WORK

“Father, I beg of Thee a little task
to dignify my days, ‘tis all I ask.”
Edna St. Vincent Millay

There is an old saying: “The highest reward for man’s toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it.” I believe that.

I’ve worked enough to know what work is and to appreciate the fact that I don’t have to anymore (Not that what I’ve been doing with the rest of my life hasn’t been work).

I started out working at my grandfather’s hot dog and chili restaurant on the corner of Slauson and Vermont in Los Angeles when I was only eleven years old (holidays and summer vacations until I was fifteen) I waited tables and had to give my tips to the other waitresses who were supporting their families.

I worked at an auto parts store while I was in high school (and sold a whole set of spark plugs to one customer for the price of one plug – who knew they could be so expensive?) I supported myself through college working part time as a “stripper.” (That got your attention!) No, not that kind of stripper. I stripped the tags off the new suits that came in at Robert Hall Clothes. “Stripper” was the actual job title. (Which led to a nickname I’ve had ever since: “Bubbles.”)

You would be surprised to know that I actually applied to work as a female deputy sheriff. I would have escorted prisoners to and from jail to the court house, etc. But I failed the physical exam (two of my lower lumbar were fused and they said I could break my back in training).

I worked for Wells Fargo Bank for six years and was one of the first three female corporate calling officers on the West Coast. (I had my own secretary, use of a bank car, expense account, yada yada yada) Six months after I quit my job (to be a stay at home wife and mother) the Bank called and offered me a position as an assistant vice president in the correspondent banking department. I declined and I’ve never regretted it.

There are a lot of people out looking for work right now, and even more working at jobs that they have no intention of continuing once the economy turns around. In any case, keep this in mind:

There is only one thing worse than to live without working, and that is to work without living.

Teamwork

“Teamwork is a whole lot of people running around working for me.”

I heard this quote on the radio and I laughed. Not because I thought it was funny. I laughed because it is so true. I'd love to be that person, but I have a problem delegating. When I am in charge of something, I have a vision of how I want it done and it seems like any time I ever entrust others, they don’t perform up to my expectations. Even when I hand out the recipes, they don’t turn out the way I prepare them. Three people will make the same dessert and they all look different. I’ve learned that if I want it done a certain way, I have to do it myself – and I’m okay with that. I’m perfectly happy to spend three days running around preparing for a dinner party. I’d really rather do it myself and have control. I sound like a control freak and in some ways I am but if it is a church party, I try to be more flexible. If someone on the committee is passionate about something, I’ll let them do it their way. If they don’t like my music selections, I’ll put them in charge of the music. I know that I have to let people bring food, because that gets them to the function. I pick my battles and try to keep everyone happy. If things don’t go perfectly, I get over it. I don’t sweat the small stuff.

If I’m not in charge, I’m perfectly happy to be part of the team and do the task how the person in charge wants it. I don’t try to push my ideas on anyone – unless they ask.

You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me

I don’t know about you, but I get really irritated with people who say God talks to them.
I think we are all entitled to receive divine inspiration, and I think many of us have had experiences that are very sacred to us. But when someone uses, “I prayed about it and this is what I was told to do” as their reason for turning down a church calling, or anything else they just don’t want to do, I want to smack them. They know that no one is going to argue with a statement like that, so they throw it around whenever it suits them (which is anytime they want to do something that someone else will criticize them for). What they don’t realize is that, yes, we won’t argue with them, but they aren’t really getting away with it because we think less of them in the process.

We’re not jealous. We just think you’re crazy.

You Can Quote Me on That

I am a big fan of quotes (some of my favorites are in the margin). I’ve come up with some pretty clever ones myself. How do you like these:

“If you spend the present dreaming about the future, you’ll have no past.”

“Today is the day I spend ticking off the list I made yesterday of things to do tomorrow.”

“If you want to have something tomorrow to remember about yesterday, you have to do something today.”

“If you want fond memories when you are old and gray, you must make the most of living each and every day.”

(I wrote all those the same day – obviously. I was on a roll. )

I think this one is pretty good too:

“Too many people worry about tomorrow. I say, live your life today so that if that bad tomorrow comes, you can say, at least I had yesterday.”

“Humility is one of my most outstanding characteristics. It is the thing I’m most proud of in my life.” (come on – you know this is hilarious)

“Sometimes I worry that I spend more time writing about my life than living it.”

Maybe one of these quotes will be in a book of quotations one day – but, I’ll probably never get credit for it. It will be listed as “author unknown.” … but YOU will know it was me!

Act Your Age

Is this the look you were going for? Really?

I was at the mall today and I was surprised at what the forty-plus crowd was wearing.

In our attempts to look and feel younger, we often go too far without realizing it. I love Juicy Couture – but I know better than to try to wear anything with writing on my butt.
Anyone over the age of forty has no business wearing Juicy clothing, leggings as pants, Croc shoes, or backpacks. There is a certain sophistication that comes with aging. That’s one thing we shouldn’t give up in our attempt to stop the clock.

And P.S. if you think you look “cool” because your teenage daughter tells you so, think again. Teenagers have no taste. If you dress like your daughter, people will think you are on your way to a Halloween party. You should be setting an example for your children and teaching them what is acceptable and what is not. You’re the mom – act like one.

Read what this hilarious blogger has to say about this topic:

"1. Writing on your bottom: This is a no brainer. If I had something written on my tush it would probably read "Wide Load" or "Wet Paint". This is one of those fashion trends that I thought was rather ridiculous to begin with.

2. String bikini: HAHAHA! Oo! I think I ruptured something there. No one, not even me, wants to see this pasty white body in a string bikini."

for more, go to: (a mild woman’s ramblings..)

As for me, I'm saving the Juicy derrière for my dreams.

I can dream can't I?

The Bill of NON Rights

Just wanted to share a "New preamble to the Constitution" and "The Bill of NON Rights" with you all. They are both at: http://www.billofnonrights.blogspot.com/ . Enjoy!

08/08/08

8 is my daughter Amy's favorite number because if you turn it sideways, it is the symbol of "infinity." Here she is on 08/08/08 with her husband, Kyle, and their two children, Emmy (6 mos.) and Lincoln (2.2 years old).

America is at the mall

What a difference 60 years makes!!!

I know everyone has a different opinion on the war and our current President. But, this article makes a lot of sense, and I hope you will take 2 minutes and read it and give it some thought.

This is from: 'You ain't gonna like losing.' Author unknown.

"President Bush did make a bad mistake in the war on terrorism. But the mistake was not his decision to go to war in Iraq. Bush's mistake came in his belief that this country is the same one his father fought for in WWII. It is not.

Back then, they had just come out of a vicious depression. The country was steeled by the hardship of that depression, but they still believed fervently in this country.

When WWII broke out the people came together, rallied behind, and stuck with their leaders, whether they had voted for them or not or whether the war was going badly or not.

And war was just as distasteful and the anguish just as great then as it is today. Often there were more casualties in one day in WWII than we have had in the entire Iraq war. But that did not matter. The people stuck with the President because it was their patriotic duty. Americans put aside their differences in WWII and worked together to win that war.

Everyone from every strata of society, from young to old pitched in. Small children pulled little wagons around to gather scrap metal for the war effort. Grade school students saved their pennies to buy stamps for war bonds to help the effort.

Men who were too old or medically 4F lied about their age or condition trying their best to join the military. Women doubled their work to keep things going at home. Harsh rationing of everything from gasoline to sugar, soap and butter was imposed, yet there was very little complaining.

You never heard prominent people on the radio belittling the President. Interestingly enough in those days there were no fat-cat actors and entertainers who ran off to visit and fawn over dictators of hostile countries and complain to them about our President. Instead, they made upbeat films and entertained our troops to help the troops' morale. And many enlisted.

And imagine this: Teachers in schools actually started the d ay off with a Pledge of Allegiance, and with prayers for our country and our troops!

Back then, no newspaper would have dared complain about what we were doing to catch spies.

A newspaper would have been laughed out of existence if it had complained that German or Japanese soldiers were being 'tortured' by being forced to wear women's underwear, or subjected to interrogation by a woman, or being scared by a dog or did not have air conditioning.

No, President Bush did not make a mistake in his handling of terrorism. He made the mistake of believing that we still had the courage and fortitude of our fathers. He believed that this was still the country that so many have died for, so many of fathers and members of our family fought so dearly to preserve.

It is not the same country. We did unite for a short while after 9/11, but our attitude changed when we found out that defending our country would require some sacrifices.

We are now in great danger. The terrorists are fanatic Muslims. They believe that it is okay, yes, even their duty, to kill anyone who will not convert to Islam. It has been estimated that about one-third or over three hundred million Muslims are sympathetic to the terrorists cause. So, we either win it - or we lose it - and you ain't gonna like losing.

America is not at war. The military is at war.
America is at the mall."

Is Our Trust in Technology Misplaced?

Just how much should we trust technology? Here are some of my experiences - you decide.

I’m a pretty good speller, but I still run all my Word documents through Spell-check. But is that enough? Spell-check won’t catch words that you’ve misused or words that have different meanings if they are spelled differently, such as principal and principle, or stationary and stationery. (In these two cases I use tricks I learned in school: the principal of the school is our “pal” verses a principle we follow is a “rule” which ends in le. Stationery referring to paper, ends in er whereas a stationary object is one that stays in place so use a.) So trust in Spell-check, but be sure to do your own proof-reading as well.
Another example is the translating software. My daughter served a Spanish-speaking mission so I thought I’d surprise her with a letter in Spanish. I typed up the letter into the software program and sure enough, it translated it for me. I didn’t bother to proof read it because I had faith in technology.

Unfortunately when I told my daughter to “always teach with the spirit” and “have the spirit with her always,” the Spanish translation of spirit was “alcohol” – which was definitely NOT what I had in mind. Had I bothered to proof the letter before I sent it, I would have caught the error.
When my daughter was at BYU, I thought I’d send a valentine she and her room mates could all enjoy so I ordered a bouquet of chocolate roses from an online vendor and had them sent with a note saying “Amy, this is for you and your room mates to enjoy.” She called me and said, “What kind of sicko freako are you?” Turns out that the online store was out of chocolate roses so they sent chocolate body massage instead (which said:
“Enjoy a tasty full body massage and whatever else it may lead to.” Again, definitely NOT what I had in mind.

Bottom line: I don’t trust technology to do anything anymore.