What is Joy?

I purchased a itzy bitzy notebook while working at Nordstrom some 25 years ago.  I took its first blank page and wrote the words, "What is Joy?" It was that day, I began assembling the little things in life that brought me joy.  Over the next few years, people crossed my path and I asked them to take my book and write down the things that brought them joy.

It didn't take long to fill its pages (no bigger than a matchbox).  And it didn't take long to realize the that true joy comes from the simple things...more importantly, true joy comes from recognizing those things.

Here are a few of the thoughts written from my book, "What is Joy?"

The Sun
Stars...recognizing the Big Dipper
A Gentle Breeze
Love in Eyes
Holding His Hand
Being Silly
Running on a Desolate Road
Hiking to a Peak and Pondering
Being Alone
Being with the One You Love
Reading a Good Book
A Movie Taking You Away
Eating a Huge Hot Fudge Sundae
Feeling God's Love
Sharing God's Love
Hearing the Rain Fall
Sound of Waves
Signs of Spring
Letters From Mom
Pearls
Prayers that Last All Night
Warm Cookies and Milk
A Brand New Box of Crayons
Hope
Hot Chocolate on a Cold Day
Upside Down Stamps
Repentance
Second Hand Stores
Soul mates
Sitting Alone in the Dark
Seeing the Moon in the Daylight
Mary and Joseph
Talking to a Plant
Knowing Your Father in Heaven is Pleased With Me
Helping Someone
Having a Choice
Zapping a Zinger
Feeling the Wheels Grinding in Your Head
Having the Rain Collect on the Windshield and then Having the Wipers Clear It
Scratching Where it Itches
Bleached out Hair
Rolling a Rolo to a Friend
Braided Hair
Old Couples in Love
The Toy in a Cracker Jack Box
All Things that Denote There is a God
Clouds That Form Things
Not Being Afraid

Funny Business...

This subbing gig is cracking me up.  This week I was in the chorus classes, which were filled to the brim with every combination of student, from 7th grade girls, to 8th grade boys as well as the ever full of energy mixed 6th grade classes (both girls and boys).

Since the piano had been taken by the teacher to their Festival performance, we were left watching movies.  The movies these kids are watching lend themselves to giggles galore as the 1951, "Annie, Get Your Gun" or "Liszt" are shown.

Today I simply had to write down a few "funnies" which not only had the kids laughing...I had to secretly join in as well.

The first giggle fest happened when in the movie, "Liszt,"the actor kept saying, "pianist."  To the immature, 7th grader, another word came to mind (and honestly, it did sound just like that word)...causing much laughter from the boys (luckily it was an all boy class). 

Next up for the 6th grade class, was the seriously "way too old for this generation," Annie Get your Gun.  I mean, when people break out in over acting sing song...it just doesn't feel quite right.  In one song, an Uncle Dick was made mention and you would have thought it was some HUGE comedic line...nope, just the two words, "Uncle Dick."

In the 8th grade class, we watched, "Pulse." This movie depicted the awesome stomping phenomenon...that is actually super cool.  But when viewed by these overly immature boys, you know laughter will come...especially when the movie shoots scenes from other countries where the men are dancing in what seems like diapers. It just doesn't go over well.

My most enjoyable moment went to the 8th grade boys choir, where my son, Calvin is a member.  He was not there today because he was helping his teacher at the festival.  I took this ideal opportunity to "get to know" my son a little bit better (remember, he is currently at the "I only grunt one word answers to you" stage).  I decided to poll the class and ask the following questions answered by his classmates who know him best:

Q: Is Calvin as cool as he makes us all think he is here at home?
A: No.

Q: Does Calvin have a good singing voice (believe it or not, I have never heard him sing)?
A: Pretty good.

Q: Is Calvin a bully?
A: No

Q: Does Calvin have a girlfriend?  And if so, who?
A: Mixed answers (I think he may have multiple)

Q: Has anyone seen Calvin kiss a girl?
A: Not telling.

Q: Does Calvin think is mother is totally a cool mom?
A: Of course (I answered that)

It is a total blast substitute teaching!

The Miracle of the Broken Water Heater

We have lived in our home for 10 years.  Our home has withstood 5 outrageously messy children, 1 big hairy stinky dog, 1 cat, numerous wild mice, numerous friends of the outrageously messy children....

The carpet throughout our house has been punished and thrashed severely. It shows wear, tear and disgust. And as you know, dirty stained carpet NEVER, I repeat, NEVER looks good in this state. On the other hand, we can sneak by with our stripped, scratched and faded wood floors by calling it, "distressed, antiqued, or having character."

We have not had the money to replace any of the carpet in our home.  I try to "spot" clean it when I can but because of its sad state, it really has no hope...until two weeks ago (remember this post...when I was bending...ever so close to snapping?!) when our water heater took a turn for the worse.

After trying to assess its health and wishful thinking that it was only "sick", it couldn't take the punishment of 7 people showering, bathing and washing clothes and dishes so often and gave up...died right there in our basement. 

It began to "bleed" water onto the unfinished portion of the room where it was housed.  Water attempted to drain down the grate that had been designed to aid in such a disaster...but it couldn't keep up.  The water began to make its way through the wall, to the finished portion of our basement, seeping into the carpet and padding.

It was that lovely moldy scent, quickly permeating our basement that really had me "bending wickedly close" to my snapping point.  I started to envision mold creeping up our walls, making us all sick.  The carpet was absolutely the least of my worries...I mean it was already disgusting.  Spotted with years of disobedient children's spilt drinks, toppled over food items and dirty shoes tracking in ghastly amounts of dirt and grime.  You see, we had a rule...no eating in the basement.  Every few months I would make my way into the dark abyss of our lower level (I make a point never to go down there) and find between couch cushions, under pillows, inside drawers, under cabinets items that could feed a third world country.  Along side these items were utensils, plates, wrappers, broken toys, chewed gum, empty bottles...SERIOUSLY!  Ironically, not one of my children have ever admitted they have eaten down there...

I truly didn't care about the ruined carpet at this point.  I had already accepted that it would remain in this state until our last child left our home (and the cat and dog left too).

After hearing our unfortunate news, a few of my friends made mention that we should be sure to file a claim with our home insurance company.  I was told that more than likely they would replace the entire basement with new carpet.

We called and an adjuster came to our home.

A day later, we were sent a letter stating we would receive a large amount of money to cover the carpet for the entire basement but drywall and baseboards too!

If only you could see the sad state of our basement.  Dreams of freshly painted walls (Garth made the boys Spackle the hundreds of holes made from wild boy play, a few years ago...yep...the white spackle is still spotting the walls) and cushy new carpet have been only that...a dream...until we lost our water heater.

Now we finally can make plans for our sickly basement.  Walls can be sanded and painted, carpet or laminate will be placed down and kids can go up for sale (so it will stay nice and clean).

What seemed like a complete misfortune and injustice, turned into a complete miracle.

Slow to Judge and Quick to Love

I love my church.  Its message is simple, yet as the world's view takes hold of so many and clouds their view, making simple messages "wrong," "not the norm," "too hard," or "not for our time."  The message of our dear Savior, "Come Unto Me," is the same today as it was so many years ago...simple.

We need Him.  We need to follow Him.  We need to try to be like Him. 

We need to love others as He did.

I love this recent "Mormon Message," about not judging others.

Today, may we be slow to judge and quick to love.

And on Sunday, be sure to watch our living prophets share words of love, purpose and expound on Christ's words, "Come Unto Me."

Click here for more details





Wind

The wind is blowing. Today's training run required me to run 8 miles with 6-600's (that is one and a half times around the track) at my 5k pace.  Running in the wind is absolutely no fun.  Sprinting in the wind is even worse.

Lucky for me, the 1.5 miles to the middle school track was a breeze (no pun intended), the wind was at my back.  It felt cool on my wet overheated skin.  It brought a lovely scent of cherry blossoms...spring!  It caused the blossoms to fall off the trees and "flurry" about, making it look it was snowing pink.  It gave me a gentle push toward my ultimate goal, the track.

This track is located totally out in the open, giving the wind free reign of its powerful influence.  An American flag blew furiously in one steady direction, signalling to me which part of my sprint would be easy and which section would be a fight.

The first 600, I started at my normal spot...which happened to be directly into the strong wind.  Because of the starting point, I had to run against the wind, more distance than the wind was at my back.

I quickly changed my starting point to give me 400 meters of wind pushing at my back and only 200 with the wind fighting me every step.

The wind literally pushed me along at a faster pace during sections. It was during those times, my heart didn't have to work as hard, my body could keep a steady rhythm and pace. 

When I turned into the wind after rounding the top of the track's corner, it immediately blasted me with its power...pushing me back, trying to get me from reaching my goal.  In order to keep my steady pace, I had to push against the wind with bigger body movements thus increasing my heart rate. 

After one 600, I almost quit.  After three, I felt stronger.  After five, I knew I could beat "the wind."  On lap 6, I was determined to get my fastest split.  Already tired, wind kicking up its strength, and goal in mind, I started to run. 

With the wind at my back, I took advantage of its power and let it push me.  As I turned the corner into its overwhelming strength, I dug, I focused and beat it...by 5 seconds.

Simple as that.


BTW...here are my latest and greatest "Get YOU moving," songs:

TTYLXOX by Bella Thorne
Bang Bang by K'naan and Adam Levine
Knockout by Lil Wayne and Nicki Manaj
Sandstorm by Darude
Part of Me by Katy Perry
Brokenhearted by Karmin

My Hunger Games Review

Sommer and I hit the Hunger Games midnight show last night!  I have never been to such an event, and although I was a bit concerned about the late night and the masses of teenagers...IT ACTUALLY WAS A BLAST!

At 9 pm, Sommer insisted we leave for the theatre.  She was concerned about getting a seat (or missing any of the hype) due to huge amount of texts and twitters from friends who were already camped out (ugh).  I didn't want to dampen her young teen excitement with my old cranky ways, so we compromised and headed out at 9:40.

After picking up my friend Robyn and her girls, we headed to the big event, arriving TWO HOURS BEFORE SHOWTIME! Thankfully, I had Robyn to chat away the time with me (and begin eating our large popcorn).

I loved seeing so many die-hard fans decked out in garb depicting everyone from Katniss to the people of Panem, the Capitol City where the Hunger Games take place.

Excitement was in the air as the movie finally began at 12:01 am...no wait, we first had to watch what seemed like 100 previews that lasted at least 30 minutes.  Not my idea of enjoyment with the late hour!

And then the crowd, roared, "Let the Games Begin!" It was at this point, the camera, while following Katniss on her adventures beyond the gate, was extremely shaky and quite irritating.  I don't know if it was supposed to be an "artsy" moment but geez, it made us all dizzy.

For those that have read the book, the movie followed most of the details without missing a beat.  What did lack was the emotion felt when reading Katniss' feelings.  The movie, went with little dialogue and depended on sullen and concerned faces and few words. This made the movie feel a bit "slow" and let my emotions remain pretty stagnant throughout the movie. 

The actual games were well filmed. I was grateful they didn't take an extremely gory or graphic route with the deaths of the children . But similar to the beginning, I wasn't feeling enough raw emotion that I had felt while reading the book to really "lose" myself in the movie.

Unlike the Twilight series, I LOVED the actors they picked to portray these characters.  Katniss was indeed beautiful but it was understated. She was strong but she was still vulnerable (and believable).  Gale was very good looking. And Peeta...well let me just say...I am now a fan. In the book I pictured him a goofy chubby kid. In the movie, he was strong and handsome.  Both Woody Harrelson and Stanley Tucci gave wicked funny comedy relief! 



I have to take into account that it was after midnight when I was watching the film, I could have been overlly tired thus leading to a "slow" feel. Maybe I will just have to see it again!

What did you think?!

Cherry Blossoms In Washington DC

We are lucky to live so close to our Nation's capitol!  With multiple Smithsonian Museums minutes away (unless there is traffic), we are able to see first hand the history of our world.  It cracked me up on Sunday when my brilliant daughter, Sommer, kept saying that nothing could be real in these museums.  She insists everything has been recreated for our enjoyment.  She said about a 1700's gunboat in the American History Museum, "No way, that is the actual boat!  Who saves those?"  And when checking out the dresses of our First Ladies she said, "Why would Mrs. Obama put her dress in here? Now she can't wear it!"

Each spring, we have the opportunity to head to the Tidal Basin (with millions of other people), to see the Cherry Blossoms.  It is an amazing site, hundreds of trees lining the basin, springing forth radiant pink and white blossoms.

After circling the city for 45 minutes trying to find a place to park, racing other cars for the few we did find (and lost the race multiple times), we finally parked.  Walking toward the National Monument with the sprawling lawn leading to the Capitol is always an amazing site.

Although many of us have one or two cherry blossom trees blooming in our own backyard, we come together, to see the beauty that is created when hundreds of trees showcase their flowers at one time.  I love how nature can do that and even more so, how it brings people together from around the world. Rather amazing, such a simple thing, such as at tree, can unite so many.

It was a beautiful day.