Monday, July 13, 2009
The little things are really the big things!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Margaret Mitchell says...............

She wrote "Gone with the Wind" while she lived in the house below which is in Atlanta on Peach Street. She was born November 8, 1900. The house is now a museum open for tours. She died at the age of 49 after being hit by a speeding drunk driver while crossing Peach Street at 13th Street.

Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 for her novel "Gone With the Wind." She wrote this novel while being bedridden with a broken ankle. After she read all the historical books from the library, her (2nd) husband suggested she write her own story which she did. She used what she learned from the library books, the encyclopedia on "civil war" and included characters from her own life. The character of Rhett appears to be modeled after her first husband, a bootlegger and abusive alcoholic. There is no mention of her having children.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Tonight was a First! Thanks Ashley and Jason!
I stopped at Yo-cream on my way home from work so I had root beer float and chocolate with cherry frozen yogurt. That was my refreshment for FHE. I just had it before rather than after the lesson! (In case anyone is counting calories for me, I only had 1/2 of the small size so I had portion control!)
My activity for tonite will be mowing my yard so I need to get on that right away!
I'm not sure what refreshments will be served in Folsom but I'm sure it will be yummy! I think playing with the dancing, talking Elmo was the activity there and I was able to observe that!
I'm looking forward to having FHE with them again - it was GREAT!!!
The article that Ashley used for the lesson is by President Monson at the last general conference. You can find it on the Internet at the link below:
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=1b6b230bac7f0210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD
Sunday, July 05, 2009
A gift to myself.......... (2009)
I had braces when I was 18 yrs old and after my retainer broke my teeth moved forward some. Back in those days, the orthodontists didn't think you needed to wear a retainer long term so my teeth did gradually move.
I was really uncomfortable with my teeth because I would get food stuck between my teeth when I ate meals. I always felt like I had food hanging out from between my teeth after eating and before brushing. This especially bothered me at work after lunch. Once in awhile someone would tell me that I had food stuck and I would attend to it. The other embarrassing issue with my teeth was that people often told me I had something black between my front teeth. There wasn't anything between my front teeth except air that looked black from looking into my mouth. The orthodontist called this a black diamond. As you age, your gums recede and it causes these black diamonds.
I am so thrilled to have my teeth straightened and the black diamonds eliminated. It's even easy to floss now! I love my teeth once again! I'm hoping that with my mouth guard, I will be able to keep my teeth straight for the next 50 years!!! Thanks Nate - I am so happy! I appreciate consulting with you! You are a dentist that I trust 100%.
Mother's day weekend - 2009
Post-surgery recovery with Nate & family (May 2009)
Comfort Food and Recovery (April / May 2009)
In the beginning, I wasn't taking pictures of anything. After Ashley came, I did take pictures of Paisley but that was all. By the time Jenna came I was feeling better and took pictures of Weston and some of the delicious meals that we had. By the time Charity came, I was overdoing it and didn't feel well again - as a result, there are no pictures of Charity's cooking.
I'm sorry that I don't have an assortment of pictures from all the yummy meals that I had. Misty made me a week's worth of meals that she put in my freezer. Those were great and I especially enjoyed my favorite Japanese pancakes. Misty knows what I like!
Unbeknown to me, Ashley wasn't feeling well when she came because she was in the early months of her pregnancy. I was so impressed that she managed to make delicious meals anyhow. She took really good care of me. My favorites from her menu were the chicken enchiladas, the pizza, and the talapia. I wish I had pictures to show you. Your mouth would water if you could see them.
Even Charity made a delicious mother's day meal of lasagna, garlic bread, salad, and dessert. It was wonderful and we all enjoyed it very much. She was so thoughtful to be prepared so we didn't have peanut butter sandwich instead.
Well, Jenna is a great cook also so I greatly enjoyed her meals and captured a few pictures to give you an idea of how blessed I was during those 3 weeks.
This picture below is a breakfast dish - it was scrumptious!!! Fantastic presentation too!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Post-surgery recovery with Jenna and Weston (week 3)
This is a picture of Weston (above) venturing off to check out the Columbia River......
and get me out of the house for an hour!
I really enjoyed seeing the river while we enjoyed our dinner and the festive atmosphere.
Also, some of the people at the tables around us enjoyed watching him also.
I felt so fortunate to be the grandmother of this little guy!
before settling in to check out the drawer contents (below).
It was also amazing to see him eat without a bib and you can see he was almost done eating at this point and hadn't gotten any food on himself.
(Spray 'n Wash isn't making any money off of this little boy - at least not from his eating!)
His pajama shirt says "Handsome just like my daddy!" Isn't that so true?
It was fun to watch him throw and then run to pick them up.
He's one smart little boy and knows what he wants!
You can see how close his foot was to the edge of the seat. He'd quickly stand up, look around, and then quickly sit down when Jenna would ask him to.
It makes me happy right now just thinking about how cute he was!
He's a strong little guy flexing his muscles! I wonder where he learned that?
He'd go off to sleep without any tears. We wouldn't hear anything until he woke up.
Even then he was so quiet that Jenna was usually the only one that heard him.
Neither Paisley nor Weston woke me up ever during their visits! I was impressed by that!
Weston was exploring once again.....
Friday, May 29, 2009
Smile Every Day!
During the past year, the Church's Young Women general presidency has issued a simple challenge to youths worldwide: Read the scriptures every day, pray every day and smile every day.
They promise that if a person does these things every day, 100 percent of the time, it will change the world. "From small and simple things great things will come to pass," said Sister Elaine S. Dalton, Young Women general president.
And while the youths may feel like reading the scriptures and praying every day are hard things to do, Sister Dalton says the most challenging part of the formula may also be simplest: smiling.
Who knows if a smile can change the world, but research shows that it certainly can improve a person's life. A recent study found that a habit of genuine smiling may contribute to happiness and better adjustment in life.
Researchers in the study looked through 141 photos in a Mills College (Oakland, Calif.) yearbook and separated out genuine smilers from inauthentic ones. The smilers were contacted at age 27, 43 and 52 and asked about the status of their marriage and life satisfaction.
The women with the genuine smiles were more likely to be married and stay married. They were also more likely to experience greater sense of personal well-being. These results were found to be consistent in a 30-year follow up ("A Genuine Smile Goes a 'Long Way,'" Vijai P. Sharma, www.mindpub.com).
For many years the conventional wisdom has been that people are happy because they are successful. But additional researchers, who analyzed 225 studies involving 275,000 people, found the truth might be just the opposite — that people are successful because they are happy.
Happy people are easier to work with, more highly motivated and more willing to tackle difficult projects. Thus they are more likely to be successful, found a 2005 study published by the American Psychological Association.
And a 2008 study shows that people who don't smile have a negative impact on their friends, and even people they don't know.
Each happy friend a person has boosts their chances of happiness by 9 percent. Having grumpy friends decreases it by about 7 percent, found researchers in a paper published last December in a British medical journal ("Smile! Study says being happy can be contagious," Deseret News, Dec. 5, 2008).
It might also be interesting to note that the researchers found that money cannot buy happiness. According to the research, extra money increased a person's odds of being happy only marginally — notably less than the odds of being happier if you have a happy friend.
So, during this time of economic doom and gloom, Church members should find things to smile about.
"Be happy," said President Gordon B. Hinckley in a 1978 Church Educational System fireside address. "Let that happiness shine through your face and speak through your testimonies."
President Hinckley noted that he met many people "who constantly complain about the burden of their responsibilities."
"Of course," he said, "the pressures are great. There is much, too much, to do. There are financial burdens to add to all of these pressures, and with all of this we are prone to complain, frequently at home, often in public. Turn your thinking around. The gospel is good news. Man is that he might have joy."
President Hinckley said he enjoyed the words of Jenkins Lloyd Jones written in a June 12, 1973, Deseret News column: "Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed.
"Most putts don't drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise.
"Life is like an old-time rail journey — delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."
Abraham Lincoln put it another way: "Most folks," he said, "are about as happy as they make their minds up to be".
Church members, said Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve, "have so much to smile about, be happy about, yes, even to laugh about."
Yet, often, he said, many of us wait to show our smile. "Don't wait for tomorrow. Don't wait for the right job, the right house, the right salary, the right dress size. Be happy today. Be happy now. (Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Lessons Learned in the Journey of Life," Ensign, December 2000, 7).
So read your scriptures, and pray every day, 100 percent of the time. But in the process, don't forget to smile. If you do, you might just change the world. (Church News publication 5/23/09)
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It took me all week to do this post because I hated to cover up all Paisley's cute pictures. However, when I read this article on smiling, I thought it had a good message and wanted to share it. I guess I need to smile more since I'm not married! (Just kidding!)