Let the RANTS begin

WARNING! This post contains graphic images. They may upset those with a weak stomach. I hope they will shock both the sensitivities and sensibilities of decent people. You can skip to the video at the end to skip the pictures.

I had a post I was going to write yesterday that I will get to. But today, something bumped it. I have pared down the political issues I really care about. The ones I REALLY care about are ones that government has no business in, in the first place. And definitely the federal government has no business in because, the Constitution says that the rights not given to the federal government specifically (and that is most everything they have taken over), belong exclusively to the states. I am sure it is more complicated than that. I don't read law in my spare time.

I've been meaning to watch a video clip for the last week. It meant setting aside 30 minutes to do it. And when I did; how I was moved. But I have to go back a few years to explain. At least 10 years ago, I went to a convention on the family in Mesa, Az. Various leaders and speakers expounded on family issues and the growing threat to the family. I still remember some of the things I learned that day. Outside the convention were booths representing groups and organizations that were pro-family. There was a pro-life booth. I actually think perhaps the pro-life movement should call themselves the anti-murder movement, but I am about being positive, so going with pro-life is probably much better.

There were two young college girls manning (or girling )  the booth and we struck up a conversation. I told them that I thought abortion in our day was like the holocaust. And I told them of a picture I had in my head with a slogan. I described it to them according to the picture I just created below. If you don't want to see aborted babies, it may be too late to stop reading.

Please consider that I have been kind in my selection of a black and white photo with fully formed babies, if that can possibly kind. It completely offends everything within me. But the alternatives are gruesome. I am a mother of 7. I have experienced pregnancy 8 times and birth 7 times. I can honestly say, that the births of my children were some of the moments closest to heaven I have every experienced. Not having experienced heaven of course, but only imagining it.

So, when I saw the ad for the video below, I was happy that someone else, I am sure many others, saw abortion as I do. A modern day holocaust. I finally took the time today to watch it. Even if you are a pro-life (anti-murder) supporter, it is worth watching. The prevailing PC of our day is gone and logic is used to explain the similarities between the two, along with morality, heaven and hell, justice and mercy. Well done. So well done. I hope you will take 30 minutes to watch it when you can and then share it with others. It's called 180 because several of the young people in the video (some of whom had never heard of ADOLPH HITLER!!), made a 180 change in their opinion about life and death in the womb. Very COOL!

IAT for new OPPORTUNITIES

IAT = I am thankful

PROJECT CENTRL

So, this is my brand new opportunity. I spent way too much time last year saying I was bored and lonely. Life seems to have taken care of that anyway. But because I did not have too much to do at the time, and a friend of mine recommended me for this program, I decided to apply for it. It is a rural leadership program, training well, leaders in rural Arizona to do a better job of leading. We will study personal skills, Arizona issues, political considerations, legislation, agriculture, and I am sure a whole lot more that I don't even know yet.

For the next year, I will attend 6 monthly meetings, and then in May, we will go to Canada for a 5 day trip to study and learn and experience their issues. We includes only 21 people in the entire state chosen for the group. I feel pretty honored to be a part of it. We are class XXI. THe second year, we will have 6 more monthly classes (we get summers off), and then culminate with an 8 day trip to our nation's capitol. How great is that? What an opportunity for me.

Our first meeting was 2 weeks ago. I met and spent 2 1/2 days with the other 20 people in my class. We had a lot of fun and spent a lot of time learning about different personalities and how to get along with them. This will be pretty critical over the next two years as we tackle issues that can be very divisive. I appreciate, particularly with problems I have had in the past, that it was emphasized that because issues are divisive, it does not mean we cannot be respectful.

In addition, I will be expected to come up with a project that is of benefit to my community. I have some ideas and hope I will be able to create one that will have a lasting impact. So, that is going to be a major part of my extra curricular life the next two years. I am so excited to meet and understand and become friends with so many new people. For the fun and networking it will inevitably brings. And who knows? It may shape my life in ways I never imagined.

And here is where I have to say thank you to the most supportive and encouraging husband and children on the planet. I could do nothing without them. They mean the world to me and I am so grateful they are willing to let me experience this opportunity.

IAT for Joyful Occasions

IAT = I am thankful

I don't know about you, but when I think about the happiest days of my life, it almost always involves family. Even if you have a family that you wonder about, there are still great experiences you have with at least some of them. Sometimes, if you are twice blessed, it also involves or instead of family, friends. The last few weeks have been full of joyous family and friend celebrating and I am so very thankful.

A little over 2 years ago, we sent this beautiful boy of ours to the great state of Kentucky to serve a mission.

I now confess that I dropped him off with his older brother who was serving in Utah as a missionary so they could spend a short 36 hours together before EN2 went for training and 2 years on his own with almost no contact. I was literally there long enough to hug EN1 and take this picture, then I had to leave.

He went to this beautiful green state.

Met and blessed the lives of many good people.

Including lots of soldiers.



He had great experiences with lots of other young men his age.

 And then a little over two weeks ago, he came home!

Very happy momma.

Happy brothers.

Happy poppa.

Happy little sisters.

 Then there is this sweet little thing. Our Arteest. She turned 8 in August. And normally, an 8th birthday is when our children are baptized. But she wanted her missionary brother to be home. So, she waited until the end of September and then waited some more. It took us until this weekend to find a free weekend for both of them. It was a very happy day, with lots of friends.

The day after, The Mish 2 reported his mission. There were lots of friends and family on hand and lots of fun. We feel so blessed to be able to celebrate these milestones and to look ahead to many more happy days. Life is so good!

I THINK IAT

IAT = I am thankful

I've changed my entire layout. I really like it. But I am feeling a little lost and there are some things I don't like so much. Like all my little gadgets...they can't be on the side bar anymore. And I can't put my pages in the order I want. That really bugs me, so we will see if this lasts, or if I have the patience to figure out some of those things. I really like the look, but the stuff I am used to? It kind of feels like facebook played with my blog. Any of you on facebook know exactly what I mean.

And oh yeah, this is not really a real post. The Bish called me this morning and asked me if I was still blogging. He said he misses my posts. I didn't know if anyone would notice. Besides my counter that I watch and the feedjit gadget, I would not know anyone even reads, because no one comments. Soooo. We've had a completely exciting and wonderful almost two weeks. I'd better post about that before I go out of town again and it's several more days. But for now, I've wasted too much time today. So, I'll be thankful later. Haha.

Oh how IAT for America!

IAT = I am thankful


From the time my parents split up, my dad became a traveler. He was a business man that had business all over. I think he was a manufacturer's rep for awhile. Then we got into motocross, then Nascar. We went everywhere.

Here are only some of the places I remember going with my dad off the top of my head. You can skip down to the rest of my post if you don't care where I went.

New York City, Washington DC, every state but Alaska and Hawaii, many historical sites like: (Once my daddy took me to Maine for lunch because we were so close and I wanted to be able to say I'd been to Maine).

Gettysburg, the Cyclorama in Atlanta, Kennesaw Battlefield, the Alamo, Custer's Last Stand--Little Bighorn, Plymouth Rock, the Mayflower, the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the Capital Building, the White House, the Smithsonian, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial, Congress, Supreme Court Building, Mt Vernon, the Pony Express, the birthplaces of famous people like Elvis, Joel Chandler Harris, the St Louis arch. Many, many race tracks, Taladega, Darlington, Charlottesville, Atlanta International Racetrack, Daytona multiple times.

He took me to Mexico, Canada, Russia, Ukraine, the Black Sea, and I could go on and on.

Here is something I remember more than once.

I remember driving across the great plains at night and seeing amazing lightning storms in the clouds. I loved how the lightning went, not only down to the ground, but also how it traveled across the sky from cloud to cloud.

Scenes like the Tetons were a regular part of our travels. One of my favorite trips was one of my first cross country drives by myself. I was in college, and I cranked up the country tunes all the way. I remember driving across a valley while listening to I'm Proud to be an American, by Lee Greenwood. I remember truly feeling blessed. Some day I would like to see other countries like Europe. I really want to do an African safari. But, my dear husband wants to see our land, and I will love seeing it again with him. Because as a child, I'm sure I have forgotten most of the grandeur. Even though I do remember things like being in the Passion play at the foothills of Mt Rushmore. 

So, I really loved driving home from Denver this week in my hubby's new truck, listening to tunes with one of my favorite people in all the world, as we watched the mountains, rainbows, rollings hills, and desert come into view. How I love America and her beauty. And tomorrow, I get to drive across Arizona and get ready to welcome home my missionary son. :-)

IAT When Others are Gracious

IAT = I am thankful

Yesterday the Bish asked me to speak with him in Sacrament meeting. I like to make his life easier, so I said yes. He said I could have 10 minutes and use one of my old talks if I wanted, so I wasn't too worried. But, in the end, I decided to use parts from two conference talks I recently read. They are:

The Atonement Covers All Pain

Face the Future With Faith

I really am a better writer than speaker. So, the preparation never unnerves me. But as soon as I am standing at the podium, my heart is pounding. While my husband can write a few brief notes and then fill it all in as he stands and allows the Spirit to guide his words, I have to write the whole thing out and then hope I don't read it word for word. In some ways, he is a natural teacher. It helps that he teaches for a living and after studying the standard works multiple times, it has become second nature to him to be able to talk about most any gospel subject naturally. It's his gift. I have other gifts, but I still hope I can become such a good teacher of gospel principles on my feet.

Anyway, in spite of my limitations at the pulpit, many people were gracious enough to express their sentiments about their enjoyment of my talk and the Bish. I am grateful that people are willing to lift me by encouraging me to continue to try to improve. I do enjoy speaking, but it's really the preparation I like. Hopefully some day, I'll also really enjoy the speaking part. You can read my talk by clicking on the articles/talks tab above.

IAT for Master Minds

IAT = I am thankful

So, I've been a student of self-improvement books for many, many years. Parenting, health, marriage, self, etc. The first self help book I read was off my dad's bookshelf in high school. Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. That book really shaped my approach to dealing with people.  I read Zig Zigler books, Og Mandino, and more.

The last five years or so as I discovered the wonderful EFT, I also came across lots of spiritual books that have helped me to hopefully continue to grow. Books like Leadership and Self-Deception, The Peacegiver, Remembering Wholeness, Loving What Is, and about a hundred others. Not to mention the very cool Philosopher's Notes, Leslie Householder, Kirk Duncan, and other great people I am meeting and learning from. In all of that, I discovered something called Master Mind groups. Here's the first article I could find about that and I haven't even read it. But I am too lazy to explain it. http://www.passionforbusiness.com/articles/mastermind-group.htm

So, I decided I wanted to do that and keep growing. I now belong to a very small group. There are 2 healers, a doctor, and an author. I'm the only girl. But, I think we have another girl joining (another healer). Anyway, for almost the last two years, we've been meeting almost every Saturday morning at 6 or 6:30am to discuss books, uplifting topics, learn techniques of writing, business, accomplishing, and helping each other to grow and solve the problems we come upon. We encourage each other and try to inspire one another to go after our dreams. It really is an awesome thing, minus the getting up early on Saturdays. :-)

It's been amazing. And it helps me to try to be better than I am because I feel an obligation to the group to do my best and to myself. I have been grappling with a question for the last week or so. The question is private. I have a ton of gratitude to my friend who helped me verbalize the question. It was formulated from life events I've been struggling with for some time. And she helped me discover my core belief, which is "I find value in every relationship and live my life with no regrets."

Today one of the healers was leading the discussion and we were talking about a book called the Power of Love. The discussion turned to one of the chapters on Feeling Frequencies and then some of my concerns and questions came out. Without sharing details of my situation, but understanding where I was coming from, the 2 men on the call this morning really helped me walk through, talk through some of the things that have been weighing me down.

And then the answer to my question popped right through. And it makes so much sense to me.

Usually each week we share our wins for the week. I came this week feeling like I had none. But by the end of the call, I recognized several. I am so grateful for the turnaround in my thinking, all because a question was answered. I really appreciate the insights of the men in my Mastermind group. A big thank you to them.