Sees Makes It Better

Carolyn may kill me, but this night was too happy to not share.

We needed a movie break so we headed to dinner first at Citris Grill.
YUM!

We were hungry though so before the salad and soup came we ate...

DESSERT!

Carolyn had gotten a box of Sees Candy from work and we dove right in.

Carolyn was surprised (as was I truthfully) that I knew what was inside a good percentage of the chocolates in the box.

Carolyn cut them into quarters and we ate and ate and ate! YUM!
Then we ate a great dinner and drove up and down Highland Drive.
No we weren't cruising. Just looking for pajamas.

Carolyn and Chocolate make me So Happy!

A Lovely Evening

Last Monday it was my turn to host The Lovelies.
And my are they lovely!
We had such a lovely time! (If the hostess does say so herself!)

I mean, are we cute or what? We even were color coordinated and it wasn't even planned!
left to right - Amy, Lori, Julie, Elaine, Carolyn, Danielle.
We really missed Sister Kapp, Carol and Loe.
Doesn't it kind-a look like Lori's squeezing my fat roll?
She was a little. Wait - don't look at my fat rolls.

We had crispy bread with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese,
spicy honey chicken with honey citrus vinaigrette from Our Best Bites Blog
and broiled pineapple with coconut ice cream and chocolate corks that ELJ made.
So YUMMY!!!

The dressing wasn't my very favorite - but it was good enough.
I added red peppers to the salad and it was yummy and a little more colorful!

Since it is the beginning of summer I thought it would be fun to give everyone a "Jar Of Discovery!" This was my favorite gift of all time from the Second Saturday Girls in Seattle. If you look at the table in the above picture you can see the jars - they served as our centerpiece too.

Each jar is filled with ideas for activities that might help you discover things about yourself, as well as making you get out of your comfort zone a little.
There are rules to the jar.
Rule #1 - You can only remove one idea at a time.
Rule #2 - Once you take out an idea, you can't put it back.
Rule #3 - You can't pick another idea until you've completed the one you just pulled out.
Rule #4 - If you can't complete an idea, you have to get approval from the group to move on.

Fun huh?

The conversation was better than the food.
I love those girls so much!

I was super lucky because my wonderful friend Amanda and her cutie-pie Nathan came to visit for the day from Wisconsin!
I never could have made it by 6:30 without all her chopping and cooking expertise!

ELJ came over at 6:00 and helped finish all the chopping and cooking and I needed her too! She was a whiz with the pineapple -- I could barely live a day without her and I certainly can't throw a party without her -- EVER!

It was so fun to have Amanda and Nathan here -- he is the happiest baby I have ever been around in all my life! I loved getting all caught up with Amanda and it was amazing to both of us that no matter how much time passes, we're friends like always. Isn't that a miracle?

My Lovely Friends make me So Happy!

Ongoing General Conference Happiness

Ok - this is so up my alley. Cute Stephanie over at Diapers and Divinity is running a General Conference Book Club! How smart is that??!! Every week she picks a different talk and then you can read it and comment and it's great. So, I got carried away today and thought I'd just share my thoughts on my own blog about Sister Lifferth's talk.

I love this talk and I love Sister Lifferth! Besides being incredibly intelligent, articulate and spiritual she has the cutest clothes ever! She was adorable each day of Women's Conference! Love her!

I swear, I highlighted half the talk! I love that she talks about being reverent with each other. Don't you think sometimes we just get all bumped and bruised because we forget who we're dealing with and we don't make a "reverent place in our hearts" for the other sons and daughters of God we meet everyday?

She gave such good examples of how to determine that for ourselves with real everyday applications or possibly irreverent times. I super love her line - Harshness in our training begets resentment, not reverence. So true!!! Remember how Sister Beck (at BYU Women's Conference) quoted Joseph F. Smith (I think) and said that while we cannot force our children to heaven, we may force them to hell while we try and make them better but are not as good as we should be ourselves! Man, I love her. (Check out the link to her talk - you can totally hear me laughing in the background! I love it!!! Besides loving every second of her entire talk, of course!!!!!)

And how excellent for Sister Lifferth to show that the real reason for reverence is at it's core - self-discipline. I am so going to try and be more reverent. I laugh outloud in church sometimes and have even been known to chuckle in the Temple. I'm pretty good about the cell phone in church but profound respect mingled with love is not always my first thought. And that is respect and love for God and our fellow man. Being reverent helps us follow the first and most important commandment! I love it.

Another thought I love -- creating a place of reverence in our hearts. Isn't that a fabulous idea? That is something I can do. And I can go to that place and be reminded of it in times that require reverence and then maybe someday I can just BE that person. That's my goal.

OK - I'm a huge general conference nerd. Who's surprised - come on.

Last thought - (like in testimony meeting - I know the time is short, but...) Isn't it great that President Packer promises not a miraculous transformation but a quiet one. How appropriate is that??? I certainly could use those blessings - so I will try to live the law connected to those blessings -- Reverence. Great talk. Aren't we blessed???

Seriously - General Conference and this new awesome book club I found make me So Happy!

Amy Heaven

Oh What Can I Say More?

SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!