Memorial weekend we were moving my son and his wife and child out of their condo and into their new home, and moving my daughter and her husband out of their apartment and into a new one when, in the midst of moving both of them, we got a call letting us know that my […]

(Today’s blog is a guest post from my daughter Ashley because I’ve been at the hospital all day with my father-in-law who we finally got home and settled tonight just in time to get a call that our daughter-in-law is in labor with my second grandbaby! No sleep for me tonight!!) DISRUPT YOUR ROUTINE TO […]

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” – Victor Frankel Sitting in a hospital all day today while my father-in-law was getting surgery I watched as families would bring a […]

“And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what […]

They’ve been together for nearly 58 years, Boyd and Loa. They’ve had eleven children together. They’ve run their 1,100 acre dairy farm together. They’ve lived in Kenya Africa together where they taught people to farm in order to help them become self-reliant. They’ve had to bury two of their eleven children together. They’ve been through […]

Accepting help from others has never been my father-in-law Boyd’s strong suit.  In fact I would say accepting help from anyone is probably one of the hardest things in the world for him.  He’s always been the strong one. He’s been a tough as nails farmer all his life and he works harder physically than […]

Seriously, why is it that when it rains it pours…why can’t it ever just be a light drizzle?! If it was someone else asking me that question I’d probably respond with something motivational like – the harder it rains the bigger the rainbow – but after the week I’ve had I’m thinking I might just […]

“Watching someone you love suffer can teach you even more than suffering yourself can.” -Dodie Smith It is so difficult to watch someone you love suffer. You would give anything to help take their pain away, yet there is only so much you can do. First you focus on the logistical things you can do…drive […]

“Ask yourself what is really important and then have the wisdom and courage to build your life around your answer.”  -Unknown There were a million and one things on my to-do list needing to get done, but as I sat by my father-in-law’s side all day in the medical clinic I knew I was exactly […]

“To care for those who once cared for us is the highest honor.” – Tia Walker Our Memorial Weekend turned out very different from the weekend we’d planned. We got a call over the weekend that my husband’s father had been in the emergency room several times in excruciating back pain caused by a herniated […]

“Every one of us has wept at a death, grieved through a funeral, or stood in pain at a graveside. I am surely one who has. We should all praise God for the assured resurrection that makes our mortal separations temporary and gives us the hope and strength to carry on.”   – Dallin H. Oaks […]

WOULDA-COULDA-SHOULDA All the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas Layin in the sun, Talkin’ bout the things They woulda-coulda-shoulda done… But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas All ran away and hid From one little Did.                                                                -Shel Silverstein I LOVE that poem! I never want to be the woulda-coulda-shoulda done person. I always want to be the one that DID! Maybe that’s why […]

For the last five months my husband and I have been helping redo a house for my son and his wife to move into before their next baby is due to arrive. Going into the project we didn’t think there would be that much to redo, but the further we dug in, the more we […]

To illustrate the message of today’s blog I have to first share a story someone sent to me years ago that goes like this: “Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from […]

“Our attention span is shot. We’ve all got Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD or OCD or one of these disorders with three letters because we don’t have the time or patience to pronounce the entire disorder. That should be a disorder right there, TBD ‘Too Busy Disorder.’ ” – Ellen DeGeneres ADD and TBD…those are […]

“So often we get caught up in the illusion that there is something just beyond our reach that would bring us happiness: a better family situation, a better financial situation, or the end of a challenging trial.The older we get, the more we look back and realize that external circumstances don’t really matter or determine […]

I’d never heard of the Immortal Regiment March before my trip to Russia last week. It was May 8th and we were driving in our private tour bus with our guide through the streets of Saint Petersburg Russia. Our guide was telling us about each of the buildings and the history surrounding them as we […]

Before we’ve seen something for ourselves we have this picture in our mind of what something will be like. Most of the time that picture comes from things we’ve heard and seen in the media.  Whether we’ve seen things on the news or in the movies or whether we’ve read things on social media, when […]

I just returned from spending over a week in Moscow and Saint Petersburg Russia with the Woodbury School of Business National Advisory Board I Chair at Utah Valley University. We visited the Kremlin in Moscow, we spent time with US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, Jr. and his wife Mary Kaye (dear friends) in their […]

I was a CEO of a high-growth technology company for many years and so believe me when I say that I don’t make this next statement lightly: There is no tougher CEO position in the world than that of the CEO of a home. As CEO of a home you are not just the Chief […]

Nothing can choke people up faster than talk about their love for their Mothers. That’s because its really overwhelming to consider the tremendous sacrifice that our Mothers make for us. They bring us into this world at a huge cost to their physical bodies and then they literally care for our every need in life […]

We are all busy. Life is BUSY!  And if we are not careful we will find that our time is no longer our own, rather it gets taken over by this meeting or that meeting and those emails and these people to call.  Even if you don’t plan a single thing on your calendar and […]

I can’t believe that it has already been 26 years…26 years ago I was at work when my water broke. It took me a minute to figure out that’s what was going on because, let’s face it, wetting yourself isn’t that unheard of when you are nine months pregnant with a baby kicking your bladder. […]

I’ve always been someone who pushes myself. I set big goals and I go after them. I don’t let myself settle for mediocrity because nothing about the word mediocre appeals to me. I believe if you are going to do something you ought to do it 100% and do it the very best you can. […]

Nothing good happens until you let it. That’s the thought that came into my head today. The reason? Well, I was about to embark on a bit of an adventure and I was feeling all kinds of nervous about it. To put it more bluntly, I was downright afraid…afraid of the unknown…afraid of the what […]

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 […]

“However many generations in your mortal ancestry, no matter what race or people you represent, the pedigree of your spirit can be written on a single line. You are a child of God!”   -Boyd K. Packer That quote is so powerful! It’s like every time I read it a little voice in my head whispers, […]

Could we but draw back the curtains That surround each other’s lives, See the naked heart and spirit, Know what spur the action gives, Often we should find it better, Purer than we judged we should, We should love each other better, If we only understood. Could we judge all deeds by motives, See the […]

”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 […]

My husband and I spent most of last week in New York City with the Hale Center Theater Founders Board. The Hale Center Theater is an incredible community theater in Utah that has plays of the caliber of any Broadway show I’ve seen. Each year this board takes a trip together to go and see […]