Just do it

I don't usually share experiences like this in public space. But I felt like I needed to share this one. It's not extravagant but it is meaningful to me.

Sometimes I get promptings to do something and I am afraid to do it, so I push the thoughts away and think oh, but I don't really need to do that; It's just my silly creative brain being over active and telling me to do crazy things that I don't actually have time to do.
To myself, I want to say that from now on, Just. Do. It.

Alert: A spiritual experience is below.

I was on my way home from the General Women's Meeting tonight, and feeling a spiritual high because all of my recent prayers for answers to certain questions were answered during the conference. (So if you thought you didn't get anything out of it, sorry friend, it's because they were talking to me.) I felt a surge of love, and warmth fill my heart and expand into the car, blocking out the music I was listening to, blocking out everything except the urging to tell a certain old friend a message from Heavenly Father.
This old friend was never a close friend. If I was really categorizing, she'd be a high school acquaintance whom I didn't know much about but saw every day. She recently reached out to me and told me she was getting baptized and confirmed. She lives in California. She said her ward is super supportive and loving. At the time I think I said, "That's great!" and that was all I could think of to say.
Nevertheless, I was so strongly urged to tell her this message that I decided not to ignore it. I decided to just admit that all those crazy feelings I'd felt before were probably promptings I should have acted on too. When I gave her the message as soon as I got home, she responded that she had really needed it. That I was one of a tiny handful of people who had reached out to her about Heavenly Father right now, and that she just was having a really really hard time.
I am so glad I acted.  Perhaps someone else would have acted if I had not. Or perhaps her frustration at feeling ignored by her home and visiting teachers would have changed her life very differently. I don't know. All I know is, if I get a prompting to do something I think is insignificant, or silly.. I really need to just do it.

The End.
ps. I know with my whole heart - down to every last node and cardiac fiber - that Heavenly Father is aware of us and loves us so deeply he sent his own son to live, suffer, die, and then rise again in order to give us someone to lean on in times of need, someone to guide us in times of struggle, and an eternal life to hope for and strive for at all times, in all things, and in all places. Our Savior knows us, he knows our pain, joy, despair and hope perfectly. He is calling us to come and be healed and then to find more people to come and walk the only way there is home. Yep, It's true. As sure as my heart is still pumping blood all the way through its atria and ventricles. Wait.. yup. Still pumping. It must be true.

Good bye Summer.. sniff

This last week the weather dropped overnight from 70's with a cool breeze to 50's and rainy. Summer finally ended. :sniff sniff: I feel better knowing we had a truly great summer. I found these older pictures and remembered I wanted to have their memories in words too.. so without further ado, The Other Memories of Our Summer:

Our good friend took us to the Brookfield Zoo. We have been so blessed by friends and Katie picking us up and taking us on adventures in our car-challenged state. I hope some day soon I can do the same for someone because it has meant the world to us.
Korrali's favorite exhibit was the random birds outside the window of the pretend-to-be-a-bird area in the children's play house place. I loved that there were so many areas where  I could just let her play without coaching, because this girl loves her some space.

she really is glaring at me for taking photos. yeeps she can send dagger when she wants to. 

Usually 30 seconds is her max time limit in any one place. Here, I had to drag her away after 10 minutes of inching higher and higher into the window. She climbs when she's focused on something that interests her. 

She also loved the lemurs. She was charmed by the fuzzy outfit she got to wear, and the plastic food she could carry around. Once she spotted the furry little mammals she couldn't keep her eyes off.
We had a short visit from my gravid sister and her hubby. So fun!! Korrali loved them the moment they walked in, which is no surprise because I think they have the same effect on everyone they meet.

We learned about coloring - here she was a pencil pirate (she commandeered all of the pencils) and ran around saying raaargh

Incidentally, roaring is her favorite sound effect. And, I learned that she is not ready for coloring - because crayons are still considered a food.

We played with water on several occasions; we ended up having a lot of fun getting creative with how to bring all the things we wanted to do this summer to us
We had friends over frequently

making this little hollow bird whistle, it also made a fun cup to sip the water out of

I got to walk or run almost every morning with the stroller and Teo. It was so relaxing to run in the park, especially since Teo appreciated the exercise and behaved. We to the park almost every day to visit the ducks and geese (geese are her favorite. She loves to try to pet them. It's all I can do to encourage her not to follow them, while making sure my tone and movements are carefully controlled when she's paying attention so I scare them without scaring her..)

We ate frozen yogurt drops (they're kind of like ice cream!) And we learned the sign for frozen.. which utterly confused her when i made the sign and put in the movie Frozen hahaha..

We went to the pool almost every week - several times with our fun cousins. I didn't realize Korrali knew the word pool until this past week. I said it all summer, and then stopped saying it a few weeks ago. But she started to say it a few days ago when she asked to play with our pool noodle, and when I tried to put away her swim diapers she grabbed them and put one on her head and ran around saying pool and nodding.

  We learned about emotions - this was the tail-end of "happy!"

 We learned we looved cats. This one was hiding at the zoo. But we sure found it!

This past week we started wearing a blanket sleeper with cats on it. She points to legs and toes and yells "MOW!" it cracks me up every time

 She learned to help mommy. She loves the illusion of mopping, also the illusion of vacuuming (i let her pull the plug when we are done, because if she knows she gets a turn she doesn't unplug it in the middle as often), and she loves to get me potatoes to scrub, and to help me unload the dishwasher.

I just realized my dog looks like the big bad wolf here.. hunting my little janitor down .."all the better to clean you with, my dear!"

What else? We spent a lot of time with Daddy too - but he and Korrali move so fast when they play it's impossible to get a picture. There are tons of hysteric giggles though. I will miss the warm (and hot) weather, but I admit I really do love light sweaters and fuzzy socks.. so I'm looking forward to Fall and Winter even too.

League of Legends

The other day Korrali pointed to the computer and asked to "pay". When I said we needed to ask Daddy first, she waited until he was up and the moment he walked in, she asked to get up on our office chair (the only chair she can't do on her own yet). I put her harmless keyboard on the desk, she grabbed Daddy's mouse and started to click it and tap the keys.

She was very focused. And very serious.

I think she really knew what she was doing.
I thought rules about game time on the computer would come much, much, later.

Do-oo?

Korrali loves to go outside - she says it both in English (ous-eye?) and French (do-oo?) French is dehors (day-or), for those like me and not actually savvy on the lingo.
She frequently grabs the sunscreen and brings it to me, yelling "Do-oo! Do-oo! Pay (play) Pay! Seen! (Sunscreen) Sue! Sue! (shoes)". I guess she got tired of me saying "not right now.. it's nap time/lunch time/dinner time/ in a few minutes.. " because one day I heard some weird shuffling.. and she was wearing my outside shoes. She wore them all around the house, and has worn them frequently since.

This is one of those other times.. can you see the concentration on her face to keep those huge shoes on her feet while walking? It was right after dinner and before bed when she wanted to go outside. I was too slow, so she put on my shoes, and went to the door and pointed at the handle. "pay??!!"

Yet another feline funny

She put her goldfish on the floor, then ate them.

My mommy brain is starting to wonder if this is a behavior I should have nipped in the bud?

Cheetah Girl

A friend of mine gave us some of her daughter's outgrown clothes, and I fished them out of our Upcoming box and found a cat costume that is now Korrali's favorite dress up. Aside from jewelry. She frequently pulls it out and gives it to one of us to put on her.  It gives rise to all sorts of really bad Cat Colloquialisms and other furry feline references.

Meow! Climbing Cat 

My favorite part is the tail that twitches back and forth as she runs around (fast as a Cheetah). When she sings while wearing it, she's Caterwauling.. When she walks, she's Cat Walking.. 

I put a toy pot on her head because she was reminding me of a childhood book - The Cat Who Wore A Pot On Her Head

What's in this? A sticker of fish. Puurrrrfect for a little cat!

She still loves necklaces too.. which means I had to say "Aw.. Pretty Kitty". And yes, I even find myself meowing at her instead of talking to her when she's wearing it. It just really fits her personality to wear it and it cracks me up.

Did I mention we love Frozen?

Frozen has quickly become our favorite movie. While we were at downtown Disney we passed by the Disney store and Korrali saw this window:

She ran her cute little toddler run over to it, climbed up and pushed her face to the glass.

Other fun Frozen Family Facts:
Do You Want to Build A Snowman taught her how to click her tongue
Her favorite character is Sven
She sometimes sings the songs to herself. I can't tell what she is singing until she goes "laalllaaa :click click: llaauuaahh"
We had our caricatures done - Frozen style: