Fast Paced Living

Cooper playing football (he's the center)

Shelby right after her Regional Orchestra Concert I feel like everyday these past couple of months has been on fast forward. I hope that I'm not working so hard at getting things done that I'm forgetting to enjoy. I don't think I am, because there have been some great things happening, but it is all going by awfully fast!

Vital Solutions is going well. We're working hard. We've got several clients through with their 1st 6 week part of the program and for the most part they've done really well. It's so rewarding to see them happy with what has happened with their weight loss. One lady in particular said that she would love to give us a glowing testimonial because this is the first weight loss program that has actually worked for her. I was so happy about that - I almost teared up in the office. I'm enjoying what I'm doing at the office, but feeling guilty about what I'm not doing at home. How did it work out that I had a cleaning lady at home when I was home most of the time and now that I'm rarely here, I have to clean it myself? My goal is to make enough money to be able to hire them back - and to get myself home more often.

My kids have been great for the most part. They're usually understanding about my being gone, but I'm finding that I'm trying to make better use of my time spent with them.

I did something I didn't think I would ever do though. Cooper decided about a year or two ago that he HATES playing the piano. He's actually quite talented, but whenever he had any sort of grievance with me - the fact that I made him play the piano would surface and add fuel to the fire. Well a couple of weeks ago in church, the closing hymn for him was "I hate piano, I hate piano ..." He came home and continued with the theme and I gave in with some stipulations. I told him that if he would have a happy attitude about life I would let him stop playing the piano, but if he was going to have a bad attitude anyway, he might as well be playing the piano too.

I'm amazed at how much better my relationship has been with him. Anytime he starts complaining about how hard his life is I just remind him that he could be playing the piano again and he stops. I'm not harping at him about it anymore and both of our lives are much more pleasant. I still think that he'll regret it when he's older. I hope he won't come back and wonder why I didn't push harder, but I think he'll be smarter than that. I guess there are some lessons that I just have to let my children learn for themselves.

Shelby jumped on the band wagon about wanting to quit too. After all, she's very busy with school and Viola. She's old enough that I was able to use a different approach though. I told her that I know she would be denying herself tons of blessings of service throughout her life if she stopped. I told her that if she prayed about it and felt that Heavenly Father told her it was okay to quit that I'd be good with it. She didn't really like that approach, I don't think she even took it to the Lord. She already knew the answer.

Cooper had his last football game yesterday. He really did well this year and enjoyed playing. He loves football! Baseball tryouts were not long ago and we'll find out soon what team he'll be playing on. I love watching my kids perform and play sports.

Shelby had tried out for Regional orchestra earlier this month and found out that she was the 1st alternate viola for the region. That was really amazing for her as a freshman when there were 49 people trying out for 14 positions. I was proud of her. Well the night before the rehearsals started we got a call from her orchestra teacher that one of the violist was sick and so Shelby would be able to go. The problem was that she had come home from school sick that day. She was feeling a bit better that night so she went ahead and went. Well, 8 hours of hard playing is a lot harder when you're not feeling well. She had completely lost her voice that night and felt horrible. She didn't really want to go back the next day, but we talked her into it. The concert was amazing. I was so proud of her. Most of the kids had been able to work on the music for the two weeks leading up to the festival, but she practically sight read some really tough music on Friday. I could see her during the concert and she looked like she was doing really well.

She was able to go to bed early last night - Jeff decided she couldn't get all of the attention and so he joined her in the sickness. After we came home from Cooper's football game he climbed in bed and spend the rest of the day yesterday and all day today in bed. I'm really hoping Cooper and I will be able to avoid this one. I'm popping pro-biotics like they're candy. I hope that helps!

We've finished 7 of our 8 ward conferences now. Today was 1st wards and it went well. I'm always amazed that I feel directed at what I should say to each ward. I think I've said something different to each of the wards. Unfortunately I feel like what I said to our ward last week was the least inspired of all of them so far. I'm not sure why that is, but it didn't seem to flow.

We did have an amazing Stake New Beginnings on the 11th. It went so well. Our theme was "Return to Virtue" taken from Sister Elaine Dalton's conference address in October. I used words from a campaign the church put on when my mom was a young woman that said "Virtue is its own Reward". I felt great about the program. We had each ward do a short video explaining a part of the YW program and it turned out really cute. I'm so grateful for people who stepped in and helped make the whole thing work - I have an amazing presidency, and Bro. Duane Burt from my ward spent hours helping with the video. I still owe him a plate of brownies or something.

Childhood Memories

I had a great time last night. I was really lucky in the way I grew up in Snowflake. My best friends were and still are my cousins. My dad has 7 siblings and every one of them had a child within a year of when I was born. So not only do I have a LOT of cousins, I have lots of 1st cousins just my age.

Well January 26th Lynae Taylor turned 40. She's not the 1st to turn 40 of those within a year of me, but Bob's a boy and he was a grade ahead of me, so he doesn't count. Heidi and I decided that I'd take Lynae and meet Heidi in Payson and we'd go to dinner and a movie, but then we learned that Snowflake was playing basketball against Payson last night, so we went to dinner at Chilli's (along with 1/2 of Snowflake) and then went to the game. It was really fun. Crystal's son Ray is on the team and Darin and Jennifer's Louis is the stat guy, then Heidi's nephew played as well as my Uncle Jim and Aunt Dixie's grandson James Denhalter. It was a fun game and good to be cheering for the Lobo's again. Unfortunatley, they lost the game, but I had a great time catching up with Lynae and Heidi and thinking back on how blessed I was for the way I grew up.

Lynae lived just up the hill from me. I don't know how many sleepovers we had (in fact she found a picture of me at a very young age that will not be posted on a blog EVER!), Julie wasn't able to come with us, but she lived next door to Lynae. Cindy lived up the hill the other direction and in High School, Heidi moved into the same neighborhood. The four of us spent a lot of time together. We had lots of other cousins around, LeAnne isn't my 1st cousin, but our HS softball coach called us a blizzard when we were together because we were Flakes and 2 Flakes made a blizzard.

I look back now and think of how I had it so great! We had camp outs in the cedars (okay - Alligator Junipers), spent hours and hours swimming at Taylor's tank, rode 3 wheelers all over the place, and always had some friend/cousin available for hanging out. I also had aunts and uncles and cousins who looked out for me and fed me just as my parents looked out for and fed any kids who were over at our house. It's funny to think that I could do my chores on a summer morning and leave around 10 or 11 am and not come home until time for dinner and my parents never worried about what I was doing or who I was with. What a great way to grow up.

Anyway, here's a picture of Lynae and Heidi and I after the game last night. Ahhhh, the memories!

Converted GA Groupies

We've had a very busy week this past week. But we're doing well and enjoying our new business. I think it will all come together soon and we'll be able to hire someone for our front desk and I won't need to spend as much time there. I actually love what I've been able to do at the office. The organizing is really fun, the talking to clients is really fun. The part I don't like is the guilty feeling of not being home when my kids come home from school. That part is going to change!!! I need to be there until we hire someone so that when Jeff is in a consult, I can answer the phone and schedule appointments, but I'm going to make an extra effort this week to be home at least a couple of days before my kids get here. I really want to be a stay at home mother, but I can certainly see the draw to go to work. It will be nice when I can just go in when I want to.



A couple of weeks ago our Stake Presidency announced an impromptu Stake Conference for our stake. Elder Bednar was coming to town and had called a stake conference for the Lehi stake. That was kind of shocking. Elder Bednar spoke to that today and he said "Wo Wo Wo" unto all those who speculated and spread rumors about why he was here. He was actually very personable and wonderful to listen to. I'll just write about what I felt about what he said, not try to tell you what he said. He actually commented that we should let the general authorities distribute what they want to distribute and that we should listen and learn from the Spirit.



Elder Bednar told us that the reason he was here speaking to our stake was because he was coming to do leadership training with the stake presidencies and Bishops in 12 stakes in our area yesterday, and as he was going to be here, he asked if there was a stake that hadn't had a member of the quorum of the 12 in awhile and they found that Lehi stake hadn't had anyone from the 12 since 1979. I'm so glad he came. As our family left our house at 8am for a 10am meeting so we would have a seat up close (we still had to sit in the hard seats by the way), Jeff and I were talking about being General Authority groupies getting there so early.



First off President Ahlstrom spoke to us about the importance of the Atonement. He gave a great talk. Then his wife Amy bore her testimony. They actually called on two of our stake's youth to bear their testimonies - they hadn't had any advanced notice. The Laurel was Lydia Jarman from Mesa Vista ward and the Priest was Jakob Shill from 2nd ward. He's on the youth committee. They both did a great job. Elder Bednar commented on where else would you find 16 and 17 year olds that could speak with no advanced notice in front of 2000 people and do such a great job bearing their testimonies. Then Elder Bednar's wife spoke. She bore her testimony about the gospel and about her husbands calling. I thought that was neat that she would tell that she knew he had been called of God and had the apostolic authority.



Elder Bednar actually spoke for an hour. First he spoke to those who were not members who were there. He bore testimony of Joseph Smith and talked about how it made complete sense that God would appear to to a young man who would be able to be molded and shaped into what he was meant to be. He spoke of the prophecies from the old and new testament that spoke of the apostacy and restoration. Then he said that if this story was true - that it was the most important thing they've heard in their lives. Then he bore testimony that it was true. I loved the way he spoke to the truth and spoke of how it made sense.



He spoke to members who had come to the meeting who had been away from the church for awhile. He welcomed them back and asked them not to leave again. He talked about reasons they might have left. If it was sin - he invited them to speak to their Bishops and take care of it. He spoke about how the atonement was there for them. Another reason was taking offense. He didn't repeat his talk from General Conference, but he did say that if they were offended before they might be offended again and he talked about the choice they had to not take offence.



Then he spoke to the general members of the stake about the difference between testimony and conversion. It was so beautiful. I understood him to say that a testimony is not enough to save us. A testimony is just a starting point that should lead to conversion, but we can't just say that we have a testimony and leave it at that. As I've been preparing for what I talk about at our Ward Conferences to the youth, I thougth that really applied to the theme for the youth for this year from Timothy of being an example of the believers. It doesn't just work to say that we believe the church is true (testimony) if we don't live what we believe, we haven't truly been converted.



I loved what he said about how the atonement wasn't just for healing, it was for giving us strength to improve our conversion, or committment to living the gospel. Then the most amazing part was when he left us with an apostolic blessing, but he quoted a scripture from Heleman that speaks about building our foundations on the rock of our Redeemer and that if we build our foundations on that rock we will not fail. He talked about how we are in the midst of the storm right now, but we don't need to be afraid and fearful. We should say a prayer of gratitude for the fact that we are being given the opportunity to return to provident living. He talked about how the Nephite pride cycle worked and how in the space of not many years they learned to be humble. I liked the part about not many years. Anyway, I had a really good feeling that if we are trying to do what we're supposed to be doing. If we're prepared with our year supply, if we're living within our means and don't have a lot of debt we're okay. I'm so glad to know that Heavenly Father is merciful and wants to give us every opportunity to come to Him. I don't see this as being a punishment - I see it as an opportunity to become stronger as we're given strength to bear our burdens.

Anyway, I know this is a serious blog, but I was really touched by what was said and what I felt at our meeting today.

Sorry - no pics - my camera's gone!

I would post pictures of our time at the sand dunes over New Years, but I don't have them anymore. I went to Notations this morning and came out to find my driver's door window bashed in and my camera gone. What a pain. The theif caused me several hours of trouble including working with the police, the insurance and the glass company and lots and lots of vacuuming to get all of the pieces out. They might be able to pawn in for $30 or $40. Maybe next time they'll let me know they're going to rob me and break a window - I'll offer them $50 just to save myself the trouble - we'll both come out ahead!

I had a cooolllllddd and windy drive afterward to Scottsdale to our Vital Solutions office. Things are up and running. We've signed up 3 clients in our first 2 days. I'm really excited about seeing them progress. We need to get our marketing going to bring us more clients, but it's nice to be able to get the flow of the office down right now.

I must say - I don't think I'm cut out for the working mother bit. I'm exhausted when I come home. Thankfully today my kids helped out with some chores so my house doesn't go completely dirty. We do still have our Christmas tree up. All of the decorations are off of it and down from the house and put away, but the tree is still up and the lights are still up on the house. Jeff and I have hardly had a chance to breath. (Don't mind the 3 posts today - I'm sitting down for awhile). Anyway as soon as we get enough clients to warrant it - I'm staying home way more often and we'll hire someone to answer phones and run the front desk. It's fun and challenging, but I've got so much going with Young Women's and my kids that I don't want to fall by the wayside. It will be really nice when I can go to the office only when I want to.

I'm so grateful that we've been able to put this together though. We've been very blessed and are lucky to have good partners in the business.

Christmas Day Pictures

Shelby and Cooper finding out what Santa brought. He was way to generous again this year, but we love to see how much fun the kids have seeing what they got.
It's even more fun seeing how excited they are about what they gave each other. Shelby went to great lengths to make Cooper a personalized Sun Devils shirt. He loved it!!Jeff loves to take his time and savor every moment of his gift opening time. This year he got lots of new clothes to go with his svelt new body :)Shelby became the queen of tie-dye this year. Besides this shirt she got some tie-dying kits and has already created 7 shirts.

Celeste and Shelby modeling their new dresses.

Cooper checks opens up is laser battling air hogs
The he shows off the new Guitar Hero full band edition. We are now a rockin family!

Here's Shelby setting up the drum set.

This is Jeff's idea of an enjoyable Christmas morning. He thought the kids getting us up at 6:30 was way too early, but I'm a softy. I remember 4 and 5 am Christmas morning. Our poor milk cows didn't know what hit them on Christmas day, but the cows had to be milked before we opened gifts. My brothers got it done faster on Christmas day that any other day of the year. I was very lucky to be born a girl between 6 boys. It's cold in Snowflake on Christmas day!
Here's my beautiful daughter in her new Christmas clothes. This is in John and Sandy's front yard.



Jeff with 2 of his beautiful sisters Jacque and Jenny.


Jeff with Jenny

Jeff and his dad.Our neice and nephew, Ryan Sheedy and James McCormack.

Jeff's Birthday

We had our annual Jeff's Birthday/Christmas Eve family gathering at Jeff's parents house on Christmas Eve/Jeff's birthday. We had a great time and a great meal and lots of fun being together.

Unfortunately, I didn't make Jeff blow out all 41 candles. What a great guy I married. I'm a very lucky girl!

We would love to have you Link to our Website

Our Vital Solutions MD website is up and running (can you tell what has been on my mind for this Christmas break?). I'm going to ask as many people as will feel comfortable to put our http://www.vitalsolutionsmd.com/ link on your sites. I've got the link button on my site, but don't know how to give instructions to have you put that on your site. If anyone has ideas - I'm all ears!

By having people do this, Google will rank our site higher so that when people do a Google search ours will come up without having to pay for it to come up all of the time. By the way, I don't know if you realize that every time you click on a link that is under the heading "Sponsored Links", that company pays for it. We have sponsored links, but don't want to pay for people to come up on our site if we can help it. So.... by adding our link to your site, we will automatically be ranked higher without the extra $$$$.

By the way, anyone who does this and wants to use any part of our services, let us know - we'll give you a great deal for helping us advertise!!!

Stay tuned ... I will post something about Christmas later. I've got to make dinner now.