HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

I'm one of the fortunate ones who get to say "Happy Mother's Day" directly to my mom!

Let me tell you a little about her. Her name is Cleo Travis and she and my Dad live 1 1/2 hours from me. I don't get to see them as often as I could or should.

Mom has always been an example of love, patience and Christ-like living. No matter what I did (as long as it was good) she would tell me that I did a good job and encourage me to continue to do better. She was a stay-at-home mom until I was around 10 years old. I remember coming home from school when she was home and having warm, fresh cookies for a snack. Even to this day, while sitting at work, (I work at a school) that memory comes flooding back and it makes me feel good... and hungry!

She and Dad have been married almost 60 years! That says alot about her....not that Dad is hard to live with but that they both give 110% to their marriage. What an example of love and devotion they are to me.

Some of my mom's favorite sayings are:

When talking about something that could happen she'll say, "Only time will tell."
When telling her something shocking or important she says, "Oh, for ever more!"
Watching a movie, if the scene gets a little intimate she shakes her head and in a disgusted, sarcastic voice says, "Naturally!"

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, MOM! We ALL love you!

(Do I look adopted to you?) (Do I look like my Dad's sister instead of his daughter?) I'm neither, but just wondering. Maybe I should color my hair...again!

Count Your Blessings!

There is a children's book that has pictures of a day in the life of a child who has several things happen to him. When things occur that are not what he wanted, he would look sad and the words, "That's Bad!", would be on the page. Then on the next page, things would turn around and be even better and the words, "NO, That's Good!", would be next to the picture of the smiling child.

I am that child.

When things happen to me or a loved one, that I feel shouldn't be in the plan, I want to yell, "THAT'S BAD!" As I open my eyes and look past the problems and at the whole picture, I realize, "No... that's good!"

None of us will go through life without difficulties, heart aches, and challenges. If we do, we're not really living!

I promise to count my blessings every day!

Losing Weight? Picture Perfect!

My eating has been out of control!!

Half the time, I find myself grazing in the kitchen, stuffing food in my mouth, before I realize what I'm doing! I read on RealAge.com that if you take pictures of the food you are going to consume, you will lose weight. I decided to try it.

For breakfast I had a lovely Shredded Wheat, (this is what happens, folks, when you don't pay attention to what you're buying at the store. I thought I was getting spoon size Shredded Wheat, but alas, I was mistaken. This is now MY cereal since no one else will eat it. I have 3 more boxes on my shelf.) 2 strawberries cut up, and half a banana. I had a glass of skim milk.

For lunch I had a huge bowl of vegetable beef soup and a slice of whole wheat bread. The apple ended up in my granddaughter's stomach. A side note: This vegetable beef soup is made with my bottled soup that I have been canning the past few years. To make it I used 2 quarts of vegetable soup, 1 pint of bottled hamburger, 1 quart homemade tomato soup, 1 pint green beans, 1 can corn, 1 quart stewed tomatoes. It is YUMMY!

Oh, oh, What happened here? I was supposed to take a picture before I ate it. See what I mean? I realized I had eaten pieces of this mint truffle brownie after I had eaten them. It was sure good though. My philosophy is...if you just take bite size pieces, there are fewer calories.

Here's the dinner or is it supper? I guess it depends on where you're from or who your parents are. An egg and cheese tortilla with ...well, you can see it. Why do I have to tell you what's on the plate? That's why there's a picture. The red drink is CranApple juice.

Now...here's the kicker. I didn't take pictures of the 3 glasses of milk I drank with the brownie bites (gotta take care of the bones!) or the 3 bites of macaroni and cheese that was made for the kids lunch.

I think in order for this to work, I need someone to follow me around and take pictures of everything I put in my mouth.

Maybe a video would be more accurate. I must admit though, this did work better than I thought it would. I was more conscious of what I ate, knowing I had to take pictures.

I would have run out of space on my memory card if I took pictures of everything I ate yesterday!

What I need is.............. Self Control!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

True Confessions!

I was not a perfect mother! At times I was impatient and intolerant of disobedient behavior.

One day, while nursing the baby, I had a 3 year old who was being obstinate. I asked her a few times to stop her behavior but she continued to do her obnoxious thing. I removed my shoe and tossed it at her (notice I didn't say "threw it at her" but it depends on who's telling the story) to get her attention...or...maybe to take out my frustration, I don't know, it was so long ago!

It must have scarred her for life, though, because she brings it up occasionally to let me know that it was NOT an appropriate thing to do! Forget that it was a size 10 shoe coming at her!

This daughter is a very patient, and loving mother to 2 young children.


Fast forward to today! I got a text from this "scarred" daughter to let me know she had "tossed" a shoe at HER daughter while nursing the baby because the daughter was being "bad."

What? My granddaughter being bad?

I'm still smiling!

What's the moral of this story? Beats me! But I think she might understand that even wonderful, patient, and beautiful moms aren't always perfect.

I must confess again.

Her actions aren't as bad as mine, her shoe is only a size 9.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELDER LANGSTON!

I need to give equal time to my birthday kids!

Monday, April 27th is Jordan's 21st birthday. He is our 7th child and 3rd son. He has always been a happy, fun, energetic, loveable, boy. When he was born, an older neighbor woman looked at him, saw the dimple in his chin and said, "A cleft in the chin, the devil within!" He has proved her wrong...well, ok...maybe a little devil. His height, freckles and deep voice are his claim to fame.

Jordan is serving an LDS mission in Johannesburg, South Africa. He's been there 20 months!

Here he is in Lesotho, wearing an awesome hat this woman made.

This was taken just before the baptism of 2 of these people. Guess which one is Jordan.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JORDAN!
WE LOVE YOU!!

That's About the Size...

Where you put your eyes....That's about the size of it!

This is an old Sesame Street Song....anyone remember it?







Perspective is an interesting thing.

When Andy, my husband, was 45 years old, he had a heart condition that required some surgery. After the surgery, two men were wheeling him from the recovery room to the cardiology floor. One said, "Let's take this young man to his room!"
It made me smile. What if Andy was a new father at the age of 45, what would have been said about him then? "Show this old duffer to the nursery!"

We built a house in Gilbert, Arizona during the summer months. We were roofing in 113 degree weather. It was blistering (literally) hot. Going from the roof into the unfinished house, it felt so cool and nice but when a friend came in from her air conditioned car, she complained about the scorching heat inside the house.

My boys, Dan and Dave, loved to do tricks on their bikes. They'd have the neighbor kids lie on the sidewalk then they'd ride their bikes up a ramp and jump over the foolish kids. To hear them describe their daring feat, they flew hundreds of feet and while in the air, did handstands, shot a gun, and changed their clothes. When in reality, they barely jumped over the neighbor kids and when they hit the sidewalk the bike was wobbly. (sorry boys)

Everyone has a different perspective. We need to have some understanding because we don't always know where they "put their eyes."

So You Think You Can Dance!

Been feeling a little melancholy today, worried about a family member, so decided to post this video to snap me out of it. This is a video my son took while in Soweto, South Africa. He's serving a mission in the Johannesburg area. I love this boy's moves, shoes, and cute face. Makes me wonder if Jordan will come home with some new dance moves!

There...NOW... I feel better!

More Spring Break Activities

My daughter, Jill, and her huband, Vili, celebrated their anniversary by going to Park City this weekend. I was the designated baby sitter! Yeah!


Here is adorable, happy, Troy. He's 3 months old and weighs 20 lbs! Today my arms are sore from using muscles that I haven't used for a while. He's better than going to the gym and he's more fun than lifting weights. No wonder Jill is looking so good!
Here's Keiti. She's my dancer...just turn on a little music and she starts swaying those hips.

She's also a tagger. My car was available for a little art work We discovered the outdoors. Roly Polys kept the interest of little girls. Camille was lifting rocks so everyone could see the bug village that lives there.

This was taken after 3 hours of church. If you think Caitlyn and Keiti look tired, you should see Grandma and Grandpa!

And I thought New York City was exhaus...I mean fun! This beats 'em all!

Thanks Jill for trusting me with your little ones.

Hyacinths for the Soul

"If thou of fortune be bereft,

And in thy store there be but two left

Two loaves-sell one, and with the dole

Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul."

A special thanks to our friends and home teachers for these beautiful hyacinths. If you could use your sense of smell, it would add to the beauty. You can tell they make Caitlyn drool!

Anxiously awaiting Spring!

Spring Break Travels!

I'm back! We had a wonderful time! Here is a quick (like our trip) synopsis of our take on New York City.

Candice and Emily at Rockefeller Center. We were hoping to get on TV at the Today show but it was so COLD and rainy that we decided it wasn't worth standing and freezing outside while Al, Meredith, and Matt were sitting snuggly inside. We knew they weren't fools enough to come out and talk to anyone. Besides we had places to go...people to see...! Can we say "sour grapes?"

Emily was excited to see the "Green Lady" so we decided that would be high priority on our list of things to do. This is one of the many pictures we took of Em with the Statue of Liberty wannabe. He had some great poses.

We took the ferry out to the islands. We didn't get off, just went along for the ride. I know, lots of money for a short ferry ride, but, Emily; being able to say she saw the Statue of Liberty up close and personal, priceless.

Let's throw in a picture of the subway ride to Times Square. There's no way we could have taken this picture while traveling to Battery Park. We were standing and using both hands to hang on! We had the whole car to ourselves at this time...well...us and the nice French speaking women who took our picture.


Lion King! What a fabulous, amazing, breath taking play! I would go see that again in a heart beat! Fun! Fun! Fun!

Thanks again Candice and Emily for such a fun, memorable, whirlwind of a trip! Let's do it again!

I'm just glad I have the rest of Spring break to recover!