Tag Archives: appreciation

When You Get Where You’re Going Help The Next One In Line

I realize that not everyone out there is a country music fan, although I have a hard time understanding why they aren’t, because country music is awesome! But as I was driving in my car the other day this song came on and I sat listening to the lyrics and they were so fantastic that […]

The Great Lengths I Went To Attend the Wonder Woman Movie Premiere in Hollywood

I am a 45 year old woman, a mother of two children, a soon to be Grandmother, a successful business person, an author, and a totally obsessed Wonder Woman fanatic! So you can imagine my delight when I received an invitation from Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment (thanks to the help of some incredible people!) […]

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 […]

Why We Ought To Sweat the Small Stuff!

I’ve had many experiences in life that have reminded me how important it is for all of us to pay attention to every detail of any project we are given to ensure that we always produce quality results. It`s often these small details that can cause a project to succeed or fail. Years ago someone […]

Everything You Can Imagine Is Real

“Everything you can imagine is real.” – Pablo Picasso Did you know that your subconscious brain can’t tell the difference between something real and something imagined? There are no filters in our subconscious to distinguish the difference between the two. That is why visualization is so powerful!  Let me share some examples: A study was […]

Spring Cleaning For The Soul

Sunshine, warm weather, birds chirping…I LOVE Springtime and for the first time all year we have finally gotten warm, spring weather here and that just makes me HAPPY!  However, with the warm weather finally beginning I am reminded that it is also time to do our Spring Cleaning! And the truth is that I don’t […]

Set A Goal So Big It Scares You!

When is the last time that you set a goal so big that it scared you? I’m talking about having a vision that is so big that when you think about making it your goal that little fear voice in your head says, “…eeee….I don’t know if I’m ready to take that on…”  The kind […]

Good Riddance April Showers…Bring On The May Flowers…And All The Other May Celebrations

I don’t know about you but I am more than ready to say goodbye to those April Showers and hello to those May Flowers!  I am SO READY for warm spring weather and sunshine! Plus May is full of fun reasons for all of us to celebrate – for example:  Not only is May National […]

Principles of Peace – An Easter Message

Peace…We can’t turn on the TV news or listen to the radio without hearing daily reports of worldwide tragedies, of acts of hatred and terror, of wars and rumors of wars. There is not much peace to be found in those reports. And on top of that we are all going through our own personal […]

Be Relentlessly Focused On The Smallest Details

“To create something exceptional, your mindset must be relentlessly focused on the smallest detail.” –Giorgio Armani There is something incredible about creating.  I don’t know exactly how to describe the feeling, but when you are in the process of creating something there is an excitement and an energy that is so amazing to get caught […]

The Value of a Clear Conscience

“If you have to sneak to do it, lie to cover it up, or delete it to avoid it being seen, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it.”  -unknown When we try to live such that we are able to have a clear conscience, life is so much easier! When I look at people who […]

Think BIG!

From the time I was young I have had an inability to think small. I don’t really know why I am like that, I just always have been. In college when friends wanted me to sell $10.00 lipsticks I immediately thought, “Why sell just $10 of something when for the same effort I could sell […]

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 […]

Wisdom from a 94 year old WWII Veteran

Over the weekend my family and I traveled down to Moab, Utah to spend a little time together. We also went to go and visit my Great Uncle Mel Dalton (he is my Grandmother’s brother). My Great Uncle Mel is 94 years old and he has lived an incredible life. Over the last year I’ve […]

Hard Luck

With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner and the thoughts of good luck and fortune I thought today I would touch on the subject of hard luck because all of us have had those times we have felt sorry for ourselves thinking all the bad luck in the world comes our way. But as this poem […]

Realizing the Value of Time

“Lose an hour in the morning and you will spend all day looking for it.” -Richard Whatley SO TRUE! And today I’m guessing that is exactly how a lot of us felt. I know I did! It started when I woke up this morning and discovered I had completely FORGOTTEN it was going to be […]

Avoid coming down with the “I’ll Be Happy When…” Syndrome

I call it the “I’ll be happy when…” syndrome. It starts subtly but it spreads quickly. It goes something like this:  I’ll be happy when I finish this project, or, I’ll be happy when I can afford to buy _____, or, I’ll be happy when I can lose ten pounds, or, I’ll be happy when […]

Know Your Audience

Many years ago back when I was single I had gone on a trip with a group of people. Within this group there were many people who didn’t know each other prior to this trip. One of the young men in his mid-20’s began talking to another young man who he didn’t know yet and […]

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 […]

Letting The Men In On A Secret About Women

Valentine’s Day is almost upon us and for those men out there with a significant other in your life this is your friendly reminder to do something special for that love in your life! Because you do NOT want to be that guy who finds himself at the drug store last minute picking from the […]

Learn from yesterday, live for today, look to tomorrow, rest this afternoon.

Remember when we were kids and the thing we hated most in the world was nap time?? Remember trying to negotiate with your parents to get out of it? Repeatedly yelling, “BUT I’M NOT TIRED!!!” Then you hit adulthood and all you can think of is that you really wish those childhood nap days you […]

A Lickin’ Does A Fellow Good

Saturday when we got home from our Hawaii trip we opened a knock at the door to find my mother-in-law and father-in-law who had driven down from Idaho to surprise us with a visit as they wanted to be here for my husband’s birthday tomorrow (Tuesday).  One of our favorite activities when our in-laws come […]

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 […]

Anything Can Happen, Anything Can Be

Listen to the mustn’ts child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts, Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN, CHILD. ANYTHING CAN BE. -Shel Silverstein First I have to say that I LOVE Shel Silverstein’s poetry!  He teaches so many incredible lessons through his […]

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 […]

Find something new to get excited about!

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas! I was able to celebrate Christmas several times last week – we celebrated mid-week with my son and his wife and my daughter in an early Christmas celebration since my son and his wife were heading to spend the actual holiday with her family this year, then my […]

Look to the Light

36 years ago today one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time was released. The movie stars one of my favorite actors of all time – Jimmy Stewart, which alone tells you the movie is amazing. The movie is called Mr. Krueger’s Christmas. For me Christmas isn’t Christmas if I don’t watch this movie […]

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 […]

What To Do and What NOT To Do

Throughout my life I have been blessed with some incredible mentors and role models. They have taught me the “what to do” things in life, and the “how to be” qualities, that if we embrace will turn us into someone others will want hope to emulate someday as well. The more in life I would […]

It is better to give

Throughout this month I will try to share some of my favorite Christmas stories and poems that inspire me.  This story below is one I heard when I was growing up and I still remember the way it struck me as I heard it. It has a great message that inspires you to want to […]