Time Passages

I have not been very good about writing lately and I feel bad about that. I thought with seminary over my life would be simpler, but at least so far, it has not. We have been busy with some very good things though. On Friday afternoon my husband and I traveled with my son and his wife to the little town of Snowflake, Arizona to attend the wedding of my son's best friend. It was fun to get away for the night and to visit with Ryan and Kali. And of course, it was great to be at Aaron's wedding. We have watched Aaron grow up, go on his mission and now be married in the temple to his sweet wife. It is fun to see those we have known so long move forward in their lives, marking off different passages of time--HS graduation, mission, marriage . . .

Snowflake Temple

I had never been to Snowflake before and I was a bit surprised at how small the town was. When you stand at the front door of the temple and look out, all you see is desert. Still, it was a nice, quiet little town and the temple was gorgeous. Inside, behind the front desk were some of the most beautiful stained glass windows I have ever seen.

Following the wedding and a luncheon in Pinetop, we drove [quickly] back to Phoenix to attend the baptism of a lady my husband works with and her two children. About two years ago Wes and his business partner gave the woman a Book of Mormon. Over the course of time she and her family have come to know for themselves that the Book of Mormon is true and were eager to enter into the covenant of baptism. It was such a wonderful experience to be there and witness the event. Attending both a sealing in the temple for all eternity and a baptism made for a very memorable day.

On Sunday we had seminary graduation. My daughter, Kathryn was one of the speakers and spoke on teacher appreciation. I guess they felt she was qualified to speak on the topic since she not only attended seminary, but also has lived most of her life with a seminary teacher. She did a great job and I was very proud of her.

Another great moment of the evening for me was when I was visiting with a friend afterwards and noticed five of my seminary boys gathered together and standing a few feet away, waiting to tell me goodbye. My heart just swelled with love for them and their goodness.

Since then life has been a series of hectic errands trying to get ready for upcoming events. And of course I am still on my diet. So far I have eaten a lot of this:

And this:


But what I would like to eat is this:

But I am holding strong! And I only have three more pounds to go to weigh what I weighed before teaching seminary this year. (That will be a good starting place for additional weight loss during the summer)

Thanks mostly to my good friend Susan who is my walking partner and a great motivator,

My daughter Kristen who has taken over cooking dinner so I don't have to make my family one meal and eat another,

And all my kids who, when I say, "That looks good" to a food item they are eating that is not on my diet, respond with , "It isn't. It is really terrible. You would hate it."

It is always nice to have support in hard things! That helps so much to bring . . . joy to my journey!

I hate diets

I hate dieting. I really do. I realize if I could eliminate the extremes in my life and just learn to be moderate all the time, I wouldn’t have to be starving myself right now. But I went to the doctor the other day for my annual check up—(which I haven’t had in two years). For the past year I have mostly managed to avoid bathroom scales, but of course, try as I might, they wouldn’t let me get away without being weighed for my physical. So, I stood on the scales and watched as they moved the weight measure up and up and up.

Depressing!

This past year has been a hard one. Going back to teaching seminary meant an increase in stress, and a decrease in sleep and energy. Neither contributed to a healthy lifestyle and now at the end of the year I am paying the price for it. And then of course, my birthday is coming up. And no one wants to face a birthday feeling frumpy.

So, I decided to go on a very strict, starvation diet for a few weeks to jump start my “Summer of Physical Fitness”. And yes, I know this isn't the best way to do things, and basically, life has been just a little bit miserable.

My good friend Lisa sent me some information she thought would help though. It said:

We can’t eat pork—swine flu
Can’t eat chicken—bird flu
Can’t eat beef—mad cow disease
Can’t eat eggs—salmonella
Can’t eat fish—heavy metal poisons in their water
Can’t eat fruits and veggies—insecticides and herbicides

That leaves . . .

CHOCOLATE!!!!!

Apparently the leaders in our ward already knew that, because we had a lot of chocolate in church on Sunday. After sacrament meeting they gave out Symphony Bars to all the mothers. In Sunday School they had chocolate cookies and chocolate kisses and in Relief Society we had two kinds of chocolate kisses.

And I didn’t eat any of it. I also didn’t eat any of the mashed potatoes my family made for my Mother’s day dinner, or any of the very yummy green bean casserole. Nor did I have any of the chocolate mint cookies they made for dessert. (What were they thinking tempting me like that???)

Six days down and counting. But my, that Symphony bar sounds so very good right now. So does a hamburger. And maybe some fries. . .