Gospel Doctrine/ Vorpahl Life Tidbits

I am officially switching from Gospel Principles to Gospel Doctrine. I have already attended two Sundays of Gospel Doctrine. It is totally different! Gospel Principles is the basics, simple, and plain. I feel like Gospel Doctrine is beyond that and well it is!

I decided to take this plunge when the class approached lessons I had already gone over last year in Sunday school. I may still write some posts on Gospel Principles here and there. I am unsure how I feel about writing about the Gospel Doctrine. It may need to occur after I've gone over the lesson myself and after attending church.

I am enjoying it though. So far I am liking the fact that we are learning about church history( while we read Doctrine & Covenants). Along with this I am also attending Institute every Wednesday. Right now we are studying the Book of Mormon and we are in Alma. I love the Book of Alma! I think every convert to the church or those interested should pay special attention this particular part of the Book of Mormon. It has blessed me immensely and has given me the testimony that I know without a shred of doubt that the words written  therein are truth.

Anyway! Now to Vorpahl life tidbits. Tomorrow fall semester begins. I will be starting up my fashion courses again and majoring in Fashion Design. After a year or so, of trying to find what fit I know this does. I am excited to draw again and learn more about fashion history.

I am also doing my own fashion project on the side. I am working on a trend research analysis. So right now I am reading over trends from this season, then 6 months, and then 1 year. The project is from a textbook of mine " Fashion: from concept to consumer". Trend analysis is one of the key things to being a good fashion designer. You have to be ahead of the game predicting what will come next and get the designs going. I will probably continue this project from now.

Now moving on... today is Lils ( my cat) birthday. She is five years old. I smothered her with love, some treats, new toys, and also sang happy birthday ( yes I know crazy cat lady much). I took a semi hiatus from the internet. Worked on getting myself all ready for school along with farm work as usual. Speaking of which tomorrow I need to do some work even if the semester begins. I've been clearing out some evil wild rose bushes. They consume all around them and suffocate the trees. We have two trees that I had to pull rose bush vines out of and trim back dead branches and limbs.

Can't really blog about much else. That is pretty much it.


Jimmy/ hubs update:

We have four month left until Jim is home and we move to Colorado- Fort Carson. He seems to have days where he likes work and others not so much. He works for a general right now. He had a "mid tour" visit/ leave in July. It was nice to have him home. He spends his days working, sending me a message here or there until our skype date nights. Along with this he has become a crazed diesel truck addict- he has a plethora of diesel magazines and websites he visits- he plans on making Brutus bad *** . ( while he was on leave he souped up our Ford F350- otherwise known as Brutus).


Until next time

-Lexxy

F.H.E ( update) & Date Night via Skype

I realized I failed to give the update on F.H.E/ Family Home Evening via Skype with the hubs. It went really well and we have a schedule in place of who is going to do what till May. It really helps to have things planned out for the both of us. So if you and your spouse are long distance for the current moment. Plan something over Skype! Trust me it will be lot's of fun! Every Friday ( well Friday here) we Skype and immediately start off with F.H.E. I think it sets the mood for our conversations.

There is more positive energy and conversation than negative. Which is is exactly what we need to grow closer together. Even with the distance between us. Anyway! So F.H.E has been a total success!
Now on to "Date Night" I decided that it would be fun to play a questions game over Skype. Being apart we tend to forget what things our significant other likes and dislikes. The first part of  our date was filled with questions like:

 " If there was anything that I would like to do for the weekend what would it be?"

Both have to answer questions like the one above. It gets you thinking and not only that you have to think like your spouse would! These types of questions help you to see where you might have been missing something or unaware. Or if you answer correctly- Awesome job!  We both did pretty well with that. Then it was questions like:

" Your ideal breakfast would be?" 

Now the questions are personal but it nice to see the variety in answers and learn more about each other. If you Google questions to ask your spouse ( or whatever you consider the relationship) you can find ideas for questions to ask. I loved doing this! the hubs and I both had a blast with this! It changed our usual conversation over Skype into something different and fun. Basically keeping things "spicy" *wink* tehehe. 

I am in the process of finding other Date Night activities we can do long distance. I hope this post helps some of you out there who may be in a long distance relationship. I will suggest this to our military spouses for sure! And on that note! I am off like a dirty shirt...

~Lexxy~

A Year of Boxes

(First off- all hail Pinterest! You inspire me to craft more & more!) For this post I will be sharing the box I jazzed up inside for my hubs for the month of Feb and what I have planned for coming months.

A Year of Boxes
:
What is a year of boxes? Where did this idea come from & what inspired me. Well Pinterest of course. Some time last year I pinned a box idea- the inside of the box was decorated with paper, love notes, and packed with goodies inside.

It was listed under deployment ideas and I pinned it to my "Army Wife" board for future reference. I really liked this idea but took it further. Each month I plan on sending a box whether it is big or small. Each month will have a "theme" to fit the box which I will share after the hubs has gotten his box. Since he can read this blog- I don't want to give away the surprise!

Anyway! Shout out to all military wives! Feel free to steal my idea! I took it further than the pin. For this month I sent a Valentine Box. I had my grandma in law & mother in law chip in too! They bought things for the box. I packed everything- wrapped gifts, etc.

The box decorating is fairly simple- I bought stickers, cool paper, glue, and keep my exacto rotary cutter handy if I need to trim paper. I glue fancy pieces of paper to the inside of the box- I do the "top" part of box where it is opened- but you can do all of the box if you want. This is where you can get creative. Love notes, valentine sayings, etc.

When sending foodie goodies and toiletry items I suggest using a food saver for toiletries in bottles- I seal all the bottles up and place the food in bags as well. You never know when something might "explode" or leak when sending a box overseas.  No food saver- just use bags! I'm just weird and chose the food saver. It does work wonders for any baked goods you send though! Think "fresh" oh and  it's a very good investment in the long run!

Anyway! Here is my first box of the "year" along with a cute kitteh to boot! (Never fails- if you have a box around the cat is surely to get "trapped" for hours in said box).

~Lexxy~