Today at church we had a lesson on being grateful. It was discussed that at times with all the negative news around us, all the busyness of our lives that we don't take the time to appreciate all the goodness in our lives. So right now I would like to say what I am grateful for right now in my life.
-to be alive
-to be married to Keith
-to have the children and grandchildren that Heavenly Father has blessed me with
-to live in such a beautiful place surrounded by mountains and water
-to be free to worship God the way I want
-to still have my mom alive
-to have brothers and sisters in laws that love me
-for my job
-for the staff that work with me
-for Keith's priesthood
-to have a husband who loves me as much as he does and who never goes a single day without telling me how beautiful I am
-for my almost sisters
-for the friendships that I have cultivated over the years
-for finding new cousins this past week that even though we are 5th cousins twice removed, it still is new family and I can never have too big of a family
-for my passion for genealogy
-to live at a time where modern technology has allowed me to keep connected with family and friends from all over the world. (and yes I know I complain about too much electronic static hehehe)
And finally yes I am even grateful for my cancer. Because it more then anything else has taught me how precious life is, how precious my family is, how I can never EVER stop being grateful for all that I have in my life. Today I am able to breathe, to love, to be loved, I can play house with my granddaughters and play video games with my grandsons; I am able to have them over for sleepovers, I am able to share family traditions that are such a part of who I am with my children; I am never too old to learn new things, I can still find joy at walking along the water at 6 in the morning with my children and grandchildren and forget that my joints hurt; I am able to grow old with my husband knowing that even when I am very old rocking in my chair in the back yard that he will still be there to help me up and give me a wet willie :)
Today I love my life and am very grateful.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Sally wants....
Ok this is HILARIOUS!!! I have been laughing so hard doing this that it actually has been helping the strain and dryness in my eyes from the drops cause I have been crying laughing hehehe. This is what you do... go to your google search.. and type in using quotation marks the following "your own name wants" such as "sally wants" and then copy the top 10 page links it gives you. You can also do "your name needs" . Then let me know what yours says :)
1. Sally wants a man she can call her own
2. Sally wants full track for free (not sure what track I want but ok)
3. Sally wants to go MP3 searching
4. Sally wants can't talk but her drawings kick butt :)
5. Sally wants to go
6. Sally wants to be taken for granted
7. Sally wants some of these photos
8. Sally wants me to give her what she wants (well DUH!!0
9. Sally wants bbc please
10. Sally wants to be a surgeon
1. Sally wants a man she can call her own
2. Sally wants full track for free (not sure what track I want but ok)
3. Sally wants to go MP3 searching
4. Sally wants can't talk but her drawings kick butt :)
5. Sally wants to go
6. Sally wants to be taken for granted
7. Sally wants some of these photos
8. Sally wants me to give her what she wants (well DUH!!0
9. Sally wants bbc please
10. Sally wants to be a surgeon
Monday, February 16, 2009
grandsons vs granddaughters
HUH!! Bet you thought I was going to post a conversation that I had with one of our granddaughters huh? FOOLED YOU!! I am going to post about one with one of my grandsons hehehe
We are on on the first leg of our trip to Hawaii on the train to Seattle. Our 11 year old grandson was sitting beside me and we were just chit chatting. He kept saying I love you Nana and who's the bestest Nana etc. I would say thank you and then we would talk about stuff some more. We also would read our books and play card games. He kept snuggling against me and I would have my arm around him. At one point in the middle of reading this conversation starts:
Dallas: I love you Nana
Me: (smiling inside) I love you too Buddy
Dallas: (as he rubs my arm that is around him) you have soft skin Nana
Me: Well thank you Dallas
chit chat for a couple more minutes
Dallas: You really have REALLY nice skin Nana
Me: Well thank you you are really REALLY sweet for telling me that
Dallas: You smell soft too Nana
Me: "chuckling inside " Did Jen (his new to be step-mom) tell you to say that to me cause I let you come on the train with me?
Dallas: oh no I just said it cause it is true
Me: Well thank you again
chit chat for a couple more minutes then back to reading our books then all of a sudden this pops out of his mouth
Dallas: Remember when I said you had soft skin?
Me: Yes
Dallas: Well I was trying to remember what it was soft like and I just thought of it. Your skin is soft like rubber
me: (uhhhhhhhhh)
me: Well thank you Dallas... is that a good thing to have skin that feels like runner?
Dallas: Oh sure Nana, your skin doesn't feel like a bunch of bumps and rough like elbows, it's soft and smooth like rubber
then he curls back into my side and goes back to his book. I sit there stupefied thinking is that supposed to be a good thing? I mean a couple of months ago I had a granddaughter tell me that I was Barbie pretty but now a grandson tells me I have skin like rubber. Tonight I remembered to tell Keith aboht the conversation and we talked about how different boys were then girls and how they gave compliments. With a new grandchild coming in a couple of weeks we talked about what we thought it might be. We have 9 girls and 4 boys now and I am sure the males in our family would really like testerone to enter the gene pool. So when Keith asked me what I would rather have I just smiled and said well to be honest as long as the baby thinks I continue to look like a rubberized Barbie I am happy. I mean seriously what more can a Nana ask for????
We are on on the first leg of our trip to Hawaii on the train to Seattle. Our 11 year old grandson was sitting beside me and we were just chit chatting. He kept saying I love you Nana and who's the bestest Nana etc. I would say thank you and then we would talk about stuff some more. We also would read our books and play card games. He kept snuggling against me and I would have my arm around him. At one point in the middle of reading this conversation starts:
Dallas: I love you Nana
Me: (smiling inside) I love you too Buddy
Dallas: (as he rubs my arm that is around him) you have soft skin Nana
Me: Well thank you Dallas
chit chat for a couple more minutes
Dallas: You really have REALLY nice skin Nana
Me: Well thank you you are really REALLY sweet for telling me that
Dallas: You smell soft too Nana
Me: "chuckling inside " Did Jen (his new to be step-mom) tell you to say that to me cause I let you come on the train with me?
Dallas: oh no I just said it cause it is true
Me: Well thank you again
chit chat for a couple more minutes then back to reading our books then all of a sudden this pops out of his mouth
Dallas: Remember when I said you had soft skin?
Me: Yes
Dallas: Well I was trying to remember what it was soft like and I just thought of it. Your skin is soft like rubber
me: (uhhhhhhhhh)
me: Well thank you Dallas... is that a good thing to have skin that feels like runner?
Dallas: Oh sure Nana, your skin doesn't feel like a bunch of bumps and rough like elbows, it's soft and smooth like rubber
then he curls back into my side and goes back to his book. I sit there stupefied thinking is that supposed to be a good thing? I mean a couple of months ago I had a granddaughter tell me that I was Barbie pretty but now a grandson tells me I have skin like rubber. Tonight I remembered to tell Keith aboht the conversation and we talked about how different boys were then girls and how they gave compliments. With a new grandchild coming in a couple of weeks we talked about what we thought it might be. We have 9 girls and 4 boys now and I am sure the males in our family would really like testerone to enter the gene pool. So when Keith asked me what I would rather have I just smiled and said well to be honest as long as the baby thinks I continue to look like a rubberized Barbie I am happy. I mean seriously what more can a Nana ask for????
Now you see it, now you don't
So this morning I went to print the agenda for my executive meeting and I get a window on my screen saying I have no printer. I looked at the printer to make sure it was on and it was so I turned it off then back on again checking all the connections thinking it never got connected when they rehooked my computer up while I was gone but everything was done so I tried again. Nothing. Great. So I got the cd for the printer driver pop it in the cdrom to install it and nothing. Oh yeah... my cdrom not working was what started this whole mess 2 months ago when my computer went on the fritz!!!
UGHHHHHH going to be a great day I can just tell.............
UGHHHHHH going to be a great day I can just tell.............
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Face Time
I recently saw a commercial from Dentyne that really struck a nerve in me. (see link for video below). It didn't rub me the wrong way as in offensive but what it did do was make me realize just how little time we actually spend doing face time in this day of so called modern technology. Any of you that have been around me long enough either in person or through the internet know that I have an issue with how much we depend on technology to communicate. It came to a head more apparent to me over the last couple of weeks in 3 seperate incidents.
First was a conversation on the phone with an old friend from back home. At the end of our talk I asked for her email address to keep in contact and she said she didn't even have the internet. Then I gave her both my phone numbers and she chuckled. I asked what was so funny and she said that I sounded so sophisticated with all my "tools to talk" with. I asked how she kept in contact with her kids that were in high school and she said with trust. None of her kids had internet at home, no cells, no anything. If they were going to a friends she got the friends phone number at home to check. She said she didn't need to be paying for cells for her kids to hike up charges talking to their friends they just spent all day with.
Secondly, when we were in Hawaii I used Keith's work digital camera. I wasn't sure how many pictures it held so every day I would download all of them. (Trust me, the ones I posted on Facebook weren't nearly the same number as I took.) My oldest son was also using my laptop to download his pictures onto to save his memory. Another son was downloading his pictures onto his laptop. While I was unloading all these pictures I would check my mail and talk to Keith etc. At one point I left a message for my DIL that was just across the hall from me jokingly telling her it was her turn to go set the table. Later that day I got a message from a friend saying she thought it was my daughter Lareta who had not gone with us. I said yes that was right so she asked who Mary was I told her my DIL and she said didn't she go with you and I said yes she is here with me and then my friend said I don't get it if she is right there then why are you messaging her instead of talking to her face.
Lastly, lately I have been noticing that when we go to family and friends home to supposedly visit, we are finding ourselves sitting there watching people juggling laptops on their knees, playing video games, playing computer games etc. And I think I could have stayed home curled up on the couch reading a good book.
So when I saw this commercial it hit home how little we do actual face time with other people. But I can not control what other people do but I can control what I do so my own challenge for the next couple of weeks is to do more instant face connection with my family and friends. Obviously actual face to face only with those that live here and phone connection with those that live away. I will keep my computer yakking time for middle of nights when I am wandering around the house like now or when I am alone. I will endeavor to cut some of these electronic apron strings down a tad.
I shall keep you all posted but please do check the link for the commercial. I would be very interested in hearing if you feel the same or whether I am completely off my rocker.
http://www.splendad.com/ads/show/2693-Dentyne-Face-Time-Rain-On-Me
First was a conversation on the phone with an old friend from back home. At the end of our talk I asked for her email address to keep in contact and she said she didn't even have the internet. Then I gave her both my phone numbers and she chuckled. I asked what was so funny and she said that I sounded so sophisticated with all my "tools to talk" with. I asked how she kept in contact with her kids that were in high school and she said with trust. None of her kids had internet at home, no cells, no anything. If they were going to a friends she got the friends phone number at home to check. She said she didn't need to be paying for cells for her kids to hike up charges talking to their friends they just spent all day with.
Secondly, when we were in Hawaii I used Keith's work digital camera. I wasn't sure how many pictures it held so every day I would download all of them. (Trust me, the ones I posted on Facebook weren't nearly the same number as I took.) My oldest son was also using my laptop to download his pictures onto to save his memory. Another son was downloading his pictures onto his laptop. While I was unloading all these pictures I would check my mail and talk to Keith etc. At one point I left a message for my DIL that was just across the hall from me jokingly telling her it was her turn to go set the table. Later that day I got a message from a friend saying she thought it was my daughter Lareta who had not gone with us. I said yes that was right so she asked who Mary was I told her my DIL and she said didn't she go with you and I said yes she is here with me and then my friend said I don't get it if she is right there then why are you messaging her instead of talking to her face.
Lastly, lately I have been noticing that when we go to family and friends home to supposedly visit, we are finding ourselves sitting there watching people juggling laptops on their knees, playing video games, playing computer games etc. And I think I could have stayed home curled up on the couch reading a good book.
So when I saw this commercial it hit home how little we do actual face time with other people. But I can not control what other people do but I can control what I do so my own challenge for the next couple of weeks is to do more instant face connection with my family and friends. Obviously actual face to face only with those that live here and phone connection with those that live away. I will keep my computer yakking time for middle of nights when I am wandering around the house like now or when I am alone. I will endeavor to cut some of these electronic apron strings down a tad.
I shall keep you all posted but please do check the link for the commercial. I would be very interested in hearing if you feel the same or whether I am completely off my rocker.
http://www.splendad.com/ads/show/2693-Dentyne-Face-Time-Rain-On-Me
Friday, February 13, 2009
Vows and stuff
Recently I found out that it now makes 4 couples from our old friends in Regina that have gotten divorced. To say I was surprised is to minimize it big time. I found out about the last couple just before we went to Hawaii and I had a lot of time to reflect on my own marriage, on my parent's marriage and watching 3 of our sons with their wives on vacation, their marriages and I wondered what happens to that magic that we all experienced on our wedding day? Do we really have rose colored blinders on? Do we really know who we are marrying? Does life get in the way of "for better for worse, for richer for poorer in sickness and in health for all time and eternity (or till death do you part for those that aren't members of my faith)"? We raised our children the exact same way and yet all 3 of our sons that were in Hawaii with us treated their wives completely different.
When does one decide where you get to the point of no return? After one chance, two, three, none? I remember way back when some political wife took her adulterous husband back and Hilary Clinton made a comment that put women all over the world up in arms by saying "I'm not a little woman that "Stands By Your Man (from Tammy Wynette song)".. but when the shoe fell by her bed she did stand by him.
Do you just go by sheer emotion, lack of being able to trust again, forgive and forget as Christ did many times over? When do you step up to the plate and say I don't think my name is spelt D-O-O-R-M-A-T? What makes one person leave after just one "offense" yet another stick by their spouse through it all?
By no means am I writing this to offend anyone that has ever left their spouse for any reason. I am just curious at to what other's line of no return is. I know the day I met Keith I told him flat out if he ever laid a hand on me or even looked like he was going to, he would never see me again. To me that was my line of do not cross. Am I too naive to think there isn't anything that can't be worked out other then abuse?
When does one decide where you get to the point of no return? After one chance, two, three, none? I remember way back when some political wife took her adulterous husband back and Hilary Clinton made a comment that put women all over the world up in arms by saying "I'm not a little woman that "Stands By Your Man (from Tammy Wynette song)".. but when the shoe fell by her bed she did stand by him.
Do you just go by sheer emotion, lack of being able to trust again, forgive and forget as Christ did many times over? When do you step up to the plate and say I don't think my name is spelt D-O-O-R-M-A-T? What makes one person leave after just one "offense" yet another stick by their spouse through it all?
By no means am I writing this to offend anyone that has ever left their spouse for any reason. I am just curious at to what other's line of no return is. I know the day I met Keith I told him flat out if he ever laid a hand on me or even looked like he was going to, he would never see me again. To me that was my line of do not cross. Am I too naive to think there isn't anything that can't be worked out other then abuse?
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Life's lessons learnt
We just got back from a week's vacation in Hawaii and I realized I learnt a few of life's lessons while there so thought I would share them with you :)
~I did not die while not watching one or more of my regularly watched TV series while on vacation
~Some of my grandchildren are more mature then some of my children
~You can not please all of the people all of the time, in fact at times you can't even please some of the people any of the time
~The things that I thought would really thrill all of my children did not but the things I thought would just be so so thrilled MOST of my children.. go figure
~You cannot sleep in on vacation
~There is no life in the fast lane in Laie Hawaii. Nobody honks at you as they speed past your car, no one swears at you or gives you the one finger wave as you slow down to look at something, other drivers will actually slow down to let you in their lane when you turn your signals on and then will smile and wave at you rather then speed up to stop you from going in front of them
~grandchildren will not wither away without playing video/computer games all week and adult children will not collapse without their WOW or Everquest for one week
~people still have to go to the bathroom just as soon as dishes have to be done
~I never thought I would need a time out on vacation
~5 year olds make great sleeping buddies
~where else can you pop down to the beach at 6am in your jammies to watch the sunrise
~small wonderful things amuse small wonderful minds like "Nana watch... my footprints keep disappearing every time the wave comes in"
~family members' best behaviors in a couple hour visit at home becomes more difficult to maintain in a 24/7 situation with 12 people hanging around.
~family vacation is not a true vacation with half the family missing
~my mind and body could not enjoy themselves when my heart and soul was at home
~I love LOVE rain shower heads!!!
~I am too old to fly the red eye
~I have too many health issues to travel a 6 hour flight and a 4 1/2 hour train ride and a 1 hour car ride at the beginning and end of it all in a row.
~there are actual places that don't have stores open 24/7 so you actually have to plan your shopping instead of just popping to a store at 9pm to get milk
~there are actual towns that all the businesses are closed on Sundays YEAAAAA
~Never get in a car with a driver who does not have a proper map, does not have an address of a place they are going to AND that has back seat drivers!
~I would never drive 20 minutes one way to get Starbucks every day:) Sorry Jen hehehe
~As much as I loved Hawaii and sharing it with my family I now have more empathy for Dorothy as I clicked my heels together 3 times saying "There's no place like home there's no place like home there's no place like home" and voila I am home. Home is definitely where the heart is and my heart is here.
~I did not die while not watching one or more of my regularly watched TV series while on vacation
~Some of my grandchildren are more mature then some of my children
~You can not please all of the people all of the time, in fact at times you can't even please some of the people any of the time
~The things that I thought would really thrill all of my children did not but the things I thought would just be so so thrilled MOST of my children.. go figure
~You cannot sleep in on vacation
~There is no life in the fast lane in Laie Hawaii. Nobody honks at you as they speed past your car, no one swears at you or gives you the one finger wave as you slow down to look at something, other drivers will actually slow down to let you in their lane when you turn your signals on and then will smile and wave at you rather then speed up to stop you from going in front of them
~grandchildren will not wither away without playing video/computer games all week and adult children will not collapse without their WOW or Everquest for one week
~people still have to go to the bathroom just as soon as dishes have to be done
~I never thought I would need a time out on vacation
~5 year olds make great sleeping buddies
~where else can you pop down to the beach at 6am in your jammies to watch the sunrise
~small wonderful things amuse small wonderful minds like "Nana watch... my footprints keep disappearing every time the wave comes in"
~family members' best behaviors in a couple hour visit at home becomes more difficult to maintain in a 24/7 situation with 12 people hanging around.
~family vacation is not a true vacation with half the family missing
~my mind and body could not enjoy themselves when my heart and soul was at home
~I love LOVE rain shower heads!!!
~I am too old to fly the red eye
~I have too many health issues to travel a 6 hour flight and a 4 1/2 hour train ride and a 1 hour car ride at the beginning and end of it all in a row.
~there are actual places that don't have stores open 24/7 so you actually have to plan your shopping instead of just popping to a store at 9pm to get milk
~there are actual towns that all the businesses are closed on Sundays YEAAAAA
~Never get in a car with a driver who does not have a proper map, does not have an address of a place they are going to AND that has back seat drivers!
~I would never drive 20 minutes one way to get Starbucks every day:) Sorry Jen hehehe
~As much as I loved Hawaii and sharing it with my family I now have more empathy for Dorothy as I clicked my heels together 3 times saying "There's no place like home there's no place like home there's no place like home" and voila I am home. Home is definitely where the heart is and my heart is here.
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