Zion National Park at Thanksgiving

We went to Zion National Park this year for Thanksgiving. All I can say is there is no way anyone can be an atheist once they've seen this spectacular place. Only God could create something so beautiful!

We visit Zion every year, usually for Veteran's Day as my grandfather's ashes are scattered there (on the Overlook). However, this year we decided to say goodbye to slaving over the hot oven for Thanksgiving and instead went to Zion. I am so glad we did! We stayed 5 days. It was a great vacation. Two of the days it rained. At first I was upset because we couldn't hike but we spent the time shopping and lounging around in the hotel.

Taking this vacation made me realize how important it is to take it easy. There were no phone calls to make, no emails to send, no errands to run, just enjoying God's beauty. While it is important to serve, we also need to make sure we are serving ourselves and our families first. As a very good friend of mine said, "sometimes we get too caught up in responsibilities that we forget our spiritual responsibilities." So true! Whether it's errands, kid activities, Church responsibilites or even Christmas shopping, I believe we need to focus more on simplicity and spirituality in our lives. We don't have to kill ourselves to prove we're great people, parents, or members. Most of the time it is the small simple things that bring the greatest joys to our lives. I know I need to remember this.

I have included a slide show of Zion. I must warn you, there are many pictures so speed bloggers beware! Also, if you read this post PLEASE COMMENT as I have no idea if more than 3 people read this lol.

The Mom Song

My mother-in-law emailed this to me. So true!

What Thanksgiving Food Are You?

You Are Mashed Potatoes

Ordinary, comforting, and more than a little predictable You're the glue that holds everyone together.

What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?

Shiny Food and 52 blessings

We have a wonderful food storage group in our ward. We are so lucky to have a knowledgable woman as the head of this group. Thanks to her, we were able to get both the poucher and the canner from the Bishop's Storehouse so that none of us had to drive down to La Jolla. In the last several months we've participated in canning/pouching nights. In fact, I spent 3 hours tonight canning the last of my food storage (I still need to freeze more meat). I am so grateful for the advice of our Prophet. I feel much better knowing I have food to feed my family should the worst happen. This is my blessing for the week. I probably have about 3 months worth of food stored around the house. I took some pictures of my food storage. Like I said, this is only 3 months worth but it sure looks like more! I just need to figure out where to put the rest of it. :P

Yiddish

After using some interesting language in front of a hardened marine, I commented, "I swear like a truck driver." He replied, "you don't swear like a truck driver, you cuss like a pirate." Since joining the Church, I have toned down my foul language but tend to use it frequently in the privacy of my own company or around my husband. As I try to be sensitive to those of a more gentle disposition and less wordly language, I've found myself coming up with alternatives to my previous foul language.

Some of my favorites are "schmuck" and "putz." Both are Yiddish terms and are actually pretty foul but nobody seems to know what they truly mean. In my opinion, flippin' or it's derivations is just as bad as the original term. However, because I don't want to offend anyone, I choose the deriviation. Due to the lack of understanding of the Yiddish language, if you can call it that, I can still get away with a few "bad" words here and there. I don't think I can count Yiddish as one of my 52 to blessings but it is certainly up there as a means to wean me from my pirate-like nature.

Jon and Kate plus 8

I was just wondering if anybody else was completely annoyed by the show "Jon and Kate plus 8." When I first started watching the show, I thought it was funny and sympathized with all their kid mishaps. Now, the show totally annoys me. Why, you ask? The whole hardship of raising 2 sets of multiples (8 kids) seems like a crock of *&^% to me. At first, I could tell they were struggling, trying to keep it together but now it seems that since their show has aired for a while they are getting all sorts of kickbacks. The latest episode, shows all of them flying to Hawaii while making multiple trips to the bathroom with the kids, which looked miserable. One problem - they were flying first class. What's up with that? Moreover, they are going to Hawaii to renew their vows, which is lovely, but who is paying for this? Also, did anybody see the episode in which Jon was given free hair plugs? Has anybody noticed that if you look hard enough there is always an extra helper with them? She's rarely filmed, but she's there. Oh, they are also buying a house on like 5 acres. He's the only one who works and I'm pretty sure he doesn't make enough for all this (I could be wrong).

Here's my problem: Okay, so they had twins, took more fertility drugs and had 6 more. Life is tough and they're dealing with it. They get on a TV show so they can "inform" people what its like having this many kids and how hard it is. After a few seasons suddenly everything is "paid for" by other people because they are fans of the show. However, Kate keeps bitching at Jon and Jon stands around like a big slug. Huh? I don't get this. I don't begrudge them the help but come on. They decided to have all these children and received a windfall and they are still complaining? What really irks me is what happened to the genuineness of the show? Wasn't the purpose to show how tough it is? If they're receiving all this help then doesn't that kind of defeat the whole point? I don't know, I guess its supposed to be reality TV and it doesn't seem very real to me. I mean, why don't the TV execs step into any one of our churches and start giving hand-outs? At least we could watch a show in which the parents were pleasant.

Am I nasty wench or does anybody else feel annoyed too?

Halloween

We went to the church for Trunk or Treat this year after the boys realized they could go more than once around the parking lot for candy. All the little kids and adults were dressed to the nines. It was so much fun. Unfortunately, we didn't eat dinner before going so we were starving by the time it was over. Sorry we missed the scones and hot chocolate but we HAD to get something to eat besides sweet gooey stuff. I am so thankful to everybody for all their hard work in order to prepare the carnival and trunk or treat. This is my weekly blessing.