Growing up I wasn’t always the easiest teenager. I was stubborn, fiercely independent and ridiculously tenacious. I thought I knew everything. I thought I didn’t need anyone to watch out for me. And even though my parents were aware I didn’t want anyone watching out for me, every night I went out I would come […]
“Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful. . . . Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” Ralph Waldo Emerson My […]
“I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stifled. I want all the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi I absolutely enjoy learning about other cultures. I love learning about different traditions people […]
I heard a news story today about someone who was been killed in a car accident. It made me stop and think a lot about how fragile life is. The person in that car woke up thinking that today would be a day like any other day, with absolutely no idea that today would be […]
I want to start this week by paying a special tribute to all of the great dad’s out there. Like the title said, any man can be a father, but it truly does take a special person to be a dad. I have learned that lesson firsthand in my own life with my children – […]
“Once she stopped rushing through life, she was amazed how much more life she had time for.” Tonight was a good friend’s birthday so we had a small group over to celebrate. Nothing elaborate, just bbq, swimming in the pool, a lot of laughter, playing fun games, and of course dancing…in our family it isn’t […]
My son Dalton arrived HOME today from having been gone for two very long years on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! As we gathered at the airport with family and close friends to await his arrival the excitement was building like crazy. We had a huge welcome home sign […]
Do you ever look in the mirror and feel shocked to see a grown up staring back at you? Do you ever look in the mirror and realize that you can no longer pretend that you are still young, cool, and hip, and you are forced to face the fact that instead of being hip, […]
“O thus be it ever, when free men shall stand; Between their loved homes and war`s desolation; Blessed vict’ry and peace, may the heaven rescued land; Praise the power that hath made and preserved as a nation; Then conquer we must when our cause is just; And this be our motto, In God is our […]
There are two types of people in this world, and it’s not those who like Neil Diamond and those who don’t for you “What About Bob” fans. No, I am referring to those who Grumble and those who are Busy Being. If you haven`t heard of the “Grumblers” and the “Busy Beings” before, let me […]
Happy Mother’s Day! I had to get that out there very first thing because there is nothing more important today than stating appreciation for all the Mother’s and future Mother’s and single Father’s playing the role of Mother. THANK YOU! For loving us, inspiring us, putting up with us, taking care of us, fixing our […]
21 years ago today I lay in a hospital room giving birth to a 9 pound 7 ounce beautiful baby boy. It was my very first child. I was only 21 years myself when I gave birth that day, and now today, 21 years later, it is my son’s 21st birthday. Crazy. I remember the […]
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 […]
Today’s advice: Organize your life BEFORE you move! Oh my goodness how I wish I would have done just that! I wish I would have had the time to organize my life before I had to move into a new home. I have lived in my current home for around 15 years and it is […]
I can hardly believe the day has actually come….we get to move in to our new house this weekend! YIPEE!! After an insane amount of hard work, stress, craziness, disappointment, frustration and every other emotion you can imagine, we have finally come to the point after a very long year and a half that our […]
There are a lot of differences between men and women – it is those differences that make us fall in love with each other and it is those same differences that often cause us to drive each other crazy sometimes. Even when both people in a relationship are good people, relationships are still going to […]
Happy Easter to everyone! I thought for my blog today I would take the opportunity to share a few of my thoughts about Easter and what it means to me personally. I love Easter because it reminds me that at any point we can make the decision to be a better person and repent for our past mistakes […]
One of the most valuable assets we can have in life is to be trustworthy. It is worth gold whether in business or friendships or family. When you can trust a person it creates a bond of loyalty that runs deep. And when someone can trust you it gives you that same bond of loyalty […]
We live in a world where people go through relationships like they go through boxes of breakfast cereal. Many have relationships of convenience or relationships based on “having no one better so why not settle for this person??” Often times before ending one relationship people are out scouting for their next one, keeping their relationships […]
Single parents carry an incredible burden. Only those who have been a single parent can truly understand just how heavy that burden is. For a period of ten years I was a single mother myself, trying to raise my two children who were around 2 and 5 years old when I got divorced. When I […]
When my children were young I used to teach them the principle of filling up their gas tanks – our bodies and minds are like a car that is always running. In order to run we need gas in our tank. Even when the car is in idle and not driving forward it needs gas […]
“Family is like branches on a tree, we all grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one.” I grew up in a family of ten children. Five boys and five girls. How my mother did it I will never know! Especially because we weren’t the most mellow of children to say the least. […]
I cannot believe that Monday is the last day of March and Tuesday will be April 1st. Better known as, April Fool’s Day. I have personally never been a big fan of April Fool’s Day but perhaps that is because I haven’t put much effort into celebrating this holiday in the past. So in order […]
Tonight I came home after working an incredibly long day with the subcontractors at our home and collapsed into a chair. My daughter came home and I told her that the rest of the night was all time just for her and I to spend together. We sat together on the couch and started having a […]
Every summer when I was a kid, my family would make the long drive from Washington State where we lived at the time out to Utah to visit our grandparents who lived here. That drive was a brutal 14 hour drive if you didn’t add on all the time for every potty stop we had […]
A few days ago I posted a blog about a young girl who was being bullied. Then today my son sent me the link to a video and he asked me to watch it – he said it is a video that would change people’s lives because it hits the viewer in such a powerful […]
Figuring out who your ancestors are is one of the coolest things in the world. I was lucky to have Grandparents who were big into doing genealogy research when they were still alive and they provided me life history books for their own lives as well as providing me life histories written by my great-grandparents […]
Every year the BYU Founders Board gathers together from different parts of the country to meet in a location for a week-long adventure. Last year we went to the Dominican Republic. This year we went to Brazil to embark on a cruise that left from Sao Paulo, Brazil. For the last week my husband and […]
My name is Amy and without a doubt, I am a workaholic. There, I said it. I admit it fully. I have a problem and I am taking the first step toward recovery, which they say is to admit it. Step one down, only eleven more steps to go :)…. I finally discovered I had […]
With Valentines Day almost upon us I decided to search for creative Group Date Ideas that would help spurn my creativity as I attempt to plan a fun Valentine weekend. I came across multiple websites such as www.niftydateideas.com and several others that had great date ideas. I pulled my favorites from several of the sites to share in today’s blog. Hopefully these will […]
