To Succeed

I attended Utah's Crime Victim's Conference this year and the concluding speaker was Richard Paul Evans. He is an amazing author, and I was surprised to find out he is an amazing public speaker as well. He had many in the audience crying by the end of his talk, and if you've ever been around victim advocates, they do not cry easily (except me, I'm special!). Anyway, he spoke on the five things he thinks people need to know in order to find success, I thought I'd share it with you:

1. You are divine. Your life is divine. And there is divine communication. Make time to listen to that small voice. He told us story after story of times he listened to that voice, and it brought him to opportunities he would have never encountered had he ignored that voice.

2. Take big risks. We are afraid to look for something better for ourselves because we are afraid of failure. Speaking of Christopher Columbus' risk to sail across the ocean, when others thought he was sailing to his death because of course the earth is flat, Richard Paul Evans stated, "People don't sail because they are afraid of falling off the earth." He told us he was sure Tiger Woods did not sink his first putt, but today he is a successful golfer. Success is found as we move from failure to another. If you are afraid to fail, you will end up doing nothing and in doing so, failing.

3. If you want to evolve, you must learn to forgive. You are profiting nothing by unforgiving. Your anger consumes you. Instead, recognize your own blessings, and recognize that you are not perfect, that you have let others down, and that forgiveness can set you and others free. By forgiving, you become truly divine. You allow your ship to sail.

4. We cannot succeed or advance without adversity. We do not succeed in spite of our adversity, we succeed because of it. He told us this story of the grapes in Italy. He discovered that the soil in Italy is poor, but if the grapes were given good soil, they would become wimpy and would not fight for survival. Because Italy's grapes are grown in poor soil, they learn to work hard to grow into the best grapes available, becoming the grapes used in the most expensive of wines, while grapes grown in good soil are used for raisins and such. Adversity makes us strong grapes. Those who bear their affirmities well become divine and royal.

5. In the end, the most important thing is love. Love is not a feeling, it is a choice. It is a service, and an action. After a humanitarian project in South America, Richard Paul Evans' daughter stated, "I know what I learned from the experience. We love those that we serve."

After this presentation by this author, he became a personal hero of mine. I was so moved by what he said, and I hung on every word. Afterwards, he was selling his books and I bought two that I don't currently have and he signed them for me. I acted like I was star-struck, I just thanked him and walked away, but more than anything I wanted to let him know that his words really do change lives. Isn't that amazing?

Potty Training - Day One

10:46am - I am SO ready to stop this! Hayden is running around naked, but has not used the potty chair yet. At all. It's been three hours since he's been up, he's had two sippy cups full of chocolate milk, but has no desire to use the potty chair. When I ask if he needs to go potty, his response is "I don't want to." I'm ready for a nap.

12:07pm - We are eating lunch and Hayden still hasn't peed yet. Celeste and Carissa are telling me not to give up, but at this point, I think even Hayden would appreciate a diaper. In fact, I've offered him suckers, candy, and a new toy but he will not pee. He's is too stubborn.

12:18pm - After almost five hours of consistently trying to get him to pee in the potty chair, he peed in the high chair. I am so frustrated. Can I please quit?!?!

1:54pm - Break through! I was putting Roman down and Hayden ran in and said "I wet the potty chair!" Don't ask me why he chose to use those words, but I went and looked and sure enough, he finally peed! I gave him two suckers and told him I was so happy for him. I can't believe I can be so excited about pee.

4:36pm - Hayden woke up from his nap stinky (I put a diaper on him for nap). He's now in his Buzz Lightyear underwear and when I ask him if he needs to go potty (which I'm sick of asking!) he says, "No, I don't want to go potty." Grr. We're back at the start again.

5:58pm - After over an hour of Hayden saying, "I went wet!" only to find out he really didn't...he finally did! Again! This is great! And again, he chose two suckers. I'd give him a hundred suckers if he would only continue to go potty in the potty chair.

9:14pm - Hayden went potty in the potty chair two more times this evening. The last time was because I came home from Target with some prizes for him for tomorrow to help convince him to continue to use the potty chair, and one of those prizes happened to be a small bag of chips. he immediately took his underwear off and peed. Who would have thought chips would motivate him?! We'll see how tomorrow goes, wish me luck!

On my mind...

Hayden is really growing up too fast. This time last year, we couldn't understand a word he was saying. He still required that we rock him to sleep before we placed him in his crib. He did not care what he wore, what he ate, or where we went. Now, he's full of words, opinions, and independence! He sings songs in the car, makes friends with his stuffed animals, and prefers to walk "in his feet" when we go out. He loves Target, hates Albertsons, and can tell where I am going based on the streets we are on. He loves chicken one night, hates it the next, and asks for soup and candy most of the time. When "Dancing with the Stars" is on, he asks me to dance with him. He loves to help feed Roman and sings him "I am a Child of God" when Roman is crying in the car. When he drops his toys, he tells me the toys are sad because they "bonked their head" and then tells the toys, "You need to be careful, ok?" So, obviously he is very into copying what we do and say. He is a big helper in the kitchen. And today, for the very first time, he went potty in the potty chair! See, he is growing up so fast!

When I tell people that Celeste is pregnant again, one of the first questions I get is whether Carissa or I plan on getting pregnant again soon, too. I think it's more of a joke, because we've always been pregnant around the same time (way to ruin it, Celeste!). But I began thinking about why we are not pregnant right now. I read Celeste's blog, she stated they love having children and want them all around the same age. Does it mean that I do not love my children if I choose not to have another right now? I was upset about this, how I felt like a horrible mother for not seeing things the way Celeste did, but Jeremiah and I discussed it and realized that we are in a different place in our lives, and having a third child is not in the cards for us right now. We will be moving in three months so Jeremiah can attend law school, and for the first time ever, I will be a stay-at-home mother. I want to take some time and enjoy my children and learn to adapt to the home and our new city. I want to create a support network of friends before we have another child, too. I love my children as much as any mother loves her children, if not more, and I am showing them my love in my own way. I am very excited for Celeste to have another baby, it is such an amazing time for her, and she is going to provide her children with another playmate. But for me, I will show them my love by staying home with them and not leaving them for others to raise. It is not what Celeste said that upset me, it was how I interpreted it. I think that makes me feel better about the whole thing.

Jeremiah has decided to attend Drake University Law School in Des Moines, Iowa. He has heard several great things about this school, and the community is very family-oriented, which I am happy about. We both decided our last day of work will be June 29. Yeah, no more work! We are still waiting on four more letters from other universities, so there is a possibility that we will get accepted elsewhere and choose to go there, but otherwise it looks like Drake, which we both have felt really good about since he started preparing for law school last year. I will miss my dear best friends here. I cry when I think about leaving them. What will I do in Des Moines without you guys?

Easter 2007

My Easter started off great...I got to sleep in AND Jeremiah had breakfast made when I woke up. Can it get better then that?! Why, yes it can!

Hayden found out the Easter bunny visited last night, and was eager to dig into his basket. We didn't overdo it, especially since he was happy with the things he got, including a coloring book, bubbles, some matchbox cars, and of course, candy. I dressed the kids in coordinating clothes, with Hayden in a green polo and Roman in a button-up that had green in it. I've made it a tradition to buy them new outfits for Easter Sunday. They looked very handsome.

We went to my in-laws for dinner and for an Easter egg hunt. The dinner was great, mostly because my brother-in-law is a grill master and we had great bbq chicken. And I have to say my potato salad was quite good.

The kids had an Easter egg hunt after dinner. Jage and Steve hid the eggs, which meant some were incredibly hard to find, but the kids had a blast and Hayden learned quickly how to search for eggs.

Nana Lynda and Papa Rick

My parents visited us this past week from Washington. Here's what we did:

*Attended Saturday afternoon conference in the Conference Center

*Shopped at the Gateway Mall-Hayden had a blast at this area that shoots water out of the ground, he got soaked and screamed like a little girl, but he entertained several around him.

*Went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, along with my aunt Wendy and her two girls, Paige and Ivie. Hayden calls it the "Dine-sore-seum" -one word- and every time we pass it he asks to go there with Nana Lynda and Papa Rick. He was so blown away by the museum that he would not hold still.

*Played the "dice" game. I won before Jeremiah was able to even score points!

*Went to lunch at Rumbis and Arctic Circle, two places I love, and shopped at Deseret Book, Seagull Book, and the University Mall.

We had such a blast with Nana Lynda and Papa Rick here. It is always great when we get to see them, and it was especially fun because Hayden and Roman warmed up to them in record time. However, even though they were here for four days with us, it was not long enough. Hayden was sad to wake up Wednesday morning to find out they were not sleeping in the living room, and I was enjoy being able to spend time with my parents. It was obvious my kids loved to see their grandparents, and I know my parents were heartbroken to leave them. So count down the days Mom and Dad, we'll see you in July!

Law School Update

Most of you know that Jeremiah was recently accepted to Albany Law School in New York and Drake Law School in Des Moines...but tonight he also found out he was accepted to Univerity of Missouri in Kansas City! That makes three so far.

I'm sad, though, to announce he was rejected by Gonzaga. I about cried, that means I will probably not be close to my family in the Northwest. I promise to fly out as much as possible!