Miracles

It has been awhile and that doesn't matter because here I am writing something really quickly.

I listened to a BYU-Hawaii Devotional talk this past week online and it was wonderful. Ironically, the sister who gave the talk looked my mom...it was like watching her with a completely different personality and outlook on things.

Anyways...her talk was on miracles and recognizing them. Sometimes we go through life thinking that we do each day by ourselves and that God doesn't have a hand in any of it. She gave some wonderful examples of how we can recognize Gods hand in our daily lives and the "small miracles" that take place.

Here are just a few and some that I have added to the list because it makes sense:

brushing my teeth...miracle, some people don't have arms and hands to do that driving to work...miracle, that I have a job to pay for the car to get to work and then to make the money to get the home that I have which I was given by God, which is a miracle because it took forever to get. Miracle, warm or cool clothes (depending on the climate)...at least I have clothes to wear and hand me downs that people can't or won't wear...this is a miracle...some people in the world don't have clothes and if they do, they wear the same thing every day and go naked to wash it and clean it. Miracle...Joseph Smith, Jr prayed and asked God the Father for truth...when was the last time that you asked for truth?Miracle...the atonement belongs to EVERYONE...God just didn't select a few to receive it...he provided a Savior for the everyone. Miracle...someone who knows how to at least play a few notes on the violin and know how to record and do recording improvs and do it now...and be in the right place at the right time at the exact moment that it is needed and prayers being answered. Miracle...people actually like people and are nice to one another.

I just thought that I'd share this with ya to remember that 1, life is what it is and 2, Heavenly Father throws little miracles in our laps every day and we need to stop and thank him for them even when we think that they are not. Miracles come to us every day and it is our responsibility to share them, recognize them and accept them.

Love,

Karen

New Leadership

I may not have voted for the newly appointed president, but that is OK.
I watched yesterday a little bit of the inauguration, the church stuff, the tea/coffee party and the ball later that night.

After talking to Nathan about it, I have come to the conclusion that the Lord has prepared him to be our leader in these last days. We have been warned about what was going to come to pass and now it is time for this leader to make those changes and bring people together.

I'm not looking for an audience or be on a soap box, I'm just realizing again that our worldly leaders are selected by God at certain times for certain reasons and that it this is his time.

We'll see what happens. All I can do is support him and do what I can do in this season.

Michelle, his wife did look very nice throughout the entire day. I bet they were so tired when they finished everything and barely got out of bed this morning!

pictures of eternal memories

These are just a few of the 300 pictures that we took while in San Francisco, CA for New Years 2009.
I thought that you'd like to see these. We drove up on Tuesday 30-December 2008 and returned to Phoenix on Monday 5-January 2009.

We stayed in an apartment of an awesome friend and your boyfriend, Kim and Devon. They were fabulous in letting us use their apartment straight down town south of Golden Gate Park. It was cozy and they were so sweet to let us use it while they were ironically, here in Phoenix and Las Vegas for the Holidays. We thank them and loved their company the night before we left and when they returned home. We were able to park the car on Lincoln and technically leave it there the entire time. It worked out great. We only drove the car to Concord and to Oakland and the rest of the time we used public transportation which was awesome.

The LDS Oakland Temple at night. We attended the temple earlier that day and the fog was so bad that we couldn't take pictures and by the time we returned later that day, it was to dark...so, this is a beautiful picture of the temple at Christmas time at night!

The Golden Gate Bridge at sun down. It was absolutely beautiful and it wasn't cold nor was the wind terrible. It was just perfect!

This is of us freezing, well I was at least while we were on the Cable Car down by Fisherman's Wharf, San Fran, waiting to leave to go up to Nob Hill, Chinatown other fun locations!

OK...this was an awesome place? Anyone want guess where this is? It was freezing cold the day we took this picture!

OK, this pictures is hilarious. Let me explain this one. We are on the MUNI and we started talking to this guy and then I asked him if he would take our picture and so he said, "oh sure, let me fix my hair!" and then he threw up the peace sign as you can see and so we had to take the picture and keep it because it was so hilarious. This is how nice the people were the entire trip. They were so kind and thoughtful and VERY helpful, especially if we had direction questions. When he got off the MUNI he even looked back and waived good bye to us and we couldn't help but smile and wave excitedly back. He proceeded to tell us about his gang related family and friends and shootings and his friends mother here in Phoenix that passed away and that his friend had to come down by Greyhound to be at the funeral for. We had to keep the picture and pass it on to those who read the blog!

This should bring back awesome memories for any and all of the Wicke family! We tried to get inside the house, but nobody was home the 2 times we went there.

Nathan at the Concord BART Station

The Golden Gate Bridge during the day when the fog was terrible, however, still kind of nice. It was freezing to Karen and Nathan thought that it was summer time!

So, that is our trip.

Love all of ya,

Karen and Nathan

I'll get to it

I haven't had a chance to blog for the past couple of weeks so give me until this evening when I get home from the gym and I'll do it. It has been 2 weeks since I've been at the gym too so I seriously need to go!

I have a WONDERFUL new years and I'll talk about that later.

I hope everyone is healthy and life is great.

Karen