“See What Happens When I am Romantic”

That’s what Kyle said to me last Saturday.

After a long day of Super Saturday and meetings I come home to the man I love and naturally we kiss.  He dips me and as I swing a little he lifts me up.  My forehead and the edge of our table meet,  they don’t like eachother, Kyle lays me on the ground a vows to get rid of the table.  I now have a love scar on my head.

Sunday Thoughts

The Assembly hall on Temple Square is absolutely beautiful!  Today our Bi-stake Conference was held there and we were able to listen to a prophet’s voice.  Our friends the McMickels drove us, so we were actually on time! Okay we were 20 minutes early.  It was pleasant to sit there lost in my own thoughts before the meeting.  Here are a few:

-I am thankful to the pioneers who sacrificed so much.  Through their hard work we have a marvelous meeting place to fill our souls

-I love that Mormons shake hands.  We really do love one another and haven’t lost a lot of the proprieties that the world has.  We still call each other by Brother or Sister, as a title of respect.  We open meetings formally with a prayer and agenda.  And we sing!  What could be better? 

The message was generally about Marriage…   I feel so lucky.  I have a wonderful marriage.  My husband loves me, we work hard together and have so much fun acting like 12 year old best friends!  

RS Activity

Last month we did a fun service project with the sisters in our ward.  We made little felt thingies to stuff with candy to be sold at the Festival of Trees!  

Don’t I have an awesome ward full of beautiful and talented ladies?

Then this month we did a Super Saturday Craft Day.
Sister Suzie Knott shared her sewing skills and we made this adorable baby blanket

 Amber’s Grandma drove down from Pleasant View to teach us how to make Grandma’s Get Fat Fudge!  Watch out scale!

 I taught people how to glue stuff together

Stephanie helped everyone make picture blocks and ornaments

And Crafty Carrie did adorable vinyl stuff.

All was well until the lights went out and the fire alarm went off.  This fire truck drove by but didn’t even stop to help us.

It was great fun!

Disney On Ice

Disney is Magical, so I took the youngest of the Wouden Clan and a few others with me to see this:

Julianna was so good and didn’t ask for anything (Snowcones $15, Cotton Candy $10 etc) except to see Cinderella (which is totally acceptable).  She had on her cute Tinkerbelle costume and the little girls behind her loved her wings so much, they tugged on them the entire show.

 This is baby Reagan and she is only a few months old and already LOVES Disney!

Emily is a great mom and a wonderful sister… she just needs to move closer to me!

They are our Furry Friends.... NOT

Don't worry I have these running around at work.  Some people think they are cute and cuddly.... others feed them to their pet snake, either way they are disrupting things.  I now have an unbaited mouse trap under my desk.  During the middle of the day  I am known to kick off my heels I am worried about my little tootsies and lets be honest I don't think mice are stupid (just disease carrying rodents) they aren't going to go after the plastic piece that is supposed to look like cheese when I have delicious crackers and treats in my drawer.


Just last week a co-worker caught one with his bare hands and let it go outside.  Hello it is just going to come back in!  Hope the mice find a new residence soon.

HP 7

Thats right... we are going to see HP 7 in theaters.  We have the best seats in the house thanks to a best girl friends hook up (thanks barb and mom).

Don't worry we are thinking about our costumes already.  It isn't fun if you don't dress up right?

I am pushing for Kyle to be Draco, I want to be Bellitrix or Narcissa.  We'll see what pans out or if Kyle is brave enough.

Can you guess what we are?

I'm red

 And he has a black nose

Here is Ky and I .... Rarrrr...

And I don't really know how Lil red got caught up with these cops and convicts.... but I would love to be on the jury!

The 2 Mandys

This is the outfit I wore today to work.  The day I thought Mandy Moore and I would become BFF's because of all we have in common.    To be honest she really didn't notice me, or my awesome stilettos, rockin true religion jeans or my chandler earrings.  Do you think it's because we  are too much a like?  Here is my list:

1.) Mandy is really named Amanda.  Hello same name!  And growing up my friends thought the name Mandy      was trashy...so they never called me that.  But they did call me: Manders, Manda and Bananna.  Bet she got called those too.

2.) She was born in 1984.  I was born in 1985 that means we could have gone to High school together.  We could have even been on the same dance team or something.

3.) She is married an awesome guy she loves, me too!

4.) We are both tall.  We used to hate it, but now we love it.  Lets be honest dudes dig tall chicks.  Especially ones that wear tall shoes, so even if we are taller than them it isn't as noticeable because we can blame the heels.

5.) We both had perms once a pon a time (remember elem right!)

6.) Be both sing

7.) She likes to vacuum .  I have one that I sometimes use.

8.) She used to dye her hair blonde (so she could be more like me)

9.) We both like really sparkley things

10.) We both are/are going to be Disney princesses

I can't wait until we meet again!

Becoming Better- A Very Long Journey

It was the day before Halloween, or at least the day before the halloween celebrations started in Utah.  The craft store was crowded, so I grabbed a number for the fabric cutting counter even before I took a look at the cotton and polyester blends.  The red felt jumped out at me rather quickly and the sale sign above it kept my attention, so I grabbed a whole bolt of the fabric and headed back what what sure to be a long wait in the "to be cut" line.  When I looked up I saw a familiar face.  She was one of my High School Counselors and she remembered me.  She told me of her struggles with her health and of her joy, her family.  She told me about how she is in the middle of writing a book.  One that she hopes will inspire people.  She talked about how therapeutic she found writing down the thoughts in her head.  After she left I wondered what I could do to inspire others or at least myself to be better.

Maybe that is why I am so attracted to writing. Its what I do all day for work, and I love to read the words that others write when I get home.

Today on our show we talked about one woman's idea she is calling the Happiness Project.  In her book she talks about how our mood affects our families.  but it doesn't end there.  The things that we do, affects over 200 people a day. Imagine that.  You can improve over 200 people's day by telling your friends how you have seen the hand of God in your life that day, or you could spread the good news that your child took her first steps.  On the other hand we could spread the negativity of a mean comment, or the bad day.  I am going to try to think about what I am sharing with my friends because they share a piece of it with theirs and I affect the world.

One of my favorite things a woman I look up to says is "Lets be mad about it for a minute and get over it,"  we then vent, release all of our tension by talking and are done with it.  We all need that time to share our feelings, good or bad.  Our emotions aren't good or bad--- they are indicators of what is going on in our lives.  I'm not a bad person because I am angry with someone that stole my lunch from the fridge.  But I am not the best person I could be if I let it ruin my day.

In short I think that my high school counselor was right... writing is therapeutic and I hope to give myself more time to do it and though it to become a better person!


Love all of you!  Spread that around the world!