Tag Archives: ashley

Don’t be so quick to forget

My daughter Ashley who is still out serving her mission shared a story from a talk she attended on her mission that has such a simple, yet powerful message, that I had to share it with all of you. She was attending a meeting where a leader was speaking and in the letter Ashley is […]

They CAN DO Hard Things IF you will let them

I was watching something the other day where s a mother to a teenage boy was busy doing her son’s laundry while her son was busy playing on his Xbox. The more I observed the situation the more I wanted to scream out “If your child is capable of conquering level 15 of their video […]

My Christmas Wish For You

I cannot believe that tomorrow is Christmas! I am SO EXCITED!! But not because of any presents I will get…I’m excited because tomorrow I get to talk on Skype to my daughter Ashley who is away serving her 18 month mission for the LDS Church. We only get to talk to her once on Mother’s Day […]

Bust Out Those Holiday Traditions!

Last week was a rough one. I was down sick the entire week and then Friday I had to haul myself out of bed and get down to Bryce Canyon Utah to attend the Open House for my son and his new bride. I made it through the evening and then crashed again, sick as […]

You Set The Tone

I was talking with someone the other day who was sharing how much fun they had at a Halloween party our family threw in our driveway. I was thanking them for coming to the party and I agreed with them that it was a really fun time. They then made a comment that really stuck with me […]

“We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are.”

“We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are.” – Max DePree Change is hard because it stretches us. It pulls us out of our comfort zone. It forces us to come out of the known and head into the unknown, and that is always a little unnerving. But the fact […]

Invest in your relationships.

Ever since my daughter Ashley left on her mission I am constantly being told by people how my daughter Ashley sent them a birthday card in the mail, or how Ashley sent them a sweet letter about a special occasion in their life, or how Ashley sent them a random card just to say she […]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

When we look back at our lives, what do you think we will remember the most – the best of times or the worst of times?  I was looking through old blogs I had posted for my employees before the blog became public and I came across a posting that answered that question for me – in […]

Having a Vision

One of my favorite quotes is the quote from the book Alice in Wonderland where Alice has come to a fork in the road and she asks the Cheshire Cat which way she should go. Says Alice: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal […]

You Never Know the Impact You Can Have On Someone

I have to start tonight’s blog off by saying I am the luckiest mom in the world and here’s why – Today I was asked to give two keynote presentations for two different groups down at Brigham Young University. The groups I spoke to were both awesome and amazing and I loved every minute of […]

Ordinary Miracles

Life is full of ordinary miracles. Sometimes we recognize them and sometimes we don’t even realize they have happened until much later. Back in July of 2011 my family was headed down to Lake Powell when we experienced some pretty cool ordinary miracles happened to us. I shared the experience in a blog I wrote […]

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” So often in life we get so sucked into thinking about every little thing we still want that we totally lose sight of just how blessed we […]

One Season Ends, Another Begins

I cannot believe that summer is coming to an end and fall is beginning. Our summer vacations have come to an end, most everyone’s kids are back to school at this point, and we all have to get back into our normal routines again. In some ways it’s sad to have summer playtime behind us […]

Express and Live A Life of Gratitude

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William Arthur Ward Tonight I have been thinking a lot about Gratitude. My life has been a huge whirlwind the last several months. Some things I have experienced have been amazing and some things I have experienced have been […]

Become What Inspires You

“Become what inspires you.” What a GREAT quote! I guess I have never thought of it like that before so when I saw that quote I had to share it. We have to start by asking ourselves “What inspires us?” I asked myself that question and then I sat down and started typing up a […]

Can You Plan To Be Spontaneous?

So I tend to be a planner. I like to think through the details and have everything mapped out. For example, when I go on a trip I like to have every little aspect confirmed in advance so I know exactly how I am getting there and where I am going to stay and a […]

Enduring Love of a Father (Happy Father’s Day)

Father’s Day holds an incredibly special place in my heart each year. Not only because I was blessed with an amazing Father of my own and an equally amazing Father-in-law, but also because I have been blessed with an incredible husband who came into my life 7 1/2 years ago and became the Father to my two children. […]

I’ll Be The One

I received my once a week email from my daughter Ashley today – I love her emails because they always share something incredibly inspiring that literally makes my entire week. Today she talked about a story that her teacher Kami shared with her when she was a teenage girl that she said changed her life!  […]

Don’t Be So Focused On The Steps That You Forget To Dance!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE to dance. Anyone who spends five minutes with my family pretty much knows that my husband and I and our two kids are constantly dancing around to music as we drive, as we clean the house, as we throw impromptu dance parties pretty much any place, anytime. I still remember coming […]

What Memories Will We Have Left Behind?

This weekend I attended the funeral of a neighbor and a friend. She left behind a husband, children, and grand-children and many friends who loved her dearly. She was an amazing person and she lived her life with love and service for others and I feel lucky to have known her. It was really hard […]

Experience: That Most Brutal Of Teachers

“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.” –C.S. Lewis So true, isn’t it? When we look back at our lives we always find that experience was the very best teacher in life. Some days I really wish that wasn’t the case because often times experience can be brutal […]

Best Friends

“You can always tell when two people are best friends because they are having more fun than it makes sense for them to be having.” I love that quote and it is so true. I have been able to take some time this week to hang out with my husband and my son now that […]

Your Get Rid of List

I read an amazing blog the other day written by someone I know who lives in Arkansas where my daughter Ashley is serving a mission. She and Ashley have become dear friends and this gal shared with Ashley some of the bad habits she is trying to get rid of in her life. Together she […]

“When something goes wrong in your life, just yell “Plot Twist” and move on.”

“When something goes wrong in your life, just yell “Plot Twist” and move on.” We’ve all experienced times when our best laid plans are interrupted with some unexpected twist that completely changes everything. It can happen with major life situations like losing a job or having a relationship unexpectedly end, or it can happen with […]

See How Far You’ve Come

It was exactly three years ago today that I signed the final papers to sell my company. As I look back over the last three years I am blown away at how much has happened since then. I transitioned out of my old company, I launched REES Capital (my angel investment firm), got our charity […]

Go To Bed and Get A Good Night’s Sleep, Tomorrow Will Be Better

Today was a long, busy, stressful day, and it was a Monday which always feels a little more stressful than the rest of the days of the week for some reason…perhaps that’s because we put everything out of our minds in order to enjoy our weekends and then Monday morning we are forced to deal […]

WE Determine Our Future

I have been writing daily blogs five days a week for over 4 ½ years without missing a single day.  There have been times when I was really sick but I still wrote my blogs because I had promised I wouldn’t miss a single day. Back in 2011, my daughter Ashley, who was 15 at […]

“If we aren´t laughing and having fun everyday…we´re doing it wrong!”

As those of you who follow my blog know, once a week I get an email from my daughter who is serving her mission.  This week she shared that her group set a goal this week to see if they could follow all the mission rules with “exact obedience”.   Now I don’t know about all […]

Some People, Good People, And Extraordinary People

“Some people see the glass half empty. Good people see the glass half full. But extraordinary people are just grateful for the glass!”  That quote came today in the weekly email letter I get from my daughter Ashley on her mission and I loved it so much I had to share it with everyone. What […]

Groundhog Day Says We’re Going to Have To Make Our Own Sunshine

With all of the amazing technology we employ today it’s amazing the credibility we attribute to the shadow of a little brown rodent each Groundhog Day. But every year I admit that, I along with everyone else, wait to hear whether Phil saw his shadow or not. It never fails to bum me out when […]