seem to have the crowd we normally have. I guess that is what happens when people start doing their own family thing. Micah, and Aaron (and his wife and kids) didn't come this year. So it seemed so small just having Nancy, Jamie, and Stephen.

I was glad that my old MTC mission companion, Jessianne Hibbard was in town, and that she made time to stop by with her mom. They had just flown in from Utah that afternoon for Disney and Universal.

JessieAnne and I

We had the usual staples, but it wasn't as much as we usually have. It was still delicious though. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, Nancy's homemade rolls, green bean casserole, and tossed salad. This year instead of pies, we had chocolate fondue, which was a nice little change.

Our little Christmas group Christmas Eve - Michael took the picture

Christmas breakfast Kelly and I made homemade cinnamon rolls, grits, eggs, and Omar made the bacon. Later that day we saw the movie "True Grit", I never saw the original before, it wasn't exactly what I thought it would be about but was still pretty good.

After the movie, Omar and I went to visit Omar's aunt and uncle. However, they had just gotten back from Miami and his uncle was the only one around. Normally they always are cooking up a storm and there are lots of people there. So we decided we were hungryand tired of leftovers and we went to find a place to eat.

Pita Stop was where we went. Big mistake, now this is a whole in the wall place off 1-92 that every time you turn around it is a new little restaraunt. It was more middle eastern food. They had gyros and things like that...but the food looked fresh. Omar ordered some chicken wings which they had a bunch of different options and I got a gyro salad. Let's just say we did not feel good that night. We also did not sleep well that night.

All night long all we heard was people running to the bathroom to throw up. Which was weird since only Omar and I ate at Pita Stop. In the morning, Omar was in the bathroom and I was on the couch when my sister came out and ran to the kitchen sink to throw up more! Horrible! We seriously packed our bags right then and went home. The whole way home, I felt so sick and Omar pulled over a few times while I tried to throw up. When we got home, Omar felt so bad that he was shivering and could not get warm. It was so weird, our bodies ached and our stomachs felt terrible. Turns out that our whole family, but Lindsey was sick. We finally figured out it must have been the cookies that our neighbor brought over on Christmas day. She had been sick and Lindsey was the only one who did not eat one. I only ate one of them and Omar 2. Let's hope we don't have to relive that kind of Christmas again.