Things that Start with "F"

So Whitney's Letter this last week was F. She was supposed to come up with five words that start with F and take a picture of them. Her favorite did not make it in the final cut for school but she wanted me to post it on the blog so everyone could laugh. The words that made it were: Face, freckle, fingers, feet, February. The word that didn't make it was........

She's so accomplished.

Last year when my mom and dad were boxing up things I saw at the top of a pile of books a book by Erma Bombeck. Erma was a humor columnist from the 60's to the 90's. Her columns mostly talk about the life of a suburban housewife. The book was entitled Forever, Erma and is a compilation of many of her columns. I was instantly hooked by the first article. I laughed so hard I had to hold the book up because I was crying. She writes often about her lack of craftiness and other motherly homemaking skills. Anyone that knows my family knows that those gifts pretty much skipped me so I found her columns quite refreshing.

One of Erma's articles is entitled Talent and is dedicated to "the woman who believes that when talent was passed out, she was on her knees scraping crumble cookies out of the carpet". I personally loved this article. I have never felt that my talents are displayable and often look at others and think wow, she is so accomplished (okay actually I think talented but I thought I would steal a line from Jane). Erma wrote of wanting a real talent, one that could be "immortalized in cement". She started looking at the things she admired most in others and it wasn't the flashy talents but rather the small things. So after reading this article I thought about the things I admire in others. And though I appreciate the musical abilities of some and the artistic ability of others (mostly because I can copy their ideas) the talents I really want to develop are the understated talents. I have a friend who is amazing with children. She is so calm, patient and slow to anger. Other talents I have admired are: the talent to see the positive and humorous side of life, the talent to make others feel important and needed, the talent to put others needs first before you start on your own, and as Erma put it "the talent to recognize what you have going for you and to use it to its fullest".

Since I have been thinking about talents this last week I thought it interesting that we touched on this subject in church today. We were talking about the pre-earth life and that we were spirit sons and daughters of God before we came to this earth. We developed personalities and talents while there. One woman said that because we were spirits we developed spiritual gifts. In the scriptures we learn that some of the gifts of the Spirit, or Holy Ghost, are wisdom, knowledge, faith, and the gift to know that Jesus is the Son of God. These spiritual gifts, or talents, have been given to us so that we may bless and enhance the lives of those around us. How many of us will write musical scores that bring kings to their feet, write an award winning book, or paint pictures that will be copied for centuries? But how many of us will have someone that doesn't remember our name but remembers that we were nice to them.....a child that has known our love.....someone that has been strengthened by our testimony of the Savior. These talents are in no way less significant than the "displayable" talents. I would daresay they are much more important. She who develops the talents of the Spirit is truly accomplished.

New Years

I had a wonderful birthday. Tom had stayed up the night before to fix the water heater so I was able to have a nice long shower. When I went out to the kitchen I saw that he had done the dishes too! (They were still there from the day before on account of the lack of water. I swear this was the reason!) On the counter were 29 roses. Thanks for making my birthday wish come true, no dishes. Absolutely wonderful.

Whitney made me a beautiful birthday cake. She and Grandma made a barbie cake with a pretty white dress laced with raspberries. It was delicious. Whitney was so excited to stay up all night. Not that we did anything amazing but we had a good time just being together. I told her about when I was her age. Adrienne had stayed up the year before until midnight and said that she had watched the big apple fall. I was so excited for the next year. I remember watching out the front window for a big apple. Boy was I disappointed when I found out it was only a big metal 1986 covered in lights. Talk about anticlimactic!! Either Adee didn't mention that she watched it on TV at 10pm or I just didn't hear that part. Places I would like to be on my birthday in the future: Paris, London, Hawaii, and Mexico.

For my birthday Ryan wore my favorite shirt. It says "voted most likely to be amazing" He looked super cute in it. He took some convincing, but he did leave it on all day. No jammies, trains or dinosaurs, I appreciate his sacrifice.

We had a nice snow fall New Years eve so we spent the next day sledding. (It doesn't look like a lot of snow because the weeds on the hillside were so long.) Whitney had a great time. Ryan went down three times but was not the biggest fan. I think I ruined it the first time for him because I went on a part that was not packed down yet so the snow was all over his face. We had good time and will surely do it again. We are going to build a small hill in our backyard for everyday fun when we can't get to the big hill.








Whitney wanted to make sure that I got this picture on the blog. She hit a hole and went flying. This is her after she had landed on her face and flipped over at least once.

No picture of my race with Tom but just know that I won!