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 […]
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 […]
We each may have our own definition of what the word success means to us in our lives, but I believe that success is something that each of us strive for. Figuring out how to achieve success has been the topic of countless books and articles throughout time. One particular article that I thought had great suggestions on achieving success was […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
“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. […]
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 […]
“Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” -Ronald Daw I believe in magic…I believe we actually make our own magic by the way we think, the dreams we dream, […]
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 […]
How does one go about being a good friend? We all have friends, and we all are a friend to someone else. But how often do we stop and take note of whether we ourselves are being a good friend to those we love? I would admit that I don’t do it often enough. And […]
I’ll be happy when ____ happens. I’ll be happy when I have ______. I’ll be happy when _____ loves me. I’ll be happy when I look like _____. The “I’ll be happy when” trap is one of the easiest to fall into. I know because I have fallen into myself far too many times. For […]
Things Work Out -By Edgar A. Guest Because it rains when we wish it wouldn’t, Because men do what they often shouldn’t, Because crops fail, and plans go wrong Some of us grumble all day long. But somehow, in spite of the care and doubt, It seems at last that things work out. […]
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 […]
On the wall of my friends office hung a princess mirror. It wasn’t just any princess mirror, it was a Disney princess mirror that talked to you when you looked into the mirror, stating things like “that color looks lovely on you” and “you are so pretty”. It had to be my FAVORITE mirror ever! […]
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 […]
Here are some fun date ideas to help you plan ahead for the holiday weekend of LOVE! And a yummy recipe for a super easy dessert you can make. Valentine’s Date Night Ideas The Cozy Concert: Check out local venues and find what up-and-coming concerts or bands are playing. Nothing sends love waves out like […]
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 […]
That is the inscription on the back cover of my Grandmother’s life history book. My grandmother passed away back in November of 2007. She was one of my dearest friends. And I am forever grateful that she left behind her written life history for me and for my children, and their children, and so on. […]
Too much time and energy in life gets spent trying to fit in…trying to be seen as “normal”. I personally think that normal is pretty boring. After all, why be normal when you can be exceptional?! When something simply “fits in” it is too easy to blend in, to go completely unnoticed. But when something […]
“Every day in the US, at least four women are murdered by abusive (and often, ex) partners. Over 75% of the homicides occur when the woman attempts to leave or has left her abuser.” Today I attended the showing of the documentary Private Violence at Sundance Film Festival. The documentary follows the story of Deanna […]
Packrat, hoarder, collector….we have all heard the terms. Some of us even relate to the terms. Maybe not to the extent that we see on the TV show Hoarders, but somewhere between that and a packrat. My son is someone who I have teased for years as being somewhat of a packrat. He saves every […]
We are all familiar with “the grass is always greener” syndrome. That syndrome that causes people to look around and think that something else would be better than what they currently have. Most commonly you hear of people catching that syndrome in their dating or marriage relationships, although it can extend to other areas of […]
Six years ago December 31st I married the man of my dreams in the most beautiful wedding imaginable. My husband wanted us to get married on New Year’s because he said that would ensure that he never forgot our wedding anniversary – smart man 😉 … On that day we were surrounded by family and […]
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 […]
“Families are like fudge, mostly sweet with lots of nuts!” As we head into the home stretch before Christmas Eve’s traditional gathering together of families everywhere, we ought to pause a moment to prepare ourselves to deal with the chaos ahead. I come from a very large family of ten children. My husband comes from […]
Tonight my mother and father-in-law arrived to stay with us for a few days. They came down from their farm in Idaho to visit us so they could come to see their son (my husband) tomorrow night when he will be singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. […]
Today I was feeling the stress of the holiday creep in and I decided that I needed an action list of things I could do to help take the stress off during this holiday season. Here is the list of ideas I came up with to help all of us cope with holiday stress: Make […]
Christmas season casts a truly amazing spell on the world. People’s walls come down, their hearts are softened, they notice the needs of strangers, they have the desire to care for their fellow man, and hurts anger seems to get let go and be replaced with the Christmas spirit of love. It truly has an […]
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 […]
