First, I want to take the quick opportunity to say “Thank You!” to all those who sent birthday wishes my way. I can’t think of a better birthday gift then words of kindness from others and I received that today in spades 🙂 I also want to share with you an amazing birthday gift I received today […]
Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant and he got it. The pay was really good and so was the work condition. For those reasons, the woodcutter was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he […]
First remember to keep calm, it’s only a four day work week and you are one down, three to go! I think a four day work week is great – except all that stuff we all pushed off last week with the excuse that we would do it after the long weekend turned up TODAY…so […]
“Life is like a roller coaster. It has its ups and downs. But it’s your choice to scream or enjoy the ride.” That quote is great because it makes it so easy to visualize what it is saying. Yes life is indeed like being on a roller coaster. We can’t control the ups and downs […]
Two of my favorite Christmas movies of all time are “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring Jimmy Stewart, and “Mr. Krueger’s Christmas” which also stars Jimmy Stewart. Mr. Krueger’s Christmas first aired on December 21, 1980 – 35 years ago to the day tomorrow! I was only 9 years old when I saw it for the […]
“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 […]
Last week my husband and I were invited to the Garth Brooks concert in Utah and we were given the special opportunity to meet Garth Brooks and his wife Trisha Yearwood. I have to say that they were both so kind and so down to earth that it was really a pleasure meeting them. I […]
So last week I had a crazy week full of meetings where I had to get up super early each day and then I was up late each night. Thursday afternoon as I was battling to get through the traffic on the ridiculously crowded freeway with all the construction going on, I was definitely feeling the […]
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 […]
This last week was a stressful one. And in going through that stress I found myself beginning to really doubt many things that I had previously felt really good about. The more I thought about those doubts the more and more I began to really question things and wonder if I had been completely wrong […]
Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball hat, a glove and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles. Since they […]
There have been a few times in my life where I really believed in someone and trusted them and then came to discover that they weren’t the person that I thought they were at all. It hurts a lot when you discover that someone you thought was a good person just isn’t. And then you […]
There are people in this world who do bad things. Many, if not all of us, have been on the receiving end or dealt with people who have done bad things that have hurt us. The hope is that over time, as we get older and wiser, that we are far more careful in our […]
Today I want to write about JOY! And being HAPPY! Because I had a pity party for myself last night where I got all my tears and sadness out and I woke up today and decided that it is time for me to follow the advice my brilliant daughter Ashley gives me anytime I feel […]
“No matter how you feel…Get up. Dress up. Show up. And never Give up.” That is going to be my mantra for the next few days to help me get through things. As any of you who follow my blog know, today I sent my daughter off on a mission for The Church of Jesus […]
We have all heard the term “Forgive and Forget”, and some people have heard that phrase so much that they begin to think that the two must work together. They mistakenly think that “Forgiving” someone requires you to “Forget” what the other person did to you – That is simply incorrect – Forgiving someone does […]
Four years ago, October 16th of 2010, I received a phone call telling me that one of my very best friends, Steve Gasser, had died suddenly while participating in a bike race down in St. George, Utah. I was at Disneyland when I answered that call and I literally crumbled to the ground when I […]
“Happiness is a choice”. That is the saying that my daughter has on a sign on the dashboard of her car that she looks at every time she gets in her car to go anywhere. When I asked her the other day if she had a favorite saying that was her motto of sorts in […]
Today was brutal. Today I moved my baby girl down to her college dorm and tonight is the first night of her being gone from home. Even though I will get to go see her tomorrow for the Orientation meetings on campus, it doesn’t change the fact that after today things will never quite be […]
Today I received an email from a dear friend who expressed her struggles to keep up with everything in her life while also attempting to be a good mother, which she usually feels she is failing at miserably. As I read her email I couldn’t help but think of how so many of us struggle […]
So taking time off this summer seemed liked the best idea ever except that while I am taking time off the rest of my life is piling up like crazy into a mountain that keeps getting bigger and bigger and the truth is that I am a little frightened for when the day comes that […]
When my son Dalton was a little boy, for some reason he could not grow bangs. His hair would grow on top and on the sides and in the back, but not in the front. For the first few years of his life I kept him in little baseball caps to disguise the fact that […]
We did it! We actually spent our very first night in our new house. We are still surrounded by boxes and papers to unpack and put away, and there is still a punch list of “to be finished or fixed items”, but we have officially begun living in our new house. So I have to […]
I have thought a lot about changes lately as I just spent the last several days with my daughter and her high school friends on a trip to Las Vegas for her Senior Spring Break trip I had promised to take her on. The timing of the trip couldn’t have been worse as we are […]
That quote comes from a talk given by one of my favorite speakers, Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Here are a few excerpts from the talk: “Over the years, I have had the sacred opportunity to meet with many people whose sorrows seem to reach the very depths of their soul…Often their grief is caused by what […]
“You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it.” That quote has helped me many times in my life. Especially during difficult or stressful times when I feel overwhelmed or incapable of handing a situation I am given. We have all heard the phrase that “God doesn’t give us more than […]
Growing up in a family of ten kids led to some awesome memories. One memory in particular that I thought about today was the following story: We were sitting around our massive dinner table (it took a huge table to hold all 12 of us!). We were preparing to sing Happy Birthday to one of the […]
For the last four years I have had the privilege of teaching an amazing group of young women every Sunday at church and then attending weekly fun activity nights with them on Wednesday evenings. Four years ago I was assigned to teach the 14 and 15 year old girls in a class and then after […]
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 […]
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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