European Vacation - Day 6

Sorry...

No post today!

It is the Sabbath,

And I need a day of rest!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - day Saints

Geneva Switzerland Mission Home

President and Sister Murdock

Chambesy, Switzerland

European Vacation - Day 5

Life is about perspective...

How do I see things from where I am?

Nyon, Switzerland - Lac Leman

Nyon, Switzerland

Do I look at things as if they are ordinary?

Mundane?

Nyon, Switzerland

Yvoire, France

Or, do I let myself walk around the corner

and see the breathtaking beauty that surrounds me?

Vibrance!

Yvoire, France

Yvoire, France

Nyon, Switzerland

For that is what life wants to show us.

We just have to be willing spectators!

Nyon, Switzerland

Nyon, Switzerland

European Vacation - Day 4

Sometimes in life....

a picture really is worth a 1000 words!

Enjoy the feast...

Overlook for Mt. Blanc - 12680 ft

Chamonix, Mt. Blanc, France

Annecy, France

Annecy, France

Annecy, France

Chocolatiere, Annecy, France

Annecy, France

Annecy, France

Annecy, France

Thank you President and Sister Murdock for the remarkable day!!!!

European Vacation - Day 3

View from Staubbach Hotel, Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Life is about the ups and downs...

the ebb and flow..

Grindalwald, Switzerland

Grindalwald, Switzerland

When life changes your plans and the clouds come in and cover your destination,

Weissnenbach, Switzerland

then just drive down the mountain and explore another canyon!

Weissenbach, Switzerland

Interlachen, Switzerland

We must have the opposition in all things,

so we truly get a feeling of what life is all about!

Co du Pillon, Switzerland

Zeissiman, Switzerland

Little Mens

How do you explain what a Garden Gnome is, to a shop owner who speaks very little english?

A dwarf?

An elf?

OH... Little Mens!!!!!

and now for my favorite!!!!!!!

That's Right!!!!!

European Vacation - Day 2

Gargoyles are said to scare off and protect from any evil or harmful spirits. A mans reminder that evil is abound and that even the most loyal are subject to temptation.

Interlachen, Switzerland

I have realized that there are times when time is a temptation for me.

Times when time takes over and rules for awhile...

When Time becomes My Time.

When Time becomes Not Enough Time.

When Time becomes Too Much Time.

Interlachen, Switzerland

But what does my time know of the time that is needed to create a simple flower?

Trummelbachfalle Garden, Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Or a majestic waterfall?

Staubbach Falls, Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Does my time remind me of the simple things?

Those things eternal?

Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland

Or am I swept away with change?

Interlachen, Switzerland

All I know, is that when I dedicate my time to the Lord...

Interlachen, Switzerland

Great and beautiful things happen!

Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Even some of Gods greatest creations are still using His time...

Trummelbachfalle,Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Trummelbachfalle, Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

European Vacation - Day 1

With a Father's Blessing of safety, health, and fulfilled expectations... I am traveling through Switzerland,France and Italy, anticipating what this trip will teach me. I am experienced enough in traveling to know that another piece of me will be discovered...

Nyon, Switzerland

Some roads need to be explored...

it is the road that leads from nowhere to nowhere that always ends up best. The journey is where the discovery happens, not the destination.

Grand rue, Switzerland

Like quiche and eclairs!!!

Bern Switzerland Temple, Zullikofen, Switzerland

But you know...

Sometimes the destination can teach you a lot as well!

SUNSET ALERT!!! SUNSET ALERT!!!!

Determine HOW Great at 38

"Life gives to all the choice. You can satisfy yourself with mediocrity if you wish. You can be common, ordinary, dull, colorless; or you can channel your life so that it will be clean, vibrant, progressive, useful, colorful, rich. You can soil your record, defile your soul, trample underfoot virtue, honor, and goodness, and thus forfeit an exaltation in the kingdom of God. Or you can be righteous, commanding the respect and admiration of your associates in all walks of life, and enjoying the love of the Lord. Your destiny is in your hands and your all-important decisions are your own to make."
~Spencer W. Kimball

I choose VIBRANCE!

The Shell

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself in Playa Flamingo, Costa Rica. I was awed by the beauty of the country, but specifically by the beach I was on. It was a rather small cove surrounded by lush trees. One tip of the cove was black volcanic rock spotted with urchined native plants growing from every crevice. The other, a tree infested outcropping, so green it made your eyes hurt. Out along the horizon, four separate islands of varying size, stood as sentinels, appreciating the focus every eye gave them as one looked out on the horizon. The beach was definitely the cleanest beach I had ever seen, there wasn’t any seaweed or garbage, only an occasional coconut or log.

Daily I walked from tip to tip, with soft sand at the bottom of my feet and the cool surf occasionally washing up around my ankles. As an avid shell seeker, there was slight disappointment, as there were no shells to seek, hence there was very little reason to look down, except to see the myriad of footprints half washed away. So my thoughts would look forward and outward to the beautiful sea or to the tip of the cove, or behind me to see how far I had come. Occasionally I would look immediately down at my feet, or maybe a couple of steps away, but slowly I would find that again I would be focusing ahead, to my beautiful distant future.

One evening while walking back from exploring the far tip of the cove, my friends and I started separating, one stopping to take off her shoe, another stopping to take a photograph. I soon found myself behind the others, and my mind immediately looked up towards the sun spotted tip where I was heading. I then looked a little ways ahead of me and watched the pattern of my friends footprints as they danced along the shore, and then for one short moment, I looked immediately at my feet. And there it lay right at the inside of my foot, a beautiful brown and cream spiraled shell. The kind that you can only find in souvenir shops. I realized that if I hadn’t paid attention to my immediate present, A rare treasure might have been lost.

As we live life, there are times when we need to look out at our own beautiful future, planning and walking towards it, focusing on it and wondering about it, for we do need to know where we are going, and there are other times that we should look back at our experiences and see the shaping of who we are, evaluating each footprint and remembering how it brought us to our current self. Yet it is when we live the immediate present, we find the treasure of opportunity that is waiting for us, right at our feet.

The Nursery

Creating is a beautiful thing... especially if it involves the creation of new life to inhabit the earth. So many of you, on waiting on the arrival of your new little one, fix up the nursery. New paint, new crib...

Since I am in the station of life that I am in... and wanting to participate in some type of creating new life, I pulled together my own type of nursery..... new grow lights and new shelves...

Check out these babies! All 500 of them!