Category Archives: Dream Come True

Moments From the Past

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Thinking about the best moments in my life makes me wish I could return just for a quick visit. I would never want to go back and change things. At this point in my life I can see how the best moments were a gift, and the hard moments were a lesson. With that said, if I could go back for a visit I totally would, only if I could come right back to this moment and not have to repeat all the in-between experiences that brought me to this point.

The first moment that I’d like to go back to was the day I married my best friend, and sweetheart. I remember as a young teenager feeling unsure about myself. I wasn’t sure if I was pretty enough, or skinny enough, or good enough for anyone to love. I was so amazed and blessed when my sweetheart and I found each other. We have been married almost 39 years now. Long before we fell in love we were good friends. I knew him for many years before he asked me out. We were so comfortable with each other I wasn’t sure it was a date. I thought to myself “Are we going as friends?” Well, I decided if he opened the door for me, it was a date. And he did open the door for me. I was so excited to know he wanted to be more than friends. But we’ve always been friends even now. I married my best friend, and my sweetheart. What a wonderful day!

The next moment I would love to return to is really 4 moments. The moments each of our children were born. What a miracle! One minute they’re in and part of you and the next they are their own person; breathing, crying, wiggling, looking around at the world. What a gift that Heavenly Father has given us to become parents. To learn that most special love. I remember the quiet moments, holding them and just looking at them. Wondering if I’ll ever be able to do the parent thing right for them. Then what seemed like too fast they grew up.

I’m so grateful for these wonderful moments in life. Sometimes life feels like a lot. So many challenges, so much fun, experiences that teach us and experiences where we’re the teacher. So many things we hope for, and so many things we hope we never have to go through. We don’t always get to choose. But I think these precious, and beautiful moments are what keeps me going.

She’s Got a Mouth on Her 

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One time when I was in the clerk’s office at church, I was filling out our tithing slip and also filling out our missionary contributions.

I did a no no, and I said a swear word. 

We had two missionaries out the time Kelsey was serving in Texas. Alex was serving in South Africa. We knew our main responsibility was Alex, because members in our ward made the generous offer to help in paying for Kelsey‘s mission.

At the time the monthly amount needed, for a missionary was $400. Both sets of grandparents were each paying $100 as well. It was such a blessing to have all this help while our kids served the Lord. This did not, however, stop me from worrying or feeling concerned about our finances and whether we would be able to come up with enough money to help with the missionaries. Even while filling out the forms, I was hoping and wondering if we could make ends meet in my mind. I was always worried about money.

Even though I consider myself a fairly righteous person, I’m definitely not perfect and have had a problem with swearing most of my adult life.

I’m sorry to say I just feel better after I say a swear word.

So on this day, standing in the clerks office trying to fill out the form. I made a mistake on the form and said a naughty word. I hate to say it but I’m sure they all heard what I said. I followed it up with, “When you guys get to heaven, please put in a good word for me. I’ll need all the help I can get.”

They laughed, but said nothing else. I hate it when that happens I may have even been the primary president during this incident as well. Oh well, I may be OK after all. J. Golden Kimball, when asked if he thought he’d make it to Heaven replied, “Yes, because I repent too damn fast.” I love that, knowing that an apostle used colorful language and even he thought it’s OK when you say a swear once in a while.

When I was a kid, my mama had two main swears that she used. Although she would say she wasn’t swearing. The first one was “Hells bells!” When faced with a challenge or a difficult task, sometimes Mom would say, “Oh, Hells bells!” The other one was,  “Dingdong damn.” It was one of my favorites because she’s usually be upset with one of us kids or upset with something we did or didn’t do and she say, “I don’t give a dingdong damn what you do!”

Because she added a word to the swear word she acted like it wasn’t swearing. We knew better, it’s all in your intent. So as a Mama myself, I just dropped the dingdong or the hells, and use the words without the embellishments my mama used. I think in the grand scheme of things, she’s ok and so am I.

Mostly because “We repent too damn fast!”

A Little Quirky

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We’re all human beings, and are mostly the same. Made in the image of God. We have eyes, ears, arms, legs, hair, mouths, etc. Because of DNA we all have familiar traits. Many times in life you can tell people from the same family because the look very similar.

In the family I grew up in we have funny little pinky toes. They’re short and bend toward the big toe, over the toe next to it. It is very obvious in most of us kids. My dad and all the brothers except two have what my dad calls fringe. Bald on top with hair on the sides and back. There’s an old wives tale that says the men/sons go bald if the mother’s father is bald. My Mama’s dad had a full head of hair when he died. So I don’t think that’s true.

In our family, we have two girls and two boys. We hear from many people that our girls look exactly like each other. Some people can’t tell them apart. That is a surprise to me, because I don’t think they look alike much at all. The boys are very different Riley has dark brown hair, and Alex has blonde hair, although the older he gets the darker his hair has gotten. People have said they look alike. Really?

One of the things I would say is a trait that has carried down to our kids, and grandkids is curly hair. Not everyone has it, but some do and I did and do. My maternal grandma and my Mama both had wavy/curly hair. I have always had curly hair. Riley has curly hair. His kids have curly hair. Although his sweet wife Janet has curly hair too. So they get it from both parents. Emily, our Bonus Baby has a sweet little one with really curly hair.

Joy
Grandbaby Monroe

One other physical trait that I think I have from my grandma is short and fluffy. I may not be super fond of the fluffy part, but I have learned to love me, all of me, and I do.

I think physical traits that repeat through the generations are neat! It is one of the many things that bonds us to each other even if they’re a little quirky.

We’re made in the image of God and each other.

Sometimes Timing is Everything

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When Flexy (Alex) was a teenager he was just a little guy. That’s not a huge surprise, because his Dad is a little guy, but the generation before my darlin aren’t so little. His Dad is quite tall and so are some of his siblings. So back to Flexy, we became concerned enough with his size that we took him to a specialist. An Endocrinologist had made arrangements for a home care nurse to come to our house in the late evening to draw blood to check his growth hormone. It’s true when they say you grow at night. Your growth hormone peaks at night so he came at around 9-10:00 pm. He put a port in Alex’s arm so he could draw blood about every 20 minutes or so for a while. I remember him being there for at least an hour. Each time after drawing blood he’d sit at the kitchen table working and waiting for the next draw.

Earlier in that same evening Kelsey was doing homework at the kitchen table and for the last little bit my Mama was sitting at the table helping her. We had Alex sleeping in the room closest the kitchen so it was an easy distance for the nurse.

After the home care nurse left we quickly got ready for bed. Kelsey was close enough to the kitchen table to see a scary thing happen and what could have been a been a tragedy. The dome light above the kitchen table fell hitting the table and shattering in all directions. It was a fairly large dome light and had facets so that the glass just flew everywhere. It left a dent in the table where it fell that is still there today. It took quite some time to clean it up and my memory tells me we found a piece of glass here and there for days and maybe even months after.

The timing of it is the amazing part. If it had happened any earlier it would have been a really bad accident. The home care nurse was sitting inches from where the light landed. Kelsey and my Mama were close too. The timing was everything. I am so grateful that the dome light held on till just the right time. No one was hurt. It was a mess, but cleaned up well.

Was Father in Heaven helping? Was our Guardian Angel holding it in place till it could fall without hurting anyone? We may never know, but I know that we are protected in this earth experience and I am so grateful.

Reunion Time!

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I have a dear friend named Julie.

She has been my best friend since high school. We have been friends for long enough that we have some pretty troubling and embarrassing stories of our time together. I am amazed we made it though some of them. I’m so thankful we did. She is a gem. So loyal, and generous, and fun!

We have had this friendship and history for years, before we both got married. Then we both got married the same year within a month of each other. Both of our husbands names are Brett. Only her hubby’s only has one “t”. We started having our children within a year of each other. Because we love each other and we like to be with each other, as our children were born, they became friends. The kids don’t quite match up as far as ages go, but each of our kids are very close to each other. We used to call them our chosen cousins.

Let me add here that she has lived 350 miles away from me since just after we both got married. You have to put a big effort in to stay best friends when you live far away from each other. Also, we used to write letters to each other, because it cost too much to call and talk. Now we have cell phones and communicating is easy.

Our children are all adults. Almost all of them are married. Most of the married ones are parents.

We haven’t had all our kids together for years. They are all so busy and when my darlin and I visit them, it’s usually just the two of us.

We told Natasha we were going to visit with our friends and have a reunion. She says, “Now how are we related to them?” Kelsey said, “We’re not.” Natasha said, “What!!! We’re not related to them?” Haha, we laughed and laughed. All this time she thought they were family. Well, they are! We chose them.

So we had a reunion this last week in a little town in central Utah named Marysvale. It is an old mining town. There are lots of trails for riding 4 wheelers and hiking. We had so much fun! All of our kids and their spouses and grandkids where there. Wow! We know how to multiply.

What a fun time we had! It was very crowded, noisy, and fun!

I love our chosen family. And my bestie Julie!

She Really is a Dream Come True.

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Today is Kelsey’s 30th Birthday.

It’s hard to believe.

I’ve talked about her birth and the great blessing she was to me. Today though I am reminded of the day I became her Mama. I grew up with 5 brothers, no sisters.

My first born was Riley whose bday was a couple of days ago. So hearing the news that our soon to be born baby was a girl was hard to believe. I am grateful for all the boys in my life and family, but it really made it hard for me to believe I was going to get to have a girl in my life, and especially in my family. I would get to see her, love her, dress her, do her hair, sew Easter dresses for her, and teach her all the fun girl things that I loved doing. At the birth of each of my little brothers, I prayed so hard for a little sister. I was blessed with these two little brothers who I wouldn’t trade.

So as the time got closer for Kelsey’s delivery, I got more and more excited! Until the day finally came, My Dream Come True was here!

She was perfect!

So many hopes and dreams wrapped up in a tiny little human. It has been such a blessing being her Mama. She really has been easy. She loved reading, still does. She would play in her room quietly for hours. Sometimes we’d have to ground her from her room, if she was ever in trouble, because she liked it there so much.

She was a good student. I never had to ask if she had homework, she just did it. She always wants to follow the rules. She wants everyone to follow the rules, and would give the other kids a hard time if they were not behaving.

So back to wanting a little sister- I have noticed through the years as Kelsey has grown up and I don’t have to parent her like I did when she was a child, that she has become like a little sister to some degree. She is really fun to tease, and she teases me too. She is fun to spend time with, shopping, binge watching shows, or just talking.

I’m so grateful for my little Dream Come True! The person she is as my beautiful daughter, and the fun to hang out with little sister too.

Oh, and by the way, she’s still pretty much perfect!

Not Very Amusing, Or Is It?

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In our part of the world we have a popular amusement park. It is the closest thing Utah has to Disneyland. It’s called Lagoon!

We went every year when I was growing up. The park would send discount tickets to our church, and we’d get to go and save a little money. The day was called Stake Lagoon Day.

Some families had lots of kids, like ours, so getting a discount for admission was a big deal, and it was expensive enough that most families only took their kids once a year. At least I thought that, it might not even be true, I know we only went once a year. Anyway, I loved this event, and looked forward to it for most of the summer. I couldn’t wait to ride the scariest rides. Or see how many times I could go on the fast ones. I have such good memories of summer trips to Lagoon.

Our family would pile in the car with a picnic and make our way to the park. It was about a half an hour from our house in the car. Once there, we’d put all the needed items for the picnic in the wagon and enter the park. After purchasing our tickets, and going through the gate we’d all walk to the rear of the park where there were many small grassy areas to set up a picnic. Some areas had only grass to put a blanket on and some had picnic tables. We’d always pick what we thought would be the best spot. When we were little, one of our parents took us around to the rides while the other stayed with our food, wagon and blankets. It was a kind of Home-base where we could leave things like prizes or jackets or treats to be looked after by Mom. As we got older the same routine happened except once at the picnic area, Dad would give us instructions for who could go where, always using the buddy system, then send us out into the park for a period of time and telling us to come back to eat at an appointed time. He always left the park for a little trip to go get fried chicken at KFC or the local grocery store. What fun memories!

I worked there one summer right after high school. It was a fun job, because I could stay after work and ride the rides. I could go on my day off and ride, all at no cost, because I worked there. It was so great!

Then something happened. I started not feeling very well after I rode the rides. What seemed to be a headachy feeling turned into a queasiness. Oh no, you guessed it. I was getting older, and what I remember happening to my dad, and other older people was now happening to me. One of my favorite summer activities was not going to be fun anymore. Bummer!

It worked out though.

Here’s why, by the time I wasn’t enjoying myself much on the rides, I had become a Mama of my own kids. The first time I saw my little boy Riley on

Bulgy the Whale, tears came to my eyes.
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to see his happiness, his complete joy at what he was experiencing was sooo much better to me than the experience of riding the rides myself.

Being a parent and watching my children experience life, especially the good things in life is the best! It makes me think about Father in Heaven and how He must feel when He watches us enjoying this life experience. What a blessing it is that God has allowed us to experience in some small way what I’m sure makes Him happy, watching His children loving life. When our kids are happy and loving life that gives us the same joy.

So Emily, my “Bonus Baby” went to Lagoon with Kelsey, my “Dream Come True” recently, and when they were riding on one of the fast rides Emily passed out, and her head whipped around and hit Kelsey in the face. The back of Emily’s head hit Kelsey’s cheek to be exact. Kelsey got a bruise, and Emily got a concussion. They laughed a little right after, but they were both really sore. Emily was sad because she said she doesn’t enjoy the rides like she used to when she was little, or young. It has already changed for her. I told her, “Just wait till your sweet tiny girl is a little bigger, and she can go on Bulgy the Whale.” Then I shared with her the secret about being a parent and watching your children experience true happiness!

Eight is Great!

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Today it has been eight years since I started my blog. 

As I read through the blog, I am so happy that I have been able to share these stories and experiences with everyone!

I am so thankful that I have written them down.

They are a treasure to me.

My life and all that I have experienced is wonderful. Even the challenges have taught me so much. Some of the best things I’ve learned in the last eight years are:

1-Family is everything. I can’t imagine my life with out my family. Both the one I grew up in and the one I have with my Darlin. I feel blessed to have a sweet husband, wonderful children, and I am in love with my beautiful grandchildren. I’m thankful I have a blog full of memories of my family.

2-A knowledge of God and my Savior, Jesus Christ is a blessing in my life everyday. The gospel gives me direction, and hope for my life. 

3-I am so thankful for my ancestors. The family who came before me, and who paved the way so that life would be better for me. They left homes they knew, for the unknown. They gave up comfort for the challenge of a journey to a new life. I can’t imagine what they went through, but I am so thankful. I love them!

4-Grandbabies are the best!!! I am completely in love with them! They are my reward for not killing my kids. Haha. But seriously, how wonderful it is to have these sweet little people who I get to love, and spoil, and then send them home. It is the best!

Thank you for your visit to my blog!

I love to have you come. 

7

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Today, it has been 7 years since I started my blog!

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It’s my blogiversary!!

So here’s a list of 7 things I’ve learned blogging for 7 years:

1-Always remember why you do it.

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I don’t spend a lot of time on other peoples blogs. I am trying my best to get a grip in my life and sitting on the computer all day doesn’t help. So if I don’t have a lot of visitors, because I’m not commenting all the time on others blogs, I’m ok with that. I am leaving a journal with stories and what not for my family and anyone else who would like to visit. I love you all!

2-Put your best foot forward.

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Emily and Anthony’s cute socks and shoes on their wedding day!

I struggle sometimes. I prefer to not focus on complaining. It’s really not me anyway. I am a joyful person! I am always looking for the blessings in life.

3-Have variety.

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If I always focus on one topic, it’s like I’m talking in a monotone voice. That’s not very fun! So it’s good to mix it up.

4-Be totally honest.

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I am, what I am. I love to share what I feel and the adventures I’m having. Sometimes, life is challenging. Maybe if I share how I’m working through a challenge it might help someone else. Who’s to say…;)

5-It takes a lot of effort sometimes, and that’s ok.

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Remember Dory? Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!

6-“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

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I am a firm believer that love conquers all. I don’t agree with everyone on the internet, and I know they don’t all agree with me, but we can be kind and show love for other humans when we communicate.

7-Sharing what matters most to me is fun!

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Sunday’s really are Best! Family History is so fun! Missionaries make me happy! Beautiful Places are beautiful! My Darlin, First Born, Janet, Dream Come True, Most Quoted, Amber, Bonus Baby, Anthony, Grandbabies, and Tayzie mean the world to me! Someday this blog will be a treasure for the people I love, maybe it is already. Either way, it’s here and waiting for a visit from all!

Thank you for visiting! I hope you return often!

Love, Joy

Expectations!

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FourCorners

Expectations!

Is it good to have expectations?

I don’t know…except to say I have had and continue to have expectations about my life. Has it beneficial? I would say no. Things don’t always turn out the way we expect them to, I would say they rarely turn out the way we expect them to.

When Kelsey, my “Dream Come True” was in high school, she would say that when she graduated she wanted to go visit New Zealand! As her time in high school continued, she changed her plans…knowing that the chances of making it to New Zealand were slim to none.

Her next plan was to go to the “Four Corners!” 

Definitely more realistic.

Guess what? She didn’t do either one! She went to New York City for a week and stayed with her aunt and uncle who live there (She let me and Emily come too).

It was a blast! We love NYC!!!

Did reality match her expectations? Was it still ok? You bet!

I think we all need to relax, and enjoy life! (I’m saying this for me:))

I am still working on this, but it seems so many times that what I expected, or wanted to happen in my life doesn’t happen, and what happens instead is wonderful!