A comforting thought...

Last week I was feeling just a bit uncomfortable about turning 40.  Not sad exactly...can't really put my finger on my exact feeling.  I've had a good life and I don't want to pretend to be younger than I am or anything, but 40 was sounding older than I feel.


One evening, as I was thinking about it and also preparing to teach the Young Women on Sunday, I had a comforting thought.  Being 40 means my life is approaching half over.  I expect I will live between 80-90 years.  (It's possible that it may be longer or shorter, of course, but I'd say between 80-90 is likely.)   Which means I'm almost halfway home.  Almost halfway back to my Father.  That makes me feel a lot better about being 40.  One college professor of mine liked to refer to this earthly life as a parentheses in eternity...although it feels much longer than that to us as we experience it.  It's comforting to me to think that perhaps I am almost halfway through that parentheses.  I am certain there are still many lessons for me to learn, many trials still to endure, much that will humble me and strengthen me and hopefully mold me into a better person.  I hope there are still many opportunities for me to serve and hopefully bless others' lives as well as to be served and have others bless my life.  It's a wonderful thing to be alive, but I think it will also be wonderful to return home.  To be reunited with loved ones.  To live eternally with those we love most.  Being 40 isn't so bad after all.

40 Things I'm Grateful For

In honor of my 40th birthday today, here are 40 things I am grateful for (in no particular order):


*the best husband ever
*the sweetest children
*a fantastic job with great coworkers and
*so many wonderful people in my life!!!!!
*wonderful parents and sisters
* amazing grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins
*chocolate
*donuts
*delicious food of a wide variety
*cute students


*the gospel of Jesus Christ
*the scriptures
*my Savior, Jesus Christ
*living prophets and apostles
*beautiful music
*inspiring quotes
*the Sabbath Day/sacrament
*my testimony
*great examples of others
*callings and opportunities to serve


*good books to read
*Facebook and loving messages and texts from so many
*internet and its many capabilities
*mountains
*spring (not here yet...but I am grateful to know that it will come sometime...)
*this beautiful world
*my dog, Prince
*things that make me laugh
*libraries
*my car


*kindnesses shown to me
*animals
*the variety of plants in this world, beautiful flowers
*the ocean and beach
*happy memories
*prayer
*sleep
*a heater
*shoes
*clothing

My card from Alfredo.  He makes my heart happy. So do all the things I listed above.  I am so blessed.

Alfredo bought me these beautiful flowers.  They are much prettier in real life.  Our living room is pretty dark and I just couldn't get a great photo.

A couple of other things I want to remember about today:   My cute 7 year old has opened the door for me all evening...the car door, restaurant door, etc.  She's such a sweetheart.  I went to parent teacher conferences for my children today.  Their teachers all said what good girls they are.  Ella's teachers especially praised her.  They said she always says please and thank you, she always hugs them, she consistently does her work, she raises her hand, and she is very, very polite.  That made me very happy.  She is such a very sweet and caring girl.  I am so very, very blessed.

Dance Mini Clinics

Three of the YW in our ward are on Hunter High's Dance Company (and many other YW and girls are dancers as well).  Last week they held dance mini clinics and Gabby decided she wanted to participate.  She was a little nervous because she hasn't had dance lessons and she wasn't sure if she would know anyone or if she would be able to dance well.  I assured her that a couple of her friends would be there and she was excited and nervous to go.  She ended up LOVING it!  She is already talking about participating again next year.  They had a two hour dance clinic on Tuesday and Wednesday night and then they performed during Hunter High's basketball game half time.  Gabby is pretty shy so I was proud of her for performing and she did a great job!   The other groups did a great job as well and it was fun to see lots of people we know there at the game.

Christmas break

I love having time off with my family. I love Christmas break, especially as it is such a magical time of year.  One of the family gifts we got this year was a puzzle.  My girls loved puzzles when they were little but we really haven't tackled any bigger puzzles.  So I was excited when Santa brought us a darling 750 piece puzzle of dogs.   We worked on it for about 3 days before it was complete.  Gabby helped a little, Ella helped quite a bit and Michelle did a lot.  As did I.

 Alfredo's cousin's daughter, Becky, was in Park City during Christmas break.  She was working as a nanny.  So one day we headed up to see her.  Unfortunately, she didn't have very long that she could visit with us...and it was a freezing cold day.  So we mostly stood inside this cute store and talked.  We did wander down Main Street a little bit...but honestly, it was miserable.  Gabby was crying because she was cold.  Ella was whining.  Everyone was hungry.   We stopped to take a couple of pictures but mostly the girls were anxious to get out of Park City.  We did have a yummy lunch together at Cafe Zupas which cheered everyone up considerably.

During the break, we all read, played with new Christmas gifts, played with friends, played board games, talked, laughed, and just enjoyed being together.  Not much better than that!  SO, so grateful for this wonderful family of mine!

More photos of Antimony

Campfire, Smores and songs just before we left.