As I See It

Each life that touches ours for good . . .

2012-02-06T21:41:00.001-07:00

I found out last Monday night that my bishopric is going to be released this coming Sunday. I must admit that I was sad to hear it.

It’s taken me a little while, but I have truly come to love and respect the three men called to lead our ward flock. My bishop is hilarious, and the other two counselors are right with him. I’ve worked closely with one of them for my Temple Committee calling, and it’s been a great experience. They are truly men of God, and I appreciate their service. It took me awhile to figure out just how much I love my ward, but now that I have, I’m sad to see a major change.

Once again as I did when I moved a year and a half ago (when my last bishopric was released), I wish these men the best as they move on to something new in their lives . . . and get used to being in a family ward once again. I suppose it could be a hard transition, but I’m sure they’ll do great.

My heart was truly touched last week at home evening when the bishop broke down in tears telling us he would be released. I could feel the love he has for all of us, and that made me realize that a lot of that love is coming straight from Heavenly Father. It was a humbling thought.

As I’ve contemplated this change, it’s made me reflect on people who have touched my life in various and sometimes unexpected ways. Some things become even more meaningful with the passage of time, even if they meant at lot when they happened.

I had the opportunity to get together with friends from one of my old wards this weekend, and I spent time talking to one of them about many of the ward members whom I’ve lost contact with but still care about. Again, I thought of how these people have all had an effect on my life and how I’m sad they’re no longer a direct part of it, but I’m grateful for the time I had with them.

I’m sorry to wax philosophical and perhaps a bit sad in this entry. It’s just confirmed to me, once again, that nobody is an island, and our lives touch others in so many ways, sometimes in ways we can’t even see until much later. So to those who’ve played key roles in my life (even if you don’t know it), I thank you and hope I’ve been able to touch your life as much.

Do you believe it or not?

2012-01-29T22:20:00.001-07:00

Wow! Sorry about the hiatus I’ve taken during the month of January. It’s gone by fast, and I must confess my days have been very busy, so busy that I’ve pretty much avoided any January blues. Yay!

A few years ago I was listening to a talk given by Sheri Dew. She was sharing a story about how her brother passed away unexpectedly at a young age. Of course these things are always tragic for those left behind, but the question she found herself asking was, “Well, Sheri, do you believe it or not?”

She was referring to the Plan of Happiness and all it entailed about life after death, etc. The thought has stuck with me in the years since then. It’s not only because I’ve had my own experience of losing someone I loved at a tragically young age but because the principle applies to so many other things in life.

I’ve specifically been thinking of blessings that I’ve been promised that haven’t come to pass yet. In those dark moments of doubt when I feel like throwing my hands into the air out of sheer frustration, I find myself asking, “Well, Tammy, do you believe it or not?”

Inevitably this causes me to take a step back and think carefully about the situation. In the end, it boils down to having faith in what Heavenly Father has promised me. Am I truly going to let myself doubt that?

Nope. Not a chance.

He will never break His end of a promise to me, as long as I’m fulfilling my end of it too. That means I have to do everything in my power to bring it to pass, knowing that it’ll happen when the time is right. It is a matter of faith. It is a matter of trusting in something I cannot see and which is out of my control. I personally don’t want to be caught in the trap of doubting when I should be trusting. I know it’s easier said than done, but in reality that’s what it comes down to.

Having this perspective has brought me a lot of peace in the last few months and has helped me find a strength I didn’t know I possessed. So, I will persist in doing everything I can and moving forward with faith, knowing that God will never go back on His promises.

Beware Chucky!

2012-01-11T22:13:00.001-07:00

Once upon a time Miss Sassypants came to my parents’ house to stay overnight. In the room where she was supposed to stay she discovered something she didn’t like. She moved the “creepy doll” as she called him to the other side of the room.

And thus began a joke she couldn’t have anticipated.

As a side note, this doll doesn’t actually belong at my parents’ house; he was supposed to go home some time ago, but never did, so really his true owner brought the joke on herself. And there’s a very simple way to fix it.

When I came home last year, it started becoming a joke between my dad and me to hide the doll in random places for the other to find. It started small and has grown since then. Oh, and the doll gained a name too, Chucky.

When I went home for Christmas this time, the Chucky hiding reached to a new level. It all started when I came into my room on Christmas Day and found Chucky and the brand new doll my mom bought for the kids, Big Baby, in my bed. I wish I would’ve taken a picture, but I forgot.

It continued throughout the week. On Monday, Chucky took a nap with my dad.

On Tuesday, he was waiting in the van when my dad left to go work in the temple at 4:30 a.m . . . that one was probably my favorite. Then when I got back from Zumba on Thursday night, I discovered Chucky had tried to stow away in my gym bag!

Then he did the unforgivable!

He stole my poor frog! And the whole night I just thought he had fallen off the bed somewhere. Silly me!

Chucky decided to try out Dad’s breathing machine and to wear his pajama bottoms.

Unfortunately this poor creepy doll has now lost one of his hands. So, we decided to help him get a replacement one.

One of the funniest parts of this whole story? A very sweet someone took a liking to the doll and started hauling him around with her new friend, Big Baby. The way she says his name is just darling too, “Chu-chee.” It made me almost be okay with holding him while we played games.

Aren’t dads great? I sure think so.

Something that makes me feel hopeful

2012-01-08T20:26:00.001-07:00

We have all heard plenty about the obesity epidemic in the United States. All you have to do is look around in a public place to see why it’s a valid concern. It’s everywhere.

However, I saw something the other day that made me feel more hopeful on this front . . . and made me determined to teach my future children when such day comes that I have them.

I was at the gym working out the other night. This is something I value and am trying hard to make a priority because I know how important it is.

Anyway, I watched as three different families came into the gym. Two men were definitely brothers and looked similar enough they could’ve even been twins. I loved seeing the dads go over to the treadmills to take a run, while their boys (who looked to be teenagers) went over and started playing basketball.

Another mom and dad were diligently walking around the walking track and when they finished, I saw all three of their kids come over, having been exercising while their parents walked. And then they left together.

It made me so happy to see these parents not only exercising themselves but also teaching it to their children. I hope they realize at some point how invaluable this is to them. It’s amazing how the things we learn as children stay with us when we become adults.

I’m not being idealistic; I know that a few families exercising at the gym won’t fix the obesity problem. But for every one person who understands living an active life, it’s one less person who will struggle with this problem . . . and can hopefully pass it on.

Isn’t that something to feel happy about? I sure think so.

Happy 2012: Here’s to a great year!

2012-01-01T22:15:00.001-07:00

With the turn of the clock last night we bid farewell to 2011 and rang in 2012.

Honestly, it’s really just another day, but at the same time it’s not. A new year is a chance to set new goals, to make positive changes and to work on becoming. I know that’s something we all should be doing anyway and yet somehow don’t.

I am one of those who likes to try hard to make positive changes when a new year comes along. Sometimes I’m successful at accomplishing them and sometimes I’m not. In 2010 I did very well, but in 2011 . . . not so much. I know what I need to do, but I just need a little push to help me actually do it. I consider this to be my chance.

Instead of making a list of goals for this year, I’m going to try something new. It’s more of an overall approach to life that I’d like to put into effect.

This morning I was working on some projects for my mom and ended up watching the Mormon Times program on KSL. They quoted a scripture in 1 Peter that talked about loving life and seeking good days. Then they talked to author Emily Freeman who recently released a book by the same title. I’m very interested in reading her book now, and I think it might help me live my goal. The main point of the segment, which really struck me, is about living with hope and changing your perspective to be able to live with joy. Here’s the link, if you’d like to watch it. It’s Segment 1.

This is something that I’ve been trying to already, but what I decided as I listened to this segment is that I need to try harder. I’m going to work to live with hope for those blessings I still want and don’t yet have, to find happiness and joy in daily living.

I don’t expect that applying this approach will mean that I won’t have bad days or won’t still find myself complaining more often than I’d like, but I’m sure going to try. The main point is to live with hope.

Wish me luck as I take flight on making this the best year of my life. Yes, I know it’s cheesy, but I really believe I can do it.

Isn’t is amazing what just a change on a calendar can do?

Best “poo” I ever tasted ;)

2011-12-28T18:28:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite holiday traditions (and favorite treats too) is making fudge with my mom and sister-in-law. You may think I’m just saying it, but I promise I’m not: my mom’s fudge is the best! It takes a long time (about an hour and a half) to make, and a whole lot of work, but man is the finished product worth it.

My mom was dismayed when she made a batch of fudge a couple weeks ago to discover her candy thermometer (which is about 25 years old, PSBTW) does not work properly anymore and would have to be retired. She bought a new one but hasn’t been brave or ambitious enough to try it out . . . until today.

While the rest of us played a rousing game of Aggravation (which my nephew and I won twice in a row –wahoo!), my mother stirred a batch of fudge together. As it got closer and closer to the point where it had to come out of the pan and be worked with our hands, we all ran over to the sink to wash our hands and butter them up so we could help out.

The new thermometer helped, but the fudge still didn’t quite turn out how we expected. It tastes fantastic but didn’t set up correctly. Sometimes that happens, even though my mom is ever so careful as she makes it. We’re going to leave it be for a few days and hope for the best.

The best part of the experience, however, was my darling two-year-old niece’s comment about the fudge as my mom finished stirring it on the plate. “Ewwwww!” she exclaimed. “That looks like poo!”

Yes, she’s my brother’s daughter all right.

She’s at the age where she says many things that are cute. I’d love to write about all of them, but that’s not the point of the post. But, gosh dang it, we all started laughing hysterically at this comment. We couldn’t help ourselves. And she isn’t necessarily wrong, although I can’t stand to even think about my mom’s delicious fudge being compared to something so yucky!

Here we are working it and hoping it turns out just right.

Just look at what a mess it left on our hands!

Trust me when I say it’s very much worth the effort we put into it. The finished product speaks for itself, even if the analogy leaves something to be desired. Ahh the honestly of children. You’ve got to love them.

Images of Christmas Day 2011

2011-12-27T23:15:00.001-07:00

Once again it was a fantastic Christmas spent gathered with my family. Although I have to be honest and admit that Christmas Day on Sunday is not usually my favorite, this year I found it to be quite nice. Having our church service, which brought the real reason for the holiday front and center, was a nice touch. It meant that finishing up our actual Christmas Day was stretched out far longer than normal, but it turned out to be just fine.

This year I started out a little differently. On my way home I stopped in Logan to visit my siblings there and to celebrate Christmas with them since it appears they won’t be able to make it to my parents’ house once again this year. I don’t like it, but it’s not unexpected.

Christmas Eve fun at my parents’ house. How cute is Santa dog? Dot, the beagle, wasn’t so keen on the costume and had it off in about 30 seconds.

Christmas Day fun. We started off opening our stockings and making donuts. I don’t have so many pictures of that I’m afraid because I was too busy enjoying the day.

For the third year in a row, someone got tired and fell asleep right as we opened the presents under the tree. This year instead of falling asleep on her mommy though, she crawled up and fell asleep on me. So sweet!

Reading about one of the best characters EVER in children’s lit: the Pigeon books by Mo Willems. I can’t read them now without thinking of Miss Sassypants, but that doesn’t make me enjoy them any less.

Check out KK’s beautiful new dress, and big sister looks beautiful in her new outfit too.

Finally, my personal favorite gift, talking bobble heads of Sean and Gus from Psych. Thanks to the Bibliophile who sent them to me. I laughed so hard when I opened them up, and I was really glad I waited until Christmas to find out what they were since they arrived early.

My new tool/toy

2011-12-20T21:42:00.001-07:00

Remember how I posted back in November about wanting a smart phone? I was very torn about it at the time, wanting it, seeing the potential benefits and yet not quite ready to commit.

After an interesting conversation with my brother and several experiences involving getting lost, I finally bent to the pressure. I’m happy to admit that I finally caved a week ago, and I’m now the happy owner of my very own iPhone. Yippee!!

I’m familiar with the general format of the phone, since I already own an iTouch, and it operates in much the same way. I figured that I was going to enjoy the phone, but I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I do.

Every day it seems I discover something else the phone can do that is so fantastic! I love having access to my email all the time, I love texting, I love the schedule and reminders, and although I haven’t used it yet, I’m sure I’ll love the alarm clock when I use it.

One of the major reasons I wanted my phone was for the GPS feature. I haven’t had to search for directions yet, but I know that whenever I do, it will come in handy.

In the meantime, I’m doing my best to not be obsessed with it, but it’s really hard! It’s a great tool . . . as well as a fabulous toy. The camera is really nifty too.

Maybe I’m not such a black thumb after all . . .

2011-12-20T21:26:00.001-07:00

A few months ago when I went on a work trip to Idaho with my supervisor, we met the most amazing plant lady. She runs a shop filled with plants, and I couldn’t believe how alive the air in her shop felt, which I know sounds cheesy, but it’s true. As I researched the script on her company, I discovered the reasons why.

It’s because of the amazing affect plants can have on the air. Did you know they can detoxify the air better than an air filter? This lady does these amazing things called a living wall, which is a wall made out of plants. It’s super cool! I could put some of the facts here, but that isn’t the point of this post, so I’ll skip the stats.

Anyway, as a gift because we connected with this lady so well, she gave us both orchids. I wasn’t sure how in the world I could get my orchid home so I temporarily gifted it to my sister who then brought it back to me when we went to Yellowstone.

It sat on the table in the house for about three months until one day it was unceremoniously deposited in my room. This means it was no longer okay for it to live on the table. * Sigh * I can’t say I’m completely surprised, but oh well.

This turned out to be a good thing though.

At the time it was brought up to my room, I was seriously worried that I was killing my plant because it just didn’t look good, even though I was following the plant lady’s instructions on how to care for it.

I’ve continued to care for it in the best way I can, and just a couple weeks ago I discovered my efforts are being rewarded. Look!

I was so worried that I secretly have a black thumb, but maybe it’s okay after all. Yay!

It matters, Tammy, much more than you think

2011-12-12T22:57:00.001-07:00

Greetings readers who still check out my blog. December has been a busy month so far, and I haven’t had time to write in here as I would’ve liked, but oh well.

I had an experience in the last week that I really wanted to share so here goes. I discovered shortly after receiving my calling as the Temple Co-chair for my ward last summer that it involved something else important I hadn’t been told about, that is Family History.

I haven’t been too sure what to do with this part of my calling but at ward council a couple months ago, they told me it was time to start teaching the family history class during Sunday School . . . in only two weeks!

Yeah, that kind of panicked me out, especially when I realized it was a week I wasn’t going to be in church.

Luckily, blessedly, it got pushed back a few weeks until after Thanksgiving, meaning I started teaching it a week ago. I was nervous to be teaching the class because it’s not a subject I consider myself to be well versed in. But, the manual is well organized and comes complete with DVD segments to supplement the lesson.

I carefully prepared that first week and rushed off to church a little early for tithing settlement, hoping all would be well with class. I was dismayed when I came to my room after Sacrament meeting and discovered the small classroom empty. One of the guys in my ward not only helped me bring the top-heavy TV into the room but also recruited some other class members to come.

So, it was me teaching a class of five men. Yeah, I know.

A very touching thing happened as I taught this lesson. One of the class members is very interested in family history and has been working on it since he was a teenager. He shared an experience during the lesson that brought tears to his eyes, and a strong spirit to the class. I could tell just how much it meant to him, and I hoped the rest of the class was as touched as I was.

As I’ve thought about this experience through the past week, I’ve realized why it struck me so much. It’s because this work matters. It matters more than most of the things I do. It matters more than the time I spend reading, texting, Facebooking, writing in my blog, running around, or even some of the many other activities I do. It matters because it’s one of the three-fold missions of the church. And I’ve been called to get my peers excited and prepared to do the work themselves, as well as myself.

So, this class I was so nervous to teach has become real to me, helping me to better understand exactly why this work is so important. All I am is the mouthpiece, but it helps when I have a strong belief in what it is I’m doing.

The dark side

2011-12-03T17:56:00.001-07:00

Today I read a blog post that I’ve been thinking about all day. It was talking about this person’s experience with a friend of his, a girl whom he’d always considered to be a kind sort of person, until she did something that showed a mean streak underneath the kind exterior. His point in posting was not to point fingers or condemn her, but just to talk about the fact that most people have said mean streak underneath the seemingly happy disposition.

I’ve been thinking about this post ever since I read it this afternoon. I suppose it struck me because in some ways it reminds me of me.

I am what most people would consider a kind person with a sunny disposition. But I also know that like this girl spoken about in the post, I do have a mean streak. I try really hard to repress it and not let it rule my life, but it somehow it still comes out, in ways that I don’t like. I behave just like the girl he talked about in the post.

I wish that I didn’t have this dark side of my personality, and I wish it didn’t come out as frequently as it does. Or the thing that seems to draw it out is situations where I get frustrated and/or upset about something and then talk to everyone else about it but the person who upset me. Yes, I know it’s passive aggressive and, yes, I know it’s extremely poor communication.

I’ve been trying hard to work on it for the last year and feel I’ve made some progress but not enough to fix the problem. * Sigh *

I suppose that means I’m just going to have to try harder to get rid of this dark side of my personality, most likely through better and more open communication.

A Festive Experience

2011-11-29T23:22:00.001-07:00

One of my most favorite holiday traditions is attending the Festival of Trees each year, usually the first weekend in December. It’s a great way to kick off the holiday season, and to support an important cause.

Because I love it so much, because I feel so strongly about Primary Children’s Medical Center (which the festival raises money for) and because I wanted to honor my niece, this year I decided to decorate a tree of my own in her honor. My theme is “Angels for Ashley.”

This is an idea I’ve tossed around for several years now, but it wasn’t until this year that I was able to make it a reality. I started gathering my items last Christmas, not sure exactly what I was doing but excited to do it nevertheless.

It wasn’t until last weekend that my vision became a reality. I took this

and with help from my fabulous family, I turned it into this:

It took a lot of work, plenty of hands and not a few ornaments to make it so. It also included a wild goose chase all over town last weekend to find the perfect tree skirt, only to use a fleece instead, but it’s all right. This is what the spread looked like as we prepared to place it on the tree.

My faithful decorating team in the act.

I couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out. Here are a few close ups.

Finally, here it is all set up at the festival. It was auctioned off tonight, and as far as I know, it sold. I’m curious to find out how much it sold for. We’ll see.

Even kitty likes my tree.

I hope our beautiful angel likes it too and that she knows I did it in her honor. I still love and miss her very much.

Why I have the bestest little brother ever

2011-11-26T22:38:00.001-07:00

Today I had just finished Zumba class at the gym with my two sisters and happened to check my phone. I noticed my younger brother had sent me text telling me he’d just posted something on our family Facebook wall that I would like so I should check it out.

Of course I was intrigued, but, alas, I could do nothing about it since I do not yet have my smart phone. Curse the fact I don’t yet have my iPhone! It’s in the cards, but I just haven’t been able to do it yet. My sisters were just as intrigued as I was to know what he had posted, but they don’t have smart phones either.

So we did the next best thing: we called someone who could log into Facebook and check it out for us. No, it wasn’t any huge life announcements, just a funny video. It’s from what is apparently now a “vintage” Disney cartoon. We’ve talked about it before with fondness and his link allowed me to watch it.

I’m so happy about this that I have to post it so you all can enjoy it too:

A classic Disney cartoon for you to enjoy, courtesy of YouTube

Isn’t my brother grand? I sure think so.

I’m so thankful for

2011-11-24T17:57:00.001-07:00

The day is not yet over, but with the meal completed and cleaned up, Thanksgiving is quickly winding to a close. It’s been a wonderful day, and I would be remiss if I didn’t post a little something not only about the day but about gratitude.

Gratitude is something I’ve been trying very hard to work on lately. Well, on feeling it more, that is. I have so many blessings in my life, and it frustrates me that I feel like I sometimes spend too much time wanting or wishing for things I don’t have. I’ve been trying to make it a focus to be more grateful for all I have, and I think it’s helping me to feel happier.

Today, I’m going to say my gratitude for just one small thing and then I’ll post a few pictures from today. I’m so very grateful for the written word. I’ve been addicted to it ever since I learned how to read at the age of 5 or 6, I can’t remember which.

This weekend I’ve watching someone who is learning to enjoy the written word too, my beautiful little Bumblebee. Of course the Diva loves to read to me too.

Here’s a few pictures from our meal today.

Fun people pictures because when it comes down to it, people are the most important thing anyway. And we all know how much I love to post pictures in my blog.

Finally, cute couple pictures.

Do I have to go to bed, really?

2011-11-18T23:16:00.001-07:00

Tonight, my cousin had her nephews over for a sleepover. They are darling little boys and so well behaved too. It was an enjoyable evening hanging out with these sweet kids . . . and then it was bedtime.

I’d gone upstairs for a few minutes, not able to take another episode of Sonic, the Hedgehog. I came back downstairs to see the boys all ready for bed and so I started teasing them about how going to bed was no fun. The 6-year-old looked at me and said, “I absolutely agree!”

My cousin cautioned me not to encourage them in this desire to do anything but go to bed, and I laughed. I am a bad influence that way.

It’s probably because I think deep down inside, I hate going to bed myself.

Don’t get me wrong — I enjoy sleep as much as the next person and getting enough to feel refreshed for the next day. In fact, sometimes actually going to sleep is my favorite part of the day. It’s just the actual going to bed that’s difficult for me.

I’m just no good at it.

Even knowing that I have to get up early for work (and with the commute time every morning, I really do have to get up or I’ll be late, and I hate that) is not always enough to motivate me to go to bed at a reasonable hour. I’m really talented at finding all kinds of excuses to keep myself up, from looking at blogs, to working on some project to reading. I keep thinking I’m old enough to have grown out of the habit of reading until way too late at night, until I do it again and have no sympathy for myself when I’m tired the next day.

So, I sigh and recommit myself to going to bed at a reasonable hour, even knowing it’s a bit of a futile exercise since I’m just not good at putting myself to bed, even when I’m really tired.

Maybe deep down inside I’m just a little kid protesting at the idea of being put to bed, but I’m just going to have to find a way to get over that or spend my life tired from lack of sleep. Since that’s the case more often than not, I think I’m already halfway there, so it’s all good. I decided a long time ago that if I ever wake up and am not tired, I’ll know that I’m dead. If I’m dead, I won’t be waking up anyway, so I suppose it’s a moot point.

In the meantime, I’ll continue finding ways to motivate myself to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Any suggestions?

Just a boy and his hound dog

2011-11-13T21:07:00.001-07:00

Once upon a time there was a darling dog who found a happy home with two owners who loved her very much. Dot, a beagle puppy, was happy in her new home, with plenty of things to sniff, a nice yard to run around in and a fence she learned to jump in order to greet her owners personally when they got home. (This problem was fixed shortly after her owners discovered it.)

Like most puppies, she had plenty of energy, much of which she used to chew things up. But all she had to do to fix it was look at her owners with those liquid brown eyes, tilting her head to the side, and all was forgiven.

Although Dot loved her owners, her favorite thing in the world was when their grandchildren came to visit, any of the 12. She LOVED running around with them and how excited they always were to see her, especially one named Starshine.

Being that both were ADHD, Starshine and Dog understood one another. She enjoyed play time with this energetic grandson and followed him around the house.

Even with her boundless puppy energy, after a day of playing with Starshine, Dot would get worn out at night. That’s when cute things like this happened.

And although Dot was sad to see Starshine leave her house earlier today, She was also a little relieved to rest so she could regain her energy.

Then she lay dreaming of all the fun she’d have when Starshine came to visit again. Just a boy and his hound dog.

Can I please have a smart phone now, pretty please?

2011-11-06T22:18:00.001-07:00

I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a smart phone for months now. I almost did it back in June but was advised to wait, pending the release of the newest iPhone, which hadn’t even been announced at that point.

I’m excited about all the features that come with a smart phone, particularly the constant connectivity and ability to look things up whenever I want. But, I’ve also been dragging my feet a little bit just because I absolutely HATE how obsessed people get with their phones. I have very good friends whom I love dearly who can’t go fifteen minutes without doing something with their phone, and it seriously drives me crazy.

So, I’ve been waiting . . .

Then the iPhone 4S came out. I was perfectly content with the idea of getting the 4 instead because it didn’t seem like the newest model was that much cooler . . . until I saw how Siri works. Now I want one so badly I can hardly stand it!

And after my experience on Saturday, well I almost marched right into the nearest AT&T store and demanded an iPhone 4S on the spot, except for the fact they’re all sold out. But, I digress. Here’s my story, and it’s kind of funny.

I was going to the baby shower for a dear friend of mine that I haven’t seen for awhile. It was in Layton, which is kind of far away, but I decided it was worth driving that far to see her. I haven’t spent a lot of time in Layton so I’m not familiar with it, so I looked up the directions as I was madly getting ready and then ran out the door.

I followed the directions exactly . . . to some random street in Layton which is NOT where the baby shower was. It turned out to be on the completely opposite side of town from where the shower was. Somehow I’d left without even grabbing the address. Ugh!!

I had to call my sister and have her log into my Facebook account, look up the address, then get directions from where I was at to the baby shower. And then she guided me a couple times when I accidentally made a wrong turn. Oops!

I finally made it to the baby shower, just two hours late. I did get to spend time with my friend, and it was delightful to see her. Really the two hours of driving it took to get me there are funny to me, and I’m laughing as I write this. She’s such a cute pregnant lady, and I’m very happy for her.

The thing that kills me is it could’ve been easily rectified with the use of a smart phone. * Sigh * Perhaps it’s time to just bite the bullet and buy one already, even if I have to wait a couple weeks for it to come in. And I’ll have to promise myself to be present in whatever situation I’m in to hopefully avoid becoming obsessed with my phone.

Halloween Fun 2011

2011-10-30T21:10:00.001-06:00

Compared to a few previous Halloweens, especially last year, this one was very toned down. This could’ve been because I didn’t know for sure what I was going to be until just a few days before. Then all my time was spent putting together a decent costume and I just didn’t have the creative energy (or time) to go all out as I have in the past. Oh well!

I had a great time being a gypsy this year. My dear aunt let me borrow the perfect gypsy skirt. With my peasant shirt, belly dancing scarf, six rings, 12 bracelets including 10 bangles, two necklaces and some very noisy earrings, I may not have had the most creative costume, but I was definitely the noisiest. Not that I’m good at stealth on a normal day, but I was especially not stealthy on Friday.

I wish I could say I accomplished a lot in spite of the party attitude at work, but it was mostly a play day. I did get an honorable mention for my costume, as the best “Diverse Markets” costume. I almost thought the honorable mentions were funnier than the regular awards.

Here’s the pictures of the day. This is the extent of my cube decorating. Exciting, I know.

How could I help it when this is what others on my floor were doing?

What’s inside the blacked out cube?

Creepy!

He’s part of the 99 percent.

Fun costumes, including mine.

Baby Rosemary the Riveter. So darling!

Spooky food. The “orange cow pie,” really a Cinnamon Blob from Johnny Kolache, won an award for highest sugar content.

One more friend picture. It really was a great Halloween, in case you can’t tell.

Pumpkin Walk 2011

2011-10-25T22:50:00.001-06:00

In the six years I’ve been living in Utah, I’ve made it a tradition to attend the North Logan Pumpkin Walk every year. If you’re curious exactly what it is, you can find more information through the website.

To sum it up, basically these are displays made out of pumpkins dedicated to a certain theme. Last year’s was “The Magic of Animation” and this year’s was “My Favorite Things.” On the whole, I liked the displays last year better, but I still loved going.

There were two things that made this year’s show memorable for me. The first was the weather: 75 degrees at almost the end of October? Yes, please. The second was introducing several of my family members to the Pumpkin Walk. What a great experience!

As always, I’m going to let the pictures tell the story since they can do it much better than I can.

Somebody got a little tired before it even started.

Gearing up for the walk.

On to the pumpkin scenes. A few of the memorable ones: Kung Fu Panda, Angry Birds, Candyland, Calvin and Hobbs snowmen, Winnie the Pooh and Tangled. Who wouldn’t love a Tangled scene made of pumpkins?!

Light bulb! Let’s make a pumpkin scene of Despicable Me. My personal favorite.

No post would be complete without people pictures.

Everybody gather round. It’s time for family pictures.

Last shots, I promise, group style of course.

Can you see why I love this fall tradition and couldn’t wait to introduce the rest of my family to it?

A little obsessed perhaps?

2011-10-24T22:48:00.001-06:00

Confession is good for the soul, right? Well here comes one from me: sometimes I let myself get completely obsessed with something and then I want to put all my time and energy into it, no matter what else I should be doing.

But I’m pretty sure everybody does that at one point or another, so it’s okay, right?

My current obsession? Christmas shopping!

I decided last year when I was making nightly trips to major retail locations to finish up my Christmas shopping before heading home for the holidays that I really don’t like it when I do that. It’s so stressful, there’s a million people around and I feel like it takes away from the true spirit of the holiday. So, this year I want to stop that from happening by being enough of a planner to get most, if not all, of my shopping done by December 1.

I’m making good progress on my goal too. I found my first two gifts last weekend, I took care of at least part of the gifts for the kids this tonight, and I’m well on my way with a couple of others I have in mind. That’s actually what I was obsessing about tonight. I know what I want to get, but it’s proving more expensive than I’d planned so now I’m doing my due diligence by searching out the best possible deal.

Did I have other things I could’ve and should’ve been working on tonight? Absolutely. But did I do any of them? Nope.

This is what happens when I don’t have enough going on in a given week. Oh well! At least there’s worse things I could be obsessed with, and this is all in the name of being prepared and trying to plan.

The sight I didn’t want to see

2011-10-17T19:34:00.001-06:00

Like most people, I’m never very excited when Monday rolls around. It’s just not my favorite day of the week, even if it only comes once a week.

Please indulge me for a week while I complain about a particularly terrible Monday.

I might have missed the most disturbing part of the day if I’d hurried more to get ready this morning. I barley missed the 7:33 train and instead took the 7:48. I wanted to get into work right at 8 this morning, but I accepted my fate and sat patiently waiting until the next train pulled into Sandy.

We were driving along until right before the Meadowbrook (39th South) stop. The train came to a complete stop just before the station. I looked out the window and noticed the Daybreak train was at a complete stop too. No announcements were made, so I sat patiently reading for about 15 minutes and then I wondered what was going on.

I saw the reflection of emergency lights in the window, so I figured there must’ve been a car/train accident. It was worse than that. More like a pedestrian/train accident, a fatal one. Unfortunately I found that out when we drove past the body covered by a sheet with blood on it.

I’m glad I didn’t have to see the body itself, but I still found it disturbing. I discovered later on from reading an article that it was an 86-year-old man who died and under strange circumstances. I guess I’m bothered just by the loss of life this represents. I don’t know what might’ve happened to this man that he walked in front of a train. So sad!

In addition to the train incident, I also had to deal with a difficult client at work who was completely unreasonable. Normally this wouldn’t bother me but today it upset me and left me shaken.

I also received a “no” answer to something that I wanted with all of my heart to be a “yes.” I’m sure it’s for the best, but I’m just really disappointed. I’m trying to swallow it and accept it as best I can.

Anyway, I’m sorry to be so gloom and doom today. It just wasn’t a good day. But I am hopeful that tomorrow will be so much better.

Finding the right fit

2011-10-16T23:10:00.001-06:00

It’s been over two years now since I purchased my last pair of athletic shoes. At the time I bought them I freaked out because they were running shoes, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to make a commitment to run.

Little did I know.

They’ve been brave warriors and supported me as I learned I could in fact be a runner. They’ve now taken me through four separate 5Ks, three with running as my intent and my fourth this weekend as more of a walk.

Oh the miles these shoes have seen! They’ve taken me through my trip to New York, Yellowstone twice, my first visit to Zion National Park and just this last week all over Chicago. I could list my miles here but I’m going to hold off.

As I’m sure you can imagine, they’re a little worse for the wear. It’s more than time to retire them.

But that meant I had to go shoe shopping for new athletic shoes. * Sigh *

Don’t get me wrong, I love shoe shopping as much as the next girl . . . just not for athletic shoes. I never know what type or brand to get. I want to make sure I get the pair that will best fit my needs and is within my price range. Cross trainers? Running shoes? Walking shoes? I’m just not sure.

That’s why I spent probably an hour on Saturday night at DSW trying on all kinds of shoes. One of the salespeople asked if she could help and I explained what I was looking for. She suggested a brand I’d seen but wasn’t familiar with so I thought why not give it a try? So I did.

Cue the hallelujah chorus! I tried a few other pairs just to be sure, but they were super comfortable and a reasonable price too. Yippee!

The only problem is that having had dark shoes for several years now I absolutely didn’t want white shoes. They show dirt so much more clearly. Alas, this is what I ended up with, but they’re so comfortable that right now I think it’s going to be fine.

Now I can’t wait to exercise this week to break them in.

Visit to the Windy City

2011-10-16T22:37:00.001-06:00

You all know from reading this blog that I love traveling, especially since it often becomes my personal travelogue. I love visiting new places and experiencing big cities I’ve never been to before. It opens my eyes, lets me see different ways of living and, most of all, helps me to appreciate what I have at home.

This year’s destination: Chicago. Unfortunately most of the group from my trips in the last two years was not able to come. But I did get to meet up with the Bibliophile, my very best friend, as she introduced me to her home city and as I spent time with her family. It was a fantastic trip, as you’ll see below.

Here is the house where she spent most of her growing up years. It’s a wonderful house built in the early 1900s.

I’m already a fan of public transportation, but out there it was essential. We took the train into the city almost all the days we went in. We got to ride the big old-style train cars and also the L, which I discovered is one of the oldest public transportation systems in the world. Here we are on the train.

The weather was gorgeous! Because the temperature hadn’t cooled yet, the leaves hadn’t fallen off the trees, and the colors were unbelievable. So I tried to take some great pictures, but even that couldn’t quite do it justice.

I have way too many pictures to put all of them in, but here are just a few highlights. This is the view from the top of the Willis (Sears) Tower.

I’ve been making it a point in my recent travels to visit the temples in the cities where I go. I’m getting a good collection of them too. We did a session in the Chicago Temple, and it was great!

Just a few fun ones. First, really cool bean!

Chicago deep-dish style pizza

I didn’t know Marilyn would be in Chicago!

Random play sword fighters in the park.

Our lunch time guest, a cute little dog named Jasper. It took all his owner had to get him moving again because he was that determined to stay.

Finally, my favorite part of Chicago: Lake Michigan! I have beautiful lakes out west, but I’m pretty sure we don’t have anything of this magnitude. I couldn’t get over how beautiful and blue it is. It looks like the ocean with its shore right off the Chicago skyline.

Even though the trip was exhausting in many ways, in all the important ones it was more than worth the visit, especially since I got to see the Bibliophile, who is my dearest friend. Thanks for a great time, chica!

Up in the night

2011-10-04T04:23:00.001-06:00

What’s a girl to do when it’s after 4 a.m. and she can’t really sleep because of the stinkin’ cold that seems to have come on yesterday and today? My nose is stuffy, my throat is sore and I’ve tossed and turned pretty much all night. I had some sleep, granted, but it was complete with very weird dreams and lots of waking up, usually when I shifted positions.

Any other day I might consider taking something despite the late hour and calling in sick to work. But that’s not an option this week. It’s a short week for me since I’m leaving on vacation in just three days, and believe me when I say I have plenty to do between now and when I take off. So, being sick even if I feel really terrible is just not an option.

This is why I’m distressed about the current sleep situation. I knew I should’ve taken something to help me sleep. Alas, when I realized that, it was far too late to do anything about it. Just a week ago we featured a company that created a natural sleep aid for kids when they have colds. I’m actually thinking I’d like to try it out for me because as far as I know adults can use it too. And it’d be a lot nicer on my body than other cough syrups that sometimes leave me feeling out of it in the morning.

Sorry, I don’t mean to make this my personal whine fest 2011. I’m just frustrated at the timing of this cold. It’s never fun to be sick, but it’s especially terrible when you’re days away from leaving on a fabulous vacation. Wish me luck to beat this thing before I go.

Things that make you go mmmm

2011-10-02T22:34:00.001-06:00

I just got back tonight from spending the weekend with three of my siblings and their families, which was fantastic! One of our favorite activities while we’re there is going to an ice cream place called Casper’s in Providence. I discovered it a few years ago when I made a market visit to Logan. We had to try it out, and now it’s a family favorite.

Since I’m mean like that, I’m going to show you pictures of exactly why this place is fabulous. How about some hard ice cream? And in a chilled glass no less?

A couple of the favorite treats:

Are you drooling yet? But, it’s really the company that makes this place as fabulous as it can be.

Finally, some kids may have skipped dinner, so after inhaling their ice cream, they ran across the street to grab some breadsticks to go with their ice cream. Salt with sweet is kind of a family thing.

Next time you’re in Logan, I highly recommend you stop by and try Casper’s because it’s great, just in case the pictures haven’t convinced you yet.

Life is so very precious

2011-09-22T23:12:00.001-06:00

Today I learned a very sad and tragic thing. My colleague’s daughter passed away unexpectedly this morning. She was only 37. She left behind a husband and two children. And it happened so quickly. She got sick on Sunday, went to InstaCare Monday and was in ICU by Monday night with pneumonia.

By this morning she had passed away.

Oh how my heart goes out to this colleague, especially since her daughter was her only child.

I wish there was something, anything I could say to help ease the pain. But, I learned through my own experience last year that at times like these there’s often no words that can bring comfort, especially when the grief is fresh and raw. Everyone grieves so differently that what works for one person won’t necessarily work for someone else. And words are most often inadequate.

I know people say platitudes with the intention of offering comfort in the only way they know. But, honestly they just aren’t very helpful. Although the main one everyone said to me after my niece died means more to me now, at the time of my loss I got sick of hearing it. I don’t want to be one of those who say the expected phrases.

I don’t want to make this about me because it’s not, but today was a hard day. I think everyone on my floor was upset by the news. It brings home to everyone just how fragile life is and what’s really important. For me, it brought back all the feelings from the day Ashley died and how empty and sad I felt. That was a pretty sucky day and there were many others that followed. I’m stronger for having lived through it, but it’s not a time I want to go back to.

The point of all this is just that although this isn’t my personal loss, I still feel it affects me in that I care about the person it happened to. I know how much losing someone you loves hurts, and I just hope we’re able to give her the support she needs in the way that’s most helpful for her. More importantly, I hope she feels the love of her Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ. They can’t take away the pain she feels, but they can offer comfort and send tender mercies along the way.

An evening with a fantastic author

2011-09-20T23:37:00.001-06:00

Ever since I learned to read at the age of 5 or 6 (I can’t remember which), I have been addicted to the written word. I used to drive my parents crazy when I was younger because I loved to read above all else, especially doing my chores.

My love of literature has continued throughout my life, and it’s very unusual to find me without a book in my possession. To me the hour of time I have to spend commuting every day (luckily the majority of the time I take the train) can be spent reading!

You can imagine how excited I was just a few weeks ago to find out one of my favorite authors, Cinda Williams Chima, would be coming to the Provo City Library. I carefully wrote down in my planner when tickets would be available and marked the date of the event on my calendar. Then I recruited a few people to come with me to hear her speak.

She did a great presentation, and I got to hear more about her newest series that I am completely in love with. It’s called the Seven Realms and includes The Demon King, The Exiled Queen and The Gray Wolf Throne, which just came out a couple weeks ago. We even got to see a first draft of the cover for the fourth book, The Crimson Crown, which, sadly enough won’t be out until October 2012.

But I digress.

Living in such a TV-addicted society, I’m always pleased to see people getting excited about books. Since I’m the queen of pictures, of course I had to document the event.

Here’s my dear friend and me with Ms. Chima, as well as my dear aunt and cousins.

All dressed up as one of the characters in the book

Displays about the book. I had to do the wolf one in honor of my sweet Bumblebee who LOVES wolves! Three displays for three books, in case you’re wondering.

I just love being addicted to literature. It’s fantastic! BTW, this post is dedicated to the Bibliophile who wasn’t able to be there physically but was there 100 percent spiritually. It’s thanks to her that I was introduced to this author’s Heir series in the first place. Thanks, chica!

A visit to my childhood

2011-09-16T23:03:00.001-06:00

For the last few weeks I’ve seen advertisements on TV for a special two-week showing of the The Lion King in 3D. While I like 3D just fine I’m not of the opinion that everything should be 3D as seems to be the trend.

But in this case, I was intrigued.

The Lion King happens to be one of my favorite Disney movies of all time. I remember clearly the first time I saw it in the theater (I was a fifth grader, if I recall correctly), and I was completely enchanted with it. I loved the music, the storyline, the characters, the beautiful scenery, everything.

So when I saw it was going to be released in 3D I decided I’d bite on Disney’s latest money-making scheme and check it out. It was a neat experience.

I liked seeing the depth to the scenes I hadn’t noticed or enjoyed before. Probably one of the coolest was the dust blowing from Simba to Rafiki when he realizes Simba is still alive. This is probably because the dust looks like it’s going to fly right at you. The fight between Simba and Scar at the end was pretty cool too.

I was struck tonight in a way I never have been before with the scene when Mufasa dies. It’s always made me sad, but having just experienced a very personal loss of a loved one, it touched me in a way it never has before. A good friend of mine wrote on her Facebook a few weeks ago about how since her baby died she can’t look at death the same anymore. I’ve been thinking about that comment ever since and tonight proved to me that I don’t think I can either.

On the whole I’m not sorry I paid the extra $2 to go see it. It reminded me of my past and made me smile thinking of that time in my life, when life was a whole lot simpler, although I didn’t know it then. It made me think of childhood and innocence, and sometimes it’s refreshing to be reminded of that.

In remembrance

2011-09-11T12:26:00.001-06:00

This post is dedicated to that terrible day 10 years ago when terrorists brought senseless violence to American soil. When brave men and women lost their lives. When wives were left without their husbands, husbands without their wives, children without their parents, sisters without their brothers or brothers without their sisters, and parents were left to bury their children.

It’s dedicated to the rescuers who bravely dashed in to save who they could, help the injured and manage the situation. And for this work, some of them paid the ultimate price. But I’m sure if you could ask them about it, they would tell you it was worth it.

This is dedicated to the members of our military who bravely defend our country and continue to wage a war on terrorism. It’s dedicated to those many children born following the attacks who never knew their fathers and have grown up without them.

Most of all it’s dedicated to us as Americans, to our resilience, our will to survive and our desire to continue moving forward in spite of opposition. United we stand. Today that means remembering those who lost their lives 10 years ago through no fault of their own. May their families continue to feel the love and support we offer them 10 years after the terrible event.

Beautiful garden tour

2011-09-08T12:46:00.000-06:00

This post is coming a few weeks after the fact, I’m afraid. I meant to write it immediately after it happened, but it was a busy week and I just didn’t get around to it as I’d intended. I hope you can still appreciate it even later.

I discovered about a month ago that every Tuesday in August, you can tour the beautiful Thanksgiving Point Gardens for just $2. I’ve never seen them but have heard great things, so I was excited to check it out. And the last Tuesday in the month I had my opportunity.

The only unfortunate part of this experience was the weather. It was during the heat wave last month, so it was about 90ish degrees the whole time we were walking around and then the clouds moved in, making it humid. I was a little surprised how much the weather sapped my energy, but I still enjoyed myself in spite of that.

The gardens are beautifully designed, and I loved being out among the plants. I also benefitted from my cousin’s knowledge of plants because she could tell me what we were seeing as we walked along. I must confess that I don’t remember the names of all the flowers so I won’t be able to put them here.

The water in the creek didn’t look terribly appealing, but I really wanted to put my feet in it the whole time I was there, so I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the statue poised to do the same thing.

Greediest fish ever. For .25 you can purchase a handful of food to feed these Koi, and man do they get excited about it! But, they were sure fun to watch, and they were beautiful fish.

Just a few views I love

Care for a bath anyone? Although the sign did say not to wade or play in the fountain. How about a horse ride?

For the kids. Love the sign!

Finally, ladies of leisure with nothing better to do than sit in the garden. Haha!

Time for some more gratitude

2011-08-29T22:17:00.001-06:00

As I’m sure you’re well aware, today is Monday. Usually it’s my least favorite day of the week.

But not today

Several things happened that have filled my heart to overflowing. From having lunch with my brother and sister-in-law (none of my siblings live close enough for me to do this, so it’s a treat to have it happen) to finding out some exciting news on a special project to being visited by some wonderful sisters in my ward, I’m feeling the love today.

And I have to be honest, I really need it. I like to think I can make it on my own, but sometimes my cup runs a little low, and I need support from other people. I’m always willing to give it, but sometimes I need it too. It’s nice to know that other people are also watching out for me, that my Father in Heaven is letting me know He cares through them.

I can tell you without any doubt that’s what happened today.

Other great things that happened today: I got an email from a dear friend who recently moved away and I’ve been missing like crazy. I found out my brother got an internship in Utah, so he’s going to be living here, starting next weekend, for the next four months. It’ll be hard since his wife is staying in Rexburg to hold her job and their apartment there, but I will LOVE having him close by. Not to mention this is a great opportunity for him.

Sometimes when I’m feeling down, as I was last week, I question whether anybody out there cares or if I’m truly alone. Today it has been made perfectly clear this is not the case. And I couldn’t be more grateful.

Culinary disasters!

2011-08-28T00:04:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago I was having a discussion with my supervisor and another colleague. We were talking about cooking, specifically that one dish you own because you can nail it every time you make it. Hers happens to be this delicious coconut cake that I missed sampling while I was in Yellowstone.

I’ve been thinking about it ever since because while I consider myself to be a decent cook, there’s not one specific dish that I would consider as my specialty. Until I thought about Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. I love them! I’ve practically memorized the recipe because I make them so much.

When my bananas were looking a little too ripe to eat this week, I knew exactly what I wanted to make. But this time it didn’t turn out quite the way I expected.

Did I jinx myself by deciding this is the dish I own? Or did I just have a bad cooking night?

For my own peace of mind, I’m going to choose the latter. But, for the record, this is the only time I’ve ever seen them turn out this way. And it may be because I was cooking them at the same time I was making zucchini bread, which also didn’t turn out quite as I’d hoped or expected.

The bread itself is fine, but it sure fell apart when I tried to take it out of the pan. I even floured and sprayed it too. Dang it!

Better luck next time I decide to be Betty Crocker. Or maybe I should stick to baking one thing at a time. It seems to work out better for me that way.

You are not forgotten

2011-08-22T22:50:00.001-06:00

The past few days have been difficult for me, just for various reasons. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I do have the end of summer blues, but there’s a few other concerns weighing on my mind too. I’m not going into specifics here, but I’ve been dealing with my problems as best I can. Tonight I made the effort to resolve the situation in the way that felt right to me.

But that’s not why I’m writing. I want to talk about the experience I had yesterday. For the reason I was alluding to above, I’ve been rather anxious and upset. I got up early for church so I could study a lesson I was planning to give later that night. I was trying hard to set aside my concerns so they wouldn’t affect the lesson I was striving so hard to prepare.

As I read over the lesson and read a scripture associated with it, a part of it struck me in a way it never had before. It touched me to the point of tears. The thought, in gist, is this, that one of the blessings of temple attendance is that angels can minister to us as a result of giving that service.

Of course my mind immediately turned to our beautiful angel and the fact that I know she has been allowed to minister to members of my family since she died. Some of my most touching experiences with her have come when I’ve been in the temple, which is probably why that scripture struck me so much.

Anyway, as I continued my Sabbath day preparations, I was so filled with the Spirit. I felt at peace and I knew everything was going to be okay. I was touched by something our teacher spoke about in Relief Society. The lesson was about the temple and family history. She showed a clip about the new FamilySearch where they talked about the people whose work we do in the temple. These are people who lived difficult lives, and many of them died believing God had forgotten them. By doing their temple work, we are showing that God definitely didn’t forget them and wants to provide them with the most choice blessings he can offer.

Later that evening I went to a fireside about the Book of Mormon. Basically our stake has been challenged to read the entire book between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31. But we’re supposed to read it with a purpose, and it will touch our lives in ways we never would’ve thought possible. I’m intrigued with that idea and am excited to get started. What touched me the most though was the closing song “If the Savior Stood Beside Me.”

I’ve heard it before, and it touched me then but in my weepy state, it sent me into tears. I couldn’t even sing the second or third verse. This is what the third verse says, “He is always near me, though I do not see him there. And because He loves me dearly, I am in his watchful care. So, I’ll be the kind of person that I know I’d like to be if I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me.”

Those words struck me because I realized in that moment that I am not alone, I have not been forgotten. My Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ love me very much and no matter how alone I feel sometimes, they are always there for me. I can’t tell you how much I needed that message yesterday. I needed it more than I realized, and I’m even a mess as I write about it here.

To end this post on a happy note, here’s one more great thing. These were not sent to me, but they were sent home with me to enjoy, and I truly have been. Every time I look at them, they make me smile. Just one more reminder that I haven’t been forgotten.

End of summer blues

2011-08-21T12:20:00.001-06:00

Today is the 21st of August. That means the month is more than halfway over. And I was distressed to learn that several schools are already starting next week. Not that school starting is a bad thing; I’m just distressed that it means the end of summer is rapidly approaching.

Once again I find myself rather melancholy at that thought.

When I was younger I didn’t like it because it meant those lazy summer days with no school were over, even though I was usually excited to start a new school year. The change was always exciting, and I used to anticipate going back to school. Yes, I was nerdy like that, but with both of my parents as teachers, how could I help it?

Now I still get sad but for different reasons. I’m usually sad because I so desperately love and anticipate the summer. I love that it’s green outside, that it’s light for so long, that I can hear the birds as I wake up in the morning, that I don’t have to worry about defrosting my car as I dash to the train, that I don’t have to wear a jacket or long pants and that it’s fun to be outside enjoy the beauty our Father in Heaven created. Yes, I pretty much love it all. I enjoy that summer tends to be a more relaxed time and there’s always plenty of fun activities to look forward to.

I also love that it’s vacation season which usually means I get to spend plenty of time with my family. There’s always the Yellowstone vacation to look forward to and, if I’m lucky, another trip to anticipate. But when it’s all over, it’s a bit of a letdown. This year I got smart though and decided to do my big trip in October so I have something to look forward to. I’m excited that I was able to plan it that way.

I suppose what I’m most sad about is the time that has disappeared. Those memories are so precious to me and part of me wants to go back so I can live it all again. But I know life isn’t meant to be lived by looking backward, only moving forward. Yes, I can look back on all the great times I’ve had this summer and cherish them, keeping them close to my heart.

And in the next two weeks as August winds its way quickly to September, I’m going to do my best to live it up and enjoy the summer while I can. I’m going to find the way to make each moment count as much as I can. That should help me fight these end of summer blues.

Thank heaven for little girls (and puppies too) :)

2011-08-18T23:25:00.001-06:00

I must confess that I was really lazy the other day and instead of doing something productive that made the world around me a better place in some way, I sat and read my old blog posts for quite some time. In fact, I’m embarrassed to admit how long it was. But it did help me have an important realization.

One of my goals for this year was to be more grateful. Part of that goal was to write a thankful post at least once a week in gratitude for the many blessings I receive. Yeah, I have pretty much failed at that so far. But, the year isn’t over yet! I still have time to repent. I feel like I’ve been a little too negative of late anyway, so I’d like to write something more positive.

Today I’d like to express gratitude for my beautiful youngest niece, KK. She was sent to our family at a key moment when her mother was grieving the stillborn birth of her baby and just a short time before everything started happening with Ashley. My dear sister-in-law told me a short time ago that she believes part of KK’s mission in being sent here at this time was to bring comfort. Look at this little sweetheart.

In seeing her interactions with members of my family, including all my siblings, as well as my nieces and nephews, I must say I think that’s an accurate description of her. She is so sweet, hates to be dirty, is very good tempered and is so patient to let the bigger kids pack her around. She had the most fun in Yellowstone the night when she was running around with the big kids chasing her. So cute!

In addition, Ashley dearly loved her, even when she was so desperately sick and miserable. The baby truly brought her comfort, as she has all of us. She melts all of our hearts.

I had some very cute times with her while I was at home in Idaho last week. I’d like to share the pictures here. See, she was playing in the bird bath, but it’s just no fun to do it by yourself. So, she grabbed her sucker of an aunt and put her hands in the water so she could play too. And if that aunt took her hands out, well she put them right back in. I taught her to do a little dance and say “shake, shake, shake” to dry her hands off. It was really cute. She might’ve suckered a few of her cousins into playing in it too.

Here she is running around with the big kids in Yellowstone.

Not that darling little girls should be compared with dogs, but I love this little pooch too. A beagle named Dot, she’s definitely still a puppy, and I wasn’t sure at first that I liked her, but since I’ve seen what a great kid dog she is I’ve changed my mind. And she looks up at you with those big brown eyes and you just melt!

Believe me when I say I’m grateful for many, many more things. This is covering only two of them. Goodnight everyone!

Another TRAX adventure

2011-08-16T23:13:00.001-06:00

In the past year I have become a faithful TRAX rider. I ride it almost every day except when I have a reason to drive. It’s a reliable form of transportation that saves me a LOT on gas money, wear and tear on my car and the hassle of fighting traffic. Not to mention it allows me an extra hour of reading time each day.

I’ve only had a few experiences when it was less than reliable, so it’s very much the exception rather than the rule for that to happen. But in the last week it’s happened twice! I’m not going to really tell about the one last week because I’m pretty much over it. I have to tell about the one today, however, because, quite honestly, I want some sympathy. So here goes.

I was riding home today and everything was fine until we got to the 90th South station. I noticed that the air went off and the lights out, but I’ve seen it flick on and off before so at first I didn’t think anything of it. That is until I realized neither was coming back on, and we’d been sitting there awhile. Not only was the train not showing any sign of movement, but the one going the other direction was also stationary.

I was trying to stay calm and chat with the other passengers a bit, but the plain fact is that it was hot in there. It hit 85 degrees today, and with a lot of people and no AC, the air was heating up quickly. I was very concerned about that.

You have to understand that I have this terrible irrational fear of getting stuck somewhere I won’t be able to get out. This includes elevators, stairwells and any tight spaces that look iffy. I’ve overcome it to a certain extent, but it’s still there. So, when I realized the power was off and that most likely meant the doors wouldn’t open, I must admit that I started panicking. I felt better when I saw the door just down the way open and a few other passengers getting out.

I’d just about made the decision to get out and start walking at that point, so it was just as well to see a UTA person coming to tell us we were all getting off the train for awhile because they didn’t have any power. I missed the rest of the explanation of what was wrong because pretty much I was ready to peace out. I’d been sitting on the dead train for 15-20 minutes at that point, and I had things to do. So I decided my legs would have to get me where I needed to go.

The 90th South stop is probably a little over a mile from the one I usually get off at, two stops later. There’s a nice little path that runs parallel to the tracks, and I actually walked it a couple weeks ago. So, off I went, along with several other passengers.

I wasn’t worried about the distance because I can run/walk a 5K comfortably, but I was concerned about A) walking in the heat in my nice clothes and B) my shoe situation. I was wearing my cute wedges today that are okay for walking short distances, like around the office or from the train to my car, but not much more. But even that didn’t stop me.

I made good time and got back to my car within about 20 minutes, including the times I had to wait to cross the street. It turned out to be a wise decision on my part too because I was in my car driving away before I saw a train pull into the station.

At that point I was hot, tired and in a bit of pain from the five blisters my little walk put on my feet. I went on a two-mile walk in those shoes earlier this summer, and it was a mistake. I wouldn’t have done it this time except I really needed to get home and waiting however long for the train just didn’t appeal. But I survived the ordeal, and the blisters will eventually go away, so I’m not all that worse for wear.

I suppose I’m just annoyed to have a major delay on Trax twice in a week, but what happens, happens I suppose.

Homes on parade

2011-08-15T21:08:00.001-06:00

One of the themes of my life in the past year is change. In learning to embrace change, I’ve also learned to not be afraid to try new things. This means I’ve had some wonderful experiences I might not have had otherwise. Some I liked and others I didn’t, but the point is that I did them. Yay for me, right?

Last week I had yet another opportunity to try something new. In this case it was the Parade of Homes. Every year the Salt Lake Builder’s Society (I think) offers a collection of around 30 homes and 10 models that you can tour for minimal cost. I’d seen one for a neighborhood in Salt Lake that I would’ve dearly loved to tour, but I wasn’t familiar with this one.

After hearing about some of the homes, particularly the home created in honor of Disney and Pixar’s Up movie, I was intrigued. And then I was invited to go. So I did.

The circumstances under which I started were not ideal, so I was not such a happy camper at first. But I talked my way out of my grumpiness and loved it! I spent three days last week touring around 25 homes. I didn’t have time or the inclination to see them all, but I loved those I did see.

Here are a few highlights. This first one is in honor of our dear Neal Caffrey. The whole layout reminded me of him, and, sigh, this picture is of the Brooklyn Bridge which is near where he lives. All right, three of the four pictures are from different homes. But the kitchen is very mod and, in my opinion, Neal-esque. With as stylishly as dear Mr. Caffrey dresses, I can’t imagine him not liking the tie holder.

A few of my favorite interiors

Several of the rooms were created in honor of wishes the Make a Wish Foundation has granted. I found those the most touching. Here’s a couple examples.

My personal favorite Make a Wish room, created in honor of Tangled. In the actual wish, the little girl wanted a playhouse. Who wouldn’t love a castle like the one in Tangled? And you could actually climb up in that playhouse! So of course we did!

Of course I’m not going to forget the Up house. It’s bigger than it looks, and how can you not love a house created in honor of such a great movie?!

Finally, and yes I know I’m getting completely carried away. But really where else am I going to share these pictures?

Okay, seriously last pictures, I promise. I think this house is gorgeous, and the location is unbelievable. I can’t imagine having this view every single night. When I got to the house, which was no small feat with all the winding around it took to get there, I saw deer on the hill just above it. The only drawback is that it’s clear out in Herriman. Oh, and it might cost around $800,000 too, but really that’s pocket change.

Family is where it’s at

2011-08-14T22:32:00.001-06:00

So once again it’s been far too long since I’ve posted in my blog. My only defense is that life happens, and mine seems to be happening a LOT of late, so I haven’t gotten around to writing as much as I’d like to. Hopefully it’ll be better now.

So the summer is more than halfway over now, which really kind of freaks me out. Time passes so quickly these days. It kind of scares me. In any case, I have had some fantastic experiences this summer. Many of them have centered on my wonderful family. I think I’ve mentioned in here before, but I just love them so much! My life would not be complete without them.

I think I would feel lost if I couldn’t call my mom or dad when my evening didn’t go as planned, and I was really upset about it. Or if I couldn’t call my sister just to shoot the breeze for an hour on a weekend night. Or if I didn’t have a close relationship with my brother so when he and my sister-in-law purchase a car online they feel comfortable coming to stay at my house and having me shuttle them to the airport.

But since I’m close to all my siblings, there are all things I can and will do. I love my siblings, and it’s always a joy for me to see them and be a part of their lives. I dearly love being the favorite aunt to their children too.

It’s funny how often one of us plans a trip to Mom and Dad’s for the weekend. And when another of us hears about it, we plan our own trip to come at the same time so we can see each other. This is especially true if we haven’t seen each other for awhile. We know space will be limited, and it will surely be a beehive of activity while we’re there, but that doesn’t stop us. We just go anyway and do our best to roll with it. Perhaps we even enjoy the chaos to a certain extent, even if we may not admit it.

My mom often tells me that she considers it one of her greatest accomplishments that her children love to be together. I’m glad too because I think I have some of the best siblings in the world. And I’d like to take it one step further and include my extended family. We don’t all get together very often, but, we enjoy seeing each other when we do. It was great to have our first family reunion in 11 years earlier this summer and to catch up on one another’s lives. Things have changed a lot in that time.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the family for your enjoyment.

It all starts at the top—my wonderful grandparents and my cute parents.

Here’s my siblings and their families

My adopted family

Others of my extended family

See, aren’t we a great looking bunch? We’re happy and we love each other, and really that’s what matters the most anyway.

Grand Teton National Park

2011-07-30T23:38:00.001-06:00

We were very interested in trying new and different things during our Yellowstone trip this year. One major change was to go out the south entrance to the park so we could visit Grand Teton National Park. Several people have told me they think it’s a great travesty that I’ve been to Yellowstone many times but have never seen Grand Teton. Let me tell you it was well worth the visit I made there!!!

The Tetons are breathtaking, and the best part of this tour was watching them get steadily closer and then you’re right on top of them. So gorgeous! I fell in love with both Jackson Lake and Jenny Lake. Years ago I read the book “Jenny of the Tetons” by Kristiana Gregory. I thought the story was sad because of the way it ended, but I loved seeing this lake named after the wife of Beaver Dick. Plus, the boat ride across the lake was one of the major highlights of the trip for the kids. They loved it, as you’ll see below!

Here are a few pictorial highlights of the trip.

Going out the south entrance meant we saw some different sites. This year that included the beautiful Lewis Lake. The kids enjoyed playing the water, and the adults enjoyed helping them rock the jetty.

We saw two new waterfalls on our way to Grand Teton that we’ve never seen before, Lewis Falls, left, and Moose Falls.

Here’s those beautiful Tetons I was just raving about.

Jenny Lake! It was gorgeous. As I mentioned, the kids LOVED the boat ride. I enjoyed it too. We had some people who were less than happy at that point and luckily, blessedly, the boat ride seemed to bring the happy out in everyone. On the way back we had a smart aleck driver who deliberately dipped the boat so it splashed up and got us all wet, but it was okay.

Once you get to the island on the lake, you can take a short hike up to Hidden Falls. Halfway there are some pretty wicked rapids, well they’re especially wicked this year because of the wet spring we’ve had.

Anyway, those were fun, but the falls were AWESOME!! We didn’t have much time to enjoy the falls because we arrived on the island at 6, and the last boat departs at 7, so it was kind of like hike as fast as you can and then hurry back to the boat. But it was so worth it! In fact, these falls were my favorite that I saw the entire trip.

It took forever to drive all the way through the park, stop at all the viewpoints, continue on to Jackson Hole and then make our way to Rexburg where we were staying that night. But, it was so worth it! Not only did we get to do something new and different, but we got to see some of the most beautiful scenery around.

Yellowstone 2011

2011-07-30T19:20:00.001-06:00

My poor neglected blog! It’s been such a busy month that I’ve hardly had time to write in it. I meant to update it along the way when I was in Yellowstone last week, but, alas, I either got home too late or was too exhausted when I got there to do so. I hope I can make up for it by writing about it now.

This year was memorable in that my entire family was able to come for the first time in five years. Yippee!! I have some feature pictures, but my main goal this year was to have people in as many pictures as possible. So here’s a few highlights of my trip.

Of course we saw plenty of geysers: Grand, Riverside, Castle and Old Faithful.

Plenty of hot pools

And of course any given Yellowstone trip involves plenty of waiting . . .

This trip was special because it was all about family, and as I mentioned above, I wanted to get my family in as many pictures as possible.

This

This year we saw quite a few waterfalls, including Kepler Cascades (below left), Lower Falls (although you can’t see it because it’s just the brink), Crystal Falls, Upper Falls, Gibbon Falls

I have a million more pictures I’d like to include, but this post is already really long. I’m definitely going to do a separate post on my visit to Grand Teton National Park, but I might also do one just on my family because they’re so great! Stay tuned!

I can’t resist ending with a little irony. Enjoy!

Moments in Time

2011-07-18T23:30:00.001-06:00

I have plenty of things I’d like to write about in here, HP7.2, which I saw last week and loved, my upcoming vacation to my favorite place with my entire family or even my love for White Collar. But tonight my heart is turned to just one thing, or rather one person.

You see tomorrow would’ve been her 14th birthday. For the last two weeks I’ve felt just fine and thought I could make it through this day without a lot of emotions and/or tears. Wrong.

Tonight I just started thinking about this night 14 years ago when she was born and little did we know what a beautiful angel had been sent to our family or that we’d only get to keep her for 12 years. But she lived a wonderful life and that’s always worth celebrating.

My mind is caught tonight on moments in time. Moments that I was able to spend with her, moments when her silliness or sass delighted my aunt heart, moments when she showed just how much love was contained in that sweet heart of hers, moments when I was down and she helped pick me back up, moments I was able to pick her up, particularly when she was in the hospital since I lived so close.

My mind is filled to overflowing with such moments. Sometimes those memories make me smile, but tonight they make me sad. But I’m sad for selfish reasons because I know that she is now free from pain and suffering and is happy and safe on the other side, while we’re still here missing her like crazy and waiting impatiently for the day we get to see her again.

She isn’t here anymore, but I can tell you without a shadow of doubt that she isn’t gone. She lives on. She’s watching over us, and she’s sometimes permitted to join us for important family events. I’ve felt her at a couple already, and I know she’s going to be at many more.

The times when I feel her close comfort me because I know she’s living on and I’m sure she’s doing great work on the other side. But they also make me ache with sadness that she can’t be here with us right now. At those times I want to shake my fist at the heavens and yell at God for taking her away. I want him to feel the same pain I feel inside, but I can’t and won’t choose to do so. I know her life mission has been completed and that’s why she was taken home to heaven. As Elder Scott said in his conference address a couple of years ago, now we all have a reason to live extremely well so we can see her again.

And I know this is possible because our Savior Jesus Christ atoned for our sins and overcame death so we could all live again. I can’t be angry at Heavenly Father because He watched his son be crucified and rejected in the cruelest way possible and could do nothing about it because it was set up that way in the beginning. If anybody knows the true meaning of pain, He does, and so does our Savior. They can succor me and lift me up at the times when I think the pain is unbearable.

So, I will let myself fall apart when the occasion demands, then get back up and get to work, doing the work I’m supposed to accomplish. I know that’s what Ashley would want. She wouldn’t want us to be sad, but I know she understands when we are. At least I have special moments in time with her that I can hold onto that provide me peace and comfort in the times when I really miss her.

Happy birthday, beautiful angel! I still love and miss you very much. Please keep watching over all of us, particularly your family, who still feel your absence. Good thing families are forever.

“All the world’s a stage. . .”

2011-07-05T22:37:00.001-06:00

'As I mentioned in my last post, I recently took my maiden voyage to see the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. I was delighted to experience this wonderful event that’s turning 50 this year.

Of course since I’m the queen of pictures, I took about a million, but I’m going to spare you by only posting a few highlights. I hope you don’t mind that my blog is at times my personal travelogue where I share my experiences. But I just get so excited that I can’t help myself. And since a picture is worth 1,000 words anyway, well, in essence I’m also saving you from my wordiness. Yes, I’m getting on with it already.

Here we are at the entrance.

The Shakespeare Festival is one place where you can enjoy a quick word with the master wordsmith himself. He’s a bit of a silent chap though so he doesn’t add much to the conversation, but we enjoyed conversing with him.

Did I mention we got to see Brian Vaughan, who is one of the most well-known (and talented) Shakespeare Festival actors? This year he’s Harold Hill in “The Music Man” and I’d highly recommend the performance. It’s fantastic!

The Green Show immediately preceding the performance of “Romeo and Juliet.” From what I’ve heard of last year’s show, this one wasn’t nearly as entertaining, but it was still very enjoyable. Have I mentioned “Figaro” lately? Fi-ga-ro, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro. . . You can see him in the picture on the left. He’s the one with the dog ears.

The Adams Theatre which is pretty stinkin cool! I’ve seen the Globe in London and attended a play there, and this is a great replica. I’ve been told that it’s the most authentic one in the United States, and that is quite impressive. I loved being able to attend a play there. No, I don’t have pictures inside because the camera Nazis won’t let you, so I took them outside.

Good old Will Shakespeare. Do you think he had any idea how famous his plays would become? And that they would still be shown to sold-out crowds almost 500 years later? And what a great boost to the Cedar City and Utah economies this festival is. In case you can’t tell, it was a fantastic trip, and I’d love to go again, maybe next year.

I walked in Zion (National Park)

2011-06-30T22:17:00.001-06:00

Tonight I just got back from a fabulous three-day vacation. I saw wonderful Utah sites I’ve never visited before, had the opportunity to bond with my aunt and two cousins and now can’t wait to share the pictures with all of you. Ready or not here they come!

Just to give you a little context on this visit, it was 105 degrees in the park that day. Yikes! Since I go to Yellowstone every year, I would consider myself somewhat experienced with proper trail behavior. In this case, I feel like I acted more like a novice than an experienced hiker. If I could go do it again I would definitely leave my purse behind and bring my trail backpack instead, but since it was such a short trip I didn’t figure I needed to do so. Oh well! I still had a fabulous time.

Here’s interesting thing No. 1. I know Utah is known for the red dirt, but I didn’t realize we have roads made out of it! This is the road leading to the park, and the view from the shuttle that takes you around the park.

Here we are at the gates.

Our first stop: the Court of the Patriarchs.

Next we took the short hike out to see Emerald Pool. I was distressed to discover I don’t actually have any pictures of the lake itself. Oops! But I do have some from the trail along the way. We were pretty sure that the white mountain in the picture on the right is the back of the Great White Throne.

Brave hikers

The Organ and the Great White Throne and the other picture is Angel’s Landing. Part of me is intrigued at the idea of hiking up it, well the part that isn’t terrified of dying on such a perilous hike. I’m still debating whether I should add it to my bucket list or not. Thoughts?

We also decided to do the short hike that would take us to the entrance to the Narrows even if we weren’t planning to hike the Narrows ourselves. Here are a few pictorial highlights. The one on the top right is an actual swamp that exists at the bottom of the canyon in the middle of the desert, ironically enough.

Cool rock on the left and an interesting bowl shape on the right. Who spilled milk all over the rocks?! J/K!

Now that is one hearty tree! Next to it is one of the hanging gardens that are frequently seen throughout the canyon.

The entrance to the Narrows. I’m so glad we walked there, even if we didn’t do the actual hike.

Finally, here we have Zion at sunset as we left the park. So beautiful!

The words I didn’t say

2011-06-29T01:26:00.001-06:00

Okay, so it’s really late right now, and I should most definitely be asleep, but I seem to have insomnia tonight so I’m trying to find something that will put my mind at ease a little so I can sleep. Plus, I was told not so long ago that if you’ve tried and can’t sleep for 15 minutes, you need to do something else. I’ve officially been trying for an hour and a half now, so this is me finding a different activity.

I’m pretty sure most of us have moments of shame and regret in our lives we feel sorry for something we’ve said that was uncalled for or hurt someone’s feelings. We’re all human and we all make mistakes so it’s only to be expected.

But, have you ever felt regret for the other direction, as in, you regret the words you didn’t say?

I’ve always struggled with speaking my mind and expressing what it is I really think or feel. It’s just not something that comes naturally to me, but I have been working on it pretty hard in the last few months and feel I’ve made progress in becoming a more effective communicator.

However, in the past few days my mind has been straying to some times in the last year when painful and difficult things happened to me. These are things I’d rather not think about and have tried hard to put behind me, but my mind has just been drawn back to them.

These are times when I wish I’d said something but for various reasons wasn’t able to at the time. In the instance that’s troubling me most tonight, I couldn’t say something because I just wasn’t in a position emotionally to do so. I don’t know that it would’ve helped the situation if I had said something or not, but I think it might’ve made me feel better now if I had. I’m regretting very much the words I didn’t say, even if they might not have made any difference.

Truthfully this is something that I’m planning to just put behind me, but for now I suppose I’m just going to have to work my way through it, learn what I can and make my peace with it, whatever that looks like.

Antsy for the action to start . . .

2011-06-23T23:07:00.001-06:00

When one has a vacation coming up, of course one is extra busy at work getting everything ready so one can be gone, have the work covered and come back just in time to play catch up. * Sigh * Yes, it can be a bit of a vicious cycle.

But the point of this post is not to complain. Rather, it’s to point out that the anticipation of vacation is usually the best part. I’m always trying to imagine how it’s going to turn out, especially if it’s a place where I’ve never been before. It never happens quite in the way I imagine it will, but it usually turns out to be a great experience anyway.

This year’s destination is the Shakespeare Festival, where I’ve never been before.I’m excited to experience this wonderful event in Southern Utah. As a bonus I also get to see some fabulous Utah landmarks while I’m there, namely Zion National Park (make sure you don’t put the ‘s’ on there because they get very upset if you do), Bryce Canyon and Cove Fort. Fantastic! I’ve been close to all three before but have never been able to stop, so this will be a new adventure!

Even though work is extra busy the rest of this week and early next week while I get ready, I still find myself antsy for the action to start. That and I’m seriously ready for a few days off. And in a month I get to go to my favorite place, so I have that to look forward to as well.

Only a few more days until my first vacation of the summer starts. Yippee!!

A New Goal

2011-06-20T22:51:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I have a new goal that just got worse tonight. I desperately want to own a piece of real estate. Is that so bad? I've had the bug for awhile but just haven't acted on it because I haven't had (still don't in fact) the funds to do anything about it.

But tonight I was looking through an email a friend sent me with houses for less than $100,000 and then I couldn't resist and had to check out ksl.com. Should I have done so? Probably not because it just made it worse! Especially when I found a listing for the townhomes I've been in love with for ages now for less than I ever thought it would be possible to get them. Alas!

This is why you should never put yourself in a position to be tempted by something you can't have.

I'm still following Dave Ramsey's program Financial Peace University and am in a position to be 100 percent debt free by the end of the year. Yippee! But, I can't skip a step (the 3-6 month emergency fund) and skip to step 4.5, which is to invest in real estate, so I'll just have to keep at it. I know I can do it though.

And if always helps to have a goal in mind anyway, right?

To the bestest Papa Daddy ever!

2011-06-19T17:46:00.001-06:00

Today is a special day. It’s a day set aside for all of us to give thanks for our fathers. I’d like to think I’m always grateful for my dad, but it never hurts to let him know exactly what it is I’m grateful for.

My dad has always been one of my heroes. He has encouraged me. loved me, disciplined me when necessary and pushed me to do better. He always knows the right buttons to push to tease me right out of a bad mood and make me laugh. Did I mention he’s also the king of the cheesy joke? He has a loving heart and will do anything for any of his children.

Here are a few pictorial highlights of why I love my dad:

Two words: the cane

I am the queen of picture taking, but I learned it somewhere. Ta-dah!! It’s a skill I learned from the best.

Sometimes he let’s me do silly things to him like this. What? I was helping him recover from surgery a few years ago.

He loves animals, all types of animals. Even stinky ones.

He can sleep anywhere at any time, even if the bed is already covered.

Have I mentioned how fun it is to give him a bad time? It’s fantastic!

This post is dedicated to the bestest papa daddy ever!! Love you!!

Thanks for always being there for me and believing in me, especially when I can’t myself. Thanks too for being a worthy Priesthood holder and being able to give me blessings when I need them. I am and always will be your baby daughter, no matter how old I get.

Pictures from my race day

2011-06-12T23:40:00.001-06:00

I know it’s been a few weeks since I ran my 5K, but I just barely got the pictures from it tonight. I’m pretty proud of myself, and it was for a special cause so I can’t resist posting a few pictures.

Here I am at the starting and finishing line. There were tons of people there, so it’s not really a clear shot, but I’m so glad I did it anyway.

As I mentioned, this race was special because I did it in honor of someone whom I loved very much and lost a little over a year ago. Here’s the sign I wore in her honor.

My support team who came to cheer me on. I must confess that I desperately wanted someone to be there to share this with me, but because I essentially made the decision for my parents so there was no way they could come, even if they’d been able to, it’s kind of my own fault. I was touched that my dear aunt and two cousins made the effort to be there for me . . and are the reason I have any pictures of this event.

Yay for me being able to accomplish something so important to me.

Zumba for a cause!

2011-06-12T23:05:00.001-06:00

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned in my blog more than once how one of my favorite things of late happens to be Zumba. I absolutely love it! Not only is it a great workout (I feel it in my abs in a way I never do with other workouts) but it’s fun!!! I don’t really feel like I’m exercising even though I’m pretty sure I’m burning quite a few calories. And I’ve been to some fantastic Zumba instructors who really make it that much more enjoyable.

Yesterday was a combination of two of my favorite things: Zumba for a great cause! I suppose I’m also into doing things for a cause recently, hence the Running with Angels 5K I did a couple weeks ago. In any case, a Zumbathon to raise money for the American Cancer Society was held yesterday. It was an hour and a half long, and it was fantastic!!!

Let me pause for just a minute to tell you about the instructor of this Zumbathon. Her name is Lindsey Taylor and she is the Zumba education specialist for the state of Utah. She’s also been featured in several of the Zumba fitness DVDs. Most recently she was in Pitbull’s brand new music video, “Pause.” Here’s a link to it on YouTube:

“Pause” by Pitbull

She’s the one with dark hair. I didn’t think the song was too exciting when I first listened to it, but we did the dance yesterday during the Zumbathon, and now I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to download it.

Anyway, it was a fantastic experience! An hour and a half of dancing my little heart out. I wondered what, if any, effect the weather might have, but it turned out just fine. Don’t worry, I drank plenty of water so I stayed hydrated. I found out they were able to raise $3,000 from this fundraiser, which was also sponsored by Fashion Place Mall, where it was held outside in the parking lot.

I didn’t bring my camera so I don’t have any pictures to post. But trust me when I say it was really fun! This was also the first time when I did a Zumbathon (it’s my third in the last 6 months or so) where we had an audience. A year ago that would’ve mortified me. Now, I don’t mind knowing people could have been watching. It was just fun to do something I love for such an important cause.

I have one more quick thing to add before I close, a reason why the American Cancer Society is important to me. As of March, my sister is officially a cancer survivor. She was blessed to have one of the most treatable types of cancer, but I know many others who haven’t been so blessed. I have several friends who’ve lost loved ones to it. My heart still goes out to them, and I hope the money raised yesterday helps fund important cancer research.

One year . . . four baptisms

2011-06-06T22:51:00.001-06:00

It all started almost nine years ago when my oldest sister announced she was having her second child. Only a short time later my sister closest in age to me announced she was also having another baby, due just six weeks later. Of course this is the Diva and Z-Man. We couldn’t have been more delighted to have them join our family, particularly Miss Sassypants who waited through 5 boys before finally getting a girl cousin. And then she got two in just under a year.

Little did we know that only eight months later my sister-in-law would also give birth to a baby, another girl, and just two months after her, my second oldest sister had her fourth and final baby, a boy we’ll refer to as Scamperboo. Each brought a great deal of joy to our family as well as their own set of challenges.

Fast forward eight years and you’ll reach today. Or rather the last year when all four of these children turned eight and entered the waters of baptism. What a wonderful experience to be able to share this with them! I’m not even their parents and it makes me get slightly weepy to think about/talk about it. What the heck?

It started with the Diva. Here are a few pictorial highlights of her special day:

Here’s Z-Man’s baptism day last September. It was doubly special since his older brother was ordained as a Deacon the same weekend.

In April our whole family was able to travel to Idaho for my niece LouLou’s baptism. She looked beautiful, and we couldn’t have been happier for her.

I was so delighted with my perfect record of being able to have made the baptisms for all the kids thus far . . . until I realized Scamperboo’s baptism was on a weekend when I’d made a previous commitment so I didn’t think I’d be able to go. I felt pretty devastated about it actually even though I definitely wouldn’t have been the only one who had to miss. The very idea of not being able to go was seriously killing me, until my circumstances changed and I was able to make it work after all. Yippee!! And it was a very special experience, so I was glad I made it.

After this whole long post and me going on and on about how I was able to make it when I didn’t think I’d be able to, well did you notice someone important missing from these pictures? Oh yeah, me! Being that I’m the queen of pictures and all, did you really think I’d let that happen? Not so much. I was just saving them until last. It was a wonderful blessing that I was able to make Scamperboo’s baptism this last weekend, and I had a pretty incredible experience there that I can’t talk about here. In any case, thanks for indulging me as I document these important family events in my blog. But then again, this is the world according to me, so I should have the freedom to write about things that are important to me. Oh and to put pictures of myself in my blog sometimes.

Have I mentioned in my latest posts that I love my children because I really do. Just look at the faces and personalities in this last shot. So fun!

My visit to the beautiful Bear Lake Valley!

2011-06-02T22:42:00.001-06:00

This week I had the opportunity to do something a little different for work, i.e. to make a two-day visit to the beautiful Bear Lake Valley. I don’t know if you’ve ever been there before, but it’s breathtaking! This is one of the first things you’ll see as you come into the valley through Logan Canyon.

Of course anyone familiar with this are knows what Bear Lake is most known for. That’s right, raspberries! During the Raspberry Days Festival in August, the population of Garden City swells from 600 to over 25,000. Is that crazy or what? Yes, I couldn’t resist trying one of the famous raspberry shakes on my way out of town. And there’s plenty of charming snack shops to choose from. I just happened to choose La Beau’s this time.

I have to be honest and admit that I’ve only been to Bear Lake twice, but I sure do love it! I’ve never been further than Garden City so I enjoyed passing through the three or four small towns on my way to my ultimate destination, Montpelier. A few of the sites I enjoyed seeing.

Apparently one of the designers or builders (I can’t remember which) is from St. Charles, Idaho. This is a brand new monument they just created in his honor. His name is Gutzon Borglum.

You’ve gotta love small town hospitality. This is a fantastic restaurant we visited called the Paris Grill. We didn’t get to eat there, but they still took great care of us. We tasted a fabulous cookie made with lemon and white chocolate macadamia nuts. So delicious! I’m posting pictures here to make you jealous.

The Paris Tabernacle was built in 1888 and apparently last year they welcomed 50,000 visitors who toured one of the oldest buildings in the city. Incidentally, the walls in the Paris Grill were designed to match the exterior of the Tabernacle. Pretty cool, huh?

To wrap up this rather long post, Montpelier has signs everywhere warning you to watch out for bears, so I couldn’t resist being a little silly. The other picture is one of our Idaho radio stations who plays our “Speaking on Business” spots. We enjoyed visiting him, and my supervisor was even on the air for about 15 minutes talking about an Idaho campaign we’re starting.

From these pictures it probably looks like all we did was sightsee, but I promise we were incredibly busy. We met with about 16 business owners in just over 24 hours, so needless to say, we’re both pretty exhausted. What a great trip it was, and I loved seeing a beautiful part of my home state.

Thanks, Dave!

2011-05-20T21:23:00.001-06:00

I was a little distressed last week to find out that credit card machines in about 70 Michael’s stores around the U.S. had been compromised, including 2 in Utah. Yes, I shopped at one of the locations a few months ago, unfortunately, so my debit card was cancelled and a new one reissued as a safety precaution.

I hadn’t noticed any unusual activity in my account, but I’m still grateful the bank took the route of cancelling my card just in case. The ironic thing is that my card expires this month and I’d just barely gotten my new card and activated it the night before it was cancelled. Oh well!

It’s now been a week, and I still don’t have my new card. Normally it would be cause for distress to be without my debit card for an entire week, but this time it’s not so bad . . . thanks to Dave Ramsey!

Since I’m now following Financial Peace University, the program he created, one of the key components is to use the envelope system where you get cash for each budgeted item and then you can spend it until it’s gone. I’ve been using this system for about seven months now, and it’s been working very well for me. And this week it’s seriously saving my bacon!

Without having my spending money in cash, I would’ve either been forced to use my credit card a LOT or to be stuck with using the archaic checks, which many places won’t even take anymore.

All I can say is that I’m extremely grateful to Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University for making what could’ve been a difficult week a whole lot easier.

Running for a cause

2011-05-16T23:00:00.001-06:00

Today I signed up for a 5K . . . that takes place on Saturday. Am I ready for it? Probably not, but I chose to do it anyway, and here’s why.

I’ve already been thinking about this 5K for awhile and was planning to do it way back when (since March to be exact). However, I’ve had a crazy schedule for the last few months, and my evenings keep getting filled with other things, so my training has been extremely limited. And then my computer was unsafe so I couldn’t sign up for the race. . . yeah you’re getting the picture.

Then I got an email from my dear aunt yesterday that changed everything, so now I’m officially participating in the Running with Angels 5K next Saturday, ready or not. But I believe in running for a good cause, and this one is most definitely fits that requirement.

It’s a race put on by Pam Hansen in honor of her book, Running with Angels. It’s a longer story than I’m going to tell here, but basically Pam was able to use running as a means to fight her obesity and to deal with the deaths of two of her children and the illnesses of two more of her children. I haven’t read the book myself, but it sounds like a great story, and I’ll be adding it to my list.

Proceeds from this race will be donated to the Angel Watch program that’s designed to support families who discover life-threatening illnesses or conditions with their unborn children. Having been through something like this, I feel strongly about supporting an organization like this. Originally I thought the race was to raise money for Primary Children’s, but, it is not. However, I still feel this race is a worthy cause.

Here’s the part that really makes it personal to me: I’m running this race in honor of my beautiful niece, Ashley Marie Winn, who died a little over a year ago. I still miss her dearly and many of the positive lifestyle changes I’ve made in the last year (including taking up running, something I NEVER thought I would or could do) have been in her honor. So I’m going to run this race for her. See that beautiful smile? I would love for all kids to be able to smile like that.

If you’re interested in learning more about the race or in donating to the Angel Watch Program, here’s a link to the page they automatically created for me when I signed up. I didn’t make a goal on fundraising or anything, especially since I signed up so late, but if you’d like to support me in this, please feel free to visit the page: http://RunningWithAngels.kintera.org/tammyspage.

Wish me luck as I prepare to run for a great cause on Saturday!

Just a Saturday evening party

2011-05-15T11:55:00.001-06:00

Happy Sunday everyone, and what a beautiful day it is outside!! I’m seriously loving this spring weather that’s FINALLY arrived! Sorry about my two-week hiatus in writing in my blog. My computer was having some issues that I thought meant it had been hijacked so I’ve been using it on a very limited basis, but now we’re up and running again. So one of my first orders of business is to update my poor neglected blog.

Just a couple weeks ago someone I work closely with got married. The wedding itself was a quiet affair and then she left for a week and a half honeymoon in Puerto Rico. She’s fairly well-known in the community, as is her new husband, so they decided to have an open house celebration to commemorate their marriage. I felt humbled to be one of the people chosen to attend. But now I have a serious problem.

The open house was going to be held at one of the nicest restaurants in downtown, and I had absolutely nothing in my closet that I felt was appropriate to wear. So, I had to go on a little shopping excursion to figure out what I should wear. Well, here are the results of my thousands of steps through many stores. And the best part is, I got a steal on this dress!

Here are a few images from the party. One of my good friends agreed to go with me, which I really appreciated. He helped make it much more of a comfortable evening for me and blended seamlessly into the crowd too. Thanks be to great friends!

Here’s me with my colleague (doesn’t she look fabulous?) and three of us Zions ladies.

I was nervous when it got time to leave for the actual party because I’ve never really done anything like this before, but I thought the evening turned out very well. I was grateful I had the chance to attend.

Royal Wedding Mania!

2011-04-30T22:08:00.001-06:00

Like millions of other people around the world, I was delighted last November to hear that Prince William became officially engaged to Kate Middleton and planned to marry her in April. It seemed like such a fairy tale — the prince of England (who will one day be king) was marrying someone, a commoner no less even if her family is wealthy, and she’ll now be a princess.

It caught something in my romantic little heart that secretly desired to be some type of princess after watching countless Disney movies about princesses while I was growing up. So, like millions of others I started eating up each and every article that appeared daily in all the major entertainment publications about the wedding. It helps that I’m addicted to such news, even though I know it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. I was excited to picture what this big day would be like and what it would mean for England.

That was until I got tired of seeing headlines about it every day, especially dumb ones like speculation on where they’d be going on their honeymoon, what hat Kate would wear on any given day and others that I can’t even remember because they were so dumb that I blocked them.

In my mind, I got sick of hearing about it and just wanted it to be over. When the actual wedding was held yesterday, I’d decided I wasn’t even going to watch it because I was that sick of hearing about it. That is until my friend said something that completely changed my perspective.

She pointed out to me that it’s been 30 years since the last royal wedding in 1981 when Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer, which incidentally happened before either of us were born. And when would we ever see anything quite like this again, even if we’d only be enjoying it through TV news coverage of the event?

And that’s how I found myself last night at her house, glued to the TV as we fast forwarded through some of the boring parts to enjoy the spectacle that was the royal wedding. Yes, I can see the irony of this too. But I’m admitting it now without any shame. I’m as fascinated as the next person, and I do feel a certain connection to it since I’ve been to London and not only visited Westminster Abbey (where the marriage took place) but have also seen Buckingham Palace, even if it was just the outside.

Congratulations to Prince William and his new wife, Catherine. I wish them the best as they begin their new life together, especially since I’m sure they’ll never be free of paparazzi ever again. May they be blessed with posterity that will go on to become the next kings and queens of England and privacy too since nobody should have to live in the spotlight all the time.

Changes for singles wards

2011-04-30T21:37:00.001-06:00

I made a comment on my Facebook page the other day about how it’s interesting to be a single in the Church right now. Several people wondered what I meant by that. Rather than responding, I think it’s easier to just write a blog post that explains it all.

Since general conference a few weeks ago, it’s become clear the Brethren are concerned about the high number of singles in the church, so it came as no surprise to hear they were going to be making some major changes in the next few weeks. For three days this week they held meetings at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City to let us, the affected parties, know what these changes were going to be.

To sum it up, basically they’re getting rid of all university singles wards, except those on campus and are instead forming 12 singles wards between Farmington and Point of the Mountain. This is for two reasons: a) to give us more opportunities to meet other singles and b) to help keep track of people better or to eliminate overlap in who has jurisdiction over people so they don’t slip through the cracks. They started this in Ogden a year ago and have since done it in St. George and Cache Valley, to great success.

All six singles stakes on the U campus were dissolved, and all the singles wards on the south end of the valley formerly attached to family stakes are now in their own stakes. Basically we were told they’re eliminating several choices down to one: attend the singles ward in the boundaries where you live or the family ward. Period. Again, this will help get rid of confusion on who has jurisdiction over any given single so we can help fellowship those who’ve fallen away.

Tomorrow they’re having a special stake conference to announce all the new stake presidencies as well as the bishoprics of all the new wards. Some will be called back and others won’t. We’ll just have to see what happens. Of course, the ward leadership for many of the wards is going to be reorganized as well, so it’ll be almost constant change in the next few weeks.

I for one feel these changes are for the best and will be very interested to see how they all turn out. I’m sure much inspiration has gone into these decisions and it’ll be fascinating to see what happens.

Today I get to be the good Samaritan

2011-04-28T17:27:00.001-06:00

In the last year so many people have done so many nice things for me that I can’t even keep track of them all. Even if I went on for pages and pages I couldn’t do justice to all the kind things done and words spoken during difficult times.

These are the type of things you can’t ever pay back because they run too deep. But it’s not necessarily about paying it back; it’s more about taking the opportunity to pay it forward, to do something nice for someone else when the time is right.

Today I had the chance to do just that not once but twice. And I couldn’t feel better about that!

I’m not going to list specifics, but I had the opportunity to do something a little special for two good friends of mine who were having a rough day. I felt that was my good deed for the day and came home feeling pretty darn good.

As I walked to my car after my train got in this afternoon, a woman came up to me, obviously in distress and asked if I could give her a ride somewhere. I didn’t hesitate to tell her yes, so she climbed into my car and I took her where she needed to go, which, ironically enough, was basically on my way home anyway. I suppose I could’ve felt frightened by having this unknown person in my car, but it truly felt fine to me, and her distress was obvious, so I was glad to help.

Anyway, I tell this story not to make myself look good, but just because it made me feel so good. After having so many nice things done for me, it just felt great to be the one doing the nice things.

A day for reflection and rejoicing

2011-04-24T22:55:00.001-06:00

Today is Easter. Generally speaking, it’s a day when people think about the Easter Bunny coming to their house bringing eggs and baskets of candy. People who are religious will most likely attend the special Easter service at their church.

I could myself among this number. I am a religious person with strong faith. I attend church every week, but today’s meetings were very special for me. We always talk about our Savior Jesus Christ, but today He was the focus since we’re celebrating both his death and resurrection which together equal his atonement in our behalf.

Both speakers in church today talked about Christ. Although this is a big topic to tackle, I felt like both handled it gracefully and spoke with the Spirit. In fact, the Spirit was so strong throughout the entire meeting, and it carried into both meetings that followed. The teacher in Relief Society worked her lesson so it focused more on the Savior, and it came out beautifully, even if a little long.

The point of all this chatter is that my heart is full to overflowing with love for my Savior Jesus Chris. I can never repay what He’s done for me. Through his sacrifice, he’s made it possible for me to not only overcome death, but also to overcome all my weaknesses and shortcomings and be able to return to him.

He has the ability to comfort me and to succor me in just the manner that I need. I know that He is aware of me, and He loves me. He does ask me to pass through difficult things, but it’s never more than I can handle, and He’s there with me every step of the way. He truly has descended below us all so He can bring us up when we’re down and strengthen us when we’re weak and even continue to build us up in times when we’re strong. His Atonement is key to the great Plan of Happiness and enables us to get back to Him, which we couldn’t do on our own.

I’ve been reflecting on this idea all day.and figuring out how I can better use it in my life, how I can make His sacrifice for me more meaningful. I’m not going to put any specifics here, but I know I can apply it in better ways. I’m just grateful to have had this day to reflect and to rejoice. Because even though his Sacrifice was great, His resurrection is even greater.and is cause for celebration.

With the rest of the Christian world, today I reflect and rejoice in the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Happy Easter everyone.

There’s just something special about the mama

2011-04-20T21:18:00.001-06:00

I’ve been thinking a lot lately, well in the past year really, about the special relationship between mothers and daughters. There’s just not anything quite like it.

I think of the key moments in my life and my mom has been such an integral part of them. She’s always there supporting me and helping me. She believes in me, even sometimes when I can’t believe in myself. And by golly, she thinks I’m wonderful. But then again, she’s my mother so she’s required to think I’m wonderful.

There are just times when I want to reach out to my mom because I want or need her support. For example the other night when my picture fell and broke in the middle of the night and scared me half to death, who was the first person I wanted to call? My mom. But since I didn’t want to scare her half to death, I waited until a reasonable hour to do so. I wanted the sympathy that I knew she would give me, and of course she did.

I’m thinking about this for several reasons. The first is because of my dear Miss Ashley and her awesome mommy. It breaks my heart to think that my wonderful sister can no longer has that relationship because her daughter passed away. Now every time that I hear one of my friends who has children talk about their daughter, or even people who are older, it makes me think about that and hope they appreciate such a special relationship.

Along the same lines, I have several friends who no longer have their moms, and they have to struggle along without them. I can’t even imagine what a difficult trial that would be or what a huge hole it would leave in your life. It makes my heart hurt even thinking about it. So, to those friends (and some of you may read my blog), please know my heart goes out to you in a way I can’t even understand.

I dedicate this post to a very special person in my life whom I love with all my heart and appreciate more than words can even express: my mother. This is an old picture, but it shows exactly who my mom is (and yes we don’t look anything alike) and how happy she makes me. I know it’s still a few weeks until Mother’s Day, but I’ve been thinking about it lately which is why I’m writing about it now.

Scared the sleep right out of me!

2011-04-18T04:06:00.001-06:00

I just had one of the scariest experiences, and I really, really want to call someone but since it’s the middle of the night, I don’t think that’s such a great idea. Late night phone calls are never a good thing, and anyone I’d want to call doesn’t deserve to be woken up, especially since it’s not life threatening or anything.

I’ve been sick for the past couple of days and, shock of all shocks, I actually went to bed early last night because I was so tired and am trying hard to get better. I was having a weird dream anyway when I heard this huge crash in my bedroom, complete with the sound of breaking glass.

What in the world was that?!

About six months ago the light fixture in the laundry room took a flying leap from the ceiling and broke everywhere, so I thought it could’ve been the one in my room this time. Instead, I saw that my huge picture frame (I think it has 21 picture openings) had fallen off the wall and broken everywhere.

It’s always distressing to be startled awake like that, but it was worse to see this picture frame that means so much to me broken. I’d already dragged myself out of bed so I set to work picking up the pieces of the frame, particularly the glass. I don’t want to haul it out to the trash in the middle of the night so right now it’s downstairs waiting to be taken out when I leave for work in the morning.

Honestly, I think a big part of the reason this happened is because my last place had a problem with mold that I was unaware of until I moved. I discovered this frame was bowed from the moisture it was exposed to in my basement and have been concerned about that, but it’s been fine . . . until now.

But now I’m awake and am not sure I can get back to sleep. And I kind of feel like crying, which I think is relief as much as anything else. I’m kind of glad my cousin isn’t here right now because I’m certain this would’ve woken her up too, even though part of me wishes she were so I didn’t have to deal all by myself. Oh well. Now I can’t decide if I should vacuum right now or if I should wait until tomorrow. I’m leaning towards waiting though because I really don’t want to wake my neighbors up, in case that loud noise didn’t wake them already.

Here’s to hoping I can get at least a little more sleep.

A little modesty please!

2011-04-16T17:07:00.001-06:00

The other day I was out shopping with my friend, and I was disheartened by what I saw.

Immodest clothing everywhere I looked!

From tiny little (dare I say booty?) shorts to half shirts to sheer tops, I saw a lot of clothing that would leave little to the imagination if you wore it.

Yes, I know this isn’t a new problem, so why should it bother me now? I suppose it’s because I’ve come to appreciate a lot in the last year just how much your clothing says about you. I was told once that you don’t dress for the job you have but the one you want. Of course it doesn’t always work, but I’ve discovered people really do notice what you wear. I’ve tried to live this idea, and I must admit that I have a very nice wardrobe of tasteful clothing.

I know that layering is still all the rage, so not all of the clothing I saw is designed to be worn on its own, but even so I know that a lot of it will be. And it makes me sad. I can just picture some teenager trying to be cool and fit in by putting some of these clothes on her body, and it wouldn’t make her look like a person who should be respected. More like a person who’s cheap or easy, and who wants to be known for that?

No matter what age you are, you should always be mindful of the impression your clothing gives people because it always will whether you intend it or not. Just a couple weeks ago I saw this teenage girl on TRAX who was wearing these tiny little shorts that covered little of her legs and a halter top that left her entire back exposed. I’m sure she did it for the attention because if I as another female couldn’t help noticing, I know that this girl’s male friends probably couldn’t either.

I suppose my point in this post is that I think in this world we live in, a little modesty can go a long way. I wish more clothiers would provide us with a few more options for modest clothing.

A few more Tammy originals

2011-04-16T16:46:00.001-06:00

Just a few weeks ago I finished a jewelry making class. It didn’t fill all my expectations (the teacher was extremely unreliable), but I did learn some valuable and helpful things. I’m still not feeling like I’m a very talented jewelry maker, but it did encourage me to experiment a little bit and here are some fruits of my labor. I hope you enjoy.

I made this one in class:

These are the pieces I made for my sister-in-law for her birthday.

This I made for myself. I fell in love with the brown beads several months ago but didn’t want to use them to make a watch. Thanks to the class, I finally figured out what I wanted to make.

Last summer I took a class to learn how to make bracelet watches. It’s really fun and surprisingly easy. These first pictures are watches a couple of the watches I’ve made for myself.

Last weekend I made (and in one case fixed) these watches for my mom, two of my sisters and my niece. Aren’t they fun? I LOVE the polka dot beads on the last watch for my sister who’s just older than I am.

Finally, I also learned to make hair flowers, in my jewelry making class of all places. Yes, I know it’s kind of funny. These are the two I made, and I’m proud of how they turned out. I lost the headband one the other day, and I couldn’t be more crushed about that. Hopefully the pictures show you why.

Out with the old, in with the new

2011-04-11T23:08:00.001-06:00

When your trampoline looks like this, it’s probably time to get a new one.

After purchasing the new trampoline, the first step is to take the old one down as much as possible. Secondly, you should get all the pieces out of the new one and put them together. If your uncles who aren’t so technically inclined are helping you, it might be more of a complicated process than you think. But, never fear, it’ll still get done, especially when little girls get stubborn/insistent about it and threaten to do it themselves.

It might even be a family effort and your aunt will run around the trampoline strong arming the springs in. It’s harder than it looks! But luckily there’s a tool that makes the process a little easier. Yes, I realize these pictures don’t actually show her doing it, but she was the main one who did. I sure wish I’d capture it on film, but, alas, I did not.

And if the process makes you a little crazy, well, that’s just to be expected.

Once it’s finished, everyone should climb on and bounce like crazy. It doesn’t matter if the old trampoline was only cool occasionally. The new one is so much better!

Then you have the adult trampoline

and the kid one.

Aren’t new toys great?

Part of that family

2011-04-07T22:54:00.001-06:00

It's been way too long since I wrote in here, especially since my last post was much less than cheery. I keep meaning to do it and somehow don't get around to it. Sorry about that!

I wanted to share an experience I had tonight. I had the opportunity to spend the evening with a good friend and her family. They hadn't seen Tangled (as soon as I heard that I knew I had to fix it immediately!), so we watched that and then I was literally running through the house with her three-year-old son and two-year-old daughter. I thought they were going to be tired since it was near bedtime, but they had energy and to spare, and I kept up with them easily enough.

But the part that touched me was watching these good parents striving to teach their children. Although the kids are young, they're still making the effort to read the scriptures, just a small portion to fit their attention spans, mind you, but they're doing it. And then they had family prayer. I don't know that the kids retained any of this knowledge, but I applaud their parents for making the effort to do what they know is right and truly teach their children.

I was grateful to be part of it. It made me feel a great hope inside for the future. Although I'm not anywhere close to being a mom myself yet (I have to find a guy first and let's not even get me started on that), it made me realize this is something I want to do with my own kids someday. I know it's going to be hard and there will be plenty of things to dissuade me from doing it, but if I persist, it'll be well worth my while. Not to mention I'm going to be held accountable for how well I teach my children someday.

Kudos to this good friend and her husband for setting a great example for me.

One of those days. . .

2011-03-29T22:49:00.001-06:00

I should have known this morning it was going to be one of those days when I dropped my scraper under the car, exactly between the two back wheels where I couldn't reach it.

Or my first clue could've been when I was running late in the first place and came out only to discover a thick layer of frost on the car. That's when I dropped my scraper. Luckily, I have another one and was able to use that to pull the first out. I jumped in the car and hurried over to TRAX, knowing full well I was cutting it close. Too close it seems since I watched the 7:40 train take off as I was walking up.

Dang it!

I spent the morning doing some required training, some of which seems like common sense to me, but I guess others must not think so or I wouldn't have to do it. Nothing too catastrophic happened during the day, except I wasn't as productive as I should've been.

Since I was later than planned this morning, I had planned to stay a little later. What I didn't anticipate was a last-minute meeting with my supervisor who will be out of the office for the next couple of days just as I was walking out the door. It was short but just long enough to make me miss both the 5:25 and 5:40. I think the 5:40 train must've come early because I came out almost exactly then.

Add it to my list.

At that point I just took it all in stride and settled in for a chilly wait for the train. I had some reading I was behind on anyway so I was able to catch up.

There was a class I wanted to go to at the gym at 7:30 so I rushed home from TRAX, threw it together, raced upstairs to change into my exercise clothes and took off. I was only about 5 minutes late, but I was distressed to discover the aerobics room completely full and the equipment short. Luckily one of the ladies told me her daughter had decided not to do the class so I could just use her equipment.

But I did find that the class actually started at 7:15 instead of 7:30. I had a feeling that was going to be the case and even called the gym to make sure it wasn't, but, alas, such was not the case. Oh well.

As I published this post my blog did the weird thing where it takes out all the spaces for some unknown reason, so now I have to do it from my desktop. What the heck?

To end on a happy note, I have a couple good things that happened today. First, I wore my fabulous new shirt today and had quite a few compliments on it. Thanks to my mom and sister for recommending I buy it. Secondly, on my mad rush up to the gym, I hit all green lights, which is how I wasn't later than 5 minutes. Yay!

Discrimination!

2011-03-21T22:36:00.002-06:00

On Saturday night I realized late in the evening that I might need a last-minute item from the store. I loaded myself up into the car and raced down the freeway to Kohl's to check the situation out. It turned out that I chose not to buy the item I'd gone to see because it was too expensive, but I did a little looking whilist I was there.

I've been feeling the need for new sheets in the last little while, so I decided to quickly check the selection. And I found the most luxurious set of 600 count sateen sheets, and I thought I'd found exactly the set for me, whenever such time comes that I choose to buy said sheets. . . until I realized something very important.

The sheets don't come in twin size.

They come in full/queen or queen/king but no twin anywhere to be found. Ugh! I felt very discriminated against as a single person who chooses to keep a twin bed instead of upgrading to a queen. They had another version of the sheets that does come in twin, but they were not as high thread count as the other ones. And, really, it's the principle of the thing. This isn't the first time I've found that set of sheets in every size but twin either, which only added to my frustration.

Come on stores, even if I don't have a queen bed I still like nice sheets, so stock them in ALL sizes please!

Shoe Snob!

2011-03-15T22:02:00.001-06:00

Like many women, I’ve always appreciated a good pair of shoes. Until I lived with the Bibliophile, I used to think I had a lot of shoes, but then I discovered differently. Although I have a nice collection, I’ve never truly felt a lack . . . until recently.

I first heard about DSW from the Fashionista, and I visited it for the first time last May. But I didn’t buy my first pair of shoes there until about six weeks ago. And now I’m ruined forever!

I don’t mean I’m only going to buy shoes from DSW; on the contrary I’ll look for them wherever I can find them. But I am ruined by the fact that I now love extremely tall heels. And I had no idea how much people notice shoes until I wore my hot heels and received many compliments on them. Now I desire more and more. . .

Once upon a time, heels like this would have delighted me.

Now I’m ruined forever because I’m officially in love with shoes like this, or hooker heels as my brother-in-law called them because they’re so tall.

And in case you’re wondering, yes I did have to learn to walk in these, but I’m doing very well so far. Oh and I forgot to mention how much fun it is to be taller than someone for once in my life. I’ve never experienced that before, and I find I enjoy it.

Adventures on TRAX

2011-03-12T18:57:00.003-07:00

I've officially been riding the train to work for a little over six months now. Since I'd heard lots of stories from others who are regular TRAX riders I half expected to have gathered quite a collection of them. Since I ride during the commuter times most of my fellow passengers are businesspeople, so for the most part I haven't had too many interesting stories. . . until the last couple of weeks.

Last Friday I was on my way home. When I don't care to be bothered, I usually put my iPod in, and people leave me alone. I think we were about at 1300 South when these two girls got on with a guitar. I hate to be stereotypical, but they looked like the folksy-type people who would enjoy playing the guitar.

I was surprised when they took a seat on the floor. It's true there wasn't a lot of space, but I'm guessing they could've found a place. It was even more interesting when they pulled out the guitar and started having a mini concert right there on the train. Skeptical Tammy (who's been to New York and seen as much) half expected them to ask for money, but such was not the case. Instead, they seemed to be singing just for the sake of singing.

At first I left my iPod in and tried to tune them out, but then I decided I'd rather listen because they sounded good together. I talked to them a little bit and listened until they got off at the same stop as me. But the funniest part of the story wasn't the guitar players but the other girl in that section of the train. She apparently decided since these girls weren't afraid to sing in public, neither should she be. As I walked toward my car, I was being serenaded to her rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." I'm not a singer myself, but she wasn't either, so I didn't necessarily think it was wise on her part.

The next experience happened just this week. I'd been working from home that morning so I was taking the train at a different time than normal. Again, I had my iPod in and was minding my own business. I was only two stops away from work when this older gentleman with a walker got on the train. If there hadn't been a seat, I would've given mine up, but as it was, there was no need. What I didn't expect was for him to take up a conversation with me.

It seemed innocent enough. . . until he started telling me all these things about me were beautiful, from my shades (I keep them on to look less approachable, but it doesn't always work) to my ring to my appearance. That made me feel slightly uncomfortable even if I felt like he was mostly harmless. I was almost at my stop when he held out his hand to introduce himself, I reached mine out and instead of shaking it, he kissed it. Yeah, even more uncomfortable. Sweet, but slightly weird too. I was glad for my stop.

This entry is already very long, but I have one more quick thing to share, but it involves me narrowly avoiding a face plant off TRAX, so I hope it's worthwhile to keep reading. I was wearing heels (luckily not my hooker heels or I would've been in serious trouble!) and I tripped over the hem of my pants. Since I was holding the rail, I caught myself before I could fall, but it was close though!

Remembering Ashley

2011-03-07T21:14:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, last week was the one year anniversary of my beautiful niece’s passing. As part of that day, my sister and her husband (this niece’s parents) came down here for a day to do some of her favorite activities to help us remember her and celebrate her life. I think it was nice to be able to do so and would like to share pictures of that day.

One of the things I was excited about in having my sister’s family visit was to show them my new home. And they liked it too! We planned to go to the aquarium right when it opened, only to discover that wasn’t until 11 a.m. So, we took the boys to the mall so they could get out some of that energy.

After our little jaunt to the mall, we hit the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. We came not a moment too soon as it gets busy pretty much as soon as it opens. Here’s a few highlights.

This is Kimball by the toads if I’m not mistaken and then Dennis driving pretend boat out on the Great Salt Lake. Notice the position of his hat. Yes, this is one cool kid.

Call me narcissistic if you will, but I do like pictures of myself at these family events to prove I was there. Here’s me with Kimball and there’s Eugene by the lionfish. Did you know they’re actually poisonous to humans and can really harm you?

Dennis was fascinated by the stingrays. He probably spent 20 minutes just standing there touching them as they swam past.

Next we went to South America. I didn’t take pictures of all the critters because frankly some of them are just plain creepy. But I LOVED the penguins! I’m hoping I can upload my video of them jumping in and out of the water. So cute!

Finally, we ate lunch at Chuck-a-rama because that was Miss Ashley’s favorite.

Sad day! I just discovered that I can’t upload the video because,alas I don’t have a YouTube account, and my Internet is being super slow so I can’t get one either. Oh well! Perhaps I’ll post that separately.

In Memorium

2011-03-03T17:26:00.003-07:00

It was one year ago today that our beautiful angel was taken home to her Father in Heaven. It was a relief at the time to know her suffering was over and she could finally be at peace, but man did it hurt to know she was gone, that we wouldn't see her in this life again.

One year later, well, it still hurts to know that she's gone. The hole is still there, and nothing can ever fill it. I was talking about this with a good friend just a few weeks ago. We were talking about the fact that you don't ever really get over losing someone you love, but you just get stronger so you can bear it. And that's what has really happened to me this year.

Grief comes in waves and at different times. And sometimes it's surprising what brings it on. Like last summer when I was sorting through some papers and found a picture she drew of me, complete with earrings. I cried over that. Later, after my actual move when I was unpacking a box one day, I came across the Willow Tree figure a dear friend and her mother gave me after Ashley's passing. It's called "Always I will remember." I was struck again at how kind it was for them to do that, and then it hit me that she would never be coming to see my new place. I could never make memories with her here, and that brought on a whole new round of grief that I wasn't really prepared for. But I dealt with it, just as I've dealt with everything else this year.

Although I feel sad and broken inside just now, I also want you all to know that I know without a shadow of a doubt that although Ashley is no longer here on the earth, she is not gone. That has been made very clear to me in the last year. I have felt her near at different times, and I know she watches over us. She's been at key family events the same as she would've been had she not died. She's just shown her love and support in a different way. How touching and merciful of our Father in Heaven to allow her to do that.

Lest I end this post on a sad note and leave everyone depressed, I'm going to put happy things in here too. I dedicate this post to my beautiful niece, Ashley Marie Winn, in memory of the way she touched so many lives in just a short space of time. I dedicate it to her beautiful smile, to her ability to love, to how she loved to have fun, to her cute dancing, to her ability to endure the trials of her mortal life. I dedicate it to her delightful sass, to her intelligence and to everything that made her Ashley. Her life may have been short, but it was very well lived. And I'm still banking on the day when I can see her again, take her into my arms and tell her just how much I love her!

The 31-Day Sugar Challenge

2011-03-01T22:53:00.003-07:00

The time has come to take drastic measures again. And guess what that means? Yup, for the entire month of March (and into April too if I can handle it), I will not be partaking of any sugars, save only the natural variety. Yes, I know that it's in virtually everything so i can't get away from it completely, but I can sure avoid quite a few calories by staying away from the blatant versions of it, i.e. desserts, etc.

I want to be healthier, and quite honestly I've been overindulgent during my birth month. It hasn't affected me quite as much as it could have, but I'm terrified of going that direction so I decided it was time to manage the situation in the best way I could. That means giving up dessert for the next 31 days, and I know that I can do it!

A lot of my reasons for doing this have to do with being healthier and continuing to lose weight, but the other part of it is to prove to myself that I can. I did it last May, which is also 31 days, and a few times it felt like I was surely going to wither away from lack of sugar, but I did not. Not only was I stronger for it, but it seriously cut down on the sugar I consumed in the months that followed. I've tried to repeat this two other times since and keep failing, so it's time to prove to myself that I can.

Wish me luck in this endeavor! Sorry you have to share in this, but I need the accountability that writing in my blog provides, so you get to be involved vicariously. Isn't that fun?! :)

Birthday recap

2011-02-26T22:25:00.001-07:00

Sorry about my last post — I was extremely frustrated and somewhat at my wit’s end, but I’m feeling so much better. Now it’s time to give a recap of my birthday!!!

My birthday this year was a great mix of friends and family spread out over the month of February. It was a luxury to be able to celebrate with all my siblings since I don’t usually get to do so, but since I took the trip to Idaho for work, I was able to see everyone in my immediate family in only a week! That’s no small feat considering that we’re spread throughout Idaho and Utah. And since it was soon going to be my birthday, they all wanted to celebrate with me.

It started in Boise with my older sister and her family. We went out to dinner at TGI Fridays while I stayed at their house during the first part of my Idaho tripl.

My next celebration was with my two sisters and their families in Logan.I originally thought I might be able to go back last weekend, but it didn’t work out as I had intended, so it was good we did celebrate while I was there.

Even Panther wants to help me celebrate. How cute! Or he could just be interested in playing with the string. That’s possible too.

The next part of my birthday celebration took place at my aunt’s house the night before my birthday. It was lovely with dinner and some White Collar. Nothing like an attractive and charismatic criminal to help celebrate my birthday. Yummy! I forgot my camera that night so, alas, I don’t have any pictures. My dear aunt and cousins do such a great job of looking after and taking care of me. Thanks to them for helping make my special day great since my own family couldn’t be here.

My actual birthday was wonderful! I took the day off work, went to the gym in the morning, had a mani/pedi of which I just realized I have no pictures. Then I went out to lunch and to Park City my my dear friend and her two darling children. Here are a couple pictures of my birthday buddies.

A is entertaining herself in the Croc outlet store in Park City. Next to her is her darling baby brother.

We got just a little carried away in Park City so I had to rush home for the party, but it turned out to be okay. It was a small gathering but still great. I have such wonderful friends in my life! I also have a wonderful family whom I love with all my heart. I talked to almost all my siblings on that day as well.

In case you’re wondering, yes part of the cake was already gone, but it’s because we’d used it for the family party the night before. My aunt offered to make another one for me, but I didn’t really see a need. A helped blow out my candles.

My awesome friends!

See, my special day was wonderful!! Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate!