Category Archives: Love

13 Things I’ve Learned From Posting 1000 Posts!!!!!!!!!

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I have reached a milestone!!! Today I’m posting my

1000th post!

Here are 13 things I’ve learned from posting 1000 posts!!!!!

1-It’s ok to be yourself. 

I have learned that even though I’m not perfect, I am lovable.

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2-It’s a great way to tell your story. 

I love to read over my stories and relive my experiences.

3-I love to talk about my family, and their history.

I have wonderful children! My grand baby is adorable! My ancestors are the bomb! We are all basically pretty great people!!!

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4-It’s actually very fun to have a blog.

It’s a happy, fun, exciting place to share my life!

5-I have lots of heroes, friends, and memories.

My heroes are the good examples in my life. I try to emulate their lives. My friends are golden and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Well, my memory may go, but I’ll still have my blog.

6-Funny things happen in life.

Laughter really is the best medicine. I wrote a post once about laughing at inappropriate times, and yes I have been known to do that. I just innocently try to live my life and funny stuff just happens. I start to giggle and it’s all over. Next thing you know I have a stomach cramp, and tears are streaming down my face. I am thankful that I laugh easily. Life is too short to not laugh hysterically when the opportunity presents it’s self.

7-There are some wonderful movies and TV shows out there.

Dory: “Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming….what do we do we swim, swim!”

I need that reminder a lot.

8-Sometimes I don’t Have anything to say, believe it or not. And that’s ok.

I have been amazed at the lack of things to say, or when I can’t think of anything to post. I never thought I’d see the day. I am very social, I can talk to anyone, but I do like to be by myself and just sit still and read or relax sometimes.

9-Life is busy!

Life is busier than ever before. We’re all busy. It makes living adventurous! Sometimes finding time to do a blog post is very difficult, but I’m always glad when I do.

10-I really love Sunday’s the Best!

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Peaceful, inspirational, and spiritual! Spending the day thinking about God and His precious gifts, and looking for ways to bless others lives!

11-The world is full of Beautiful Places!

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Always focus on the beauty in this world. We are so blessed by Father above to live in such a beautiful place. Look for the beauty!

12-I have learned lot’s of lesson’s. 

I’m so glad I’ve written them down. I love to learn and I’m glad that challenges are not wasted by having to repeat difficult times. I so appreciate the lessons!

13-It takes a long time to write 1000 posts. 

Who knew it would take almost 5 years of blogging to reach 1000 posts, but I did it!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!

He’s a Great Mate!!

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Today is me and my darlins 28th anniversary!!!

I know, amazing right?

I can’t believe how the years have flown by.

So this is what we did today. I got up at 7:00 am to greet daycare kids at the door. My sweety got up a little later. We said, “Happy Anniversary!!” to each other and gave some smooches and hugs. Then my darlin got ready for work, he had to be there at 11:00 am. Some more daycare kids came. They played with play doh, and I did the dishes. A few times through out the day, I sent my sweety a text saying, “Oxxooxoxoxoxoxoxo!” Then a little while later I would get a text saying, “Ooxxoooxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxo!” Back and forth we went. Then at 5:05 he called and said he was on his way home. He arrived home, and the daycare kids left. We dressed up nice and stopped at Wendy’s drive-thru and ordered a few things on the dollar menu. We then drove to a meeting at the church. We were there for about an hour and a half. After leaving our daughter called to say, “Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for you!” We met her at the house she is dog sitting at, to give her a hug and kiss. We then rushed home to get my darling sweet hubsy to bed, because tomorrow he has to be to work at 5:00 am.

It was a nice day. Was it the best way to spend your 28th anniversary? Probably not, but that’s ok. I have learned through the years not to get to caught up in expectations. I used to, but not any more. Life is awesome! Every minute of it has something to be thankful for. I have had the opportunity to love and be loved by my best friend. I wouldn’t trade that for anything. He is my everything. We celebrate our love and marriage everyday!

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I love you, my wonderful and amazing darlinest of sweethearts!!

Happy Birthday America!

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I love this country! I feel so blessed to live in the United States of America! 

“I reverence the Constitution of the United States as a sacred document. To me its words are akin to the revelations of God, for God has placed his stamp of approval on the Constitution of this land. I testify that the God of heaven sent some of his choicest spirits to lay the foundation of this government, and he has sent other choice spirits—even you who hear my words this day—to preserve it.

We, the blessed beneficiaries, face difficult days in this beloved land, “a land which is choice above all other lands” (Ether 2:10). It may also cost us blood before we are through. It is my conviction, however, that when the Lord comes, the Stars and Stripes will be floating on the breeze over this people. May it be so, and may God give us the faith and the courage exhibited by those patriots who pledged their lives and fortunes that we might be free, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.” -Ezra Taft Benson

Angels Among Us!

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DSC05542If you visit ourjoyfulnest very often you will know that life has been extra busy.

In the month of May, my oldest son got married, and my youngest daughter left on a LDS mission. Both of these events can, and usually do, require a lot of time for planning and money to make them happen. I am a firm believer that we are truly blessed, and we will continue to be blessed with the things we need (Key word: need).  We are always blessed by a loving Heavenly Father. We live in a wonderful neighborhood, and have amazing friends. We have had so much help from others. Our friends and neighbors and family have been amazing.

So during all of this planning and spending, getting ready for the wedding and preparing our daughter to leave for a year and a half, the thought crossed my mind a few times, “Are we going to have enough money?” Then I would push that thought out and think, “Of course we will, we have to!”

One day while busily going about my day, an envelope showed up on the back porch. One of the kids said that it was just sitting there. I opened it not knowing what to think. As I got to the card I could see cash peeking through from inside the card. The card says, “Just thinking thoughts of you”. On the inside of the card written by hand it said, “You’ve prayed me here, now what will you do with me.” My eyes filled with tears as I counted the money, lots of money.

An angel or angels came to our home and blessed us. Straight from Heaven. I cried and cried thinking about how thoughtful people are. It was truly a miracle in our lives. I hope to someday be able to thank those angels who blessed our family. I don’t know if it will happen, but I will most definitely pay it forward. I love you angels!

 

Happy Father’s Day!

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I want to wish all the Father’s, Daddy’s, and wonderful men in my life a “Happy Father’s Day”!!

We all need a father. I love you all!

Also thanks to my Daddy for being the most amazing and wonderful father! I love you!

Oh and, Thank you my sweet darlin’ for being an amazing and wonderful (and sometimes Disneyland) Daddy to our children! You’re the best!

My Kiddos!

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DSC05352A few weeks before Emily left on her mission the kids were all out on the west lawn doing gymnastics and having fun. All of my children took gymnastics lessons for a period of time in their life. It is so fun to watch them playing and having so much fun together. They each took turns seeing how many back hand springs they could do in a row. Then they decided to have a hand walking contest. That’s when my darlin’ had to join in. I love time together with my family. What a wonderful experience to be a parent. I know I am so blessed to me Mama to these 4 people. I am so grateful for the love, lessons, experiences and time together for all the years we raised them. I love them so much!!

Family is a circle of friends who love you. -unknown

Coco-nut!

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photoThis furry little animal is my little sister. Her name is Coco, but it should be Coco-nut. She goes crazy when she sees me. I think she loves me. I love her too! My mom and and dad adopted her about 13 and a half years ago. She is a sweet little friend to my parents and I’m glad they have her in their lives. We should all have the opportunity to have at least one furry friend in our lives.

 

Busyness!

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I recently wrote a post about how busy things have become. Last Sunday, “Bonus Baby” spoke in church, before leaving on her mission. It was mother’s day and we had a house full of guests here to see Emily speak. After Emily spoke, we had 60+ people at our home. It was a fun and very busy weekend. Emily did such a great job on her talk. She is a sweetheart and I am so blessed to be her Mama.

This Monday is Riley and Janet’s wedding. We have been busily making decorations and preparations. One of my favorite things that we have been working on is a bench to put Riley and Janet’s gifts on. It started out as our old bed frame. For years my sweetie and I shared a full size bed. We’re not tall people, and a lot of that time my darlin was working graveyard. When I got out of bed, he was getting in bed. We finally graduated to a queen sized bed. I kept the frame for all of these years because I wanted to make a bench out of it. So with the wedding coming up, we decided it was a great time to make the bench. It is turning out so cute!! We’re not quite done with it. Here’s a pic

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We will be busily decorating on Monday morning so Riley and Janet can get married. Then Monday night we’ll have a reception for them. I am so happy for them. They are a very good match for each other. Every mother wants her children to marry a wonderful person. Riley is marrying a wonderful person. We love Janet.

Just two days after the wedding, Emily will leave on her mission. (That was part of the reason for having the wedding two days before, so Emily wouldn’t miss it.) We will drive to the MTC in Provo and drop her off. Then we won’t see her for a year and a half. Ouch. I’ve done this before, but I never get used to dropping off a missionary and saying good bye for a time. The hardest part about this one is, she is my baby. My baby grew up. We used to tell the kids when they were little that “growing up” was against the rules. It was fun to get their responses to that. They’d say something like, “But mom, I have to grow up!”

She did it. She broke the rules, just like the others.

My church calling has been quite busy. I am the Primary President in our ward and I absolutely love it!! I have meetings every Sunday with the children in our ward. We sing and learn together. I love the be in Primary. I meet with my counselors and my secretary each week for an hour or so. We love the children and the teachers who serve with us. We feel very blessed knowing that Father in Heaven is helping us to do our best.

After the wedding, and Emily leaves, things will calm down quite a bit. I think I might have too much time on my hands. I know there will be tears. I know I will miss my “Bonus Baby”. I also know she will do an amazing job on her mission and will bless many people. I am happy when my children have amazing opportunities. This is how I feel about being the mother to a missionary.

I’ll just keep doing what my mission president taught me.

“Bloom Where You’re Planted!”

Life is good!

Happy Valentines Day!

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My cute little Emily and her friend Sam had a great idea for Valentines Day.

They decided since they don’t have a sweetheart to give a Valentine to this year that they didn’t want to let it get them down. So they decorated sugar cookies and delivered them to friends and left an anonymous note telling them they were loved.

How sweet.

When they got home from delivering their treats they were just smiling and laughing and talking about how much fun it was to drop off the treat and run for the get away car. I think Emily even slipped on some ice once and “bought the farm”. What darling girls they are!!

Tomorrow is Valentines Day. I have always felt like it’s not just about my sweetheart, it’s about all of the ones I love. My favorite tradition for Valentines Day it to have a candle lite dinner with my whole family. When the kids were little, they thought it was so neat to eat dinner by candle lite. So that’s what we’ll be doing on Valentines Day.

Also, my “Bonus Baby” Emily is waiting for a mission call right now. It should come tomorrow!! So hopefully, we’ll have our candle lite dinner, then a mission call opening party with friends and family! I sure hope it comes, it should.

I hope you have someone, or lots of someones to love tomorrow. If not deliver some love to someone who needs it, you’ll feel better I promise!

Happy Valentines Day!! Love, Joy