This is for you, Diane...

These are the family dogs. I have to say they are cute but I am not a dog person. Sorry, Diane.

I could do without having dogs, but these dogs have really helped Clarissa and Kayci. I would say that they have helped Clarissa the most. Before we got our dogs my girls would not go explore up the mountain, but after we got the dogs they would go play up the mountain and go on adventures. Because of the dogs the girls go outside and play. For that I am happy to have dogs around the place. They have to stay outside, but they are nice and warm in a great dog house my husband made.

This was taken from inside the house. I saw Bock sitting there and it was such a cute shot, I had to take a picture.

Here is Bock and Wally out front playing and roaming around the property. They are really good friends. Bock follows Wally around everywhere. Wally the lab is for sure the leader of the pack.

A Humbled Heart leads to embarrasing tears

My day yesterday was a typical Tuesday but that night I had the honor to play the piano at the adult care center for the elderly. My friend works there and asked for my help to play some songs for the people there. I had the chance to meet some amazing men and women.

These men and women have alzheimer's disease. I couldn't help but have a soft heart when visiting with them. I knew that they had all been my age at one time and lived a full life and had families that they loved and took care of. I was able to visit with a man that was giving me instructions on how to build something, I thanked him and told him that he was a good man and he said to me "I hope so".

Some of the other people there would make me chuckle inside because they would yell out and say things like, "stop talking to me" or "we better call her and see what she needs" or a women would get frustrated at another lady and then would ask me if these people were driving me crazy. I just smiled and told her "no". I will for sure go back again.

I have a place in my heart for the elderly. I grew up with parents that were constantly helping the widows of our home town. My mom was always visiting someone at the rest home in Logan and I always got to go with her. My parents also visited those that were in the hospital and I appreciate the experience because it has helped me not be afraid, but to love those in need.

So, after an amazing night with the elderly I had to work my way over to a school board meeting where I shared my thoughts on next years boundary change. I really am not looking forward to the school change for next year because I love the school we are at. Never the less, the board decided to proceed with the boundary change and my girls have to change schools. I have since then found peace about this and know that it might be for the better.

After my comment and the vote of the school board, the super intendent came over and called me out to the hall with him. He started to speak and there came the tears. I did not want to cry especially in front of him. Then he called over the principal to the new school we will attend and I still cried visiting with him. Now I'll be known as the crazy mother. Oh well, Anyone that knows me knows that my emotions are on my sleeve and can cry when things get to me.

So, the moral to this experience is the next time you need to go to a school board meeting don't go help with the elderly first. A humbled heart can lead to embarrasing tears that you can't take back and feel silly about later.

Something to think about: "...When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." Mosiah 2:17

Pay it Forward at last!!

Thanks to my friend Christine I have found my third person to pay it forward. I will be getting busy at making something for these three ladies that wanted in on the fun.I already know what I want to make and now I better get started because it could take me a few months to get the gifts done. I'm excited to make something for someone else. Have a great day!! Thanks Janae, Sarita and Christine!!

Valentine Swap & More...

Today started out a cold day at -4 degrees and has warmed up to 15 degrees. I took my little boy to story time at the library and on my home I thought that I would stop at our little post office. At my surprise I had a notice that I had an item that wouldn't fit into my post office box. So, I went to the front office and they handed me TWO boxes. I could feel my eyes getting big and a smile on my face. I had received my valentine swap gift from Loree and I received a package from my good friend Jessica in AZ. I couldn't wait to get home and see what I got.

This gift is from Loree. Her & I were paired up to be exchanging partners for a valentine swap. In this package is a cute valentine picture frame, suckers, heart magnet, magnetic note pad and cute valentine dish towels. I'm excited to use and eat these items. Thanks Loree for your thoughtfulness. I'm excited to use the dish towels. I've never had valentine towels.

I wanted to thank my friend Jessica for being so kind to send my family and I a fun valentine package. John was excited to eat the gum and suckers you sent. You are a good friend and I know we will be friends for ever.

Have a great day everyone and Have a Happy Valentine's Day when it comes!!

Pay it Foward continues...

I am so excited!! I now have two people signed up for the Pay it Forward. My good friend Janae from AZ, and Sarita from Mexico signed up also. I only need one more person to continue the chain of passing on love and excitement to another women's life. It is fun to receive but it is also a blessing to be able to give. Join Pay it forward so that I can have a chance to be blessed by giving a little part of me to you and then you will have a chance to give of yourself to another also.

And the Letter is...

I found this fun idea at Quilted Simple. She has given me the letter L to tell 10 things that I like that starts with that letter.

Here’s how it works…If you would like to do this then leave a comment on this post, and I’ll assign you a letter. You write about ten things you love that begin with your assigned letter, and post it at your place. When people comment on your list, you give them a letter, and the chain continues on and on. (I copied this from Kris, so… feel free to rip it off again).

1. Life: I enjoy my life and I am happy to be who I am and where I am in my life.
2. Lunch: lunch is my favorite meal of the day. I like to eat sandwiches and have a yummy soup to go with it.
3. Love: Love is good to have in our hearts. Without love then we really don't have much.
4. Light: I really am scared of being in the dark so I am grateful to have the light. What did the Lord say, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven" Matthew 5:16
5. Laughing: I always like a good laugh. I have some really fun memories wetting my pants from laughing so hard. It can make us feel so good inside.
6. Ladybugs: There is just something about holding a ladybug, the feel of it crawling around your hand. As a young girl my favorite thing about holding a lady bug was singing the song, "ladybug, ladybug, fly away home your house is on fire and your children are gone."
7. Listen: I enjoy listening to others. I can learn a lot by just listening.
8. Learn: It is good to have knowledge, what else are we going to take with us when we die.
9. Licorice: Without licorice my family wouldn't have a snack for our road trips. This seems to be our top favorite for a snack.
10. Lakes: I enjoyed this summer spending time at the lake with my family. We plan on doing it more this year. A lake brings beauty to the place where we live.

There you have it. These are the 10 things that I like that starts with the letter L.

You should try this it was kind of fun thinking about it.

Altered Clipboards

Today was another good day for me. I was able to get a few things done and complete my projects for January. My friend, Janae, introduced me into this craft that I really enjoy doing. It is called altered clipboards. I had never heard of this until Janae. I made three clipboards this week and here I am showing what I did. I am not giving instructions because I would mess them up. So, if you are interested you can google "altered clibboards" and you will find a lot of different websites you can go to see some really cute clipboards and they have instructions there.This clipboard I found a valentine card to use for my main idea of the theme. The main theme of this clipboard is "Life is what you make it... Then I placed different stickers of attributes to live or good things to do with your life. Like imagine, smile, sing, play, laugh, and more.

I thought this clipboard would be cute in a little girls room hanging on the wall. Ideas of others is that they use these clipboards to hang pictures on or hang on walls for decoration.

My oldest daughter sleeps on the top bunk and loves to draw at night before she goes to bed. She never had a place to put her paper and pens. So, last week I found this cute basket that could hang on her wall to place pens or a book to read in and her DS game.

Today I thought I could hang this clipboard by the basket and she could place paper in the clip and use this for her drawing table. I love it!!

I wanted a place in my house to write down the jobs that are to be done. So, the idea came to create a clipboard to hang the job list on. It is a little hard to see what is on this clipboard. I'll do my best to explain it. On the side I used stickers to spell "Do Your Jobs..." At Walmart I was looking for stickers to do with jobs. I found these cute stick figure people with different expressions. So, the idea was to place these different emotions on the board and write a different job that we do around the house underneath the expression. Does this make sense? So, some might say "take out the garbage, clean your room and others. I put a few positive sayings on like, "whistle while you work..., I love doing jobs and others.

This was fun for me to do. I love making clipboards that are custom to a persons personality too. There is a lot that can be done.

You can buy clipboards for .99 cents, my favorite clipboard to use is the Staples clipboard.

Thanks for stopping by and have a very good day!!

What makes a good day?

Today was a good day for me. This morning during my prayer I promised I would not waste my day. My last few days had consisted of cleaning a little in my house and then spending the rest of the day on the computer or watching tv. My spirit was starting to not like this new way of living so I knew I needed to change some things in my life. So, I started out my day studying my lesson for the youth I teach at church, then I had to take my girls to school because they missed the bus. I had a great opportunity on the way to the school this morning to turn around and help a man in need. His car was broken down and it was so cold this morning I knew he would need some help. I was able to take him to his work. I really didn't feel nervous at all, I knew I was supposed to be there at that time to help him out. I finally got back home where I checked my email and other stuff and then I got ready to take my three year old to the library for story time. Story time was short because only boys were there to listen, they got through one story and they started chasing each other. That was it for the library. While out in town I went to Staples to get the last item I needed for my January project. I have made a goal to do a project each month. This helps me feel like I am connected with myself. Anyway, I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my project. John had a board that he painted with me at the table. He painted it red and pink. He told me, "the pink is faster". I really enjoyed my day and learned a good lesson today. I learned to prioritize and do the things that are important and the rest of the day will fall into place. Life is good!!

The Kitchen

Right now I should be in the kitchen cleaning my sink full of dishes. Instead I am here doing this. First, I truly do not like the kitchen. Am I the only one who doesn't like the kitchen? It is the one frustrating thing for me being a homemaker. I guess I should say, keeping the kitchen clean is not my favorite thing. In our kitchen we don't have a dish washer so I have been forced to get in a habit of doing dishes after dinner (which is a good thing). One positive thing is my two girls are learning how to do dishes by hand. The dishes never seem to end, instead they multiply (I'm sure). I wanted to focus on two of my favorite things in my kitchen right now. Maybe looking at something positive in my kitchen will help take the frustration away.

I discovered a new powdered juice from Walmart. It is the sugar free packets called Cherry Limeade (Walmart brand). You know the powdered drinks by the Crystal Light. The cherry limeade is delicious!! I highly recommend it. Behind and to the side of the drink is what I asked for Christmas. I asked my husband for a fun kitchen gadget and he got me a hot chocolate maker. This has been so fun for me. It has a spout on the front that is fun for my daughter Kayci. She loves hot chocolate and has fun when I make it. Thanks for coming by and enjoying my two favorite things in my kitchen and listening about my frustration in the kitchen. Have a nice evening and I hope you come visit again.

I really am going now to clean my kitchen!! Seriously!!

Pay it Forward

I have joined Leona's Pay It Forward, I'm actually very excited to do this. This will give me something to look forward to and get me back to embroidery and cross stitch, the things I enjoy doing but haven't done in a long time. Anyway, this is how it works, I need 3 ladies to join me. If you join I have 365 days to send you a gift that has been hand made. Then you will need to find three ladies to join you and do the same for them. If this works it can pay forward for a long time and help a lot of people find joy. So, join and get busy we have this year to complete this fun idea and a chance to make someone happy. Just simply leave a comment that you would like to join my pay it forward and I will get busy to make you something I hope will be worth waiting for.

Thank you...

I wanted to thank Leona at Just Another Rainy Day for finding me and passing on a blogging award. It is an award meaning We Are The World. Thank you for thinking of me!! It shows that no matter how old we get it is fun to be mentioned and thought of. I had so much fun just being mentioned on your blog.

It's just crazy to me how this blogging world works. It is so fun!! I hope to make friends through blogging and meet many more good people. I think that we can really see what people are like through their blogs. Each blog is different and shows what a person is really like. It is fun to see how we are all truly different. I have enjoyed my time at blogging and hope to do it for a long time. I was thinking just the other day that as my kids get older and I need help with ideas to help make it through, I will have a lot of people willing to give me ideas and help me out. Like right now, my girls are being mean to my little boy. The poor kid, they like to pick on him sometimes. It doesn't happen all the time so I'm not too worried. Anyway, thanks so much Leona and I will be passing on the award soon. P.S. Seriously, I don't know how to link the Pay it Forward button to my blog. Can anyone give me a little instruction to do this? I know I'm a little slow. Have a nice Sunday!! It has been a cloudy, foggy day.

Welcome...

I have had so much fun with this welcome sign. I bought and painted this back in October. An idea came to my mind to place a cute something during each holiday and season on my sign. So, I have been able to find cute ribbons for each holiday and place them with velcro on on my sign. It has added something fun to my life being able to do this.

I LOVE IT!!

The Six Be's and Other Stuff to Know...

My sister, Sandra, has inspired me to think and be more creative. In her blog she posted that she hangs up thoughts and cute sayings around her house to remind her children of good values. She does this just in case they aren't listening to her, they will read it around the house. I knew this is something I would want to do in my house. I wondered am I teaching my children the values I want them to know by the things I have hanging on our walls? I started looking around and saw that I have already been doing this and I didn't even know I was. Here are a few pictures of what I found hanging around my house. I will take you on a tour. First, I have the Six Be's that were taught by Gordon B. Hinckley to the youth of the world in 2000. I have always loved this and made this years ago. I found the tray at a thrift store and painted on the Six Be's by hand and Mike painted the cute bee. This is hanging in our front room by the front door, as we are leaving we can be reminded how to always "BE".

Next on our tour we go to my girls room. Here I found a cute shelf that I have cute knick knacks that I have had myself or gotten for the girls. In this room I want to remind them to pray, be a friend, and always be yourself no matter what.

I made this when I was probably 12 years old. I had this hanging in my bedroom growing up and I have always tried to live this way. I took this very serious and tried to be friends with everyone. I am trying to instill this into my children that they can be friends with everyone too.

This is a poster that says, "Be your own kind of BEAUTIFUL". I want my girls to always be who they are even if they have to stand out and be the only daisy among the roses.

We then end our tour in my little boys room. In this room I want my son to know that he is a child of God, to Love one Another, and to know the scripture stories.

My little boy also loves race cars, so I had to put race cars on the shelf (he is a boy) . There are so many things we are asked to teach our children. Look around your house and see if your walls are covered with stuff that helps you teach your family. I bet you will see that you have more than you think you do.

"And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another...

But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another." Mosiah 4:14-15

I feel creative...

Right now I am feeling so creative. I know that this idea has probably already been done, but for me it is a first. This idea came about when I found this cute candle holder at the local thrift store for .50 cents. Next I wanted to find a valentine candle, so off to Walmart I went. All I could see at Walmart was a red candle, but I wanted hearts or anything like valentine on it. I thought about putting stickers on the candle but then I had the best idea to make my candle cute. I bought valentine party bags, cut it to fit the length of the candle, then I taped it around the back of the candle to make it fit tight. I LOVE IT!!

Anyway, thanks for humoring me with my idea to make a valentine candle. I'm passing it on to anyone that has never thought of this idea.

Have a great week!!

Let Virtue Garnish thy Thoughts...

Thanks to my sister, Sandra, and my husband, Mike, I have been able to create this area in my house. I love this spot because it is so relaxing to me. Right underneath on the next shelf I have this cute candle holder that says, "love" given to me from my mother-in-law. When I stop to look I see a women that is wanting to learn all that she can to gain knowledge of history, people, and the scriptures. I see a women that wants to be filled with wisdom and love. Have you ever thought what does it mean to let virtue garnish thy thoughts? I had studied about virtue and here is what I found. To be full of virtue is to have chastity, cleanliness, Goodness, Holiness, Modesty, Purity and being Sacred. Are all these qualities possible to live? I would say yes. In this world today it seems impossible but if we truly want to be a daughter of God then we will work toward having Virtue in our life. We learn in, Proverbs 31, what it means to be a virtuous woman, and the influence that one can have in our families life. I love the scripture Psalm 24:3-5 "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteosness from the God of his salvation." Have a great day and let the qualities of virtue be in our minds to help us be a better person and to be an influence of good to our families and those around us. Life is good and can be exciting if we choose to have goodness in our life. Thanks for spending time with me.

Christmas break

Back to school and back to real life. I am writing this early in the morning because of our dog. He barked all night. I now have him locked in our bathroom. I hate barking dogs. He never barks so I think he was spooked by something out there, but I must say I enjoyed my Christmas break with my family. We stayed up late and slept in late, my favorite thing. Here are a few pictures of our Christmas break. We enjoyed our time visiting family and friends. Thanks to the Jackson family letting us stay at their home while visiting with our dear friends the Andersen family. We had a blast staying up until 5:00 a.m. I love to play games and that is what we did. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year celebration. This year my plan is to have a flat stomach (we'll see how that goes). Have a great new year and I hope that success will follow all of you.