"As I have loved you..."

What makes a friendship? Is it time? Common Interests? Is it sharing personality traits? Trust? Love?
I'm in a more stable place in my life right now, and I'm looking around, realizing that other people, people I love and care about-maybe even strangers on the street, don't share my feelings on friendship. Maybe my feelings are wrong. I'm entitled to think they're pretty accurate, tho that's just my opinion...

To me, as cliche and lovey-dovey as it sounds, anyone can be your friend. And by this I mean that each of us deserves to be served, loved. We're also obligated to serve others. And I guess I look at friendship that way. Friendship is the realization of the fact that we're all human, all children of a Heavenly Father and all put here on earth for the same overall purpose-to love each other. That's it. Simple! So, basically, we're here--our JOB here, our requirement--the only thing He asks of us, is that-to be friends.

I don't have to know someone for years to want to help them out. I don't have to agree with them about politics or religion to see their struggles and feel the desire to serve. I don't even have to enjoy spending a lot of time around them to love them! I think my job is to see them for what and who they are--people. Human beings, spiritually made and driven, just like me. To remember that each and every one of us comes into and goes out of this world alone and that every time I show love to someone, I'm doing what I can to help them not feel alone. That, to me, is friendship.

Go make a friend today.

Happy Late Mothers Day

Sunday morning...Mothers Day. The day everyone celebrates and cherishes and pampers their mom, the day they acknowledge all her hard work and effort, the day she languishes in bed, pampered by a flowered tray carrying delicious heart-shaped pancakes and fresh squeezed orange juice-when cards, gifts and little surprises await...right?









"Mom! Jack is getting into medicine!!!"



I leap from my comfortable sleep, barely coherent to rush into the dining room and find, scattered down the hall and in front of the couch, mom's "medicine", which is, thankfully IceBreakers wintergreen mints.

"Phew!" I think, thanking Rosie for being such a great big sis and gathering the remains of my breath fresheners.



A spot...more like a dribble...catches my eye...coming out of my refrigerator and i turn, only to

audibly *gasp!*


"What happened???"

"I didn't do it mom, Jack did it this time, with the stool!"

"Jack!?!!! Did you make this mess!!!???"

"yeeeah I maked a meth wif ur eggs"

"jack, you did it?!" (Im sure Rosie was as shocked as I was, and tho I can't confirm it, I could have sworn I saw a look of pride in her eyes, surveying her protege's early morning project)



Still holding my mints, I wander, bewildered into the kitchen and open the fridge..bright green ooze trailed the veggie drawer and into the fan grates and down onto the tile....I look over at my little son, his diaper-clad self gazing adoringly at me, green mustache and all.



"I maked gween moovee (smoothie) for yuh!"



I turn back to blankly stare at the scene...the aforementioned stepstool moved close to the counter, littered with crumbled white shells and slime I guessed to be egg white...the egg carton empty of eggs...my 400 dollar blender, half full of eggs, shells and what I'm guessing is my "mooovee" and yolky footprints leading to the culprit, bewildered and excited at the reaction from the mama who, just last night, he had asked to "quish" him "yike a pam cake"before bedtime...

(discouraged sigh),

"oh Jack...I love you"

"Yuv too mama"



...it's the thought that counts right?

Today I climbed a mountain...

So yesterday, got together with a friend and thought we'd head out to Provo Canyon. I've recently been exploring the idea that I could possibly be a 'nature girl' but that I really hadn't taken the time to find out. So, part of my excitement for spring was to be able to figure out how well old Mother Nature and I get along. Surprisingly, I think we can be friends!

Standing at the base of Bridal Veil Falls, I thought "well. now is as good a time as any, right?" and i said "let's do it". We got to the middle and looked down...the ascent wasn't nearly as stressful as the descent looked like it would be...but the top looked so close! Too close to give up on, honestly. How would I feel looking back, seeing the top and realizing it would have only taken a precious few more steps to sit at the top, on a rock outcropping about 3000 feet above the ground? Well, I won't ever know, because I DID get to the top. And it was pretty frigging amazing.

As I sat there, looking down, I had a revelation. Right there, at the moment I was sitting on the top of a mountain, I felt awesome-powerful, strong, re-energized, optimistic. Which is how we feel, when we conquer problems-those mountains of life, the ones that are disguised as molehills (or wait, is it the other way around?), the stumbling blocks that bring us crashing to the ground, etc. When we conquer those, life is good. It's climbing back down the mountain that is scary. Getting back on the ground, back to real-life. That's the real challenge. Taking that energy, optimism and willingness to work, climb and sweat for what we want in life-that is the scary sight we often see awaiting us at the bottom.

So. I took a rock from Bridal Veil. It's pretty big, considering I had to climb back down the way-slipperier-than-it-looked-or-felt slope. But I purposely chose a big one because I have a tendency to toss out memoirs-not things from my kids, but things I pick up that I think might be good to remind me of certain activities, experiences. But too often those things are small and get lost among the shuffle of daily life and i find myself with a pile of movie tickets, rocks, pieces of fabric or ribbon or cards that really....well add to the clutter of my life. A big black rock with a solid strip of quartz on the bottom isn't gonna get tossed as easily. And I'll remember. The biggest mountains we face are the ones at the bottom of the slope. Whether going up, OR coming down.

Yes. Spring made it. Fashionably late and ready to leave at the drop of a hat, as always here in Utah. :/

Text Driving

The new Samsung High Note:

"your world in harmony
There’s a good reason the SAMSUNG Highnote™ has a unique dual slider design. Two reasons, in fact – twin stereo speakers. Slide the face of the Highnote down, and there are the speakers. Slide the face of the Highnote up, and there’s the keypad. And if you don’t slide it at all, you can listen to a great MP3 player with exterior controls and a standard 3.5 mm stereo headset jack. With this phone, music lovers can start (or finish) any day on a Highnote."

My last phone, the Sony Ericsson Walkman--okay it sucked. That's all there is to it. Sure, it was pink and it was a slider, but yeah. It was a piece of you know what. Not the highnote. :)

It's kinda funny because I never thought I'd be one of "those" girls-the ones who are all stoked about the cool new phone that plays music and has GPS AND!!! (the coolest part) reads my texts out loud when I'm driving...because I'm a notorious text-driver and have luckily avoided many accidents due to my lightening quick reflexes...now I can put those reflexes back in the closet, since all I have to do is listen-and the lovely, robotic voice says "text from uh-man-duh hell-o how are you?" lol it's hard to describe what it sounds like but it's still pretty dang awesome.

Rainy day fun...

Well, a pretty quiet, drowsy, playdough and movie filled day.

After a week full of vomit, I'm okay with that...yep, some sort of bug ran through my kids...and by ran through I really mean out, in the form of projectile fruit smoothies, brown rice and raisins....among other gems. I'm pretty sure I washed 3 different outfits of mine in one night...ah, but that's a mom's job. I'm glad I had them, lol. On the first healthy morning, I was passed out on the couch after sitting up very late, listening for the tell tale moan from the bedroom, where the bucket on the floor was stubbornly avoided. As the grey dawn peeped through the sliding glass door, I heard scrunchy diaper-clad and sleepy footie jamma'd shuffles down the hall-i peeked my eye open to see Rosie, against looking around the corner, her brother behind her and trailing his blanket...she whispered "there she is jack......... *dramatic gasp* isn't she beauuuuudaful?" "yah mama sweepin" was the answer.....

it was pretty sweet...there's kinda nothing better than waking up to warm snuggly bodies, piled on top of you after a night of being a mom. lol.

Last night when I was putting Jack to bed he asked me to "quish" him--for some reason, since he was pretty little, he likes to be "quished", meaning he likes you to pretend to lay on him and squish him...well last night I obliged and he laughed and said "you quish me like a pay DOH!" :)

i love pay DOH.

Okay, now I know everyone thinks their kids are gorgeous....but really....well, I won't finish my sentance, but you get the idea. These are just a couple candids my friend Joel shot, while we were running around a park, doing a sort of practice "shoot" for the ones that will be coming up. I'll keep you posted! :)