A New Year and a New Me

Many of you may or may not know the real me.    I have pretty good opinions on things I like and don’t like and for good reasons too.  It may just be things that are odd and annoy me or they could very well be things that go deeper that have been rooted in my soul from a very young age.  I won’t share them with you for fear I’ll probably offend some if not every reader in some way.

Among this list are two things that are changing me as we speak.

First is READING.  Here is where you either really know me or you don’t.  I hate reading.  I don’t read.  Don’t care for it, don’t enjoy it and don’t like being around people that do it.  Maybe it’s because I had a relative that read her way through her entire adolescence and never socialized with us.  I’d rather be out playing in the sun, making mud pies, laying in warm gutter water, laying on the hot cement to dry off after swimming and finding things in the field across from my house that I swore belonged to the pioneers.

I have a list, a very short list of the books I have read.  The Book of Mormon and Super Fudge.  Told you I don’t like to read.

BUT something has changed in me.  I guess I’m getting old.  I have a desire to read.  I used to say “why read when you can just watch the movie”.  My new goal is to read before watching the movie.

With that I have just finished “Secret Life of Bees” and tried to read “Hunger Games”.  I’m starting to read “Water for Elephants” and that’s just the start.  My sister and I set a goal to read one book a month and start my own little library of good books. 

Here is my list so far based on recommendations from people I trust and not just because the book cover looks cool:

 

Crossing to Safety

Geurnsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society

I Captured a Castle

The Screwtape Letters

The Help

Little Bee

The Alcheimist

Three Cups of Tea

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

In Defense of Food

 

Any other suggestions?

Stay tuned and I’ll give my review on what I’ve read from a new readers perspective.

Oh and I’ll post about the second thing on my list too….

Christmas Prep

People have asked what I do to get ready for Christmas.  Well duh, I go last minute grocery shopping with a dinosaur. 

Merry Christmasaurus!

Vote for Jim!

Please take a moment to vote for my brother in law Jim Hall.  He is in the serious category and you will want to after seeing his story.  We couldn’t make this stuff up (nor would we want to). 

So please vote for JIM!

http://www.hoopesvision.com/contest/finalists.html

Who am I supposed to be?

Things happened this past weekend that really made me question myself.  Who I am, why I am the way I am and what others really see in me (or according to one person’s opinion).  It was shocking  and a bit of reality, nasty and brutal reality to say the least. 

Then through the help of some really amazing friends I was able to rethink all the things that were said to me and start to see things a little differently.  That perhaps those harsh words may not be exactly true.  Thank you (you know who you are) for helping me get out of one of the biggest slumps I’ve been in for a LONG time!

Then I stumbled upon something I wrote down a while ago that I should stick up on my fridge:

“God dwells within you as you yourself, exactly the way you are. God isn’t interested in watching you enact some performance of personality in order to comply with some crackpot notion you have about how a spiritual person looks or behaves. Just stay as you were made, within your natural character.”

- Elizabeth Gilbert

"Eat, Pray, Love"

With that I will say that sure, nobody’s perfect.  We all have things we can work on to be a better person.  But I am reminded that the Lord has asked me to do things because of the person I am and NOT the person he thinks I can pretend to be.  I hope that by being “me” I can help someone out there love life a little bit more.

Anything going on?

When you don’t blog for a while some one may think “hmm they don’t have much of a life if they don’t blog often.  They must not have anything going on or anything to blog about.  Or the other person may see this as “wow, they have been so busy with living life that they don’t have time to blog.”  Well, let’s just say I’ll leave it up to you, the reader to decide which one is more accurate.

First up, a trip to Catalina with some great friends to celebrate 2 of their 40th birthdays!  Oh and is that a Cafe Rio we hit on the way home?  Can you tell we are excited?

 

 

 

Hosted a wild party for Abby and a few of her school friends.

Then off to Disneyland for Halloween fun.

 

Don’t forget the Ward Trunk or Treat

Then came Halloween.  Since it fell on a Sunday we “let” the kids stay home and pass out candy for the first time.

Throw in a school carnival, a bunch of activities for church, a party with friends, birthday parties and school parties this month kicked our trash.

It was a good one but ready to slow down a little bit.  Oh wait, we have more holidays ahead.  Aaaaaagh.

One Fine Day

September 25, 2010 is a day the Watson family won’t forget.  Our Abigail was baptized.  This was a day that she had be planning and dreaming of for the past year and a half.  She is such a wonderful girl and sharing this experience with her is what being a parent is all about.  The feelings that were felt that day by her and those that were there to support her were amazing.  I hope she never forgets what she felt that day and how loved she is.

   

Thanks to all our family members, friends and church members that came to support Abigail.  Thanks Emily for such amazing photo’s!

But wait, the day isn’t over.  This special day was also shared with Cordell who received a great birthday present.  This day was his actual birthday and what a great gift he was given.  To baptize his oldest child and only daughter.  I won’t say how old he is but let’s just say it’s a pretty significant number that rhymes with dorty.  While this day was all about Abigail, we’ll celebrate this next weekend in grand style!  Catalina!!!

Finally for #3

This month our third child entered the world of backpacks, playgrounds and snack time.  Yep, preschool!  We never thought this day would come simply due to the fact that your child has to be potty trained to go to school.  He decided it was time and just like that it was done.  Granted he was older than I’d like but all on his own time as he would like.

He goes to school with two other great kids, his friends Christian and Jackson.  What a motley looking crew.  No, they really are just the cutest little backpack sportin, sandal wearing, happy going boys.  See for yourself.

It’s going to be a great year at school for these guys.