Cheese Balls

Things have been a little heavy and oppressive around here for the last couple of days, so I thought I'd lighten things up for a minute.  

Do you know what April 17th is??  Nope, it's not Easter.  Nope, it's not the officially observed Tax Day for 2012.  Nope, it's not just any old Tuesday.  

It's...

NATIONAL CHEESE BALL DAY! 

Yep!  I'm totally serious.  I got an email today with suggestions on how I could celebrate this great day.  And I was so excited to get this news because I happen to LOVE cheese balls.

So, I hope everyone had an exceptionally happy National Cheeseball Day!!  (Sorry this post is coming so late in the day.  Don't worry if you missed it, though...there's always next April 17th!)

   

Mormon Messages

Did you know that there's a whole Mormon Channel on youtube now?  It's filled with these super cool, church produced, short little Mormon Messages.  I LOVE them!  I've seen them used in church lessons.  The Scout Master saw one in a Stake Priesthood meeting when he was in Utah last month.  TCD has downloaded several onto her new iPHONE!  (yep...we gave in and let her get one...mostly because she paid for it herself)  

And tonight, the Scout Master used this one in his Family Home Evening lesson.  

That led to a discussion about being missionaries and sharing the gospel and then TCD remembered this one that she saw in Seminary...

Amazing!  This one made me cry!! 

It is an awesome and wonderful time that we live in with technology so readily available.  There is so much greatness in the world and with these videos so many more people can be inspired and uplifted by it.  I'm so grateful to have found these little Mormon Messages and I look forward to inviting lots more of them into my home!    

Surviving

A few nights ago, Spell Girl asked me a hypothetical question.  "Mommy, if you were in the Hunger Games, do you think you'd win?"  And immediately, without any hesitation whatsoever, I said, "Oh no, I'd probably be the first one out."  The fact is, I would probably run straight for the cornucopia of weapons and supplies knowing that I wouldn't make it out.  (Except that I'm a chicken and scared to death of pain, so maybe I wouldn't do that after all.  But then, there's that nightlock...)  Anyway, the point of all that is that I'm not a fighter or a survivor or a competitor.  I couldn't last a day on any of those reality shows.  If it gets hard, I give up.  If it looks scary, I quit.  If someone says something mean, I curl up in a small ball on the couch and just cry.

So, on Thursday at 5:00am, when I read a frustrating email, my day was finished before it started.  I cried.  And then I called the Scout Master and cried some more.  And then I spent two hours staring blankly at the TV.  By 8:00pm, I still hadn't managed to shake that discouraged, defeated feeling.  I let that email color my entire day.  The next day wasn't much better.  I was still sad.  Those words were still ringing in my ears all day and my discouragement was pushing me toward permanent changes. On Saturday, my sadness and discouragement had been replaced by frustration and anger.  I spent the ENTIRE day rehearsing what I was going to say to the emailer at church today.  I felt like my anger was justified because I had been unjustly accused of something and not even given the opportunity to respond.  


This morning, everything was a little less intense.  I wasn't as sure of my plan of attack, but I went to church feeling confident that everything would work out the way it was supposed to.  The talks in Sacrament were all wonderful...as usual.  We have two cute new missionaries who both introduced themselves and bore their testimonies.  A sister in the RS Presidency who I love, gave a wonderful talk on personal revelation.  And then another sister I love played Abide With Me on the piano.  (Have I mentioned that I LOVE that hymn??)  And then, my very favorite High Councilman spoke (He's my favorite because he grew up in Hawaii and always starts his talks with,"ALOOOOHA!")  His talk was based almost entirely on that Brad Wilcox talk on grace. (I think I've heard that talk quoted and paraphrased at least 10 times in the last three months.  It's a great one.)  So, at the end of an incredible Sacrament, I was a little conflicted about what to do next.  My original plan was to meet the emailer in the hallway and speak my mind.  But now, I also wanted to talk to all the speakers and the pianist and tell them how much I loved what they had done.  

And then, the miraculous happened...I thought about all the times in this blog that I've talked about leaving beautiful footprints.  And I thought that confronting my emailer wouldn't be as beautiful as going up to the stand and telling all those speakers how much they inspired me today.  So I walked toward the stand.  And I left the emailer alone.  I already know what my intentions were (and what they weren't) and I already know my character.  I didn't need to spend time trying to convince someone else of it.  Instead, I gave my RS Pres friend a hug and told her I loved her.  And I gave the pianist a hug and told her how much I LOVE that hymn and how glad I was that she played it today.  And I let the emailer go throughout the day without any incident from me.  

I've been a bridge burner at times in my life.  I've been scary and confrontational.  I've been feisty and disrespectful.  And in the past, I've made permanent, irreparable decisions based on emotion and a momentary lapse of self control.  I don't want to do that anymore.  It's time to Arise and Shine Forth and do something different.  It's time to stand for something better.  It's time to be a survivor.  Today was a good day.  It was a little tiny step in a direction that I want to go.  Hopefully there will be more of them.    

Easter 2012

I'm a teeny bit late getting this posted, but the pictures were too cute not to share.  One of the awesome bloggers I follow had some amazing ideas for Easter morning.  At the time, I thought there was no way I could pull any of them off this year, but I tucked them away for next Easter.  Even with the help of a large Bunny, it just wasn't possible.  But guess what!  It turns out that when you go to Hawaii for 10 days, you come back with some serious jet lag.  It's been over a week, and I'm just barely getting back into my normal sleeping patterns.  Last Saturday night, after taking a two hour DEEP SLEEP that afternoon, I found myself wide awake, alone in the house (well, they were all here...but they were sleeping) with nothing to do but talk the Easter Bunny into some craziness.  

Here's what the Bunny and I did...we tied a different color yarn to each of the kids' Easter baskets and hid them in some very sneaky places.  TCD's was in the pantry in the kitchen.  Mack's was in the garage.  (You get the idea...not the usual places...)  Then we dragged the yarn all over the house until we finally reached that particular kid's bedroom and tied the other end of the yarn to their doorknob with a little note that said, "HAPPY EASTER!  Follow the string to your treats!"  The Easter Bunny apparently keeps the same sleeping habits as I do, so we stayed up until 2:00am winding strings around the whole house.  (We made sure to leave some lights on in case anyone got up in the middle of the night. The last thing I needed was a trip to the ER because someone tripped over my Easter string!)  Here's what it looked like in the morning...

(...picture Catherine Zeta Jones in that laser scene from Entrapment)

It was SO much fun to watch them follow their strings around the house looking for their baskets.  I wish the Easter Bunny could have stuck around for that part.  It took them a really long time and we had to RUSH to get to church on time.  (Which is why no one would let me take pictures of them...)  Next year, when we have 11:00 church, it'll be much easier. 

It's funny how some of my kids were very tidy with their strings and others...not so much.

What a super fun idea...especially with older kids!  (You totally have to keep them guessing.) Can't wait to perfect it next year.  I'm grateful for that five hour time difference that kept me up all week and added a few extra hours to my Easter Eve...and for that adventurous Bunny!
    

Getting Up

It's 8:54am and I'm already so DONE with this day.  One sick kid (who I think is totally faking.)  Two trips to the same school because someone realized as we were driving into the parking lot that she'd forgotten her binder.  And a scathing email from someone who completely misunderstood something I said.  I'd like to just lock the door, put on some sweats and go back to bed...and it's possible I'll do that...as soon as I finish this post.

The whole reason I write this blog is to pull myself out of days like this, to remind myself on a daily basis that there is so much more to be grateful for than frustrated about, and to leave at least a couple of "beautiful footprints" behind me.  

I had a hard time thinking of something today.  But in my effort to crawl into a hole in my couch and drown myself in the Food Network, I happened to see a commercial that made me smile.

And anything that dragged a smile out of me today is worth sharing.   

So, we should all get up! get off the couch! and wear something colorful today!!

Johnny Rodriguez Salon

I spent a totally indulgent four hours in the salon this morning.  

A few weeks ago, I decided that my hair was becoming a source of stress in my life.  There were too many greys and I wasn't loving the natural, super dark, almost black color that I had let grow out for over a year.  I wanted to give it a little lift and do something different before summer, but I didn't know where to go.  I had a great salon in Logan and the girl who did my hair had my favorite colors on file so I always knew exactly what to expect.  I've been unsuccessfully polling the audience to find a good colorist, and finally just decided to go back to the place that I KNOW is the absolute best...Johnny Rodriguez! 

I first went to Johnny Rodriguez last February when my friend, Karla, said that they were the absolute best!  They were.  I loved the experience.  I loved my haircut.  And I discovered the "Blow Out Bar" where they dry your hair and transform you from tired and boring to movie star beautiful.

Today's appointment was longer and more intense than my last one because there was highlighting and rinsing and tinting and drying and blowing out involved.  But I still loved it.  They have the most comfortable chairs.  And the nicest staff.  And the most attentive stylists I've ever met!  Laura did my color today and talked to me FOREVER about what I wanted and how I wanted to look when I walked out.  She was awesome.  And once again, I walked out of that place with hair that looked even better than I had pictured it in my head.    

BEFORE

 AFTER

Hawaiian Music

When I was in Hawaii last week, I listened to a lot of Hawaiian music on the radio and I heard some familiar songs.  A few took me right back to my house in San Diego with my parents cooking tons of food and inviting all the neighbors over.  There was always music in my house growing up...tons of it!  My parents loved Kenny Rogers, the Oak Ridge Boys, Barbra Streisand, and all the Hawaiian music they brought with them when they migrated from Oahu to California.  At that time, we played RECORDS on the giant console stereo.  They loved Genoa Keawe, and Gabby Hayes, and all the old Hawaiian music.  Then one summer, after a trip to Hawaii, my brothers discovered the Cazimero Brothers and Keola and Kapono Beamer.  

 

Oh, did they play the HECK out of these records!! 

When I was growing up, my parents tried hard to immerse me in the Hawaiian culture...despite the fact that we lived in southern California...and I did my best to resist it.  I didn't love my Hawaiian name.  I didn't love Hawaiian food.  I thought Hawaiian music was about as uncool as you could get.  At that age, what I really wanted was to look like every other girl in middle school, with silky straight blonde hair and blue eyes, and listen to Top 40 music on the radio.  

It wasn't until much later in life (like last week) that I learned to appreciate my cultural heritage and the things that make me different.  My hair is definitely NOT blonde or silky straight, but it's versatile and thick and it stands out in a crowd.  Some of my closest friends still don't know how to pronounce my name, but I'm better about saying it right when I introduce myself.  And I still haven't acquired a taste for poi...yeah, there's no BUT following that one...I just don't like that stuff.   

There's something about Hawaiian music, though, that has secured a place in my heart forever.  And listening to all those old songs from my childhood last week just reminded me of that.  I love the parents who adopted me for trying so hard to pass on the things they loved.  And I love my mom for just living all that stuff in a way that makes it familiar and effortless for me to embrace it.   

Easter

"May we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not only in the flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear. This Easter week and always, may we stand by Jesus Christ “at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death,” ²¹ for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."  -Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Flowers

For my birthday, I got lots of flowers from people I love (and who apparently love me.) 

 

They were so beautiful and I loved having them in my house, but the problem with fresh flowers is that they cost money and they only last for a little while.  (And I tend to kill things that are alive, so even the potted flowers didn't last much longer than a month.)

But guess what the Scout master brought in from the yard yesterday!!  

These beautiful things LIVE in my yard!!  And I didn't even know it.  We have white ones and pink ones out there.  And the best thing about them is that they keep regenerating outside!  So, the Scout Master cuts them and brings them inside.  I put them in a pretty vase.  And when they die, we do it all over again!  Perfect, huh?  It's like an unlimited source of beautiful flowers...well, until rose season ends...whenever that is.  But for now, I'm so grateful for the people who planted those gorgeous flowers, for the landscape guys who mulched and trimmed them, and for the Scout Master for thinking to cut them and bring them inside!  (I really should get to know my yard better...)

Pinewood Derby

Mack had his first Pinewood Derby tonight as a Cub Scout.  I missed all the designing and assembly of his car while I was in Hawaii, but I heard great things about the experience from the Scout Master.

Big Scouts helping with set up and track monitoring

Little Scouts anxiously awaiting the races

Mack's car consistently came in second place in almost all of the heats.

McKay's cool car...#13 (running a backwards race just for fun)

Pinewood Derby engineers

the after party

look at how super cute these treats are!!  Zingers and HoHo's decorated to look like little race cars.  The boys LOVED them!

 (TCD has been permanently attached to my side since I got off the plane...which I kinda don't mind.  I totally missed that girl!)