EFY 2008 A Woman's Heart

That's the way of a Woman's Heart! Enjoy your sabbath!

Don't be jealous!

Isn't this just a great picture of Autumn?  Well, I think so anyway.  So, don't be jealous out there in California, but we have been having THE best Autumn or Fall.  It has been just perfect weather everyday, knock on wood, it's been like 70's 80's all the time.  And every morning my friend Darcie and I take about an hour walk.  And we always try to take a picture of something we see each morning on our walks. So, this is one I took a few mornings ago. This is up the hill over looking part of Springville and Mapleton. 

So, this morning I missed my walk in order to make an 8:30 appointment to a second interview with a company that I really really want to work for!  I am ready to go back to work full time now.  Especially since we are about ready to be done with the house in like another month at the most and we need to make that house payment.  I figure the kids are all old enough for me to be gone during the day now.  I thought it would be a good time to try and find a job with a solid company that I can work for and grow with.  Maybe even retire from.  Well, this job is just perfect for me.  In fact it is here in Springville.  It is a receptionist position at a large manufacturing company.  They are looking for someone to be the main receptionist with the ability and interest of moving onto a more demanding positon with the company in the not too distant future.  Well, that's perfect and that's ME!  Don't worry, I told them.  So, hopefully they are narrowing down their search.  I was told that they had 200 applicants and they narrowed that down to 25 and then down to 3 for the last interview and I was the first to interveiw the second time around.  So, keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer for little ol' me.  I neeeeeeeed this job so bad.........and it's just perfect in every way for me.

Beautiful Fall weather and a Beautiful job oppotunity for "yours truly"....don't forget;)

College Days

So, I've been thinking a lot about my young single adult days.   I have especially been thinking about some of my college days.  Probably because I now have a college student.  Well, here I am at Rick's College in 1982!  Yep, that's me wtih all my studies.  Truthfully I hated it!

Here is a good depiction of how I felt there.  First of all I felt cooped up because it was in the dead of winter (Jan) that I was there and we lived in this little apartment and I missed California so much!  I never was one for studying and doing well in school in the first place.  But my good friend Jodi was there and she wanted me to join her.  I had an exboyfriend who had been there and raved about how much fun it was.  So, I went.....and I almost dropped out of the semester and went back home. But I stuck it out for one semester.

We made our own fun though, while I was there.  Like the time we took one of our roomates bed room and put it outside.  That was a hoot!  We pretended to be drinking on it too.  A bottle of sparkling cider did the trick for this picture.

We also took out all our magazines and cut out all of the cute guys we could find in it and plastered them all over the kitchen wall above the table.  Made for fun conversation and enjoyable meal times:)

I also made a good friend there.  Ginger was just a tiny little thing.  She was a lot of fun and one of the reasons I could stand to stay there for that one semester.

Those were the days.  They were short lived and I'm glad they are over!

This is what it's all about

So, I'm sitting here at the computer for a moment on a Saturday afternoon in my house all alone while the rest of the family is next door working on the new house.  We are in a hurry to get it done before the weather breaks and it starts snowing again.  For now we are enjoying a beautiful Autumn day. Our friends, The Robinson's  are anxious to get into their rental(the house we are in now) and we are anxious to get into our new home.  But just for today, I am enjoying my life, my family.  The goodness that is all around me.  I truly am blessed.

So, this is truly what it is all about for me.  Michael was dating this cute girl that he really thought the world of, but unfortunately that relationship ended earlier this week.  She was a great girl, but truthfully, I am a bit happy about it.  Mostly because now he's home more again.  I know that is probably very selfish of me. But, he has been wanting to spend more time with his brothers than he did before his mission and with him going to school, looking for a job and dating her there wasn't a lot of time for his brothers.  Well, now there is time again.  I think my favorite time is when all my boys are together either working or playing and just being together.  Like today. I want to freeze this moment in time.  It is when I think I am happiest.  I feel deep satisfaction, joy and love.  I am a proud Mom.  I am in awe and in love with my boys!  The Lord has truly blessed me with good men in my life.  I married one and together we have raised more of them.  This is what it is all about!  I love my life!

Super Saturday Fun Ideas

We have a Super Saturday coming up in October. 

 So, I spent the whole week trying to come up with ideas and finding people to teach them to our RS sisters.  I think we came up with some good stuff.

  Our Theme is Strengthening Families Thru the Holidays!

The first hour of our Super Saturday we will have two instruction classes that will take a bit of time.

We will start with the Holiday breads, cinnamon rolls, cinnamon bread, etc..

Then while the bread is rising we will move to a nearby classroom where we will have a class on

deorating your Holiday table the easy way, with a few different and inexpensive ideas.

During lunch we will have a short message about the importance of

strengthening our families thru the Holidays.

Then we will break for lunch and have homemade soups, salad and rolls.

And we are asking the sisters to bring their favorite holiday treat to share for desserts.

Then we will break into our second hour of a round robbin style of holiday crafts.

Holiday Craft Ideas

#1 wood plaques with a vynal last initial. 

But we will be making them on the 8x10 plaques like the one in red. 

#2 crocheted cotton wash cloths

  Maybe I'm behind but I recently bought one of these great simple washcloths at a little store here in town and I love it!  It cleans my counters better than anything else that I have. 

So, I decided that we HAVE to make these!  Love them!

#3 Wooden spool christmas ornament

I thought these were super cute.  My sister makes jewelry so she will be teaching the sisters how to do the

bead work at the bottom and then you attach that to the ribbon and pull it thru and decorate

your spool with some cute Christmas scrapbook paper.

#4 Dry erase framed menu

You can use it like a dry erase board.  Just fill in the menu for this week.

Then erase and do it again next week.(change out your scrapbook paper as the seasons change)

  Simple, cute and a great christmas gift idea!

#5 Family Blocks

We picked up a 2x4 out of the backyard and cut them into 6 pieces.

  This is my friend Darcie's blocks we used as samples.

She just glued scrapbook paper, letters from my cricut,

and a package of matching embellishings. Are these cute or what?

And that's our Super Saturday!

Here's what I did with my 6 pieces of wood.

Mine are double sided. 

Here's the other side!

I love, love, love the way these turned out!

Ready....... Set........ Go!!

So glad today is the first day of school!  I was so ready yesterday.  I was having one of those "nobody appreciates me" kind of days yesterday.  One of those days where you are tapped out and nobody even notices how much you do all the time and that you could use some nice compliments.  No, instead they just continue to harrass you and expect you to do everything.  Sounds like perfect timing to go and find me a job!  Then maybe they will miss all that I do for them....yes, all of them!  The only problem is that I HATE having to look for a job.  The whole "send your resume" thing is just stupid to me.  I need to get out there in front of peoples faces.  Ideally I would like to find something close to home where I can be home quickly and where I can drive Mike's truck so that Michael can take my car to school since it gets better gas  mileage.

Today I am just enjoying the fact that the boys are in school and my house is nice and quiet.  I will go shopping and then come home and work on my resume'.........Ready........Set......GO!!

The balancing act

Okay, so how do you do it?  I mean seriously.  It doesn't matter how hard I try I just cant keep all the balls in the air at the same time.  I can not get all the plates to balance at the same time.  Something always has to give.  So, what has to give?  How do you decided where to put your priorities?  I mean there are always the priorities that you know you have to keep.  But then there still seems to be this other long list of priorities that you have to decide between.

Life is getting crazy again.  School, work, callings, sports, house cleaning, shopping, personal time etc...  I just cant seem to get a handle on it.  And it seems that what always has to give is my personal time.  Well, I just cant give it away anymore.  I am falling apart here!  I am tired of never having time for myself.  It always seems that what gives is either exercise or down time for me.  Because everyone else needs so many things from me, so that they can continue on with all they have to do.  So, when do I get to do just one or two of the things that I want and need to do?  Now, I might sound like I am whining, and maybe I am but I really need to start letting go and actually being a bit more demanding about things around here.  Probably my biggest problem is that my kids seem to think that if chores dont get done, it's okay because Mom will do them.  Well, if and when I start working I'm not going to be abel to do them. I used to look forward to the kids going back to school because at least my house would stay clean while they were gone.  But when I get a job again, a full time job, I will not be home to clean up behind them anymore.

I've been trying for years to get these boys to take their chores seriously.  But, with everyone being so busy doing other extracuriicular activities, there never seems to be a long enough period of time where it ever becomes a habit.  But honestly, I think if I could just get the kids to do this one thing...."CHORES"...consistently, I think I would be a happy girl!  I would be able to function.  I would be able to keep up with all that I have to do plus take a bit of time for myself to exercise, read, or do something relaxing for me!  So, do you think it is possible?  Do you think I could sit my family down and explain all this to them and they would actually get it?  Well, I'm gonna try once again.  Maybe they have grown old enough now that they will?..........One can always hope!