Oh, The Places You'll Go...

Play along. Copy and paste this list, and then highlight the things you've done! Then when you're finished add something you've done that wasn't on the list!
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band- Just sang in the choir!
4. Visited Hawaii _ Lived there.
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis.
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris.
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child If you are counting my kid's friends!
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance.
47. Had your portrait painted.
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie--only silly ones we made when we were kids.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China--someday!
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies Just Camp Fire Candy!
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason.
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial- and climbed to the top!
71. Eaten Caviar- tastes like stinky fish
72. Pieced a quilt-a baby quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible.
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating--I would assume fish counts. . .
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake.
97. Been involved in a law suit.
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Seen Mount Rushmore in person.
101. Learned to play an instrument
102. Ran out of gas
103. Eaten fried okra
104. Swam in the Caribbean Sea
105. Peed in a swimming pool
106. Stayed in a beach house
107. Hosted an exchange student
108.Been a Secret Santa to a family
109. Worked on a political campaign
110. Coached a sports team 111. Baked bread from scratch 112. Driven from coast to coast 113. Paid off all of your debt 114. Roast marshmallows over a campfire.115 Cut up a credit card 116. Drove a car through a flood 117. Been on t.v 118. Had braces 119. Been to the twin towers in NY. 120. Have played in both the Atlantic & Pacific Oceans 121. Been to ground zero 122. Bite my fingernails 123. Likes to scrapbook -back when it was simple!!124. Hates pie 125.Visited Mexico 126. Seen a Tornado in person 127. Have ever been lost at sea! 128. kissed a frog. 129. Gave birth to twins. 130. Received 2 moving violation tickets in 1 day. 131.Been Life Flighted. 132. swore 133. stranded in a motel for Christmas. 134. Been in 2 countries at once! -4 corners 135. Adopted a pet from Humane Society 136. Did a triathlon 137. Never received a speeding ticket I've only had 1 ! 138. Lived with one kidney 139. Slept on the floor of a train station in Poland 140. eaten rocky mountain oysters 141. Volunteered at an orphanage in Chile 142. Ridden an elephant143. Flew in a small Cessna plane with just you and the pilot
143. Worked on an oyster farm.
144. Been rescued when stuck in the mountains.
145. Been to Key West.
146 Been to the Corn Palace.
147. Been to Martin's cove.
148. Swam through a lava tube.

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Where were you 19 years ago today? Do you remember? I do. Oh boy, do I. I was in the newly remodeled women's center at Logan Hospital, admiring a tiny pink bundle. That darling bundle of joy, with all the dark hair, was finally here! Of course, She had us wrapped around her tiny little fingers, from the moment she was born! Nineteen. My, how the time flies. I haven't gotten any older, when did she??
Happy Birthday, Nalyn.

Sleepless in Smithfield...

Early last night I asked my daughter, "So what time do you think you'll be home?" she replied, "not too late, I have to work at 5am." Fast forward to 1:30 am. I am lying awake, and wondering what exactly "not too late" meant. Daughter still not home. I crawl out of my warm snuggly bed and send her a text: "hello, worried mother here..." she sends back "just dropping off my friend, be home soon" another hour later I'm still awake, thinking maybe I'll get up and work on my blog, but since the house is a balmy 65 degrees below comfort level, and my flannel sheets are warm and cozy, the blog gets worked on in my head. She finally waltzes in, "sorry!" Ugh, no wonder moms have bags under their eyes! Wrinkles and bags really have nothing to do with aging, they are just one of the many perils of motherhood. I guess teen years are my punishment for them being such good little sleepers when they were babies...remember how I miss my babies? (see post: Too big to hold)

So as I'm lying sleepless, I am wondering just what exactly our country will become. I am wondering what happened to accountability, and self respect. I can't figure out why we as a people haven't spoken up against anyone being dishonest, cheating, lying or stealing, If we had the guts to blow the whistle, would we be struggling now with bank failures, dirty food processing plants, mismanaged funds, bailout plans that are only going to hurt us in the long run? I'm just a tiny minnow in the worlds ocean, but it is my opinion that greed and selfishness are the downfall of America. I think our ancestors are protesting loudly, that we've warped the American dream, but unfortunately we can't or won't hear them.
I'm thinking that the people that are immigrating to this country, need to be as the early immigrants were, embrace being an American, learn the language and customs, adopt the country as your own, keep those traditions that make you a good person and discard those traditions that work against you. We are too accommodating, we need to help our brothers and sisters who are trying to come here for a better life, but they also need to adopt the country to their heart, and quit trying to turn it into the country they came from. We shouldn't be required to publish everything in another language, and have separate classes, meetings, tv programs, etc. to enable them to not have learn the language, and customs. It just makes no sense to me. If I decided to immigrate to Switzerland, I wouldn't expect the country to accommodate me by making everything I need translated to English. I wouldn't expect the government to give me funds to support me because I am at a disadvantage. Why do we do that? And why do we allow it?

Then I ponder dust. Why is there so much dust in my house? I can clean and seriously, 10 minutes later, I could dust again. I think, maybe I could just become a collector of dust, display it proudly, invite my friends over to see my dust collection! It would ease my guilt over having a dusty home. I wouldn't stress that everyone would notice the dust, because that would be the point!! Joy! no more dusting for me! Come on by and see my fabulous dust collection! See my picture in the World Book for the largest dust collection! Maybe I could win an award for most unique dust display. It's a worthy goal.

Ahh, the joys of lack of sleep. My nighttime brilliance amazes me.

Families are wonderful!

Aren't families wonderful? My daughter Nalyn recently bought a new (used) car. The car came out of Vegas and had very dark window tint on all the windows, which of course is illegal in Utah.(???) So I called my baby brother to ask him about getting the tint removed, and also about getting it inspected, and he said "bring it down, I will take off the tint, and do the inspection, and She will be good to go." So we drove down to Salt Lake. LaMar, (baby bro) took a time out of his day to work on her car. It took a couple of hours with all three of us working on it to get the windows cleaned off. Oh, and it wasn't just the side windows, the windshield had the tint too and was too dark, so it had to come off also. Peeling the film off was fairly easy, but scraping off the glue snot was difficult. And gross. Just like snot.
Nalyn really didn't want the film off, she thought it really looked cool, but her friend said "how are the guys going to see us hot girls driving around if the windows are so dark?" So I guess it was ok. When she pulled into the stall, at LaMar's work, within moments there were about 5 guys surrounding her car, asking her all kinds of questions about it. It was really hilarious. LaMar wanted to know if they came for the car or the girl, One of the guys said “I came to see the car, But I'll hang around for the girl.” LaMar told him to go find something to do. Now I'm worried that she bought a jerk magnet. (not that boys who work washing cars at a dealership are jerks, but when they are still doing that 4 years after high school well... you gotta wonder) While we were scraping glue snot off, I mentioned to LaMar that she needed her oil changed, and he said "Oh, I think I have a filter for her car in my box, I'll do it. What a guy !! I love him! (really Nalyn is just his favorite teen niece, she has him wrapped around her finger) LaMar is our go-to guy for anything auto related- even my father-in-law relies on him! Oh, and if your Hummer needs any TLC, he's your guy!
While they were finishing up the oil and inspection, My mom came and got me and took me to Tai-Pan. I LOVE Tai-Pan. I wanted to go to Rod Works, Gardner Village, The Handmaiden, and all of my other favorites, but by this time it was 8:00pm and everything was closed. Sadness!! Not even enough shopping therapy! I have a good excuse to go back, anyone up for shopping?
Last week we took a little trip to visit Jim’s aunts. His mom and dad came with us. We drove first to Mesquite and visited Aunt Lucy. It was so nice to sit outside in the sun, and not freeze. The next morning we drove to Phoenix to visit Aunt Colleen. Oh, can I just say I would love to be a snowbird? I could totally live in Arizona from Dec 27th to May 1st. She had grapefruit, oranges, lemons, and tangelos just dripping off the trees, and a pool! in her yard! no snow!!! 70 degree sunshine just pouring down ahh.... I so wanted to just stay. I despise being cold. On the way down we stopped at Hoover Dam. It is so scary looking over the edge. They are building a freeway that will have a span that crosses above the gorge, see the road going to nowhere? Watch out, It is a looong way down!!

On the way home we stopped at the Glen Canyon dam. All in all, it was a dam good trip! ( Sorry, I couldn’t resist)

In honor of Valentines day, 14 things I love about my Family (all of them)

1. They love you. Even though they know you.
2. If you need anything- they’re there!
3. You can blubber all over their shoulder.
4. They will pretty much drop anything they are doing, and jump when you ask!
5. They support you, even when they think you are making a mistake.
6. They give great hugs!
7. They will ride in the backseat for hours!
8. They will invite you to share their sunshine and grapefruit!
9. They will take you out to dinner.
10. They will change your oil, fix, your brakes, and kiss your boo-boos.
11. They will get you airfare discounts to see fun places!
12. They will go camping with you (well, most of them)
13. They will take care of your sick kids.
14. They remember Birthdays and holidays.

Families are great! Have a great Valentines Day!!

Grammar Lesson

I have a huge pet peeve about the term “constructive criticism”. It is a total oxymoron. I find nothing constructive about criticism. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the intent, and its usage in the business environment, but still! OXYMORON! The definition of criticism is the passing of unfavorable judgment, censure, or disapproval. The synonyms of criticism are; blame, censure, condemn, denounce, reprehend. Does this sound like a way to improve a person? Personally, I would prefer to be chastised. If you look in the scriptures, the words criticize, or criticism, never appear. If you look up criticize in the bible dictionary, it refers you to the word chasten, or chastisement. The Lord does not criticize, he chastens. In the dictionary today it lists what is considered an archaic definition for chasten, and it meant to refine, or purify. Maybe it is just semantics, but I personally would rather be refined; taught and molded to become better, than degraded, and humiliated into change. I vote that we change “constructive criticism” to "constructive chastisement". I love words and language. Discovering where a word “came from", its origin, gives insight into the meaning and it is interesting to see how the meaning of a word has changed through the passing of time.
I am fascinated by the meanings and also the usage of words. I find it interesting to hear how words are pronounced in different areas. A friend, who is from the East, was laughing at the way I pronounced “deal”. She said, I said, “dill” (like the pickle) I was sure I hadn’t, but in review, I had. Ugh, Utah dialect has caught me! When I was learning to spell, I got in the habit of saying words phonetically in my head, and when I am typing, I think of the sounds and “spell” the words. Confused? I think of the word deal pronounced like eel- with a long e sound, I KNOW how it is pronounced, but when I am speaking I’ve slurred it into “dill“. I see this slurring all the time here in Cache Valley. I see a sign on a car stating: “FOR SELL” or , “MUST SALE !”, and I think, what???? You can sell your car, or you can put it up for sale, but you can’t sale your car, it’s just not proper grammar or spelling! Another pet peeve is the word “ your”. Your is possessive. Remember the rule, if you can say “you are” in place of the word your, it is an abbreviation and should be spelled you’re. When I see a sign saying “your going to love Hawaii!” my brain says, my what is going to love Hawaii? I think, we Utahan’s sometimes get a little lazy when we are speaking. When I first moved to Utah, I noticed that if a word ended in -ing, the g sound was missing. In Utah, we go huntin’, fishin’ and swimmin'. We look for "dills" at the store, and when we find one, we got a "still". I’ve lived in Utah now, for 23 years, and slowly I’m sounding like a native, I wonder how long it will take my friend to find her language has been corrupted? Is it really corruption? I don’t think so, after all I have embraced “oh my heck!, but please, if I ever say “I seen four big bucks on the hill” please send me to grammar boot camp, ASAP! Thanks for listening, now go forth and use proper grammar!