Olympic Medalist

I went with my kids to a fireside Sunday night.  Our stake Young Men's President is Paul Schulte and he is a 2 times Gold Medalist!  He competed in Australia, Beijing and last November made the USA Paralympic Basketball team again and will be in London, this year as one of the team captains.  He is an inspiring individual that shares with the youth how to overcome any obstacles and that you choose to make your day a good day.  You don't let people, things or circumstances dictate to you what kind of a day you are going to have.  You choose!  He truly has an attitude of gratitude.

Teal, Paul & Carson

Paul's gold medal from Guadalajara where he and his team qualified to be in 2012 Olympics (and a piece of the net!)

Here is a neat video link that tells you a little bit about Paul.

 

Make Believe

I love imagination!

New Recipe

Tonight I tried a new twist on an old favorite of Corn Beef.

 I cooked the meat in a crock-pot and at the end threw in red potatoes.

But instead of adding the wedges of cabbage to the same pot this time I cut up the wedges, placed them on an oiled cooking sheet and then used a basting brush to brush lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil that had been whisked together then I topped it off with sea salt and cracked pepper.  Then you bake it 15 minutes at 450, turn the wedges baste and salt & pepper again and bake for another 15 minutes.

This was so yummy!  They were tender crisp with a little zip from the lemon. 

Home Cooking!

I'm super grateful for my kids.  Life has been stressful and busy.  Today I seem to be one step behind myself in all turns.  Teal, who dislocated her knee last week, is usually my go-to girl and helps me out with cooking on crazy days like today....but crutches and cooking don't mix too well....soooooo all the kids pitched in and are currently making dinner so that I could finish up what I was knee deep in with the packing/moving stuff.  I'm grateful for kids who will put down the video games and jump in to help with minimal fighting  (I confess there has been some yelling) and are at least trying to work together.  Little shiny moments!

Sparky

I took my youngest two; Sage & Rafe on a field trip to a local fire department today.  They had a great time!  They got to tour the living quarters, the smelly equipment/gear room, the bay/garage, an ambulance, helipad, ladder truck, meet Sparky and use a fire hose.  I did too!  (I was one of the few parents to do it....why are grown ups such chickens?  Too embarrassed perhaps?  Well, I'm just a big kid-so I didn't care)  Today I'm grateful to have a fun break in my routine and have the opportunity to take my kids to see some of what the fire department does.

 

 

My Pillow

I haven't been blogging for weeks now because I'm trying to find something, ANYTHING to be grateful for.  Sure, I could post the standards...my kids, my husband, my health.  We are all grateful for those things.  We should be.  But right now I'm simply overwhelmed. My life is changing.  I hate change, and I'm having a hard time feeling grateful for anything....even the things I should be grateful for.  I want an "easy" button, a fast forward remote or even hyper-sleep to get through the next few months.  I just don't want to be here for this and I'd be ever so grateful if Mr. Scott could just "beam me up."  I guess I watched too much TV as a kid, huh?  Well, I guess I can be grateful for my pillow.  It doesn't judge.  It's there for me every night.  It doesn't even mind those nights when I soak it with tears because I've cried myself to sleep.  See?  Even in sorrow we can find gratitude! 

 

Sister

I'm grateful for my sister!  Liz is silly and fun and I had a wonderful time visiting with her this last week.  She loves Tweety....can you tell?

We went to Disney World...

...and we had a blast.  What a loooong day!  But it was such great fun.  My friend LuDona was with us too and it was just so much fun.  I love this picture of them and Carson & Sage on Rockin' Roller Coaster!!

We also spent some quite time at the beach.  Liz was trying to work on getting some "color" but I'm not sure how successful she was.  But there is something so wonderful about toes in the sand!

We had a great time together...and it was all too short.  I can't wait until our next get together!!