Tag Archives: father

Including Lost Loved Ones In Your Holiday Celebration

Losing a loved one hurts a lot. It’s a pain that never really goes away, it just becomes a little more bearable as time goes on. And while I am grateful that my religious beliefs are that we will see our loved ones again someday in the eternities, there is still the hurts of missing […]

What “Father” Means To Me

As a little girl one of my earliest memories of my Dad was how he’d tuck me in bed at night and I’d make him check inside my closet to ensure there weren’t any monsters there. Once Dad had performed his safety check I would know it was safe to go to sleep.  My Dad […]

How Will You Measure Your Life

Clayton M. Christensen, renowned Harvard Business Professor, strategy consultant, best-selling author, mentor, church leader, husband, father, and grandfather, passed away just over a week ago at the age of 67. He was an amazing man who taught a powerful lesson on how we ought to measure our lives – both through his words and through […]

Never Take For Granted How Blessed You Are To Still Have Them Around

I was sitting at a corner booth that butted up against the back window at a restaurant today for a business meeting over lunch.  The rest of the group was seated on the bench seat with their backs to the window and I was seated at a chair facing the window.  As I was in […]

We All Scream For Ice Cream As We Begin Summer 2019!

Guess what??  Today is National Vanilla Milkshake Day! YEEE HAWWW 🙂 Why am I so excited about that, you ask?  Because I LOVE ice cream!  That’s why. So when I heard that today was National Milkshake Day I thought, “What could be better than that?!” You see, I growing up in the Rees Family, ice […]

To Fathers, Grandfathers, And All Those Men Who’ve Influenced Our Lives For The Better

This Sunday is Father’s Day and the subject of fathers is one that is incredibly near and dear to my heart today for several reasons.  One of those reasons is that my father-in-law is struggling still. He had his surgery last week but the nerve and muscle pain down his leg still hasn’t let up […]

Those Who Inspire Us To Greatness

Nothing serves as better motivation than seeing others you admire doing great things. I was blessed to grow up in a home with a Mother and Father who both did great things on a regular basis. My Mother had ten children and was a devoted full-time Mom who had one of the hardest jobs in […]

Twenty Seconds Of Insane Courage Or Recognize That In Standing Still We Can Lose The Most

”You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.” – Benjamin Mee in movie We Bought A Zoo I was taking the long five hour flight back from New York City to Salt Lake […]

Advice For The Overwhelmed

Today was one of those days where when it comes to an end you just want to curl up in a ball and cry because you’ve had one thing after another pile on you so fast and furious you don’t even feel like you have time to breathe, let alone catch a potty break or […]

Because Of Your Example

80 years 29,219 days 701,265 hours 42,076,800 minutes 10 amazing children 37 beautiful grandchildren 11 sweet great-grandchildren 1 BLESSED LIFE HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! Today my father, Gerald Rees, turned 80 years old.  80 years old!  WOW!  That is really, really old 😉 The best way I can think of to honor my Dad today is […]

Never Underestimate What You Are Capable Of Accomplishing

I left home to come to college when I was 17 years old. One of the first things I had to do was setup my very first checking account at the bank. Up to that point I had never had my own checking account. I had always had jobs and worked throughout High School but […]

Do Parents Have Favorite Children?

I have two children, a 24 year old son and a 21 year old daughter. They are the best of friends until it comes to one particular argument that they have been having for the last 19 years since they were both old enough to debate it….who is Mom’s favorite child? And regardless of how […]

If parenthood came with a GPS it would mostly just say: RECALCULATING

The other day my son Dalton, whose wife is expecting their first child in August, called me sounding a little stressed and said something to the effect of, “Mom I just realized that I am going to have a kid here soon  that’s going to be with me forever and that I need to parent! […]

Everything Can Change In A Single Second

Saturday morning I awoke to a phone call alerting me that my son Dalton and his pregnant wife Alexis had been in a car accident on the freeway. Getting that phone call was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. I rushed to the Hospital Emergency Room where I spent the rest of […]

See It Through

Over the years there have been many times I have been faced with situations where I needed to stand up for what was right. And many times I have had to be willing to stand up alone, which is never fun to do. It can feel daunting and even lonely to stand for what’s right […]

Shovels are cheap and that’s a really big mountain

One of the most difficult experiences for any father to go through is watching his daughter date. When our daughter Ashley, who is now 21 years old, was going out on her first double date at the age of 16, my husband greeted her date at the front door of our home. He then put […]

A Look Back At 2016 and celebrating 9 years of bliss

2016 is almost over. As I look back at some of the milestones that have happened this past year I think about the trip my husband and I took to New Zealand and Australia, I think about my daughter Ashley coming home after completing an 18 month service mission for the LDS Church, I think […]

The true essence of Christmas

The week of Christmas is upon us and my heart can’t help but think about the true essence of Christmas – to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he willingly made out of his infinite love for each one of us. It reminds me of a story I try to read each […]

No Man Is Above Unconscious Gender Bias In The Workplace – It’s “Unconscious” (Forbes Article)

Imagine you are watching the following scenario take place: A small meeting is being held in a board room. At one end of the table sits a man (we will refer to him as man A) and across from him sitting side by side at the table is another man (man B) and a woman. […]

Starve Your Distractions and Feed Your Focus

Starve your distractions and feed your focus. That advice is genuinely golden. Lately I have felt myself being pulled in a million different directions. Whenever that happens in my life I inevitably end up feeling less happy rather than feeling happier. I think the reason for that is that when any of us are distracted […]

The Link Between Traditions and Happiness

This weekend marked the beginning of my family’s holiday season traditions beginning. Each year in October my parents and siblings and their families who are in the area all come together and we go to a place called Rowley’s Red Barn where we start by enjoying their homemade donuts and apple cider for breakfast and […]

What You Forget You Can Never Retell

“Preserve your memories, keep them well, what you forget you can never retell.” – Louisa May Alcot Tonight my sweet Mother came over to my home and we sat and scanned in several stacks of her Father’s (my Grandfather’s) papers he had written back while he was alive. As I sat scanning the different documents […]

Aiming High versus Aiming Low

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.”  –Michelangelo Talk about a man who didn’t aim low in his life! Michelangelo was only 25 years old when he finished carving the statue known as […]

Dads. Our First Love and our Forever Heroes.

Happy Father’s Day to all the Fathers out there! How do we even begin to pay tribute to all the men out there who grew up to be amazing Dads?! I have come to learn that any man can make a baby, but it takes a true man to raise a child. A Dad isn’t defined […]

Get Ready For Father’s Day – a public service reminder

Sunday it will be Father’s Day and so as a public service I thought it would be good for me to remind everyone who has a Father themselves, as well as any Wives who have a Husband of children to GET ON TOP OF IT PEOPLE!! Don’t forget to prepare something to honor those Fathers!!! […]

“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.”

“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.” – Bill Waterson I LOVE that quote! My son, who is a huge Calvin and Hobbes fan, sent it to me once right before we were heading on a trip to Lake Powell (our favorite place on earth!), […]

HOORAY FOR HOLIDAYS! Happy Memorial Day to All!

So let’s just say it – HOLIDAYS ARE AWESOME! Right?!  I mean what could be better than getting a day off from life when everyone else is taking a day off too! I LOVE HOLIDAYS!  And I love that we had the entire day today to be with the people we love. This Memorial Day […]

Life is an Echo

“Life is an echo. What you send out, comes back. What you sow, you reap. What you give, you get. What you see in others, exists in you.” -Zig Ziglar I want to share a story with you called “The Mountain Story.” A son and his father were walking in the mountains. Suddenly, his son […]

There Is Only Black and White, Not Any Shades Of Grey

When I was young I used to get frustrated that my Father always saw everything as black and white – there was never any grey as far as he was concerned. As a little kid I would always try to explain to him why the grey sometimes existed and without fail I would end up […]

Don’t think of it as a Sacrifice, think of it as an Investment

Sacrifice – the act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. Sacrificing isn’t easy and it sure as heck isn’t always a whole lot of fun. But we make sacrifices because deep down in our hearts we recognize that there is a greater cause at […]