The Tale of the Wooden Bowl

I read this story on my friend's blog and loved it. You have to read it. It is great!

"I guarantee you will remember the tale of the Wooden Bowl tomorrow, a week from now, a month from now, a year from now.


A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and four-year-old grandson.

The old man's hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered The family ate together at the table. But the elderly grandfather's shaky hands and failing sight made eating difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on the tablecloth.

The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. 'We must do something about father,' said the son. 'I've had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor.'



So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner. There, Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner. Since Grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl. When the family glanced in Grandfather's direction, sometimes he had a tear in his eye as he sat alone.


Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food. The four-year-old watched it all in silence.


One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, 'What are you making?' Just as sweetly, the boy responded, 'Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and Mama to eat your food in when I grow up. ' The four-year-old smiled and went back to work.

The words so struck the parents so that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done. That evening the husband took Grandfather's hand and gently led him back to the family table. For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family. And for some reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled.

On a positive note, I've learned that, no matter what happens, how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.

I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles four things: a rainy day, the elderly, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as making a 'life..' I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.


I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands.You need to be able to throw something back sometimes.

I've learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you But, if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others, your work and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.

I've learned that every day, you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch -- holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I've learned that I still have a lot to learn."

My thoughts - I loved this story. I think that it is so true that we show so much by how we handle the elderly. I have learned so much from my mama as she loves and cares for her mother with such love.
Its intersting how much our behavior would change if we just took time to imagine someone else treating us the way we are treating others. Would we be living in a different world? I believe so. Have a great week!

My friend Megan posted this video on her blog and I thought it was Amazing!

This reminded me of my rainstick that I made at Camp Hobe (camp for kids going through cancer) I love the sound of rain. I thought these people were super talented.

Miller Family Reunion

My extended family on my mom's side had a family reunion on the 17th (I am catching up). I love family reunions because it is so great to see family and get to visit and catch up. It is amazing how fast kids grow when you only see them every other year.

My mom is the second to youngest in a family of seven children. I seriously do not know how my grandma handled seven kids. My Grandma Miller (pictured above) is the most wonderful woman ever! i so admire her. She is 87 years old and doing great! She is smart, funny, loving and giving. I have such special memoriest of my Grandma from my childhood. She has always been there for me. She is the only Grandma I have ever known. We are super close (I am her favorite grandchild) I think it is so important to the family to get together while Grandma is still around. I love her so much and don't know that i will ever be able to handle loosing her. (kinda funny story - my mission president called to tell me that my Grandpa Marx had died while I was on the mish, but he mistankingly said my grandma died. I was so heartbroken, not that I was not sad because my grandpa had died but I knew he had been in bad health. I am so happy to have my grandma around!) She is so amazing! Her husband, my grandpa Miller died in 1998. She has been a widow for 11 years. She wrote me faithfully while I served on my mission. When I would write to her I ALWAYS ended by saying "Hope you are happy and healthy." - because my worst fear of leaving on a mission was that my grandma would pass away while i was gone.

Back to the reunion - sorry for the detour, just wanted you to know how fabulous my grandma is. I was asked by the planner of the reunion (my cousin Jeremy and his wife Melanie) to do a game for the reunion on Saturday while we were at the Newton Park. I decided that instead of doing just another silly game I would do a game that would be fun and meaningful. I made sheets for people to record their memories of grandma. On it I had questions like -

What is your favorite food that Grandma Miller makes?
Alot of people said Thanksgiving stuffing and fudge cake - both excellent when made my Grandma.

Grandma Miller is always so supportive of all of her children and grandchildren; in what ways has she supported you in your life?
Everyone put how Grandma Miller has been there for every major event in their lives; which she has, she is amazing!

We also had a game where we (my sister, mom and I) came up with questions to ask people about Grandma to see how well they know her. Some of the questions were -

Q - What was Grandma Miller's first car?
A - 36 Ford

Q - What are Grandma Miller's Sister's names?
A - Muriell, Arva Lue, Ona (Grandma's name is Lael)

The games were lots of fun!

After getting the memory sheets from those who completed them (I tried to bribe people by saying they could have an airhead if they completed it, but some adults still would not do it, but some kids tried to do two.) I started compiling them into a book for my Grandma to keep and be able to read when she is lonely. I really hope she likes it! I also included the pictures of each of the families that we took at the reunion. All of her children and their spouses were there, 20/30 of her grandchildren came and 12/24 of the grandchildren-in-laws came. I am unsure of the exact number but about 44/69 of her great grandchildren came.

Here is Grandma with her children in order (oldest to youngest) L 2 R - Gma, Pam, Brent, Shari, Debra, Layne, Anita (my mon), David

Here are her children and their spouses.

Here are 20 of my Grandma's grandchildren.

This is a picture showing Grandma Miller with Pamela's family - only person missing is Tawna and her family (she passed away)

Brent and Lynne with Grandma - Their 6 children and 12? grandchildren were not able to come.

Shari's family with Grandma. (Except for Chad and Meladie and their children and Scott)

Debra's family with Grandma. Everyone was there except for Kirstyn.

Layne's family with Grandma Miller. Adrianne's husband Jared, and Mike's wife Jayna were not able to come

The Marx bunch! 2 of my brothers (Craig and Preston) were unable to attend, as well as Melissa's husband Malik. (and my husband) :)


David's family with Grandma. They get the award for having 100% of their family there!

As the primary song says, "When it's reunion time, no matter what the weather, it is such a happy day when the family gets together."

I love my family! I love coming from a big family. My dad comes from a family of 8 children so I have 20+ (I don't know all of them really well.) cousins on the Marx side and 26 on the Miller side. I cannot imagine growing up in a family without lots of cousins, aunts and uncles.

Family is such a wonderful thing!

Yesterday was such a great day. I had a super great surprise that made my day! My first companion in the mission, Sister Rogers was in town and had just attended the Salt Lake Temple and parked at the Conference Center. She had remembered that I worked there and so she came in to see if she could find me. I was sitting at my desk (back faced towards the door) when I heard the door open I looked in my mirror to see if it was someone that needed help. I did not recognize it as being her but turned around to see if the person needed help. I then recognized her and started screaming because I was so surprised and happy to see her. I only got to chat with her and Steve for a few minutes but it was SO GR8 to see them. I really need to make a trip to Arizona to visit them.

Here are some pictures I stole from Megan of us together on the mission:

My first transfer I was in a three-some. I came mid transfer and was given the BEST TWO SISTERS IN THE MISSION to be my companions! (President Cannon told me that - which I believe is true) Sister Yu (on the right) is from Taiwan, she went home at the end of the transfer. She was amazing and I learned alot from her. I was so glad when the Mission President let me stay another two transfers in that area with Sister Rogers. I consider her to be my mission mom because she taught me everything I knew.

She made missionary work fun! We had SO much fun (made up a dance to do on a video for our families, studied hard, worked hard, taught crazy people, took a ton of fun pictures, worked alot with less active members, made visuals to teach lessons to children, did lots of service, she helped me with certification (memorizing scriptures) witnessed a family come unto Christ as mother and son were baptized, lots of fun) After I left Savage Mill area I was transferred to an area where missionary work was no longer, I no longer had a companion that I knew loved me and wanted me to succeed. I missed Sister Rogers so much! It took me a while to kick back in gear and realize that missionary work was fun and that I could be happy doing it.

Seriously this woman taught me so much about missionary work, the value of knocking, the importance to work through members, the importance of being happy, the need for meaningful prayer, the absolute necessity it is to have the Spirit. She was an amazing missionary, teacher, friend, mission mom and companion. She was my favorite companion my entire mission.

Here is a picture of us in my first district

The elders in the picture are (L-R) Valdez, Carpenter, Cassidy, ?, Mortensen, Allen, Wood, ?,Patterson.

Sister Rogers and I were comps from Jan 26-May 25. (I am pretty sure on the dates, but could be wrong) We spent Easter together. I still remember how fun it was; we went to a part member family's home for dinner (they did an easter egg hunt for us), ate a ton of candy, rolled eggs down the hill and made our lips blue as you can see here.

Love you Sissy Rogers!

Men in my life

*I will apologize in advance for how long this post is :)*

This past week I have been thinking about Father’s Day and how lucky I am to have such a wonderful dad. My husband is playing a huge game of hide and seek, which he may think is funny but I do not. So being in this place in my life that I am in I am extremely grateful for my dad and brothers. They are all great men who I know I can count on to be there for me. I know that when I was younger I drove all of my brothers crazy by being a little brat (which they all tease me about now) but I am thankful that they did not kill me but let me survive and become an adult. (Malik lucked out on that one he did not know me too much when I was younger but I am sure he knows it is true – you don’t have to agree)

They all taught me by example the importance of missionary work, love and service. My brothers are all fathers now and I think that they are all such loving and devoted fathers. I hope they know how much I love them and love their children. I love being an aunt!
I love you Dad, Craig, Preston, Sterling and Malik.

I will always cherish the letters written to me by Craig while I was on my mission. His words of encouragement and wisdom strengthened my desire to work hard and be obedient. I appreciate him caring about my health and sharing his knowledge of drugs with me. J
I will forever remember Preston being there with me in the hospital when I had cancer. He always was able to cheer me up and continues to do it now, years later. He is a wonderful priesthood leader and a great teacher. He has always amazed me with how smart his is, like all my brothers, he is very knowledgeable.
I will always remember the friendship I had with Sterling when we were younger. He was always so protective of me and stood up for me. I was so thankful to again have him there for me when I was in the hospital with meningitis and be able to give me a blessing.
I am so grateful that my one and only sister married a man who has always been so kind to me. Malik is famous for asking me if I had any stories to share with him, I know that he cares about me and is interested in my life. I am thankful that he treats me like his very own sister. He is a great teacher of gospel principles and a mighty fine cook!

Besides my reflecting upon how wonderful my brothers and dad are I also have thought a lot lately about other men in my life whom I consider to have shaped me into the person that I am today. These men have all left a lasting impression upon me.

Bishop Kent Smith was my bishop in my singles ward before I left on my mission. I would have to say that he was the most influential bishop I have ever had. I remember very vividly going to talk to him about my desire to go through the temple 6 months before I was eligible to go on a mission. I was scared that he would think I just wanted to go through early because of my Nauvoo trip (which was one of the reasons) but he was super supportive and encouraged me to keep my goal of going on a mission. He did a marvelous job of preparing me to go to the temple. I will forever be grateful for his support. He made me start to believe in my ability to be a great missionary!

President Jason Willard was my stake president before I went on my mission (and is still the stake president in my stake at home) but before he was my stake president he was my seminary teacher. I had him for seminary my senior year of high school and we studied the Book of Mormon. After a few rough years in seminary it was great to be taught by such a gospel scholar. During that year my testimony of the Book of Mormon was strengthened so much! He was an amazing teacher. While in my interview before going on a mission I began to explain my health problems and began to wonder if I may not be able to serve a mission but President Willard was very understanding of my desire to serve. I so appreciate his help. I will always remember the setting apart blessing he gave me; it is so special to me.

President Cannon was my mission president. Everyone who has ever served a mission knows that mission presidents are special men. I believe my mission president to be the very best! There are so many words that I could use to describe President Cannon but I will sum it up by saying that he is the most Christ-like man I have ever met. He taught me so many lessons while I served in the Baltimore Maryland mission that I will carry with me throughout my life. The most important lesson he taught me is the power of Jesus Christ is real. I believe he is a very inspired and righteous man. I am so grateful that I was able to serve under him. My call was changed (while in the MTC) because of President Cannon; he is an endocrinologist by profession, which is the kind of doctor I needed to look after me while on my mission. I am so thankful for him being not only my Mission President but my doctor. I will always remember the love he had for the work and for us missionaries.

Brian Washburn was a member I met while serving my mission in Maryland. I met several hundred members on my mission but he was one of the few that really made an impact in my life. His family “The Washburns” (everybody who has served in the MBM knows them) is the greatest family ever! Sister Washburn is an amazing, amazing woman who is at the top of my “amazing women in my life” list. Every week while I was in their area we ate dinner at their home. EVERY time after the meal we would all find scriptures to share to see if anyone else in the group could name where it was at. I was really bad at it, but Brian was phenomenal. He is an amazing gospel scholar. I doubt that Brian knows how much I look up to him and how much I learned from him. He is an amazing priesthood leader. I remember so many times being in his home and thinking I hope that I marry a man who is as awesome as Brian. He really did amaze me. At a time when I was struggling he gave me great counsel and wisdom. He truly helped shape me into who I am. He changed how I did missionary work and how I live my life.

25 things I love about my dad
1. He taught me how to work hard
2. He taught me to love all people and to not judge.
3. He always says he loves me when I talk to him on the phone
4. He works hard to provide for his family
5. He was always there by my side while I was in the hospital.
6. He is a worthy priesthood holder
7. He is funny and tells great jokes that make me laugh
8. He loves my mom and taught me to respect her
9. His pancakes, egg in the baskets, French toasts are to die for!
10. He taught me how to serve others
11. He showed me by example the importance of reading scriptures faithfully
12. He shared his memories of his mother, who I never met and made me love her even more
13. He shows respect and love to his siblings.
14. He reminded me every week while I was on my mission to “Keep the Faith”
15. He served faithfully in so many callings and taught me it’s not where you serve but how.
16. He has passion for life and loves life!
17. He lets me go fishing with him and helps me when I actually want to fish
18. He is a super great grandpa.
19. He makes the best roasts ever!
20. He is always there to help me when I am in a bind (like driving out of his way to rescue me when my car died)
21. He watched The Price is Right with me so many times while I was in the Primary Children’s Hospital having cancer treatments.
22. He would play games with me while we traveled which I loved but does not like to do that anymore. L
23. He has given me numerous priesthood blessings that have given me inspiration and determination.
24. He is smart; he knows a lot of useless facts J and a lot of important knowledge too.
25. He is the best dad I could ever ask for! I am so thankful to be his daughter.

There you have it - 25 reasons I love my dad, one for each of the years he has been my dad.Happy Fathers Day to all

My New Place - moving out west

For the past 2 years i have been living in a hotel. When I tell people i live in a hotel they give me a weird look, like can you not afford to live in a real house? It has been rather comical. The plaza hotel in Salt Lake City has four floors that are used asstudent housing for girls attending LDS Business College in downtown. It has been a great place to live. Most of the time I was living alone but I did have a few (3) roomates at random times.

Here are some of the positives and negatives with living at the Plaza

+ It is in downtown Salt Lake City, close to everything!

+ It is fairly inexpensive

-There are alot of young girls living there that drive me bonkers!

+ It is a nice well kept area

- I have to have clean checks

+ There is a TV room where I can go chill and watch TV

- It is really loud since there is construction going on in downtown and there is Trax outside the window.

+There is a trax stop in front of the hotel.

- There are usually girls in the TV room with their boyfriends making out.

+I can sneak into the pool and go swimming :o) - I don't like having to share my kitchen with tons of other people.

+ If I run out of TP I can steal some from the lobby bathroom.

+ I keep my room clean because I have clean checks

-I have a beautiful view of the city but cannot open the dang sliding glass door because they forbid it.

+ The building is secure and I feel safe there.

+ I can get ice whenever I want.

+ I have not had to share a room since December. I take up the whole room. =)

The time has come for me to move out of the Plaza.

In August when I finish school I have to move out of the Plaza. I have been looking for quite some time for an apartment.

My requirements in a place were the following: (no paticular order)
*Cannot be too far away from my work (downtown SLC)
*I want to have my own room - preferably not in the living room
*Have a full kitchen
*It has to fit in my price range
*It had to be in an area where I could see myself living and feel safe.

Not Requirements but huge bonuses would be:
*have fun things like pool.

So this is what I found.....
On August 11th I will be moving into an apartment. . It is located on 1800 West. It is definetly further than the one block I walked to work before but it is not too bad. The landlord owns several (hundreds) of apartments so it is a big area.

Here are some pictures of my house (This is decored by them, it is their room they show, my house will not be Western.) It is a one bedroom apartment. It has the loft layout meaning that the bedroom is upstairs.

The front room

The kitchen. It has room for 2 bar stools. Super plus is that it has a dish washer!

Bedroom that is up the stairs. Bathroom is downstairs by the kitchen.

So there are some perks in this new place

Tennis courts - If you know how to play you can come teach me.

Volley ball Pits - I love Volleyball come play with me!

Basketball - not so much!

Playground - my nieces and nephews might like this. :) Racquetball courts - I need to learn how to play this.

Big laundry facility - won't ever have to wait for a machine. They run by cards so no more getting quarters.

Nice outdoor pool
Nice little indoor hot tub

Club house area - has big TV and this is where I will have to go to get internet. They do not have wifi in the whole place :( But it is nice to have it here.

I am super excited for my new place. I am excited to be able to decorate it how I want and to actually have my furniture in it. I have already been making plans as to things that I want to do.

I decided that I am going to have to have a party to celebrate me getting my own apartment. So sometime in August we will party it up in my new pad.