Heavenly father loves me so much, he gave me a free date!

Hello! Something awesome just happened, and I wanted to share: Today from 10am to 5:30pm, with an hour or less for lunch, we were running around the county getting our car and ourselves legally in this state. By the way, this is the only correct order of events to accomplish that: 1) Change your address with your car insurance company and have them send you new cards to your Texas address. 2) Get your car inspected at an approved station. This will cost $14.50, but you should tip the guys who do it additionally (I think). 3) Get problems fixed. 4) Bring back to the same inspection station and get the fixed problems signed off so you can move on. Keep the paper they give you (which will cost $1.00) for the next step. 5) Bring your inspection paperwork, title, proof of address, proof of insurance (which also serves as proof of address) and 2 forms of ID to your county tax office. This will cost about $137. 6) Bring all of those things and your proof of registration to your local department of public safety. Check your hair - and prepare for a 2 hour wait. (Make friends if you bring your kids! It helps!) This will cost $25. Make sure you check your hair before you let them take your picture! So, we completed steps 4-6 today, with the children in tow. You can imagine that by six o'clock, when we had arranged to drop our little darlings off at the sitter's, we were ready for a real break. So, we decided to go to Wendy's and get one thing each off the dollar menu, plus a value drink to share. On the way we remembered that we had promo codes for a free Redbox movie as well. A month or two ago, we got a redbox movie for date night, which we didn't like, and which ended up also being faulty. As a consolation for the faulty video, Redbox gave us two promo codes for free rentals. So, we grabbed Mirror, Mirror from redbox and headed to Wendy's. We placed our order at an almost astoundingly not-busy Wendy's as two workers stood between us and the counter trying to unscrew something with a Cutco-looking knife. They were muttering something about how they could get shut down if they didn't have their current certification displayed properly, and this problem must be remedied without delay. The man taking our order was looking very uncomfortable about them using such rude means in front of a customer, but seemed to know enough about the urgency of the situation, or at least the temperament of his colleagues, to not try to prevent them. As we finished ordering, one of them said the knife seemed to be breaking and he would see if he could find a screw-driver. David recently got into the habit of always carrying his multi-tool, so I suggested he offer to lend it to them to use his screw-driver. They were very grateful. The conversation that followed went something like this: Alright, let's put that sword away! Thank you so much! You saved us. If we don't get this done then they can come in and put a lock on the door. Your total is... You should give them a discount. I can give manager discounts now? Yeah they probably saved us. I bet they did! Alright, well, I'm gonna manager meal it right now. (I'm still a little clueless so I'm pulling my money out.) Put your money away. Put it away! You're money's no good here. We all laughed and exchanged more thank-yous and went to sit down and wait. Heavenly Fathe rloves us. He knew we needed a real date, and he was grateful we were trying to help the people around us. He blessed us with three or six new friends at the DMV, and free dinner and a movie. We left a pass-along card when we left, and exchanged friendly conversation with two of those good people. We're so glad we were there to be helpful in that stressful situation. We are thankful to Him for His ever-astounding providence, and wanted to share. What special thing has God done for you today?

"Mommy"

We had a great morning. Little man helped me load the dishwasher and switch the laundry. He helped me practice piano too. ;) It slowly went downhill after he skipped his nap, but still a good day. Every once in a while I have to stop and ponder a moment on the magnitude of what I am doing. This person, with infinite divine potential, staggering intelligence, unshakable testimony, unmistakable sense of humor, loving heart, dreams and imagination enough to change the world; this person calls me, "Mommy."

Crucial

http://blog.speakupmovement.org/university/uncategorized/i-was-wrong-about-marriage/

Touching the Temple

Dear All, Ashley and I have gotten involved with a new (started February) publishing company called Familius, which focuses on capturing the joy and resolving the problems of family life, and is based around the idea of creating content for its readers, rather than readers for its content. The ultimate vision and hope is to build a world-wide community of subscribers dedicated to traditional family values, spanning the whole gamut of religious, cultural, and national backgrounds, so that individuals within that community can 1) support each other with unique perspectives on how to approach the challenges of accentuating the good and addressing the bad in family life, and 2) request the content on subjects people are really interested in exploring. We hope that you will visit the site and consider subscribing (it’s free), and that you will let your friends know about Familius, as well. Manny blessings, and best wishes! Thanks, David Blen Nance

Update Time - By David

So, update time. Following an interesting train of events, Ashley and I have moved to Utah. A number of things were shifting so that our reasons for staying were evaporating, and our reasons for going were becoming more compelling. The moment of decision came when Ashley got the police involved in a case of domestic violence across the street from us, and we realized that it was time to move, and it made the most sense to move where family was. Most of all, we felt like, with my admission into Texas A&M, we'd finished our work in GA. In the three weeks since we've been here, my brother's daughter (Carley Joy) was born (C-section, just 2 weeks early); and I was able to get Grandpa Nance, who hasn't been to Church in decades, to come with us to General Conference. We feel like we got here at the right time to be here for our family. At the same time, we've been sad for missing opportunities to spend more time with our friends out East. We had wanted to come up and spend some time with you before we left, but now that's going to take a little more advanced planning-- probably around the time of our high school reunion would be next really good opportunity. In the meanwhile, we can use all the prayers we can get: although there is more churn here than in Georgia, I've been struggling to find a job, since no one wants to train me given my short time between now and the Fall semester. Ashley and I have been feeling these pesky entrepreneurial sentiments to go do something terrifying and novel outside of the corporate infrastructure. Fun fun. I'm trying to wrestle my priority list back under control so that I can dedicate more time to things like writing letters. We'll see how that goes. Thanks for keeping track of us; your example of friendship has helped us be better friends, too.

Family Picture

 Aren't We Beautiful!