WHAT A JOY!!

I hope your Thanksgiving day was filled with not only a delicious meal, but that you were surrounded by family and friends. Everything went perfect at our home except for the matriarch of the family. I had to lay down. I sort of missed out on all the fun but I could hear it and as I laid there on my bed I heard the "belly laughing" of the men, the children outdoors playing in the dark and having the time of their lives. I could hear the women and children laughing so hard that I think one or two fell off of their chairs as they were playing games around the different tables. We had 31 people show up and still had room for more. All of my children were home and that was the first Thanksgiving in many years that we had that experience. All of the grandchildren were there with the exception of Brent and his wife Carolyn back at BYU in Provo and Brent's sister Heather who was in North Carolina visiting friends.
We all talked about what we were thankful for and the first one to speak was 11 year old Landon. He said he was thankful for his family. None of us could repeat what he said so we had to come up with something different, even though that was on the mind of all of us. We had our daughter Julie say she was thankful for freedom and that her husband was home from Afghanistan; another said they were thankful for the Gospel and another said for Jesus Christ. It was good to hear the deep feelings of everyone. We are a thankful family...we have been given much...bounteous blessings. Of course we have had pains and hurts like everyone else, but we are a family who bounces back, supports and loves one another...that is what I am most thankful for...my family...just like Landon said.

Mimi's Thought For the Day: We all at times desire some material item...could be fancy ipod, camera, tv, car, house, etc. We work hard and spend extra time in trying to have the latest and the best. Can we take those items with us when we leave our earthly life? I suggest that you spend your time on the greatest treasure you will ever have....time with your family. They will not remember the Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, etc., but they will remember the fishing trips, the picnics, the hikes, building a tree house, raking leaves, building snowmen, playing games, sitting at the table as a family for dinner and being together at church. Let's build on something we can "take with us" and in turn we will leave behind precious memories for our loved ones.

THANKFUL HEART

Here it is the day before Thanksgiving and all I can think of is a tragedy that happened back in the 70's. When I think of pumpkin pies I always think of that day..the day a young boy was killed near our home. He and his cousin had taken a motorcycle and were trying to bury it in a mountain of sand. They were digging a tunnel when the sand collapsed. The younger boy was able to get out. He could not get the motorcycle started and so he ran from one home to another in our rural area, but finding no one at the closer homes...even then they were far apart. By the time he reached our place it had to be 45 minutes to an hour after the accident. I dropped my pie making and sought out Ned's dad who lived next door and two of my older sons Bruce about 12 and Craig 10. We got in our station wagon and drove to the county owned sand "mountain" where I dropped off my family so they could start digging. I wasn't thinking that the mountain could collapse on them too. I then left in the car and went to the Verlyn Cole home and burst into their house. We called emergency and I went and parked at the corner to show the emergency vehicles where the out of the way place this sand mountain was, while the Coles went to the site to help. By the time I arrived it was dark, but crowded with people. Mrs. Cole came up to me and put her arm around me and said, "it's too late...he is dead". I broke apart then. All I could say was that I should have been there..Ned's dad did not know CPR, but I later learned that the boy died within minutes as sand was in his nose and down his mouth. It is really hard to shake an experience like that and not let it consume my thanksgiving time.

I am so very thankful for the myriad of blessings that people have today so that we can communicate in so many ways. Cell phones for one. That boy probably would have had a cell phone on him and he could have called for help immediately. I could have called also instead of running all over trying to find neighbor help. I could have reached Ned for his help too.

I am grateful for the help of family in good times and in bad. We have learned to pull together and to give support in all things.

I am grateful for the time we do stop to thank God for our blessings that He has giving us...our families, our friends, our community, our homes, the Gospel and His Son.

On Thanksgiving Day we gather our loved ones together and we all praise God with something we are thankful for. I already know that all of us are grateful to be an earthly family and pray that we will have the opportunity to be an eternal one.

I want to say how thankful I am for you...my loved ones, my friends who are reading this. May your day be full of fun, smiles, laughter and enjoyment. We don't need turkey and all the fixings to have a good time...we just need hugs and show love and have lots of belly laughs.

Pumpkin pie was my mom's favorite....that is what I should think of and let the past be.

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS MY TWO FRONT TEETH

Recently I have been singing the song, "All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth".

Would you believe that on Nov 16th ...that I got an early Christmas present. Okay, I paid for it by myself. No Santa Claus, elf, fairy or hubby chimed in with any of the "dollars" but I still call it a present...a present to me from me! I have been having my teeth whitened just a little. In doing so my two front teeth stayed the same color. Why? If you read my blog post about "Patricia" you will learn what I did to those two front teeth as a teenager. In the 1970's the local dentist Dr. Schaffer fixed them by putting a material on them that lasted over 30 years. Now that I have had my teeth bleached I had to get the two front teeth redone to match all my other teeth. It is called a "domino effect". Isn't that the way it goes...turns out to be more of an expense that is for sure. But now they match my bleached teeth. Has anyone noticed the change in me? No!!! That's okay...don't mind a bit. I notice and that is to whom I did it for ......ME!!! I have not done something for me in many, many years and I decided it was time. So now I have my two front teeth...polished, gleaming and WHITE!! Wonder what I want to buy myself next? Hmmmm......stay tuned!

MIMI'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: I went visiting teaching recently and I gave each one we visited a banana. I showed them the scars, bruising, dents, etc., on the outside peeling. The inside was pure, white, and beautiful. I used this teaching prop to demonstrate how we can judge others by their appearance and we shun them and thus do not get to see the real person inside...the heart of the person and how good, beautiful and wonderful that child of God is. God does not judge us by appearance and we should not do so either. He knows the "inside" of us. God loves us all...ALL!!! Get to know the "inside" of a person....never judge them by their "scars", their "bruises", their "dents". You will be missing out on some of God's choicest treasures....His beloved children.

FUN! FUN! FUN!

Who was it that said "fun was something only children had"? Hmmm, I must still be a child then. True I can no longer run, get on a grass hill and roll down, play baseball, tennis or even walk very well. But instead of dwelling of what I cannot do, I think of what I can do. I can still tease, joke, plan parties, go to grandchildren's sports activities, piano or dance recitals, birthday parties, family get togethers, etc. Do I have fun? That is a very thought provoking question. Yes I have fun. Do I get tired? Yes I get tired. Why do I call all of this fun if I get tired, my body hurts and I can only get free from the pain in my recliner or my bed? Why? Because my family is my world. They make me laugh. They make me cry....but those tears are tears of joy and feeling so proud of them. My family is my sunrise and my sunset. I may be a spectator now, but it is a glowing, smiling, laughing, albeit in pain, spectator.
Yesterday was the first time I had been to church in months. It was a good day to go as my heart was filled with seeing our chapel filled with God's little angels. It was our Primary Children's Sacrament Program which was entitled My Eternal Family. It was a meeting full of a permanent smile on my face along with tears and pride. I saw my young grandsons Derek, Landon and Kyle all sing together in a trio. I am sure Ryan would have been with them but he was in Japan with his family. I only found out later that Kyle and the boys from his class were to sing it, but for one reason or another...some absent, some scared, etc., Kyle was the only one, so his brother Landon and his cousin Derek who are in their last year of Primary, volunteered to sing with Kyle. It was beautiful. Was that fun? Yes, the kind of fun that makes your heart hold tight to that picture in your mind that you never want to forget. Oh how I wish I would have had a video camera or a digital camera. I saw how the older children consistently helped the little children with their parts, or made sure that they were standing in the front as they were the tiny ones. Talking with daughter in law Mindi (who is our ward's Primary President), she said the children were not asked to do that...it just came naturally for them. Just hard to explain it all so you would have a feeling of what I felt. I guess the best description I could give was seeing a bit of heaven right here on earth. A petite 8 year old girl stood and played her violin accompaning all the children as they sang about families. She played beautifully...she must have weighed all of 65 lbs. Beautiful little angel. Did she make life "fun" for everyone. Indeed. Some of the ways the children presented their parts was so cute, enduring and at times comical...you could easily hear laughter from the congregation or look around and see big smiles on their faces.
We all came away from Sacrament meeting a little.....no...greatly inspired and spiritually fed by the choice young souls that touched our lives.
Last night was a combined birthday party....just family...for Marquel and Heidi who are cousins born 18 days apart. Did we have fun? A different kind of fun than was had at the Primary children's program. The birthday celebration was full of giggles, great laughter (our family loves to laugh) and a time to show love for one another. It is such a joy to see my grandchildren show love for one another. They are not only cousins but best friends. I love seeing the friendship my daughter and daughter in laws have with one another and the closeness that the men have with one another. We take time to give hugs, say 'I love you' and do so often, help one another through the "thick and thin" of life. We aren't noble. We aren't great. We aren't perfect. But we do love, care for, pray for, lean to, encourage and try to help one another all we can. We have fun together. I have fun being a mother, mother in law, grandmother and matriarch to these wonderful children of God that I call my family.
Yes I wish I could get out there and play sports with them, go sledding, ice-skating, whatever they would like, but I know that there is a time and a season for everything and my season has changed and I must now be the spectator...the audience...the cheerleader for my eternal family.

Mimi's Thought for the Day: Are you having "fun" in your life? Has your life become a routine of get up, shower, clean house, go to school, go to work, come home, fix dinner, do dishes, go to bed. Well join about 6 billion of us on the face of the earth that has a similar routine. The "fun" will come with what you put into or take out of your routine. Some suggestions: set the timer and challenge yourself to get the bathrooms (or other rooms) clean before timer goes off; try new recipes; make a new friend; do something nice every day for someone else; leave a love note in your husband's drawer or your child's lunchbox; when grocery shopping find opportunities to smile, pick up fallen merchandise, let someone else go ahead of you in line; send a card to someone you love or know and brighten their day......I think you get the idea. Have "fun" creating "fun" in your life. Whatever you do...just be sure to belly laugh each day....feels sooooooo good.

TELL ME WHAT YOU DO TO HAVE "FUN" !