Tender Mercy At The Temple & A Swim Party

I had a really neat experience at the temple today.  After the session, I was sitting in the celestial room & feeling kind of sorry for myself.  I was thinking about how I’ve been divorced for 7 LONG years, how hard it is to be a single Mom, and how I want to be remarried.  While I was sitting there, an older gentleman walked in and came over and asked me if I could help him w/ some sealings for female names that he had brought.  I agreed, even though the last time I did sealings I almost passed out from kneeling for so long.  Plus, I didn’t have a lot of time b/c I needed to get home and get ready for the party.  I ended up being a proxy for 10 female names that were sealed to their parents.  As soon as the first daughter was sealed to her parents, I felt the Spirit so strongly and the tears started freely flowing.  It was a personalized tender mercy to me from my loving Heavenly Father.  He was letting me know that He’s aware of me and my struggles.  He knows of my great desire for a righteous Priesthood holder who will take me to the temple.  He knows how badly I want Autumn to be sealed to me for time & all eternity.  I was able to picture Autumn kneeling at the altar and being sealed to me & my future spouse.  It was such a special and sacred moment, and helped to strengthen my testimony.

I left the temple and went over to Mom & Dad’s house to get ready for the big swim party at 11:00.  We all used to work together at a pest control company, and have kept in touch for 7 years!!!  I love it that we are still so close even after all this time.  I provided Costco Polish dogs, buns & all the fixin’s.  Other people brought chips, drinks, ice, salads & desserts.  It was quite the party & we had a LOT of people (33!!!) there.  I think our pool area reached maximum capacity.  Lol.  Here’s who was there & how people we had:

(6) Curt & Mary
(4) Alison & Braulio
(4) Erin & Russ
(3) Liz & Liberty
(5) Sheila, her Mom, & kids
(6) Steve & Terri
(2) Tommy & Kara
(1) Andres
(2) Autumn, Andrew & I

I was worried we wouldn’t have enough food, but we had more than plenty.  It was so wonderful to catch up w/ everyone, relive the stories from the good old days when we all worked together, and create new memories.  I’m thankful that we can do fun things like this at least once a year to renew those friendships.

After everyone left, we cleaned up and tried to have quiet time.  The kids were being noisy and crazy, and it was making everyone nuts.  So, I decided on the spur of the moment to take them to see How To Train Your Dragon 2.  We had 15 minutes before the movie started, so they quickly threw on their shoes and we rushed out the door.  We made it in perfect time.  The movie was really good (I’ve only seen bits & pieces of the first one), and it’s one I would definitely watch again.

We got home & Mom had fried rice and Vietnamese spring rolls ready for dinner.  She had gone and gotten the spring rolls from the people that do our nails.  So, we took this silly picture to text to them to tell them thank you.  It was a LONG and super FUN day … just the way a Saturday should be!