Soaring like a bird....

My hubby sat anticipating and crossing his fingers during sacrament meeting. I was released from primary yesterday and I am thrilled that now I can concentrate on camp. I have an entirely new set of challenges that I am up against, but so far once we handle this one little glitch I will be fine. I will survive this and it will be a good thing. I am still learning my calling, but that's true in all callings that you have never dealt with before. You stumble around in the dark for awhile and then eventually you find your way to the sunlight. That is where I am: stumbling, tripping, falling....but getting back up, dusting off my knees, and soon I will walk into the sunlight and jump up into the sky and soar like only the birds can do.

How Big of Disney Fan Am I?

I have been asked how big of a Disney fan I am and so I will describe a picture that I bought while in Disney World a few years ago. While we were in Epcot there was a Disney Art Studio. I was intrigued by a picture I found framed. It was not only a picture of one of my favorite characters but it reminds often how I feel in my life when I am going through troubles. A year earlier I went to Disneyland and California Adventure with my kids and found a place to test our personalities to see which Disney character we were. Don came out as Mushu from Mulan and no surprise to my family I came out as Mulan. My mother thought it was the perfect choice, not because we look so much alike...wink wink, but because she believed with her whole heart I would put myself in harm's way to save a family member.

Anyway, to make a long story short it is a picture of Mulan during her army training where she felt like failure and couldn't do anything right. She was trying to climb to the top of the pole to retrieve an arrow but had fallen for the umpteenth time. She felt like a failure, but that is just before she makes up her mind to not accept defeat. That has been my attitude on more than one occasion and it is a picture that means so much to me for that reason and not for the signature form the actress that supplied Mulan's voice in the movie. A picture is worth a thousand words....to me it is priceless.

I Met My Match...

In our family, we do not play the Disney Trivia game often as I win far too easily against the kids and others get upset and do not want to play with me ever again. Tonight we went over to some friend's house for dinner and we played it. The challenge was laid out on the table and the game began. I started out really pathetic, but that is fine. I tend to be that way once in awhile. Don managed to make it to the end before the rest of us, but hit bad luck in his rolls. They were my biggest challenge yet and I am thrilled someone is well matched for me. It was a fun evening. there was some deviousness in the second game, but it sure was fun. Hopefully, we did not wear out our welcome and we can get together again sometime. It's good to get together and make new friends.

In about 5 minutes...

In about 5 minutes I will be wandering about the house waking my children from their slumbers. My little boy will groan, my oldest daughter will say: "I'm awake! I'm awake!" and my youngest daughter will completely ignore me when I try to wake her. However, I think I will send my secret weapon....Daddy. Since I wake them up every morning for school and such when he wakes them up it is a treat...why is that? Why can't they wake up for me like that? One of those mysteries I suppose.

We spent last night having dinner with the kids at the old Banta Inn. Normally hopping on a Saturday night it was rather quiet and that was wonderful as I had about as much energy as a slug. We dropped the kids off and went over tot he grocery store to stock up our refrigerator and make it appear as if we have food in the house. Don laughed and said: "How long so you think this food will last?" "Tuesday." I answered back in as serious a tone as I could muster.

I would like to share a funny story about our food. I planned on sauteeing some mushrooms for dinner as there are a few of us that LOVE mushrooms in this house (and if you ever go to the Banta Inn the fried zucchini and fried mushrooms are delicious). well, the night I was going to make dinner i looked down into the mushroom carton and there were mushrooms missing. The first person I thought of was my dear little Molly. I asked her if she ate them and a smile crept across her face. i asked her if she ate them just as they were or how she cooked them. She instantly replied with a little gleam in her eye:

"Well Mom, I took the small pan and warmed up some of your Tillamook sweet butter and then i chopped up three mushrooms and threw them in. i also added some chives and just a tiny bit of garlic for flavor. then I just sauteed them until done."

How could I reply back to that....she's 10!!! Some man is going to be happy with her cooking skills. So far she can make pancakes, omelets, spaghetti, and now sautees mushrooms in her spare time. Pretty soon she will be cooking dinner for us every night!

Dreams, small may they be, are truly possible...

Being a HUGE fan of Disney they are celebrating the year of a million dreams...for the second or third year in a row. Well, I mentioned a really tiny dream of mine yesterday to my hubby. As most of you may have noticed there is a map on the bottom of my blog that places a dot whenever someone visits that sight. Each of you visiting here represents a dot. Most of my local gals are in the main big dot. I guess you all know where I live now. Go figure!!! Needless to say, I mentioned to my hubby that I would like to see a dot on every continent on that map. Much to my surprise I find this morning dots covering the earth. It made a smile creep across my face. I love my dot in Algeria...something I never expected. So, for all of you around the world I send my greetings and welcome you. For those of you that visit me often, welcome back!!!