Tag Archives: memories

Be Humble Be Hungry. And Always Be The Hardest Worker In The Room.

Moving out of our building the last two weeks has been SO much work! Thank heavens for The Other Side Movers! The Other Side Movers is a training school for The Other Side Academy, a non-profit that helps former felons learn how to live productive, successful lives. The ex-convicts in the program are given a […]

It’s A Mental Game – Win It!

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 […]

Integrity, Ethics, and Grace

Tomorrow evening (March 10th) I am being honored as the 2020 Wheatley Distinguished Ethics Speaker for Brigham Young University where I’ve been invited to give a lecture on the importance of Integrity and Ethics to a group of prominent business leaders, faculty, and students.  In my lecture I am going to be sharing some experiences […]

“If I Would Have Known Then What I Know Now. But I Did, And So Do You.”

She knew she was dying when she wrote the note which read:  “Regrets? I have a few. Too much worrying about finding the right husband and having children, being on time, being late and so on. It didn’t matter. It all works out, and it would have worked out without the worries and the tears. […]

“Please pass me that parenting book. I need to smack my kid with it.”

I observed an interaction between a mother and her teenage daughter today and it was all I could do not to bust out laughing. Not because what was happening was funny, but because I knew exactly what emotions the mother was going through in that moment because I’ve walked in her shoes back when I […]

The Importance Of Saying Thank You

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 […]

We Are The Rememberers

I was in a meeting the other day at the Family History Library, which has the largest shared family tree database in the world, when someone giving a presentation surprised the person with me by playing an audio file for her that they’d located in the database.  Watching the immediate reaction of her hands shooting […]

Are You Prepared For Valentines Day?

When I was a little kid in elementary school I LOVED Valentine’s Day because in the days leading up to it, each of us kids in my elementary school class would bring a cardboard box or an old Quaker Oats canister from home and we got to decorate it to make it look like a […]

Children are great imitators so give them something great to imitate

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 […]

Don’t Stop Until You’re Proud

“Don’t stop until you’re proud.” -unknown This past week I rode a bicycle from Vermont up to Montreal Canada. Now I know that might sound like no big deal to many of you, but for me it was a HUGE deal! For starters I hadn’t ridden a bicycle since I was twelve years old. In […]

A Night To Remember Forever

Walking into the Center Courtyard on Saturday and seeing my 132 page PowerPoint presentation I had created for the design and layout of my daughter Ashley’s wedding reception was a magical moment.  I had worked for months putting it all together and trying to plan out every little detail to make to try and create […]

In The Blink Of An Eye

As those who follow my blog know, I am deep in the thick of wedding planning for my daughter Ashley’s wedding this week. Today as we were working on getting the song list together for the DJ and listening to different songs when I was suddenly hit with this overwhelming feeling of sadness as I […]

What Will Matter

Sometimes you read something that says what you are thinking more perfectly than you could say it yourself  – that’s how I felt when I read this poem by Michael Josephson, whom I had never heard of until someone showed me this poem , but I  like the message of his poem so much I’m […]

All I Need To Know I Learned From Santa

All I Need To Know I Learned From Santa    (written by unknown) *Encourage people to believe in you. *Always remember who’s naughty and who’s nice. *Don’t pout. *It’s as much fun to give as it is to receive. *Some days it’s ok to feel a little chubby. *Make your presents known. *Always ask for […]

Try and inject a little more of that childhood attitude of wonder into our adult lives

Watching all the cute little kids in their trick-or-treating costumes, running around ecstatic about all the free candy they were collecting, I couldn’t help but think how great it was to be a little kid. So oblivious to the problems in the world, wide-eyed with excitement about even the littlest things, believing in fairy tales […]

Take A Walk Down Happy Memory Lane

“Don’t wait until your life is almost over to realize how great it has been!” Today I had to pull a bunch of old photos from years past together for a project and as I was sorting through years and years worth of photos I couldn’t help but be pulled into a walk down memory […]

If your future self could speak to you…

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 […]

Leave it all on the ice

These last few months have been a roller coaster for me. Between my family and both our extended families we have experienced some of life’s highest highs and some of its lowest lows all within a matter of just a few months. In those months there have been days of being happier than I could […]

Take A Picture, It Will Last Longer

Given that the last few days have been crazy hectic with the birth of my grandson and with us having more family arriving in town to host today I was worried about having time to get everything done so I asked my 21 year old daughter Ashley if she could write a guest post for […]

Bring on the BBQs, the pool parties, and bust out those flip flops!

I LOVE JULY! The month of July is literally one of my very favorite times of the year.  The weather is amazing, the BBQs are fired up, the swimming pool is open, summer vacation is in full force, there are fireworks galore, we watch fun parades, our families get together, there’s rodeos and picnics and […]

Overwhelmed and Inadequate: Balancing Work and Family Life

Back when I was single and working full time with two small kids I often found myself feeling overwhelmed and totally inadequate. All these women around me seemed so perfect, with perfect kids and perfectly ironed clothes and homemade bread on their counters. I felt like a complete failure compared to them. My home was […]

Maybe it won’t work out, but maybe it’s worth seeing if it does

“Maybe it won’t work out. But maybe seeing if it does will be the best adventure ever.” That’s a quote we all needed to hear! I love it because it totally reminds us to have courage to go ahead and try things, even when we aren’t feeling totally sure that it is going to turn […]

Don’t wait for “someday” to make time for family

Tonight I attended the pre-funeral viewing for my Uncle Buzz who passed away last week (his funeral is tomorrow). Walking in the doors of the room where the viewing was taking place and seeing so many of my aunts and uncles and cousins and siblings and my parents all gathered together inside the room was […]

It’s not the What or the Where – It’s the Who

There is little better in life than spending time with the people we love. And this year we were especially lucky because we had an extended Christmas holiday break off from the kids colleges – they had an extra week off this year because of the way the holiday dates fell so they were off […]

You are never too old to put on a costume for Halloween!

I am a HUGE fan of Halloween. First off, we all get free candy and who doesn’t love candy?! And second, we all get to put on a costume for a day and pretend to be something or someone else – it’s an escape from our everyday routine lives when we can get creative and […]

Bust Out Those Hoodies and Pass The Candy Corn!

I cannot believe it is the middle of October already! Holy cats people, it’s time to bust out those hoodies and pass the candy corn because Fall is officially in season and Halloween is only a few weeks away!  That means we get to carve pumpkins for the front porch, we get to bust out […]

What Will Matter?

Given the recent passing of a loved one my thoughts have been turned toward each of our own lives and what will matter to each of us as we face our time to pass from this life. I’ve thought about what we take with us, what we leave behind, and what will truly matter. I came […]

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 […]

Be In Their Lives Today

“To be in your children’s memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today.”   Oh, how I love that quote. And it is such a great reminder for all of us that have the blessing of being a parent. I remember throughout the growing up years of my children when they would ask me […]

Imagine Your Life Without It

“If you want to appreciate what you have, imagine your life without it.” It’s an unfortunate thing, but it is all too often the case – In life it is so easy to fall into the trap of not appreciating all that we have. Whether it’s a person, or an experience, or a material possession, […]