2010 Year's End (Part 3)

I thought this got posted last night but apparently it only went to draft...so it is a day late!

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTIONS

One of my favorite relaxation things is to go see movie in the theater. I love being pulled into a new story and being able to forget about my own life for a few hours. I have seen LOTS of great movies this year and really can’t name just one I loved.

Of course Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) and Eclipse have to top any list I make. If for no other reason than the fun events I attended in conjunction with those releases. But those are different stories to be told another day…

Today we are going to see Tron so I will have to report back on that one later. Hmm, earlier this month I saw Burlesque for a second time and loved it and want to see it again so it will have to make the list. I wouldn’t recommend it for teens and it is pretty racy so Alicia wouldn’t like it.

Several fun animated shows were released this year. Topping this list for me were Tangled, Toy Story 3, and How to Train Your Dragon. But, also enjoyable were Megamind, Despicable Me, and Alice in Wonderland (though was this really animated? Not sure how to categorize it),

In the chick flick category Bounty Hunter was zany and lots of fun, Dear John was wonderfully heartfelt (though technically I didn’t get to see this one till it came to video), Valentine’s Day was cute (especially since I went with Scott, Mom and Dad on Valentine’s Day to see it!), and both The Last Song and Remember Me made me cry and laugh at the same time, one of the best kind of chick flick movies. I also found Date Night hilarious, You Again a good thought provoking story about making life work and Letters to Juliet simple but sweet.

Action movies were also enjoyable this year. I really enjoyed Iron Man 2 a lot more than I ever thought I would. Does Knight and Day go in this catergory?, well I am putting it here, along with Inception which had some of the most mind bending plot twists and special effects I have ever seen.

WOW!!! Okay when I started this post I didn’t mean for it to get so long. I didn’t really realize how many movies I did get to see this year. And yet, as I was going though an online list of movies released this year I made a list just as long of titles to add to Netflix…well they were all enjoyable and I would recommend most of them to others! Guess it was a great year for me at the movies!

2010 Year's End (Part 2)

Candlelight Massed Choir and Processional
at Disney World's EPCOT

Last Night (Dec-20-2010) I went to the Candlelight Processional at EPCOT. This is one of my favorite Christmas Programs. There is a reading of the Christmas Story from the Bible, interspersed with gorgeously arranged music.


The music includes “Shout for Joy”, “O Come All Ye Faithful”, “Il Est Ne”, “O Holy Night”, “Angels From The Realms Of Glory”, “Away In A Manger”, “Rejoice With Exceeding Great Joy”, “What Child Is This”, “Do You Hear What I Hear”, “Silent Night”, “Joy To The World”, and “The Hallelujah Chorus”. The music is played by The Walt Disney World Orchestra and sung by a choir consisting of The Walt Disney World Cast Choir, The Voices of Liberty and Guest Choirs (mostly high school students) from all over the US, Canada and they even had a choir from the UK this year!

Trace Adkins was the narrator we listened to this year. His deep bass voice was hypnotic and gorgeous to listen to. It was a really fun night to share with Mom, Dad, Erik and Matt. I am so blessed to be able to listen to such a beautiful Christmas program.

2010 Year's End (part 1)

Look! There the year goes,
Oh how it flies by.
So much still to tell,
It could fill a pie.
The posts I could do,
It almost makes me cry.
Daily I will come,
To share all the whys.
You know what to do,
Just come back on by.
To hear Holly’s tales,
Before year’s good-bye.

Oh the things I could tell
If I just had the time.
Spent yesterday in SuessLanding
Now I’m talking in rhyme!

Same Old Questions

Here I am another night (or early morning depending on how I count it), awake and stressing over the future and what I am suppose to be doing. Every few weeks someone will still ask me one of the following questions, or some variation on these, “what do you want to be when you grow up”, or “what do you want to do with your life”? Getting these questions can really frustrate me. I have been working at my job for three years next month, I like my job 80 percent of the time (which I figure is pretty good!), and I am good at my job.

No, working as a small business manager in hospitality is not what I pictured myself doing as a kid. I thought I would be a great musician, or a doctor who would changed lives, or some rich and powerful CEO. Yet, looking at my little piece of the world I don’t regret my small contribution; even though my life is nothing like I pictured it would be, I am okay with this. I had a conversation with my mother a few weeks ago about this very topic, and while I know the people who asking the questions only want to be interested and loving it can be hard to feel like the path I have chosen is not good enough. Maybe that isn’t what people mean by these questions, but that is often how I feel.

While I was thinking about this again tonight I remembered a song I came across last week after listening to Showtunes Saturday Night. "I Stand" is sung by Idina Menzel and re-listening to it tonight, the very beginning of the song just struck a chord. I’m not sure if it makes me feel better, or just less like I am alone in my frustrations, when I think about these lyrics: "When you ask me, who I am:/What is my vision? And do I have a plan?/Where is my strength? Have I nothing to say?/I hear the words in my head, but I push them away."


PS. This week, from Idina’s youtube page, I heard about and then got a chance to watch the DVD of Chess in Concert: Live from Royal Albert Hall. That was a wonderful set of performances and I would recommend it to anyone! I could really relate to the feeling of being a chess piece in someone else’s game and just trying to find the best ways to live in the situation you find yourself in.

Cookies!

In the spirit of appreciating moments…this last week I made Scott cookies (well I actually ate at least ½ of them, so I guess technically I made them for me too!). He is even pickier than me about desserts. He doesn’t like desserts at most places or store bought stuff, like cookies. So I decided to surprise him, while he was at work, and have fresh chocolate chip cookies for him when he got home.

I had forgotten some how much I love the simple act of baking, and how much yummier my cookies are than say, the chips ahoy ones. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures, maybe next time. Only bad part…we ran out of cookies yesterday. :( So now I am craving home made cookies! Maybe brownies will have to be on the schedule tomorrow. Hmmmmmmm :D

Moments

I started this blog as a place to record and share those special moments in my life. Along the way, I started thinking that my life is just the same day to day. I had nothing "big" going on so I had nothing to really add here. Then, as life got busier, I didn't even take the time to add in the fun, big events I did have.

Driving home from work, earlier this week, a song came on the radio. It struck a chord in me and had me tearing up (not the best thing to do when driving). Listening to it I thought, "I want to find out who sang this song and share it on my blog". Yet, instead of getting on here when I got home, I got caught up in "stuff" again and somewhat lost the message of sharing my thoughts the song provoked.
After a busy and productive, but relaxing, day today; I was getting ready for bed and for no reason the chorus of this song popped back into my head. So tonight sleep gets to wait. I decided that sometimes the best thing I can do for me is to pause and realize how special moments really are before they slip away again.

So here it is, the song that got me to write on here again. And hopefully more often. One of the most powerful influences in my life has always been music. When I can't find the right words to say what I am feeling and thinking, I am able to find a song to express myself through. I am so thankful for the blessing of music in my life.


The Breath You Take
Sung by George Strait
Songwriters: Beathard, Casey Michael; Dillon, Dean; Dillon, Jessie Jo

He looks up from second base/Dad’s up in the stands/He saw the hit, the run, the slide/There ain’t no bigger fan

In the parking lot after the game/He said, “Dad, I thought you had/A plane to catch?”/He smiled and said, “Yeah, son, I did”

Chorus: But life’s not the breath you take/ The breathing in and out/That gets you through the day/Ain’t what it’s all about

You just might miss the point/Tryin’ to win the race/Life’s not the breaths you take/But the moments that take your breath away

Fast forward fifteen years/And a thousand miles away/Boy’s built a life, he’s got a wife/And a baby due today

He hears a voice saying, “I made it son”/Says, “I told you dad/You didn’t have to come”/He smiles and says, “Yeah, I know you did”

Chorus: But life’s not the breath you take/ The breathing in and out/That gets you through the day/Ain’t what it’s all about

You just might miss the point/Trying to win the race/Life’s not the breaths you take/But the moments that take your breath away

Just like it took my breath/When she was born/Just like it took my breath away/When dad took his last that morn’

Chorus: Life’s not the breath you take/The breathing in and out/That gets you through the day/Ain’t what it’s all about

You just might miss the point/Trying to win the race/Life’s not the breaths you take/But the moments that take your breath away

(one of the places I found the lyrics is: http://www.metrolyrics.com/breath-you-take-lyrics-george-strait.html)

I'm Late, I'm Late for a very important date!

What is it about me that makes me always late! Even when I meticulously plan things out and am very careful about estimating how long things take and plan very carefully I still somehow manage to be late!

The Summer Semester at UVU started today and so I am going back to school. (But the end is finally starting to be in sight!) I knew if I left work 1/2 hour before the start of class time I should be able to park, find the classroom, and get to class on time. I really wanted to start the semester right, work towards my new year goal of time management and arrive on time.

However, five minutes before I was to walk out the door four guests walked in the door swamping Pat. And of course they all had complicated problems that she didn't know how to help them with. So I ended up having to stand at the desk fixing reservation extensions (that clash with someone else's reservation), an incorrect billing to an extended stay guest, and some other problems.

In the end I was nearly 25 minutes late arriving to class! It is so frustrating that no matter how hard I work, something always seems to conspire against my being on time. I can't ignore the customers and their needs and yet I can't skip class! Is there some cosmic joke that means I will never be able to be on time! (sigh)

Customer Service & Quotes

Yesterday a wonderful couple pulled in off the road, in the middle of the monster storm (brrrrrr it is too cold to be the end of April!); they had barely made it in because one of their motor home's windshield wipers had completely shredded and they couldn't see a thing! They were so glad they made it into our park and we got them registed to a site.

They only have their big motor home and couldn't go out to pick up a new wiper blade. The little store at the park doesn't stock wiper blades, but we figured we would just call the Sears Auto Center or the Les Schwabb. Maybe they could deliver or I told them I could run up the road 5 minutes and pick them up...thus embarked a great adventure in customer service.

Apparently 32" wiper blades are pretty much impossible to find in Utah Valley! First we called the close places, they either didn't have them in stock, and it would take like a week to order then in, or several of the stores told us they didn't ever carry blades longer than 28". Then i called our two suppliers for our RV Parts store. I figured we could get them shipped in by tomorrow, but both places were back ordered in their warehouses and said it would be a while before they got anymore in.

More phone calls ensued, while calling every auto parts dealer in Utah County and looking through the yellow pages i noticed that they place quotes in little random boxes! I had never noticed this before. The two I liked the most and that seemed to fit the circumstances were by Thomas Jefferson, "In matter of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle stand like a rock" and by John Wooden, "Don't let what you can not do interfere with what you can do." I especially liked the second cause it made me think, that while i might not be able to find the wiper blades at this one store, I will keep calling and I can find some somewhere else.

Reading all the quotes as I sat on hold and had different clerks looking for these blades made me wonder though, who picks the quotes to put in the automotive section of the phone book? Why did they put those quotes in? Did they know how frustrating it can be to call one automotive shop after another asking the same question over and over?

So after many calls and good quotations read and 2 hours later I had finally located 2 32" wiper blades (that the technician assured me would fit in their motor home) in Draper at Camping World. (I think I may have found the last two in all of Northern Utah!) So when my front desk clerk came on for her afternoon shift off to Draper went I. By the time I got back to the park and gave the blades to the couple I had exhausted nearly all of my day.

The couple were very grateful and gracious about the my going out to find them these blades and came in periodically throughout the day to say how grateful they were for all we were doing to help them resolve their problem. It felt good to know that they will tell everyone they talk to how our park went above and beyond to help get them back on the road and make their trip a bit less stressful.

Thinking back I wonder though if I would have been so nice and helpful if I had known how big a job it would be. I would like to think I would have exercised my customer service skills to help them out, but I really don't know. I guess that is the good thing, about not knowing how big a job a small problem might turn out to be in the beginning, and being too stubborn to quit when I couldn't find what they needed at a close shop.

Fire and Photos

As most of people have heard the Hawkins house was destroyed by fire on the 14th. Rosie and the kids all made it out fine but they did lose all their stuff and two of their dogs. Rosie has been busy trying to make lists and figure stuff out for the insurance company.
Their local paper did a story on the fire.

While we have all been offering to help there is not much we can do for her right now. HOWEVER!, there is something that we can do that no insurance company can re-buy, pictures! So this is my request for everyone to get me copies of any pictures you may have. I am going to be putting together picture frames and photo albums and such. Even if you just have one old picture, added to someone else’s one picture we can fill in some of the missing holes in their collection. If you can scan and email them or mail them to me I will try to compile them all into order.

Thank you in advance for everyone’s help, working together I know we can make a difference to their family. Please pass on my request to anyone you think might even have just one picture somewhere!

Loves, Holly

PS. On a different note, I saw that I only saved and didn’t post my Christmas Blog, so I am posting it up too…(the entry just below this one)