Thursday, May 27, 2010

~~~FRIDAY MEMES~~~

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Food 4 Thought Friday
A little feast without the calories!!!

Feel free to play along for some yummy fun! I will post a new one each Thursday night for those that are on a different time zone. JOIN IN!!!

Food 4 Thought Friday ~ This week's questions:
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Breakfast Who will you be thinking mostly about this Memorial Day?

Lunch
What are your Memorial Day traditions?
Dinner
How many graves do you usually visit on Memorial Day?

Midnight Snack
What is one thing you hope to remembered for?

Recipe of the Week
(instead of your recipe for life, what is it just for this week?)

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
MY ANSWERS
Breakfast Who will you be thinking mostly about this Memorial Day? My son Tyson. ♥♥♥
















Lunch


What are your Memorial Day traditions?
In the morning we go visit and decorate Tyson's grave and let off balloons and then go to Bert's Cafe to eat breakfast with my parents. Sometimes we go and visit the graves of my grandparents and cousin Shelley. We will usually just hang out and have a BBQ later. This year we are inviting the missionaries over for a BBQ. For many years we would take advantage of the long weekend and go to the cabin, but after Tyson's passing we felt we needed to be here. We are now re-thinking that and realize we can honor him before we leave but Dave seems to always be on call this weekend. (Photo of Memorial Day 2009 at Berts -click on photo to see the size of those pancakes!
)

























Dinner
How many graves do you usually visit on Memorial Day? Usually just Tysons, but some years we do go visit my grandparents and cousin Shelley. We will probably start visiting my son's friend's now as well who just took his own life last month.



























Midnight Snack
What is one thing you really hope to remembered for?
My ♥LOVE♥ of life in any circumstance.☺
Recipe of the Week
(instead of your recipe for life, what is it just for this week?)</<> Sometimes just trying to be nice to some people will still backfire in your face.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
ffi
1. Fried Chicken, potato salad, rolls, and brownies -- the best food to take on a picnic.
2. Summer is not getting here soon enough for me!
3. I bet I own at least 20 pairs of flip flops.
4. To love someone is to feel complete.
5. The older I get the more I enjoy a long hike.
6. When I crave food, it's usually Italian! I also crave Olive Garden's Chocolate Almond Amore' drink! I haven't had one for sooooooo long and I am seriously craving it right now! I do crave rich, chocolatey, gooey, frosted brownies frequently too!













7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to seeing my son Skyler who is coming home from Houston unexpectedly!!!! (I am soooooooo excited!!!), tomorrow my plans include more training for the Ragnar (I have to get in three runs again, including one at night!), organizing (I LOVE to organize stuff!), and laundry, laundry, laundry! (bleh- I do NOT love that!), and Sunday, I want to attend church with my whole fam since Sky will be here until Monday, have a nice dinner, and visit the fam!
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

*Wordless Wednesday*












"And thus dear students we have arrived at the formula for understanding women."
































Chocolate! It's not just for breakfast anymore!



















Monday, May 24, 2010

~♥~Cherish The Moments~♥~

~~~I received this in an email and thought it was a great reminder for all of us so I wanted to share.~~~


"Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family." ~Barbara Bush


Your Keepers

By Author Unknown

I grew up in the fifties with practical parents- a Mother, God love her, who washed aluminium foil after she cooked in it, then reused it. She was the original recycle queen, before they had a name for it. A Father who was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying new ones.


Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mom in a housedress, lawn mower in one hand, dishtowel in the other.


It was the time for fixing things - a curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. Things we keep. It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, reheating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful; waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there'd always be more.


But then my Mother died, and on that clear summer's night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any more.


Sometimes, what we care about most goes away... never to return.


So, while we have it, it's best we love it, and care for it; fix it when it's broken, and heal it when it's sick. This is true for marriage, old radios, and old cars, children with bad report cards, and dogs with bad hips, and aging parents, and grandparents.



~~~There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special, so keep them close! ~~~



QUOTES:

Before someone's tomorrow has been taken away, cherish those you love, appreciate them today.

Michelle C. Ustaszeski


One can never pay in gratitude: one can only pay 'in kind' somewhere else in life.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh


Never take anything for granted.

Benjamin Disraeli


I would rather be able to appreciate things I cannot have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.

Elbert Hubbard


Appreciation can make a day - even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.

Margaret Cousins


Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find somebody's hand and squeeze it... while there is still time.

Dale Dauten


We do not care of what we have, but we cry when it is lost.

Russian Proverb



You may also enjoy quote of the day.


Friday, May 21, 2010

~~~FRIDAY MEMES~~~

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Food 4 Thought Friday


A little feast without the calories!!!

Feel free to play along for some yummy fun! I will post a new one each Thursday night for those that are on a different time zone. JOIN IN!!!

Food 4 Thought Friday ~ This week's questions:
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Breakfast You're about to walk the green mile, what do you have as your last meal?

Lunch
If you HAD to change your name, what would you change it to?

Dinner
What would be your dream job?

Midnight Snack
What is your favorite video/computer game?


Recipe of the Week
(instead of your recipe for life, what is it just for this week?)

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

My Answers:

Breakfast You're about to walk the green mile, what do you have as your last meal? Lasagna, green salad with Ranch dressing, French styly green beans with toasted almonds, garlic bread, Lime Rickey, and Carraba's Chocolate Dream Cake. I might eat the dessert first just in case!









Lunch
If you HAD to change your name, what would you change it to?If I HAD to change it then I would change it to Violet. That was my Great Grandma's name and it fits me so well don't ya think?!!! =) When I was younger I always pretended it was Candance Ann White. Then later I wanted it to be Windy or Kellee. I even tried to change it in second grade to Mae (my middle name) until my teacher got angry at me in front of the class. She said, "Who on earth is Mae? We have no Mae in this class!". In high school I almost changed the spelling of my name to JoDee.





Dinner
What would be your dream job? Anything where I get to work with people or animals. I wouldn't mind computer work either. I don't want to clock in and I want to be my own boss.









Midnight Snack
What is your favorite video/computer game?
Probably Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. I rarely play it anymore but it is fun and challenging.








Recipe of the Week
(instead of your recipe for life, what is it just for this week?) Take advice from others if you feel it is right for you, otherwise let it go.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

ffi

1. Warm rainy days never fail to make me smile.♥♥♥

2. I'm looking forward to getting out and running some errands today!

3. The birds chirping outside and the dryer is what I'm listening to right now.

4. Potato salad must have lots of magic in it! (That has got to be the most random Friday Fill-in I've heard so far...)

5. My Mimi Cafe leftover turkey dinner from yesterday's lunch was the best thing I ate today. Oh and let's not forget the brownie I had for breakfast!

6. Today was busy so far, but still young!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to attending the temple and then dinner with friends, tomorrow my plans include getting in three training runs for Ragnar (morning, afternoon, and in the dark!) without causing my death, cleaning, and who knows? and Sunday, I want to do a good job on my lesson, attend my meetings, and chillax for a bit!
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥


Monday, May 17, 2010

Keep Calm and Carry On

Perhaps you've heard about the “Keep Calm and Carry On” posters from London. The history is fascinating:

During the Spring of 1939 when the war with Germany was almost inevitable, the British Government's Ministry of Information commissioned a number of bright red posters to be displayed throughout the country upon the outbreak of war. The plan for the posters was to relay a message from King George VI to his people that all capable measures to defend the country were being taken. Using the crown of King George VI as the only graphic element, it read simply “Keep Calm and Carry On.”

Although some of the posters did make it to walls, the poster was never officially issued and so remained almost unseen by the general public. That is, until a copy turned up recently within a box of dusty books purchased from auction. With the current difficult economic times and world turmoil, they are now being produced and have become popular in England.





















It's kind of catchy don't ya think? And also a GREAT mantra for most all days.

Keep Calm... (okay, at least I will keep telling myself that...)

and

Carry On! (how hard can it be ~ right?...RIGHT?)




For some reason it seems to make a much bigger impact in PURPLE!
















If that doesn't do it for you, maybe these will:




























































My personal favorite:
















How can you NOT be calm when you are having a cupcake? Seriously...
Unless, of course, it's chocolate and you are having it with a child who is leaving a trail of crumbs everywhere and then, of course, stepping on the moist and gooey fragments as they smoosh them into your lovely white carpet. "Keep Calm and Carry Out the Vacuum...again". *sigh*


Friday, May 14, 2010

~~~FRIDAY MEMES~~~

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Food 4 Thought Friday


A little feast without the calories!!!

Feel free to play along for some yummy fun! I will post a new one each Thursday night for those that are on a different time zone. JOIN IN!!!

Food 4 Thought Friday ~ This week's questions:


♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Breakfast What did you do this week that you were dreading?

Lunch What did you do this week that you felt good about?

Dinner
What did you not do this week that you feel bad about?

Midnight Snack What was your favorite part of this week?

Recipe of the Week (instead of your recipe for life, what is it just for this week?)
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

MY ANSWERS

Breakfast What did you do this week that you were dreading? Running hill repeats for the first time this training session. I made it up to 5 repeats! Killer!

Lunch What did you do this week that you felt good about? Started back at the gym in the wee hours of the morning to attend my strength training class! It's been months since I attended. I also got my linen closet cleaned and re-organized all the meds we have (we have a LOT of sample meds and it takes mucho time to keep it organized!)

Dinner
What did you not do this week that you feel bad about? I didn't get the homemade bread made I have been wanting to do. I didn't get in the service I wanted to. I didn't get my house cleaned. I didn't get the pix up in my boy's room yet. I could seriously keep going for another three pages...ugh!

Midnight Snack What was your favorite part of this week? Surviving! I also loved being out shopping and having it start to rain and thunder while I sat in my car. ♥LOVE the rain!!!♥

Recipe of the Week (instead of your recipe for life, what is it just for this week?) It will all work out! Somehow, someway, it will if we are just patient and trust in the Lord.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

ffi
1. I just had a pot roast dinner at the Idle Isle Cafe. Yum- Yum!

2. It is what it is.

3. The third sentence on the 7th page of the book I'm reading: "And it came to pass that I Nephi, said unto my Father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commanded them."

4. Chocolate tickles my fancy.

5. I was walking when I should have been running.

6. McKay makes me laugh!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to attending a viewing (not exactly looking forward to 'that', just to be able to give my friend a hug), going out to dinner with Dave, maybe watch a movie, tomorrow my plans include getting in my long run- I have to break it up in two sessions to train for the relay, attending a funeral, cleaning!- ugh!, and wishing I was running the Ogden Marathon (it was sold out in January =( and so I couldn't get in ) and Sunday, I want to attend church, attend two meetings, hopefully make a great dinner and relax some!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥



Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Wordless Wednesday

My son Taylor (on right) and my 6th son Tyler (on left) ALWAYS looking for food!













Told ya...

One in the pantry and one in the fridge.













PS They need to rename this "Almost Wordless Wednesday" because I always have to say a few words! lol

Monday, May 10, 2010

L O V E / H A T E Relationship
















Happy Mother's Day to all us mom's who should have been air traffic controllers for grounding so often!!!


I absolutely LOVE being a mother!!! It is my passion! It is what I am and how I define myself. It is what I have always wanted to be and what I have devoted my life to. I have tried to be an advocate for mother's everywhere with my deep involvement in American Mother's Inc. for the past 19 years because I know how hard this job is and I want to provide strength and support to help mothers everywhere, BUT...

I admit I have a love/hate relationship with Mother's Day.

I love it because I am pretty much given the day off as far as fixing meals and cleaning.



I also love the wonderful cards and written messages I receive from my boys and Dave. I am a sucker for a card or letter. Words of affirmation is my love language. Those mean more to me than all of the chocolate or flowers in the world. I will always treasure the ones my boys made with their little hands when they were young, but now that they are growing up, the things they write to me mean so much and usually start the waterworks.


I love they way my boys used to make me breakfast in bed when they were little all by themselves. I love the way they now help Dave prepare a nice meal for me (usually a full blown turkey feast because that's my fave!) and how they take care of all the dishes.



I love the purple rose corsage Dave gives me each year with five purple roses representing each one of my boys.

I love the church talks that inspire me want to be a better mother without producing guilt. Those are often very hard to find on Mother's Day.


I love the bouquet of some kind of purple flowers Dave gives me. And I love that the lilacs are usually out in full bloom.
But I mostly love the dandelion bouquets I received when my boys were little.


I love the Idle Isle nut balls and chocolate covered almonds I get every year.


I love the other surprises I get that are different each year.


I love getting phone calls from Skyler if he isn't able to be here on Mother's Day because he is off working in some distant state. This year he is working in Texas for the summer and called me on his way to Texas this afternoon to wish me a Happy Mother's Day. I remember when he called home while serving a two year mission for our church and those were the greatest Mother's Day eva!



I love that I still have my own mother with me when so many of my friends no longer do. I am so grateful to her for all she has done for me and my family. I don't know what I would do without her! I am also so grateful for Dave's mom. She has taught me so many wonderful and valuable things that I will be forever grateful for!

I love standing up in church to receive a flower or plant in honor of Mother's Day. Well, I love the idea. Kind of. I would love it more if they gave out chocolate or something other than a plant that will eventually die under my care. I only love this tradition when they announce for ALL women to stand because all women are mothers in some way.

Most of all I LOVE the fact that I am the mother of the four most incredible sons on the planet...and one in heaven. I would do anything for those boys. I love them dearly. They are the most important thing in my world and I feel so blessed and honored that they call me Mom.




I decided hate is really too strong a word here so I will use "don't love".




I don't love the high expectations I have of this day.

I don't love thinking that I should be treated like a Queen in EVERY way on this one day a year. Hasn't happened yet, and it probably never will. I am not a Queen...I am a MOTHER and mother's must still mother and take care of all the little things that only a mother really can do. Thankfully, my expectations have come way down now. I am speaking mainly here of the drudgery side of motherhood. I never want a day off of the nurturing part.

I don't love that my boys aren't actually perfect angels for the entire 24 hour period and STILL rough house and wrestle on this day. You can often hear me say, "Can't you NOT wrestle (or punch or hit) for just ONE day?" That is usually after something has been broken. I have finally learned to appreciate the fact that they are usually doing it in fun and playing, not in anger or fighting and for that I am very grateful.


I don't love the way some most of the Mother's Day talks in church make me feel like the worst mother on the planet. In his book "All Moms Go to Heaven," Dean Hughes declares that instead of giving mothers flowers in church, we should give out solid chocolate statues of the mythical Ideal Mother so we can all bite her head off.

I don't love hearing about how other mother's are perfect when I know I am so not.

I don't love the fact that I compare my greatest weaknesses with other mothers greatest strengths so much more so on this day.



I don't love feeling judgmental against other mothers on this day...especially myself.

I don't love the fact that many women are feeling heartbroken on this day because they were not able to be a mother or they are mourning the loss of a child due to death or to them taking another path, or they are missing their own mother.

I don't love how much this day makes me miss my dear sweet Tyson and that I can't hug him or hear him tell me Happy Mother's Day.




I don't love the way we mother's are so hard on ourselves 356 days of the year anyway, but on Mother's Day we beat ourselves up even more.



Bottom line is Mother's Day is a great day set aside to honor our mothers. It is even a greater day when I can keep it all in perspective and just let it be what it is meant to be: A day to honor, thank, and pay tribute to that woman who sacrificed even her very life to bring us into the world. Thanks Mom! It's also a day to evaluate in a good way how we are doing as mothers and where we could use some improvement. The older I get the less I "don't love" it. Motherhood is the greatest and most noble calling and profession in this world and it does deserve a day set aside so we can all stop and really think about our mothers and how much we appreciate and love them.
But...
Wouldn't it be even better if we did that every single day instead of only just once a year?

“When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses? ~Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Sidenote:


I got a rather large surprise on Mother's Day this year. As I walked into church I learned my son Bryce was one of the main speakers for our sacrament meeting program. Him and his dad purposely kept it from me in order to surprise me I guess. I must say I was not prepared for what he said. He gave me the most amazing tribute a mother could ever ask for. He talked about so many of the things I did as a mom when he was much younger that I didn't even think he remembered, let alone had an impact on him. I was most amazed that he said that all the summer skill sessions I did in order to teach them life skills helped him so much. I was most grateful that our "kid dates" were as important to him as they were to me. Something I may have never known had he not given this talk. He also mentioned when him and his friends came over for lunch and how I made a big meal including side dishes and dessert. Isn't that what all mom's do? His whole talk was on how grateful he was for all I did for him as he gave example after example of things I had done. I have to admit it was rather embarrassing for me to be talked about like that in front of 300 other people! There was a time or two I wanted to crawl under the benches because he was going on and on about so many things that I felt like was attending my own funeral! It was one of those Mother's Day talks that I usually hate when it's anyone but my son giving it because those are the ones that always make me feel so inadequate. I have a whole new perspective on them now. If they are being given about you, it's extremely humbling and embarrassing! At least he teasingly said, "Okay, now I will read some quotes so all you other mothers out there will stop being jealous that you aren't as great as my Mom." He had me either laughing or crying. I was loving what he said because it meant so much to me that it meant so much to him. I just would have preferred the accolades in a more private setting. Especially when I had several people after tell me teasingly they wanted my autograph or felt like they should bow down to me. Ha ha. Hey, maybe I could make that Queen for a Day thing work after all. Most of the people told me how sweet and tender it was and what a wonderful talk he gave.
Motherhood is hard and he made me feel for a moment that what I tried so hard to do was maybe worth it after all and that maybe I wasn't the failure I sometimes thought I was. I think I needed that.
Thanks Bryce. You are an amazing son and I am honored to be your mother. Even if you did accidentally say in your talk, "My mother is extremely selfish", instead of "selfless". That's okay, maybe it was a Freudian slip. But it sure gave your brother McKay some serious comic relief for about 5 minutes. He could NOT stop laughing after you said that. He was laughing so hard he had tears streaming down his face.

My only wish now is that I can somehow live up to your tribute. I will try, I promise. Thank you for being my son and letting me be your mother. I am so grateful it was me who got to raise you, even if I did it imperfectly.

♥ I LOVE YOU BRYCE ...and SKYLER, TYSON, TAYLOR, and McKAY!!!♥


Photos from Mother's Day 2010
Me and my boys Taylor, Bryce, and McKay. Skyler was in Texas.

















Me and my man



























Boys playing football in Sunday clothes. Hmm....









At my Mom's house. The baby is Mya - my cousin Britt's cute baby!

Having fun with my Mom's funky dance costumes! My Mom is the coolest. She is taking tap dance lessons and is a group of women that go around and perform! I hope I am as spry as she is when I am her age! Go Mom!!!










Visit to Dave's parent's house








Happy Mother's Day to you all!




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