Since today is Thanksgiving, I thought I'd write a blog post about one of the many things that I am thankful for, family. I'd like to post about an experience that I had over the weekend.
Saturday morning, November 20th, my mom asked me if I would like to go down and visit my grandma. I knew that this would be the last time that I would be able to see her. My parents, but especially my mom, have been going down weekly to see her and support her and she was nearing the end of her life. I have so many fond memories of my grandma. I'd like to share a few of them here.
For the longest time one of my Aunts took care of her. My aunt and uncle, along with my grandma, live in Salem Utah. It's a little city near Payson, which is just South of Spanish Fork and Provo. I remember going to visit my grandma on occasion while she lived in Salem. There was a beautiful pond just outside the home that she lived in. We used to go and feed the ducks and watch the kids play. We had a few of our family reunions there. We would get together and have barbecues and the kids would play games. One of the games that I can remember was with PVC pipes and small marshmallows. We would run around shooting them at each other and see would could avoid getting hit, as see who would get hit them most. Good times...
For most my life Dorothy Wright, my grandma, lived in Provo Utah. It was easy to get to and just down the street from both the MTC and the BYU football stadium. When I was little, my brothers, cousins and I would go fishing in her backyard. She had a little stream that we thought we could catch fish in. To the end of a sturdy stick we would fasten a long piece of string, a paperclip and some cheese and throw it over the fence. We would spend so much time there thinking that we had bites and that we almost hooked a fish or two. Little did we realize that there probably weren't any fish in there at all.
One of my earliest memories of my grandma was when I was about 3 or 4. My family and extended family were always pretty close. We used to visit my grandparents quite frequently. My grandma on my mom's side was Grandma Wright. My grandma on my dad's side was Grandma Young. Well, when you're 3 you pick up the funniest things. I thought "Wright" was actually "Right." I ended up thinking, and possibly calling them Grandma "Right" and Grandma "Wrong" for some reason. I think it had to do with the fact that my Grandma Wright always had cookies and other things that she gave us, while my Grandma Young only had lemon drops and nothing else. Although I didn't like the lemon drops that much at first, I grew to love them and like sour candy to this day.
There was always something to do at grandmas place. She had a closet that had games packed in there from floor to ceiling. I remember wanting to count them to see how many she had, but never got the chance. My grandma also taught us as little kids how to make bread and how to keep things clean by cleaning up while you were working. She also did dishes the old fashioned way. Even though she had a dishwasher for a number of years, she washed them all by hand to save water.
Yesterday morning, on the 22nd of November around 6:30 a.m., my grandma passed away. Even if all of my grandparents have passed away now, I can say that I knew each of them pretty well save one, who passed away when I was about 4 or 5. In this short blog post I just wanted to thank my grandma for the life that she lived and all the lives that she blessed while here on this Earth. Including mine. I know that I will see her again someday. I love you grandma!!!
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Several years ago I was able to serve an LDS mission in Milan Italy. I was there from March of 2001 through March of 2003. It was one of the best experiences of my life for a number of reasons. In particular, it helped me to prepare for life itself as I moved forward.
One of my goals was to go back to Italy. I wasn't sure when I was going to be able to, but the opportunity presented itself once I graduated from college. One of my friends and I were talking about vacations and she mentioned about wanting to go to Europe. She then remembered that I served a mission in Italy and asked if I wanted to go back someday. I said yes, that I would love to! She then said that we should go once I graduated, and I agreed. We spent the next few weeks trying to get people to come. Only two girls were able to come for one reason or another.
I knew that this time in Italy would be different for number of reasons. The biggest was that I would be able to enjoy Italy from a whole new perspective. I have kept up on my Italian fairly well, but I wasn't sure how it would be one I got back there. At first it felt like I was a little hesitant in talking, but it soon seemed to flow naturally.
The trip, which the girls named "Gelatofest", was a lot fun and eye opening to me for several reasons. The cities that we visited on this trip were Milano, Genova, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Fiorenze, Siena, Roma and Pompeii. Each city was incredible in so many ways. I would have had more time, I could have spent days, if not longer, in each city.
From this trip I learned that trips really help you to get to know people. (It's not often that you get to spend 24 hours with people.) I learned that know matter how well you think you may know someone, there is still more to learn.
Here are a few of the pictures from a few of the cities that I went to:
Milano
Genova
Cinque Terra
Pisa
Florence
Pompeii
Rome
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I got an email from a friend at work and thought it was hilarious, so I thought I'd share it on here:
If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot.... BOTH ways… yadda, yadda, yadda
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!
And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!
I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!
There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!
Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our a $$ ! Nowhere was safe!
There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!
Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car.. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?
We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!
There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOD !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.
And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!
You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!
There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!
And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!
And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!
And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were luckily, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!
See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!
Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd
(Send this to someone you'd like to make smile)
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Many of us go through life without a second thought. Others are constantly evaluating the efforts that are made in their own lives to make sure they are constantly becoming better. I know of several people that fit into both areas, but haven't really had the opportunity to grasp what life is really all about. At the same time, I know of many that do. Life is full of challenges and opportunities. It's all on how we look at it as to whether we will succeed or not. Recently I went though an experience that I am grateful that I'm still alive (and I've had several of them growing up). My experience brought me to pondering the various aspects of my life and where I currently stand. I would like to share my experience with you...
I was at a pool party with several of my friends. It was a tri-ward party at Bishop Craig's home. Several of us were playing around in the pool. There was a slide and we were going down several ways: frontwards, backwards, in trains, etc. One time there were three of us that were going down. I was the third one up on top to go down the train. As we started to go down, the guy in the middle pushed out and up to get us going. With me being on the top, there was little room, if any, from the top of the slide and being knocked off... Turns out that I got knocked off.
As this started to happen, for some reason I saw everything happening before it did. I knew I had few options if I didn't want to get hurt pretty bad, if not die. If I tried to grab anything, I could potentially do myself in. Knowing that could happen, I guarded my head with both my arms and waited to see what would happen. I ended up falling about 8 1/2 feet and landed on the cement and immediately rolled into the pool. It all happened so fast, that I got right up like nothing happened. Everybody was staring at me, most without saying a word. One of my friends, Ben Baker, asked if I was okay. I told him I was fine, just a little sore. Another friend, Christy Butler, made me get out of the pool. She went and got me ibuprofen and ice. The rest of the night I just talked to a few of my friends. I had the fortunate opportunity to tell my story numerous times along the way.
While I thought nothing of the experience, I listened to advice of others and went to the doctor to get everything checked out. It turns out that I was extremely lucky and nothing happened but swelling and bruising. One of the many miracles that I have had in my life.
After going through this experience, I realized once again that this life is too short to let everything pass by. I have been blessed with so many amazing people in my life that have helped me obtain a life full of joy. I consider these types of situations gifts and riches. With that said, I truly can consider myself one of the richest men in the world. All because of the strength, support and love by those that care for me. Thank you.
Adam
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I haven't written on here in a while so I thought that I would. Life is full of mysteries and opportunities. Sometimes we have control over them and sometimes we do not. My hope is that I will have the strength to overcome the trials that are placed before me, no matter what they may be. I grew up being an optimistic person. But even at that, times do get hard. Finding the strength from within can be easy at times, and other times not. That is part of life. But I do know that if I give what I can, not looking back at the past on dwelling on it, but pressing forward through those experiences with a strength and a faith that things will turn out right, they will.
I have been a fan of quotes growing up as well. Here are a few Inspirational Quotes that i found a while ago:
I'd rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I'm not. ~ Kurt Cobain ~
Life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. ~ John Maxwell ~
The most wasted of all days is one without laughter. ~ E. E. Cummings ~
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. ~ Walt Emerson ~
I don't think anything is unrealistic if you believe you can do it. ~ Richard L. Evans ~
I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. ~ Anne Frank ~
No day in which you learn something is a complete loss. ~ David Eddings ~
Most people live and die with their music still unplayed. They never dare to try. ~ Mary Kay Ash ~
The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us. ~ Voltaire ~
Give it all you've got because you never know if there's going to be a next time. ~ Danielle Ingrum ~
I went to a funeral service for the mother of a neighbor/ward family yesterday. She passed away from terminal cancer. This family was one of the strongest families I've even known! Several months ago, one of the daughters was on an LDS mission in England and passed away. No one expects to go through trials like this. Especially within such a short time frame. But throughout everything, this family has provided an incredible example for so many people. Me included. I just wanted to mention a couple of thoughts/impressions that I gained during the service:
1. The gospel is real!
2. Satan and his followers will never give up, but will ultimately lose.
3. The closer you draw unto the Savior, the easier it is to follow his teachings and to know what's right.
4. Providing service is one of the best ways to draw close to the Savior.
Life doesn't always go as we plan. We will all have trials, and at times will try us to our very core. That's why this quote by Albert Einstein applies so well:
The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
We may not always know why we face trials. But if we can learn from them, pressing forward through them, we will come out a better person in the end.
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2009 ended in a way the best that I knew how, with good friends that I hadn't seen in a while. I was debating where to go and who to hang out with. I texted a few of my good friends and asked them what they were planning on doing. A few of them got back and mentioned a few parties that I already knew about, but wasn't sure if that was really what I wanted to do. Right before I left for a party in Salt Lake with my friend Danny, one of my friends texted me back. Emily was hanging out with a few of my good friends from a long time ago. I mentioned to Danny about it and we stopped in on the way. Great idea!!! I was glad because I was able to hang out with some of my best friends from my early college years!
We ended up talking till 3 or so in the morning. I love doing that because you can get the best conversations and get to know people the best that way. One of my college professors mentioned once about this very thing. He said
You probably wont take very much out of this class when all is said and done. You probably wont take much out of your college education in a matter of speaking. The best experiences and memories you will most likely take from your college experience is from talking to your friends at two in the morning, about absolutely nothing.I agree with this completely. Some of my best times have fallen into this category. Ringing in 2010 added to those memories and started of a great year!
So 2009 came to a close. There are a lot of memories and experiences that I had over the past year. Some were great, and some were not. Some experiences helped me to see myself in new way. My friend made a comment on his Facebook wall last night that I liked, but don't completely agree with. He said:
May 2010 be less sucky than 2009 :) Happy New Year everyone!!!
I agree with is because it proposes thought of 2010 being a better year than the past. It could also focus on 2009 being a bad year, by looking at 2009 being "less sucky". I probably could say that just as much as anyone, but I don't agree. Yes, times can be hard, and yes, they do have their down times. I learned long ago from my mission president something important that I will never forget. At the time, I just found out that my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. I found out on Christmas Day of 2001. A few months prior to that my grandpa on my dad's side passed away from a disease that took him fairly quickly. I was really close to him as well. Missionary work wasn't going that great at the time and I had a companion that was tough to relate to. My mission president said something to this manner (and I'm paraphrasing it because I've altered it to fit my situation several times):
You may not always be able to control the situations around you. (People have their agency to chose). All you can do is the best with what you are given. If you do, things will work out the way they need to. You're family will be blessed because they won't have to worry about you. You will be blessed you will be doing what you should.With that, I realized that things can happen in this life that you may not be prepared for. You may not be able to do everything that you wanted, and you may struggle from time to time. The one thing I do know is that I am determined to live through the experiences for my own good. To become a better person. A better me!
I have a perfect scripture to relate to this. It's in Doctrine and Covenants Section 122: 5-7. I'm just going to quote the last part:
... above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.With the coming of 2010, I plan on making this year the best of my life. I know if I do my best if every way, I will be the person that I should be.
