The ABC's of Joni

A- ATTACHED OR SINGLE: Very Attached!


B- BEST FRIEND: Senga is my best friend, by far.


C- CAKE OR PIE: Neither. C is for Coins, I have collected my whole life.


D- DAY OF CHOICE: Saturday. I love to work in the yard and for the most part, I don't have to do any business work or think very hard.


E- EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITY- Golf. We have beautiful courses here in the South and really need to take advantage of them.


F- FAVORITE COLOR: Blue. I have always loved the color of the ocean. It calms me and makes me feel so good.


G- GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: Finding the love of my life.


H- HOMETOWN: Hagerstown, MD


I- INDULGENCES: Watching Antiques Road Show.

J- June, my favorite month!

K- kitty cats - Charlie, Willie and Lucy.

L- Live life to the fullest, love all and laugh often - it keeps you young.

M- Mountains - I miss the Wasatch Mountains.

N- Nothing is more important than spending time with those you love.


O- ORANGES OR APPLES: Apples - one a day keeps the doctor away.


P- PHOBIAS OR FEARS: Neither. The energy is what you put out there, make it positive and you that's what you'll get.


Q- QUOTES: The only constant is CHANGE


R- REASONS TO SMILE: For everything I have been blessed with - but mostly family and friends.


S- SEASON: Summer with lots of sun. It gives me energy.


T- I have to go with the Tennessee Lady Vols - they are awesome.


U- UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME: I was born with blonde hair that was almost white.


V- VERY FAVORITE STORE: ? do you know me - I don't like to shop!!!

W- Winning


X- X-RAY OR ULTRASOUND: ??

Y- YOUR FAVORITE FOOD: Pizza


Z- ZODIAC: Gemini - and yes, I have two different sides to me :-).

ABC's of Senga- (Joni's will follow)

It's been a long while since we've updated this blog and I decided to go with a similar theme of my sister-in-law and brother's blog entry. It's called the ABC's of Me. So here it goes,

A- ATTACHED OR SINGLE: Very Attached! On March 1, 2008 Joni and I recognized that we had known each other for now 19 years! Wow. I am very lucky to have her in my life and we love all of our family DEARLY!


B- BEST FRIEND: Joni is my best friend, by far.


C- CAKE OR PIE: Both! When you grow up in a big family, you love it ALL. Pie reminds me of Thanksgiving, which is a dear memory of all our family get together's.


D- DAY OF CHOICE: It's always been Friday, since it's the beginning of the weekend and you can sleep in the next day.


E- EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITY- Golf. We love golf, although we haven't yet played this year. We live less than a mile from a great course and we vow to play more this year.


F- FAVORITE COLOR: I am really into the color- green, lately. Color of money or something. I just love this color.


G- GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: I have so many! First, although being injured with an ACL tear in my right knee during my senior year in high school, I managed to get a basketball scholarship and I graduated with my Associate of Science degree from UVSC. It' was pretty cool to have gotten to sing with the Osmond brothers back in 1990 for a WordPerfect business/concert. (I have it on video if any of you want to see). It was like American Idol for me!


H- HOMETOWN: Orem, Utah- The home of Mountain View High School!


I- INDULGENCES: Steak, Chips & Salsa, and ice cream

J- is for the "Utah Jazz." I will always love the Jazz no matter how they do during the regular season. We were pretty lucky to have greats like John Stockton and Karl Malone. Wow!

K- KIDS: My kids are our cats, Charlie Aaron, Willie Dean, and Lucille Nicole. Animals are children of our heavenly father too and we are supposed to take care of them and love them, and we do so much.

L- LIFE IS INCOMPLETE WITHOUT: Family. I love you all and want you part of my life every day.

M- Memories: Too many to mention. Mostly about family and parents and high school. The memory starts to go in early 30's though, so watch out all you youngins.


N- NUMBER OF SIBLINGS: I think I'm up to 20's also with the in-laws and all. So good to have you all in my life and I love you all, really.


O- ORANGES OR APPLES: O.J. always makes me happy in the mornings.


P- PHOBIAS OR FEARS: Lots of both. Joni and try to focus on the positive though and "The Secret" concepts for thinking positive to change outcomes, which often work.


Q- QUOTES: "Live, Laugh, Love" "And maybe you were thinking that you thought you knew me well, but no one ever knows the heart of anyone else."


R- REASONS TO SMILE: For all the joy and love I have in my life.


S- SEASON: Summer- sun and fun outdoors. Fall-cooler and very beautiful.


T- Tennessee women's basketball- You all know I played basketball in high school and have loved the sport of basketball even longer. Thanks to my friend, Kelli, I have learned to love Tennesee and since living in the south, I've gotten to see Tennessee women's team play a few times and it is amazing. Their coach is Pat Summitt, who is the NCAA's winningest coach, male or female. She is truly amazing. She signed a basketball to Joni and I this last year and she even looked up at me in January coming out of a corner portal when her team ran out on the court and said, "Well hi." Go Tennessee Volunteers!


U- UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME: Since my schooling days in Massage therapy, I have learned to tap into my intuition. I am highly intuitive about the people and family in my life and I see a lot of what they don't know I see. It's like 6th sense for me.


V- VERY FAVORITE STORE: First thing that come's to mind is Scott's store in Orem. Our little grocery store about a mile from our home growing up in Orem. The man who ran it was a great person. I don't know how many times I went to that store in my life. It was on the way to school, on the way back, the closest place for when you needed something quick, and it's where I was first mistaken as a BOY! :-)

W- WORST HABIT: Singing a song for everything people say that reminds me of some lyric in some song. NERDY.


X- X-RAY OR ULTRASOUND: Neither- no more injuries or hospitals for me.


Y- YOUR FAVORITE FOOD: I love it all. When you grow up in a large family, you have two choices for dinner- 1. Take it OR 2. Leave it. I love Mexican and Italian food though above it all and Steak!


Z- ZODIAC: Scorpio- Yes, I'm the most emotional sign there is and proud of it.

Want some Hot Chocolate?

The below message is one I ran across lately, and has some very valid points that I thought would be a good post. I''ll let you all ponder on it. It is very interesting.

"A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups
- porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're dr inking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it
is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.

Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.
And enjoy your hot chocolate!

It's been said that, "Men are- that they might have joy!" So enjoy life and make the best of everthing!

Reality Check

Hi Family- This will be a more serious post today than I have posted for a while. Yesterday I had a reality check of sorts. I had the privlage to attend a funeral of my spa manager's husband who passed away last week after a long illness. They were Baptist, and very good people. Joe and his wife, Fonda Kimbrell owned Kimbrell's salon and were both cosmetologists. Joe had Bipolar disease among other health issues that led to his death. Joe was a good husband, father, church member, and youth advocate. Me, having never attended anything other than a mormon funeral service found the service very interesting but very much a spiritual experience as well. The service really was very good! I had never met Joe. He was sick long before I ever came to work at the spa, but hearing about his life made me want to know him. After the many reflections and spiritual music sung, and the final talk by the pastor, I realized that I want my life to be celebrated like this, one day too... It's a long way off and I don't mean to reflect on this as much except to say, that I hope we'll all strive harder to live our lives such so that one day our brothers and sisters, family, and friends of those who love us will gladly laugh and celebrate, and give thanks for knowing us too. Life is too short to be stuck in a rut or stay apart because of hurt feelings, belief differences, pride or whatever it is that keeps you apart... We have to work at our relationships and it's all worth it because we are just a small part of a larger eternal family.

Just to share- here's a few of my favorite family quotes:
At the end of the day, a loving family should find everything forgivable.
-- Mark V. Olsen and Will Sheffer

I think people that have a brother or sister don't realize how lucky they are. Sure, they fight a lot, but to know that there's always somebody there, somebody that's family.
-- Trey Parker

Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family.
-- Anthony Brandt

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.
-- Thomas Jefferson

Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing.
-- Jim Rohn

If you needed this reality check then I'm glad I could remind you as I was reminded. We have to keep everything in perspective and act each day as if it were our LAST.

Much love,
Senga

David Archuleta is AMAZING!! I LOVE HIM!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tYj7KT_7vow&feature=related

The Secret

Hello everyone,

Life is wonderful here in warm South Carolina. I've been traveling quite a bit lately and Senga has been home taking care of the children in fur coats. My travels have yielded great success for my company, as I just signed a $180 million three year contract with a major software developer out of the San Francisco area. This was a huge win for my company, and I am now the favorite "golden child". :-) I've been working on this deal for the last six months and had a meeting with the client on February 14, where they handed me the award!!! What a great gift.

I'll be traveling a lot more in the coming months, and hope to drop into Utah for a few days to see family and friends.

Senga and I are headed to Florida in a few weeks to meet my sister. We have tickets to the Final 4 and can't wait to see Tennessee and Pat Summit take home the championship.

Blue Man Group- groupies

Joni and I saw the Blue Man Group on Tuesday night with our other friends here in Greenville. They are so awesome. This was the second time we got to see them. Joni gets free tickets to various events that are going on from her work so we got to go to this one. You should do a youtube search on them and see all the cool things they do with PVC pipes and stuff, it's amazing. We had a great time. Last year we got to see Sugarland in concert, plus Rascal Flatts, and the amazing Elton John. Fun stuff.