Merry Christmas 2008!
I love getting Christmas cards this time of year and reading about the lives of my friends and family! In fact, cards, lights, and music are the highlights of the holiday for me! Every year I plan on writing my own “Christmas cards” BEFORE Thanksgiving…and then AFTER New Year’s Eve, I make the resolution to get cards done early the NEXT year. Believe it or not, I have written a Christmas card for 5 of the last 6 years—but sending them out has been a different story!
THIS year, I had my action plan back in February! I took a class to renew my Teaching Certificate, and the teacher mentioned that he liked to write his Christmas card update on his blog and then just mail out a family picture with his blog address printed on it. That would allow people to go on-line, read about the family, and even keep in touch better throughout the year! I’m hoping this idea will be faster, easier, and more effective for me than in past years!
Jacob (almost 5) and Dylan (almost 2) are SO MUCH FUN! They LOVE Thomas the Tank Engine and Lightning McQueen from the Disney movie CARS. They play together well—for the most part—and even LOVE to help me cook (a lot) and clean (sometimes).
Dylan LOVES being with his big brother and gets upset whenever Jacob does something without him (like go to preschool). He wants to do everything himself, and the phrase he uses most is, “I do it, Mom, I do it!” He talks and sings ALL THE TIME and he can even be kind of embarrassing when he starts singing (loudly) during Sacrament Meeting! He also upsets Jacob when he sings “Jingle Bells”—it sounds more like “Jacob bells, Jacob bells, Jacob away!”
Jacob does not seem to mind having Dylan follow him around all the time. He loves being “the boss”—both at home AND at school. Maybe that comes with being the oldest child? He LOVES Preschool and is learning SO FAST! At least once a day he tells me (out of the blue) “I really love you, Mom!” and then he’ll come and sit by me and hug me. I LOVE IT!
I’ve been blessed with a part-time teaching job and I now teach 1st grade in the afternoons. The biggest change is that after being separated since July ‘07, Ronald and I decided to get a divorce. The papers are filed, but not yet finalized. It has been a hard and crazy year, but I have also felt a LOT of strength and comfort from the Lord. Ronald continues to be a great dad and very supportive of the boys. I am also very indebted to many compassionate friends and family members. Overall, we are all happy, healthy, and doing well, so I cannot complain! I hope to do a better job of keeping in touch year and being a better friend by returning e-mails and phone calls and updating my new blog. Hope all is well with you and yours! I love and appreciate you and the influence you have had on my life!
Love always,
The Gonzalez Family
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
What's With the Name?
Have you ever tried to choose a name for yourself that you KNOW will identify you for a long time? It’s really nerve-racking—at least it is for me! One reason it took me SO LONG to create this blog was that I COULD NOT come up with any creative name ideas that I REALLY liked! Finally, last night, I thought of one!
A year after I got home from my mission, I worked as a camp counselor at Oakcrest LDS Girls camp. We all had to come up with a nick name for ourselves. My sister, Lisa, said I should be Speedy because at the time I was engaged to be married and my last name would soon be Gonzalez…get it? Speedy Gonzalez! Ha ha ha! I felt kind of funny choosing a name because of a BOY, but I couldn’t come up with anything else, and after we shared our camp names with the other staff members and EVERYONE started CALLING me “Speedy,” I got used to it and it stuck! I even had some fellow counselors give me Speedy Gonzalez PEZ dispensers! (I still have those!)
While I was getting ready to spend my summer at Oakcrest, I came across a scripture that REALLY SOLD ME on the name Speedy. I was reading in the Book of Mormon about Alma the Younger. He was trying to teach the gospel to the people in the city of Ammonihah and they firmly rejected his message, verbally abused him, spit on him, and cast him out of their city. Alma 8:14 says that Alma was “weighed down with sorrow” as he left the city and then an angel appeared to him. It was the SAME ANGEL that called him to repentance when he was younger and making trouble for the church. This time, the angel told him to RETURN to Ammonihah. I LOVE Alma 8:18! It says, “…after Alma had received his message from the angel of the Lord he RETURNED SPEEDILY to the land of Ammonihah.” I thought THAT should be my message for the girls at camp! We should be ready to SPEEDILY do ANYTHING the Lord asked us to do, even when it is SUPER HARD! I don’t know if I did a very good job of getting that message across to the girls, but I DEFINITELY never forgot that lesson! Now, whenever anyone calls me “Speedy” I am FILLED with joy! That was one of the GREATEST times in my life and a time when I felt like I was the BEST I had ever been!
Now, you know where the “Speedy” came from, the NEXT thing you need to understand is that I LOVE THE THESAURUS! Ever since we learned how to use it in 6th grade, I’ve LOVED looking up words and coming up with LOTS of DIFFERENT ways of saying the SAME thing! Especially now that I can do it on the computer REALLY FAST! “Crowd” was just another way to say a group or bunch of people!
I’m hoping this blog will not only help me be better at keeping a “journal” (I’ve always struggled with that!), but I hope it is a place where my family and friends and I can keep in touch and support and strengthen one another! There are SO MANY PEOPLE I have met in my life who have REALLY influenced me FOR GOOD and whom I REALLY LOVE! So, when you are invited to read my blog, I hope you know that YOU are someone important to me!
P.S. I’ll REALLY TRY to not write such LONG blogs EVERY TIME! My goal is to update this ONCE A WEEK! So, now that I’ve posted my goals on the internet, maybe I’ll feel enough pressure to FOLLOW THROUGH!
A year after I got home from my mission, I worked as a camp counselor at Oakcrest LDS Girls camp. We all had to come up with a nick name for ourselves. My sister, Lisa, said I should be Speedy because at the time I was engaged to be married and my last name would soon be Gonzalez…get it? Speedy Gonzalez! Ha ha ha! I felt kind of funny choosing a name because of a BOY, but I couldn’t come up with anything else, and after we shared our camp names with the other staff members and EVERYONE started CALLING me “Speedy,” I got used to it and it stuck! I even had some fellow counselors give me Speedy Gonzalez PEZ dispensers! (I still have those!)
While I was getting ready to spend my summer at Oakcrest, I came across a scripture that REALLY SOLD ME on the name Speedy. I was reading in the Book of Mormon about Alma the Younger. He was trying to teach the gospel to the people in the city of Ammonihah and they firmly rejected his message, verbally abused him, spit on him, and cast him out of their city. Alma 8:14 says that Alma was “weighed down with sorrow” as he left the city and then an angel appeared to him. It was the SAME ANGEL that called him to repentance when he was younger and making trouble for the church. This time, the angel told him to RETURN to Ammonihah. I LOVE Alma 8:18! It says, “…after Alma had received his message from the angel of the Lord he RETURNED SPEEDILY to the land of Ammonihah.” I thought THAT should be my message for the girls at camp! We should be ready to SPEEDILY do ANYTHING the Lord asked us to do, even when it is SUPER HARD! I don’t know if I did a very good job of getting that message across to the girls, but I DEFINITELY never forgot that lesson! Now, whenever anyone calls me “Speedy” I am FILLED with joy! That was one of the GREATEST times in my life and a time when I felt like I was the BEST I had ever been!
Now, you know where the “Speedy” came from, the NEXT thing you need to understand is that I LOVE THE THESAURUS! Ever since we learned how to use it in 6th grade, I’ve LOVED looking up words and coming up with LOTS of DIFFERENT ways of saying the SAME thing! Especially now that I can do it on the computer REALLY FAST! “Crowd” was just another way to say a group or bunch of people!
I’m hoping this blog will not only help me be better at keeping a “journal” (I’ve always struggled with that!), but I hope it is a place where my family and friends and I can keep in touch and support and strengthen one another! There are SO MANY PEOPLE I have met in my life who have REALLY influenced me FOR GOOD and whom I REALLY LOVE! So, when you are invited to read my blog, I hope you know that YOU are someone important to me!
P.S. I’ll REALLY TRY to not write such LONG blogs EVERY TIME! My goal is to update this ONCE A WEEK! So, now that I’ve posted my goals on the internet, maybe I’ll feel enough pressure to FOLLOW THROUGH!
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