The Toyshop

We just got back from a wonderful ballet that Madison and Brooklyn were in. They did a fantastic job and looked adorable! Grandpa got to help out too.

Madison is a Cute Kewpie Doll and Brooklyn is a Little Baby Doll.

I think they stole the show and I know the Kewpie dolls and the Baby dolls got the most applause.

As you can see it is a very large cast. They did a wonderful and professional job.

Friends

I think I have been somewhat of a loner most of my life. As a young girl with only brothers to hang out with, I never had a best girlfriend. In junior high and high school the girls didn't like me very well because I got along with the boys better than I did the girls.

When I joined the Church I married my best friend. I was also greatful to finally have a sisterhood that I never knew as a child. I have had many good friends in the Church, but we moved around so much in our marriage that I guess I never completely bonded with anyone.

Thankfully we had family. We used to tell our kids that they were each other's best friends. They are also our best friends. I love being with my family and am so lucky and grateful that all of our children live close by so we can visit often. Now I get to be best friends with my grandchildren too.

We have been in this area longer than we have been anywhere and it is nice to have so many other friends, too. I don't get to hang with them very often, because we are all busy with our jobs and families and church and lives, but we do get together once in awhile for a movie night or game night.

I am also grateful for blogs, because through them I can bond with my family and friends. I have a wonderful friend who blogs almost daily. She is so positive and uplifting all the time. She finds joy in everything. She takes lots of great photos and posts them on her blog too. She imspires me to be better. I want to look at life the way she does. I want to see the flowers and sunshine even when things aren't going very well around me. She makes me smile. She gives me hope. She probably doesn't even realize what a great friend she is to me.

I thank my Heavenly Father for friends and family!

Happy Birthday, MyLiege Elite

I guess I shouldn't say how long ago it has been, but suffice it to say a number of years ago on this day in Ogden, Utah a beautiful dark haired baby girl was born. She was tiny and red and gorgeous with lots of black hair. I couldn't believe how black her eyes were. She looked so different from her two brothers who were born big and pink and bald.

We named her MyLiege Elite because she is an elite and royal princess. She lived up to her name. She was the little princess in our family and everyone was thrilled to finally have a little girl. She melted her dad's heart. He went from being a strict disciplinary marine to a soft teddy bear when it came to his little girl. She had her grandpa wrapped around her little finger. He would do anything for her and she would do anything for him. She first crawled and walked and even rode her bike for the first time with Grandpa.

MyLiege is a remarkable young woman. She amazes me with how accomplished she is. She writes, she acts (in her younger days), she directs (also in her younger days), she is a seamstress, a great cook, a wonderful leader, a fantastic Auntie, a creative mother and of course a very loving wife. I have been in awe of her for many years. Every parent wants their child to surpass them and MyLiege has certainly done that.

Right now she is awaiting the birth of her fourth child. She is more than ready, but still has about 4 weeks to go. As I reflect on her birth and the tremendous joy she has brought to my life I wish her a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY and know she will find as much joy in her children as I have in mine.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MYLIEGE!!

Exercise

I'm not one who likes to exercise. I have too many aches and pains and they seem to only get worse when I exercise. I'm basically a lazy person.

However, I know I need to do something; because, I'm out of control. I have several friends that belong to Curves, a fitness center designed specifically for women. I've proved I can't seem to diet and exercise on my own so I finally decided I needed to get help. There is a Curves on my way home from work so I decided to give it a try. They gave me a FREE week to try it out.

I stopped in after work last Monday. They have 16 different hydraulic pieces of equipment that work various parts of your body. I expected to really hurt on Tuesday, but it didn't happen. They place the equipment in a circle (or rectangle depending on the room) around the room and have little resting pads between each equipment. You spend a total of 30 seconds on each piece of equipment and then move to the resting pad for 30 seconds and then the next piece of equipment. You go around the room twice and then spend about 5 minutes stretching to end your 30 minute workout. It is amazing how fast it goes. They play upbeat music and have a prompt that tells you when to change stations. Each station works a different muscle or body part. Because you change so often you don't get really tired or stress any muscle. You get your heart rate up for a good cardio workout and the hydraulics give you the resistance for a good strength workout too. I actually felt rejuvinated after my workouts. I went everyday last week and decided to join the program. I'm very excited.

It is also fun. There are other ladies working out with you and the conversation is fun and entertaining. You quickly become friends. By the end of the week the regulars were greeting me by name. They have a good support system that helps keep you motivated. I may just make this work this time. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Empty Nesters Family Home Evening

We attended our first Empty Nesters Family Home Evening in our new ward. It was fun to see so many friendly faces we already new. We also met a few new faces. We dearly missed our old group. When they first announced FHE they put it on the first week and I thought we would be able to still attend our old group. Two weeks ago they switched it to the second week. Since we are trying to become a part of our new ward we felt we needed to attend.

Our group is made up of three different Empty Nesters groups. It appears the other two groups only did putluck dinners each month and that seems to be the way they want to go again. I enjoyed the potluck and we had a lot of fun going around the room learning a little about everyone, but I do hope we will have some lessons too. I LOVED our gospel discussions in our last group. We don't seem to have as many gospel discussions in our home now that all the kids are gone. We used have lots of teaching moments so the gospel was talked about alot. We haven't found our secret to gospel discussion since then. I'm open to suggestions.

I thought since I'm in the nursery we could have a weekly discussion on the Sunday School lesson that I miss each week. Steve always says it's really good, but can't seem to remember enough specifics to engage in a good discussion. I suppose I really should read the lesson too, then I can ask the questions in the lesson and maybe he can remember to share some of the answers that were given. We talk ABOUT having gospel discussions all the time, but we never seem to get around to actually talking about the gospel. How sad is that.

Back to FHE. We voluntered to have it at our house next month. Where am I going to set up enough tables to feed 25 to 30 people? They said they used to do theme meals. What theme should we do? I want to have a lesson too. Are they going to rebel at that? I'm a little nervous about this. Oh well, if they don't like it then I guess they won't have it at our house again.