Time Out For Women

This last weekend, I attended a Time Out For Women at Weber State University. It was sponsored by Deseret Book. It was a little pricey but decided to go anyway. I more than got my monies worth!! It was the best experience that I have had for a long long time. I haven't laughed as hard OUT LOUD for forever. I haven't shed as many tears for quite awhile. And I haven't been forced to take a look--mostly inner--at myself in a REALLLLLLLLLY long time. It was a life changing event for me. I was absolutely NOT ready for it to be over when the closing prayer was said. They had a number of presenters and all were FABULOUS. They had several vocal artists that shared their talents with us in music. All made you stop and think about your own individual life and how parallel it is (or isn't) with Christ and the gospel. At the beginning of the weekend, they asked us to write down or mentally make a list of what we know. And then think about those things and how they help/hinder us in life NO MATTER WHAT. I'm grateful for the knowledge of the gospel, my testimony of it, the knowledge of Christ and His atonement, the knowledge that life continues after this one, the knowledge that I can be with my family throughout all of eternity, that my Savior and Heavenly Father love ME--even when I feel so undeserving, that God still speaks to us today to help us return to live with Him again, and mostly that I do NOT have to go through this life and it's experiences alone--He is ALWAYS with me and I also have the love and support of my family. I am truly blessed and more than I feel I deserve most days. I am a child of God. NO MATTER WHAT!!!
One of the guys from the band, Jericho Road, invited several men to join him on stage and help him recreate a boy band for the evening. I absolutely HURT after they got done. I laughed so hard!!! Check it out if you crave a silly laugh out loud moment in your crazy world. It's worth the time and the laughs! ">http://deseretbook.com/video/embed/106"

A Christmas Getaway Gift

A HUGE thanks to my kids for the AWESOME Christmas gift of time away at a nice place and an unrushed and fancy dinner at the Roof in Salt Lake City. Wow! We really enjoyed our stay and time away from the pressures and stresses of daily life. What a gift!!! Dad was a little hesitant to take the time off and just escape from life for a short time but has thanked me several times since we got home for the time we spent together. I thanked him several times before we even left the Inn. (I recognized his sacrifice in being away from his very demanding job).It is difficult to schedule time away but when it is given as a gift.....kinda forces you to take advantage of it. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! We actually got to stay in 2 different rooms---a scheduling glitch that came up at the last minute but it turned out to be a GREAT thing. We enjoyed the first room that we were in--it had a BEAUTIFUL view of the Salt Lake Valley. Really nice. But.....the second room we stayed in was pretty spectacular! It was so elegant and luxurious--I would LOVE to have a room like that of my own someday. It was done in GOLD, white and RED. Do I need to say more? I instantly fell in love with the room decorated with two of my favorite colors!! When we went to dinner at the Roof, we were fortunate enough to be there as they turned the lights on at the Salt Lake Temple! Brought back some sweet memories as Dad and I were taken back thirty years to our wedding day in that stunning building. We naturally ate tooooooo much and we overindulged by partaking of the MANY decadent desserts that they offer. I couldn't decide on one so had to taste 3 or 4!! We saw several movies and went shopping at the Gateway but it was such a relaxing couple of days. Not sure what other people do when they are given such a great gift but we loved just being together and relaxing. We didn't even answer our cell phones--not even once!! So, hats off and a big THANKS again to my sweet and wonderful children that gave such a thoughtful gift to their old, grumpy, boring, stuck-in-a-rut parents. WE LOVED IT! By the way, the first room went for $289.00 and the second goes for $329.00. Dinner was the full $100.00 with the tip for the SUPER FABULOUS waiter. Guess you could say that you all and WE got our monies worth!! What a great deal we all got!

Going Private

I have decided to go private. I found out that some people in my area were doing some things that were a little "ify" in my book sooooooo am going to close my blog down to just my children and a few close friends. Sorry. In today's world, you just can't be TOO careful. Amber, I need your email address since it somehow got deleted from my address book. I have your old one but not your current one.

Pictures to Prove We Actually Work--Not Just Tear Apart!!

We're finally getting to the put-back-together phase at the little house in Ioka. We have installed new front and back doors; laid tile in the kitchen, laundry area and bathroom; painted ONE wall in the kitchen--the wall where the lower cabinets go; and installed a new toilet and vanity and new faucets in the bathroom. We bought wood flooring for the living room this week and took it out so that it can "acclimate" to the temperature of the house. We need to finish installing the lower kitchen cabinets and do some serious painting but I'm excited that things are starting to actually come together instead of always demolishing stuff! In the next few weeks we also hope to start laying the new hardwood flooring in the living room. Always busy but at least we are starting to see some of the "fruits" of our labors!!! Notice Grandpa's technique for hanging cabinets!! What a crazy man to use his head for supporting the weight of cabinets while Terry screws them to the walls. Grandpa and Grandma stopped by for about 30 minutes and man oh man, we put them right to work! PS--we took them to dinner afterwards so their efforts didn't go without some payoff!

Vinyl Frame

Okay Ali, here is the pic of that way cute vinyl sign that Betty made and gave to me for Christmas. If you have questions, please let me know. I absolutely love that you can change out the center for different holidays/and or months. Guess they made them at Super Saturday this year. I didn't go cuz we were out of town for something. Anyway, super cute!

A Huge HoHo and his Reindeer

A man that lives close to Layton High School made these sculptures totally out of snow and used spray paint for the color. I thought my grandkids might like to see them before the sun melts his beautiful artwork away. Rudolph looks really good at night cuz his nose lights up but I couldn't get a good picture of him so here he is in the daylight. Some people just seem to get more than their share of talent!

The Weather Outside is FRIGHTFUL!!!

Here's a few pictures of our latest snowfall. We got about 10 inches on the East Bench. Some parts of Utah County got more than a foot. The mountains got anywhere from 24-36 inches. We are headed to Ioka around noon today so wish us luck as we tredge through all this new snow. John and Terry are out cleaning the snow at our house as I write. They may be out there for a very looooong time! The pictures are from the front door and back door. I'm not actually crazy enough to step out into the stuff!! Come on, a girl has to have standards! The roof line has so much snow from past storms that it is just kinda sliding off onto the deck out back. From the looks of things, we better grow dang big and beautiful flowers this spring with all this snow!