Jake's First Talk

Jake gave his first talk yesterday in our ward.  Like me he opened with a joke.  Laughter is a great way to get everyone's attention.  Below are his notes for his talk.  He didn't stick strictly to them but got in many points.  The two items missing from his notes are how he told everyone what a great mom I am and how much he loves me.  When he was talking about me I could feel myself blushing.  And he spoke about a recent incident when Payton chose to do the right by returning something that was accidentally given to him.  He spoke about how proud he was of Payton.

MESSAGE  “ Having the Courage to Stand up for what is right”

I am a recent move in to the Ward

I just recently got married Aug 22^nd at the St. George Temple

We have 4 Children, 2 Dogs, and a Cat,  I guess you can say I got the Costco Variety Pack when I got married. 

I love them all very much even though as you can imagine it comes with its challenges from time to time being newly married and raising a family but we are both up for the challenge. They all have their own crazy personalities and I feel very blessed to be a part of their lives and grateful to have the best most beautiful & smart companion to take that on with me. We will talk more on that when I'm sure in the near future you will have the opportunity to hear from my wife and I in which she can tell our story much better than I can.

A little more about me, I was born in Las Vegas. Then moved to Yuma, AZ was raised there I am an Eagle Scout and served a mission in The Missouri Independence Mission. I have one older brother. who is now married and has two children. Funny thing is my mother always wanted to have a huge family but wasn’t able to. Lets just say that she was pretty excited for Amy and I to get married because she is now a grandmother of 6 grandchildren and very happy about the size of our family. We also hope to have a few more children in the future and add to that number.

I just recently had the opportunity to be called as a First Councilor in the Young Men’s Presidency. Looks like living in the same neighborhood as the Bishopric mean you will not slip under the radar. I am very grateful for this calling. I’m sure I will learn and grow a lot and also have a good time with Payton and soon Hadley.

Which as member of the Church we have plenty of opportunities in our everyday lives to do so with others that are not members around us or just setting the example for our own families.  Having the courage to do what is right in my own life. Started at a young age for me when I made the choice to serve a mission at the age of 10. Which I know from that point on kept me from making bad choices because I knew what I could and couldn't do to be worthy to serve a mission. That is what should be focused on for our young men to keep that as a goal and to do what it takes to stay on the straight and narrow to get there.  

I would like to share a quote from a talk that was in the OCT 2011 General Conference talk of Jose L Alonso of the Seventy. Called “ Doing the Right Thing at the Right Time, without Delay”  He goes on to say.  President Thomas S Monson has asked us to go “to the rescue” and serve others. He said: “ We will discover that those whom  we serve. Who have felt through our labors the touch of the master's hand, somehow cannot explain the change which comes into their lives. There is a desire to serve faithfully, to walk humbly, and to live more like the savior. Having received their spiritual eyesight and glimpsed the promises of eternity, they echo the words of the blind man to whom Jesus restored sight, who said, ‘One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. “

We all have opportunities to serve and show love to our fellow men and have the courage to stand up for what we all know is right and blesses our lives and our families s as well. I know God lives and loves all of his children and we have a great responsibility more than ever before to set a great example. I SAY THIS IN THE NAME OF Jesus Christ AMEN!!

Again, these are just his notes, not word for word or anything but I wanted to remember his first talk in our ward and the first time I got to hear him talk.  Looks like we will be talking again in Nov or Dec and Jake's says I get an extra 5 mins because he already did part of his this weekend.  LOL

Jake is a great husband and father and his faith makes his an amazing man.  The children and I are so lucky to have him in our lives.

Time to Start Writing Again

Jake (mu husband) thought I should start maintain our family blog.  I think he meant just for us but I thought it would be nice to sometimes share insight with others.  I have a ton if ideas for posts but for now I just wanted to intro our family,

We are the Parry's!  A growing happy Mormon family living here in Utah's Dixie.  

Jake and I are newlyweds but have been a party of each other's lives for years.  

Jake has never been married, no kids.

But now...

Now he has 4!!

Again, not sure where this blog will become but we are excited to see what we can make of it.

Tender Mercy

I know I don't write on our family blog much but I really felt like this needed to be written down.

Yesterday, after a long weekend of moving into our new house and everyone fighting headcolds colds, I decided to let the kids all stay home from school and get rest.  Normally I wouldn't let them stay home from school for just a cold... normally they have to be puking, fever, can't leave the bathroom sick to miss school, but I felt like they needed to be here at home.  I couldn't have explained it yesterday morning. I just felt the need to keep them all home and safe with me, especially Uma.  I had a dream about her the night before and needed her not to go school.  We didn't even leave the house yesterday.

Then last night I read this on my friends facebook

I am counting my blessings right now. It's amazing how in a blink of an eye you could possibly have your child taken from you. There was a runaway car at school in the parking lot and not only did this woman come within inches of hitting my car she then decided to turn and almost ran over about 50 kids including my 7 year old that she barely missed. I would have much rather her hit my car than take out innocent children. Thank god no one got hurt...

As soon as I read this, I knew why I had that feeling.  Something tells me, if the kids had went to school, if Uma had been at the school, I would not be sitting her at my desk right now listening to her play with her puppy and kitty in the living room.

And I got another confirmation this morning when I received this email from the school this morning.

Vista Parents and Students,

As some of you are aware, we had an accident at Vista today at the end of the school day.  In what was described as a “miracle” by those who witnessed it, no one was injured in this unfortunate accident that took place just as the students were being released from classes for pick-up. Due to a brake failure, a driver lost control of her car hitting another car that was waiting to pick up students. Fortunately, the collision slowed the vehicle that malfunctioned, preventing it from doing even more damage. The car did travel through the area where students were staged waiting for their rides, but thankfully no one was hit.  A big thanks goes out to faculty and staff who got children out of the way.

I feel like the spirit directed me yesterday and thankful my children and all the children of Vista are safe and unharmed this morning.