Another survey

I got this from Julina.


What is your ideal wake-up time in the morning? Anytime after the sun is up.
What are some of your favorite movies? Hope Floats, Nottinghill, Sense & Sensibility, Gone With the Wind. The Sound of Music, The Ten Commandments rock!
What is your favorite TV show? Grays Anatomy, Boston Legal, The Office.
What is your favorite breakfast? Toast dipped in Chocolate Milk.
What is your favorite cuisine? Mexican.
What foods do you dislike? sushi, mushrooms.
What are your top 5 favorite candy bars? Milky Way, Three Musketeers, $100,000, York Peppermint Patty, Pay Day.
What is your favorite music group? Too many for a favorite. Hilary Weeks-Church, Toby Keith-Country
Favorite sandwich? Good old Hamburger, I guess.
What do you wear most often? Work clothes. Pants & Blouse.
If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Nauvoo, IL
Favorite item of clothing? Don't have one. My nightgown, maybe?
Where would you want to retire to? Not too far from my kids/grandkids. Warm climate, hopefully.
Favorite time of day? Depends on the day.
Place you were born? Shreveport, La.
Favorite Sports to watch? Football. Volleyball if my kids are playing.
Are you a morning person or night owl? Used to be a night owl, but now I'm old. More morning person. I'm usually the first one up in the house, even on weekends.
Favorite animal? Dog.
Any news you'd like to share with everyone? I went to the gym today. TWO days in a row! Go me, too!
What did you want to be when you were little? A pediatrician, a nun or a nurse and a MOM.
In regards to parenting, children are : Opposition or blessing? Blessings. Even in opposition. What are some of your favorite things to do in your free time? Catch up on TV, quilt, cross stitch, read blogs.
Favorite flavor of ice cream? Good, creamy, chocolate.
If you could make one wish? And have it come true? Have ALL my family I love active in church.
Favorite baked good? So many! Cinnamon Rolls? Fresh bread.
Favorite season? Used to be Spring when I lived in the South. Now, it's fall.
Favorite cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory? Chocolate!
Ever done something you could've been arrested for? Yes, but I'm not telling!
Favorite color? Red. Purple. Black.
Favorite sport/ activity to play? Well, I used to LOVE softball. Favorite flower? Daffodil Favorite fast food restaurant? No favorite.
How many times did you take your drivers test? One time.
Favorite grocery store? Von's because it's close. How many tattoos do you have? 98! Yeah, right!
Who sent this to you and what is something you love about them? Julina. Her goodness.
What materialistic thing would you ask for if you had one wish to make? New flooring in my house.
Pizza or hamburgers? pizza,
Mr. Darcy or Mr. Knightley? Mr. Knightley
Snacking: sweet or salty? Sweet & Salty together.
Who's worse: Stephen A. Smith or Charles Barkley (sports broadcasting)? I guess Charles Smith. I think Charles Barkley is funny.
Beverage of Choice? Caffeine Free Diet Coke or Dr. Pepper or Diet Cherry Limeade from Sonic. Favorite Disney Cartoon? Lady & the Tramp.
Book you want to read? A thousand something Suns. Author of The Kite Runner.
Banana split or rootbeer float? Banana Split!

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Starts With The First Step...Right?

Well, today it FINALLY happened. What great, long awaited event, you ask? The opening of the Anytime Fitness a mile from my house. The one I have to go past to get home from work. The one I'm counting on having NO EXCUSE to not use.

So, today, I checked the email and there was an email from Margo telling me they were finally open. They originally were planning on early Jan. So, I called, made an appointment, went and got my key pass to let myself in when staff isn't there and made an appointment to go back this afternoon and meet with Marco, the trainer. So, I went this afternoon for my first trained workout. Lets just say what used to be muscles in my upper arms and shoulders got swapped for marshmallow. I'm not sure when that happened, but the evidence was there, today. Anyway, I worked out and came home and am working on psyching myself out for the eating change I need to make. He wants me to avoid ALL refined and processed foods, anything with partially hydrogenated oil and sugar and high fructose corn syrup, which is in EVERYTHING. Dr. Oz would be so happy. He's a proponant of Gillian's (of Biggest Loser fame) method of workout and eating. Oh, and drinks lots of W-A-T-E-R. Hmm. I've heard that before. Too bad they didn't open 2 months ago so when I go to Mexico in 3 weeks you can tell I've been going, but whatever. Better late than never.

Wish me luck. You know I need it!

Techno Wizard I'm NOT!

OK, I got a laptop for Christmas. Howard gave it to me. I had wanted one and he says I even voiced that once, and lo and behold, it showed up Christmas morning. Now, I know in order for it to work, we needed to get a router. That much I knew. So, I called the trusty local Cox cable company and explained I needed a router and Mr. Helpful on the phone told me I could stop at either of the local Cox offices and buy one. The alternative was to have them ship me one @ $100.00. I'm thinking, no thanks, I'll stop by on my way home from the Temple, the Saturday after Christmas. When I got to Cox, I was told, "We don't sell routers. Never have". Thanks, Mr. Helpful at Cox! So, I truck off to Best Buy. I consult with a guy, AFTER getting ignored for several minutes. I guess "Ms. Not-so-techno-savvy" showed all over me. ANYway, I got the router home. And it has set on the high chair ever since. I was afraid to tackle the installation. All the while, I've been getting lots of comments about my not using my new-still-in-the-box- super cool-laptop.

So, tonight, I determined was the night. I opened the router box. BIG label that says, "put in CD first". Ok, it's a walk-you-through-the-process-DUMMY instructions. Cool. Step one: Connect router to power. Okey dokey. So far so good. Step 2: Disconnect cable from computer and plug in the router (it shows animation so you make sure you put the right plug in the right hole). Ok, I check the back of the computer to unplug the cable. Hmmm... Cable is NOT there. We have some other cable, that doesn't fit into the router hooked up to the computer, that's coming from our current modem.

I called Howard in (I REALLY wanted to hook this baby up on my own and didn't want to have to get help). He identifies some cables, etc. but as I point out, they aren't the type that will fit into the router. He says, "call Doug or someone who knows how to do this." Which, is WHY I haven't done it before now. I hate to bother Doug with this stuff, but he's super smart when it comes to this stuff and I'm an idiot. He talked me threw it on the phone, back in December, and it sounded easy enough, but here I am, 6 weeks later. Stuck. Daniel, can you come to Vegas, please?????

So, even though I'm pretty glad I was born in 1955, I'm thinking about right now that being born in 1985 might have been a better idea and maybe I would have learned a little something more about computers, routers, modems and crap like that.

So, please, I don't want to hear anything else about my not using my super-cool laptop! This is why. Not that I don't want it or like it or think it won't come in super handy. I'm really looking forward to having it in my life. And, can some one tell me how you can set a wireless laptop up to a printer that is already connected to a PC? That's my next wonderment.

Computers...can't live without 'em, can't live with 'em!

And, while I'm at it my ineptness is why my sewing machine is still NOT in the new cabinet that Nathan and Howard put together and my quilt frame is still in the box in the garage. I wish I was the WOMAN-WHO-CAN-PUT-CRAP-TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But, I'm not. I'm ready to call 1-800-handyman!

Marsha Tagged Me

Saturday, February 16, 2008

I've Been Tagged...the ABC's of Me
A- Attached or single: attached
B- Best Friend: Marsha
C-Cake or Pie: Today? Lemon Pie
D- Day of Choice: Saturday
E- Essential Item: TV
F-Favorite Color: red
G-Great friends
H- Hometown: Pelican, Louisiana
I- Indulgence(s): getting a pedicure, regulary and a bi-weekly house cleaner
J- January or July: July, it's my birthday!
Kids: Sarah, Erin, Nathan, David & Michael
L-Life is incomplete without: Chocolate!
M- Marriage Date: July 13, 1976,
N- Number of Siblings: 1 brother, Gary
O- Oranges or Apples: oranges
P- Phobias or Fears: snakes
Q- Quote(s): "Shut UP!"
R- Reason To Smile: Gray's is coming back!
S- Season: summer
T- Temple ( I love it)
U-nknown Fact About Me: I wish I had a great singing voice.
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Gotta love the meat!
W- Worst Habit: I watch too much TV
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: Ultrasounds...no radiation
Y- Your Favorite Food: Red Pepper Stew
Z-Zodiac: Leo

How Did I Miss It?

HOW did I NOT know BIG BROTHER had already started a new season? I left home this AM @ 6:10 to go to work. I got home tonight @ 8:30 after leaving work @ 2:45 for a 3:00 dr. appointment I didn't get in for until 4:10 and then went straight to a R.S. Pres. meeting and was there until 7:00 and then went to vist a lady in our ward. Walked in and Howard was watching BB and told me it started LAST WEEK! Darn writers strike. I've really not been watching too much TV, so I guess I missed it. But, I'll have to do a warp speed catch up!

Marsha, sorry I didn't call you today. I WILL tomorrow. Promise.

Yesterday was a sucky day at work. Today was better. That's what I love about new days. Go to bed one night and you can put a bad day behind you. Wake up and it's all posibilities.

I checked the weather today for Beckley, West Virginia where Michael is. It was 5:30 PM in Beckley when I checked. It had been snowing earlier in the day, but it was 20 degrees with an 11mph wind blowing so it felt like 9 degrees. I hope he's staying warm. And eating well. Well, well enough. And isnt' sick. He says he only gets fed by members about 1 day a week and since he NEVER learned to cook anything before he left other than Ramen noodles and Mac & Cheese, I'd be VERY curious what he eats these days when he and his comp have to cook for themselves.

I read all that Sarah did today and I was a little jealous. Jealous that those days are behind me. I was the most productive when I was her age with a house full of kids. I remember how bone aching those days could make you, but how GOOD it felt to fall, exhausted into bed and be asleep almost before your head hit the pillow, but so GLAD to have accomplished so much.

I'm super stoked about the NEW family search program that the LDS church has developed and will be bringing online in a week or so. You'll be able to clear names AT HOME, print out a card with a bar code on it, AT HOME, take it to the temple, do the Temple work, and practically by the time you get home, check online and it's supposed to be recorded and updated. I hear the new program will prevent the duplications that are being done now, as different people, unbeknownst to each other are working on the same family lines. I have SO much Temple work to get done. I need all the help I can get accomplishing it. Some of these people have been waiting a long time and I have to get on the stick and take care of business. I really don't want to have to face them and have them ask me why I didn't get it all done!

David sprained his ankle yesterday and he says it KILLS. I hope he didn't break it. Sucks to not have health insurance. The new job will provide it in about 2 more months. Not that that helps right now.

Well, it's off to bed and a NEW day, full of possibilities tomorrow. And, hopefully, an email from Mike since we didn't get one today.

Time Tells Everything...Eventually

I loved Jerolyn's post today. See, that's why I'm not a good blogger. In a MILLION years, I would NEVER have been able to come up with an orginal, creative post like that.

But, it gets you to thinking, doesn't it, for those of you who've read her post. The question she posted was, "if you could ask God ANY question (crazy or not) what would you ask Him"?

There are so many things we just don't get to know, at least right away. It seems that there are some things that take days or weeks or months or even years to know the answers to. It might even be in the next phase of life (you know, the after this life phase) before we know the answers. I'm pretty sure there's a really good reason for that. It's in our searching for answers that we learn so much and become so much more than if the "answers" were so readily available, it seems to me.

People all around me are experiencing pretty huge things right now. It makes my heart hurt for them. Real hard. And, when the huge, hard things are happening to people I love and not me, I have to consider the why. Not in the why-is-this-happening-to-them-they-are-so-good-they-don't-deserve-it sort of way. But in the why-not-me-too-I'm-so-blessed-what-am-I-doing-with-that sort of way. Do I succor enough? Do I pray enough? Do I love enough? If I were suddenly gone tomorrow, would they know how much I loved them? So, to all of you going through big stuff and even BIGGER STUFF, I love you.

Acceleration--To Increase The Speed or Velocity Of

You know that on-ramp you use to get ON a freeway with? The ACCELERATION lane? Yep, that's what it's called in highway terms. NOT the CREEP-ALONG-AT-35MPH-LANE-SO-THE-PERSON-BEHIND-ME-GETS-CREAMED-WHEN-THEY-GET-ON-THE-FREEWAY Lane. EVERY time I use the 95 southbound to get onto the 215 westbound when there's more than 4 cars on the road, this happens. I know the acceleration lane curves gently. I know it's on an incline. But, seriously, if your car won't go faster than 35 going up the hill, maybe you don't belong on the freeway in the first place.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Happy Friday! Let the weekend begin!

Red Beans & Rice

It's 5:30 AM and I should be getting dressed for work, and will be in just a minute, but I got up 20 minutes early this morning to put on a pot of Red Beans. I'm teaching a class at our monthly cooking Enrichment meeting on Real Cajun Red Beans & Rice. This year, we're having members of the group demonstrate making a "Family Heritage" dish each month. Yesterday I went to the store and bought double the amount I need for the stuff because I'm having one done ahead (hello cooking channel) and one to work on there, because it takes too long to make the whole thing in one sitting for the class tonight. Another lady is also teaching how to make Hush Puppies and also some Mustard Greens. Yummy! Anyway, last night I chopped veggies till I was stinky with them (onions, parsley, bell pepper, onion, garlic) and sliced sausage and bagged them all up so I can throw it all together this morning in my crock pot as I head off to work.

I really LOVE my calling in the R.S. in our ward as Enrichment Counsellor. It's great to get to know all the women and have time to visit with them at activities.

Gotta run. Work awaits. Wish I was staying home today. Every day.

Mushy thoughts

I just finished watching onTV the funeral of the president of our church, Gordan B. Hinckley. He was such an amazing man and has been the leader of our church for so long, he will be sorely missed. But, this I know. The man that takes his place will be the man the Lord wants to lead His church, be it for a day, a month, a year or a decade or two.

I think that in most peoples lives, there are some significant choices they make that alters the course of that life. That certainly has been the case in my life. In May, 1975, I made the decision to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.(If you want to know what our church teaches, go to www.Mormon.org). I was baptized on June 5 when I was 19. That choice and the subsequent one to move to Idaho, 6 months later, brought me to a place where I met the man I married and had a family with. I have often pondered how different my life would have turned out had I not joined this church and moved to Idaho. I can't even imagine. Who's to say what my life would have been like and who I would have married (and what my children would look like. And, would they still be the same kids?!). All I can say is that I know the choice I made was divinely inspired. I felt it at the time. I couldn't grasp the consequence if it, but at the time I just simply felt led by the Lord down this path. In just over 12 months, I was baptized, moved to Idaho and married. Then, less than 12 months after that, I was a mother. That's a lot of change in 24 months. And, 13 months later, a mother again.

I feel very blessed in my life. My early years were fraught with discord and insecurity, growing up in a pretty dysfunctional family. However, while those years have, without a doubt, influenced and shaped me in someways, I feel they do not define me. I feel in many ways that my life began anew when I was 19. And, this new life has been one full of great blessings. A good husband, 5 wonderful kids and 10, almost 11 grandkids. A extended family that's about the BEST EVER. Health has been a blessing to Howard and me and our kids and grandkids. I live in the greatest country in the world and live at an amazing time. I often wonder about all I'm going to have to account to the Lord for. One thing I dread is the thought of facing Him and realizing that I have been ungrateful for the blessings he gave me. So, I try really hard to recognize those blessings and be appropriately grateful for them. I probably fail at that a fair amount.

I'm mindful that the Lord knows me, knows my needs and loves me. That is true for everyone, too. So, that brings me great comfort when I consider the loved ones in my life. I know He watches over them in just as personal a way as he does me, loves them perfectly and will bless them with what they need when they are ready to receive that blessing.

Oops, this has turned into a church talk and that wasn't my intent. You can blame Pres. Hinckley when you see him! Anyway, I'm very happy today as consider my life and the blessings I have received. I told you it was Mushy Thoughts!