Skittles!!! Taste the Rainbow!!!

I LOVE SKITTLES!!!!!!

The original kind....Just thought you should know.... :o)

Happy New Year!

It's finally a new year and I'm excited to make some new goals and do some new things!  Some things to look forward to:  Ogden Marathon 2011(Yikes!), Ragnar Wasatch Back 2011(I know I swore never to do it again, but hey I want to go and have fun this time!), moving back in with my parents, and a trip to WI and Nauvoo is also in the works! 

As I ask myself what kind of goals I want to make this year, I come up all the normal resolutions I make at this time of year:  lose 50 lbs, exercise more, Keep my room clean, write in my journal every day etc.  I never do these things....hmmmmm...

"What should I do?" I ask myself.  "Duh make them more specific!"  So here we go:

1. Follow my training schedule.  On Monday-Friday I will go to the gym (or run outside at my house) right after I get off work and before I go home.  Saturdays I will go to the gym right after I wake up. 
2. I will be in bed by 10 o'clock each weekday night and I will turn out the light no later than 11.  On weekends I will be in bed by 12 with the lights turned out.
3. I will write in my journal every Sunday morning before getting ready for church. 
4. I will not drink any soda until after I am finished with all my races for the year. 
5. When I'm angry or in a bad mood, I will stop and think before I say anything to others.
6. I will fold my laundry and put it away before I go to bed each night.

Well, that's a beginning.  I'll let you know how it goes :0)

Sleep Part II

Made it to bed at 9, but couldn't sleep again.  Had a migraine... I feel better today and I'm looking forward to the weekend!  I'm starting to feel that Christmas Spirit again.  If only I had my own house....it would look amazing all decked out for Christmas!  :0)

Sleep

Sleep is good.  I'm not getting any.  Get home around 10 p.m.  Laundry. Not able to sleep.  1ish I finally fall asleep.  I swear that all I did last night was blink and then my alarm went off.

My goal for tonight:  Be in Bed by 8:30!

I'll let you know how it goes! :0)

A Pure Heart

What a great day!  I got up and went with my cousins to the temple.  I'm ashamed to say it's been a while since I've been.  I left with a great feeling and a new goal to get back on track with my temple attendance.  As I was sitting in the Celestial room watching the rainbows dance around from the chandlier, it reminded me of a quote about a crystal from a book I read:

"The direct sunlight that hits the crystal is like the light of Christ.  The crystal is like our hearts, or our spirits.  We can choose to close the curtain between that light and ourselves, or we can let that light penetrate us and became an instrument to spread the light and diffuse it into all that we do.  As long as we don't close ourselves off, we will always be touched by the light" (The Miracle by Anita Stansfield).

I hope that I can be an instrument to spread the light of Christ to those I come in contact with in my life. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I know I'm a day early, but tomorrow will be a very busy day.  I'm looking forward to it!  Starting off with and 8 a.m. 5K in the freezing wind!  I am so thankful for clothes that keep me warm and a cousin who is helping me be motivated to run outside in the cold :0)  Then it's off to my parents' house for family pictures...I didn't get a chance to get a haircut, so I might look interesting...Then helping my mom get ready for the Raymond crew to come over for dinner.  I'm so thankful for the supportive family I have both immediate and extended.  They are loud and crazy, but we have fun and they would do anything for me!  I <3 you guys!

Happy Thanksgiving!

New Blogs

My new blogs are up and running!  Check them out in my sidebar there ----------------->

They are:  SEE the Future, Megz Favorite Quotes, and Megz Favorite Scriptures.

Enjoy!! :0)

Coming Soon: New Blogs

So I'm going to create some new blogs! :0)  Check them out if you have a chance.  Look at the top of this blog under the picture to find the tabs that will take you to a page to connect you to the new blogs.  They are under construction right now, but I hope to get them up and running by the end of this week. :0)

A New Discovery

So I just discovered a new website that helps me track my training!  And guess what!?!?!?  It has widgets to put on your blog!

Check it out in my sidebar here ------------------->

Cool huh!?!?!?!?  I'm pretty excited :0)

Life is good and running is fun!!! :0)

In Loving Memory

I've had this post saved all week.  I wanted to put a picture on, but that would require scanning one in and I keep forgetting.  I'll work on that, but for now there are just words.

In Loving Memory of Steven and Sharolyn Erickson--November 1, 2002

I can't believe it has been eight years since we said good-bye to our dear friends.  I can't even begin to tell you all that I learned from these two wonderful people.  They were always there with their loving hearts.  They taught us to always think about others, to give to those less fortunate than us, and to work hard. 

I remember one week just before Thanksgiving, Shar came to the house and gave each of us an envelope with twenty dollars inside.  She then told us that it was our money to spend as we pleased, but she hoped we would choose to help her buy turkey and other foods to take to the food bank.  I remember how hard it was for Beth and Devin to use the money to buy something for someone else.  Shar didn't force them to though.  I think she knew that forcing them to do it wouldn't have the same effect as them choosing to do it.  We all ended up using most of our money to help buy food.  I learned that day that you can't force people especially children to do nice things.  They need to choose to do it or it will not help them to be better people in the long run.  I'm grateful for this lesson as I've spent my adult life working with children.  If I ever wonder what to do I just ask myself, "What would Shar have done?" 

This next part is going to sound kind of corny, but just bear with me :0)  Another great thing that I got from Steve and Shar is Jazzmin.  (I told you corny)  I know that I complain a lot about how annoying he is and how I can't stand him, but in all reality I can't look at him and not think of Shar.  He's a reminder.  He also is a great friend....I know all you people out there who hate cats are thinking I'm insane....He's the only being who listens to me without offering opinions or advice about what I should be doing.  There was a time about 18 months ago when I was really struggling.  Everyone had an opinion about what I should have done or what I should be doing.  No one just listened.  Suffice it to say, as sad as this is LOL, I talked to Jazz a lot.  He would come lay with me on the couch or in bed and just be there, purring away with his happiness.  That familiar sound calmed me and many times put me to sleep.  All he has ever required is to be fed and petted a little here and there.  He accepts all of me the way I am, just like Shar always did...It's like she's here with me helping me along...

I could go on and on, but I won't.  I learned a lot from Steve and Shar and I'll always be grateful for the influence they have had on my life and that they still have an influence on me each and everyday.  I hope that someday I can be all they were!  :0)

Count Your Many Blessings!!! Part VI

91.  Steve
92.  Shar
93.  Dad
94.  Mom
95.  Alyssa
96.  Brian
97.  Addi
98.  Beth
99.  Devin
100.  My marvelous, fantastic, amazing, magnificent, great and full life!

Count your many blessings!! Part V

81.  Halloween
82.  Jazzmin
83.  olives
84.  Electric blue
85.  Rock Band
86.  my iPod when I'm running
87.  Time off-track
88. Weather forcasts
89.  Spell Check
90.  When people tell other people how wonderful a teacher I am and how all the kids want to be in my class.  Then I find out because they tell my mom. :0)

Count your many blessings!!! Part IV

71.  make up
72.  zippers
73.  the color purple
74.  batteries
75.  Chap Stick
76.  students with great parents
77.  milk
78.  orange juice
79.  Limeade
80.  Playdoh

Count your many blessings!!! Part III

I am SO far behind!  I go off track tomorrow and then hopefully I'll have more time to keep up on my blog.  I'm trying really hard.  Here are blessings 41-70.

41.  President Thomas S. Monson
42.  Poetry
43.  Chuck :0)  It's always good for a laugh!
44.  Uno  The best game on the planet!
45.  Wireless internet
46.  Hoodies
47.  Zip hoodies
48.  a recorder on my TV :0) so I can watch Criminal Minds even though I have class when it's on.
49.  A family that is not annoying to have around.  We have fun together:0)
50.  Pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips
51.  Carrot Cake
52.  Sugar cookie dough
53.  Fabreeze
54.  The letter L
55.  Jeans
56.  T-shirts
57.  Tube socks
58.  Dark chocolate
59.  Volleyball
60.  blankets
61.  tomatoes
62.  French Fries
63.  Food Network
64.  Revelation
65.  Being able to attend the temple
66.  Titanium, so I can wear glasses without breaking out in a rash.
67.  graham crackers and chocolate frosting:0)
68.  witty friends who keep me entertained
69.  Pumpkin Gutz
70.  People who can get the pumpkin gutz out without puking!  (Funny story...at least now that it's in the past LOL)

Count your many blessings!!! Part II

So I've fallen sadly behind on posting my list of blessings, but I have been doing it on a piece of paper! :0)  Here are blessings 11-40.

11.  My Job
12.  A healthy body
13.  Eyes
14.  Ears
15.  tongue
16. nose
17.  Warmth on a cold day
18.  Coolness on a hot day
19.  mouth
20.  USA
21.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
22.  Jesus Christ
23.  The knowledge that my Heavenly Father loves me!
24.  Music
25.  My trials
26.  Piano
27.  Crayons
28.  Scriptures
29.  Preach My Gospel
30.  Medicine for Migraines
31.  Rain
32.  computers
33.  document cameras
34.  InterWrite Mobi's
35.  Criminal Minds
36.  bananas
37.  Treadmills on Rainy/snowy days
38.  Oxygen
39.  Trees
40.  Micorsoft Power Point

Enjoy!  I will try to be better and really post tomorrow! :0)

Count Your Many Blessings!!

So I've been sitting down and trying to blog all week, but every time I sit down to do it all I want to do is complain and whine.  Not cool!  My life is great and so I've decided for the last ten days of October I will write down 100 things that I'm blessed to have in my life.  So here are the first 10 things:

1. My family  I can't even begin to tell you how much I love these guys!  They are truly an amazing group of people.  We have tons of fun together and I know that no matter what they will be there for me through thick and thin.
2. Addi :0)  Yes, she gets her own number!  She is absolutely adorable and says the most hilarious things!  Last week we went to Black Island Farm and played around on the slides and corn mazes.  We also went on a hayride and picked out some pumpkins.  She got a small green one.  We then went home and used my Mr. Pumpkin Head kit on my pumpkin.  Then we used it on Addi's pumpkin and she insisted on putting it in the fridge.                                                                
3. Chocolate...Need I say more?                                                                            
4. My bed  I got a new matress last year and it has been heaven!!!  So soft and comfy!  I fall into bed at night and go right to sleep.                  
5. Comfy running shoes My old shoes always gave me blisters all the time.  I went and got some new ones that fit amazingly and even better don't hurt my feet!  These will come in handy when I run my marathon! :0)                            
6. Autumn  Driving around town yesterday I noticed all the beautiful trees with their gold, red and brown leaves falling down.  So beautiful!!!!  The temperature outside has also dropped!  Now I don't get too hot running outside!!! Yay!!!
7. Diet Coke...again need I say more?
8. My jeep  It's so wonderful having a vehicle getting you from point A to point B.  It's even better when it can get from point A to point B while it's snowing!  And it's just so cute!!!
9. Education I'm thankful for the education I've gained throughout my life....I use all that knowledge all the time!  It's also nice to be able to teach others both young and old about what I have learned.
   
10. Pretzel M&M's  I absolutely LOVE whoever thought this up!!!!  They are my new favorite!!!

Here are some great quotes I've found this week:

If you're not prepared to look stupid then nothing great is going to happen.

"There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity." ~Washington Irving

Did I ever tell you....

Just a moment of reminiscing...I love October!!!  My favorite month it is!!!  The weather is starting to cool off and the leaves on trees are beautiful colors.  I makes me feel great and ready for a fresh start.  I also love love LOVE Halloween!!!  Why you ask?  Well lots of reasons....One of the biggest reasons is that it was Steve and Shar's favorite time of the year too.  I remember going over to their house on Halloween night after trick-or-treating and having a party with all the junk food we could want and of course the old black and white Halloween movies!  I think that started my love affair with October and Halloween!  Good times...

Another reason I like it is because it is just plain fun!  I love making pumpkin sugar cookies and decorating them to look like jack-o-lanterns!  I love making all the fun food that we eat. 

I also love having fun with my students.  Of all the holidays we talk about in our class, I have the most fun with this one.  Right now we are reading The Witches by Roald Dahl.  It is one of my favorite books and I absolutely love reading it out loud!  Talking like the Grand High Witch is entertaining to both the students and myself.  We also start talking more about characterization while we are reading this book.  We analyze the characters and their different traits.  It also gets them thinking about Halloween stories!  Like many of you know, I love to write and getting my kids to have that same love for writing stories is fun for me! 

I wish it was October all year round!!!  I <3 it!!!!

Stressed Spelled Backwards is Desserts!

Wow!  Life's just been crazy the past few weeks!  In an effort to be a better teacher I started two graduate level classes on reading.  It has been so much work and I feel so scatterbrained and exhausted.  Stress is never a good thing for people like me.  I've been walking around for about two weeks fighting a migraine and trying not to let it get the best of me.  I'm sitting down tonight and writing up a strict (LOL!) schedule to follow, so hopefully I will get more sleep and not stress about everything. 

Last week I was reminded that my life might be hard, but it is really really great!  I am so bLeSsEd!  I have an amazing family who support me in all my craziness.  I have a rewarding job!  My class this year has been so amazing that I want to cry from happiness everytime I think about them!  I'm learning so much in my reading classes that I'm excited to go to school everyday to try out new things.  I also have a SuPeR aMaZiNg mother!

I can't even begin to describe how grateful I am for my mother.  She has been such a rock to me.  Just watching her through everything she has had to deal with has been a perfect lesson on faith.  She has such a strong testimony and everytime I think about giving up I just think about her and I am reminded that through God nothing is impossible.  Thank you mom for everything!

Most of all I'm thankful for my Savior.  There is no way I can repay Him for all that he has done for me.  I was at a fireside for FHE on Monday and I heard a song about the perfect unconditional love Christ has for each of us.  It reminded me that I might not be perfect, but if I'm striving to be better each day, I will one day make it back to live with my Heavenly Father and brother Jesus Christ and that is all He wants for me.  I'm so thankful for the faith that I have developed in the last two years.  I can't say it has been easy, but I have learned so much that it has been worth every bad day to learn all that I have. 

Craziness!!!

     So in my class we just finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  We're now watching the movie and doing a Ven Diagram to compare and contrast the movie and the book.  (We're watching the 1971 version.)  I'm sitting there watching Wonka as he takes the children through the factory and being totally freaked out because I do a lot of crazy things he does....I can't even describe how crazy I feel after see the similarities between Wonka and myself.  Watch it.  See if you can see it too...

The Book of Mormon

This last week I finished reading The Book of Mormon again.  Once a year I like to read it in about a week focusing on a certain aspect of it or on a question that I have.  This time I looked at the women of The Book of Mormon.  I really learned a lot from these women and how they lived their lives.  There is not a lot said about the women in The Book of Mormon, but as I've studied what was said and taught about them I really came to admire their faith and example to me as a woman.

One of my favorite stories was that of the queen of King Lamoni.  When Ammon first preaches to King Lamoni, King Lamoni is overcome with the spirit and falls as if he were dead.  The servants take the king to his wife and his family mourns over him for two days and nights.  Before they take his body to lay it in the sepulchre, the queen asks for Ammon to come to her.  Ammon comes and inquires what she would like him to do.  She replies telling him what the servants told her that he was a prophet of God and that he had the power to do "mighty works in his name"(Alma 19:4).  She asks him to go see her husband because she did not believe that he was dead.  Ammon knew he was not dead, but under the power of God and that "the dark veil of unbelief was being cast away from his mind" and he had been overcome by the Spirit.  He goes to see the king and tells the queen that the king was not dead but slept in God and would rise the next day.  Ammon asks her if she believes his words and she readily tells him that she does indeed believe. Ammon then says, "Blessed art thou because of thy exceeding faith; I say unto thee, woman, there has not been such great faith among all the people of the Nephites" (19:10).  I really believe that for Ammon to say this was a great compliment.  He was the son of a very faithful king.  He personally knew Alma and was a great friend to Alma the Younger.  I'm sure he knew many faithful Nephites, but to this woman he says that her simple faith was greater that that seen "among all the people of the Nephites."  King Lamoni does wake the next day and the first thing he does is stretch out his hand to his wife and say, "Blessed be the name of God and blessed are thou" (19:12).  She listens to his testimony and then is herself overpowered by the Spirit.  When she awakens, she is filled with joy and bears her testimony to her people.  What an amazing example of faith!  She only had the witnesses of her servants and Ammon and she was able to have faith that her husband would awake. 

There are so many more stories of faithful sisters in The Book of Mormon and I can go on and on about them, but I'll let you learn about them on your own. :0) The Book of Mormon is another testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I am thankful that I am able to read it and feel the Spirit testify to me of its truth and of the purity of the principles contained in it.  I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and that he was able to see God the Father and Jesus Christ in the grove of trees when he was only 14 years old.  I'm thankful that he had the faith and courage throughout his life to live the principles he was taught and to organize the true church of our Heavenly Father here on this earth so that I can have it in my life now.  I'm so thankful for my Savior!  I'm thankful that He took upon Him my sins and suffered for all the wrongs I do in my life.  I'm also thankful for His sacrifice so that I may have someone who truly knows of my sicknesses, my trials, my heartaches and pain, my hopes and dreams, and my love and joy.  I hope I can live my life working hard to be worthy of that gift!  I'm so thankful to my Heavenly Father for all he has blessed me with in my life.  I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.