My NEW Best Friend

Ok, NOT to offend any of you, but I think I have found my new best friend. I am not sure whose blog I found this on (anyone? anyone?), but check out this COZI website. I would love to know who developed it - had to be a bunch of busy techie women (or is it tecKie?).

Love it love it - I am going to try it out!

Photo Blast

Besides Disney, we visited family and friends in Utah and Vegas.
Here are a few highlights:

Nieces Julia and Hillary (not sisters, but cousins):

Ryan, Andrea and Lydia with "Bishop T"

Greg and Kate's girls - we got to meet new baby Afton Noel - too sweet.

Take Two

Niece Laura and the BYU Creamery!

A classic cousin photo (plus one boyfriend in the back right, holding a niece's baby girl):

Rich's Sister, Liz and her gorgeous daughters and grandbaby

Bday Breakfast at....
...And Bday cake with the cousins!


THANK YOU, FAMILY AND FRIENDS, FOR LETTING US INTERRUPT YOUR BUSY LIVES! WE LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH.
WE ARE BLESSED.

Yep - Pretty Much a Happy Place!

My baby turned 17 last Saturday! To celebrate, we capitalized on an already planned trip out west and went to Disneyland! I am sooo grateful that my teenager still loves that stuff! Les got her hair cut off again, and it looks pretty cute - even with the Indiana Jones hat she bought with her birthday money. That is her new best friend. She enjoyed watching the Jedi Training since she is a complete Star Wars geek, but was a little sad that it was only for little kids. Dang little kids! OH well....

She and Dad enjoyed Tower of Terror and that Paradise Pier thing that shoots straight up in the air. Neither are for me. Nooo sir, nope.

We topped off the visit with a birthday dinner at Rainforest Cafe. Dad enjoyed sitting by the gorilla. Scary either way you look at it.

We were amazed at how many friends we made when we all wore our BYU shirts. And, only a couple of enemies. It must have been Mormon Week at our hotel and at the parks. Fascinating - only a few scouls were shot our way - must be people who opposed Proposition 8. In fact, I am sure of it.

Enjoy the collage - click on it to enlarge the photos if you want to.

Get your Staples

I have LOVED stationery products since I was a little girl. I remember my dad coming home with crisp legal-sized yellow ruled pads of paper, cool drafting pencils, and I of course needed to use it all. OR maybe it started when I was 14 and my sister in law, Darlene, and I "invented" scrapbooking (seriously - another time I will post about that - had we done something about it, she'd be a bazillionaire). I crave scrapbook papers and I have a million pieces, and sadly, don't use them often enough.

Today I went in to my local Staples and it is apparent that they have finally noticed that WOMEN do a lot of purchasing at that store. I saw beautiful patterned file folders, brightly colored magnets and clips, and a huge amount of personal stationery papers. I was sooo happy!! I couldn't find much of these online, so you may have to get off the computer and go into the store to be delighted with the new papers and products. What did I buy? Nothing much - but I KNOW where to find it when I NEED it!!

OH, and I am totally going to make one of these. I ordered the calendars today! I ordered 3 - who wants to come over and make one with me? (Look on the side bar of Stacy's blog - I am still famous and have one of my posts still listed there.... woo hoo...).

Maryland Icing

We got a little icing overnight...I am not a great photographer,
but these are quite pretty, I think....

One of the beauties of the east coast!

School of Hard Knocks Attendee

For those of you who are around us a fair bit, you know that 2008 has been pretty challenging. Ok, I am just gonna say it – it has been the year from H-E-L-L. If you want details, call me. One day I will blog more about it, when I am ready and when those involved are ready. I am happy to tell it Adios.

How funny (not the ha ha funny) it is that when I started this blog earlier this year I was going to call it something cliché, like “48 and GREAT in 2008”. I am soooo very glad I didn’t. It would seriously be embarrassing now. Besides, I am not 48 anymore. Blogging has been very therapeutic for my husband and for me this year – a needed escape, a creative outlet, and it has assisted in some healing. I love technology!

As the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us, our weaknesses and challenges can become our strengths and our blessings. I have learned more than ever before that this is in fact TRUE. My dear mother would have called it making it through “the school of hard knocks”. I haven’t graduated from it yet, but really, do we ever?

So, here is what I learned in 2008:

~You NEVER know what will hit you that will prove what you are really made of

~Heavenly Father IS in charge

~The Holy Ghost is REAL and ready to reveal answers when you are ready to listen

~Prayers ARE answered – often not in the way we would hope

~Prayers are OFTEN answered through other people – this I know

~My husband is TRULY my companion, my love, and my helpmeet

~We can use the AMAZING examples of pioneer ancestors, or any worthy ancestor, as shining lights through life’s challenges

~When people say, “OH, your family will be SO blessed as you support your missionary”, don’t try to guess in what ways that will be – AND, that is only because Heavenly Father IS in charge (see #2 here) and the blessings will more than likely absolutely be ones you were NOT expecting to ever need

~Having “sufficient for your needs” is really ALL that matters, and it can be both temporal as well as spiritual

~A sense of humor is KEY to surviving life

~Friends ARE presents from God, especially ones who 1) write stake conference talks just for you, 2) pray for you even after the crisis, 3) distract you by teaching you new skills or through lunch dates and shoe shopping 4) just love you even though they don’t know what to say (which is really okay)

~It is BETTER to hear the “straight story” from those who hold information about a situation that may be unpleasant to hear, yet, it should be heard

~Family, though far away, always LOVES, cares and comes through

On less serious notes:

~politics is both exhausting and polarizing

~googlereader is a wonderful thing

~my house will never be completely clean and I cannot blame kids for that

What’s the point of it all if we don’t learn and then share, right?

Lost but now in Twilight

I admit it. I have been a Twilight Snob. I thought, "What is the big deal?", especially for women my age. Well. well. well. I stand corrected. I saw the movie twice actually, once with my friend Carrie and then again with my daughter. Loved it. I was lost but now I see. Guess I better read the dang books now.