"How to Make Love with Your Clothes On"

101 Ways to Romance Your Husband

1. Cuddle up next to him on the couch, whispering provocative things meant for his ears only.
2. Laugh at his jokes.
3. Just before he gets home from work, put on his favorite "mood" music.
4. Make a list of all the things you admire about him, leaving it as a gift next to his plate at breakfast.
5. Put your best decorating efforts into your bedroom.
6. Take him to the local mall just to sit and watch people go by. Make up stories about their lives: who they are, what they do for a living, etc.
7. Give him a super deluxe massage, complete with flickering candles, soft music, and warm rubbing oil.
8. Ask him about his favorites: colors, foods, movies, music, things to do on Saturdays, sports teams, etc.
9. While together in the company of good friends, brag about his latest accomplishment.
10. Catch his eye in a crowd and wink at him.

To be continued ...

Cream Cheese Cookies

This is the best recipe! It is SOOOO simple and the cookies are so delicious! I make these for dessert when the missionaries are over for dinner. I also make them for family home evening treats. I also love to use them as "fillers" for my cookie plates for Christmas. It's also a stand by if I've volunteered to bring a dessert to potlucks.

Make a Smilebox postcard

I think I'd like to put together a lot of super simple recipes to make a missionary or college bound cookbook. Do you have any family favorites that are just so simple even a 19 year old boy out on his own away from his family for the first time could make? Share!

Quality #6 - Wisdom

"Wisdom is the knowledge and experience needed to make sensible decisions and judgments, or the good sense shown by the decisions and judgments made from an accumulated knowledge of life that has been gained through experience.

"The quality of wisdom is more than intellectual, and it is in no way related to how much schooling you have. Exercising wisdom requires cutting through the noise of life and tapping into your core beliefs to make thoughtful decisions. Wisdom results from inhabiting all the qualities that came before it.

"A wise woman recognizes when her life is out of balance and summons the courage to act to correct it. A wise woman knows the meaning of true generosity. A wise woman knows happiness is the reward for a life lived in harmony, with courage and grace. A wise woman knows how to summon her courage and do what is right, rather than what is easy."

Suze Orman, "Women and Money"

52 Weeks Blessing

Today I am grateful that my husband of almost 20 years still brings me flowers for no good reason except he loves me!

On our very first date, Rom brought me a dozen big, bright red gladiolas. Now, it's not unusual to give flowers on the first date. But it impressed me that he didn't go conservative. No daisies or wildflowers; no cliche roses. He went with big, bold, bright red gladiolas! I thought, "This guy has balls!" (Yes, I was that crude back then.)

It was certainly a portent of things to come. Rom has never been cliche or boring, nor has our marriage and continuing whirlwind romance. He still knows how to wow me and sweep me off my feet. And I'm still loving the gorgeous bouquets of flowers that he brings home to me just because.

Denver's MVP

Congratulations, Ref! You are officially Denver's MVP for single handedly winning the game for them! Personally responsible for not one, but two touchdowns against the San Diego Chargers, you proved yourself completely indispensable to the Denver Broncos today. Your mother (or at least Jay Cutler's) must be proud!

Emergency Preparedness

September is National Preparedness Month, and so my husband did what every good man would do. He stocked our emergency food storage with the essentials.



Yes, that's right, he bought a year's supply of fine Belgian milk chocolate! And in so doing, he has officially elevated himself to The Best Husband Ever!

Words You Want to Hear

Kyara came and sat down next to me and said, "Mom, first of all -- you look cute today!" Really, I don't remember what "second of all" was. I like Kyara!

Kyara's College Choices

Ever since Kyara took her ACT and SAT, she's been recruited by many different colleges. The Pratt Institute in New York, Northland College in Wisconsin, the University of Nebraska (too bad she doesn't play football!), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Wah?), Tulane University, Florida Institute of Technology, Northern Arizona University (a strong contender) and of course, good ole BYU! My favorite, though, is Colorado School of Mimes. Umm, mimes? OK, on closer look, I discovered it was Colorado School of Mines. But, really, is that much better?

In Honor of 9/11

Whether you are Republican or Democrat or Independent, this is a great story in honor of our country. This is not an endorsement of either Huckabee or McCain, just a really great story.

Another great blog!

I stole this from Margaret (of Clark and Margaret Proffitt fame)! Too funny! Gotta love LDS culture and our ability to not take ourselves too seriously!

http://seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/

National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week

Many of you have shown me lots of love and concern over my health. After lots of testing and diagnostics, the doctors have ruled out most of the recognizable and understandable diseases like multiple sclerosis, thyroid disease, lupus, and sleep apnea. What I'm left with, unfortunately, is chronic fatigue syndrome.

I have been very frustrated with this disease, especially with the fact that it is difficult to explain and it just won't go away! I started a separate blog a little while back to kind of journal what was going on with me and how I felt about it. It was also to track my good days and bad days to try to see patterns and triggers that would help me manage this better.

So, in honor of Invisible Illness Awareness Week, I am "coming out of the closet!" I'm going to share my blog with everyone, so hopefully you can understand a little bit more about chronic fatigue and why I twitch and get flaky sometimes.

http://livingthecfslife.blogspot.com/

Cake Wrecks

What an odd and fun blog I just found! Who would have come up with the idea to do a whole blog about cakes gone wrong? Today's post was freakin' hilarious! Check it out:

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

52 Weeks Blessing

This is kind of a funny blessing. We like to open our windows up at night to cool the house. Then, in the morning, we go through and shut the house up again to keep it as cool as possible during the day.

Well, typically, I'm the last one to come downstairs in the morning, after everyone else has taken off for work and school. It used to annoy me that no one bothers to close the windows, but they leave it for me to take care.

Except, today, as I came in, I noticed that fresh sunshine smell in my kitchen. You know, the one that makes line-dried laundry smell so fantastic. There's not an air freshener in the world that can make a room smell better ... especially the kitchen! So, I decided this morning that I'm grateful everyone leaves the windows open until I take care of it, because my kitchen smells nicer and I actually get to enjoy it!