I realized today as I was sitting in my quiet spot at work that I have not expressed the purpose of this blog. I am not merely making sure you all know about the happenings in my life. One of my goals this year is to simplify my life and gain better organizational skills. While my desk at work is absolutely organized, my room is clean, and my bathroom is spotless, my life is in complete disarray. I can't seem to keep track of appointments, events, ward activities, meetings, and Suzy time. Creating this blog is one of my attempts at putting my life back together. I have also purchased a pocket organizer which has already come in handy. I am slowly taking control of the life I want to live, and having fun while doing it. Some of my thoughts, feelings, and ideas might be wrong, or idiotic, but they are mine nonetheless. . . and just like grandma J. I will do whatever I darn well please. I am also going to share some of my favorite quotes. These are just a few:    

   Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. Make all your friends feel there is something in them. Look at the sunny side of everything. Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best. Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your won. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give everyone a smile. Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. Be too big for worry and too noble for anger.--Christian D. Larsen (Creed for Optimists)

It may seem conceited to you to suppose that you can do anything important toward improving the lot of mankind. But this is a fallacy. You must believe that you can help bring about a better world. A good society is produced only by good individuals, just as truly as a majority in a presidential election is produced by the votes of single electors. Everybody can do something toward creating in his own environment kindly feelings rather than anger, reasonableness rather than hysteria, happiness rather than misery.--Bertrand Russell

"Consider the following. We humans are social beings. We come into the world as the result of others' actions. We survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives when we do not benefit from others' activities. For this reason it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others.Nor is it so remarkable that our greatest joy should come when we are motivated by concern for others. But that is not all. We find that not only do altruistic actions bring about happiness but they also lessen our experience of suffering. Here I am not suggesting that the individual whose actions are motivated by the wish to bring others' happiness necessarily meets with less misfortune than the one who does not. Sickness, old age, mishaps of one sort or another are the same for us all. But the sufferings which undermine our internal peace -- anxiety, doubt, disappointment -- these things are definitely less. In our concern for others, we worry less about ourselves. When we worry less about ourselves an experience of our own suffering is less intense.What does this tell us? Firstly, because our every action has a universal dimension, a potential impact on others' happiness, ethics are necessary as a means to ensure that we do not harm others. Secondly, it tells us that genuine happiness consists in those spiritual qualities of love, compassion, patience, tolerance and forgiveness and so on. For it is these which provide both for our happiness and others' happiness." [Ethics for a New Millennium, by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama]

Love doesn't make the world go 'round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile. — Franklin P. Jones

He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.  — Raymond Hull
It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.  — Henry David Thoreau