Opportunity knocks (me in the head)

Hello, Hello, Hello to all!
Again we find ourselves in the Computer Lab at UNC-G. Oh, I'm sorry I mean the Super Lab. Honestly, there is nothing too super about it except for the super long time it takes for Josh's papers to print out. It's not his fault. His pesky teachers put all of his assignments in pdf form and it takes fo' eva to print a few pages.
I gave my first talk this Sunday in Church since I was 15. I wanted to say "Hello, my name is Laura Sheets and my favorite color is green." Josh didn't really think that was "grown up" enough for the talk.
I figured since Josh and I aren't making baby's yet and really don't have too much to post, that I would share my little talk with all of you.
Here ya go!

Hello, my name is Laura Sheets and I just moved here from St. George, Utah. Before making the big move, I married the love of my life Josh Sheets in the St. George Temple.
Last week, Josh and I got to Church about 30 mins. early, because we thought church started at 11. We sat out in the foyer and went over our lessons. It was getting closer to 11:30 so Josh said that we should proabably go in and sit down. I told him we should wait because the Bishopric might ask us to pray. I guess you could say that I get a little nervous about praying in front of lots of people. We went in and sat down. Right away Brother Wyric came over and asked Josh to say the opening prayer. Then he asked me if I would give a talk on prayer. It's times like these that I know Heavenly Father has a sense of humor.
I was asked to speak on the steps of prayer. There are 5 basic steps to prayer-Opening, thanking, asking, closing and listening.
First----Opening. We open our prayers by addressing our Heavenly Father.
Second---- Thanking---in the book True to the Faith (a gospel reference) it says:
"...Be grateful for the tremendous opportunities you have. Be thankful to your parents. Let them know of your gratitude. Thank your friends and your teachers. Express appreciation to everyone who does you a favor or assists you in any way.
Thank your Heavenly Father for His goodness to you. You can express your gratitude to God by acknowledging His hand in all things, thanking Him for all that He gives you, keeping His commandments, and serving others. Thank Him for His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Express thanks for the Savior’s great example, for His teachings, for His outreaching hand to lift and help, for His infinite Atonement. Thank the Lord for His restored Church. Thank Him for all that it offers you. Thank Him for friends and family. Let a spirit of thanksgiving guide and bless your days and nights." ......also D&C 46:32
Third----Ask----Heavenly Father knows what we need. He knows what to bless us with and when to bless us. All we have to do is have faith and ask. I'd like to share a little story from the life of Pres. Monson....
"When our oldest son was about three, he would kneel with his mother and me in our evening prayer. I was serving as the bishop of the ward at the time, and a lovely lady in the ward, Margaret Lister, lay perilously ill with cancer. Each night we would pray for Sister Lister. One evening our tiny son offered the prayer and confused the words of the prayer with a story from a nursery book. He began: “Heavenly Father, please bless Sister Lister, Henny Penny, Chicken Licken, Turkey Lurkey, and all the little folks.” We held back the smiles that evening. Later we were humbled as Margaret Lister sustained a complete recovery. We do not demean the prayer of a child. After all, our children have more recently been with our Heavenly Father than have we."
4th--Closing----
We close in the name of Jesus Christ. The reason we end in the name of Christ is because he is the mediator between us and God.
5th----Listening-- This is the most overlooked or forgotten step. After we finish praying we need to take a few minutes and listen to our thoughts and our feelings. Prayer is a conversation with God. We need to give Him time to respond.
To sum everything up, I would like to read the Bible Dictionary's definition of prayer:
"As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part . Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work, and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings."

TESTIMONY----I have one. And I testify that my husband rocks. In fact he rocks you like a Hurricane ( for those of you in UT that is Rock you like a Hur-uh-Khun)
Sorry---Josh is a faster typer than I am and got a little carried away. Bad husband! No cookie!
Everyone said that I did a great job. I think I did too. Thats not prideful is it???

I have an opportunity to get a job in a law firm as a defense attorney. Apparently they keep asking me about some bar exam. I keep telling them I'm a latter-day saint and that I stay out of bars, but they don't seem to get it. It's like they want me to take a test to be a bar tender or something. But naw, fo' rizzles yo.......
Sorry I had to go to the bathroom and Josh got control of the keyboard again. I have an opportunity to work in a law office as an administrative assistant. I don't know what the pay would be, but it would beat the heck out of grocery stores.
Josh is becoming a little baker man. He made me scrum-diddly-umptous meals while I was working. I even caught him wearing an apron. He is secure in his manhood though. He makes a great Banana Bread. But besides that he is my little school boy, working had to make A's.
I don't know what our Valentines day plans are yet. Josh mentioned something about dressing up like Cupid and shooting people with real arrows. I'm not sure how that would go though. Really though, Josh had mentioned going on a dinner train ride. http://www.gsmr.com/
He said he would protect me if bandits or Indians(feather head, not dot head) attack the train.

I would just like to leave you all with a little golden nugget of wisdom that I shared with my husband at about 4am. I was wrapped around my husband like an octopus and he asked me to scoot over because he had about an inch before he fell off the bed. I rolled over and the bed was a little sunk in or something. My 4am brain couldn't comprehend or form the right phrase---so I simply said "Hey babe.....The beds a taco."

So take a few moments and ponder that in the quiet times of your life. "The beds a taco." I'm so deep!

Well, until next time my little Smurflings---Keep Smurfing.

We love you all!

Laura and Josh

ps--- Josh says the Tarheels rule and everyone else drools.

Update!!

Hello All!

This is a picture of Ethan and his friend Drake! They are six days apart but they definately don't look it! Aren't they cute though!

I can't believe Ben is so big and happy and smart now after all that he went through to get into this world! He is so adorable!

Hunts in AZ

Ben's 7-month update

Can you believe it?? Ben is now 7-months-old!! Remember the beginning of his life-- how small and frail he was? Well... there's nothing small or frail about him now.




Ben is doing so amazing-- leaving his doctor speechless at every visit. His 6-month check-up went really well. That was back in December after we returned from Georgia. (I was waiting for new updated pics to post b/f the update). He's in the 90% for his height and 45% for his weight-- based of his birthdate and not his due date. His development is even more amazing. He's really advanced for being a 6-week preemie--- doing this now that a 7-month-old should be doing, when he apparently should be 6-weeks behind. (If that makes sense).
The doctor is even more amazing by his development because males develop slower than girls, however, his faster than his age group for girls, too. We're not surprised... he's always been a trooper, fighter and just plain bright (as his doctor called him). He's got sooo much personality and is getting more and more every day. Over the weekend he's learned to "dance" and is beginning to wave (thanks Aunt Sara). Well...it's the beginnings to waving and it's too precious!! He's a talker... and just babbles and babbles to mom, dad and himself. He's back in his own room. He prefers to go to bed on his own...just lay him down, give him a blanket he can put on his cheek and he is out like a light. (However, sometimes he still wants to be held and cuddled first). He wakes himself up and starts to coo and talk to his hands and the angels around him until Mom finally hears him and wakes up. He's ready to eat the moment I scoop him up from the bed--- and he always has a grin to greet those he meets after he sleeps. (that's one amazing rhyme)




Fred Flinstone, eat your heart out!! He wears an orange beard much better. Ben LOVES his squash and most foods, except peas. He's had to take a break from his fruits because of a bad diaper rash this past week--- his first real rash. I don't know what I'll do when he comes home with a scraped knee--- I could barely stand to see him with a bum rash. Ben has also started drinking from a cup... I let him experiment with that and he's loving it.
FINALLY, a bottom tooth is showing it's head. He had two top teeth bud at 5-months, however, they never came out to play. He'll be showing off his new tooth pretty soon.... and believe me there will be plenty of pics!!
Ben is so excited for baseball season to start. I bought him a Braves outfit before he was born to wear while we watched games... too bad we don't have TBS.
Coby and I are still the same... not much changes from week to week. We're just loving being the parents to a complete angel.
As soon as my camera arrives from Georgia, I'll get some updated photos of Ben taken and out to everyone. My plan was to do his 6-months, but, that month quickly slipped by.

Our Valentines Day plans are still up in the air... the day falls in the middle of the week, Coby might have to work late and there's really nothing that can top the romantic Valentines Day Coby gave to me last year!!

BBG looking for former member

We're hot on the trail looking for a former BBG member who, according to our source, posts to this blog.
We have some unfinished business that we've been asked to accomplish. We must act fast, because the BBC has got wind of this assignment and are quickly re-organizing to begin to take action.
Our member went by the alias "Sghetti." Word on the street is that he relocated to a desert southeast of B-Town and poses as a fan of a losing professional basketball team.
If you know the whereabouts of this missing BBG member, don't be afraid to contact us. Pedro offers you his protection.
Contact us at richardsimmonsrocks/BBGprez.com.

Happy Valentines Day!

Hello everyone! We hope February is a great month! Keep posting those posts!

Hunts

Just a quickie

Hello Hunts (and Roberts, of course) near and far. We are sitting in the computer lab of UNCG paying those wonderful little treats in the mailbox known as bills. Josh had to print out a butt load of papers for class. That's right I said a butt load.
I finally got a job. I work at Christie's Cabaret at around 1am. I guess I didn't understand the job description because apparently they want me to dance for money or something like that. Actually I am working at Food Lion. It's your neighborhood grocery store. It's a pretty good job so far. It pays the bills and keeps our Dr. Pepper addiction under control.
Because Josh is such a studly, fantastical, wondermus, grandtastic student, one of his professors sent him information on an opportunity to go to AZ for a conference. It is only for seniors and only 20 people out of the whole U. S. and of A are picked. They would pay for everything and make him feel like he is in a Puff Daddy video minus the goofy dancing (but I don't think Josh would mind that, he goofy dances all the time). It would be the last weekend in September at ASU in Tempe. SO we are keeping our fingers crossed.
We are sorry we missed the great time in Arizona for Ethan's baby blessing. It makes us have the sad face :(_ _ _ <-----that can be drool or tears. Your choice. It's kind of hard to fly across the US because I don't think our arms would make it. BA DUM CHA! Thank you, thank you! We really wish we could have been there for all the fun times and to witness such a special day.
So winter finally decided to show up in Nawth Cak'o'lacky. We went from 70 degree weather to snow in a matter of a couple days. Josh and I woke up and everthing was white. It was very pretty. All the schools and a lot of the businesses closed down. It wasn't that much snow, but here in the South, we take any chance we get to not go to work or school. Well, it was icy too. On the news I saw that a school bus crashed with lots of little kiddies onboard. I don't think anyone was hurt but I'm sure the kids are going to hate "snow days" now. We are supposed to get some more snow tomorrow. Snowy Sabbath--fun times :)
Sorry we don't have pictures. They are on our computer which died. But Josh knows some people, that know some people, that robbed some people---so we are getting it fixed :) Well, we hope to talk to you soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We love you lots!

Laura and Josh Sheets!

Ethan's blessing picture

Baby Ethan's blessing picture! Oh yah, and on his 10 week birthday he began sleeping through the night! It's been nice! Oh yah, and can I get Laura and Terra's new address? PLEASE! :)

Love, the hunts

Hello fam!

We're having so much fun over here in AZ. Ethan is now smiling and cooing and it makes our days happy! We wanted to thank everyone for coming to visit for Ethan's blessing. You are all so sweet to sacrifice your time to come. Tera, thanks again for the adorable blessing outfit!

Laura, I'm so jealous of your fabulous honeymoon pictures! You two have such a cute relationship. We already miss you so much!

Funny thing: Our bishop asked us on Sunday to live off of our food storage for a week. Luckily we have some. So you're probably glad you're not having dinner at our joint for the next week!

Jill, remember that awesome baby kit you gave us? WELL Ethan had four shots last week and I needed the baby tylenol immediately and luckily you gave it to us or Ethan would have been so sore! Thanks again for that kit!

Sara, I'm glad you came down as I needed another girl here to talk to! Thanks again!

We love and miss you all!

Joe and Ash

hello everyone, from the slackers!

hello everyone! i just had a quick moment at work to write ya'll. we've been so busy here, i've hardly had time to breathe. i guess that makes the time go by faster. i just wanted to apologize to everyone. i'm sorry that we haven't put pictures on the blog yet. i know everyone misses seeing our beautiful faces. :) we'll be on there soon enough. it was so great to go to arizona with the fam to see the family. it is amazing how much little ethan man has grown and how cute he is. i'd like to say that is thanks to the Hunts, but he looks so much like ashley's family, it can't possibly be because of us. he does have joe's big beautiful eyes though. so cute! it was very fun to get to know ashley's sister amy though. she is very nice and such a sweetheart!
we are so busy right now! at least eric is. he goes to school or studies in the earlier morning and then it's off to school at 10, 11 or 12. he goes to the pharmacy at wal-mart from then until 9 o'clock. for these next two weeks, it's pretty much every night, but we'll see if that changes. i've been the working widow, so i'm getting a little taste of what it will be like when he becomes the real deal! we have applied to two of the pharmacy schools and will be applying for the other two this week. we might not hear from anyone for awhile, but we hope it's good!
i love seeing all the pictures from everyone. it is so good to see what everyone is doing. and i can't get enough of my cute nieces and nephews, so that makes it nice for me!
since no one else has answered the question in the top left corner, i will do that now. my new years resolutions are this: i have the typical get into shape or drop a few pounds resolution. that might go out the window like it does every year. my second resolution is to become a mom. that one is sort of out of our hands. it is more in the Lords hands, but we'll see. that resolution might make the first resolution hard, but maybe i can do both. my third and most important resolution is to become closer to the Savior. sometimes i let the things of the world take over and i can feel myself forget what is most important. so that is it, read my scrips, truly study them, keep up on family prayer and spend more time meditating. that one will be hard when a wee one comes along. anyway, sorry to bore you, i just thought i'd answer!
keep sending pictures!
we love you all! eric and sara!

This week's bonus feature

I am a woman of my word... here's a pic of Coby meeting the ocean for the first time and letting me know it was safe to come in.
The second is the scene from the horrible drinks we had to toast with--- I am going with the salt theme--- work with me.
This is a photo of our cruise ship. We had a small budget, OK.

Waitin' for missing camera

Happy New Year to all and congrats to little Ethan on getting blessed. Aunt Jill and cousin Ben sure were sad to miss that! Of all things to pack, you would think a photojournalist wouldn't forget her camera...especially if she still uses it for work and for photographing her cute son-- but, I did. I decided to dig around some old photos from Grandma Hunt's Christmas party and a couple of other ones of us to post while I wait for my camera to be mailed.
It seems like Laura and Josh had an amazing time on their honeymoon and it made me miss mine terribly. Did you know that Coby had a lot of "firsts" on our honeymoon. No you dirty little mind--- I was referring to meeting the ocean. The beautiful Atlantic Ocean at that. I'll dig around for some of those fun pics while I continue to wait for my camera to be returned.
It was fun seeing Tasia on her bike...at least she started on a flat service. My brother put me at the top of a hill, pulled the broom stick out from the front of my bike and gave me a "gentle" push--- all while neglecting the instructions for telling me how to stop. So I jumped off... need I explain what I landed on and how it felt?
Well...it's late and Coby has to work early in the morn, so I am off to... cuddle. Geez, your minds need to be washed out with soap.

Finally a little breather!

Well Hell...o family it's the Sheets and yes we are finally on the blogger..!

Aren't you just so excited?!

We have been busy, busy, busy getting settled.

We survived a week in Jamacia. It was really pretty execpt for all the dirty Jamacians trying to take our American cash-ola. They really liked our glow in the dark pirate shirts and thought that we were in a rock band. They wanted to "come to da states and par-tee and smoke" wit' us. We had a great week at the Sandals resort. We ate and swam, then ate, and swam some more, then when we got tired of that we ate and layed around the room and drank Coke watching all the Christian chanels on Jamacian satellite. We found one show we particularly liked called "Body and Spirit" it was a Christian exercise show. It made us want to jump for Jesus. So we did. I think we were the youngest couple there. Everyone else looked like they were miserable clubbin newly weds in their 30's, I guess it was all the free drinks at the swim up bar. We had lots of little adventures in Jamacia like crazy bus drivers and a lizard that hung out on our ceiling for the whole stay. I think he liked us.

Yeah mon! Then we headed back to the good ol' U. S. of A. Thank goodness for America the Land of the Free and Home of Dr. Pepper!

Josh and I spent our first christmas in Mount Airy aka Mayberry. We dragged our booties out of bed to make it to Ingrams house at 7 am for a lovely breakfast ohhhh it was delicious. We ate a ton but worked it off by playing (dancing our brains off) dance dance revolution or if you are hip and cool-D.D.R. Then we all went back and crashed for a few more hours. Needless to say we wore ourselves out dancing and let me tell you Wayne Sheets can break it down pretty well.

Around 3pm we gathered the Sheets clan together and watched Joy to the World or as Carly Grace used to call it, Jesus and the Pocahantas. The neices and nephews did a little Christmas show. They sang Christmas songs and it was really cute. We sang the 12 days of Christmas. We were the 3 French Hens. For some reason when you sing that line you have to use a Barry White voice. Then the children tore into the presents and there was a mass of boxes and wrappings. We drew names at Thanksgiving and then exchanged gifts on Christmas. I got a Cool Water gift set with all kinds of smelly stuff and Josh got another addiction: Prison Break season 1. We watched the whole season in less than a week. We are waiting for Season 2 to come out in the summer.

Since New Years Eve was on Sunday, we had a New Years Eve Eve date to Outback. We pigged out on burgers from Outback. We discovered it's about the same $$ as Chilli's. So if you are looking for tastey food at a reasonable price check it out (we are waiting for our check in the mail from Outback for plugging their resturant on this blog). We just layed around and drank Dr. Pepper on New Years. We don't have cable or anything so our channels on the tv are fuzzy if we move around too much. So we didn't get to see Dick Clark's Rockin New Year's Eve, but we did see some British lady and we saw the ball drop. Fun times!

With the new year brings new beginnings. I got a calling to teach the 9 year olds in the Primary. Today was the first day and it was.....Fun? I think next week I am going to slip the kids Benodryl or Nyquil to slow them down. J slash K. I was set apart after Church and was promised blessings for my service. Josh and I are both teachers and are so thankful for the opportunity to serve in that capacity. He teaches the 12 and 13 year olds. They sit there a lot of times like knots of a log but he tries to shake them up a bit. We are excited to study and teach the New Testament this year. I figure I can teach on a 9 year olds level, my husband gives me plenty of chances to practice. tee hee hee.

I am still looking for a job, but I know that I will get one soon. We fasted for it today and we are continually asking Heavenly Father for help. So it's not if, but when.

Classes start tomorrow for my little Joshua. I have to make sure his little backpack is ready, and he has his little school lunch in a brown baggy, and most importantly that his clothes are ironed and matched so the other kids in class don't pick on him. I don't want my husband to be the unmatched smelly kid in class.

We are always having fun and feeling special!

We Love you all or yall, ok so I haven't worked that into my vocabulary yet, but I'm working on it :)

much love

Laura and Josh Sheets

p.s.---We are having a baby! JUST KIDDING! My husband is making me get excited for ACC Basketball. Go Tarheels!

AZ Hunt Fam's new Direction

Hey Fam.

I Guess this is the best place to fill you all in on a new and great step the AZ hunt family is taking with Poppa Joe's Career. Some of you may have already heard that I will be working my last day at the UNiversity of Phoenix on January 11th. I have decided to take a new position in a joint venture with Brian (ashley's dad), Ray (bro. in law) and another Gentelman. Among other things, i will be handleing the marketing duties for a golf course community we are entering into a partnership on. It is located in Greer Arizona which is about 60-70 miles west of the New Mexico border in the white mountains. We will be working on revamping the image of this new golf course community, selling homes on all of the remaining 140 lots, and building and leasing or selling a 15,000 square foot commercial development on the border of the comunity. It's truly a wonderful opportunity for the AZ hunt family and will help in so many ways with my career in Marketing. (for those that don't know, I will be graduating with my degree in marketing some time near the end of this year) We will have a place to stay in Greer and more than likely will spend 3 days and 2 nights a week working there. This is a huge step for our family to be taking and we would ask for your prayers during this transition for our family.

We appreciate all you guys do for us and we love you all so much. Thanks for your support and prayers.

You can go here to get a sneak peek at the community: http://www.homesatriverrun.com/

The J&T Family Update

Look at these awesome pictures that were taken out on our back balcony on Christmas day. And grandpa sure had fun with Tasia and Ryland on there bikes. He was teaching Tasia how to ride and it brought back memories of when he taught us. He was tickling both the kids on the floor and I love seeing him do that with our kids. We got to see Coby and Jill and Eric and Sara for New Years, and play games with them. We let the women win the first game to bouy up their confidence, and spirits. Then we slaughtered them in a game of Win Lose or Draw the game Joe and Ashley got us for Christmas. I think the score was 693 to 300 something.....HAHAHAHA. We are so thankful to be able to have family in our home and to be able to see Joe, Ashley, and Ethan for the baby blessing this next weekend. My wife is so great at making brownies or whatever else to entice people to come over. I love her so much, she is a great lady. UPS rush seemed to be over but when I got to work this last tuesday I had 200 stops and the next day I had 200, so it really hasn't let up. Me and Terra will begin a work out schedule this next week and are excited to get healthy together.I have also been busy with the fire department. Yesterday, early morning I went to a semi-truck fire and it was so cold that any water or foam we got on us immediately turned to ice and we froze solid, literally we were frozen popsicles. Then that evening we went to a drunk driving accident that envolved a 56 year old that was drunk out of his mind and rolled his truck several times. We had to extracate him and I was the only one trained to do it on scene besides the officer that was holding the mans busted neck. I cut all 6 posts on the truck to be able to flip the top off and I popped the door as well. It was so hard because the jaws themselves weigh 70 pounds and you have to lift them about 20 times in the process, usually you have a back-up that helps you to lift but he was a rookie and he was scared. Sorry if I am going on and on but it has really been fufilling to be able to be on the fire department and I enjoy it. Well we Love all of you and pray all your plans may work out for the benefit of your families and we are grateful for all we are blessed with. Holla back Love The Hunt's