Regular, ol' ME

I used to consider myself a Type A personality. Or a "red" on the color coded personality test. But, ever since 01/01/10 came and went and I realized that I am completely fine with not setting any New Year's resolutions, I have determined once and for all that I am not really that driven. I'm not an overachiever. . .I am very content to be mediocre.

My oldest sister just started Graduate school in Marriage and Family Therapy online this semester. Yes, the same sister who has 7 children, two of which are adopted from Africa, whose husband just returned from a year in Afghanistan, and who is working on moving to Korea. No one is driven, like this woman is driven.

And then there is my younger sister who lived in Russia for a year, speaks fluent Russian, finished her Bachelor's and started graduate school all while she was pregnant and now continues her schooling with baby in tow. Yep, she's amazing too.

But, I don't feel jealous of them at all. Marriage and Family Therapy is even where my career path was heading before I dropped out of school, and yet it doesn't even spark anything in me at all. I am close to finishing my Bachelor's degree and yet I still have not felt that it was right for me to try to finish. I am not driven at all, at least not right now, to finish my degree.

I may be the least driven Top sister, but I don't think I'm lazy or unmotivated, I'm just not necessarily the type of personality who is always doing something--training for a triathlon, writing a novel, going to Grad school, being PTA president, starting a business, etc. etc.

I'm quite content in being ordinary. I kind of like still living in the same town, merely blocks from my parents, and staying at home with my children, and being my husband's wife, and occasionally I get ambitious enough to redecorate a room, but I'm pretty simple.

The up side of being very ordinary is that I don't have any major problems or drama either. I may not have an exciting life, but I do sometimes feel like my life is charmed. I have great parents and siblings, and I have a great husband and kids. (I even like my in-laws.) I am healthy, my kids are healthy, my husband has a job, we have what we need, and we're happy. In fact, my problems are so few that I get to expend way too much energy on problems like, "my nose is too big", "my house is too small", "I wonder if that person likes me", and other such trivial things.

I wish I could do all of my learning and growing without any pain, trials, and tragedy, but I'm beginning to wonder if, perhaps, in some ways people with pretty big burdens to bear are ultimately, in the eternal sense, better off than I am. If in their need they have come to know the Lord in ways I can't even comprehend.

I guess there's nothing wrong with being ordinary, with being content to be just a Mom, or just a wife, unless it is keeping me from having the EXTRAORDINARY testimony I desire. I want to be more driven, at least insofar as it pushes me to dig a little deeper, to "lengthen my stride", to serve more, to love more, to reach outside of myself more, to have a desire to learn more, and ultimately to turn to the Lord more.

So, I guess I do have a New Year's resolution after all. I mean, but only because I happened to have this epiphany while it is still January. So, my new motto is "Dig a little deeper." I want to dig deeper in everything--my study of the scriptures, my prayers, my service to others, my friendships, politics, my relationships with my children, and the list could go on. It applies to anything. I want to do more and become more.

I am too complaisant and too comfortable in my own complaisance. So, it's time for me to get a little more driven. I want to find my passion, my talents, and ultimately, hopefully my potential.

The Comeback of a Washed-up Dancing Queen!

(**The washed-up dancing queen I am talking about is me, not any of these beautiful ladies.)

Well, any of you who knew me in my past life, before I was "mommy", know that I LOVE to dance. Love, love, love it! In my single days, before my car accident, it was not unusual for me to go at least once a week to a dance club, sometimes more. I went to every Ricks college stag dance while I was there. I went to dances at UVSC, occasionally BYU dances (although those were probably the lamest of the college dances I went to), and LDS young single adult dances in Salt Lake. ANY dance I could find!

I have missed dancing for so many years now. I love how it makes me feel! And ever since I dressed up as Michael Jackson for Halloween, I've been craving it more than ever. So, I took matters into my own hands and decided to plan a dance for New Year's Eve.

We never do anything fun for New Year's. My husband hates crowds, parties, and people in general, so that limits our options. But, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. So I said to heck with Michael, I was throwing a party--a dance party!

I booked our local stake center, invited all the families in my ward (except the old people), and with the help of a few great people, planned a family-friendly dance party. In half of the gym I set up activities for kids--ring toss, bean bag throw, sock basketball, and Twister. There was also a movie room for sleepy kids. We set up some tables for adults to play games (because several people, mostly the husbands, complained that they wouldn't come to the party if they were forced to dance.) On the other half of the floor I set-up a dance floor, complete with a $20 disco light and great sound equipment (provided by my great neighbor.) It was fabulous! I got to dance, dance, dance, dance until I think I got shin splints. It was so great! Because, at the end of the day, the reason I planned the entire party was so that I could dance. . .but, I knew it would be more fun dancing with good friends!

A lot of the kids had a great time dancing, at least until they got too tired and cranky. The 10/11 year old girls were particularly fun! But, it was one 10 year old boy that danced all night who really cracked me up. Dancing with kids is so much more fun, because you don't even care if you look like a total dork! And believe me, I was dancing, care-free, in full dorkitude all night! I loved it!

Even most of the people who preferred games to dancing, at least danced a little on the slow songs. Everyone who came to the party were such good sports. The kids did really well, at least until about 10:30pm.

Most of the partyers cleared out by 11pm because of tired, cranky kids who had reached their limit. But, lucky for me my kids weren't there, so I got to keep on dancing! A few of my favorite ladies (pictured at top) danced with me all night until 12AM. That was the best New Year's eve I've had in a decade.

If New Year's is any indication on the coming year. . .then, 2010 is going to be fabulous. Although, I do think the party unleashed the dormant dance beast inside me. . .and I'm looking for my next opportunity to DANCE!!!

Blogworthy!

My last month has been amazing! The worst part of my last month was having my computer "in the shop" for most of it. Ridiculous, really. I can write an entire blog post about nothing, just a babbling stream of my own consciousness, and the one month that I actually have lots of stuff going on, I couldn't even blog about it. Argh.

Well, I'm kind of still recovering from all the excitement of the holidays (particularly my New Year's party) and just barely put away my Christmas decorations today. I should be in bed, but before it all gets too old and stale and I lose my desire to document all the '09 holiday happenings, I will give a recap as quickly as a long-winded person such as myself can do.

Christmas season begins: Around December 6th or so I put up the Christmas tree and the Christmas train. (The train only lasted about 3 days before it drove me so stinking crazy repairing the track constantly and tripping over the train cars that had been strewn about the house, that I took it down probably never to return.)

Season gets swingin':

Went to a "Festivus party", where I wore not only an ugly Christmas sweater. . .(which, by the way, I am so proud to say that I made myself with iron-on letters, puff paint, and random Christmas decorations), but also went for full-on 80's ensemble. I got the denim skirt from my 14 year old babysitter, and wore my leggings (that I actually love, usually.) This is proof that leggings CAN go terribly wrong and take a turn towards "hooker" if not worn sensibly. :)

Christmas Staple: Lights at Temple Square

I only go to the lights about once every 3-5 years, so it's not really a tradition for me. But, since my sister lives in SLC and since my boys are old enough to (sort of) appreciate it I went this year. My parents came too which was fun. But, we all were so stinkin' cold that we remembered why it isn't a tradition for us.

Christmas Eve:

Sorry, grandpa, my boys were not fooled. . .but they loved it nonetheless! I was also particularly thrilled with the fact that we did NOT have Turkey for Christmas eve dinner. I vote that Samantha's delicious Chicken Parmigiana becomes a new Grimsley Christmas tradition!

Christmas Day:

I do need to quickly give a shout out to Dave Ramsey who taught us to plan and budget all year for Christmas. So, this Christmas was fabulous because we all got spoiled without any guilt! ( It also really helps that my kids have generous grandparents who helped spoil them.)

New Tradition:

Mike made the Top Family (those few of us who are left in Utah) a HUGE southern-style breakfast Christmas morning. It was definitely Mike's favorite Christmas party. We'd like to make it a new tradition (except maybe when Jess and her 7 kids are in town for Christmas.;)

Classic Tradition revisited:

When I was growing up my Dad always bought us kids BYU shirts for Christmas. So, it was fun that he revived the tradition this year by getting BYU shirts for my kids. Maybe now that Janey came back from the dark side (U of U) to be a grad student at BYU, her son will also be included. :)

There is so much still to blog about. This past month was so amazing. My Christmas season was enhanced so much more by a few beautiful experiences that reminded me of the love of my Savior Jesus Christ and our true "reason for the season." One was a funeral and one was a temple sealing, and although they are so very different they were both beautiful reminders of all that our Savior has done for us. (A paragraph can not do them justice, I would love to expound more on those experiences at a later date.) Those experiences helped make this one of the most meaningful and joyous Christmases of my entire life. I feel grateful--no, more than that--utterly ecstatic to my core that I can be with my family forever abounding in the perfect love of my Father in Heaven and my Savior Jesus Christ. The gift of eternal life is, in a literal sense, the truest, best gift of Christmas.