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Tornados, Forgiveness and Websites

May 21, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

I must have been living under a rock the last two days as an unbelievable tornado hit Oklahoma City, OK.
Marked as the largest and most devastating tornado to EVER hit. Wow! I saw this photo today that someone took of the debris.

It is a chilling message and reminder.

Some of best college friends live in Edmond and this was the post they made yesterday. The farm is their families farm.

“family is all safe but separated by debris right now, Orr Family farm is gone, 75-100 horses killed, family cars are missing….news is saying its the worst tornado damage ever.”

The whole thing is terrifying!

I could only reflect on a few scriptures that remind me that God lives.

Isaiah 25:4
4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.

Sunday night, North America North East (24 missions) for LDS public affairs just had a huge training in responding to disasters. The state of OK was not included but I wish it would have been. I am sure the whole Mormon Helping Hands will be organized in the next 24 hours by the missions and area authorities like we did in NY and NJ. Amazing things came of that storm as were reported at our meeting. Unfortunately, the damage is huge and the death toll high.

2. I wanted to follow up on the public humiliation post that I last posted.

All is resolved. The person offered up an apology after I resigned and asked me to stay on board. I agreed. I guess he was just having a very bad day and the meeting we were at was at the very end of the day and he blew like a volcano. It just happened to be at me.

We have been friends for 10 years, so I was so shocked.
In my email out to the board, I offered up my apology for any offense two years ago. (Again not really sure what I had done, but figured it couldn’t hurt.) I just felt like I had to take the high road regardless. The high road did indeed payoff, as we were able to discuss where he was coming from and how he felt.

I am happy that people have a chance to forgive and be forgiven so we are not harboring thoughts of negativity for years. Forgiveness offers peace and joy to both the giver and the receiver.

3. I spent most of the weekend working on a website for the Trinity High School Football Foundation. This will be a portal to distribute information to parents and players. They haven’t had anything too effective in the past and so it was deemed neccessary.

Kill my husband…he volunteered me. It went like this, “sure my wife would be happy to build that!” Huh, you just don’t volunteer people to build websites. It didn’t take to long and I am learning as I am going!

4. Finally, My clean eating rampage continues, I haven’t updated my other website…. no time, but I am on day 22…. Not sure what I have lost but feeling better and lighter.
I am desperate for menu ideas! Trying to build on that this week.

The sugar craves are gone, I eat when I am hungary but I am not having the swings like I had before.

Pizza is still the enemy!

Filed Under: Angela

Public Humiliation-

May 16, 2013 By admin 2 Comments

I am not going to go into a bunch of details, but I was publicly humiliated last night at an event. I was called out without a chance to defend myself on something that occured years ago and had nothing to do with the meeting I was in last night and in mind, the incident years ago was stupid and petty.

I was shocked and embarrassed.

I wasn’t sure how to handle it under pressure and totally off-guard, so I simply said, “I don’t think this is the forum to be discussing a matter that happened years ago” that was obviously still boiling in the so called person’s brain.

“Adulterers might have been forced to wear a scarlet “A” if they were lucky. At least two known adulterers were executed in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Public whippings were commonplace. The stockade forced the humiliated guilty person to sit in the public square, while onlookers spat or laughed at them.”

Several people came up after the meeting and were hugging me and shocked that it took place. I burst into tears with a group of people I hardly know. I left just dumb founded, blind sighted and with swollen eyes.

This was a meeting where I was actually volunteering my time, my skills and talents and was not church related…(Since I know many of you reading know that I volunteer at church often….at least in a church meeting there would have been some compassion shown.)

My feelings are this- if you have an issue with a person, go privately to that person. You don’t need to use a room full of people to humiliate someone.

If I did indeed do as the accuser said, that is for me to make right and I felt I did reconcile two years ago on every level when it was at first an issue. I could hardly believe that a petty issue was resurrected.

If you are going to be authoritative with volunteers on a committee….then I probably won’t ever volunteer for you.

Finally be humane…wow, I don’t think I could actually feel worse today.

I get asked time and time again to voluteer and give skills. I am selective and often say no to seekers. I should I have thought this one out better.

Now the lesson is for me to learn…How to make change and how not to repeat the same mistake again? I am learning how to recover today with some grace and compassion for the person who accused me. I am learning forgiveness as I know we will have to work together in the future. I am learning that perhaps no matter where you serve in life there are politics and positions.

Do I stay silent or do I address this head on with the person or in a group email to the committee to redeem myself to some degree? Do I quit and hand over the job to someone else?..Frandkly, I didn’t have the time in the first place or does that just make you look bad? So confused right now….

Which leads me to even desire more to move to a third world country where the politics are not about people but survival to live, where issues aren’t issues because saving souls and feeding people are top priorities
Oh if I could run away back to Nicragua today I would…it is so simple there.

Enough….off to our math tutor for homeschool!

Filed Under: Angela Tagged With: committee meetings, public humiliation, volunteering

ex·tra·or·di·naire

May 15, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

Nothing ex·tra·or·di·naire in my personal life is really going on right now…. Just the routine. But I am looking for ex·tra·or·di·naire things today to get excited about.

School isn’t one of them….
I can’t wait for this school year to end, if I have to drive that car route one more time to get to the high school or get up another day at 5:55am I am going to scream. I am just enduring to the end of making mundane school lunches and carpools.

I need to remember this quote-

ex·tra·or·di·naire Weather

Sure it has been 42 degrees the last couple of mornings. This is what just amazes me about New England is that fact that it can be 81 over the weekend and 42 during the week and it is mid-may….just a little rant.

I have loved every minute of spring this year despite the odd weather and the yard has been bursting with color. I hate to see it fade out into my least favorite season summer.

I love summer and the free time, I am just more a fall/spring time girl.

Everyday I just go outside and marvel how spring can continue year after year.

The creation of life born again is the most amazing thing.

It is so shocking that we have ex·tra·or·di·naire color, because usually all of the squirrels eat my bulbs. This year, I went to deep…deep into the ground with a tool that my dad bought me to hook onto a drill and we finally had success.

ex·tra·or·di·naire Travel

Brian has a ton of things brewing in his business world and I am on full time domestic duty.

When he is home we spent most of our time at the ball park. I love this photo of my two guys.

I love being married to him. He is ex·tra·or·di·naire in so many ways.

This weekend, we went and saw Grease at The Palace Theater.

I was thinking it was the National Tour of the Broadway show just on a regional basis.

But it was a local rendition. Still pretty good for regional theater and the singing was pretty good, but I am a Broadway snob now. I have to look beyond the ex·tra·or·di·naire differences. Can’t wait to get back to NYC.

ex·tra·or·di·naire life

Today, despite my inner thoughts of grumbling today, I am deciding to have an amazing life…Oh wait…it is amazing…just had to write things down to feel a little more gratitude for everything around me, sometimes we have to reflect to remind us.

Filed Under: Angela, Brian, Spring Tagged With: bulbs, extraordinaire, grease, palace theater, spring flowers, spring in new england

A Grand Mother’s Day

May 13, 2013 By admin 2 Comments

I love being a Mom and I loved celebrating a grand Mother’s Day yesterday. It was the best ever. Brian snapped this low quality photo on his phone yesterday, but I loved it anyways….simply because I love these kids.

They had gone out of their way to make my day great.

Elizabeth had picked me fresh lilacs that are in bloom right now, made me dinner and plenty of homemade cards and gifts.

Elizabeth, Brian and Noah had orchestrated a little stop at Pandora the day before and they each purchased me a new charm representing their respective lives to be remembered by on my bracelet.

Brian- Suitcase
Hillary-Camera
Noah- Baseball
Chase- Football
Elizabeth Teddy Bear

I loved everything about this small gifts that remind me of each of them. My own mother had a ring with each birthstone on it and week after week I would beg her to wear it on the pew during sacrament meeting. Now my own Elizabeth begs me to wear my Pandora bracelet. This week she turned over and said “Mommy, I really need one of these soon.”

Hillary “facetimed” on the phone from China. We talked for a long time and she sent me these fabulous photos with a Mother’s Day thought. I loved it! Simple and complete.

Hillary spent Sunday at a youth singles conference in Gongzhou, China where an area authority, Elder Gong and Elder Hong came and spoke with them. With such a small group of members in a communist city, there was a lot of interaction with the speaker. She said it was an uplifting, fulfilling experience.

We then had a huge Sunday Dinner where I fed my other son’s, the full time missionaries from our church who are living in New Hampshire for two years. They can only talk to their mother’s on Christmas and Mother’s day so they stay focused on the work. They were anxious to give them a call after our dinner date.

We spent the afternoon talking about great Mother’s in the scriptures and Mother’s on earth for our family night.

What blessings the missionaries bring into our lives. We have been feeding them our whole married life and again, learned that from my own mother, who fed and did their laundry while I was growing up.

Both Brian and I later went onto serve a mission and perhaps it was a result of the seeds of mothering.

I was able to talk to my own Mother. This week, the most important person in her life died, her Aunt, who raised her in her mid teens. My great-Aunt Donna was an amazing role model who only had one child and took in my mother during her mid teen years when money was tight for my mother’s poverty stricken family.

The reminder that many people are mothers even when they don’t bear the children is an awesome story.

I love nothing more than being a mother it has been the soul purpose for why I came to earth. Through the thick and thin of it, I am fulfilling my destiny.

Filed Under: Angela, Mother's Day Tagged With: donna glenn tombstone, elder gong, elder hong, mother's day, motherhood manual

Weekend Video

May 11, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

Here’s some quick video footage of the kids recently.

I love Hillary doing the Harlem Shake on The Great Wall of China. It so fun to see her having a blast on her semester abroad.

Last night, Noah hit a walk off home run to win the game for his team who was down for the count.
What a great ending to the game for him. All of the parents and the team were going crazy it was so dang fun.

Here is another perspective of that same hit. He was so excited!

We have had so much watching his games this season.

Filed Under: Baseball, Hillary, Noah Tagged With: Bedford Little League Baseball, Beijing, Harlem Shake, ILP china, Noah Hughes

Parenting and Pitching

May 9, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

You are kidding me! Nothing is worse than writing up my post and deleting it accidently.

Now you are going to get the modified version as I do not have it in me to rewrite.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day counseling kids are minor life choices. All of them seem to be making one decision or another or having an issue in outside relationships that needed mentoring on.

This is such a fun stage for each of them as they are learning to grow and work with outside issues.

I am so happy to be able to be home and have a relationship close enough with each one of them that we can talk through everything that needs to be talked through.

It is so scary now because the choices they are making have such huge consequences. You just want to make sure that you are leading them down the right path and you can only have faith that you are.

This photo just reminded me off all of my talk time today.

I even had to counsel Hillary for a couple of hours in China. Her life and decisions are getting more complex as she ages. It is such an exciting time for her.

She just posted some photos from her recent trip to Xian on her blog.

Here she is with a Chinese guy that she was teaching to use his Nikon on site….made me laugh.

Chase and I seem to have the same conversation over and over. He has plenty of girls knocking down the door and our conversations seem to revolve around why he can’t date, until he 16 (in two months) and then it will be group dating after that.
Prom is coming up and a ton of activities are happening in his social group now that spring has sprung.

Hard to fend off the girls….

Because I was working with one child (the youngest), I missed the first 5 minutes of Noah’s Little League game and he hit a homerun first inning.

Of course, it always happens right when you are doing something else.

Noah did get to pitch last night. He usually plays first base but has wanted to pitch!

We love everything about little league and about baseball in general. This is the big year for Noah because this is the year you can qualify for the Little League World Series.

So fun being a parent despite the challenges!

Filed Under: Angela, Parenting Tagged With: ILP china, little league world series. bedford little league, parenting

Creating Strong Families

May 7, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

I have several things on my mind today!

Creating strong families is one of them. Not the actual “creation part”…Brian would be thrilled…ha ha but the “Creating Strong” part.

I loved this article and need to have it in my journal about

Homage to the Home:
Why Society Needs Strong Families

I simply believe “In the coming decades, success will accrue to those cultures that preserve the family’s place.” (Joel Kotkin)

Filed Under: Angela, Strong Families Tagged With: creating strong families, family unions, Strong family

Life of Pi and Life……

May 6, 2013 By admin 1 Comment

Last night, I snuggled in my king size bed with three kids and watched Life of Pi for the second time.

I thought the movie was a true story the first time around, so I liked it a lot better the first time. You know I am not a fictional girl. Later, I found it was fictional and I was disappointed the whole day.

I wanted the kids to see it because I love the cinematography in it. I am pretty sure it won an Oscar for it.

But the quotes are the best. These were a few that kept me thinking….even a second time around!

Here are my favorite quotes from the movie-

“Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud…”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi

“It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi

“You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi

“These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart.”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi

I just had the best time snuggling up with every single kid…except my Hillary who I had a chance to Facetime with in China earlier. Boo miss her!

Somedays I don’t realize how blessed I am to be surrounded by kids when they are all going nuts in their own way.

Being a mother is such a great joy in life. Raising kids is a blessing. It is not just the good times, but also the bad times that make it so worth it. I often tell my kids we would be so bored without them. You can only travel so much, work so long and live so much without children. I love being my kids mom!

Filed Under: Angela, Motherhood, movie inspiration Tagged With: being a moom, motherhood

Smash, Malala Yousafzai, Humanitarian Trips

May 3, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

Let’s talk some chit chat today.

I am sad that my favorite show is probably cancelled for next year SMASH.

The music is fantastic.

“The series revolves around a fictional New York theater community and specifically the creation of a new Broadway musical. It features a large ensemble cast, currently led by Debra Messing, Jack Davenport, Katharine McPhee, Christian Borle, Megan Hilty, Jeremy Jordan, and Anjelica Huston.”

Geesh, everytime I get involved in one show it get’s cancelled. This is exactly why I don’t watch TV.

I love it because I have actually seen some of the actors and actressess on Broadway in NYC.

2. I am super excited we just found our “Volunteer Expedition for Spring 2014″ for Color My World!

We are expanding our volunteer expeditions and offering 2-3 destinations next year for those who want to serve in a third world country!

I am not telling where our newest spot is yet- but this trip will be over intercession for Bedford High School and I will offer a second week for college students (last part of April)!

I will announce mid July when we open the trip up to give people plenty of time to fundraise!

We will still do two summer expeditions for 2014 for families and students.

3. Finally…. two people in Time Magazine who really are inspirational!

Congratulations to Malala Yousafzai for making the cover of the 2013 TIME 100 issue. What a powerful young leader! I am impressed!

Thanks to TIME for also including Somaly Mam, a Cambodian author and human rights advocate, focusing primarily on sex trafficking, with a pro bono ad on page 150 (photo by Douglas Kirkland).

“Six months ago, Malala Yousafzai was lying in a hospital bed, recovering from a Taliban attack in which she was shot point-blank in the head and neck.
The shooting was meant to silence, once and for all, the outspoken Pakistani teenager who had dared to defy the Taliban’s ban against girls in school.
But it backfired: Instead of silencing the 15-year-old, the attack only made her voice more powerful.

Malala’s story has raised global awareness of girls’ education, a cause she has championed for years. And now that she’s out of the hospital and back in school, she is determined to keep fighting for equality. She will be speaking at the United Nations this summer, and her memoir is set to be published later this year.”-CNN

4. Finally, let’s end on this note that I love from Mother Theresa!

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smash_(TV_series)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malala_Yousafzai

Filed Under: Angela Tagged With: 100 inspirational people, Humanitarian Trips, lds mission trips, Malala Yousafzai, Smash, time magazine

New Blog, Jet Lag, China and Clutter

May 1, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

1. My jet lag has been beyond belief. I am going to bed at 2:00am, I can’t get on schedule I am exhausted during the day.

I am trying to recover and make some progress since I have been home but I am not doing that well. I found myself calling Brian at 2:00am who was still up on his business trip.

I then turned to Pintrest which I rarely get on and started searching for the perfect recipe for Japanese Okonomiyaki that I was craving. Weird….that is like a cabbage pancacke in Japan. I used to eat them all the time when I lived there, but haven’t had one in years.

2. I started a clean 45 day eating blog to document my journey to lose 20 pounds. This trip inspired me to get in better shape.
Why is it a seperate journal? I don’t know! I felt like being anonymous…wouldn’t you?

But now I don’t after 3 days, I think the accountability is exactly what I need. You are all invited to read…. Here is the link to the blog if you want to follow the journey.

It won’t be that exciting but it doesn’t need to be.

The idea of wearing a size 12 and not getting any skinner only larger year after year has been daunting. I need to do something. I don’t expect to be a 4-6 ever again but an 8 would be great.

The whole thing is pretty rigid but the idea is just to eat clean. It is not to say I am turning Vegan, I am going to have fish on occasion as usual and occasionally I will sneak in some Japanese food. I ate Japanese food for 4 days straight in Kauai. I may have a yogurt on occasion and I rarely eat dairy. I never ate dairy when I lived in Japan. I figure when I go to Southeast Asia in 6 weeks, I won’t be eating dairy or meat anyway…it is taboo for me and I can’t stand the open meat markets and the different body parts that they use. Might as well start now right?

I just need to clean up my skin, reduce the fat on my body, get a little toner and add some energy to my life.

3. Let’s talk about the kids, Hillary is Beijing this week travelling with her group. She also is making a stop in Xian to see the Terracotta Warriors.
We haven’t heard from her for days but we found this photos on instagram.

We love the experience she is having. Her time is going by quickly and is half over. She has 6 more weeks and then we will travel together for three weeks. I will be bringing in the reinforcememts here while we are gone. More on that later.

4. Spring has arrived and I am feeling the need to declutter since I have been home. It is spring and everything seems cluttered. The yard needs a manicure, the walls need a touch up, the kids rooms need to be rehauled.

5. Finally, my cleaning people hate that I homeschool, she just questioned me on if it was good for kids as I was typing this blog? Let’s see, nothing makes me as mad as people questioning how I raise my children. Sure it doesn’t look great as it is 10am and Noah just woke up with jet lag…she doesn’t know he didn’t sleep all night and has been travelling for 4 weeks. But is he learning? You bet. Ok before I start raging I will stop typing…..