Mark's "Farewell"

For any of you Friends and Family who were thinking of coming to "the meeting formally known as a farewell" meeting (the last church service before my little brother flies to Brazil to do missionary work), you will need to know the following information.

The meeting is this Sunday July 16th. My parent's ward has been relocated while their building gets repaired. They currently meet at 2:00 in the afternoon. They meet at the building just east (down the big hill) from the Price Cemetery, the address is: 995 E. 700 N. Of course everyone is welcome to come to my parent's house before (it will be chaos but you are welcome) and after (for food). Everyone is Welcome!!

Random Stuff

Miriam woke up this morning singing "You've got to move it move it" (from the movie Madagascar) bobbing her head and shaking her hips. Such cuteness just starts your day off right. Darin went into get her and she was so into her own imagination he startled her. When he brought her into our room I pretended to be asleep and then said "Surprise" (like Alex the lion). We all giggled giggled and giggled. I love giggle mornings.

The Farmer's Market last night went well. We didn't make a ton of money, but did make a profit. We were placed next to the Volker Bread people which is a blessing and a curse...such yummy breads. The lady working the stand was so great, she gave us some stroodle, and what was left of the loaf she had been cutting for samples (we also bought a loaf of orange cranberry bread). It was fun to see all our old Market friends. The pretty overall wearing, Bangeter Farms girls were eating fresh sweet corn on the cob raw. When I asked them about it they said "we're just hick farm girls who will eat anything". They are so cute. Malvern was there selling his rock hound jewlery, the crochet lady, the kettle corn people. There were a few new booths. A guy selling jellies and syrups. He had a jalapeno raspberry jam that I think my dad would like. He said it was great with cream cheese on a cracker. One booth that had carved wood decorations also had a bowl full of carved wooden wands. Miriam and I walked by and she said "Hadie Potter!",(she hasn't actually seen a Harry Potter movie but aparently likes him) the man at the booth said "that is the magic word go ahead and take a wand." He was giving them away free to any child who saw them and made a connection with the character. It's a fun way to spend a Thursday night.

Happy Birthday Dad!

I have always loved hearing about how the night my Dad was born, my Aunt Ruth thought the fireworks were in celebration of her new baby brother. He is someone who deserves a celebration. My Dad makes everyone feel accepted, welcome, and comfortable in his presence. He is no respecter of persons...he is as kind if not kinder to the downtrodden than the "bold and the beautiful". He likes to read the encyclopedia FOR FUN so he always has interesting things to talk about. One thing I absolutely love about my Dad is that he encourages adventure. When we are on vacation and we would see some crazy arcade game, or roller coaster ride, or wanted to try boogie boarding, he would say "yeah lets do it" even if it cost an extra $20 per person. He gave us the opportunity to water and snow ski, snowmobile, and ride four wheelers. I am a fearful, hesitant person by nature and these experiences helped open me up to possibilities later in life. My Dad made me brave.

My Dad is always giving service. He has shown through example how to treat others. His heart is huge which may be why he seems to have a strong connection with the Heavens. All I know is that when he prays for snow, it always comes and when I am feeling a little less than my best, he usually calls.

Happy Birthday Dad...we all love you so much!!

Pleasant Valley Days

This was our weekend in a picture nutshell. Not pictured is the parade (which throws more candy than any other parade I have ever been too, and is 1/2 as long), the train and pony rides, the great amount of food consumed, movies/video games, a t-ball game, bonfire, birthday party, and riding the Bad Boy (golf cart sort of thing) as well as 4-wheelers. Darin took pictures of the fireworks and caught a bit of Mother Nature's display as well (pictured above). Fun was had by all.

Tomorrow we will celebrate the 4th at home. The city parade goes down our street, actually blocks us in so we will be going. People set up chairs at 5:00 pm tonight (the earliest the city would allow) but we are just going to walk over and stand...walk home if we get tired. I think Miriam might be disappointed in the candy this time, she has high expectations after the Pleasant Valley Days parade. Afterwards, we will head up to the park for some food, I hope gyros but probably hot dogs, definitely snow cones.

Miriam update time!

I have been really bad at recording Miriam milestones. I can't remember when she first started to talk, I think her first word was eat, but that seems unusual so I am questioning it. In an attempt to be better at documenting her life this post will be dedicated to what Miriam is doing now.

1. As the picture above shows, she is coloring the entire page or picture all one color. This was a Father's Day card I had made, Miriam wouldn't rest until there was no white showing.

2. She says "Do you know I love you?". She picked that up from Darin. He says that to her as well as "Do you know I love your mom?" which tugs at my heart strings every time I hear it.

3. She says "you know that?" after some sentences. For instance, she will say "you're silly...you know that?" or "I love you....you know that?".

4. She says "Oh...thank you" after people compliment her. We have been trying to teach her this one for a long time. Miriam has this look which I can only describe as being a "mean girl" stare. When she looks at me with it, I really do feel kind of uncomfortable. When she was younger, she really didn't like attention from people, especially strangers. She would get lots of compliments on her eyes and in return would dish out the "mean girl" stare. I have been prompting her to be polite after compliments and now finally, she will murmur coyly "oh...thank you".

5. She is starting to sing primary songs and I tear up every time I hear her singing softly to herself. She especially likes "We are a Happy Family" which makes my heart sing even on my most exhausted days.

I love my little girl.

Room With a View and other things

I have had this goal to read all of the Newbury Award winning books...well, actually listen to them on CD while I clean the house. When at the library, I keep getting distracted by the sparkly Meg Cabot Princess Diary books. I can't resist and I check those out instead. It's ridiculous but I really love them. I am almost 30 and I listen to books for young adults...pre-teens actually. I might as well admit here that I love "High School Musical" as well.

In my defense, I am reading other books. I just finished A Room With a View' by E. M. Forester. It was wonderful. Exactly my kind of book. Full of British pretentious manners. A love story surrounded by those crazy British characters that remind you of people you know personally. I related completely with Miss Honeychurch, being young and afraid of her own feelings. Wanting to be mature and correct, trying to please everyone around her. She is not extraordinary in any way, I wish I still had the book to write her description, but it was something like she was pretty in her own way, had great hair, was a talented pianist but missed her fair share of notes, not a huge abundance of courage but a lot of fun to be around. That could describe any one of my friends or sisters (well, replace hair with legs or skin or whatever). George, her male counterpart, was harder for me to relate to. I guess it's because he is a deep thinker and I like to stay happily on the surface. He seemed depressed to me...but manly enough to make a fine male lead.

I just checked out A Tree Grows in Brooklyn to read over our holiday weekend. So many people have suggested it, and it is on some list of the best reads of all time. I read the prolog which compared Francie (the story is told through her) with Jo from Little Women and Anne from Anne of Green Gables. That got me very excited because those are two of my most loved books (and movies). The difference between these characters is that Anne and Jo are characters mainly for young people...happy things happen to them, they are always saved from real danger. I guess this book is more for adults because it is more true to life, this is all acording to the prolog. I hope it's not too sad. I have been known to cry for days over sad books.

Sarah and I took the kids to the "watering hole" this weekend. That's not what it's called but its what Miriam and I call it. It's a series of concrete lined streams that meander down to a little pond in a local park. The park fills the pond with plastic balls that can float down the stream, under little bridges into the pond. It's genius! The kids could have played there all afternoon. The only problem is that since its free it can get really crowded. When we went two different women were having these very loud obnoxious cell phone conversations. I swear they wanted to draw attention to themselves...dropping the "F" and other bombs every other sentence. Normally, I wouldn't hesitate to say something, but they were so enjoying their phone fighting I believe they would have loved to get in it with a perfect stranger. I just led Miriam as far away from them as possible. I tried to be obvious about it. I just can't stand it when people swear and smoke around kids. Actually I can't stand it when people swear and smoke around me. Gone are the days when you could send your kids to the park. Maybe those days have been gone in big cities for some time now, but I grew up in a small town where we would ride our bikes all overr town. It's sad, and very depressing that I will need to accompany my kids to the park until they are like 14 and even then give them a cell phone to call every hour.

It was a fun day even with the little annoyances. Miriam adores her cousins. She cried herself to sleep when they left. We tried to console her by telling her we will see them at the cabin this weekend. Every morning this week she has said to me "we are going to the cabin with our cousins to eat marshmallows".

I need to remember to use a flash in bright lights to combat shadows. These pictures are not as cute as they should be. I love our camera when someone else is taking pictures, but all the buttons and dial intimidate me.

More Crazy Missy Smiles

See what I am dealing with??

Go To the Depths With Me Sista

I Don't Have to Make Everything All Better
by Gary & Joy Lundberg
(I tried to post a picture but can't get it to work ARGH)


I don't think I could ever love a self-help book. They are too painful for me to really enjoy because I think of the many things I want to improve on. I spend the book in uncomfortable reflection, which is good, but not fun. So, I don't love this book but I do love how it helps my relationships with those around me. I really do believe everyone would benefit from this book.

The title sounds a bit harsh I think, when you don't understand what it's referring to. It brings an image to my mind of someone who doesn't want to help or care and is taking a stand against it. It is not at all like that. The example the book gives is of a child who skins their knee and runs to her mother. The mom will hug and listen and say she is so sorry, maybe get a band-aid. She listens and gives sympathy but the physical pain remains with the child. We can all figure out our own solutions to problems, we just need someone to sympathize, to care, to notice. The book says that when someone is telling you a problem, refrain from giving any advice at all. Just listen, and listen, and listen, and understand what is being said. People don't need PMA's (positive mental adjustments), they will bring themselves back up if they feel understood. If you have some REALLY good advice you wait until the next day to call the person and tell them you have thought of an idea that might help. I swear it works.

This isn't my first exposure to the Lundbergs. They gave a conference in Boston while I was serving my mission there. At the time I was "training" a new missionary. I had only been out 2 months (the training period) so even though Sister Stull (my "greenie") was amazing I felt completely overburdened. I felt like I needed to be perfect and I needed to have all the answers. We went to hear the Lundbergs speak, I enjoyed it immensely but only half listened because I was thinking of all the other things we needed to do that day. Sister Stull had just received her bachelors degree in Marriage and Family Counseling (I believe...Stull correct me if I am wrong) so this stuff was right up her ally. I do remember Sister Lundberg saying "go to the depths with someone", let them get it all off their chest, but then let them pull themselves back up. I was interested, but filed it away.

Later that week Sister Stull must have mentioned a struggle she was having, I don't remember what it could have been, but I immediately started pouring on the PMA's "You're doing great" "Don't worry about it" "It's not that bad". She just looked at me and said "Go to the depths with me here sister". It finally clicked, Sister Stull is an intelligent, happy, motivated person. She didn't need me to answer her questions, or help her forget her problems, like all of us she just needed to vent them. I hope I became a much better trainer, and missionary in general after that. Thanks for the lesson Stully!

It's been 8 years since I learned that lesson. It was forgotten until a month ago when I took a parenting class where the instructor suggested reading this book. I realize more than ever that I am deficient in the listening, and too quick to give advice. I'm working on it, I just wish I had overcome this shortcoming before having kids. It seems all my faults have been amplified since becoming a mother.

Benefactresses

Miriam is so lucky and she doesn't even realize it!! Miriam has cousins, aunts & grandparents that are always thinking of her and buying and making things she would like. All her books are from grandparents, and 90% of her toys are from my sister Sarah. This blog however, will be dedicated to her fashion benefactresses. The Janes girls and my sister Julia.

I buy all of Miriam's clothes a year before the next season to get the clearance deals. So, for instance, I will buy all her summer clothes for next summer in August and September of this year. So I stick to solid colors, timeless classics, no frills, no edgy styles. I also deal heavily in hand-me-downs from sisters, and neighbors. Lucky Miriam has a very fashion conscience aunt and hip cousins. One of her cousins also happens to work for Old Navy. Because of their kindness Miriam has madras shorts, embroidered jeans, peasant blouses, flouncy skirts, T-shirts with cute sayings, and very cute impractical shoes. The pictures are of Miriam in her brand new outfit from the Janes' and one of her cousins. So cute! So nice of them! Miriam loves the shoes!! So does everyone else, a little boy tried to steal them at the park the other day. Thank you Janes girls and Julia!
Miriam is also going through this crazy smile phase. She wouldn't smile for the camera her whole first year and now at two, she smiles so unnatural. Silly girl.

Bluestone #4

It's Lindsey's birthday! Lindsey (pink & white hat) is my dear friend Mirissa's little girl. We missed her birthday party because Miriam has a bad cough. It was very disappointing for me since I love any excuse to get out and socialize, especially with my ole' college buddies.

Me, Ris, Louise, and Cori have remained friends since our Bluestone #4 days. There were other girls that came and went because it was a 6 girl apartment, but the four of us have kept in touch. I have been so blessed to have good friends in every stage of my life; high school, college, mission, and U of U. We are fortunate to live in the age of email, the convenience of staying in touch has probably been the key for all of these relationships. Ris and I have followed the same path. Served missions at the same time, got married around the same time, had our little girls 4 months apart. Its so nice to have her only 20 min. away. I hope our girls will become friends, even if its just through email. Louise has 3 darling kids, and is the most put together mother I know. Nothing seems to rattle her. I wonder if she is bringing her children up on diet coke and frosted flakes ("joke, friends dude friends"). Cori is getting married in August and will be the step mom to 2 year-old twins!! She is confidently stepping into happy chaos, but that's how Cori has always been. Isn't it amazing how people don't seem to change all that much?

My top 10 memories of living at Bluestone #4
#10 Cleaning inspections every semester...especially having to clean the red, blond, and brown hair out of the drain...I get queasy just thinking about it.

#9 Breaking into hotel swimming pools with the boys from #1. Especially the night that my swim trunks got caught on the iron fence around the pool. I hung there, left cheek exposed until the guys could unhook me.

#8 Trips to Vegas. Roller coasters, shows, buffets, nickel slots...being completely wiped out, we are talking dead bone tired as we walked the strip back to where ever the car was parked.

#7 The first and only time a boy ever saw me across the dance floor, and asked me out on the spot...just because he liked how I looked. All other dates to that point had been worked up to...lots of flirting on either or both ends. Also the first time I had been totally and completely humiliated by another female (Ris do you remember this??). While on a date with this guy, a member of the Dixie Drilletes or whatever they are called, pulled him aside and said "What are you doing with that girl? You could do WAY better." I decided to pull away from the guy on the spot because I believed her.

#6 Repelling, hiking, rollerblading, trips to Quail Lake. I can't believe we did this, but Ris and I knee boarded behind a boat of total and complete strangers. Miriam will never never do this! I will put sufficient fear into her.

#5 Trying to set Louise up with any tall guy we came across. Especially "Woody", the RM who "penciled her in" for their dates. Actually, all the different guys everyone dated. Ris's spectrum of partyers to the EQ Pres., my drooler, Cori's very nice but might be gay guy, Amber's best friend who did turn out to be gay, my free tanning and gym pass guy, the list could go on and on. I also remember having to asking Becky not to do her glut workout in the living room while we had male company. Please try to imagine having a conversation with someone you like while a roomie is doing glut squeezes in front of you both.

#4 Cori and I driving down to California for a $200 Fun Cruise to Catalina Island and Mexico. This trip deserves it's own top 10 list.

#3 "The Caf" - where I worked my first year. Yes, I worked in the cafeteria. It got me harassed by football players, asked out by my 30 year old boss, and gross dishpan hands. BUT...free drinks!

#2 DECA nationals in California...again it deserves its own top 10 list.

#1 The anticipation of waiting for Darin to come down and visit me or right before I was going to drive to Price for the weekend. My first year I would leave right after my 3:00 math class. It became kind of a joke in the class that whenever I did my hair really nice and wore a shorter skirt (Darin wants me to replace that with "nice outfit", but lets be honest here) everyone knew I was going home for the weekend. The professor would even let us out a few minutes early so I could get on the road. You gotta love small class sizes.

Annalise is 2!

Happy 2nd Birthday cute girl! I know there will be a great party because lucky Anna has 3 older brothers and a sister to celebrate with. This is not what either of these girls look like since this was a picture taken at last years Ray Reunion (happy memories...good times). I am sure she is still just as darling with a bit of that 2 year old spunk. I hope Miriam and Anna will have many opportunities to wear matching dresses and get to know each other. We love you little Anna!!

My Antonia by Willa Cather

I read this book in memory of my Grandma Alice Rasmussen. Two things I always knew about Grandma; she loved Lovell Wyoming where she was raised, and she loved Willa Cather books. I thought reading Willa Cather's most famous work would give me some insights on how my Grandma thought and felt. Well, half way into the book, my father informed me that Grandma had told him she didn't like 'My Antonia'. "Oh Bother" (Winnie the Pooh), I was really enjoying it and feeling so close in spirit to her. My mom mentioned that Grandma may not have liked it because the ending isn't the happiest way it could end (it's not Oprah sad, just not "they lived happily ever after"). Possibly the ending disappointed her, and ruined the feeling of the whole book. I was a bit disappointed to find out it wouldn't end how I had hoped. However, with that foreknowledge, I was able to pay attention to the writing, and the get a feel for the time. Instead of just anticipating the happy love scene at the end, I became engrossed in the character descriptions and their stories. I paid attention to the imagery Cather created about the places she loved. I believe that if someone had told Grandma not to plan on the happiest ending she probably would have enjoyed the story more. I now need to read 'Song of the Lark' since that is the book she gave me for my 18th birthday. I tried to read it then but became bored by the descriptions of the country...I think I will try again.

This is one part I really like:

"Sometimes" I ventured , "it doesn't occur to boys that their mother was ever young and pretty."
"Oh, we know!" they said again, warmly. "She's not very old now," Ambrosch added. "not much older than you."
"Well," I said, "if you weren't nice to her, I think I'd take a club and go for the whole lot of you. I couldn't stand it if you boys were inconsiderate, or thought of her as if she were just somebody who looked after you. You see I was very much in love with your mother once, and I know there's nobody like her."

This is not a book I will read over and over but I did enjoy it. So far the books I can read over and over and over are as follows: The Outsiders, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Circle of Friends, and anything by Jane Austin. I am admittedly not a literary genius..I just like a good story where the heroine triumphs (with the exception of Outsiders). What are some other great repeat reads?

Wizard of Oz

Miriam is a Wizard of Oz fanatic. Pictured above is a common scene in our home. Miriam wearing ruby red slippers fixated on the Wizard of Oz. In this picture she also has on a very cute eye crown they made in nursery. You can't see her imaginary friend Dorothy, but she likes to watch the movie as well. This is old news to friends and family that live close to us, but I wanted to get this documented because I get such a kick out of it.

It all started last Christmas when Wizard of Oz was shown on TV. I watched a little of it with Miriam and noticed she was mesmorized, so I watched more than I normally would have. She immediately began to ask question after question about it. At this time she was also very into the Nativity so she began to mesh the two together. Baby Jesus got more visitors than just shepherds and wisemen, the "pink witch" "green witch" tin man, scarecrow and Dorothy all came to see the baby. It was very cute, but we figured the fascination would die down after Christmas. It never did. She began asking me to tell "Dorothy stories". She also began calling all pretty women dressed up "witches". We once saw a group of high schoolers out to eat before the prom and Miriam started shouting "Mom Mom! A blue witch, a yellow witch, a green witch!" It was a high compliment from Miriam but doesn't sound very good. At times she would call me "Pink Witch" instead of Mom, which is the highest compliment you can get so I was touched, but I wonder what the other moms at the playground thought.

We found some ruby red slippers at Kid to Kid that Miriam would wear constantly if I let her. Luckily she has realized that she can't climb up the slide at the playground with them on so she will wear other shoes to play in. My mom, feeling like we were depriving Miriam of the one thing she really wanted, finally bought her the movie. She can't get enough of it. She walks on her toes like the Lullaby League, she balances on curbs and then pretends to fall into the pig stall, she leans against pretend haystacks to sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". She is not a performer (although very dramatic), but if you are lucky you may catch her acting out the Cowardly Lion "put em up Put em up!" or saying the famous "I'm melting, I'm melting" lines. It is highly entertaining.

I do get bored with Oz, but here are the reasons I love that she loves it.

1. I think Dorothy is a great roll model. She is brave, and very loyal. She is non-judgmental, and kind.

2. It is creative and full of wonderful songs.

3. Dorothy isn't a Disney princess. I love Disney princess movies, but the characters are everywhere! If possible I would like to hold off on the princess phase for awhile (it's already starting but I am stalling). Does it bug anyone else but me that there is no African American Princess??

4. She looks darling dressed up as Dorothy. This is going to be the cutest Halloween EVER!

There's no place like a child's imagination!

A Challenge

Darin and I have been wracking our brains trying to think of some logo for our soap. It's a tough task because it can't be anything too Fru-Fru for Darin, but I would like something cuter than like "Ray Soaps Co.". The other dilemma is that Darin likes to create other things as well, like pumice fountains, and jewelry and it would be nice if those things could be included within our name just in case we ever wanted to sell those. So we are looking for an all inclusive, crafty, non fru-fru name we could personalize our crafts with. Any suggestions?? We will send personalized soap (we have stamps to put initials and pictures on the soap) to anyone who comes up with a name we start to use.

Soap for Sale

I haven't been blogging much these last few days because it's Soap Season for us. Darin, his Dad, and I make and sell all natural, and gycerin soaps at a local farmers market throughout the summer. This year we were asked to participate in a city sidewalk sale/car show so we have been busy getting ready for it. We did pretty well on Thursday, but today it rained almost the whole time. For about an hour this evening we hunkered down with the sides zipped up on our canopy to wait out the downpour. Miriam was asleep in Darin's arms while we just marveled at how darling she is. So, even though we didn't sell much soap we did get some much needed "count our many blessings" family time. I think that's what I like best about selling the soap, we get to be a family without TV, computers, phones (we don't own a cell phone), or other distractions. We just sit there together, talking to strangers and making a little bit of money. I also like the creative ideas Darin and his Dad come up with...I mainly just give my opinion on scents and colors (and keep Miriam out of the way).

I need to especially thank my mom for driving up here to watch Miriam while Darin was at work and I sold soap in the rain. I have mentioned how encouraging she is. Anything we want to try and do, she is right there helping when she can. Mom and I also experienced ruben and monte cristo sandwiches today at a local deli. Wow... I don't know if I can go back to turkey.

Here Comes Cristin!!

This is my darling sister-in-law Cristin (have I mentioned how lucky I am to have such great in-laws??). She won't like this picture because her hair isn't done, but she is always beautiful! She is facing her fear of technology and attempting to blog. This is the blogging world's lucky day because she is chock-full of GREAT craft, child raising, and just plain fun ideas. Cristin has a lot in common with some of you bloggers that view my page (or at least, I view your pages). She and her husband graduated from BYU. I don't know the exact year, but judging by the hair and clothing at the time, I would say early 90's. Her husband went to Medical School through the Air Force at the U of U. They have lived at Travis Air Force Base, Arizona, currently live in TX and are moving to Mississippi. Check out her very cute blog.

Happy Birthday Lisa

Happy Birthday week (since the birthday was actually yesterday) to my wonderful sister-in-law Lisa!

Lisa is an amazing knitter. She made Miriam's blessing blanket (pictured above). She not only knits, but she at times, cleans and spins her own wool. She has a quirky sense of humor, loves to read, and do really hard crossword puzzles as well as other mind puzzle/games. She is one of the best people to vacation with because she finds humor in everything, and is brave enough for adventures. She volunteers in her community, is a wonderful sister, and an inspirational mother to three darling girls. Lisa has great skin and such cute features, she always looks like she is 23. I lucked out when it comes to in-laws. I liked Lisa from the first moment I met her because, to me she seems to be the female version of Darin. Happy year ahead!

Some Advice

I have something embarrassing to share. I had to have a wart frozen off earlier this week. I have never had a wart before, I am not sure if this is something else to blame on having Miriam (along with a kink in my hair, wider hips, bladder control etc) or if this just happens at 30. Miriam was such a trooper through the experience, she put her hand on my leg and said "We will be brave mamma" and "I will take good care of you". So I cried in the Dr's office, partly because of Miriam's compassion, partly because it really did hurt, and mostly because I have a wart, I have wrinkles, I have eczema, I weigh more than I did after having Miriam. Sad sad sad. - I have to insert here that I realize how pathetic that is, I should be overjoyed with my health, but that's how pity parties go-

It gets worse. Friday night my elbow (where the wart was) really started to hurt. I cleaned it out and noticed it was red a puffy. By Saturday afternoon the redness/soreness and spread 3 inches around the wound and it hurts like crazy. I called the Dr. and he said I needed to have it seen before Monday because infection could enter the bloodstream and that would get serious. I started crying again, partly because my elbow hurt, partly because my afternoon was ruined, and mostly because I would have to pay $50 and instacare and buy whatever they prescribed.

I was sitting in the waiting room at instacare and my mind started going crazy. I started to wonder what life would be like without my arm! How sad to have to say I lost my arm in a wart accident! Then I started thinking I might die. That got me really worked up. I started thinking of all the letters I would write to Miriam, I needed to tell her to please take piano lessons, and if possible the harp. To listen to her Dad always, and then that got me thinking about Darin, and how I DID not want him to get remarried. In so many LDS stories (Charley for one) the first wife lovingly tells her husband to remarry so he will be happy and the kids will have a mother. No no no no! I am not at that maturity level. While these thoughts were rushing through my head, I was reading Real Simple magazine and noticed an article all about advice from the older generation. My eyes caught a section that went something like..."Unless its terminal, there is no use worrying about it, and if it is, you can't do anything about it anyway" I snapped back to reality and then read another tidbit of advice that was something like this "don't let people rent space in your mind if they are not worth your time" Wow. I always need to be reminded to chill out, relax, don't spend precious energy on worrying.

I think I will be fine, I have antibiotics and instructions for care of the wound. If not, I can't do anything about it anyway. Whew, I feel better. I also liked this advice "when abroad don't ever go to a familiar chain restaurant, you might as well have stayed at home" or something to that effect. I think the same holds true for living broad (is that how you say in the states?). Enough with Olive Gardens, Applebees, and especially the McDonalds. Geeze...live a little.

Happy Birthday Mummy!!

It's my mummy's birthday today! HOORAY! This is the most recent picture I have of her. It was taken two weekends ago after my dashing little brother Mark went through the Bountiful Temple in preparation of his forthcoming mission to Brazil. Also pictured is Tom Selleck look- a-like Dad.

My mom loves German Chocolate Cake, but probably won't have any to celebrate with because she is currently one of the healthiest people I know. She is also one of the hardest working people I know. She especially loves working in her garden although life doesn't allow her to spend a great deal of time at it. Mummy is the best primary children's song leader I have ever known. She ran a tight ship, but we performed like stars! She is amazing with little children, they love her! She is one of the most encouraging people I know. If you tell her you would like to do or try something, she will be right there helping every step of the way. I owe all my student elections to her. She can paint walls, create darling quilts, and makes delicious Danish dinner. She also loves old western movies with John Wayne in them, and it's a good thing Dad looks like Tom Selleck because she thinks both of them are hot.
Happy Birthday Mom!! We all love you!

Thanks to Kristi for the birthday tribute idea;)