Happy Birthday Kevin!

Thoughts and Fun

I am sitting at lunch and thought...I should blog. So, here goes.


I thought I would show you what my Husband convinced me to do on Monday (president's day). He is a scuba instructor and wanted to go teach a class and be with his wife at the same time. so I went. Funny huh? I don't think anyone can look good underwater, but I think I come close. Or not. What ever!

I would like to introduce you to my little friend...Pounder. He is a small stuffed elephant ( like elephants for some reason) that sits on my desk and helps me remember that I am good enough just as I am. I sometimes struggle with the notion of being good enough...always "beating up on myself". But, when I look at Pounder...he reminds me with his little poem.

"Some people say that I should diet
I tell them all to just keep quiet
I think my weight is fine
So why don't we go out and dine?"

I know; really corny, but for some reason he reminds me to accept myself.

Can you beat this? Valentines day story!

Twenty three years ago on a cold valentine's Day Stefanie Baldwin had just found out that her date was stuck in Idaho. Not being in a very good mood her roommates drag her to some pretty lame dances. At the second one, a very handsome young man comes up to talk to her and her roommate. But you see, that's all he did was talk. Song after song goes by, Stefanie is getting a little impatient (a trait not uncommon). Finally, she interrupts the conversation between her roommate and this oh so cute young man to say, "are you going to ask one of us to dance? if not, can we find someone who will?". Rude, huh? and yet, this handsome young man turns to her and simply says, "let's go". Crazy. The night continues and let's just say it ends with an angry room mate who abandons Stefanie to find her own ride (upset that she didn't get asked to dance). Fortunately this handosme young man offers to take Stefanie home, asks her for her number, and leaves with a killer smile. Crazy evening. Later he returns to drop at her door step a box of candy lips. Funny night.

The dating begins but nothing too serious. Stefanie was young and John (the handsome young man) really enjoyed his female social standing. No settling down for him.

The semester ends and both do not expect much. Stefanie is returning to Cincinnati for the summer to work, and John had plans to attend boot camp. They said their farewells and promised to always be friends. Stefanie was later surprised to find out that the two camps John was attending boot camp at were within 3 hours of her home in Ohio. Fate? Time goes by and letters are written. Soon it is decided to make a drive to visit, this visit turned into two, and then s few road trips together. One to the hill cumorah pageant. By the end of the summer John and Stefanie had decided they were definitely more than friends.

When they returned to school all was well. Stefanie and John continued to spend time together. But John still wasn't ready for a commitment. His favorite line, "I can't ever pick a wife, I can't even pick a color of pants" Stefanie found herself a bit frustrated. So, one night, she grew tired and informed JOhn that she needed to be able to focus more on school and that either he needed to decide to marry her or let her go. He asked if he could have a week to think about it.

This picture is the Saturday at the end of the week. John came by to pick up Stefanie for dance and asked her to marry him. He told her he decided he never wanted to lose his "best friend". Stefanie's roommate took the picture. What a grand evening.

So...twenty two years ago. John took Stefanie to the Provo Temple on a beautiful Saturday morning, in the middle of a semester, and said "yes" to time and all eternity.

Can you beat that? But wait...one last things. When John was trying to find a ring it was a struggle. Stefanie is and always has been very particular. All the rings they looked at just weren't what she wanted. She had decided to just get a band and no ring when John's grandmother gave John her wedding ring to give to her. It was more than Stefanie could imagine, better than perfect (if that is possible). And...it has a heart that surrounds the diamond. Yes, ladies...this was meant to be. Now...can you beat that?

Feel free to share your romantic Valentine's day stories, but I guarantee, my will always be my favorite.

The Science Fair !

Three years ago I held the position of Science Department head. It wasn't such a bad job for the most part. But, there was one part I almost completely hated...THE SCIENCE FAIR. It is a lot of work. Organizing the students, getting prizes, judges, scoring, printing out certificates, awards assembly, angry disappointed parents. ETC etc etc. So I quit. I quit being the science department head for the sole reason of "I don't want to be in charge of the science fair!".

It is hard enough being a mother of a child who needs to complete one, to be in charge of students from the grade 1- 12 is TERRIBLE!. I got out of it for a total of three years. Each year they would hire a new science dept. head I would be off the hook!. What a great three years! YEA!!!.

But not this year. This year they decided to make Mr. Watabe the math and science department head. He is a great math teacher and I like him being my Boss (he really knows who is in charge...He He j/k) But he did nothing to start the science fair adn so I did and this week it is upon us and I remembered..."I HATE THIS".

Thankfully I have a couple of parents who are helping with the entire process and so maybe they can handle all the explanations required when a parents asks me, "why didn't susie win?..WHY?"

so.. this is my one an only post until this whole crazy event is over and I am sane once again. But check early next week...Saturday is my hubby and my anniversary and I have a great story to tell. Enjoy the pics....

over coming step by step with love

This is a picture of me when I was just a little tike, riding my trike. (funny huh?) At this point in my life my family lived in San Jose, California. I don't have a lot of memories of this city except a couple of pictures of our second home, (I was too young to have a chance remembering our first) and then I have some memories of special events. I haven't been back since I was about 12.

I am going to admit right here that at times I am a complete whiner. Last night I began to whine...to myself..at home...by myself. But then I remembered...and then I realized, that is the key. What you remember. I spent a lot of my years remembering some very painful memories.

But that is over. And who I am today is, I think, a huge improvement on who I was. and I learned...it is what you choose to remember.

I teach Psychology. Funny that someone so inept at psychological matters actually stands in front (well sits, kind of...) of a class and teaches them introductory psychology. anyway, there is a point that I taught the other day that basically says that memories that cause anxiety or stress or intense emotions are more easily remembered and more easily recalled. Those memories can often interfere with other more pleasant simple memories. In others words, sometimes, when someone has been through a tragic event that is all they can see. Well, I fell into this.

But today...well, I realized that now I need to remember different things. I need to remember those simple, happy, peaceful moments which were there, but that I forgot. I need to find that gratitude for the blessings I received but struggled to recognize for so many years. This is an interesting process and one that I have discovered..requires the atonement of Christ.

My only regret...is that I couldn't see that I truly was "born of goodly parents" because my vision had been clouded for so long.