Happy Doug

Bamboo grows in the large creek about a mile from our home. Recently, the city was cutting it down in order to clean out the creek bed. Doug asked me for days on end to please let him gather some to bring home so that he could build something with it. I wasn't too excited about loading the back of my van with long bamboo poles and I refused. Here he is after asking Dad one time. I'm glad he has a dad that understands why he would want to try to build something out of bamboo.

Before December is Too Far Gone

Oh what fun December is....so many of the things we did are pictured and written about in other family blogs, especially Karin's. But I have to share with mom a few of the same and a few new events before we are into Spring. The next few posts will finish out the year 2009.

Dear Kelly

A thousand miles?? Really?? I thought about it all day yesterday, even checked your blog first thing this morning to see if you had changed your mind. Like you would do that.

Mostly, I'm jealous because I would love to do it. I don't think - no, I know I wouldn't make it. I even calculated how much I'd have to run if I ran 5 days a week instead of 3 - I still won't make it. Then I remembered how my knee bothers me and that's why I took up cycling, so how about I cycle 1000 miles this year? Hey I'll be done by June. Besides I couldn't start a goal like this now because it's already January 7th - I'm seven days late for a new resolution....perhaps next year.

I'm happy you have something that you love and you're good at it. Please put a mileage counter on your blog so we can cheer you on. I can't wait to hear how many races you continue to win.

I think exercise is wonderful and can't imagine not doing it. Last February I taught a fitness class for a Stake Relief Society night. I tried to present different ways of exercising. One idea was to wear a pedometer and track the number of miles you walk. I offered to "virtually" walk the length of California a mere 817miles with any sister. Three ladies took up my offer and we walked those miles in less than 9 months. One sister walked the width of California and had so much fun drawing her route on a map.

I had to laugh at your competitive need to do anything any other girl was doing. When we lived in San Francisco and I did all my running in Golden Gate Park, I had a similar motto: I will not be passed by any girl or any fat guy.

Anyway, good luck!!!

100 Things You Should Do In Your Lifetime

Number 3

Watch your daughter fall in love.

100 posts and My Daily Life

Hey, I just realized I've reached my 100th blog post. Wow what a landmark for me - someone who is so insecure writing. Right now I'm sitting in front of my computer because my leg is throbbing. I just returned from Target where I purchased new bins - part of my clean out and get organized mood. I was leaving the store with my bins piled so high I couldn't see in front of me. Traveling at full speed ahead, I crashed my cart into a short pillar outside the store. My shins then collided with full force into my shopping cart. It hurt so much I actually screamed out loud. I felt like such an idiot hobbling to my car and when I got home I had to have Scott unload the car so that I could crash here on the couch with an ice pack.

I'll Be in Trouble

Well, it's Sunday evening and if I don't blog I'll be in trouble with my husband. Yes, I was surprised to have him ask me to please update by blog because he already knows just about everything I do before I write about it. He says that while he is waiting for patients to get numb, he likes to read family blogs. In fact, like many, he feels like he has gotten to know family members much better just by reading all the blogs. So I'll try to get back on the blogging wagon, it isn't because I didn't want to, I just chose to use my time in different ways last month and I don't regret a minute of it. December was wonderfully busy, it may take me a month just to write about it. But I'm not going to start that tonight, instead I'm writing down a couple of ideas I have for the new year.

First of all I love my sister Kelly's regular post entitled "Things I Love on Friday's", I wish I had thought of it or I wish I could copy her idea. I especially liked her last comments on the year 2009 and reading the things that she is grateful for. Check our her blog if you want to see a cute mom and a wonderful, kind, and honest person. I am going to find a way to regularly share my joys better. Truly, I want to write them down for me, so don't feel obligated to read. (All two of you - haha). I just finished reading These Is My Words and related so well to Sarah, the main character. At the beginning she keeps a journal very regularly but as life increases in busyness, as more children arrive, as the need to help others surpasses her personal desires, her journal entries first decrease and then become random, spaced out by months and even years. I understand, it isn't that you aren't doing or feeling things, in fact the feelings seem to intensify with age, it's that you have so many "to do's" that writing about them gets lost and you have to try to remember them in your heart.

I also just discovered a blog (turned book) called The Happiness Project. It looks interesting to me so I may share more of that as I look in to it. I feel like I have so many answers to the qustion of how to be truly happy; but I'm interested to see how others, especially those without the Gospel, find it or what they learn in their journey.

OK, so I'm at least back on the blogging band wagon, Matt will be so pleased. Stay tuned for more regular posts.....I hope.