Great Book

I just finished reading a book called Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. It was so shocking to me and left me a feeling of sadness and amazement that human beings can be so evil and treat other humans with such disregard and pure hatred. The sad thing is that throughout history, this has taken place all around the world even in times that are more recent. I am sure there are places even today where people are treated as slaves were once treated 200 years ago. It makes me wonder as I ponder the fate of slaves and the slaveholders what I would have done had I been born in 1818 in Maryland. Would I have felt a kindness towards slaves and tried to do what I could for them or would I have succumbed to the pressures of society and tolerated the horrible treatment of slaves as I turned a blind eye or even participated in the mistreatment of other humans. I would like to believe I would have felt I would have been strong enough to be good and kind hearted to all people but one of the people in the story I thought was caring ended up turning mean after her exposure to slavery. I recommend this book to all you out there in blog land. I found it very insightful and I am asking my girls and Scott to read it too. If you have read it or will be reading it let me know I would love to discuss it!
I am grateful for courageous people.

Better then Disney Land :)

Scott asked me how my day was. I immediately answered that it was better than going to Disney Land!! And I was serious!! I got up early and had some special bonding time with Scott (he gave me a great massage!) After I took Scott to work, I was spoiled by my BFF with another massage. Did I forget to say that it was a snow day so the kids were out of school today (yippee!) I was able to take Emma to an ortho apt, she is such a good girl and wears her rubberbands every second of every day, and that is no lie! I took the girls to the mall where we shopped for clothes which was fun until I told Elle she couldn’t buy fishnet stockings and then she was mad at me for about 1 hour until we took Emma to work and then I took Elle to DQ and we had a chocolate sunday. Then I bought Elle’s love by taking her to Barnes and Nobles buying her a book (the quickest way to get Elle in a good mood is to buy her fishnet stockings or a book, I went with the more modest way). We ended our day by reading our new books on a real comfy couch at the hotel until Scott and Emma got off work. It was just one of the best days of my life!

I am grateful for snow days!

Just where is the mail box?? 

Our front driveway is piled high with about 10 feet of snow

Look how deep it is where the dogs have to go out!  The snow is deeper then Sandy is tall.  Scott had to shovel a path for them to do their duty otherwise Sandy would get lost and we wouldn't have a doggy anymore.

Doctorine and Covenants 121:45 Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly

Yes I say let it snow as long as it doesn't stay until May :)

My bench is in a covered area of my front entry way but it still managed to get a inch of snow blown onto it.

We are suppose to get 8 more inches by tomorrow...is the weather man telling the truth?

Today is a fresh new day. It is beautiful outside, I love it when it snows because everything is so pure and white. I feel like I have a fresh new attitude and am going to do my best not to say anything negative about anything or anyone. I need all my friends to help me with this because sometimes it is just so hard to control myself. I am going to do a little experiment and see how long I can go without saying anything negative. I will do what Oprah said to do many years ago and put a bracelet on and when you say anything negative you have to switch it to the other wrist. The point is to try to keep it on the same wrist all day long. Wish me luck and remember please do try to help me reach my goal.


I am grateful that Heavenly Father forgives us and lets us start new everyday if we want!

When Elle puts her mind to something...

So here I sit on a Sabath Sunday morning.  Up for early morning meetings and now I find that I have a couple of hours before church.  So I decided to blog.  I am not sure what to express this morning...except I just remembered something.  After I got home from the movie last night Elle had a request of me.  She wanted to discuss if she can go live at a boarding school.  She had all her talking points ready for me to overcome all of my objections.  She is really disliking school right now and is really feeling the need to get out of her school situation.  She wants to learn more about world history and greek mythology.  Her choice for boarding school is in the UK.  I told her that I wasn't going to send my 12 year old across the world for some other person to raise her.  I don't think she cared though.  I can tell this is something she is not going to give up on.  I have a feeling Elle will be doing a semester abroad some time in her future but for now my 12 year old is going no where.

I am grateful for Elle she always keeps me on my toes!

What a Great Day!

Great Saturday! Spent the morning doing some Relief Society assignments. Afterwards I was treated to a wonderful facial with Ann and then out to lunch. It was so relaxing. Then on to the party for the fundraising raffle. Lots of fun with friends who care for me and then out to the movies!! I went with 3 other women to see Dear John. It was a sweet romantic movie and all four of us drooled over Channing Tatum for 2 hours (we all agreed we would take Channing over Edward any day of the week and on the weekend too.) It was just a great day overall. Even the part when Emma called me at midnight to say she needed a ride home from the movie because her ride ditched her didn’t bother me to much….after all I do love her.

I am grateful for good friends who can make me laugh!

Green Day

Today was a great day! I was really feeling blue this week but for some reason today I woke up with a whole new attitude!! I am now feeling Green! I have been working on my piano and feel so great about how much I am learning. It is the most wonderful feeling to know I can learn a new talent because some day that is what it is going to be…a talent! Elle and I painted out fingernails black. I decided it is better to join her then fight with her and I think Elle was surprised by it. We have some good mommy daughter time each day while we are waiting for the 15 minutes in the car for Emma to get out of school. She usually tells me about what the 6 grade boys are doing that make her feel like kicking them in the nuts (as she puts it) I try to help her understand that it is a stage that these boys are going through being real jerks and someday they will regret the stupid things they said to her but for now she needs to control her urge to injure boys especially in their privates! I feel so happy today!
I am grateful for good days!

My 15 year old piano teacher Bridget and me!

Black is the new brown!  Do you think the church ladies will like them?

Elle always loves treat during our chats.

Blah, Blah, Blah days of February

I am not very inspired to blog about anything today. I haven’t had any motivation this week to do much. I feel badly about it but what is a person to do when you live in Minnesota and it is 10 degrees outside. The weather doesn’t inspire me get out of bed and do anything. I think I fall into the same winter blues funk each Feb. I only do the things I have to get done. I think I am falling into a blah mood now that I am blogging about it. What to do about it?? I need to have some wonderful activity to do in Feb. Maybe all my friends can ask me out to lunch every day this month or ask me to do things for them because I can never say no and that way it will force me out of bed to do something. Scott would be very happy if I went and worked out but I just have no desire. I love staying in bed watching tv but that is not inspiring me to do anything with me life. Well I do have to get dressed today to go to Elle’s parent teacher conference and then I do have piano later today. But even my piano is not motivating me to be excited for my day. I think I dislike February.

I am grateful for the dream of spring.

Good Bye to Jackson!

Well today is a new fresh start! I am feeling much better today than yesterday and that is good. I haven’t talked about my two live-ins much but today I will share some really great news. Jackson got his GED!!!! I am very proud of him. He scored rather high and that has helped his self-esteem (those of you that know Jackson know I am joking…he doesn’t need any help with his self-esteem, he already thinks he is the best thing since sliced bread!) With his GED comes a choice he has made to move back to Arizona. His goal in coming back to Rochester was to finish school and now he has done that he wants to return to his family and friends in the land of the sun. He has been with us since July and although we have had our moments with Jackson just as we have moments with all our kids, I will miss his fun happy personality. Therefore, Jackson will be leaving in the middle of Feb., which is approaching fast. I hope he continues to succeed in all he does and remembers his time with the Greer’s with fondness because we surely will remember his time here with good memories. Good luck Jackson!!

I am grateful for life experiences that help me learn and grow.

Anxiety...I want it to just go away :)

Have you ever suffered from anxiety?  Well I have.  I started to have a large amount of anxiety last night and thought as I went to bed that it had subsided.  But I am beginning to feel it surging up inside again.  I can pin point where my anxiety is coming from but haven't found a way to just relax and let it go.  Most of the time all I need is for Scott to hold me for 5 minutes and then it all goes away but Scott is not available to me 24/7 so I need to find a way to deal with it without him.  This is all I have in me today.

I am grateful that I have a compassionate husband who loves the Joes!

A New Month...what will it bring?

Feb 1st! 2010 is off to a great start. I have had a whole month of blogging and I am only getting more excited about it. I look forward to my blogging each day. I have done pretty good with my goals so far in 2010. I think each month I will access where I stand with them that way I will be more accountable. I am doing great with my scripture study I think for the month of January I probably read 90% of the time and that is a huge improvement for me. I am having fun doing acts of service each day. Some days it is harder than others are but I find that even controlling my temper with my kids is an act of service even though they might not know it is my act of service in for the day. Then there is blogging!! I have 100% on this goal!!! I am sure many people find my blogging very boring but I love it and hope that someday my kids will appreciate a look at my life when I was 40. My last goal was prayer. This is where I feel I am failing. I have done a very poor job on this goal. But it is a new day and new month so I will recommit myself to praying daily and hopefully I can report that I have 100% for the month of Feb. (after all it is a short month :)

5:45 AM this morning getting ready to take Emma to seminary.  I actually joined her in class today as we learned that lawyers are all corrupt! (Alma 11) JK not all lawyers are corrupt.

I am grateful for a clean slate each day!