Chronicles: The Last Battle

We did it--we finished the Chronicles of Narnia Series! It's taken us a little over a year to read them all aloud. We had some delays in finishing the final book, so we did a lot of catch up this weekend. The last book is not my favorite in the series, mostly because it addresses issues that arise in the last days, like a false Christ, death, and a lot of confusion. However, there are still a lot of lessons that I like from the book.

For instance, there are two "gods" in the Chronicles of Narnia: Tash and Aslan. Tash represents the devil, and Aslan represents Christ. In this last book, one man who believed in a God named Tash but who did good deeds, was accepted by Aslan and allowed to come into Aslan's kingdom. However, an ape who did terrible things while claiming to be a representative of Aslan was taken by Tash.

I also liked how in the "next life" in these books, you could go further up and further in and find a higher glory within each world, but which was bigger than you originally thought. It was great that all the characters from every book met in the end, and were all in the "highest part" of Aslan's kingdom.

As far as the "judgement" goes, I thought it was interesting how some animals went to Aslan's left and others to his right, depending on whether they accepted him or not. The last few chapters of the book are full of symbolism, which is what makes it a great ending to the series.

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

Babymoon

This trip was kind of last minute, but we decided in July that a vacation was due after a full summer of work and pregnancy. We settled on going to Rockaway Beach, Oregon to visit my great grandparents and enjoy a little bit of Portland on the side. So here is the barrage of pictures: 

Of course, no vacation would be complete without a friendly game of Bingo. While we had fun completing the different assignments (ex: find a Utah license plate, make a dairy related pun at the cheese factory, eat something off of the other person's plate w/o them knowing, etc) we realized that we should probably mix up the order on both of our sheets, since we kept on getting the same Bingo squares.  

It's a two hour drive to Rockaway from Portland, so we had a rest stop at Hug Point.

And here's the main reason for our trip: Jim and Ilene. Some of the sweetest people I know, and they sure are spry for being 88 and 93!  I have the privilege of being named after my great-grandma, and have enjoyed visiting her over the years for our Lund family reunions. I was so grateful to squeeze in this trip to see her again, especially since this time we had her all to ourselves.

Rockaway is 14 miles away from Tillamook, which is famous for its Cheese Factory.

We had enjoyed beautiful weather with no rain on the beach! We basically completed the ice bucket challenge by submersing ourselves completely in the water. 

Matt learned how to play pinochle and quickly dominated. This was a picture of my and grandma's early win before Matt and Jim stole the lead. (I won't post the final score, but I will say we played 18 games of pinochle.) 

The Portland Temple!

Voodoo Doughnuts. Apparently a Portland icon. I will say, the line was extremely long to get in and they had some unique flavors. Matt's favorite was the mango jelly filled (bottom right) and mine was the Oreo topped (upper left). 

We would highly recommend Babymoons. It was a great trip.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Provident Living

I gave a talk today about Provident Living. One of the things Matt and I have been working on over the past year is building our food storage based on this easy list:

We modified it to fit our needs (for example, as grad students in a tiny apartment, we really don't have room for all the flour and sugar it recommends) but it's been great to get into the habit of buying something extra with every shopping trip and building our own food storage. We've also worked on our own 72 hour emergency kits, which are also almost complete.

My first real-life encounters with emergency preparedness came when I was on my mission. In the Dominican, you don't have electricity all the time, you may not have running water all of the time, and there is a higher likelihood of emergencies and natural disasters. Through experience, I learned to always have candles, water, food, and extra money on hand. You never know when the mission president would call and tell you about a hurricane warning, where you have to stay inside for several days and survive off of what you already have. I hope that even though I'm living in a 1st world country, I can still remember that sometimes disaster can leave us living in 3rd world conditions, and that it's important to store up what we can to be self-reliant.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Happy Birthday, Matt!

I'm glad we could celebrate with some on your childhood favorites- toaster strudel, cocoa pebbles, and "drumsticks" on your cake. 

Love,

Rebekah

One Year

It was so great to get some videos taken from our reception and wedding day yesterday. It's hard to believe it's already been a year- it seems like it's been so much shorter. 

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

3L

I can't believe I'm entering my final year of law school this month. I've come so far, and the end is finally in sight. I finished my externships this week, I signed up for classes, and I'm even taking part of the bar early: the MPRE (2 hour ethics exam). By this time next year, I'll have graduated, taken the bar exam, and be eagerly awaiting my results to see if I can become an actual attorney. Wow.

Life while in law school has definitely not turned out the way I had expected or planned. Example: 1st year= single, 2nd year= married, 3rd year= pregnant/parent?! This was not the projectile I had envisioned back in 2012!!

Nevertheless, it's been an incredible journey and learning experience. It's hard to believe that this next semester will be my last full semester of courses, and then hopefully in the winter I only have to take a few credits.  I'm excited for what this final year will bring, even though I know it will be challenging.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah