Family and church

I met with my brother last night, brought him dinner in his time share hotel that he is letting my husband and I stay in for a few days!  We had a wonderful visit, caught up and chatted a lot about family, business and life.  He's my older brother and I've always looked up to him.  He is generous, smart, hard working, faithful and kind.  I could go on.  We were close as teenagers and remain close and enjoy getting together when we can.  We've been able to see each other more this past Winter.. we live closer to him in the Wintertime.   He always has a smile and cares so much for his family, not only his wife and children, grandchild, but his sisters and parents and extended family as well.

Sunday, the day I missed blogging, (shame on me huh!  I can't let it get me down or stop me, I cannot change what happened yesterday, only move on to doing better!) I went to church with my husband and enjoyed being in my sacrament meeting.  I was sitting there listening to the prelude music and it was time for the meeting to start.  One of the young men came to the row behind us and I thought it was odd because his family was sitting in front of us..  he tapped me on my shoulder and asked if I would come up and lead the opening song.  There was no director yet.  Our music chorister is pregnant and due anytime now.  She's a first time mom and so sweet and leads the music every Sunday.  So I said "sure"  I jumped up and turned to the page in the book to the song we were singing and led the opening song.  As the song began, our chorister came up front and was there just a tad late.. she led the rest of the songs for the meeting.  I was happy to be able to serve and fill in when there is a need.  I am comfortable leading music in either a congregation or a choir.   I love doing it.

Today, Monday, my husband and I have been able to work at a time share that my brother said we could use for a few days until he and his wife and daughter can come and enjoy some time away.  He had to work for a couple days and they had to use the time share, so he was so generous and didn't want the place "to go empty".  I plan on going swimming tomorrow afternoon!  Kelly (my husband) and I have enjoyed working here and chilling and enjoying the beautiful resort room.

Until tomorrow.  Lessons learned:  Serve when needed.  Love your family.  Do things together as a married couple to kindle your relationship.  Relax now and then.  Slow down and enjoy some time together.

10 Lessons learned from a Navy Seal Admiral

Herbalife Success Training Seminar and what a great training!  I love what I get to do and be exposed to for my business and for my life.  Positive, like minded people who are helping others, like I am, with their health and teaching the Herbalife business opportunity to others.  We CAN control our lives and our opportunities.  We CAN work hard, work smart and teach to teach.  I was a presenter and spoke about how to "Package Your Story" to help us members get the most out of our conversations with friends, family and anyone within 10 feet of us anywhere.  Felt great and I am less and less nervous each time I do a presentation.  

We listened to a video at the end of the training that I'd like to share the highlights from.  This was a speech from Admiral William McRaven at a University commencement speech.    He said that if we change just 10 people for the better, and they change 10 others, and they change 10 others, it duplicates and duplicates and one person could really change the world!  10 Lessons learned in Navy Seal Training, by Admiral William McRaven: 

1. "Make your bed every day.. it's the simple disciplines that lead to more and more disciplines that create a lifetime of great habits.  And, if you've had a bad day, at least you come home to a made bed. 
2. Synchronize your team to paddle all together - if we want to change the world, we need help from others, lots of others and to work together.   
3. We are all equal - measure a person by the size of their heart. 
4. You're just not going to have all great days - keep moving forward.  
5. If they didn't quite measure up with their performance, they had to do 2 extra hours of calisthenics.  It was hard, but it made them stronger over time.  Don't get discouraged, the struggles make you stronger.
6. Climbing the tower no one ever broke the record made.. because everyone performed at the same level, did the same things.  One person who broke the record slid down head first!  Very dangerous, but he stepped outside his comfort zone and broke the record and taught others a new way. 
7. There are sharks out there.  There are sharks that circle your position and want to take you out.  When you see the sharks you have to punch them hard in the snout and they will leave you alone.  If you want to change the world, don't back down from the sharks that want to take you out. 
8. One of the drills was to swim with scuba gear under the ship to the Keel, or the middle of the boat underwater.   When the ship shades the sunlight and streetlights, it's very dark under the water and you can get disoriented.  Be calm, composed and find your inner strength.  You must be your best in the darkest moments. 
9. They went through Hell week.  Tremendous pressure to quit.  One of the seals in one of the drills that was extremely hard started singing by himself to forget the cold and the elements to be endured for 8 more hours.  Other started singing with him.  They were all able to endure the cold together - the singing gave them hope.  One person gave them all hope and they were stronger together because of one person's hope.  Sing when you're up to your neck in mud.  
10. There was a bell in a bell tower that if any of the seals wanted to quit, they could ring the bell and it would all be over, they were done, they could quit.  Don't Ever, Ever, Ever, Ever ring the bell.  Life is not fair, you will feel often that is isn't fair.  If you never ever quit, you can change the world." 

We applied all of these steps to our lives, to our business and to our relationships.  We can change the world by helping and lifting and being a positive influence for good to others.  I love this business that teaches me to be a better person and to show others what is possible for them.  We can do and go anywhere we want in life and I'm grateful to have the Herbalife opportunity to take me where I want to go.. to help me become the business woman I want to become.  

Working with my hubby

Kelly and I got up early this morning, 6:30am like I have a goal to do, and we got ready and were out the door by 8:00.  We went to Tacopa, CA where we store our trailers and picked them up one at a time and delivered the RV camp trailers to our customers out at the Dumont Sand Dune area in Southern California.  Kelly started our RV rental business in 2007.  We've been renting RV's on the Oregon Coast for 7 years now and this past Winter, we expanded, brought three RV's down and rented them out to customers at Dumont this past Winter.  It's been very successful and the people we delivered to today were a word of mouth referral from a customer in January.  That's really how our RV business has expanded, word of mouth and getting to know the right people.  Kelly added a little add on the Dumont Dune Riders website and he has an add on the Buggy Freaks website for Oregon.  Our business comes in the google search easily now as well.  Kelly's been busy with fulfilling contracts for Summer months and he's pretty much almost completely booked for July.  The man we rented to today wants us to reserve him a trailer for Halloween in Oct for Dumont.. yep, that's how far in advance we need to get reservations for.  Anyway, the drive is pleasant.. it was warm today.  Dumont was 83 at 10:00am.  Going to be a warm weekend out there.  Kelly and I visit, listen to music and listen to books on CD and enjoy each other's company on the drives.  The people we rent to are usually very nice.  

www.kellysrvrentals.com is his website.  Kelly takes pride in giving the best customer service experience possible.  We are helping people with their family vacations and we are there to help them have absolutely the best trailer rental experience possible.   We will be crazy busy come Summer on the Oregon Coast!  We'll be bringing more trailers down to So Cal next Winter.. it's been well worth bringing the three trailers down here this season.  

Happy Camping everyone!  If you need a trailer to rent on the Oregon Coast for Summer between Coos Bay and Florence, see our website and contact us!  

You can do anything... if you...

I have to write.  I have to write down what's going on or I'll explode.  I don't know if anyone will read this, and that part really isn't important because writing for me is like therapy.. getting thoughts and feelings out there instead of pent up inside and me not knowing what to do with them.
I am a strong person.  I am 53 years old and I have raised 5 kids, 2 of those children came to me at one time.  I survived and thrived.  I LOVE my children and the memories I have of raising them.  I was probably more of a pushover than I should have been, but all in all, they all turned out great.  My husband helped raise our family - he was very involved with decisions and the direction our parenting went.  He knew a lot and I don't even know where he learned it from.  He is a valiant son of God, striving to keep the commandments.
But this isn't really what I want to write about today.
I think I'm going to take the 365 blog challenge.. blog every day for a YEAR!  Why?  I don't really know.. because I want to see if I can set a huge goal and accomplish it.  I have done many things in my life and I find myself now wanting to improve and learn and stretch myself to do more.  I want to help others, be a positive influence for good, stay close to my family, children and grandchildren and love and help my brother and sisters all I can.  I have held many responsible church callings in my life and have learned a lot about leadership and delegating and getting things done.  In fact, my activity in my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints has helped me become more than I would be if I wasn't active or attending.   My religion and what I believe is a whole nother blog post though,
I was thinkking while I drove home this morning after taking my 24 year old son to his workplace (my car is in the shop and that's a whole nother blog post!) and I thought of that famous saying "You can do anything if you put your mind to it".  I do not know who to credit that quote to, but I was thinking about it and when I heard it as a teen, I thought that if you 'thought' hard enough, you could accomplish your goals, do anything you wanted to do.  Well, that doesn't work.  You can't just think hard about something and accomplish a goal, any goal.  What I've learned over the past few years, is that when you want something bad enough and you change your thinking and believe that anything is possible, with the right kind of work behind it, you CAN do anything.  But it takes work!  It takes a process.  It takes learning what works for you and then doing that process and not just setting a goal and sitting there thinking hard about it and hoping it will come to pass.  Often we cannot change circumstances around us.  We can't change the weather. We can't change the 'economy'.  We can't change other people's choices.  We can't change people to do what we think they should do. We can't control actions of others that affect our lives.  What we CAN do is change the way we look at our circumstances.  We can change the way we think, feel, and act.  We can choose to have a good attitude.  We can choose to work hard on ourselves to improve so we can reach our goals for ourselves.  We can become the best person we can be, with hard work and good ethics.

You can do anything if you put your mind to it is true... but it takes action..  Your mind comes up with an action plan and you work that plan over and over and over again until you see the results you want.  If you don't like the results you are getting, make adjustments, look at yourself and work on being your best.  These are all directed towards ME by the way.  Replace the 'we' with 'I' and it's all for me.  I need to change and work and grow for my dreams and vision and goals to come to pass.  
I have a goal to get up earlier in the morning and listen to uplifting personal development talks or read good books for 15 minutes every morning.   I know this will start my day on a positive note and get me off thinking the right way about me, my life, my circumstances, and my relationships.
So, I am declaring that I'm getting out of bed, that's out of bed and not looking at facebook on my phone, which is what usually happens for about 20 minutes before I get out of bed, at exactly 6:30am from now on.  I'm doing it.  I've written it so I'm doing it.    I'll do Personal Development for 15 minutes and after I've mastered this new habit, I'll add another activity to my morning routine, and so on for my day.  I need to develop structure and good habits for my business, social, intellectual and spiritual growth.
Ok.. First blog of 365 started.  I'll try to post photos to go with the posts.

My Dad and Mom

I absolutely love my parents. I am so blessed they raised me and love me. My Dad is recovering from a heart attack that happened last night. So sudden and unexpected.  Life is so fragile. We are so blessed. My Mom rushed my Dad to the hospital and he got there in time.  They worked on him and he's going to be all right and we are all grateful for this time we still have with him. I was with my oldest son, his wife and my husband when my brother told me what happened over the phone. Shock and relief to hear he is pulling through. I didn't cry and I don't think it sunk completely in until tonight, 24 hours later. I need to drive down South and visit Mom and Dad soon.  Soon.  My husband and I live in Las Vegas in  winter time and we're getting ready to return to the Oregon Coast for Summer and our busy season.  I want to see Mom and Dad before we leave the South for Summer.  They are wonderful parents and wonderful people.  I'm thankful Heavenly Father allowed my Dad to be ok. That we have him here with us for a longer time. Live each day with the people you love and the things you love to do to help others have a happy life. 

Things I've made

I love to sew and this is a tote I made from a quilted fabric yard.  I used bias tape to bind the unfinished edges so it is reversible!  Used a vintage button for the clasp.  I love this bag.. It was a gift to my daughter with small children, great for toting kids stuff and her stuff too.  

I grabbed a boot cuff pattern I Love off of Pinterest and here are the results: they are both the same, you can use both sides for a different affect.  Pretty and soft and warm for Winter.  I gave these away to daughter in laws for Christmas.. they make up pretty fast.  

Some of my hats I've crocheted.  I don't use a pattern, I like to create as I go and use different weighted yarns.  I will be selling these if anyone is interested.  alainamun@hotmail.com  :)  Fun

Beaded bracelet DIY

Love to bead!  I took my boxes and containers of beads out this afternoon and enjoyed the break doing my fav craft!  Taking a break is AWESOME and I love making things for myself and giving hand made gifts to my friends and family.  This is a long string, strung around three times and a button is the clasp.  I love this button!  and I only had one so it's perfect for a beaded bracelet clasp!    Have a happy day!