Word of the week...

B L U F F

Those of you who are familiar with my life right now, know why this word would be a great word for the week right now. Enough said...moving on...

L O V E

Another really great word right now. The things I love the most right now in life:

-Matt. He made his first loaves of home made bread last week and they were by far better than any I've ever made. He loves me for me and I know some days that can be really hard...it can be hard for me to love me some days ; )

-Tanner. If you had told me 7 years ago that a child could bring a person so much joy and sheer happiness, I'm not sure I'd believe it. It's something you have to experience to understand. Tanner is a very very very bright spot in my life...constantly...even when he's being a pickle, he is my pure joy in my heart. I know that the way I feel for him is only but a small particle of the way Heavenly Father feels for us. That is unimaginable to me...incomprehensible. How could anyone love me more than I love Tanner? I don't know how, but I know it's true.

-Friends. I love love love my friends. They are a strength to me every single day. They are a constant source of forgiveness, understanding, laughter, joy, happiness, and most of all love in my life. I don't have a huge circle of friends. I have but a small handful of friends that I trust with my life and heart and that's good enough for me. I'm not one of those people who needs to have lots and lots of friends to feel good about themselves or to feel a certain way. I know my friends love me for me, no matter what.

-My job. I adore my job. I love getting up and going to work and meeting people everyday. I have amazing employers and I am grateful every day for the opportunity they have given to me.

-My sisters. Word cannot express how much I love those girls. I love them. All my sisters are unique in themselves and there are certain things that I know I can talk to each sister about. For example, I can talk to Megan about marriage and kids because her and I are the only ones with children. It's something we understand with each other. Amy, she is a movie nerd (a good thing) and she can tell me what movies are worth seeing. She is also really good at talking about real life and political, deeper subject...especially the gospel. She is so stinkin' smart when it comes to the gospel. Melany, she has a quiet strength all her own. She listens when you don't think she is and she can make me laugh like no one else can. I love my sister a lot.

-My Mom. What can I really say but good things about my Mom. She is amazing and awesome and loving and kind and understanding and forgiving and patient and charitable and generous and strong and just a really really great person/mom/friend. Sometimes the way I feel about her is too much for me to put into words. The love I feel for her is forever.

-My Dad. Although my Dad died in '91 I still love him and am grateful for all the things he taught me. He was a great great man/leader and I still look to his example.

-My Savior. I love the Savior. Enough said for now.

-Music. I can not live without my music. I am very frequently plugged in. I don't listen to hard stuff. Quite often in the house I play the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or Tanner's Children Songbook C.D.'s. Music can change a mood or emotion so quickly and can calm and relax or liven up or make me run faster.

-Time. I love the time that I get to enjoy each day and each moment with the things and people that I love the most.

I just love life!

If my life depended on it

I could not fall asleep last night if my life depended on it. I lay awake with random thought going through my head and the song " I could have danced all night" from the movie My fair lady. I watched it and LOVED it! I love watching all the old movies that my Mom loved when I was a kid and I thought they were so boring. Like Casablanca, and Breakfast at Tiffany's and Singing in the Rain.

Anyways, I am thankful for so much lately. For being able to go to the pool as much as I want with Tanner. We love the pool and it's a great place to be on a hot day like today.

I am thankful for being re-connected with my friend from childhood through our blogs. She was my first best friend and I actually slept at her house the night my Dad died. I remember her and her Mom talking to me about what had happened and that they were there for me. It was such a huge comfort to know that my friend was still my friend even though my Dad had just died.

I am thankful for my amazing husband who this last Sunday carried my heavy church bag to church while we walked to church because I was careless and got a sunburn. He is so thoughtful and constantly does little stuff like that for me.

I am thankful for my sisters. My sisters are a huge part of my world and I love them a lot. I think about them daily.

I am thankful for my friends who are amazing and forgiving and kind to me. I have the best group of friends anyone could ask for.

I am thankful for Christal's blog. She is so uplifting and I hope my blog will be more like hers and that I myself can be more like her. I think she is an amazing person and she is so grateful for so many things.

I am thankful for my Mother who always has such great advice. Just this week I was asking her how do I encourage Tanner to say other things in his prayer other than the 3 things he always says every other time he prays. So we've tried a different tactic and it's been working pretty good. She's so smart!

I am thankful for the Bible. I love the Bible. I have been studying it this year and am thoroughly enjoying it. The stories are more personal to me as I read them and I love that I can apply the principles into my life.

I am thankful most for the gospel and for the Savior. I can see the difference it makes in a persons life and am grateful that I have the blessing of both in my life.

Anyway, those are just some of the many things I'm grateful for this week. My life is not my own. It belongs to the Lord and I hope that I can do the things that He wants me to do and live a life that honors His name.

Oh, happy birthday

Happy birthday to my Mom...on the 7th. The woman that I love almost more than life itself and who I would gladly give up my life for. She is my rock for sure. She is always reassuring and comforting. She is a really great snuggler, even now as an adult, I still crawl into her bed with her when I'm there and snuggle with her. She is such a strength and so courageous for all that she had to go through when my Dad was sick and dying. She sacrificed so much. More than I think I know. She never complained. She is such an amazing person and I love her so so so much.

To my Mother

When we were up in Calgary 2 weeks ago, I left my camera at my friends place. So she took it to my brother in law that works close to where she lives. Well, then I forgot it at my Mom's this last weekend. Man! I can't even believe it. I have some really cute pictures and this weekend is Grad and so I won't be able to take pictures of all the cute girls I work with who are graduating. I am not very happy about it but what can you do?

We had really nice weather for the long weekend but now it's raining. I really like the rain, but it limits the things we can do. Okay not so much what we can do, but how long we can do it. Tanner nor I mind getting wet in the rain but we can only stay wet for so long. It's a good day to make a nice cup of Hot Chocolate and curl up and read a book or watch a movie. Or have a nice long bath...if you like that. I, for one, dislike baths very much. I prefer a shower to a bath any day.

I am working on making a lot of birthday and baby cards. It is really crazy, but I know 20 women that are pregnant at this very moment. 1 is about to give birth any day and the rest are all due in the next within the next 5-6 months. So needless to say, I need to get on top of the baby cards for sure. I haven't been as good this year about birthday's. I don't know why, but I don't think about them until it's the day before and then I feel bad because it's too late to send a card. Oh well. Maybe it's better late than never.

So that's about all I've been up to.

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I know my Mom NEVER reads my blog but I wanted to pay public tribute to a woman that I love so immensely and intently that words could never do the emotions I feel for her any justice whatsoever. But here's to hoping that one day, she'll come across this.

For my Mother.
I honor you who gave birth to me and cared for me. Who fed me and clothed me and bathed me. Who taught me to walk in the path of righteousness (even though I didn't always stay on that path).
Thank you for staying home with us when we were kids. For letting us rule the backyard and have fashion shows with the towel (they were old towels) and then wash them so we could have them the next time we played fashion show.
Thank you for building an amazing and beautiful Barbie house for us, where we spent many, many hours playing and imagining things. For letting us make clothes out of your scrap pieces of fabric for our Barbies and for not getting angry when we cut our Barbies hair, or cut your craft ribbon to use for whatever we saw fit to use it for.
For feeding us Kraft Dinner. For letting us lick the spoon of the Kraft Dinner you made that had the extra cheese on it. For your song outbursts. For letting us have Russell and Veronica come over every Sunday. For our trips to Utah. For putting together the funnest games ever for the long road trip.
Thank you for letting us eat the Crab Apples off the tree in the back yard. And for letting us soak the lawn under the trampoline with the sprinkler while jumping on it. For letting us know you didn't like when we jumped off the garage roof onto the trampoline, but for not yelling at us when we did. For letting us have sleepovers. For letting us sleep outside in the middle of winter with Dad.
For teaching us that family is what's important. For teaching us about faith and trusting the Lord.
Thank you for never saying bad or unkind things about us or about anyone else for that matter. For teaching us that gossiping is not okay.
For letting us sleep downstairs for a sleepover when Dad had Chemo. For telling us the truth and not letting us think that we would always have a Dad. For being a strength to us when Dad died. For letting us sleep in your room, in his bed after he died.
Thank you for never giving up on me when I was such a terrible and horrible teenager. Thank you for loving totally and purely unconditionally. Thank you for driving me to the orthodontist every month and always playing the same Marie Osmond tape in the van so we could sing to it together.
Thank you for being so in tune with the Spirit that you were able to raise 4 daughters all on your own for a really long time.
I know I've said this before, but I believe that the Lord knew you were such an extraordinary person that we didn't need 2 parents to raise us for our whole lives because He knew that you could and would have enough love for both you and Dad and that you would be able to do it. He entrusted you with us alone after being with Dad for only 14 years and all you have to do is look at all of us to know that you did a great job.
Thank you for believing in us and for never giving up. You are an amazing woman and I hope I can be more like you in many ways one day.