The Countdown is On----

Last week was the last week of classes here at UVU and it was absolutely CRAZY! But I did make it through and now it's a matter of making it through FINALS week. Only one more to go and I will be done! The countdown to graduation is 2 days 6 hours. Yay! How do I spell relief? Usually in medication form like, Advil, nose spray (my personal favorite since I HATE being stuffy,) roughage (come on, you know what I mean ), etc. Right now relief is being done with my bachelors degree yet I shall miss UVU immensely. It has been my social network for 3 1/2 years. As Maria says in The Sound of Music, "when the Lord closes the door, He opens a window." Wait, I think that was the Reverend Mother---uhhh anyway I shall now break into song---Climb every mountain-----Forge every sea----Follow every rainbow---------
I guess you will have to imagine me twirling and singing as I weave in and out of the computers in the library. It's a sight to behold. Oops here comes campus police---gotta go! Happy Day! :)
Thought for the day: Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make a person a more clever devil.

Dear Jeffrey,

It's been 4 years today. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday and sometimes it seems a lifetime ago. I miss you. I miss your brilliant smile that I fell in love with the first time we met. I miss your sense of humor and the way you could make even the most ordinary everyday things worthy of hysterical laughter. I feel your spirit but miss your touch. I miss the feeling of safety I had knowing that no matter what happened, you were there and it would be ok. I could always count on you. My own personal MacGyver.
So many things have happened in the last 4 years. I will be graduating next week from UVU and then heading to BYU for a Masters Degree. Can you believe it? Me? I often wonder what you think about where I am now and what I have done with my life since you've been gone. I really hope you are proud of me.
Our family has dealt with a lot of pain in your absence. I will be doing just fine one minute and then something happens and the reality of being alone hits me so hard it takes my breath away. Grief is like that. It comes like a thief in the night, just when you think you are doing fine. I know how it feels to be lonely even when surrounded by loving family and friends. But there have been so many times of joy! I really wish you could be here physically to play with the most beautiful and loving grandchildren in the world! They are each so special and they know you because we talk to them about their grandpa in heaven. I am so proud of our children. They are wonderful men and women, each with beautiful families of their own, growing up in the gospel and striving to do the right thing. You raised them well!
Thank you for sharing your life with me. I'm so grateful that we decided when we first got married that we would enjoy life along the way and not wait until "someday" came. Because of that we all have such wonderful memories to hold on to and enjoy.
I'm so grateful for the gospel and my relationship with my Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ. I have come to know them well as I have been carried through the most difficult times of my life. The poem,"Footprints in the Sand" has special meaning to me because I have been literally carried in the arms of His love. I couldn't have made it through without this absolute knowledge of the truthfulness of the Gospel. I know that my Heavenly Father knows what's best for me and I strive to live my life in alignment with His will. I fall so short, but I am trying, and I know that this is what the atonement is all about; doing all you can do and Christ making up the difference. I hope all is well with you and that you know how deeply you are loved and missed by your family and friends. Love Janice

Thought For The Day:

Don't have a lot of time to post today so I will just leave my
Thought for the day:
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will NEVER forget how you made them feel! Happy Day! :)

My Favorite Things-----Not

Isn't the library suppose to be a place of peace and quiet? A place where I can go study and concentrate on the important things I have leaned ? A place where the knowledge I have accumulated (or had crammed into my brain against its will) flows freely from the top of my head, vibrates gently through my body, down my arm and into my fingers where they magically fly across the keyboard writing down brilliant things? hmmm ?! NOT!
My favorite things about the library;
1) the guy sitting next to me with his headphones turned up to the highest volume ever, singing (out loud) to the pounding music coming out of his ears. Does he not realize that we can HEAR him? Really? Really!
2) the guy sitting next to me, or across from me, hacking and sneezing IN MY DIRECTION, as he feverishly works on the computer with a temperature of at least 103! Yes, the same germ ridden computer that the next unsuspecting person will not realize is contaminated with the latest plague!
3) the 3 valley girls huddled around the computer laughing and giggling at the computer screen.(I do NOT want to know what they are doing)
4) the phone that is NOT on silent and rings heartily in an ever increasing volume as everyone frantically checks to see if it's THEIR phone making so much noise.
5)the guilt I feel when I am suppose to be working on an important paper or studying for an exam, and instead I am checking out every ones blog----and of course that is when the banner comes across the computers screen saying -the computer lab is full. If you are not working on school work please exit the building- oh shoot! Busted!!
Well my days of practically living in my favorite place in the world, the UVU library, are rapidly coming to an end and I think I am going through withdrawals. I will really miss this place! Where will I pick up all the latest jargon, see the latest fashions, be it comfy pajamas or short skirts with uggs, or pick up GERMS? I guess BYU has a library, fashion(more modest I would imagine) and germs, so I will kiss my past here goodbye in a couple of weeks and head to new adventures and new favorite things! Graduation Countdown; 14 days, 2 hours and 10 minutes, but whose counting? ha ha Happy Day!
Thought for the day: Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.

There's No Place Like Home

I think I have figured out one of the most pressing questions known to mankind; Why, when it comes to using the bathroom, is there no place like home? I have pondered this question at different times in my life, especially when I have been speeding home to get to "my" bathroom as sweat drips gently from my brow and the old digestive track is working overtime so as to make you think that maybe, just maybe your having an appendicitis attack---wait, I had those things out years ago! And of course, that is when you hit all the red lights in town, get behind the tractor moving slowly down main street(and taking up both lanes I might add). Then FINALLY you're home. You jump (cautiously) out of the car and race up the stairs, singing the Hallelujah Chorus. You have arrived to that wonderful place of utter relief--dun dun dun--your personal commode and all is well with the world again!
Why, you might say, did Janice bring this up? Well, I'm glad you asked! :) I was at a conference in Salt Lake a couple of weeks ago and went in to use the "facilities"(that's the politically correct term for "bathroom" in the higher end hotels) and to my utter surprise and delight, each stall actually had a floor to ceiling door on it? Yes, it's true! You mean I can't sit there and lock eyes with someone through the 2" space between the door and wall as they wash their hands and glance at me in the mirror? Or someone can't see underneath the door as the contents of my pockets fall onto the floor, or check to see if I have a hole in my sock cause I need to give my feet a breather and take off my shoes? Or, heaven forbid, see if I really just put my purse on the bathroom floor?! What kind of a woman is IN that stall? Anyway, I felt something I hadn't felt in a public bathroom for a very long time if ever------complete privacy!!! Wow, that's why we race home! I get it! Privacy where we don't have to play with the toilet paper holder, or rustle with the toilet seat protectors or keep flushing the toilet just to make noise because all of a sudden when you go in, it doesn't matter how many people are in there, you can hear a pin drop. Moral of the story? If you are ever far, far away from home and your body gives you "the nudge", just get to the nearest, nicest hotel lobby and maybe, just maybe, they will have a "facility" with floor to ceiling doors! But always remember, there's no place like home! Happy Day!! :)

Forgiveness Verses Trust

In a book I'm reading(yes it's for school so prepared to be taught! ha ha), I came across some really good information about forgiveness and trust. I know that sometimes we think that when we forgive someone, trust is part of the process. This is not the case if behaviors haven't changed. The origin of the English word forgiveness meant "letting go." Years ago you would have heard someone say, "Forgive the ropes," when they wanted you to let go of the ropes. Forgiveness is the act of facing the pain and anger that someone has brought into your life and letting go of any need or desire to pay that person back.
Trust, on the other hand, is a confidence in the integrity of a person to act in a particular way. Forgiveness is past oriented; trust is present and future focused. Forgiveness is about letting go; trust is about holding on. Forgiveness is something undeserved; trust is something earned.
Example: Lets say I'm a therapist and at the end of our session we stand up to leave the room, and you open the door for me and politely offer, "After you." But just as I walk through the door, wham-you slam it on the back of my heel. As I double over in pain, you profusely apologize, explaining that I had said something in the session that upset you and you lost all impulse control as I walked out the door.
"I reassure you that I will forgive you, and we set our next appointment. Once again, after the appointment, you hold the door for me. I walk through but then wham- you slam my heel in the door just like the first time. I pick myself up off the floor to hear you begging my forgiveness again, explaining that once more I had angered you and you were unable to contain your fury.
At this point I would forgive you but would never trust you to hold the door open for me again.
Trust is the ground from which all your expectations grow. It encompasses every aspect of a person-from something as simple as calling when you said you would call to being where you said you would be.
In a society where phrases like, "it's not worth the paper it's written on," are prevalent, we need to get back to the good old days when a man's word was his bond and if you shook hands on a deal it was as good as done. I was thinking about when we bought our cabin lot. Jeffrey had talked with the man that owned it and the man and Jeffrey had secured a deal over the phone. When the man got home, he received another phone call about the property where they were willing to pay a substantial amount more for the lot. This man had integrity and told him that he had just given his word to Jeffrey and it was sold. There was no contract and this man could have made a lot more money but he had given his word. This man had integrity. I will get off my teaching soapbox now. :)
Conference was great and Easter was exciting since the Easter Bunny had to borrow Santa's Sleigh to get to my house. :) Hope you are doing well and love to you all!!! Happy Day!
Thought for the day: " To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible. "