Today I had a full plate….a ridiculously full plate. And not the yummy kind of full plate of holiday fudge and Christmas cookies (I wish!), I’m talking about the far less pleasant kind of full plate filled with all kinds of must-do’s that were time-sensitive (the worst kind of to-dos). So I dug in and […]
Having been out of town all last week and being offline that whole time made today really overwhelming as I was faced with the stacks of envelopes and packages that arrived during our absence and the massive backlog of unread emails, texts, and voicemails needing to be returned. It was all I could do to […]
I planned to write a blog today with fun details of our moving offices but when I woke up to an alert on my phone reminding me today was tax day everything else went out the window while I got that taken care of. Then I had an important project to get done for my […]
Remember when we were kids and how excited we would be to wake up to see snow on the ground and get news that school was cancelled?! Maybe we should all try waking up tomorrow and pretending we are little kids that just found out it was a snow day! ….and isn’t it interesting how […]
Have you ever tried chasing after a two year old who is running as fast as he can down a long hallway while wearing four inch high heels? Well, that’s exactly what I was doing Sunday. We had been sitting in the chapel of our church listening to the speaker when my grandson started acting […]
I answered the knock at our front door and he came barreling right in yelling “Grandma, Grandma – I’m Spiderman!!!” There he was, my two year old grandson with a Spiderman mask on his face and a Disney Cars backpack on his back. He ran in the door all wide-eyed and full of excitement pretending […]
My two year old grandson came barreling in the door of the house calling out “Grandma…Grandma” as he ran over to me to give me a hug. I’m telling ya….that is seriously just about THE GREATEST thing in the entire world! As I sat with him playing it made me long for the days when […]
Last Friday I was humbled to receive the Leadership in Business Award from the YWCA for my business accomplishments and the work I do championing women and girls through my foundation (the IPOP Foundation). They put on a beautiful event of around 1,200 attendees Friday and I told them it was the sweetest way to […]
I was reading unopened emails in my inbox when I came across one from my daughter-in-law Alexis where she had written a guest blog post for me to be able to use on a day I was busy and needed help. Given that she’d sent the unopened email to me clear back on June 6th […]
“Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing the monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.” – C.S. Lewis Last week was a difficult one, but this week my grandson is out of the hospital and he’s back home again with his parents and he appears […]
The hardest thing is watching someone you love suffering and there is literally nothing you can do to make it better…its especially hard when it’s your little 17 month old grandbaby. As I sit here at the hospital again tonight surrounded by my family as we watch the doctors and nurses working on baby Flynn […]
When I became a parent I never knew I could love another human being so much. I still remember the way I felt when I became pregnant with my second child – I remember wondering how I could ever love another person as much as I loved my first child. But then 23 years ago […]
Last night after I finished judging a business plan competition down at Utah Valley University my family and I met up at a restaurant to take my Father and Mother-in-law, who had traveled down from Idaho to visit us for the night, out to dinner. We were excited to see them as my father-in-law was […]
Today I learned why it’s really important to make sure you word your prayers right the first time. After spending three days in the hospital with my flu-stricken grandbaby last weekend into Monday, and having the doctors and nurses tell me that there was about a 100% chance I’d end up sick myself I got […]
Today’s post is a guest post written by Ashley Anderson Hill, daughter of Amy Rees Anderson: An Act of Unprecedented Love Last night and today I had the opportunity to witness an act (more of like a few small millions of acts) of unprecedented love from a grandma to her family. My angel mother taught […]
For the last nine years I haven’t missed a single daily blog post so I didn’t want to skip posting tonight but my post is just going to be a post to explain why it has to be extremely short today. My son and his wife had plans to be out of town for the […]
Welcome back! I hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving holiday! If you ate even a portion of the food I consumed over the weekend then you too are wondering how in the world you will ever fit into your normal pants again to go back to work tomorrow! It’s been so nice to wear elastic waist […]
As we head into this week of Thanksgiving I felt it might be an appropriate time for me to share what I’m most thankful for: My Faith. I am thankful for my faith in God. My faith and love for my Heavenly Father is at the very core of who I am and it helps […]
I hadn’t thought about the story of The Trouble Tree for along time. But I was reminded of tonight as I came home from a long day of work. I was worn out and feeling overwhelmed by how much I still needed to get done and when I pulled in the garage and walked through […]
Tonight definitely wasn’t my first rodeo, but it was my grandbaby’s first rodeo and it was so much fun to be able to watch him as he watched his first rodeo. He was totally smitten watching all the cowboys ride their horses and the bulls. I personally love rodeos. I’ve been going to them for […]
Nothing bonds a family like traveling in an RV without air-conditioning in 105 degree heat…At least I suppose one could call it bonding the family together when all of us were so sweaty hot that our bodies were literally sticking to the sofa seats of the RV as we made our long drive back from […]
Today was an absolutely amazing Fourth of July! From having my entire family with me all day, to having our friends John Wayne Walding (a true American Hero you can read about at www.johnwaynewalding.com) and his wife Amy Walding and their four kids with us, to meeting George Washington, to going to Stadium of Fire […]
Fortnite. I had heard there was a lot of hype about the video game, but I had never actually seen or played this game…until this weekend… My family traveled down in our RV to Bryce Canyon Utah (where our daughter-in-law is from) to support her family as they welcomed back her brother who was returning […]
Often when everyone is heads down working on things at our house someone in our family will randomly call out “DANCE BREAK” and everyone immediately stops whatever they are doing, stands up, and starts dancing in place for five seconds to our own beatboxing sounds – then everyone quickly sits right back down and keeps […]
“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors.” – Terry Pratchett Last week my son and his wife announced that they were getting me out of town so I could detach from the chaos and have […]
I have to caveat today’s post by saying that I try really hard not to be one of those people who posts a million photos/videos of their grandchildren thinking everyone else is as excited about seeing them as they are….And honestly if this short 35 second video clip was not one of the FUNNIEST things […]
“Life becomes more meaningful when you realize the simple fact that you’ll never get the same moment twice.” When my daughter-in-law came to drop off my adorable grandbaby this morning so I could babysit him for her while she went to work and I saw her lugging in the car seat and diaper back and […]
When my two children were young they started calling me “Mama Bear” because they knew their Mama would fight fiercely to protect her two little cubs. That’s because we protect what we value most, and my kids have always been what I value most. Becoming a parent is one of the most surreal experiences in […]
I have been out in Washington DC for the last few days and I was reminded of how beautiful Virginia is. I lived in Vienna, Virginia when I was a teenager in High School and during this visit I was able to drive past the house I used to live in while I was there […]
Early last Friday morning my cell phone rang. It was my son Dalton letting me know that his wife Alexis was in labor and they were heading to the hospital. I jumped out of bed feeling a mixture of joy, excitement, disbelief, and wondering if this was really going to be day we welcomed our […]
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