HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Out with the old! Ring in the New!

What a fabulous New Years Eve party at the Rogers' abode. There was munchin' and hot tubbin' and puzzlin' and gamin' to be had.

Stacie and Kody had given us a marvelous little (emphasis on the "little") puzzle for Christmas. The pieces were no bigger than the size of a dime and there were 1,000 of the itty bitty things! We gathered around the kitchen table and spent the first couple of hours putting it together. What a splendid gift.

Here's a few pictures of it. Note, if you will, the size of the piece displayed on Cheryl’s hand, and the size of the finished puzzle in comparison to a regular playing card. This truly must be the world’s smallest puzzle!

And speaking of playing cards –Stacie, Lyndy, LeAnn and Cheryl had a few rowdy, rambunctious, roof-raising rounds of Nertz. We barely finished in time to grab our honey-bunches and smooch in the New Year. Fireworks burst over St. George and could be viewed from the kitchen window if you held your head just so . . . All in all, a glorious evening spent with a few of those we love best in the whole world. A perfect way to greet the New Year. May our kind and loving Heavenly Father shower peace, love, health and prosperity on one and all throughout 2009 is our fervent prayer.

Body Worlds Exhibit

December 29, 2008

I had the privilege of attending a most spectacular exhibition of real human bodies – bodies of deceased individuals that had undergone a process called “plastination”.

My brother, James, along with his wife and two of his daughters, picked me up at the airport Monday morning. We spent over 3 hours in the exhibit viewing every part of the body imaginable in intricate detail: the organs; the muscles; and the skeletal system. We saw healthy organs side by side enlarged, deformed and diseased ones, broken bones that had healed after being poorly set, the intricate network of arteries, blood vessels and capillaries that network our bodies, the array of nerves that extend from the spine and branch out to our extremities. It was simply amazing. The focus of this particular exhibit was on the heart, but truly every part of the body was displayed, dissected and discussed in detail. Even though I already had a deep respect and admiration for the complex, intricate design and mechanics of the human body, the exhibit provided even further evidence that out bodies are splendid creations of a brilliant Heavenly Father who loves us dearly. How wonderfully made each of us is. How priceless this gift – our earthly bodies.

A very poignant display was that of lungs ravaged by the effects of smoking. There was even a leg that had been amputated just below the knee because smoking had created a clot in the blood vessel that fed the leg, causing the leg to turn black and die.

The part of the exhibit that touched me most deeply was that of the embryos and developing fetuses. At only eight weeks gestation all the features of the body – right down to the individual fingers - could be seen in the tiny (and I mean, oh so tiny! – like 1.5 inches tiny) little developing baby. There were fetuses from nearly each week of gestation. Each little baby so perfect, so beautiful. It’s heart-wrenching that they did not get to experience the joy of living in this beautiful world, even for a short while.

Sadly, Ed could not join us because he had two DSC basketball games to announce tonight and there was not a flight with enough availability to assure us that he would make it home in time for the games. After hearing a few details about the exhibit, he assures me that it was best he did not attend after all. Filleted bodies make him a bit queasy, I believe. But, thankfully, they did not dull our appetites. After 3 or more hours of intense studying, we were starved! We headed out for Greek Gyros that were divine, then spent some time in a bookstore (I LOVE bookstores!) and paid a visit to a store called 10 Thousand Villages that had the most wonderful nativities and other goods available for purchase from Peru. My favorite were the fat little ceramic rams. All in all, a spectacular day.

Strawberries and Crème Frappacino

One of the most divine concoctions known to mankind is Starbuck’s Strawberries and Crème Frappacino. Now, I wouldn’t actually drive to Starbucks to purchase this tasty shake-type dessert. If I were to drive somewhere for ice cream I would either get a Cherry-Almond Concrete at Neilson’s, or a Chocolate-Marshmallow Blizzard at Dairy Queen or a pint of Godiva’s White Chocolate-Raspberry ice cream at the local supermarket. Any of these 3 creamy, delectable and quite decadent desserts rate far above the little frappacino. However, when I’m sitting in an airport lounge with a couple of hours to kill before the Customer Service Agent (hopefully) calls my name for a flight, a Strawberries and Crème Frappacino is a refreshing way to wile away the time. With a frappacino in one hand and a good book in the other, the waiting is of no consequence.

Santa Claus - December 12, 2008

My favorite Santa!

Lyndy and Stacie wanted Ed to play Santa for their Talent Sprout Christmas program this year, and he was happy to oblige. The white-hair and beard combo were a bit too poofy, I thought - so I offered to give the wig a trim, but since we borrowed the outfit, Ed thought it best to leave it as it was.

Matix and I stood at the back of the auditorium and watched the awesome first-ever annual production. We watched in breathless anticipation as Ed, opps - I mean Santa came out for the "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" number. The children sang the number very cheerfully, then - at the end of the song - instead of running directly off-stage, all the little reindeer ran straight for Santa and clung to whatever part of him was available. He had one little reindeer attached to each leg, one wrapped around his middle from the front, and another reindeer (or three) hugging his back and trying to snuggle up under his arms. The little one with the death grip on his left leg looked up into Santa's eyes and said, "Santa Claus, do you remember me? I saw you yesterday at the Mall." What a marvelous experience for Ed's premier debut as Santa Claus.

As for me - I didn't need to ask Santa for anything this year, because HE IS everything I've ever wanted and the fulfillment of my every dream. I love you, Santa Claus!

Can there be TOO MUCH togetherness?

The girls in the Benefits Dept. are so adorable. They are young, bright, optimistic, enthusiastic and the best of friends. Five females spending 40+ hours per week, year in and year out, in close proximity to one another can produce a variety of effects. They can work side by side, interacting when necessary as business dictates; they can more or less ignore each other and just email pertinent info to each other as needed; they can positively loathe the sight of each other and merely tolerate any required interaction, or they can become the best of friends. The Benefits girls have chosen the latter. They plan weekend get-aways (with spouses) to places like Hawaii, Saturday play days (without spouses) to San Francisco, and have weekly departmental lunch dates. Last month they all began dieting together. Never mind that some of them are rail-thin already – they ALL participated. Although they did not all follow the same weight-loss program, they praised and encouraged and celebrated each miniscule achievement towards their individual goals.

Yes, they lunch together, they travel together, they diet together and today I saw them go into the bathroom – all together – at the same time – chatting all the while. I had never really thought of a bathroom visit as a social activity. Apparently, I was mistaken.

To Whom It May Concern:

I realize that I’ve eaten far too much chocolate and ice cream these past few years, but I want it stated for the record that I was just making up for all those years when I despised both chocolate and ice cream. It’s only been since I was about 35 years old that I could stomach the stuff, and the fact that I can now survive on nothing BUT chocolate and ice cream should not be held against me in any way. After all, I wouldn’t hold it against YOU if the roles were reversed.

As I think on it – I was so much skinnier when I loathed sweets. More stressed out and ornerier, too. So, while it’s true that the delectable taste of sugary goodness has spoiled my figure, it must simultaneously be given credit for de-stressing my life (allowing me to live to the ripe old age of 50! (whoa! That’s half a century) and altering my disposition for the better. And everyone who comes in contact with me is the beneficiary. Long live chocolate and ice cream!

The Christmas Card that Wasn't

December 18, 2005

My Dear Friends:

What lessons life has to teach us as we journey along. Sometimes the journey is as breath-taking as a sunset – beautiful, peaceful – with a feeling that God is in his heaven and all is right with the world. Sometime the journey is as exhilarating as a day on the ski slopes, gliding almost effortlessly down a wide expanse of soft, white, glistening snow. Oh, how I love those days. They are easy and sweet and carefree. Sometimes the journey seems all uphill like a hike up Angel’s landing – but even then we’re allowed a brief reprieve now and then, a moment to stop and look around and see Heavenly Father’s hand in all things, and we turn back to our task and carry on the best we can. If we are prepared and fit for the task, the going is less hard on us, but difficult just the same by the innate nature of the challenge. Some parts of the journey seem almost too much to bear – like a weight crushing the very living breath from us, and it’s a struggle just to get out of bed and go through the motions of the day. I believe we all experience each of these stages of the journey through life. Sometimes the level of ease or difficulty of the journey is due to our own choices. Sometimes it is due to situations thrust upon us from a myriad of directions.

Three years ago I pictured myself standing upon a mountainside. My place on that mountain had grown brutally cold – uninhabitable. It wasn’t a sudden change, but a gradual one - more than two decades long in the making. Below me lay a dark valley full of unknown challenges, and I knew the journey through it would be difficult at best. I had no idea how long it would take to

Okay – this is way too much for a yearly Christmas card. Scratch this one!!!