I Love to go a-wanderin'...

Happiest memories have to include our recent trip to St. George. Too much fun, all of us hanging out together, laughing, talking, playing in the pool, seeing Tarzan together. I have to echo Carly's sentiment..."I love hotel living..." I know that I love my home and it is true that there is no place like home, but I love the traveling thing. I envision our family owning a vacation home in St. George, Lava, Catalina, Austoria. The ability to say, "hey, lets spend the weekend in..." you name it. The total relaxation of having left the "real world" behind if even just for a few days.

So Goal #1

Everyone gets their passport, everyone. So that we are ready to go and we just start thinking along the lines of travel. I think of our trips to the cabin, pineview, bearlake...as a kid and how fun those memories are. We will spend time in New Zealand, Driving the curvy roads that Arnold has told us about. Time in Italy, on the Riviera. Eating fish and chips off a street vendor in London. Flying wooden gliders at the column in Austoria, and counting Pelicans off of the South Breaks. We will create happy family memories. Arnold has a vision of he and I taking the grandkids (not the parents) on a trip to Disneyland, how fun would that be.

"Oh, may I go a-wandering Until the day I die! Oh, may I always laugh and sing, Beneath God's clear blue sky!"

"...There's No Place Like Home...There's No Place Like Home"

Where are those Ruby Red Slippers anyway? Is there anywhere as great as home? A home is not at all the same thing as a house. A house is just a building; you can house freight, you can house chemicals, & you can house people. A house may offer you physical shelter but a home is the only place to find emotional and spiritual shelter.

I love spending time with my family in our home and l love taking the time to make our home warm and inviting. I don't know how many natural gifts or talents I have but I do know that creating through the homemaking arts, as they called it when I was in Highschool, is one of the most personally enjoyable activities for me. The memories that I have made with my girls, my friends (such as the day Melinda Smith and I broke china into little pieces to make mosaic stepping stones; you just gotta love trial and error) my nieces and with my sisters; Elaine and I especially had so many good times, baking, sewing, crafting and scrapbooking. She was the most talented person I think I ever knew in so many ways. I swear she could sew anything, and just had a knack for putting things together. Caitlyn is a lot like her that way.

For too long I stifled that part of me because I let the hassles of the world take over, well No More. It is an essential part of women to create and beautify. It speaks directly to the soul and makes the home environment so much more pleasant. It makes a House a HOME :)

A side note: A great book for inspiring this side of you is called

The Spirit of Loveliness

by Emily Barnes

Amazing book!

Livin' the Healthy Life = Livin' the Happy Life

So, I am 47 years old, holy cow! I don't know when that happened, but I only feel about 27; in my mind that is.

The thing is I have so many reasons to adopt healthy habits; and diminishing excuses not to. With the girls gone so much with school my time is alot more open now. The great thing is that the healthy habits help me to feel physically closer to the

age I feel mentally. And anyone who has tried to keep up with

Kam, Max, Ella & Riley knows it is a must. And soon there will be three more, Justine's new baby in February, Channing's new baby (my first Grandbaby!!!) the first week of March and Alisa's new little one in the middle of March. Happy Times!

A Garden Place ~ Where better to spend a Spring, Summer, or Fall morning?

I have a vision in my mind of spending the early morning hours in the solitude of my garden. Wearing a large brimmed Straw hat and a comfortable dress and shoes. Holding my gardening tools in a wicker basket. Cutting fresh flowers for my table and fresh herbs and vegetables for the days fare. Hokey? maybe, but when I asked my girls for how they saw me in my garden it matched perfectly, so Hokey I guess I am; but I have always envisioned my life this way.

I picture a garden full of vegetables, fruits and herbs; intermixed with colorful perrenials and surrounded by the smell of large lavendar bushes and the peaceful yet happy sound of Birds and Bees. Of course the picture would not be complete without a dog (or dogs?) at my side. Paradise? I think so, must be the Brit in me. :)

Eternal Perspective ~ Work Enough To Do!

I have family on both sides that are in need of their temple work. Family that is counting on me to do what they can't do for themselves. I don't know exactly why it has taken me so long to really get to this; I always find the process exciting and adicting. Time or the lack of it has gotten in the way in the past; but past is past. I have a great quote by Hugh B. Brown, that states: "No matter what your past has been, you have a spotless future". I love that. Will have to make that my motto. Counting on all those ancestors to help me out from the other side.

Goal:

* Attend the Temple twice a week

* Family History library once a week

* Work on Geneology 3 hours a week