“We don't stop laughing because we grow old; We grow old because we stop laughing” Michael Pritchard

Today, I'm thankful for Laughing.  

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And anything that makes me laugh.  

Or SMILE.

I'll take it all.

This is a great segue (which is a word that totally makes me smile and chuckle) from Sense of Humor.

Laughing brightens the moment and life just doesn't seem so bleak when we laugh.  Have you ever just randomly laughed at something out of nowhere?  Weren't you so happy you did?  I think we are happiest when we are laughing.

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And we all laugh different too.  Which ends up making us laugh in return as well.  Some people have some pretty funny laughs.  One of my brother's friends growing up had this kind of high-pitched laugh that made it difficult not to laugh when he did.

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I'm thankful for Laughing because it makes me happy.

Because I feel good inside and all over when I do.

I never want to stop being easily amused and laughing at some great things.

Tell me a funny joke that you know.
C'mon.  It'll make both of us laugh.

Where HAVE you BEEN?!

Imagine the voice of Mrs. Weasley from Harry Potter.  I love her.  : )

I realize I've been somewhat out of sync with the rest of the world and haven't been posting or commenting lately.  My apologies to family who look forward to these posts (I love you!) and friends who thought I might be lost.  For awhile, I've kinda been in a funk of sorts.  Not really wanting to put much effort into anything really.  The diet I was doing, though successful in the beginning, was getting competition from my hormones (at least that's what my doctor and I believe).  In the end I decided to cut it short since I was putting in effort my body wasn't allowing to see results for.  If none of this makes sense, well, it doesn't have to.  : )  Rest assured I'm feeling better, although I'm still just getting out of this funk.  I've missed all of you....and your comments.  ; )

Now on to regular business as usual.  I have three goals to post, which includes this week.

We'll start where we left off, shall we?  Makes sense since that's the name of this blog, "Picking Up Where We Left Off".

Week 10:  Cleanliness

(As written in the book)

GOAL:  Choose one area of your home that is the hardest to keep clean, and try to keep it spotless for the week.

Ty and I have the perfect room to do this with.  It's the one I'm sitting in right now.  The office.

It's true.  I'm ashamed.  : (

Really we're not completely moved in.  This room probably has the most stuff to fit into it.  Those boxes are full of books needing to be put away.  There are sooooooo many.  Ironically they were the first things to be packed.  Now they are the last to be unpacked. That pile of gift bags need to be put away in the nice little wrapping and gift bag holder I have in the closet.  I will definitely enjoy showing the cleaned up pictures when this is all said and done.  I swear I keep the rest of my home very nice and organized and well kept.

Week 11:  Scriptures

 (As written in the book)

 GOAL:  This week focus on the scriptures.  Set aside a specific time each day-morning, evening, or anytime-and spend a meaningful amount of time in true scripture study.

Thanks to my brother-in-law initiating a Scripture Challenge in our family, I've already been doing this and can say that I have fully accomplished this goal.  In fact, I'm totally beating his socks off.  : )  Every day, I read for 15 minutes in the Book of Mormon.  When I'm finished I'll move on to the Old Testament.  To be honest, there have been times where I've procrastinated up to the last minute and read as I'm almost falling asleep, but I know that it is truly important to read so I still make sure to get it in.  I'm loving the insight that I get from reading.  This has made me feel more uplifted and I love the knowledge that I'm receiving.

Week 12:  Optimism

 (As written in the book)

 GOAL:  Maintain a positive outlook on life - see the glass as half-full.  Be upbeat at all times, and try not to say anything negative.

I like this one.  It's a lot like the first goal I did where I need to smile all the time.  I'm looking forward to having a good week.

Well, there you have it.  All of my goals up to date.
As a side note, I went with the crowd and decided to get a Formspring account.  You'll notice the box in the top right corner.  Leave me a question and I would love to answer it.  I'm all about letting people get to know me better.

End of Goal Week 1 of 2010

Whew!

What a week.

Just to remind you, the Goal for this week was SMILING.
This is not always easy.

Mostly, I would just forget.
Even with little reminders hanging around you still can get focused on something else that will take away from the previous task.
What I'm saying is, I'm easily distracted. : )

That doesn't mean that I wasn't successful though.
Quite the contrary.
I believe that I achieved my goal.
I smiled a lot when I was alone.
I smiled when I was with my hubby. (Like that was hard.)
I smiled when I was driving.
I smiled when I was in the store.
I smiled when I watched Seven Pounds......or at least I tried.
I even smiled when someone parked way too close to my car in the parking lot making it nigh-near impossible for me to even get in.
But I smiled! : )

Even though I wasn't smiling 24/7, I still accomplished a lot.
I think this goal was really like the warm up for other things.

I still learned quite a bit from this goal.
I learned to smile even when I don't feel like it and I will become happier for it.
I learned that as a society, we don't really smile very much.

When I went to the grocery store, I decided that even though people would look at me strange or think I was crazy, I would smile the whole way through.
Doing this made me so much more aware of how other people would look.
EVERYONE I saw had a frown. That doesn't necessarily mean they are unhappy. But really? Not one other person. That's when I really started to feel awkward. But I kept on. Do you know what happened? After smiling at a few people they would smile back and one lady kept her smile. That made me feel so wonderful.

It's amazing how something so seemingly insignificant can really make a huge difference.

I really want to keep going with this and make it a true habit of smiling every day. My amazing hubby, found this sweet site called Habitforge. It says that it takes 21 days to form a habit so I'll be starting again from scratch tomorrow, according to this site. I'll also be doing this with each of my goals after this. By the end of the year I'll have at least 52 goals under my belt. This whole process is really exciting and I can't wait to see what blessings come from it.

I hope you enjoyed your first FULL week of 2010!

Christmas Eve in Moses Lake

So many pictures I have for you!!!
Let's get started.

Congregating while dinner is being made.

A German Wooden Pyramid. There are inserts you put in that will hold candles. When the candles are lit, the smoke spins it and the little display moves.

Sauerbraten. Mmmmmmm. It's the equivalent to roast beef in the states.

GRAVY!

Two things that should never be without each other.

My parents Advent Wreath all lit up.

It wouldn't be a celebration without the "Mormon Champagne", Sparkling Cider.

Rotkohl (red cabbage), Saurbraten, Spaeztle (Egg Noodles), Mashed Potatoes, Knoodle (dumplings) with herbs, and green beans.

I was soooo full. Full of GOOD food.

After dinner the kids got pretty anxious to open presents.

Which eventually led to rough housing.

Even the smallest were getting involved.

To occupy them until it was time, we tried to get a group picture.

Haha. This was the most successful.

When taking pictures failed us, we decided to start singing some Christmas songs.

"You better not pout", we have some amazing pouters here.

Grandma explained to the youngsters what we are celebrating and who this holiday is for.Then, my dad asked my oldest brother, Ben, to read a beautiful Christmas story called "That Thine Alms May Be in Secret", by George D. Durrant. I HIGHLY recommend it.

So cute. She had to do EVERYTHING he did.

My parents gave all of us married siblings a digital picture frame. I would just like to say that I am so glad to finally be in the Married Siblings Club. They get the BEST presents. Thanks Mom and Dad!

We each also received a gift basket my mom put together. Ty was pleased to find a small Transformer among our treasures.

This year instead of a Secret Santa, my mom really wanted to do a White Elephant. Ty and I came quite prepared with a Portable Ping Pong Set and a Nerf gun.

Perfect gift for my dad.

My sneeky mom ended up with the coveted Nerf gun.

Nana, my mom, gave this light thingy to Baby Jacob. His reaction was priceless!

Seriously?

Opening up their loot from Nana and Papa.

We asked her what she was going to call her doll. For the record her own name is Sammy. She said, "Her name is Sammy. This is me when I was a baby." Haha. I don't believe that she was ever that big as an infant.

Ben received the Nacho Libre Thumb Wrestling Masks. It could not have gone to a better person.

Thumb Cage Fighting.

Even though Steven lost the Nerf gun to my mom (and essentially to my youngest brother Michael) he still put it together anyway.

What I didn't take pictures of was DESSERT!
There were all kinds of delicious yummies including the Lebkuchen and Hazelnut cookies my mom and I made.
Yes, I got fat over Christmas.
No, I don't regret it. : )