Living After the Manner of Happiness

Photo by   Em bé khóc nhè  on  Unsplash It seems 2020 has been a year of mourning. The past few weeks I found myself once again mourning what was supposed to have been a time of family … all together at last. We’ve had a couple of these trips planned this year only to have them all canceled. I’m sure you have had similar experiences of anticipating and planning only to have them canceled.   I have seen such parallelism to the private and public battles we are dealing with this year woven throughout the war chapters as I’ve studied the last couple of weeks. Have you recognized them as well? I’ve had the overwhelming feeling the Nephites completely understood what it means to have a tough year (or years). Yet, tucked in the middle of their difficult years is this nugget:   “… there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi, than the days of Moroni; yea even at this time, in the twenty and first year of the reign of the judges” (Al...

Backman and a teammate were interviewed yesterday by a local TV station about being selected to attend the National Select Training Camp next week at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.  Here is what aired last night on WSAV . Here is the article from another news station in town,  WTOC . Here's the video clip that aired on  WTOC on 10/26/09. Here is the article that ran in the  Savannah Morning News on 10/28/09 Here is the article that ran in the  Bryan County News on 10/31/09.  Here is a clip from the camp.  He is the backstroker in the closet lane when Coach Silver is being interviewed.  USA Swimming

Several weeks ago Coach and I decided that we wanted to do something for Flyboy's 18th birthday that would create a memory. With him going to the academy in June, there really is not much he wants or needs for his birthday other than a couple of pair of combat boots, which he was able to get at freshmen orientation earlier this month. With Backman's birthday just six days later, it seemed to be a perfect time for a big outing. We wanted to surprise them with something they would never guess and so after putting our heads together we decided to take them kayaking off Tybee Island. Coach called and made the arrangements and we were set. Then it got even better and Volleyball girl had some certification that she needed to obtain that was being done on the break between semesters and so she would be home on the designated day of the trip. We told the team to set the day aside and left it at that. It has been fun over the past few weeks to see the guesses that have come in. T...

I have been reading several blogs for a couple of years now. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) . Last December Elder M. Russell Ballard gave an address at BYU-Hawaii and encouraged the students to join the world conversation by using the Internet to share the gospel. While I am not a student at BYU-I, I have had the impression the last few months that I need to join that conversation by starting a blog. Anyone who knows me knows that my faith defines what I am about and who I am. However, my desire for this blog is to be more than just that. My husband (coach) and I find ourselves in the middle of changing worlds. For years we have actively been coaching our team (volleyball girl, flyboy, and backman) and watching them grow and improve, often times stumbling before the growth and improvement comes. We now find ourselves watching as our team is being drafted to other teams. In just a matter of weeks, we will be left with just one member of o...