A wealth of information. Seriously.

Hey you young moms out there. Do you want some intellectual stimulation? Do you want to learn some better parenting skills? If you want to hear the latest information on a variety of subjects, check out this link. I mean it. It's a fabulous link to a wealth of information. The College of Family, Home and Social Sciences has been recording their major college lectures and posting them on the internet for several years now. I was involved early on in getting this process underway when I worked in the Dean's office of that college. Now the list has grown to an impressive collection of the latest research and theories on a variety of subjects. They are available to all who want to learn more. You can listen to them while you work, fold laundry or relax in the evening. They are available as little movies to watch.
Last Thursday was the 7th annual Marjorie Pay Hinckley lecture given by Dr. Ross Thompson on the "The Emotionate Child: Building Emotional Health and Compassion in Young Children."
Do you have young children? Are you a grandparent of young children? You may want to listen to this lecture. You don't even have to travel to campus to participate!
Check through the list and look for all the lectures given on the Marjorie Pay Hinckley lecture series. These lectures are all on the topics of family life, marriage and children. They are given by the recognized best authorities on the subject in the field who came to BYU to share their expertise.
Check out the lecture on Family Routines and Rituals by Barbara Fiese. Fabulous information!

He's not hopelessly unromantic

Happy Valentines Day

Rick and I got engaged in late January of 1979 in the Provo temple. When February rolled around, it was our first Valentines Day as a newly engaged couple. I was living in a house on campus called "the Management House." It was an actual home that was located between the Marriott center and the ASB and it was used by home economics students as a labratory. It is no longer there, but for a time it was the location of some romantic encounters between yours truly and her fiancee. I lived in the house with eight other women students and an adviser for four months. The class was set up to have us learn how to "manage" meals and to learn to entertain properly. I loved the hands on learning experience and also the opportunity it gave me to entertain my fiancee in a home setting with a dining room, china and all the accouterments of home entertaining. This home was the location of the meeting of our two families as well and I made the meal, served it and did the entertaining as my final project.
Anyway, on Valentines Day of 1979, I got a personal add in the student newspaper. Here it is:


My fiancee also bought me flowers that were delivered to the management house. No one had ever sent me flowers before! I made him dinner with all the management house finery and we had a romantic candle light dinner. I remember it so well. There was also some kissing involved.
Rick said he thought that he wasn't very romantic and he said he had a hard time thinking of a plan for a valentine surprise. He succeeded very well that year and we have had some wonderful Valentine Days together over the years as well.
He's perfected his ability to plan a romantic evening and now he is a pro at it. Last Friday he told me to be ready to leave the house at 4:30 pm for an evening surprise. He said I should dress up and that we would be gone all evening. He took me to the Roof restaurant at the top of the Joseph Smith building AND


he took me to hear the Utah Symphony at Abravanel Hall with piano soloist Joyce Yang. It was a perfectly romantic evening with my sweetheart of 33 years. Happy Valentines Day to my best friend! I love you so.

One chapter closes, another begins

We walked out of the MTC today for the last time. We're done. Rick was released from his calling as a branch president. We probably won't go back for at least 10 years when we go there as a senior couple to serve a mission together. It's been four years almost to the day and the calling came to a close. We're going to miss it. A lot.
Rick put it this way - it's like going from first class back to coach as we return to our home ward. We've been serving in a first class environment for four years now. Let me explain:
1. We were surrounded by the best young men and young women in the world. Those Elders and Hermanas have faith, courage, determination and a desire to follow God's plan. The gave up something they loved (their current lives) for something they love more (spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ) at their own expense. Willingly. It's awe inspiring to be surround by that kind of goodness, that kind of faith. It builds your own faith. Those young missionaries are the hope of tomorrow and it was awesome to be in their company. We figure we rubbed shoulders with approximately 1500 of them personally in the three branches in which we served on Tuesday & Thursday nights and most of the day on Sundays.
2. The meetings were reverent and filled with the spirit. Testimony meetings were testimony meetings. Pure doctrine was taught in the Tuesday evening devotionals. I've mentioned before the caliber of those meetings. We learned from the best and will be forever grateful for that instruction. You could feel the spirit of the MTC every time you walked into the building.
3. I'm going to miss the special musical numbers. The MTC choirs that sang every Tuesday night at the devotionals were great. They were comprised of Elders and Sisters who stepped forward to sing a hymn before the talk each week. About 300 of them practiced twice and performed with skill and spirit each week. In Relief Society every Sunday, a sister or Elder performed a musical number before the lessons. These were numbers performed as solos, duets, trios or as instrumentals. The quality again, was amazing. The Sisters and Elders had to audition to perform, so you can imagine that the quality was the best. I'm going to miss hearing 2000 missionaries sing "Called to Serve" each week in the devotional. It's such a powerful sight to see all of them singing this song with gusto and enthusiasm.
4. I'm going to miss singing our congregational hymns in Spanish each week, listening to the sacrament prayers, the missionary talks and the opening and closing prayers in Spanish as well. My Spanish has improved in the four years I've served at the MTC. Just using it again after 32 years has helped to bring it back. I'm still not the best, but I can understand what is being said well and bear my testimony in Spanish. We spent two years with the intermediate and advanced Spanish speakers and heard Spanish as it was intended to be spoken. It's such a beautiful language.
5. We're really going to miss the other couples we've served with. To a person they have been quality, quality people. People who have been no strangers to church service over their lives. People of strong testimonies and strong leadership skills. Good natured, talented people both the men and the women. As leadership changes happened in Branch 13 we served a year with the Lyons, Eddys, & Nacarattos, with Rick serving as a counselor. In Branch 47 we served two years alternating with the Browns, Morrises, Palmers, Hollisters, & Dennises with Rick serving as the Branch President. And in Branch 17 we have served another year with the Braithwaites, Taylors and the Stones with Rick as the Branch President. We've trained missionaries together, heard them introduce themselves and bear their testimonies. We women had the opportunity to get to know the sister missionaries even better as we spent time with them in instruction and visiting their resident halls. We all had the opportunity to speak in sacrament meetings each month. We've born testimony and shared gospel insights. It's been a pleasure to serve with these wonderful people. We're really, really going to miss that.
6. Everything at the MTC is done well. It's a well oiled machine. The teachers are the best. The services and the full-time employees work diligently to help every missionary succeed. There are women who mend clothing, others who tutor missionaries who struggle with reading or comprehension, others who come in to listen to the missionaries as they practice their lessons. The cafeteria is something to behold. 2,000 missionaries are fed three meals each day in an orderly fashion. The food is good, filling and the menus rotate about every three weeks. Cold cereal and PBJ is always available, so even if the missionaries don't like what is being served, they can always each something. Fresh fruit is always available and there is a great assortment of juice, milk and drinks. The ice cream bar on Wednesday night and Sunday is always a favorite. We've eaten MANY meals with the missionaries and the other couples and it's been a great time to visit and get better acquainted.
7. It's been a pleasure to use Preach My Gospel and to study from it. It's a inspired program to help prepare the missionaries to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

These are the main things that we have really enjoyed. I made a list of 16 items in a journal, but I won't recite them all here. Suffice it to say that there is much that we will miss.
We walked around yesterday to all the areas were we have served. We walked through the classroom buildings, the large meeting areas and the chapel areas. We've walked around much of the MTC over the years and we know it well. It's like a little city and all services that missionaries need are located there. I'm so happy that so many of our family members came to attend Sunday meetings with us. That made us feel so good to show you around and to have you see our missionaries (and eat in the cafeteria.) I hope you could feel the spirit of the missionaries as you visited.

So, we close that chapter of our lives and look forward to the future, whatever it may bring.

2-11-11

Progress report (to keep me motivated)
11 in 11
1. visit 11 temples this year and do the the temple work for at least 22 of our departed ancestors

• 1. Provo temple-10 sealings for couples and sons

• 2. Provo temple - 5 initiatory

2. lose 11 pounds

• only 1 pound lost

3. read 11 books

• 1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

• 2. Heidi (a childhood favorite - loved reading it again)

4. organize & label 11 of our family photo books

• nothing yet

5. visit 11 elderly people

• nothing here either

6. sew 11 items and give them away

• nope, nothing

7. go with Rick to visit 11 new places

• 1. drove around Utah Lake for the first time

8. send birthday cards to 11 people I don't normally send to

• 1. A. K. 2. A. K. 3. D. A.

9. watch 11 old movies that I love but haven't seen for awhile

• 1. Dances with Wolves

• 2. First Knight

• 3. Mama Mia

• 4. Groundhog Day

10. make 11 new recipes

• 1. Lentil soup (won't be making this again - it wasn't a hit with the husband)

• 2. Zita Primavera

11. invite 11 groups of people over for dinner

• 1. Lacey M. and friends, P & V

Jimmermania

In case you've been living in a cave for the last couple of months, I thought I'd just let you in on some news - Jimmermania has taken over BYU campus, the happy valley, the state of Utah and frankly, much of the United States and beyond. To infinity and beyond, actually is the reach of Jimmermania.
Don't think so? Well, then you haven't read any newspapers, national magazines, listened to any radio or sports broadcasts or been on the internet. Jimmer is e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e! And he should be!
For example, check out this link - Jimmer the greatest Mormon missionary in the world.

Some naive girl wrote a letter to the editor at the BYU student newspaper about how she was tired of Jimmer and the “idol worship” of him at BYU. Here is some of her letter:

I can’t walk across campus without hearing Jimmer Fredette’s name a dozen times. His name comes up everywhere: in class, at work, during lunch … really, people? Cut it out with the Jimmer worship. Last time I checked, idol worship was very much frowned upon in the scriptures.

Don’t you have a life to live? Then quit wasting it in front of the TV or in lines at the Marriott Center…

…As far as I’m concerned, Jimmer is perfectly free to live his dreams. If he reaches his goals and lives his dreams, more power to him. I would like the same courtesy from his fans: let me live my own dreams in peace, even if they don’t include ever sitting in the Marriott Center screaming my brains out.

And then she posted a link to the letter on her Facebook wall, which was completely open for anyone to comment. Someone on Cougarboard picked it up, and 600 posts later, she closed her Facebook wall. The posts were hilarious! We should poke fun at ourselves and our funny cultural idiosyncrasies. Here is the link. You can read all 600 comments by clicking the link at the bottom of the article. It just goes to show - Thou shalt not mess with Jimmer.

Some of my favorites were: (out of the 100 or so I actually read)

~Double Jimmer all across the sky

~One time the BYU basketball team was walking across the beach and they looked back and only saw one set of footprints.

~While playing Scrabble, if you spell the name Jimmer, you automatically win. Forever.

~You are invited to attend the first church of Jimmer. We worship every Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon.

~Jimmer, I didn't say it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.

Many national news outlets picked up the story. This from ESPN:

But asking Jimmer fans to tone it down? At BYU? In a public forum? Bad idea. Even worse idea? Posting about the letter on your public Facebook wall and leaving that wall open to comments. As you'd expect, it took approximately .03 seconds for fellow students and BYU fans to find that thread and begin posting hundreds of hilarious Jimmer-related comments, a sampling of which you read at the top of this post. (And there are so, SO many more.) My favorite thing about this thread: None of the comments (at least none that I read, and I spent a solid 40 minutes reading through them) are overtly angry, profane, unintelligent or mean. Instead, they're hilarious. They combine Chuck Norris jokes with obscure bits of Jimmer-appropriated scripture. I suppose this is what happens when you mix the intelligent sarcasm of your average college student with the religious knowledge you'd expect from kids at a devotional school like Brigham Young. All in all, it adds up to some good-natured, harmless, uproarious fun. That thread might be the best thing I've read this season. And the message is simple: Do not besmirch the name of thy Jimmer in Provo, at least if your Facebook wall is accessible to everyone with an account. Because that Facebook wall will get Jimmered. Hard.

Reading/Listening to the B of M

I discovered another great way to get a daily dose of the Book of Mormon in my life.
If you don't have time to read, then just listen and a lovely voice will read the Book of Mormon to you over the internet.
Go here then click on the book you want to read. Next, click on the chapter you want to read. Look to the right hand side of the page where there is a "listen" link. Click on it. Sit back and relax and a lovely voice (I'm pretty sure it is Bruce Lindsey's voice of KSLTV fame) will read to you while you (gasp) do other things...or take notes for further study.
Another cool feature is that you can read the scriptures in another language. If you speak another language, you can switch the languages by using the button on the top right side. It looks like there are about 22 different languages offered. How great is that?
If you are a member of the LDS church, you can get your membership number (from your ward clerk or from other official church documentation) and sign up to use the online scriptures for your own personal study. You can sign in and then bookmark where you are reading and also take study notes and they will be saved in your study journal for easy retrieval.

Wow, who knew?

Music

I love music. I listen to it at work (thanks Pandora) I listen to it at home (CDs mostly) I listen to it in the car (thanks to the radio, CDs and XM radio) and I listen to it on the go (thanks Ipod nano.) It keeps me company, it inspires me, it entertains me and I helps me relax. So often it makes me feel good and have good thoughts. It often takes me back to a certain time and place. Music moves me, it soothes me and it often gets me going when I need to accomplish something. I love most kinds of music. I guess I have fairly eclectic taste in music because I like a big variety of music. I like religious music for some settings, loud pounding music for others settings and nice background music for other times. I love rock and roll - always have, always will. We have a ton of music from the 70s and 80s and we love to listen to some good Boston, Styx, Doobie Brothers, James Taylor, Journey and Boz Skaggs, just to name a few. As a college students I went to at least a dozen rock concerts at the old Salt Palace. The environment wasn't the best, but the music was generally superb. We still own our original vinyl LPs and we listen to them on occasion on our little record player, scratches and all. Love me some Doors, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young & Earth, Wind and Fire, Marvin Gay and Diana Ross with some Karen Carpenter for starters.
I've been listening to some good groups on Pandora and have been introduced to some other groups that I've come to appreciate. I really like Chris Daughtry and Creed and from their music I've really come to enjoy Nickelback, Lifehouse, the Fray, Incubus, Matchbox Twenty, Coldplay, Vertical Horizon and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
I love Broadway music. I know a ton of it. I could probably win a "name that tune" with songs played from Broadway musicals. I adore too many to even name here.
I enjoy some country music. I haven't been a big fan over the years, but I do have an appreciation for some of the cross over stuff. I hate the sound of the steel guitar and the old country sound. Hate it. It reminds me of the time when it was the only music found on Rupert Idaho radio stations. I do enjoy some Martina McBride, Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood & Colbie Cailat for example (realizing that some country purists wouldn't even consider their music true country.)
I know more Rap and Hip Hop music that I care to admit. I even like some of it thanks to Andy.
I really enjoy new age music ~ David Lanz, Jim Brickman, Enya, Jon Schmidt, and some Yanni.
I really appreciate female artists like Linda Eder, Alicia Keyes, Nora Jones and of course Celine.
I'm a big fan of male artists like Josh Groban (of course), Andrea Bocelli and our native Utahan David Archuleta. I like me some Jack Johnson too.
I love classical music. I've gained a new appreciation for it and often listen to it at work. I'm getting better at identifying the pieces and the composers. We bought an impressive collection of CDs recently of about 40 different composers and the best of the best symphonies. This is an area that I want to strengthen and continue to learn more about.

I'm impressed with little Jonathan directing Beethoven's 5th symphony with his little baton. He must have listened to this symphony many, many times to know how to direct it (itchy nose and all!) I can see his brain cells growing right before our eyes!

Showing proof of love

"There is no love. There are only proofs of love."
It's February.
Love month.

Last night while I was reading my February issue of Good Housekeeping magazine all snuggled up in my bed, I realized that a serendipitous union has happened. Two of the things I enjoy have joined forces! The author of the Happiness Project (a book I highly recommend) is now a monthly columnist with Good Housekeeping! The topic of seeking Happiness is very, very popular right now and what better union than these two forces for promoting the pursuit of happiness?
Here is Gretchin Rubin's article: How Giving Love Makes You Feel Loved.
Here is the article if you don't subscribe to the magazine.

Instead of just saying "I love you" show your love through your actions. It's a simple but powerful way to celebrate the month, because as you know - actions speak louder than words!

Learning from Groundhog Day

The country's most famous groundhog predicted an early spring today! He didn't see his shadow!!! Phil has seen his shadow 98 times and hasn't seen it just 16 times since 1887, according to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's Inner Circle, which runs the event. Hooray!!! It was 1 degree when I went to exercise this morning, so this is great news! Spring is on the way.

Besides predicting the weather for the next six weeks, Groundhog day is also a time to contemplate if we're making progress in life and learning from our mistakes. As I was driving to work, the radio announcers were inviting people to call in and tell about experiences in their lives that they would never want to repeat. Some were funny and some were sad as they spoke of serious mistakes they had made with money, relationships, family or employment.

Groundhog Day is best known as the day when Punxsutawney Phil emerges from his burrow to forecast the arrival of spring. If he sees his shadow winter continues for six more weeks. If he doesn’t, then warmer weather is on the way. This repetitive celebration was highlighted in the 1993 film “Groundhog Day.” And it’s a great time to ask yourself if you’re falling into the trap of repetition. Make this year different and avoid repeating the same mistakes by breaking the Groundhog Day cycle.

Stopping a bad habit is tough, especially if you don’t have anything to replace it with. Think about the habits that are keeping you from reaching your goals. Now find out ways you can replace those bad habits with more productive ones.

Make new goals for yourself that will lead you out of your tendency to repeat the past. Write your goals down and spread the word. Tell friends and family members about what you’re aspiring to achieve and that way they can help keep you accountable if they see you falling into your old rut. Avoid repeating the same mistakes. It's easier said than done.

Someone once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Remember this movie? It has a good message, even if it is very annoying to watch!

My little GRAND girls

Another picture slideshow by Smilebox