BTW

Hi friends. Been trying to call me lately? Yeah…um, the hubby "accidentally" cut the phone line while digging up a fence in our backyard. So…you know, call me on my cell and I'll continue to not answer…

Sorry Tanya! Just come over, seriously! You know you're welcome into my messy home any day, any time.

Puzzled

WARNING: GRANDPARENT MATERIAL INCLUDED!!

I turns out that I'm enjoying my Monday nights alone with the kids a lot more than I would have previously expected. In fact, I down-right love 'em!

Last night, especially, because Kembry went to bed at 7:30!! I didn't know what to do with myself, having only one child who actually BEHAVES. (Don't get me wrong, I adore Kembry Jeany Bum, but sometimes even Saints, such as myself, need a break!)

So, we got out a puzzle. Something Cohen and I would NEVER have been able to do if Kembry was awake and Daddy was home. Kembry would've picked up the pieces and thrown them around my perfectly clean room (HA!) and daddy would've…daddy would've…daddy would've distracted mommy. That's what he always does.

Anywho, I thought I'd share with you some cute Cohen pictures.

TAG

Thanks Steph! I love hearing about things people wouldn't normally just talk about.

What are the last three things you purchased? (Aside from groceries)

1. Fence brackets
   
2. Work gloves
   
3. A mirror…vanity? The thingy mirror that hangs over your bathroom sink.
   

What are the last three songs you downloaded for you iPod

1. My iPod is currently being shipped to me so…NOTHING.
   
2. Nothing.
   
3. And…nothing.
   

What are your three favorite movies? (I'll have to answer that in terms of THIS EXACT SECOND, because they change every other second.)

1. Stardust
   
2. Gone with the Wind
   
3. The Fifth Element
   

What are three things you have not done yet? (I'm going with Steph on this one and assuming its THREE THINGS I'd like to do).

1. Travel to Europe. Anywhere in Europe.
   
2. Remodel my kitchen…though that's on its way…
   
3. Have a third baby. C'MON BRETT!
   

What are three things you cannot live without excluding people?

1. My laptop.
   
2. My books.
   
3. My mini-van. We are one.
   

What are your three favorite dishes?

1. My plate.
   
2. My bowl.
   
3. My desert dish.
   

Sorry….I couldn't help it.

1. Garlic Chicken con Broccoli
   
2. Spaghetti and Chili Beans
   
3. Roast Beast with Carrots and Mashed Taters
   

What are you three favorite TV shows?

1. That one where the guy is like a psychic but he's not a psychic.
   
2. Criminal Minds
   
3. Everybody Loves Raymond
   

What are the last three places to which you traveled that are more than 100 miles away?

1. Mexico
   
2. Mesquite
   
3. Lost Wages
   

What are your three favorite deserts?

1. Apple Dumplings
   
2. Cheesecake
   
3. Anything from Cold Stones. Anything. At all. Period.
   

What are three things you would buy if money was not an issue?

(I'm going to answer this for Brett, because he talked about this last night and it was so funny. He's cute.)

1. A rockwall in my house.
   
2. Expensive tile.
   
3. (This one is from me) An authentic Degas. I love ballerinas. Love love love.
   
4. Oh, and um…a Chip N' Dale. My very own.
   

Three people I tag:

1. You.
   
2. You.
   
3. And you!

How can something so beautiful and interesting be such a nuisance?

Oh, I see.

GRATITUDE DAY 14

Today I'm grateful for books. You thought I was going to talk about how super-grateful I am for grandma's huh? Well, you're wrong! I mean, you're right in that I am super-grateful for grandma's, but they'll get their day. Oh, they'll get their day.

Anywho, books. The two of you who know me probably don't know that I actually do have a nose, though it's usually pressed nicely into the spine of a book. My love of reading, and therefore love of smooshed noses, came from mi pap. I was but a weee lass when he indoctrinated this insatiable need to be constantly reading. He read to me when I was a little girl, and as time went on, he would pay me $$BIG BUCKS$$ to read a book, and then write a report on it. We're talkin' TEN DOLLAR BILLS here folks.

My very first REAL chapter book was "The Giver" by Lois Lowry. And the list goes on for twenty miles from there.

I am so grateful for books. They're a transport into another world. Reading Rainbow says it best: "I can go anywhere! It's in a book so just take a look…" They work my brain out. They teach me new words like "brooding" and "crux" and such. I like crux. I envy writers their imaginations, their fortitude to sit down and put on paper on the evil going-ons in their brains and then let hundreds of thousands of people read them.

Like Stephenie Myer. Wasn't she worried that people would be thinking "What a crazy psycho-sexual woman this Stephenie Meyer woman is!"? I mean, not that I thought that or anything…

I'm grateful for the women of the 18^th and 19^th century who were witty and funny and feisty and didn't care what the "man" thought. They wrote some of my favorite books. Like "Pride and Prejudice" and "Jane Eyre" and "Anne of Green Gables" and "Wuthering Heights". Books like these will probably never be written again because there just aren't women like these women anymore. We're all too "feminist" and "let me pay for my own dinner pig" and "who needs to write a book when I've got TIVO" sort of chicks who don't shave their armpits or wear bras. Ok, that's mostly me. Regardless.

I'm grateful for the men in the same era who had social and political stances that were potentially dangerous to their lives, but they went ahead and made note of the times. "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Dumas, "A Tale of Two Cities" by Dickens (though it was written by an Englishman a couple of decades late…so his life really wasn't at risk for his opinion, he was just depressed and angry…) and "Les Miserables" which I was FINALLY able to finish and am still depressed because of it. I learned a lot about French History from fictional novels. So there Mr. Wood! And I must throw in there "The Phantom of the Opera", because, to me, that's one of the sweetest love stories ever. Edward and Bella have nothing on Christine and Raul!

I love watching my children grow to love and appreciate books. They're only 2 and 3, but already they lie in bed and look at books and try to read them. Cohen makes up his own stories; he's so creative, so imaginative. I've even given Brett the "book fever".

I think about "1984" and "The Book Thief" and all the horror of piles of books burning. Gone. What we lost in the fire, indeed. I hear that Junior Highs have band "To Kill a Mockingbird". This is beyond me. PTA 2010 BEWARE!

Books are an amazing blessing. They give us an interesting look into history. Not just the going-ons, but what the people were like, what they thought, their opinions. Just like the Beatles who wrote passionate music about their views, writers all over the world in every era have left us amazing footprints and insights into their world. "The Book of Mormon" and "The Bible" are amazing books with a history of world and creation, truth and knowledge, good and evil, love and hate. I'm so grateful for these books above all, because they give me the most important knowledge.

So take that and smoke it in your pipe "BIG BROTHER"!

Grand pappies

Oh my, these grand pappy's are by far the greatest three grand pappy's this side of the Nile. Either side of the Nile. In DeNILE. Haha, stupid joke.

Dad. My dad. Papa Tim. I think he started contemplating grand-babies 6.8 seconds after he found out Brett and I were getting married. He didn't stop pestering. He was so excited that Brett and I decided to invite him to Cohen's ultrasound where Cohen was named Buford by my dad. Well, needless to say, Buford and Papa Tim are nearly inseparable. I had more baseball hats on my pregnant belly that anyone should have to put up with. Papa Tim works on choo choo trains, and even took Cohen and Kembry on one! He thinks of grand-dad-hood the way I think of roast beef and mashed potatoes with carrots: our eyes get all glazed over and we begin to drool. Like father like daughter. Bit different though…I guess…I mean, I hope he doesn't want to eat my babies!!

Let's throw into the mix Papa Mike. Oy gava. Papa Mike. Toys in the diaper, chocolate ALL THE TIME, giggling non-stop, crude remarks about bodily functions. I remember not having any expectations of Mike when we had Cohen. I remember thinking that it was okay if he didn't take right away to a new born baby. And I was right to. Mikey doesn't like the newborn babies so much. He says they look like creepy aliens, and, after he explained to me why, I can kind of see it. Anywho, not long after this little revelation about Mikey's feelings towards newborns, Kembry came along. Love at first site. One day, Kembry was only a few weeks old, Marilyn handed the girl over to the grandpa and said, "Hold her for a sec." Well, he had his arms out all awkward like, but he held her the rest of the afternoon. He even looked at her a few times. Needless to say, he's now happily wrapped around her tiny little fingers.

Papa Scott and the race cars. That's all we get out of Cohen. Papa Scott and the race cars. Papa Scott has a race car. Papa Scott was watching race cars. Cohen and Papa Scott are truly a match made in heaven. Anything that goes fast, they both react the same way I react to roast beef and mashed potatoes with carrots: eyes all glazed over and drool and all. What? I like roast beef, and they really love things that go fast! And what Brett and I love about Papa Scott is that he has some strange defense against Kembry's puppy-dog-give-me-anything-and-everything-I-want eyes. Well, almost completely immune…

Today I'm grateful for these grand-pappies. They make my kids lives! Anytime you even begin to say "Papa" we get bright eyes and squeals of delight. After a visit, the kids talk about it for days. Thank you Papa Tim, Papa Mike and Papa Scott and the race car. We love and appreciate you so much!! Now where's my roast beef?

Gratitude Day 12

Oh my, I'm sure I need not go into detail about my gratitude for rain. I'm sure the two of you who read my blog agree with me whole heartedly.

But oh my, I am so very grateful for rain. I love the way the wet dirt and grass smell. The way the street lights reflect of the shiny surface of the road. The sound of splashing as cars drive through big puddles; in my case, it's usually on purpose.

I love rain in the early morning. It's a unique color of clouds that cover the skies then. A dark purple mixed with blue mixed with a unique color of silver and yellow as the sun tries to break through the wall of rain. It never really does, but I'm grateful that it tries so hard.

I love the way it feels on my skin, on my skull. I love feeling each little droplet hit my head. I love it, too, when it's a torrential down pour, and you can't be outside for more than a second without getting completely and utterly soaked.

I'm gonna go stand outside in the rain for a bit folks. Please feel free to visit me in the hospital once I get pneumonia again!

How to Post from Microsoft Vista

So super easy. This coming from a person whose attempted to make her own header for like six months now, STILL WITH NO SUCCESS. Hence the one you see now. Anywho…

1. Go to Microsoft Office and click on "new" (this is usually where you go to start a new document.)
   
2. Click on "New Blog Post"
   
3. It will ask you to register your account. Only do this on YOUR OWN COMPUTER. Trust me folks.
   
4. It brings up your new document, with a place for a title. Enter in "Kelly is awesome!" This is a must.
   
5. Then, type out your incredible post.
   
6. Then, click publish in the upper left hand corner.
   

Steph, if I can do it, Sasquatch can. Now who wants to come and hold my hand and show me how to make a customized header? Kimbie? Alright, we've got a volunteer!

P.S. The best part is the FONTS! You don't have to go all HTML crazy in blogger. You get 'em all right here…awesome.

Wow, Anna, thanks for saving me tons of time and keeping me in my Microsoft-rific comfort zone!

As I posted before, I found some friends from high school on the good ol' WWW. Well, Anna Banana (I've never actually called her that, and I hope she doesn't disown me as a human being for doing so) posted about being able to post FROM MICROSOFT WORD! I had to read her post a few times, for my eyes were in complete disbelief. And my brain was a puddle of goo. Is. Is a puddle of goo.

So here I am, POSTING FROM MICROSOFT WORD! This may only be exciting for you technically challenged folks like myself. Basically, this is exciting only for me. But, because we're so close, my two readers, I thought I would share this most exciting piece of news.

That is all.

Have a lovely weekend. I'll leave you alone now.

A blip

Holy crow! I branched out of my blog world and found oodles and gads of people with whom I attended high school! Yay proper English. I bet Wendy W will read this and say, "No, that was all wrong." Bah! Bah I say, Bah!

Onto the point, it's so awesome to see how everyone is doing, to see new little babies. Especially when they're the first, and I get to read about the first-time-mommy-jitters and remember all about it, which I love! I love remembering what it was like the day I found out I was pregnant, the day I found out I was having a boy, the day I went into labor...I don't think about that day as much. It sort of hurt.

ANYWAY! Totally love seeing you guys (I've been reading "Seriously So Happy" too much, me thinks). Regardless, TOTALLY love seeing how everyone is doing.

Controlling the size of my font is as difficult for me as controlling the volume of my own voice, this is sooooo appropriate.

Onward...here are some great high school people I've stumbled into today if you wanna check up on 'em and bother them in their private blog world. Cause you know how much I LOVE it! Go have fun!

Julia and Isaac Nielsen
April Wilde
Katy and Steve Porter
Adam and Lynsie Ferrero
Anna and Sean Bergstrom
Tara and Alix (Tara Lewis)

Franklin Covey Morning-time family

In the magical land of Never-wanna-wake-up, in the small town of Oh-Crap-it's-Friday-and-I-have-to-go-to-work-today, Frumparella finally rolled herself out of bed.
She ran a comb through her scraggly hair which did little, brushed her teeth (thank heavens) and put on clothes, all in 4.6 minutes.

Then she was out the door. Cold, tired, and full of a fun traveling companion she liked to call that d*@n headache.

When she arrived at work, cold, tired and still dragging along her favorite companion, she threw herself down into her familiar black swivel chair and was met immediately with "Oh hi! How are you feeling? I hope you feel better, you didn't have to come today." And another, "How's your headache? You didn't have to come today, go home."

Today, Frumparella is SO grateful for her Franklin Covey Morning-time family. It's like having three mothers, a sister, and a distant cousin she only gets to see for 30 minutes a day. It's awesome.

They're caring, funny, emotionally involved, and their happiness is highly contagious. Frumparella may be wearing 30 hair pins, a blue headband, an old pink sweater, and worn out sandals, but they still love her. And she's grateful for that acceptance.

BTW

Jen posted about this hill-ar-i-ous site called "Seriously So Blessed". You MUST read this if you're a Utah Mormon Mother. Must. Absolutely. That is all.

(BTW, please laugh.)

Hold that thought...

You wanna hear something weird? No? Too bad, you're going to.

I don't feel like blogging today.

Now, stop what you're doing, put down that Diet Dr. Pepper for a moment, and soak it in.

Kelly doesn't feel like blogging today.

What has happened to the world? Is it flying off it's axis as she types, you may wonder. Is the sun hurdling towards us, and in t-minus 8 minutes we'll all be dust in the wind (to be sung reader).

No, everything's fine. I just have a hang over from my heckuva night last night. Coke and ice cream and popcorn and some seriously hard laughing will do that to a person who doesn't get out much.

So I'll pop some Aleve and a couple of Valiums and see where the hallucinations take me, then I'll get back to you with all the millions of things I'm grateful for. Cause I know how much you all must miss it.

Have a lovely day.

Gratitude Day 10

Thinking of things to write about-things I'm grateful for-every day has been a real eye opener for me. Normally, I go through my days with my eyes closed, and my mini-van bumper is direct proof of this. Anyway, Day 10 and the perpetual cloud of gloom is slowly being lifted.

Last night I was reading through a journal I kept when I started dating the husband. I found a lose piece of paper that I had pulled out of one of my school notebooks to scribble down some grateful thoughts that I was feeling very impressed upon at that exact moment, and didn't have my journal available.


I wrote down all the little things I was grateful for. I remember this moment, thinking in my mind how all these things were just amazing, were absolutely wonderful. How blessed we all were that Heavenly Father blessed us with not just nature, but BEAUTIFUL nature. I don't think the leaves HAD to be beautiful to help fertilize the earth, to provide shade, to sing in the wind, but they are. I don' t think flowers had to come in such beautiful colors and smells (except for the bee's of course, picky bee's), but they do. I don't think the sun had to filter through the leaves of the trees and create the most beautiful abstract patterns on the most gorgeous green grass, but it does. I think that all of these beauties in the world, in nature, were given specially to us to just enjoy. And boy do I enjoy them.

The other day the kids and I were taking a walk, and Cohen pointed to the Oquirrah Mountains and said, "Mommy, are we going to climb the green mountain?" And I said, "Well, um, not today kiddo." And he pointed to the Wasatch Mountains and said, "Oh, are we climbing the blue mountains?" My heart melted. I would've packed up those mountains and let him bring them home if I could've!! They looked so beautiful in the setting sun. The green, earthly look of the smaller but almost as beautiful Oquirrah mountains. The steel, blue, granite looking Wasatch mountains. It took a child to open up my eyes. He's amazing. More amazing than the mountains.

So today I'm grateful for nature. I have amazing pictures on a camera that's dead, so you'll have to use your active imaginations. Nature is amazing. It's terrifying, and calming, and amazing. Remember the tornado in '99? Rather, tornado'S? Remember the way the sky clouded over within an hour. Remember the deep, dark, purple and blue that covered the atmosphere? Remember the smell, the rain coming down hard out of nowhere? The hail?Remember how scary and wonderful and awesome it was to watch it all happen. I'm not saying tornado's are cool...okay, I am. That was SO COOL! But remember watching something that most of us had never seen before, and instead of feeling that deep pit of fear that maybe we should've been feeling, we were out with our cameras and video recorders watching it?

Nature is amazing. I'm grateful for the beauty and wonder of it today. I hope you go outside today, breathe in the smell of the last linger of summer. Listen to the leaves sing in the wind. Watch the grass dance. Feel the sweet heat of the sun on your skin. Drink in some much needed vitamin D.

Enjoy.

My weakness cycle: I'm grateful for it dang it!

I know many of you, after reading this, if you can even get through it, will say, "Duh Kelly, we've been on the band wagon for years now, where've you been?" Well, I will tell you: I have been festering in my weakness cycle. Regardless of my late arrival, I'm going to share with you an epiphany I had a little while ago, because...well, I don't know why I'm sharing. I just felt like it, so there. You all have probably already caught on to these things though =)

I am a weak person. The one strength I hold onto is that I recognize this very fact: I am weak. I can pick out my weaknesses. I can say, "Alright, from this day onward, I'm going to strengthen this particular weakness," and then guess what, I do it! I do it so well, that after a time, I become proficient and my old weaknesses turn into great strengths. Then I start to think, "I'm really good at this. I don't need to try so hard anymore. I can relax a little bit and focus on the million other weaknesses I struggle with." And BAM! I relax, I get lazy, my proficiency get's less and less so, and soon my old weakness is my new weakness, and I have to start all over again.

I have read the Book of Mormon. I understand the Pride Cycle, I relate to it very, very well indeed. This is my ultimate weakness: I know what to do, but I struggle daily to do it.

The epiphany comes in here: Man is a natural enemy to God. Some sick joke, but it's true. It's scripture. We all struggle on a daily basis because, well, it's an uphill battle: literally. If you stop for just a moment to catch your breath or stare at a pebble or pick your nose or whatever, it's so much harder to start up again. When you're in the middle of that hill, you just gotta keep goin'. Endurance man, it's something amazing. (Do you remember Sisyphus, always pushing the boulder up the hill just to have it roll down to the bottom, to push it back up again? Yeah, this was meant as a COMEDY people. Sick Greeks.)

But I find great comfort in many things. These thoughts help me wake up every day, help me work on weaknesses that I've already conquered but that need conquering again. Here is one of these thoughts. It's that, though man is a natural enemy to God, God is not a natural enemy to man. He loves us. He recognizes our weaknesses and revels in our strengths and triumphs. And for all of these reasons, He gives us hope. Hope keeps me jogging up my hill.

Second, this wonderful little thing called Eternal Progression. Where would we be without it folks? Burning on the pitchfork, I think. I know that sometime in the pre-existance I made three very important decisions that changed my eternal life. One, I chose to follow our Savior. Two, I chose to come to this earth to receive a mortal body and live out my probation. Three, I have endured thus far. These bodies confound me. All the emotions, the physical limitations and temptations, the spiritual set backs, the mental retardation that I suffer daily. But this mortality also amazes me: the love, the family unit, the growth, the happiness. I know from personal experience that you cannot have the wonderful joy of happiness without the bitter pain of sadness. Eternal Progression. Heavenly Father probably warned us about these confounded bodies, about the limitations and struggles we would endure, but I know that He promised us that we wouldn't have to get it all right during this probation; but that we would have Eternity to get there. Eternity. I'm comfortable with that thought. It's like the endless test in Calculus, and you can use notes, and ask for help, and if you make a mistake, it's all good.

Third, I have a great comfort in knowing that our Savior suffered all the same things that I'm suffering. He was a mortal. Though He was perfect, He was still human, and at that time He too was a natural enemy to God. He suffered sadness, betrayal, anger, frustration, all of it. He tipped over the money-changers tables, He snapped at his disciples, He got frustrated with the Jew's for just not listening to the obviousness, He cried, He begged, He died. He was mortal. But He did it. He did it for me, personally. I'm not one of those people who say, "I'm not going to be a sinner because I don't want the Lord to suffer more." It's not like that to me. He suffered, it's over, and now He comforts the way his Father comforted him. He comforts and forgives and sets an example for us for any and every situation that presents itself and we say, "I just don't know what to do here." Well, let's get cliche. What would Jesus do? Seriously. I think this a lot, but I don't say it out loud. Not because I'm ashamed, but because truly it is a cliche that has been taken a bit far. I think of what He would do, and I try in my pathetic mess of a life to emulate that example. I try, and fail, and try again, and that's ok. Eternal Progression.

I think I get the picture. Now if only I could remember it next time I'm working on my visiting teaching, or my calling, or being a wife or a mother or a daughter or a friend or simply as a child of God. I hope because Heavenly Father gave me that most important of gifts. I hope because when all is said and done, I'm human, and without it, there's no reason to press forward.

Onward and Upward! (Dang hill!)

Gratitude Day 8

I was reading Wu's obit for the ten thousandth time and a swell of gratitude rose up inside of me. Let me esplain...

What I'm saying is I was raised Catholic. Not CATHOLIC CATHOLIC, like, "Let's go to Catholic church today honey 'cause we're Catholic." Rather, when I went to funeral it was to mourn, and when I went to a baptism it was...well...to mourn. "Poor kid, he's gonna die in sin anyway."

Life is different when faith is involved. Death is different. And I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the fact that we knew Wu was dying. That we knew she was in pain and that it was "only a matter of time." Personally, I think it does help. It helps you prepare for the blow. It helps you for that 3 am call. It wasn't "Oh my goodness, whose calling at 3 in the morning?!" It was, "Brett honey, wake up. She's gone." And I didn't even have to answer the phone to know who was on the other end.

But the point of ALL OF THIS rambling is that I am grateful to know the truth about life and death. I'm grateful to know that men (and hot hot women like myself) were sent here to have joy. And that after that, we go to Heaven, where there is more joy. Where I know Wu is right now, with her mom and dad and nephews who didn't need the world to prove them sinless and wonderful. I know she's there, and I'm grateful to know that.

Don't get me wrong. I've broken down and balled. Curled myself up with the plunger I know so well next to my stinky toilet. But what a comfort to know that with all of that pain those who are left behind get to experience, Wu, who was in the most pain of all, is at peace.

Susan's Funeral Pictures

I'm finally posting pictures of Wu's funeral. It was a very beautiful, very sad day. I hope these pictures help those of you who couldn't be there. We missed you.

After the burial, we went to Wu's favorite restaurant, Rafaels. The memorial was held at the high school where Wu worked. It was beautiful.

We miss you, Wu.

Gratitude Day 8

I was reading Wu's obit for the ten thousandth time and a swell of gratitude rose up inside of me. Let me esplain...

What I'm saying is I was raised Catholic. Not CATHOLIC CATHOLIC, like, "Let's go to Catholic church today honey 'cause we're Catholic." Rather, when I went to funeral it was to mourn, and when I went to a baptism it was...well...to mourn. "Poor kid, he's gonna die in sin anyway."

Life is different when faith is involved. Death is different. And I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the fact that we knew Wu was dying. That we knew she was in pain and that it was "only a matter of time." Personally, I think it does help. It helps you prepare for the blow. It helps you for that 3 am call. It wasn't "Oh my goodness, whose calling at 3 in the morning?!" It was, "Brett honey, wake up. She's gone." And I didn't even have to answer the phone to know who was on the other end.

But the point of ALL OF THIS rambling is that I am grateful to know the truth about life and death. I'm grateful to know that men (and hot hot women like myself) were sent here to have joy. And that after that, we go to Heaven, where there is more joy. Where I know Wu is right now, with her mom and dad and nephews who didn't need the world to prove them sinless and wonderful. I know she's there, and I'm grateful to know that.

Don't get me wrong. I've broken down and balled. Curled myself up with the plunger I know so well next to my stinky toilet. But what a comfort to know that with all of that pain those who are left behind get to experience, Wu, who was in the most pain of all, is at peace.

The Brett Stats: Gratitude Day 7

Brett Ratner:


High powered producer. Famous for Prison Break. Needs a hair cut and a hot shave.

Brett Favre:


Football player. Retired. Football player. Very, very, handsome, even when he's not holding a ball.

Brett Scallions:


Abandoner of Fuel. My favorite singer. Hotty with a naughty body. Did I just say that? Yes, yes I did.

Brett Neff:


Husband, Father, Son, Brother. Hard worker, passe student, amazing musician. Mopper of kitchen floors. Cooker of delicious dinners. Sweetest Daddy. Best Kisser. Greatest man in the world.

Gratitude Day 6

Today is a double header folks. I'm grateful for late night movies and the good friends who join me each time!

Every once in awhile, I just need a fun time out from the house. These times generally come around 9:45 p.m. at a movie theater with my best friend, Tanya. We both have two little monkeys (a third on the way for Tanya!) and so late night is the only time we have. What does one do at 9:45 p.m. you may ask. Or you may not, considering I've already told you. We go to the movies.

Last night, however, I got to go with a new friend. I had so much fun! It lifts my spirits and gives me that much needed dose of estrogen. It's the greatest having people in my life that relate to me, that "get me", that don't go screaming and waving their hands in the air after I speak. For these friends, I am grateful.

And for these movie nights, I am grateful. Mostly we see chic flicks, cause those are the ones the hubbies don't care that we see; and they're the ones we relate to at those particular times because we're usually really chicky on those nights. I love stopping at Zomba Juice and getting a yummy orange energy drink and then have Tanya hide it in her vintage Old Navy purse for me because I drink cold things slow, and because she's the bestest friend in the world.

Mostly though I just love those few hours I get to spend with my friends. We spend time together aside from this, but this is our time. No kids (except the one in Tanya's belly) no husbands, no laundry. Just us.

I am SO grateful for these nights. I think I need another. Waddya say Tan, pick ya up at 9?

Gratitude Day 5

Today I'm grateful for (That's health. In honor of my cousins return from Japan...um, this is Chinese...sorry Carrie. You don' thave the smartest cousin on the block.)

Since January or so I have been sick. Then the gallbladder surgery. Then the recovery. For about three days after that, I felt FANTASTIC. I was running up the walls and jumpin' off the roof and quilting and baking cookies. Ok...maybe not all that. Anyway, the health went downhill after that sweet glimpse of happy life, and hasn't quite made it's way back up. I'm grateful when my body is in it's homeostasis and feelin' fine.

I'm grateful that my husband is perfectly healthy and able to work, go to school, come home and take care of me and the monkeys. He cooks, he cleans (occasionally) and he babies me almost as well as my own mother, and still has time for homework and Guitar Hero and Mario Carts.

I'm grateful that my children are healthy. They're healthy eaters, they're healthy players, they're healthy sleepers. They're always healthy at their check-ups (despite Kembry being extremely under weight; she eats everything in the house and then some, I'm not sure where it all goes! We call her Bermuda Butt.) Anyway, there was a time when both of them were sick to the point of hospitalization, and that was so horrible. But since then, they're both so healthy and happy, I truly couldn't ask for anything more.

I'm grateful that though I'm sick now, I know I'll regain my health eventually. I'm grateful for a friend that struggles through a life threatening disease and still manages to be grateful for the health she has despite it all. She's an amazing example. I should have included her in day 1, she's so awesome.

I'm grateful for the Word of Wisdom, that for medical reasons instead of faithful reasons, I've had to follow fairly strictly for sometime now, to an extreme. I wonder how people can be anorexic...it's really beyond me. I'm so hungry I'd eat my own arm if it wouldn't make me sick as a dog. Of course, my arm isn't as meaty as it once was...let me consider this for a moment.

Brett and his radio tell me that in 30 years, a healthy person will live one extra year for every year they live. Um...does that sound like immortality to anyone else? In 30 years I will be 54. I honestly hope that isn't true in 30 years. Regardless, I plan on being healthy at least by my 51st birthday, so we'll see how that goes!!

So today, because I'm feeling fairly well, I am grateful for my health and the health of my family. These bodies truly are miraculous things, if you think about it for a sec..............see what I mean? Amazing, huh?

Gratitude Day 4

Today I'm grateful for music that takes me back.

(By the way, I am grateful on Saturday's and Sunday's, but I don't have the internet, so they don't count here =)

The other day someone on MY 99.5 called in and said she just listened to "Killing Me Softly" by the Fugees, and that it had taken her back. I listened quietly to the song-ok I belted it with the song-but I started thinking about songs that "take me back".

Here are just a few. Hope you enjoy.

There are some I can't remember, but that still hold me. Some that remind me of the good old days in the kitchen at Waterford. Some that take me back to my senior year in high school, the time I was most involved though seldom in class. The first time I ever got into "school spirit."

Some music that remind me of long drives cross country (to California, real cross country) with good friends and lots of laughter. Some songs that make me sad, and remind me of lost friends.

Today I'm grateful especially for the Titantic song, because it reminds me of my friend Kayla, and the week we spent in the snowy fields of Idaho visiting her dad. Needless to say, there was nothing to do but eat candy and play checkers (remember that Kayla?) So, we saw Titantic like five times, in an old movie theatre, and sat on the balcony every time. We sang that song at the top of our lungs a million times. This song makes me smile even though it's sort of depressing, just because it reminds me of Kayla.

I'm also grateful for the Hymns, which my family is probably sick of, considering they're the only thing I play on the piano anymore. Rather, try to play. I have a million and a half favorite hymns. A few weeks ago, I was obsessed with Hymns of goodbye, of departing, of happy sorrow for lost ones. And ever sense I talked about prayers, I've been singing "Count your many blessings", more than the people around me would care to hear. But my all time favorite song, the one that gives me goosebumps and makes my heiney tingle, is "Praise to the Man". This song is at the end of the Joseph Smith Movie down at the JSMB, and I ball so hard when it's played on the bagpipes that I can't see the movie screen anymore and Brett looks around uncomfortably to make sure no ones staring. Mostly everyone else is crying too, so it's all good.

I'm grateful for my husbands music, which is always beautiful and peaceful and insightful. He writes songs about life and love and decisions and hardships and everything. He's amazing, and I know I'm not the only one who thinks this, so...I'm not just being biased! Ok, maybe a little bit. But he really does rock the house.

I'm grateful for "Three Little Monkeys Swingin' in a Tree" and other such classics, because my babies and I sing them together and we laugh a lot. Especially when that alligator "SMACKS!" that monkey right outta that tree!

So I'm grateful for music today. I'm grateful how powerful it is, how it can change any mood in just a moment, especially when sung by exuberant and happy children. I'm grateful for the feelings of nostalgia it creates, for the memories that flood my mind when hearing a song from long ago. Music is a powerful influence, and I'm supremely grateful for it in my life!

Gratitude Day 3

Sometimes you have to be grateful for something so that you don't loathe it. It's like that patience thing. You gotta do it so you can get it, even if the process bites.


Today I'm grateful for Education.


(Stephanie, I absolutely love this comic!)

My hubby is a bit of a "late bloomer" when it comes to school. He's a yellow personality born under an air sign (you may need an astrological dictionary to understand what I'm saying) so he struggles with decisions. Well, he's made a decision, and he's finally, finally, back in school. Which makes me a single mother a few nights a week. Which is awesome! Ok, sort of. Ok, sometimes not so much. Ok, it flat out bites the dust on occasion. Regardless, I'm grateful that he's decided that education is the way to go. I'm grateful that we live in a society where it's as easy as it is to receive education.

I'm grateful that we have colleges all over the state to choose from. I know there are places in this world where kids have to travel to attend even basic primary school, and that breaks my heart. I can't wait for my kids to start school, and they can't wait either. Cohen is proud of his daddy, even though he probably doesn't know it. I pick him up each day, and he says, "Oh, Daddy's at school tonight, huh mommy?" And I say yes and he just laughs because he thinks it's the neatest thing in the world. I hope he feels that way in two years. We shall see.


I'm grateful for the education that I received (Go Murray!) though I'm not sure how I graduated with a 3.8 and skipped half of my senior year. They called me "The Invisible Woman" in journalism. I'm grateful for the short year and a half I had at college, because it was all about what I was interested in. I didn't have to deal with gym (sorry Mr. Martin) or Chemistry (my chemistry teacher was from the UK, and I could not understand a word he said). Instead I got to totally dive into the things I loved like math and English and anatomy (the book kind, don't be gross) and history and language. I got my first "F", which was humbling, and met my husband, which was just awesome.

I'm grateful I'm not a dolt, is what I'm saying. I'm near dolthood, but not all the way yet. And I'm especially grateful that last night, when we were talking about what the heck I would do with my time once the kids were in school that Brett said, "I always thought you'd go back to school." Let's just say he got a big fat kiss for that one!

But, like Stephanie, I'm grateful for tons of things I learned outside the classroom. You know, in the classroom of life. Oh man, that's lame. Anyway, here are some things I am SO grateful for. Feel free to laugh.

• Cooking. I didn't learn a thing in home ech. I learned most of it on my own, unfortunately for my family.


• Sewing. This is a continual learning activity for me. But I'm grateful I've had the opportunity to finally learn how to create something from nothing.


• Cleaning. This is seriously a learned ability for me. Something that has taken years to learn and still more years to come to perfect.


• Mothering. I fell into this the greatest way possible, and I absolutely love being a mother. The things I've learned since Cohen was born could equal all I've learned in my entire life leading up to him.


• Gospel knowledge. Ok, so granted some of this was learned in a classroom, but most of it I learn in my daily life. I get lessons every day. Lessons in patience, lessons in kindness and forgivness, lessons in love. Every moment of every day I'm learning something new, and I am so grateful for that.

Gratitude Day 2

I'm grateful for prayers.



I'm grateful to have the opportunity to have a personal relationship with the Lord. I know that there is always that open line of communication between us, and sometimes when I feel like no one is listening or maybe no one understands or I just need a good reality check, I can pray to Heavenly Father. I don't always get "what I want," so to speak. Like those silly years I kept praying for patience and got, well, a lot of opportunity to practice patience. Turns out I ended up with some patience afterall. And I'm grateful for that, too. I'm grateful the Lord knows what I'm really asking Him, even if I don't. And I'm grateful to have the chance to thank Him for my billions of blessings each morning and night, and a dozen or so times during the day.



I'm especially grateful for my children's prayers, so I'm going to share Cohen's with you.



Hebenly Fadder, I'm grateful for this day

Pease hep me grow big and strong

Pease hep me have good sleep tonight

Pease hep me always have dy spirit

In da name of Jesus Christ

AMEN!



Any night I get to hear these, I cry a little. It's the same almost every night, unless he wants to throw a special spin on it. "I'm dankful for Larkin and the marbles," that sort of thing. These little additions absolutely melt my heart. But I'm especially grateful to be there to hear these prayers; to be apart of this holy communication with a spirit not long gone from his Maker.



Lastly (because I could go on all day, but I won't. You're welcome,) I'm grateful for the prayers others offer. What a selfless and loving thing to do, to remember someone in your prayers. I know from experience that I can feel it when someone prays for me. I look at them and can feel that they love me so much that they considered me last night or this morning or just now. I'm grateful for those people who take time to consider others, who worry about others, who try to do what they can to help soothe others.

Gratitude: Day 1

I'm struggling to blog these days. Mostly I just want to lie down and wallow in sick-self-pity and let Brett rub my feet and bathe my children. But a friend of mine named Stephanie decided to blog about the things she's grateful for. And each time I read them, it made me think about the things I'm grateful for. And pretty soon I got a little cheered up despite the many...um...rocky roads of the past month. So, thanks Steph for the inspiration and the example. It makes me think of the song, "Count your blessings name them one by one; Count your blessings see what God has done; Count your blessing, name then one by one; Count your many blessings see what God has done."



Day 1: Examples



I'm grateful for examples: good and bad. Everyone doing anything anywhere is an example to someone, and just this thought makes me straighten up a little bit, walk a little taller, and be less and less afraid to share the Gospel. I know there are people watching me.

I watch how people treat other people and sometimes I am amazed and disgusted. So, I watch the amazing things more often, and boy the world starts to look better and better with each instance.

Monday was new bra day (sorry fella's, hold on, it's a short one.) I was determined, despite throwing up after every meal, to replace the 3 year old that currently supported me. DETERMINED! So we went to the mall on Labor Day when I realized, duh, it's "The Jerry Lewis Telethon!" Something that I had been apart of once and absolutely loved. If you want to see some good examples, hang out at South Town Mall on Labor Day. These people offer so much of their time, services and money to make sure that research continues for a cure. MD is a horrible thing to watch a loved one suffer with. I really admire the people who are diagnosed and who live with it in such a way. They're wonderful examples. So is Jerry Lewis! Seriously, I can't believe he's still alive! Way to keep kicking man! And thanks for the great example you set with your life!