I love to see the temple :)

Mormons have temples! They aren't regular meetinghouses where we go and worship for Sunday services. In fact, temples are closed on Sundays. Temples are special places, dedicated as houses of the Lord, where only worthy members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints may attend. In temples, specific ordinances are performed. For example, one ordinance performed in the temple is baptism for the dead. What in the world does that mean, you may say? Well, just as a person is asked (yet required) to "shed the natural man" in order to come to the waters of baptism in this life, a person must be worthy to perform baptisms of deceased persons. Not just any person, but family and loved ones who have passed on without this special act performed. But what if they've been baptized, you may also ask? It all comes down to authority from God- which will be saved for a different post at a later time :) Also, marriages are performed in the temple. The Atlanta Temple is where Adam and I were married "for all time and eternity". That's actually verbatim in the ceremony!! No till death do you part stuff.

**this was taken at our reception in Newnan. I'll try to add a picture of us at the temple later :)

Two weeks prior to the dedication of a temple, it is open to the public for tours. See, it's not that a temple is secret, but it is a sacred place and we want to be able to share it with our families and friends before it is dedicated. But once it is dedicated, only worthy members can go in. The Atlanta Temple closed down 2 years ago for remodeling, and it needs to be rededicated before any ordinances or ceremonies can be performed. So from April 9 - April 23, the temple is open for tours. I encourage all my non-mormon friends and family to take this opportunity to see this beautiful building and feel the peace that we find from there. I am going Thursday night with my friend and her kids. If you are interested in going, here is a link to print out "tickets"- they're free, it's just to control the flow of visitors so that everyone can see everything and ask questions, etc -http://lds.org/reservations/0,10751,1619-1-742,00.html

I hope if you're interested, you'll make this effort to go- there is only a week and a half left!! Adam and I are planning to go with our little ones next week, so if you want to come with us- just let me know :)

I get by with a little help from my friends...

So, today was a good day. Most of my days are pretty good anyway, but lately I've felt a little low. Prolly hormones, but I have been missing my sister Sarah. She died before I got married and before I had any children- it would just be neat to talk to her about these experiences that I now can relate to. Especially because I'll be having my fourth child, tallying the numbers to two boys and two girls, just like her. Well she had boy, girl, girl, and boy... but still. I have no doubt that she was able to somehow know of all that's happening in my life. Whether she's looking down on me or listening to the radio of the living ( I made that up, it's not a mormon thing), I would very much like to ask her questions and just to talk like we used to. Sometimes when I run through my phone of people to talk to and no one's available, I think about her. I should probably just talk to her like she was sitting next to me, I believe she'd be able to hear it or at least get a message that I'm thinking of her. I'm sure she's just as anxious to talk to me as I am to her. Well, some day... we'll see each other again and we'll have all the time we need to catch up. I love you Sarah!

St. Patty's Day

My Granddaddy Jack's mother's name was Katie Mae Kelly. From her, I can only go back as far as three generations, but I want to start doing a little digging to see if I can go back any farther and hopefully into Ireland. The original Kelly (or O'Kelly) family was of Irish decent from Virginia and later moved to North Carolina. They moved from there to Georgia. It has been difficult to trace this line since the name has been misspelled, i.e., Kelly, Kelley, O'Kelly, O'Okelly, and O'Kelley. Some of the family members fought in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, were farmers and preachers. There is even a road in Chauncey, GA that is named Kelly Farm Rd. So, when Rebeccah asked Erick if he was wearing green today, I realized I forgot it was St. Patrick's Day, which I do every year. Luckily he was wearing green and so Bobbie couldn't pinch him when he got in the car to go to school. I decided to make breakfast more interesting by celebrating with something green to eat. My friend Wendy is way better at this than I am and even has a tradition of doing something cool every year, for every holiday for that matter. So with respect to my heritage and a shout out to the Hill's, I made toast with green jelly and green milk. I know, nothing big, but hey... I'm pregnant :)