Collin Receives His Arrow of Light

Hooray for Collin (and his great scout leaders). Tonight he received Cub scouting's highest award, the Arrow of light.

This is what one of his great leaders had to say about Collin moving out of webelos to boy scouts, "I will really miss Collin. He was such a great kid. He always worked so hard and got along so well with all the other boys in the group. I have really enjoyed getting to have him in Webelos and I hope that he will go onto enjoy his experiences in scouting." That's high praise, I thought, and absoultely music to my ears.

After three years of Pack meetings and watching others receive their award, it was finally Collin's turn. I'm so glad that he finished the requirements for this. I thought we get a little break, because Connor enters cub scouts in February. But, oh no, we can start working on boy scout achievements now.

It's a great program. I love it!

Ordinary People Extraordiary Things

I live around the coolest people!

I just updated What I Admire About You. You gotta read it.

Blogs I Enjoy

I'm finally figuring out how to use google reader so that blogs I like show up on my homepage everytime they are updated. How cool is that.

Here are two that I've enjoyed reading the most lately. When you have a second to relax these are both worth it.

Light Refreshments Served

Normal Mormon Husbands

What I Admire About You

Today's post is on a new blog that I just started called:

What I Admire About You

I hope to start posting regularly on the subject of my everyday hereos on that blog.

I'd love for you to check it out.

Life Long Learning

I went to Education Week at BYU on Tuesday. I want to write a few of the things that stood out to me in hopes that I’ll remember what I’m learning.

First, I listened to Elder Hales speak on the theme of the conference, Life Long Learning.

He started by asking, “What does it mean to be a life long learner?” I wrote some notes.
• Joy of being edified rather than the pleasure of being entertained

Why should we be life long learners?
• Learning is NOT to impress others rather to change ourselves in order to help others

How can we do it?
1. Courage—“God has not given us the spirit of fear but of courage.” “There were fears in your hearts and this is the reason you did not receive.” D&C 67:3 Replace fear with faithful desire.
2. Patience—sometimes what we learn may not seem valuable until weeks or years later. Thomas Edison once said, I have not failed I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
3. Curiosity—it is God given. Ask the question why? Often the best teachers are the best students. He quoted President Packer’s response when people had asked him how to understand the atonement of Christ.
“Read the Book of Mormon a few times, study the atonement and then write a one page summary of what you’ve learned, and then you will have your answer.”
4. Willingness to Share Knowledge—One achievement is only the dawn of a new beginning. Enjoy the view once you reach the top of the mountain. Then set a course for new heights in the future. Never dwell on the past or stay in your comfort zone when challenged with technological achievements.
5. Humility—Source of all knowledge is God. We gain knowledge to better serve. Continually feast on scriptures. Pray before scripture study to prepare and then pray again after to give thanks.
6. Communication—Great teachers are also great listeners. They don’t provide all the answers; they lead them to the fountain and motivate them to drink. Never dwell on the past or stay in your comfort zone when challenged with technological advancements. Move forward.

“Motherhood is the ideal opportunity for life long learning. It is exponential and not linear. The spiritual learning that happens as a mother prepares lessons for her children is exponential to her own growth.”—this is not a direct quote but close

My own thoughts about why I really liked this talk. I’m glad Elder Hales reminded me again that God has not given us the spirit of fear. I am also encouraged to grow in my ability to communicate through technological advancement. Ross will be especially excited about this because he's been wanting me to get over my "technophobia" for awhile.

I also like the idea that curiosity is God given. Sometimes when I read the scriptures I get discouraged because I have more questions than answers. His encouragement to write what I learn makes so much sense to me because when I write the knowledge becomes mine. I understand that the advice is to write, perhaps not always publish my learning. Hmmm.

That brings me to my scripture study yesterday. This is what I read, “I say unto you who now hear my words, which are my voice, blessed are ye inasmuch as you receive these things;
For I will forgive you of your sins with this commandment—that you remain steadfast in your minds in solemnity and the spirit of prayer, in bearing testimony to all the world of those things which are communicated unto you.” D&C 84:61-62

I’ve heard that scripture before but it seems different to me this time. Maybe because I was just telling Corinne the other day that I knew my feeling grumpy and irritable was mostly a sign that I needed to repent. So, I’m doing another experiment. Will blogging help me be forgiven?

I blog because I don't go to enough dinner parties

To understand this title you've got to click on the video below.

Thanks to Jason Adams for sharing this Brian Reagan clip about the ME monster. I laughed so hard. I know you may think he's making fun of me, but I actually thought of about 100 other people who really need to see this. If you can think of someone who needs to see this you may want to share it with them too. But, never me, ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ogZo9YreQ4

You may also want to check out Jason's wise comments here: http://thriveblogging.com/archives/145#comments

I'm so glad he shared this! I want to be like Jason when I grow up too, and now I'm not being sarcastic because he really is one of the most humble guys I know.

Kiera Knightly Says No to Bigger Bust

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5471524

If Kiera says no than certainly I can too, right? Not that anyone wants to airbrush any pictures of me. Should I even admit that that would be a tough decision. But, that's not the point. The point is WAY TO GO Kiera. She's taking a stand that says, "I'm enough just the way I am."

Perhpas I have another hero. Can I also want to be like Kiera Knightly when I grow up? Too bad she's 23, huh?

I need more than one blog, don't I? Perhaps this isn't quite appropriate Ironmoore family content? Maybe I need something anonymous so not to embarrass myself? Thoughts anyone?

When I grow up I want to be like Dara Torres

It's true! I look to Dara and her amazing Olympic swimming performance and I'm awe inspired. The fact that she is faster than ever at 41 years old is absolutely unheard of. If anyone can help me find the child inside of me it's Dara. When I saw her swim on Saturday I felt like a kid thinking "I want to do that!" "Can I be like her when I grow up?"


Now that I'm old enough to know better I know that I don't want to do what it takes to swim in the Olympics. So what do I mean when I say I want to be like Dara?


1. I want to be in the best physical shape of my life when I'm 41.


2. I want to follow my dreams.


3. I want to continue to get better with age.


4. I want to not be stopped by people who say, "You're silly, Grow up."


5. I want to be a mom who loves my children and teaches them to swim.


6. I want to inspire others to be their best self.


7. I want my own massage therapists and stretching coaches :) I had to throw that in.


I thought these articles were interesting, though, I'm still taking a different view. Go Dara!


http://www.usnews.com/blogs/on-women/2008/7/30/dara-torress-abs-and-the-average-womans-body-image.html


http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/olympic-abs-versus-simple-fitness/

Olympic Dreams

Don't you think watching the Olympics brings out the dreamer in all of us?

I spent most of my youth believing that someday I would swim in the Olympics. Just for fun, I found this picture of Mary T. Meagher who was an idol of mine from the 1984 Olympics. She's one of the greatest swimmers of all time and she was even nice enough to write me back when I wrote her a letter in the 7th grade.

In 1996, I sat in the stands and watched swimming at the Atlanta Olympics, which is the closest I've ever really came to living that dream.

I've realized over the last few days that I'm not terribly unique in having the dream to compete in the Olympics. In fact, I'm coming to the theory that maybe there's a tiny bit of that dream in everyone. Don't you agree?

For example, when Ross heard during the Opening Ceremonies that the oldest athlete competing is from Japan. He's 67 and in the equestrian events. Ross said, "Well, there's still hope for me, perhaps in a shooting event. It may not be too late to be in the Olympics." We chuckled at the thought of Ross taking up shooting in order to become an Olympian.

Then this morning as I was chatting with some neighbors about the Olympics. Bridgette mentioned that her husband was trying to imagine what sport she ought to do. He had decided probably not volleyball because he likes her face the way it is and wouldn't want her to get smashed in the nose. "Badminton! That's my husband's choice for my Olympic sport." We laughed again. Is it funny because we all really have a secret desire to compete in the Olympics?

So what's yours? What sport would you choose to become an Olympian if you were to dream big? I shared mine in a previous post. When I was watching the cycling the other day I felt like a kid all over again. Unfortunatley, it hasn't motivated me sufficiently to get on my bike recently. (After Natalie's husband crashed I've decided to wait until I get a working cell phone before I go out again. So glad he seems to be doing better now.) In the meantime I'll be dreaming. How about you?

Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I don't normally watch t.v. We get 5 channels and that's great because the kids can watch PBS a little, and on Sunday evening we usually gather for Funniest Home Videos. We stopped watching the news a few years ago when Collin asked us, "Why does everyone hate Americans?" It was either that or when he was asking me at the age of 4 what "rape" was. We learned to read our news on the internet. But even now, if something big is going on in the world, I usually find it out from people who saw it on the news who tell me. That's ok with me. Plus, Ross isn't one of those guys who needs Sports Center, so we get along fine with a 20 year old t.v. and a few channels. That's until now! We've sat and watched several hours of Olympics together and plan to watch more. I'm LOVING IT!





It's AMAZING! I'm having a great time watching Micheal Phleps, and Natalie Couglin, Aaron Piersol, and Jason Lezak, and I could go and on naming swimmer after swimmer. I'm in heaven. Aren't you?

Another thing that's really fun is talking to everyday people (who normally don't follow swimming) about swimming. How fun is that! Anyone want to get together and watch underwater video, and pick apart details about why some of these guys are so incredible? That's fun for me.

I don't just watch swimming, though. I was a tiny bit surprised by how much I loved watching the women's cycling 70K road race. I felt like a little kid all over again, thinking, "I wonder if I could do that someday?" Yes, I'm inspired by the Olympics.

Today the Stacey's move out. This weekend I will continue to watch the Olympics and then Monday the kids will go to their first day of school. Is anyone as giddy as I am?

Summer Fun

These are the days of summer fun.

Until next year!