The Family Trifecta

Amy's bookshelf: 2024

The Weekend Away

by Sarah Alderson

So so good! Orla and Kate are long-time best friends off on a girls' weekend away. Kate is a bit of a player who is trying to get back at her soon-to-be-ex, causing her to spend frivolously and do drugs and hook-ups. Orla is a new mom ex...

tagged: 2024, audible-books, five-stars, thriller, and thoughtful

Written Off

by E.J. Copperman

tagged: 2024, cozy, easy, and four-stars

Maybe Next Time

by Cesca Major

Parts were a screaming 5 and parts were like “what?” And just irritated me. It is a Groundhog Day premise about a family of four - the mom is caught up in her own life and missing all that is going on around her with her kids and then he...

tagged: 2024, audible-books, fiction, four-stars, and thoughtful

book reviewsbook club

11 Things to do without in 2011 - What are they?

Oh goodness, where to begin on the items that I do not need in 2011. Here we go…

1. Less stress in 2011. Guessing that most of us could say that.

2. Less discouragement. I hate getting frustrated and feeling like I don’t have the solution.

3. Less sickness. This ones easy to hope for less of and hopefully it will be easy to achieve.

4. Less rain. This summer was slow to start because of cold rain and this winter was slow to start because of all of the rain. Plus it depresses me. I know the Northwest is not for me – just because of what the little rain we get here does for me.

5. Less fat. I want to be lean and healthy.

6. Less weird dreams- so that I can get better sleep. I should consider keeping a dream diary but I’m afraid I might be considered a wacko if I document my dreams. If only my dreams could turn into a brilliant and best selling novel.

7. Less travel for work and more travel for play. Unfortunately I think that one wish won’t come true.

8. Less eating out and more eating in. I love to cook but rarely have the energy to really make good meals. It is time to get back to cooking healthy.

9. Less red meat. I’m hoping this will help with number 3, 5 and 8. My sister-in-law was told to stay away from red meat for the rest of her life after her cancer diagnosis. I’m sure there is something to that.

10. Less wishing and more doing. I have a dream and I’m pretty sure I could make it a reality but it is going to require some sacrifice and hard work.

11. Less living in the past or the future. We have today to build memories. Today to strengthen our relationships. Today to do better. If we don’t make the most out of today then we’ll have regrets and we’ll never really be happy.

***What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life? (I’m a bit late on this one – it was supposed to be on the 11th. )

5 Minutes of Memories...

If I had only 5 minutes to save all the memories I could from 2011, what would I want to remember?

1. Ivy’s tonsillectomy and her panic over a Barbie doll at the hospital.

2. Nathan’s baptism (our nephew) – the first baptism that my girls were old enough to understand and remember.

3. Jade and Ivy having their first dance competition. They both loved it and loved being on the stage. I was also so impressed with their teachers and the love and leadership they showed during each and every one of their competitions

4. Jade’s first gymnastics competitions. It was so much fun watching her grow and improve after each meet.

5. Going to St George with my parents and Scott’s parents for a dance competition.

6. Getting a puppy and spending several months loving him and training him.

7. Giving my sister our adorable little dog because Scott was allergic to Zero. We still miss him and love getting to give him cuddles when we go visit my sister.

8. Many fun dance programs by the girls and watching their excitement for dance grow with each performance.

9. A fun summer filled with boating, playing with cousins, swimming and ending in constant prayer for my sister-in-law

10. A very fun trip to Lake Powell.

11. Ivy’s first week of school – everything was so exciting and so new. Her stories each day confirmed we had made the right decision about letting go of our nanny.

12. An nontraditional Thanksgiving – we went to a restaurant and ate in a covered wagon.

13. Realizing that today is the day to make memories and enjoy your life.

14. Going to Lion King and having both girls love it.

15. West Lake naming their field after my dad and having the Governor of Utah introduce him.

16. Hiking with the girls and having both girls hike the whole time – no carrying.

17. Getting to meet the real Santa and being reminded of the true meaning of Christmas by Jolly Old Saint Nick himself.

****Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you m

ost want to remember about 2010.

My gratitude is great

This year I have learned to appreciate something amazing.

When my sister-in-law was diagnosed with cancer, I was first overcome with shock. Then our family focused on hope and faith. We turned to prayer and leaned on the doctors that believed in a treatment.

Treatment began and it really took a lot out of her. She was tired and sick. There were struggles early on to get her medications regulated. But she constantly followed the doctors’ counsel and rested when she needed to.

Right before Thanksgiving she was given another scan. This scan came back clear.

She’s had two more rounds of chemotherapy since her scan. Her energy is improving and her zest that she’s been known for is returning. There is hope. And there is faith. Faith in God. Faith in the doctors treating her. Faith in her power to fight the monster that is fighting her. Faith in a healthier tomorrow. Faith in the lessons we can all learn from sickness (ours or those we love).

So this year I have learned to appreciate health – whether it is good or bad, we have the health that we have and it is our fight to grow from.

***What’s the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?

It was a great decision...

…even though it has been difficult.

The wisest decision of 2010 has also been a decision that has created many challenges but it has definitely been worth it.

5 1/2 years ago, Scott and I made the decision for me to go back to work full time. When I first started working, my sister and sister-in-law both helped me out by watching Jade. After Ivy was born, they continued to help but they had both added another baby at about the same time we added Ivy.

After working for 14 months we decided we needed a change. We made the transition to having a nanny. A nanny allowed me to put the girls in lessons and it helped me out a ton in the morning.

Four years later, it was time to find a different child care method. With Jade in school full-time and Ivy starting preschool, it no longer made sens to have a nanny.

I was worried about mornings. I was worried about how the girls would adapt. I was worried about how I would handle getting both girls ready for the day, plus getting me ready and I worried about how I’d manage work and getting them to their lessons.

But I knew it was time to make the change. I knew it was be challenging and I was ready to take it all on.

As it turned out, my week is absolutely packed. I’ve lost about 15 hours of my week by adding the hours I’m in the car taking them to school, sitting in rush hour traffic, picking them up from school and taking them to their lessons. Plus I have to get up earlier so I can’t stay up as late (or rather I shouldn’t stay up as late). In order to pull it off, I’ve quit taking lunch breaks, I’m tired and my house is suffering.

But it was the right thing to do. I get to spend more time with my girls than I have the past several years. I have developed relationships with the girls’ teachers. The girls are loving school and Ivy has had so much fun making friends. And I love getting to hear about the new friends she makes each day – and they are no longer make-believe friends. Jade seems to be thriving on spending more time with me and doing homework with Scott.

That has definitely been the best decision we have made this year.

***Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out?

My memorable party

This year I got to attend blogher in my favorite city – New York. It was absolutely amazing. And as I have already done a post about the whole conference I will focus only on one very fun day.

The last day of Blogher was an absolute blast. Lolli (my roommate and friend) was asked to be the photographer at the XBox and E.L.F. party. She was able to take a couple of friends with her – so Safire and I got to join in the fun. I had such a blast at the party and have thought about it several times since.

The party was a centered around the new XBox Kinect games. For several hours we played Dance Central. Some people got make-overs. Other people played the new Kinect Adventures game. Me? I danced and danced every chance I got.

Years ago Scott bought two Dance Dance Revolution mats for our old PlayStation. I would get so frustrated every time we played. My hand eye coordination is not the best. So I sucked at the DDR game. Scott has amazing hand eye coordination and foot eye coordination. So he was really really awesome at DDR. Since I grew up dancing, I was a bit deflated by how poorly I did and was therefore a bit hesitant to try the new dancing games. As it turned out, all of my years of dancing didn’t hurt.

After we partied with XBox, we took a break and eventually headed down to the big closing parties. We didn’t have tickets to any of them. But didn’t want to miss out completely. Since we couldn’t get in to Sparklecorn we hung out with some wonderful friends. Stephanie and Tauni were hanging out in the hall for a while with us. It was so much fun getting to know both of them. Alexis and I were finally able to meet up. She was enjoying the music and dancing of Cheeseburgher with Jenny and Carina. So I joined them for a short stint on the dance floor.

After hours of dancing my heart out to Dance Central and Just Dance 2, I only had enough energy to dance with them for a few songs. Then I called it a night and went to bed.

It was an amazing afternoon and night. Next year, I hope to get tickets into the big parties, but if I don’t get tickets, I do know that there will always be wonderful friends to spend time with in the hall.

***December 9th prompt- What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.

The Family Trifecta

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