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Meet Amy
I have struggled with the answer when asked, "What do you do?" and it isn't work-related. Ultimately, we settled on that I find things and untangle things. But I also read (a lot), pretend to wake surf, and watch Hallmark films.
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Over the years, we have paid a little bit of attention to horse racing. It is one of my favorite sports to watch live or on tv. Yet, we don’t make it a priority. We keep talking about taking our girls to the horse races, and hopefully next summer we will make it happen.
While we lived in Louisville, we tried to learn as much about the sport as possible. We went to the Derby. We went to Oaks. We’d take little Jade to races during the week so she could feed the race horses mints as they walked past. We went to the Museum at Churchill Downs and studied all about the winners of the Triple Crown. We embraced the horse racing culture and loved it.
When we saw the coming attraction for Secretariat, we were counting it as a “must see” and to actually see in the theater instead of through Netflix or Redbox. To our surprise, the girls both paid attention to the coming attractions and requested the family see Secretariat together.
About a week ago, I got an email that really excited me. I had received an invitation to a pre-screening of Disney’s Secretariat. The email said only 2 tickets but when I reserved my 2 tickets, it asked if I needed any more. Yes please. 4 total.
I hadn’t heard back from them so we got a sitter for the girls. Jade was sooo bummed. But then, I got an email saying I had all 4 tickets under my name at the theater and to ask for the Disney representative.
The girls were so excited.
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We found our seats, right next to a very nice gentlemen. He introduced himself as Tony Toscano (YES, the Tony Toscano of Talking Pictures fame). I played it cool and was thinking “how cool is that? I’m at the same showing for this movie as a movie critic.” When Scott returned to his seat, I introduced him to my now long time friend, Tony Toscano (knowing that Scott would always get his movie know how from Tony on the “Chunga Show”). We visited until the show started. He has been doing this for 30 years and edits his own footage. I’m impressed with him more now than I was before. And I really enjoyed him before.
***For those of you in Utah that may miss him on the morning radio show, you can still find him on TV! Yes, all of you outside of Utah can also find him on TV. He’s broadcast in several countries.
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The movie started. Ivy kept asking when the baby horse was going to stand up. I hushed her and had her move to my lap.
My thoughts on the film? LOVED it. I cried. I laughed. I was nervous. (I even knew the ending and I was still on the edge of my seat).
Disney does such a wonderful job of making movies out of real life events. I loved the story of the owner and her family. I felt her pain while she was on the road, missing her children’s activities but feeling the need to be doing what she was doing. The story was told beautifully. The cinematography was spectacular. I loved racing from the jockey’s view and hearing the horses pound the dirt up close.
Jade loved it. Ivy thought it was really good but long. (She fell asleep with a half hour left of the movie).
This is a movie we will own. It is one that I could easily be convinced to see in the theater for a second time.
***I received 4 free tickets to this screening. But my opinions are completely my own.
I have bronchitis so I haven’t been out and about taking pictures. This one is my only one this week. How sad.
Link up to Lolli and Cecily.
Hosted by Cecily and Lolli
As part of the Back2Blogging Challenge, we are supposed to write about a woman who inspires us. I have been looking for an excuse to write about this amazing woman and this week I have two reasons. Back2Blogging and Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop. Please be sure to check the others posts about inspiring women.
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In Matthew Chapter 14 we read…
14 Ye are the alight of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your alight so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
There are many people who stand out because of their musical talent or their theatrical talent. There are others that stand out because of their athletic ability. This woman has influenced many because of her mind and her spirit. (She’s also a talented dancer but maybe that will be for another day).
Twenty years ago, Anne was graduating from Yale and had fallen in love with my brother, who would have been graduating at the same time but served a mission for the LDS church and therefore had two more years of school. I went out to meet her for my senior trip. While I was their, Anne had a Yale Dancers performance. It was so fun getting to watch her on the stage and my brother in the audience. He was so proud, pleased and in love. It was the first time I had ever seen my brother so smitten.
 The summer after graduation, Anne started to investigate the Mormon church. It was obvious then that there was something very special about her. She made me excited to read the scriptures as she would read them to us at lunch, the park, dinner when and where ever. She gave them such a life and found so many wonderful messages in them that spoke to her and to those of us around her.
Anne is the one member of our family that sees everything in black and white. Yet, she is the most tolerant of all of us.
She and Tom were married at the end of August 20 years ago. In those 20 years her light has grown from a small candle light to a bonfire that lights around the world. Let me share some ways with you…
Anne has been a ghost writer for several self-help books. She decided to be a ghost writer because she could stay at home with her two little boys and still contribute to the family income.
When her boys started school she was less than impressed but she let them continue with public school for a couple of years and then decided to home school them. She designed their basement into a classroom with world maps and letters and cubies and desks. The boys were given every opportunity to be successful and learn more than public school offered them.
As the boys got older and there were 2 more little ones under foot, she and my brother decided that the best classroom for their family was all around the world. They started making plans for a year journey around the world where they would teach English, volunteer at a leper colony, and do other service in other countries that needed it. It took a while to plan but they were finally ready. The youngest was 3 and the oldest was 13.
While they traveled the globe, they documented their journey on the first blog that I was ever really familiar with. Six in the World was a place for them to share their experiences and stories as well as a place for their boys to do their writing assignments. This blog has inspired many.
Upon their return, Anne became a Sunday School teacher for the youth and impacted their lives in immeasurable ways. She influenced them for good and strengthened them as they prepared to conquer the world.
During her oldest’s senior year, his friends all became part of the family. They practically lived with them. The second son’s friends joined in the fun. While she was providing the home of choice for these teenagers, she was also supporting every woman in their church that needed any assistance at all. She spent hours serving them, praying with them and for them. She never said no and she always went above and beyond what anyone would or could expect of a mother of 4.
She’s decided, at the end of the school year that the time had come to start homeschooling the younger two. So with her oldest headed off to Oxford and the youngest two studying at home, you think she would have enough on her plate.
Instead there was something else in store for her. Anne recently became very sick. She had emergency surgery and has spent many weeks recovering. Now she is doing all that she can to get healthy and it will be a difficult and rocky road for her.
She is homeschooling between treatments, she is sorting and organizing when she can, and continues to be a pillar in the community.
During her recovery, she has barely missed church and has kept her attitude positive. She spoke in church and left a deep impression on all those in attendance and even on those that only heard it secondhand.
Over the years, she has taught me that Family and Faith should always come first. She has also taught me that no matter how difficult our trials are, they are for our benefit and our growth. A lesson that is powerful and promising.
Is your light hidden under a bushel or are you lighting the room?
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Play along! Write a post using the daily prompts we described here and then link your post on SITS each day this week. All posts should mention and link to our sponsors, Standards of Excellence, Westar Kitchen and Bath, and Florida Builder Appliances, somewhere in the text.
Today’s prompt for the SITS Girls Back2Blogging is Re-upload a post with a title that you are particularly proud of and explain why.
I am not completely in love with my titles. I have a few that I like, but none that I love. But, “Earthworms, Buggies and Snakes” is one of my favorites. I think it is kind of funny and makes me laugh when I think about the story that I shared. This post was written as part of Mama Kat’s writers workshop. So here it is…
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Earthworms, Buggies and Snakes
Where does the fear come from?
I was young, but not really young. We were on a family vacation to Capital Reef in Southern Utah. The trip was to include some fishing. I don’t remember even going fishing during that trip but I know we were supposed to because we had stopped on the way down to buy a bunch of earth worms.
The drive was nearly uneventful. Nearly.
We were pulling in to the park, but still had a way to go until our campsite. My brother decided to bring a little bit of excitement to the trip. He reached into the cooler behind the back seat. He grabbed the container of earthworms. I must have flinched, or something because he took that container and started tipping it while he held it over my head.
I freaked!!!
Not just a little freak. Big. Freak. Hyperventilating freak. Tears streaming down my face freak.
Apparently it was really funny because he started laughing and chanting “Worms on Amy.” Then my sister joined in the chant. I’m pretty sure my mom was trying hard not to laugh, but my memory is a bit fuzzy because of all my tears and hyperventilating.
We pulled in next to my grandparents. My grandma, always prepared for anything, handed me a paper bag. I began to breath normally again.
Only to have my dear siblings start chanting “worms on Amy” once again. Finally my mom put a stop to it.
For years they would catch me off guard and throw something at me, accompanied with “Worms on Amy.”
In time they learned they could get the same hyperventilating response by throwing squished or plastic spiders on me. “Buggies on Amy” was way more fun to say than “Worms on Amy” plus bugs were more accessible.
Since that time, there have been buggies, plastics worms, plastic snakes and plastic mice have been thrown on me. All have elicited the same or similar response from me.
Did I think the worms would kill me? make me sick? bite me? No, they simply freaked me out.
Am I still scared of worms and bugs? YES.
Do I hyperventilate when one is thrown at me for old time’s sake? Yes, but I can now walk past one with only a slight loss of my breath.
What are you afraid of?
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Play along! Write a post using the daily prompts we described here and then link your post on SITS each day this week. All posts should mention and link to our sponsors, Standards of Excellence, Westar Kitchen and Bath, and Florida Builder Appliances, somewhere in the text.
Today’s prompt for the SITS Girls Back2Blogging is Re-upload a post you wish more people had read and explain why it was important to you. There are a lot of wonderful posts to be read from today’s prompt.
While I was thinking about the posts that I have written that I wished more people had read, I started thinking a lot about the Periodic Fever Syndrome that Ivy has and thought about linking to those posts that describe it, our different attempts at stopping the fever and then writing an update about it. But I decided that those posts were all pretty wordy and would only interest those that have or know someone with frequent fevers.
Then I thought about an early post I wrote after I launched the Family Trifecta in March of this year. My blog was two weeks old and I think only my family has read this post. So I’m reposting it now. I think we tend to forget that even kids have bad days. As adults or parents, we need to help them learn to deal with those bad days the best they can.
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When they have a bad day
Some days are better than other days. As parents we have to be there to help our children rise above it. That isn’t always easy.
The other day, Jade had a gymnastics meet. The day before, she had a rough fall from the beam- rough enough that many of the girls went home and told their mom about Jade’s bad fall. I was worried that the fall would make her a bit more nervous during her meet, so I warned her coach. Her coach had her repeat the trick she fell on multiple times to show Jade that she could do it. I was so proud of her pushing past her fear and getting up and doing it.
She did the best she had done on the floor and performed a wonderful bar routine. It was time for the beam. She had her legs perfectly straight and toes pointed. Her scale was beautiful and everything was going perfectly. She landed solidly on the trick that she was so scared of. Then it was time for her dismount. She started the move the right way and suddenly, her balance was off and she fell backwards- all the way into the judges table. She sadly got up, did her salute and returned to her place in line.
I wanted to run out and hug her so badly. We watched the sweet little girl next to her trying to console our broken-hearted gymnast. There was no chance of cheering her up. The other girls all did their routines, and she stayed with her head down and tears streaming down her face. (Of course, I had treated her with mascara that morning- not water proof).
We blew her kisses and mouthed how proud of her we are. She smiled and waved. She was able to pick herself back up and finished the meet with a strong vault.
As a parent, we can’t always run out and give our children a hug to make them feel better. It is our responsibility to make sure that they gain from us the knowledge that they are wonderful- no matter how bad their day was.
We can help them with this…
- be a good example and not let our bad day affect how we treat them
- hug them as often as possible and reassure them of our love
- point out the great things that they did that day
- help them see how they can sometimes fix the problem
- and sometimes they can’t fix anything at all- but have to be okay with it
- let them cry on our shoulder until they are ready to move on
Plus, there is always tomorrow.
How do you help your child recover from a bad day?
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Play along! Write a post using the daily prompts we described here and then link your post on SITS each day this week. All posts should mention and link to our sponsors, Standards of Excellence, Westar Kitchen and Bath, and Florida Builder Appliances, somewhere in the text.
I decided to give another SITS girls challenge a try. I loved doing the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog with them and ProBlogger, even though I didn’t finish it. August was a busy month. Oh wait, so is September.
But I think this sounds like fun so I’m going to give it a go. The first prompt “Re-upload the first post you ever wrote on your blog. If interested, re-write that post, showing us a before and after look at the piece.” To see other blogger’s first post check out SITS girls.
Here is the first post that I wrote on December 16, 2007. I’ve added a couple of links but have left it otherwise the same. (My photography has definitely improved).
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To try and to fail – or maybe succeed
Every so often we try something new. Something that we don’t think we are going to be any good at, but we try it anyway. As my mom has recently addressed, our family doesn’t do things unless we know that we are good at them.
I think I’m a little different from the rest of my family, because I have done a lot of things that I have found out that I’m really not good at. Take singing – after a year or so of voice lessons, I decided that it just wasn’t part of the path I should take. Maybe it was all of the jokes about “Hit Me with a Hot Note” that steered me away from it. Or because I would yawn uncontrollably anytime I did classical training. Either way, I know I’m not good. I could continue telling you things that I have given a fair try, only to fail, but I won’t.
This weekend I tried something that I was not very confident about. Scott has wanted a large tree in our entryway. He decided last year before Christmas that we needed a “decorator tree” to fill up some of that space. As I am not a person that can buy things full price, very often, I started shopping for this tree during the after Christmas sales last year. I got some great sprays and balls at Pier1. (This year they are really limited in what they have for Christmas decorating). Anyway, I ended up using several of those balls and sprays on my 7 1/2 foot tree in the family room. (The non-decorator tree with ornaments from many years of collecting). This year, I waited for Interior Elements to have their Christmas sale. (That’s going on right now – 30% off!) What fun stuff they had and I managed to get a 9 ft Imperial Slim tree for $175. Okay, so the tree isn’t ideal. It’s one of the wider slims, but it’s fine for the money. I got the tree and some decorations home Friday evening and started setting it up. Boy did it need a lot of fluffing. Scott got home from work and wasn’t blown over by the bare tree itself, but “all Christmas sales are final” so I had to make due. I started decorating and was done – for the most part – in time to play Ghost Recon (another thing I don’t do well).
I tell you this because I am actually really pleased with how it turned out. I still have the ribbon to do and the tree topper, but I need to go and get green pipe cleaner, some firm wire and some floral tape. Monday morning I’ll run to Michael’s or Robert’s to get that stuff. Then I’ll finish up the tree when I get back from Raleigh.
I guess I’m not the only one excited about the new tree. Jade said, “Mom, this tree is much better than the other tree. I mean look at that one and then look at this one. It’s just so much prettier and has all of this stuff on it.”
I’m really glad I tried it, even though I wasn’t so sure I could pull it off. I’d hate to try to make it look “decoratorish” and have it turn out like the “other tree”. Although, I do love the “other tree” and each ornament means something special to me.
Happy Decorating!
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Play along! Write a post using the daily prompts we described here and then link your post on SITS each day this week. All posts should mention and link to our sponsors, Standards of Excellence, Westar Kitchen and Bath, and Florida Builder Appliances, somewhere in the text.
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