Thanks to my momma!

I have been thinking about my mom a lot lately. I played the piano for a funeral today and was reminded of how important it is to enjoy the time we have with those we love. My mom's birthday is coming up on August 1st and (don't tell her, but) she is getting pretty old. ;) She would kill me if she heard me say that. She is so excited because she gets to be a grandma pretty soon (not me! Kimberly is preggars). Not that she will let anyone call her a grandma, she is adamant that our kids will call her "big sister." She has battled breast cancer, raised her family in America far away from her family, and started her at home business (the day care). I have learned a lot from my mom over the years and I am so grateful for the wonderful woman she is and the lessons she has taught me. I figured I should write down a few of those lessons, or rather, my twist on things that her example showed me:

I love my little Thai mom! ( I love my dad too. He is wonderful)

• Always jump in and help when you see people in need and don't leave till the job is done. 
• Treat everyone as if they are important regardless of what they, others, or even I may think.
• If one friend is good 1000 friends is better (if my mom had a facebook account she would have sooooooo many more friends than I do) and each of those friends is important.
• Love the world around you (even when it smells like cows outside). 
• Take lots of pictures of the food you eat (so you can remember how good it looked and why you ate it when you realize you put on weight from it).
• Take lots and lots of pictures....
• Lots and lots of pictures....
• No really lots of pictures..... (I think its the Asian part of her coming out)    :)
• If you do for others and give to others with genuine intent to be helpful and caring, they will give back (remember the lines of people at our wedding?! Whew!)
• Laugh a lot
• Love a lot more
• Cheer for your favorite basketball team even if they are losing. And if you can't continue to say anything nice about them, change the channel. :) 
• Even though your are thousands of miles away from home, you can make "home" anywhere as long as you have family, friends, and love.
• Be your best and do your best always. If you didn't do your best, you didn't work hard enough. 
• It's important to provide your family with nice things when you can. 
• Keeping a house neat and tidy really is best (even though I'm still working on that skill). 
• Never return a dish empty.
• Always do a little more than you promised. 
• Always play April Fools jokes on people, even if they aren't very convincing. 
• Give every single person you know a Christmas gift, even if it's just a homemade plate of cookies. 
• Openly express your love. 
• Welcome new people into your life with open arms. 

People say I look just like her. I think it's pretty close. :) 

This picture is absolutely one of my favorites. My parents absolutely love Lyle and he loves them back. They are so happy to have him as a son. (I love his parents too, of course, they are wonderful). 

My mom and my sisters. I love all of them. :)

I have been blessed to have such a wonderful family and to have such a great mom. 

"Hope Ya Know, We Had a Hard Time"

You know those days where you wish you could just hold up in a blanket, stay and bed, and just pray that tomorrow will get here already? Well, today has been one of those days, and it's only noon. What on earth am I going to do with myself for the rest of the day? That is one of those questions that I have asked myself every single day for the last few months. I look around me, in a house where we are guests, in a town where I only know about 5 people, and I know that it is going to be another day of being my own best friend. The funny thing is, that even when I feel so miserable and I want to cry (and may have been crying all day, so far), I am always reminded that I am never really alone. While I was sitting here on the couch, this phrase came to me, "Hope ya know, We had a hard time." I went and looked up the talk by Elder Quentin L. Cook from October 2008. It's funny how words from an apostle of the Lord, who doesn't even know me, are written just for me in my times of need. Incase you don't remember it, or haven't heard it, I'm going to quote a little of it :

"Last winter my daughter had a white-knuckle experience driving in a severe snowstorm. She reminded me of a similar situation I had with my two sons many years ago. My youngest son, Joe, was three years old, and my son Larry was six. We were traveling by car from San Francisco to Utah in June. The weather had been very good.

As we started our ascent to the Donner Pass summit in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, suddenly and without warning an enormous snowstorm hit us. None of the drivers was prepared. A semitruck in front of us had jackknifed and was spread across two lanes. Other trucks and cars had slid off the freeway. One lane was open, and many vehicles, including ours, were desperately trying to gain traction to avoid the other vehicles. All traffic then came to a halt.

We were not prepared for this blizzard in June. We had no warm clothing, and our fuel was relatively low. I huddled with the two boys in an effort to keep us warm. After many hours, safety vehicles, snowplows, and tow trucks began to clear up the massive logjam of vehicles.

Eventually, a tow truck hauled us to a service station on the other side of the pass. I called my wife, knowing she would be worried because she had expected a call the prior evening. She asked if she could speak to the two boys. When it was the three-year-old’s turn, with a quivering voice, he said, “Hope ya know, we had a hard time!”

I could tell, as our three-year-old talked to his mother and told her of the hard time, he gained comfort and then reassurance. Our prayers are that way when we go to our Father in Heaven. We know He cares for us in our time of need."

Elder Cook continues and quotes Elder Harold B. Lee: “Sometimes the things that are best for us and the things that bring eternal rewards seem at the moment to be the most bitter, and the things forbidden are ofttimes the things which seem to be the more desirable.” ⁴


As of this exact moment, I'm still having a hard time and I don't expect that to change in the next few minutes. However, I can face my hard times now and in the future with a positive attitude and faith that I am not alone in my trials. I am grateful for these little reminders of my Heavenly Father's love. 


I know this is not a sunshine and sparkles post, but hopefully it helps some of you now or in the future. :) 

Happy 4th of July!

This is the most interesting 4th of July I have ever had. I am sitting in the Empire Mall in Sioux Falls, SD. Just chilling in the food court. Why? Well, I'm lame enough to not have a job and I am awaiting the arrival of my sister at the airport tonight (11:30). So, I rode up with Lyle this morning (he has to work, lucky duck) to avoid making Lyle's parents make an unnecessary trip up (it's 1.5 hours away). And I am bored. Not terribly bored, but bored enough to watch the people around me and wonder at their lives. I found a cushioned seat up against the a long circular stone wall that faces all of the other people in the food court. Unfortunately, everyone else has a life and there are only about 40 people here. Don't worry! South Dakota folk are interesting even in small numbers.

Would you like a recap of my day? Of course you would, if you didn't you wouldn't be reading my blog right? So, I started out visiting the brand new Kohls on the other side of town. I wanted the adventure of driving clear across town without getting killed. In case you are worried, I made it successfully and did not die. It was the largest Kohl's I have ever seen, which made me happy since we all know that Kohl's is the happiest place on earth. And it was fantastic.

They had 4th of July shirts at hugely reduced prices so I got one for Lyle and one for myself. I also remembered to purchase something for my favorite nice and soon-to-be favorite nephew.


After that, the GPS took me on a random path back to the mall and I passed a little place called the Sertoma Butterfly House. It was next to a fantastic looking park and I just couldn't help myself. (side note, I have never seen so many people wearing short-shorts in my life. Seriously, when you are 62 and look like it, you should probably not have shorts that only cover 1/4 of your thigh....with fanny pack attached...anyways)

This is an overhead picture of what the park looked like. It was amazing looking! I would have gone and played on the toys, but I figured the parents would be suspicious since I didn't have any kids of my own. 

This was probably one of the cooler things I have ever done. It isn't super huge, but they have 55 different species of butterflies (I didn't keep track) and you go into a a smallish-biggesh room where they fly all around you. Sometimes they even land on choice people. I almost had a panic attack when I first walked in there because they just fly right at you (there are two random birds in this food court, they just fly around and nibble on crumbs, sorry, sometimes I get distracted). But I got used to that quickly. I tried to capture the beauty of it with my camera, but the little things move too much to get amazing quality pictures. 

The blue ones were my favorite. (PS- of all of the empty tables in this entire place, a weird guy just came and sat one table away from me, where I am sitting there are at least 20 tables that are unoccupied and in spots that are vacated. Isn't there some code that says you sit as far away from other strangers as humanly possible? And now he is talking on his phone. He came and sat close to me to ruin my peace? Hmm....awkward duck). There was a little girl, about 5, who was walking through with her parents. A butterfly almost landed on her and she freaked out! She started crying.... I was trying so hard not to laugh. I know that it genuinely scared her, but it was sooooo funny. They ask you not to touch the butterflies because touching them can injure their wings or legs, so if they land on you, you just have to leave them be till they feel like leaving. There were so many people that had butterflies on them, it was awesome. :)

After that Lyle and I had lunch in the Mall (which lead to why I am sitting here now). We discovered this little philly cheesesteak place here and it's great. (Maybe I just have a friendly face? The creeper went and threw his lunch away, then refilled his drink and returned to his much too close seat. He is wearing a white shirt, red shorts. Has short brownish hair with some grey, and glasses. Just incase I mysteriously disappear. ) And now we get back to the part where I am sitting in the Mall writing blogs while I wait for Lyle to be done at work at 8:00......3 more hours.....it's ok. (Oh my... this is going to sound awful, but certain kinds of clothing should have a weight limit....... .oh my, oh my, oh my.....there are somethings that just can't be unseen even if you try really hard)

Later tonight we are going to try to see a firework show here, but there are usually about 12,000 people that show up at the Sioux Falls festivities every years, so I think we might try to catch a movie in an airconditioned theater. I rather like that idea. :)

Continued updates.... there is a woman that sat down with her family after pushing a sears shopping cart to the table. Whew! Some old lady and younger girl just came and sat down with him. I should be good unless it's a family opperation. :) 

When did we get so old?

Well this post is in honor of my dear friend Faith. :) This wonderful and smart woman graduated from Boise State University this year and just accepted a job in Reno, Nevada (Congrats again!). And while I was talking to her about this on Facebook, I couldn't help but wonder, "When did we get old enough to start accepting jobs that will help form future careers and move us far away from each other?"

Faith is the one in the middle. Amber is on the far left and is pregnant with her second child. 

Again, when did we get so old?! Not that I really feel ancient or elderly, I just can't believe how fast life moves. Everyone says that, of course. My mom used to say it all the time, so I should have figured it would happen to me too. I'm married (but an eternal student, come on graduation!), my little sister is having a baby, my older sister has been teaching school for 6 years. My wonderful Faith is moving to Reno, my former roommates Vandy (now sister-in-law) and Krystina have kids of their own. Mary, Bekki, Eric, Eli, Chris, and so many more friends served a missions. A huge chunk of people that I graduated with are married and having their own kids. 

What happened to playing all day in the sprinkler, or sleepovers with friends, or playing dress up? I don't particularly miss being 5 or 8 and especially not 14. But I can't believe that it happened so fast. I have been so eager for Lyle and myself to move on to this stage or that stage of life and I forget to look around and enjoy where we right now.  I guess it's times like these that we need to look around us and take in the moments that are so quick to pass us by. 

I am so happy for my great friends and family and proud of the wonderful things they are achieving in their lives. I am so excited for the future and am very grateful for the past. :)