HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Well, yes, I'm another year older today.  Funny thing is, I feel like I'm still 25.  Time is a funny thing.  You live your whole life (when you're young) thinking about the future and "what will become of me?"  Then, somewhere along the way, life just 'happens' to you. You get your college degree, you get married and/or start your career, you may have children, you are busy, busy, busy with those children for the rest of their lives.... and it never stops.  But somewhere in there, amidst all that "life" that is happening, your mind now shares space with "what used to be of me" right along with what's left of "what will become of me?"

I have this feeling that one day, before we realize it, our minds will be fully consumed with "what became of me!"  And I hope there's an exclamation point at the end of that sentence, rather than a question mark! :9)

I love my life.  I have been blessed beyond measure.  I have the greatest husband in the world for ME.  He is perfect for me... still!  God knew what He was doing when He told us both to marry!  And I am so thankful I listened to Him!  We have three beautiful, intelligent, smart, capable children who have great things in store for them that the Lord sent them to earth for.  I look forward to seeing their own lives unfold and see "what will become of them?"

I was blessed with wonderful, strong, giving parents.  They were not perfect. Neither are we.  But they LOVED us, and we children knew it beyond  a shadow of a doubt.  From my Father I learned that it is never too late to change and improve. That old dogs really CAN learn new tricks!  It just takes you making up your mind to do it.  From my Mother I learned to have faith and never, ever, give up.  The sun will always come out again tomorrow.  Tomorrow is a new day.  It is always darkest right before the dawn, so don't give up! Time has a way of healing all wounds, and things have a way of always getting better.

My parents died when I was 29.  Now I am 46. Ten more years and I will be the same age my mother was when she died.  That is surreal to me.  I miss them.  Especially on special days like birthdays, Christmas, Mother's/Father's Day, and special occasions.  I know they see me and keep a watchful eye over me and my family. I know they see all that is going on - with all their kids.  I just wish I could see THEM.  I wish I could FEEL their skin on mine - hugging me.

Happy birthday to me.

Today will be a normal day.  Getting school done with the kids.  But hopefully Bob will take me out for dinner somewhere! ;9)  Maybe we can even watch a movie together at home.  That's another funny thing.  When we were younger it was "the thing" to leave our home and go "out" for a date.  Now, it is more cozy to STAY HOME for a date.  Sometimes we prefer to send the kids to the dollar theater so that we can stay home ALONE and enjoy our home and our 'togetherness' without anyone else around for a change.  Funny how life changes things.

I love my life.  I have a good life.  I have much I still hope to do and improve about myself.  I want to be more Christ-like.  Less judgmental. More merciful.  A peacemaker.  I want to learn, learn, learn as much as I can about all sorts of things.  I particularly enjoy learning about the Lord's Gospel, politics, history, Geography, Space, America, our bodies/health, how to be a better parent, and so much more.  I love to learn new things.  I love to learn languages and all about people and their cultures.  I love psychology, music, and art. I love nature, the seasons, flowers, and aromatherapy smells.  Particularly Menthol, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Vanilla, Evergreen, and Patchouli. :9)

I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, above all else.  Secondly, I love my husband.  Thirdly, I love my children.  Everyone else comes after those.  I am so thankful to have made it this far in life, and to have learned all I have learned this far.

If there is anything I would leave the world in terms of 'wisdom'.... well, there are way too many quotes for that.  But here are a few... OK, many...  of my favorites. :9)  It will give you a "glimpse" into my own soul:

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." - Eleanor Roosevelt

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows. It empties today of its strength." - Corrie Ten Boom

"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God." - Corrie Ten Boom

"Even as the angry vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him....Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness...And so I discovered that it is not our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His.  When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the command, the love itself." - Corrie Ten Boom

"A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit." - Thomas Jefferson

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." - Thomas Jefferson

"No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson

"Be polite to all, but intimate with few." - Thomas Jefferson

"You wouldn't worry so much about what other people think of you, if you knew how seldom they do!" - my mother

"You cannot have a rainbow without the rain!" - my mother

"A home without books is a body without soul." - Marcus Tullius Cicero

"Ability without honor is useless." - Marcus Tullius Cicero

"No $2 prayer will receive a $2,000,000 answer." - anonymous

"Nature soon takes over if the Gardener is absent." - Anonymous

"If you choose to follow Christ, you will not have many friends." - me

"No other success can compensate for failure in the home." - David O. McKay

"The Lord works from the inside out.  The world works from the outside in.  The world would take people out of the slums.  Christ would take the slums out of the people, and then they would take themselves out of the slums.  The world would mold men by changing their environment.  Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature." - Ezra Taft Benson

"When you put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives." - Ezra Taft Benson

"When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power." - Ezra Taft Benson

"Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right." - Ezra Taft Benson

"True repentance involves a change of heart and not just a change of behavior." - Ezra Taft Benson

"The tenth plank in Karl Marx's Manifesto for destroying our kind of civilization advocated the establishment of "free education for all children in public schools."  There were several reasons why Marx wanted government to run the schools...one of them [was that] 'It is capable of exact demonstration that if every party in the State has the right of excluding from public schools whatever he does not believe to be true, then he that believes most must give way to him that believes least, and then he that believes least must give way to him that believes absolutely nothing, no matter in how small a minority the atheists or agnostics may be.'
"It is self-evident that on this scheme, if it is consistently and persistently carried out in all parts of the country, the United States system of national popular education will be the most efficient and widespread instrument for the propagation of atheism which the world has ever seen." - Ezra Taft Benson

"The great task of life is to learn the will of the Lord and then do it." - Ezra Taft Benson

"Rights are either God-given as part of the divine plan, or they are granted by government as part of the political plan. If we accept the premise that human rights are granted by government, then we must be willing to accept the corollary that they can be denied by government. I, for one, shall never accept that premise." - Ezra Taft Benson

"It is the mark of a truly educated man to know what not to read." - Ezra Taft Benson

"Testimony is to now and to feel. Conversion is to do and to become." - Dallin H. Oaks

"You can never get enough of what you don't need, because what you don't need won't satisfy you." - Dallin H. Oaks

"If we choose the wrong road, we choose the wrong destination." - Dallin H. Oaks

"Tolerance obviously requires a non-contentious manner of relation toward one another's differences.  But tolerance does not require abandoning one's standards or one's opinions on political or public policy choices. Tolerance is a way of reacting to diversity, not a command to insulate it from examination." - Dallin H. Oaks

"A woman with a mother heart has a testimony of the restored Gospel, and she teaches the principles of the Gospel without equivocation. She is keeping sacred covenants made in holy temples. Her talents and skills are shared unselfishly. She gains as much education as her circumstances will allow, improving her mind and spirit with the desire to teach what she learns to the generations who follow her." - Julie B. Beck

"It is not possible to make real change all by ourselves. Our own will power and our own good intentions are not enough. When we make mistakes or choose poorly, we must have the help of our Savior to get back on track. We partake of the sacrament week after week to show our faith in His power to change us. We confess our sins and promise to forsake them." - Julie B. Beck

"Try a little harder to be a little better." - Gordon B. Hinckley

"If life gets too hard to stand, kneel." - Gordon B. Hinckley

"You have not failed until you quit trying." - Gordon B. Hinckley


"Cultivate an attitude of happiness.  Cultivate a spirit of optimism. Walk with faith, rejoicing in the beauties of nature, in the goodness of those you love, in the testimony which you carry in your heart concerning things divine." - Gordon B. Hinckley

"Be grateful, be smart, be clean, be true, be humble, be prayerful." - Gordon B. Hinckley

"Get on your knees and pray, then get on your feet and work." - Gordon B. Hinckley

"If we could follow the slogan that says, "Turn off the TV and open a good book" we would do something of substance for a future generation." - Gordon B. Hinckley

"The willingness to forgive is a sign of spiritual and emotional maturity.  It is one of the great virtues to which we all should aspire. Imagine a world filled with individuals willing both to apologize and to accept an apology. Is there any problem that could not be solved among people who possessed the humility and largeness of spirit and soul to do either -- or both -- when needed?" - Gordon B. Hinckley

"Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds." - Gordon B. Hinckley

"When I say do your best, I mean your very best. You are capable of so much more." - Gordon B. Hinckley

"The remedy for most marital stress is not in divorce. It is in repentance and forgiveness, in sincere expressions of charity and service. It is not in separation. It is in simple integrity that leads a man and a woman to square up their shoulder and meet their obligations. It is found in the Golden Rule, a time-honored principle that should first and foremost find expression in marriage." - Gordon B. Hinckley

"Forget yourself and get to work." - Gordon B. Hinckley's father

"Gratitude is a sign of maturity...Where there is appreciation: there is also courtesy and concern for the rights and property of others." - Gordon B. Hinckley

"I feel to invite women everywhere to rise to the great potential within you. I do not ask that you reach beyond your capacity. I hope you will not nag yourselves with thoughts of failure. I hope you will not try to set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve. I hope you will simply do what you can do in the best way you know. If you do so, you will witness miracles come to pass." - Gordon B. Hinckley

"If we are worried about the future, then we must look today at the upbringing of children." - Gordon B. Hinckley

"We should not assume; however, that just because something is unexplainable by us, it is unexplainable." - Neal A. Maxwell

"I thank the Savior personally; for bearing all which I added to His hemorrhaging at every pore for all humanity in Gethsemane. I thank Him for bearing what I added to the decibels of His piercing soul cry atop Calvary." - Neal A. Maxwell

"You are free to make your own stupid decisions." - Bob Nine