Amy Rees Anderson's Blog

“Sometimes when things are falling apart, they may actually be falling into place.”

Jan

Earlier this week I shared some thoughts on failure and how it is often our failures that end up leading us to the path of success in our lives. It reminded me of one of my favorite stories that perfectly illustrates the title quote from today’s blog: “Sometimes when things are falling apart, they may [...]

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Tagged anxiety, depression, excitement, failure, failures, faith, falling apart, falling into place, fear, forward, future, gift, God, hope, joy, look ahead, Optimism, pray, prayer, sadness, ship to come in, shipwreck, stress, success

Private Violence

Jan

“Every day in the US, at least four women are murdered by abusive (and often, ex) partners. Over 75% of the homicides occur when the woman attempts to leave or has left her abuser.” Today I attended the showing of the documentary Private Violence at Sundance Film Festival. The documentary follows the story of Deanna [...]

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Tagged abuse, abuser, abusive, advocate, authorities, beat, complex, complexity, courage, crime, deanna walters, embarrassed, embarrassment, estranged, ex, heartbreak, homicides, humiliate, humiliating, isolation, justice, justice system, kit gruelle, love, move forward, partners, private violence, privateviolence.com, protect, protecting, strength, Sundance, Sundance Film Festival, understand, victim

Another Great Sundance Day Focused on the Success the comes from Failure

Jan

Today was another great day at the Sundance Film Festival. It is really fun to have so many people come together from all around the world to gather in Park City to celebrate storytelling. Another great part of Sundance Film Festival is the business gatherings that take place where business leaders can gather together and [...]

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Tagged acrobat, adobe, adobe systems, anne hathaway, business, desperate housewives, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, event, fail, failure, film, gary herbert, Governor, Governor Herbert, john warnock, kevin rahm, mad men, matin luther king, movie, movies, networking, panel, Photos, pk clean, premier, princess diaries, priyanka bakaya, scott anderson, Speak, speaking, storytelling, Sundance, Sundance Film Festival, television, Utah, zions bank

Alive Inside – the Power of Music in Our Lives

Jan

It is rare for me to be so passionate about a movie that I want to tell the entire world that they MUST go and see it – but today that is exactly what I am about to do. As those following my blog know I am involved with the Sundance Film Festival and have [...]

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Tagged alive inside, alzheimer's, change the world, dan cohen, dance, dancing, dementia, documentary, elderly, example, favorite songs, film, film festival, foundation, good, grandfather, grandpa pearson, grow, impact, inspire, inspiring, ipod, loved ones, make a difference, media, memories, mission, music, musicandmemory.org, must see, nursing home, nursing homes, old, power, rossato-bennett, sing, singing, social worker, song, story, Sundance, Sundance Film Festival, support, the story of music and memory, uplifting, video, viral, wheelchair

Sundance Film Festival Opening Night

Jan

I just returned home from a fabulous opening night of the Sundance Film Festival, and WOW, what a night! The evening began with a beautiful reception up at the Stein Erikson lodge in Deer Valley, Utah for the Artist at the Table Event, which is the premier opening night event for the Sundance Film Festival. [...]

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Tagged actors, actress, adobe, Artist at the Table, avengers, boundaries, celebrity chef, chef, community, deer valley, dinner, director, film, giada de laurentiis, impact, incredible hulk, john warnock, katie couric, mark ruffalo, mitt, Mitt Romney, movie, park city, premier, president, producer, reward, risk, Robert Redford, stein erikson, Sundance, Sundance Film Festival, sundance institute, together, Utah, zions

I had no idea how difficult it was…

Jan

I had no idea how difficult it was to pick out paint colors! You would think that with the 5 million paint color options I could easily find the right one…you would think….but not so much… With the building of our new home I have had to make a million decisions every day about everything [...]

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Tagged benjamin moore, building a home, calm, challenges, color, decide, decision, decisions, dilemma, dream home, face, head on, home, house, make a decision, nightmare, nip it in the bud, oc-22, paint, paint colors, trim, trying to decide, walls, whine, whining, white

Some days you just need a hug…or a pint of Ben and Jerry’s!

Jan

Today was one of those days. It wasn’t that it was a really bad day and it wasn’t that anything horrible happened…it was just one of those stressful days where you are going like crazy all day yet feeling like you are making no progress at all…when you are being pulled by this person and [...]

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Tagged adversity, alive, alone, appreciate, appreciation, asprin, bad day, ben & jerry's, big hug, family, fantastic, good day, happiness, happy, hard day, horrific, hug, ice cream, ice cream cone, life, lonely, loved one, need, needy, opposition, remind, sad, scoop, scotchy scotch scotch, stress, stressed, trials, work

Embrace Sentiment

Jan

Packrat, hoarder, collector….we have all heard the terms. Some of us even relate to the terms. Maybe not to the extent that we see on the TV show Hoarders, but somewhere between that and a packrat. My son is someone who I have teased for years as being somewhat of a packrat. He saves every [...]

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Tagged ashley, card, collect, collector, Dalton, family, friend, friends, history, hoarder, holidays, important moments, letter, love, memories, memory, message, messages, mission, money, napkin, note, pack, packrat, paper, papers, possession, possessions, save, sentiment, sophisticated, things, throw away, treasure

The Grass is as Green as You Make it!

Jan

We are all familiar with “the grass is always greener” syndrome. That syndrome that causes people to look around and think that something else would be better than what they currently have. Most commonly you hear of people catching that syndrome in their dating or marriage relationships, although it can extend to other areas of [...]

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Tagged anxiety, appreciate, appreciation, career, compare, comparison, dating, depression, envy, fantasizing, grass, grass is always greener, greed, happy, joy, love, marriage, money, never enough, relationships, shortcomings, significant other, single, sweetheart, unhappiness, water your grass

“Education is not the filling of a pail. It is the lighting of a fire.”

Jan

Today I met with Lisa Altman. Lisa and her husband are new to Utah and we were introduced by a mutual friend. Lisa and her husband are both former Opera singers who have spent their lives supporting and promoting the arts. They came to Utah for her husband to take a position as the Executive [...]

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Tagged ballet west, best, children, confidence, discover, educate, encourage, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, excel, gifted music school, God, god given talent, Happy Birthday, inspire, Lisa Altman, math, mentor, motivate, music, opera, orchestra, performance, prodigy, Rollin, science, sports, support, talent, teach, value, you tube, young people

Early To Rise…I hate to admit it!

Jan

So I will just come out and admit it – I do not enjoy waking up early. I just don’t. I don’t know exactly why…perhaps it’s because I typically end up staying up late into the night most nights so that when morning rolls around I am super tired and want to stay in bed… [...]

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Tagged accomplish, accomplishment, admit, attitude, balance, bed, bedtime, change, cold, computer, early to rise, entrepreneur, get up early, hit the ground running, meeting, morning, motivation, night, productive, productivity, shower, sleep, snooze, snow, snuggly, time, time management, toasty, try, wake up, warm, winter, work

Advice to Pass On To Every Young Woman You Know

Jan

I came across an article written by a woman named Patricia Davis in which she had put together a list of advice of all the things she wanted to pass on to younger women. I think her advice is amazing and we should share her advice with every young woman we know, whether its a daughter, a sister, [...]

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Tagged advice, afraid, appreciate, appreciation, attitude, beautiful, beauty, confidence, daughter, fat, freedom, friend, friends, grand daughter, gratitude, happy, independence, insecure, jerk, money, motivation, neighbor, nervous, niece, old, patricia davis, pretty, security, self-confidence, self-improvement, share, sister, sunscreen, try something new, weight, young, young women, youth

If You Could Do Anything…

Jan

If you could do anything you wanted with your life, what would you do? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Just for a minute take away all restrictions or limitations that typically exist and the barriers that scare you or deter you. Take away all worries of being able to fulfill your financial obligations [...]

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Tagged 2014, accomplish, accomplishment, adventure, agency, anything, attitude, balance, barriers, begin, beginning, blessings, choices, confidence, consider everything, courage, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, epic, everything, experience, fascinating, fear, field of possibility, future, goal, goal setting, goals, hesitation, life, limitations, money, new, obligations, options, overwhelming, restrictions, scared, self-confidence, self-improvement, start, success, vision

The Best is About To Be!

Jan

2014 has just begun and as I look ahead those words by Robert Browning of “The Best is Yet to Be” are ringing loudly. I am thoroughly convinced that 2014 is going to be the most Epic year EVER! For all of us! We have each just opened a new book full of blank pages [...]

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Tagged 2014, about to be, agency, and so it begins, awe-inspiring, awesome, best, book, choice, comedy, courage, decide, doubt, drama, dream, dreams, embrace, epic, excited, exciting, excuses, extraordinary, fairy tale, fear, future, goal, goals, great, inspiration, life-changing, magic, magical, motivate, motivation, move forward, mystery, ncredible, optimistic, positive, possibility, possible, purposeful, robert browning, step, story, the best is yet to be, thoughts, tragedy, wonderful, year, your year

Endings and Beginnings, Happy and Sad, But Never Alone

Jan

I hate that we sometimes feel alone in this life – the fact is that we are never alone – there are always others out there going through the same thing that we are, it’s just that we need more of us who are willing to be honest about it so we give permission to [...]

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Tagged admit, afraid, alone, anxiety, ashamed, bad, begin, beginning, change, changes, christmas, coping, counseling, courage, embarrassed, emotion, empty nester, end, ending, express, fear, friend, good, happiness, happy, help, hold it in, holiday, honest, identity, identity crisis, incapable, independant, integrity, isolated, judge, lesson, life change, lonely, never alone, New Year, open, perfect, professional, sad, sadness, share, start, stress, support, ungrateful, withdrawn

Happy Anniversary and Happy New Year!

Dec

Six years ago December 31st I married the man of my dreams in the most beautiful wedding imaginable. My husband wanted us to get married on New Year’s because he said that would ensure that he never forgot our wedding anniversary – smart man ;) … On that day we were surrounded by family and [...]

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Tagged 2014, africa, anniversary, ashley, best friend, blessed, children, civil ceremony, companion, Dalton, eternity, fairy tale, family, father, forever, friend, gerald rees, ghana, happy anniversary, happy new year, husband, i love you, kiss, lds, lds temple, legal, love, lucky, married, memories, midnight, Photos, promise, reception, Rollin Anderson, sealing, sweetheart, temple, til death do us part, toast, wedding

Build Your Sky Castle! – Now is the perfect time

Dec

When my children were young I would lay down with them on our trampoline outside in our backyard and we would look at the sky together and play a game we called “Sky Castles”. In our game we would take turns building our pretend sky castles by saying what we saw happening in our life [...]

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Tagged 2014, accomplishing, accomplshment, achievement, anxiety, ashley, believe, believer, bold, comfort zone, courage, courageous, criticize, Dalton, dare, daring, defeat, desire, direction, fail, fails, failure, goal poster, goal poster for 2014, goal setting, goals, january 1, learn, life, limit, list, m. russell ballard, magic, paper, pretend, sky castle, sky castles, theodore roosevelt, think, timid, triumph, victory, vision, visualize, worry, write it down

Twas the Day After Christmas

Dec

I hope all of you had a marvelous Christmas Holiday! For me it was a marvelous day because we were able to be together as a family, with my son joining us on Skype. It was amazing to see his sweet smiling face on the video. It was also fun to watch he and his [...]

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Tagged ashley, candy, chocolate, christmas, Dalton, day after christmas, diet, eat, eating, elastic, family, fat, food, friends, goodies, Grandma, happy, holiday, joy, language, laughter, loa anderson, missionary, pants, popcorn, present, presents, reconnecting, skype, snacks, start tomorrow, thank you, treats, ungrateful, video, waist, weight

I Wish You A Merry Christmas!

Dec

We made it! It is finally upon us – Christmas Eve followed by Christmas Day. My favorite holiday of the entire year. I am so excited for tomorrow. I even stayed up late wrapping every gift tonight so that tomorrow I can enjoy my time with my family without stressing over the mounds of gifts [...]

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Tagged Christ, Christina Rossetti, christmas, Christmas Eve, christmas spirit, commandment, Dalton, enemies, excited, excitement, family, forgiven, getting, gift, gifts, give, give thanks, giving, God, good night, heart, holiday, howard w. hunter, Jesus Christ, joy, lamb, less fortunate, love, merry christmas, mission, obey, pray, president monson, reflection, savior, shepherd, softened, soul, spirit, stable, stress, thomas monson, wise man, wrapping

Families are Like Fudge…

Dec

“Families are like fudge, mostly sweet with lots of nuts!” As we head into the home stretch before Christmas Eve’s traditional gathering together of families everywhere, we ought to pause a moment to prepare ourselves to deal with the chaos ahead. I come from a very large family of ten children. My husband comes from [...]

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Tagged anxiety, batman smells, bible, boring, calm, carols, chaos, childbirth, christmas, Christmas Eve, christmas story, crazy, crazy town, digress, doll, drama, dysfunctional, families are like fudge, family, family is forever, FBI, fbi agent, friends, friendship, fun, holiday, issues, jingle bells, large familiy, large family, laugh, laughing, laughter, listen, looney bin, love, mary, narration, nuts, quirks, respect, santa hat, silent night, stress, success, sweet, talent, talent show, teenager, Thanksgiving, time, tradition, twas the night before christmas, victoria secret

Last Minute Gift Ideas

Dec

So for those of you out there who are like me, and who are still struggling to come up with a few more gifts before Christmas next week, I decided to put together a list of some last minute gift ideas that could help you if you are stuck trying to find a few more [...]

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Tagged anxiety, appreciation, blanket, brookstone, call of duty, christmas, concert, coupon, diamonds, dvd, favor, from the heart, fun, gift, gifts, hand written note, happiness, happy, holiday, honey baked ham, idea, ideas, ipad, iphone, joy, laugh, letter, memories, mini, pajamas, photo, poem, preparation, snow, snuggie, stress, tickets, time, tree, xbox, zappos

I Hope We’ll Be That Cute When We’re 80!

Dec

Tonight my mother and father-in-law arrived to stay with us for a few days. They came down from their farm in Idaho to visit us so they could come to see their son (my husband) tomorrow night when he will be singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. [...]

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Tagged africa, boyd anderson, Carnegie Hall, cheering, choir, concert, considerate, couple, cute, example, fun, grandparent, grandparents, happiness, humor, Huntsman Cancer Center, in love, joy, kenya, kind, laugh, laughter, lifetime, loa anderson, love, marriage, married, missionaries, mom and dad, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, new york, old, old age, older, opportunity, parents, playful, relationship, respect, rodeo, Rollin Anderson, sass, sassy, service

Tips for Coping With Holiday Stress

Dec

Today I was feeling the stress of the holiday creep in and I decided that I needed an action list of things I could do to help take the stress off during this holiday season. Here is the list of ideas I came up with to help all of us cope with holiday stress: Make [...]

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Tagged a christmas carol, alone time, anxiety, blanket, book, card, coping, crazy, de-stress, dickens, email, friend, fun, hallmark movie, happiness, happy, holiday, hot chocolate, joy, kiss, kissing, laugh, let go, letter, love, me time, mental health, merry christmas, mistletoe, negative, pamper, read, rejuvinate, relax, service, silly, snow angel, snowball, snowman, snuggle, stress, text, to do list, whipped cream, wish, wishes, worry

A Time To Close Your Book of Grievances

Dec

Christmas season casts a truly amazing spell on the world. People’s walls come down, their hearts are softened, they notice the needs of strangers, they have the desire to care for their fellow man, and hurts anger seems to get let go and be replaced with the Christmas spirit of love. It truly has an [...]

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Tagged anger, brotherhood, childhood, christmas, common ground, customs, differences, embrace, fade away, fellow man, forget, forgive, grant, grievance, grievances, grow, happiness, heart, hearts, holiday, holidays, hurt, inner peace, kindness, love, magic of christmas, magical, memories, mistletoe, old, peace, present, sacrifice, santa claus, sentiments, service, softened, spell, spirit of love, strangers, year, young

True Christmas Joy

Dec

Only 10 days til Christmas! I can’t even believe it! How did that happen so quickly??! Good heavens I am not even kind of ready yet! Thank heavens for Amazon Prime two day shipping is all I can say! Maybe I am the only one that feels this way, but picking out Christmas presents is [...]

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Tagged adversity, amazon, amazon prime, believe, boys, charity, christmas, church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, courage, Dalton, donate, donation, excited, generosity, generous, gift, give, giving, God, happiness, happy, Heavenly Father, inspiration, Jesus Christ, joy, lds, meaning, merry christmas, mission, missionary, motivation, organized, poem, poor, presents, rich, sacrifice, sad, santa, santa claus, service, shopping, toys, trial, true christmas joy, true joy

“Doubt Kills Dreams More Than Failure Ever Will”

Dec

Today I was humbled and honored to receive the UVEF Entrepreneur of the Year Award. At the awards lunch they asked me to share a few words about the things that I would like to pass on to other Entrepreneurs from the lessons I have learned from my own journey. I struggled deciding what lessons [...]

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Tagged adversity, appreciate, appreciation, attitude, award, charity, confidence, courage, do what is right, entrepreneur, Entrepreneur of the year, experience, fail, failure, family, fear, future, get up, gift, goal, goals, honor, integrity, journey, judgment, keep going, leader, learn, lessons, mistake, motivation, opportunity, recognize, repeat, resources, right, self-confidence, self-improvement, self-reliance, self-respect, service, shared vision, smart know the most, success, surround yourself with good people, talent, talents, team, time, trying, UVEF, values, vision, wrong, young

A Sneak Peek Into the Upcoming Sundance Film Festival!

Dec

Sundance Film Festival is coming up from January 16th – 26th, 2014 and I am super excited about it, especially after getting a sneak peak tonight into the list of films that will be shown at the upcoming festival. For those who may not be as familiar with the film festival, it was originally started [...]

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Tagged A-listers, documentaries, documentary, education, enjoy, entertaining, family, festival, festivities, food, friends, fun, happy, hollywood, hosting, independant film, international, ivory tower, joy, Mitt Romney, movie, movies, obesity, park city, parties, party, premier, Robert Redford, ski, snowboard, Sundance, sundance advisory board, Sundance Film Festival, tickets, Utah, volunteer, work

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

Dec

Victoria Quintanilla is an angel, serving other angels. Let me explain why. Tonight we took a group of our youth to volunteer at the Road Home. The Road Home is a non-profit organization that operates the largest homeless shelter in the state of Utah, providing beds and warmth to men, women, and children. They never [...]

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Tagged angel, angels, appreciation, beds, children, clothing, community winter shelter, donate, donation, enertain, families, food, games, genuine, give, God, gratitude, hebrews, help, home, homeless, integrity, kindness, love, men, name, non-profit, organized, privacy, resources, respect, serve, shelter, sincere, stranger, strangers, talent, the road home, theroadhome.org, Utah, volunteer, warmth, women

Be A Dreamer!

Dec

As we are nearing the start of a brand new year here in less than a month I just wanted to remind everyone that this is the perfect time to start thinking about what you want to put on your 2014 Goal Poster! For those who don’t know what I am referring to here is [...]

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Tagged 2014, adventure, appreciate, appreciation, attitude, books, cook, dream, dreamer, dreams, entrepreneur, excitement, forbes, future, goal poster, keepsake, letters, look forward, motivation, new start, New Year, plans, purpose, self-improvement, success, time, time management, travel

Always Remember That Life Goes On

Dec

I came across a poem that has a great message and wanted to share it with all of you: What a great poem to read, especially at Christmas time? It reminds us that life is short so why waste a moment of it being unhappy? No matter what goes wrong, life is going to go [...]

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Tagged apologize, appreciate, appreciation, attitude, bad, balance, beautiful, blessings, change, choose, christmas, christmas season, family, forgive, friends, friendship, good, grateful, gratitude, grudgets, hallmark, happiness, happy, holiday, holiday season, holidays, inspiration, joy, laugh, let go, life goes on, life is too short, love, mistakes, past, regret, regrets, remember, self-improvement, service, TV, unhappy

Amy Rees Anderson

Amy Rees Anderson

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