Are you reading cookbooks?

That is the title of a Chris Brogan blog post. I would kind of like to pretend it was inspired by a tweet I posted "Information is not knowledge" by Albert Einstein. There have been a couple other things that I have seen lately that pertain to these statements...

Chris Brogan's post is that if you are simply reading cookbooks you aren't doing anything. You can have all the cookbooks in the world, but that doesn't make you a cook. Reading and thinking about things won't get you there.

You have to DO.

I have tons of "cookbooks" about anything that has caught my interest. I have been reading and thinking and planning, but not executing. I see things that get me excited to DO something, but then drop the ball...

So what is the answer for me?

JUST DO IT!

I have listened to Darren Hardy's book, "The Compound Effect," on CD.  Logical, smart, should be so easy. But is it just another cookbook? Or am I going to follow through?

Old Dog, Relearning the Tricks

Logan & Hanna pushing Connor in the stroller outside of Temple Square

My SIL is in his senior year at BYU and will graduate in April 2013.  We are incredibly proud of him and Hanna, his beautiful wife (who also happens to be our daughter).  He has risen to the challenge of BYU, and having graduated from Mercer, Hanna supported the family and worked through a difficult pregnancy.  They are both now working hard to establish their little family.

We just returned from our Thanksgiving visit to their little apartment in Provo, UT.  Hanna has fixed it up on a total shoestring budget and it looks wonderful.  (My mother said anyone could decorate great with money -- the real talent is decorating when you don't have any money!)  She is doing a great job... THEY are doing a great job.  From our little window into their world, in the four plus years they've been married they have become a true couple -- real partners in this life.  It's a beautiful thing to see.

And I learned a few things while I was there... or should I say "relearned...?"  One is that whatever role you are filling, do it with heart and soul.  Like Hanna.  When Connor was born this past spring she said that she finally feels she "found" herself.  She had become a wonderful and supportive wife, and now is  rapidly doing the same as a mother.  It's obvious in the way she's learning and putting what she's learned into practice.  You can tell she's in her element.  She is embracing her role as wife & mother.  She's embraced her role as an eternal partner to her husband.

Logan...  he tried and tried to get an internship this past summer, but it always eluded him.  It was hard on him.  Looking back it's almost easy to say it's because he needed to be home for Hanna and Connor for those first few months -- Hanna was a very new mom with no baby experience.  He did need to be home and that was a blessing. Other things seemed to "align" just right for them, too.  Easy to see in hindsight.  

What I "relearned" from Logan is to keep trying.  He recently landed a good job with Zion's Bank.  BUT it was only after sending out more than 50 resumes. He kept putting himself out there and didn't give up.  I had forgotten that.  I sent out nearly 100 when I graduated college (none of which landed me a job, but that's another story).  After having a good career path where I was able to work my way up w/in the organization it's very difficult to get the mindset of starting all over again.  But I have to do that.

So bottom line, this old (relatively) old dog is relearning some good life lessons.  Wherever role I find myself playing, be the best I can be, and I HAVE to put myself out there, and out there, and out there until I find a good job again.  To have the faith that somehow it WILL work out.

Thanksgiving 2012

For Thanksgiving this year we were able to visit Utah;  Hanna, Logan, & Connor in Provo.  Even Trey escaped New Mexico for the week.  Traveling has always been an experience, and it was again this time.  JH was able to get us great prices on tickets, but it also meant a long layover at DFW (a very nice airport, BTW), which made for a long day of travel on either end of our trip.  So much better than running from flight to flight for sure.  I will take it any day!  But we were so blessed to have traveled on what seems like the least-traveled days as there were no lines, traffic to and from the airports was extremely light, and it all went so well it was scary.  

Connor & Grampa

We were able to catch up with our now six-month-old grandson, Connor.  Yes, I'm totally biased about members of my family, but he's a champ.  He's rolling around and on the hairy edge of crawling.  (As JH continually tells the kids, the "drool line" is about to be raised!)  He is nearly in perpetual smile mode - a happy boy and just about as good a baby as comes.  Even as a newborn he had a wonderful, expressive face, and that has only gotten more so. So it was nothing for him to make his way further into our hearts.  We are so happy for Hanna and Logan to be blessed with this little soul.  And he is a huge blessing to us all.

JH & Kids (Salt Lake Temple behind)

During the three days we actually spent there we were able to go to Temple Square, which I have seen twice in my life; once when on a family vacation when I was five and then on my way to the MTC.  We got there in the late afternoon the day before Thanksgiving.  Logan's new office is right across the street so as soon as he got off work he was able to join us.  Someday I will go back when I can spend more time, even going through the Salt Lake Temple.  

JH, Wade & Victor

We also visited JH's friends who relocated to the Salt Lake Valley from here a number of years ago.  JH still talks to Victor on a nearly daily basis, and when they started talking that evening it was like they hadn't seen each other in ages.  (Yeah, I thought women were gabby!)  Another dear friend was able to stop by, too. The Lord raised up such great friends for JH in these two good men.  It was a nice evening!

JH made his famous (to us) casseroles, showing Hanna how to do that, and then did up a big turkey on Thanksgiving.  I showed Hanna how to make gravy, although I'm not sure many people even eat it anymore.  *I* did and I think she did a great job, if I do say so myself.

Hanna and Logan were such wonderful hosts... they gave up their very comfortable bedroom to us and squished themselves on an air mattress in Connor's room.  Trey slept on the couch.  It was cozy in their little apartment, but it was full of family love.  Connor couldn't have been better with all the changes to his little world.

It was a good trip.  If you haven't heard it before.... I hate living so very far from family!!!