Today I met with Lisa Altman. Lisa and her husband are new to Utah and we were introduced by a mutual friend. Lisa and her husband are both former Opera singers who have spent their lives supporting and promoting the arts. They came to Utah for her husband to take a position as the Executive […]
We made it! It is finally upon us – Christmas Eve followed by Christmas Day. My favorite holiday of the entire year. I am so excited for tomorrow. I even stayed up late wrapping every gift tonight so that tomorrow I can enjoy my time with my family without stressing over the mounds of gifts […]
Only 10 days til Christmas! I can’t even believe it! How did that happen so quickly??! Good heavens I am not even kind of ready yet! Thank heavens for Amazon Prime two day shipping is all I can say! Maybe I am the only one that feels this way, but picking out Christmas presents is […]
Victoria Quintanilla is an angel, serving other angels. Let me explain why. Tonight we took a group of our youth to volunteer at the Road Home. The Road Home is a non-profit organization that operates the largest homeless shelter in the state of Utah, providing beds and warmth to men, women, and children. They never […]
Today was another great day in San Francisco at the TED Women’s Conference. Here are a few inspirational stories to share from today: Diana Nyad: In 2013, at the age of 64and as her fifth attempt to do so, Diana swam all the way from Cuba to Florida. A total distance of 110 miles in […]
T’was the night of Thanksgiving, But I just couldn’t sleep. I tried counting backwards, I tried counting sheep. The leftovers beckoned, The dark meat and white. But I fought the temptation, With all of my might. Tossing and turning, with anticipation. The thought of a snack became infatuation. So I raced to the kitchen, Flung […]
And there is no better week to take the action of giving thanks and showing gratitude than Thanksgiving week. This is the perfect week to extend a helping hand to someone in need. And we can always find someone out there who is in greater need than we are. It’s so easy to get sucked […]
So much to do, and not nearly enough hours in the day to do it. I get so frustrated when I work my guts out all day only to come to the end of the day feeling like I have barely scratched the surface of what I needed to get done. When that happens day […]
Tonight my husband and I were invited to go to the Governor’s mansion to celebrate Diwali. Diwali is a five day Hindu festival known as the Festival of Lights and it is one of the biggest holidays of the year in India. This festival is as important to Hindus as Christmas is to Christians. During […]
Saturday night my husband and I were invited to an event honoring Robert Redford. The event was called: “The Governor’s Salute to Robert Redford: A Utah Tribute to an American Icon.” The event kicked off with a group of Native American Indians performing a ceremonial dance in their full attire. It was incredible! It was […]
Security is something we all long for. Security in our job. Security in our financial state. Security in our relationships. We look for security in certainty – in knowing what to expect each day, in knowing what our tomorrow will look like, in knowing what future we are securing for ourselves. But if you really […]
This past week my cousin returned from a 20 month stint working in Afghanistan to come home to his beautiful family that lives on the east coast. His wife and their nine children had been anticipating his return with such excitement. I noticed his wife posted a darling message on her Facebook page last week […]
“Pride is to relationships as cyanide is to health.” I came across an amazing article today about pride and there was a section that was so powerful I had to share it. “A pride contest has no winner because nobody likes the winner. Humans don’t respond well to being put down, and pride gives others that […]
Anyway People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and […]
“Here’s to strong women. May we know them, may we be them, may we raise them.” Tonight the University of Utah held a Women Alumni event at our REES Capital offices and they asked me to hold a Q&A forum with the women where they could ask me questions about my past experiences and life […]
It is a fact of life that we cannot control what other people do. We can’t make someone else act with integrity, or make someone else do the right thing, and we can’t make someone else be a good person. All we can really control in life is ourselves. When someone else does something bad […]
This weekend I spent, and this is no joke, 10 hours over the course of two days watching inspirational and motivational talks. These talks were broadcast as part of a General Conference that is done by the LDS Church every six months. I look forward to Conference weekend every October and every April because it […]
A few years ago I was invited to hear a talk being given by author Virginia Hinckley Pearce. In her talk she shared with us an experiment that she did that led her to write her book called “A Heart Like His: Making Space for God`s Love in Your Life”. It was awesome. And as […]
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill, When the funds are low and the debts are high, And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit- Rest if you must, but don’t you quit. Life is […]
“Being humble means recognizing that we are not on earth to see how important we can become, but to see how much difference we can make in the life of others.” -Gordon Hinckley Recently I was interviewed by Shauna Lake on KUTV news. During the interview she asked me if the success of my last […]
Okay, so I was watching the TV Show the X Factor tonight when this couple came out together and did a singing/rap song that a girl and guy in a group called Second Hand High wrote themselves. The son was called “You Better Ask Me To Dance”. When they first started singing the song my […]
I was down sick again today, but I wanted to share a story with you that I came across a few years ago that touched my life in a major way. I shared the story years ago in a company blog, but I am reposting it again today for all of you to read as […]
IF If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or […]
Yesterday was my 42nd birthday, which means that today is the first day of the rest of my life! And if you think about it, for every one of your reading this blog, today is the first day of the rest of your life as well – and you didn’t even have to have a […]
September 11th is always a tough day to write my blog because there is so much emotion when I think back to that day in 2001. I can remember exactly where I was standing when I saw the news station as it showed the tower that the first airplane had flown into, and I remember […]
I have a great story to share with you today – it is a story that was shared with me tonight and it totally inspired me to want to GET MY SPARKLE ON! Hopefully sharing it with you will inspire you to GET YOUR SPARKLE ON too! Going into this school year my daughter set a goal for herself […]
We all have a finite number of hours in a day – 24 to be exact. What we choose to do with those hours is of the utmost importance. We can waste our time, or we can use our time to improve ourselves and our lives. I have always felt passionate about the importance of […]
I am sitting in a chair wrapped up in a blanket and watching an amazing rainstorm through my window. Lightning is shooting through the sky every few seconds followed by the constant cracking of thunder. I have to say that there is something really magical about watching a storm like this. Perhaps it’s the beauty […]
School is back in session as is the focus in once again on trying to get good grades for this new semester. As I thought about getting good grades it made me stop and think about the opportunity this could be for all of us adults, even if we aren’t in school any longer, to come up with […]
No matter what ups and downs we have experienced in our lives, there have always been a million blessings. Sometimes we forget to acknowledge or even recognize those blessings because there are so many other things to easily get distracted by. And when you have always had certain blessings in your life, it’s easy to take […]
