A Simple Christmas

I am so thankful for all that I have been blessed with at this time of year. In a way I think that the hard times that everyone in this country is experiencing now is kind of a good thing because it makes me stop to think about what Christmas is really about and being able to avoid the stress of having to spend so much money on things that we really don't need anyway. It is about the gift that our Heavenly Father gave to the world. If we focus on Jesus and his birth and also his life we will see that the best gifts that we can give to others is compassion, love and service. It is also a good opportunity to teach our children more about the joy of giving service to others who are in need of help. I am going to try to follow the example of the Saviour and do more to help others in any way that I can. I am so glad to have such a great family to enjoy sharing Christmas memories with and I hope they will enjoy this season by creating more memories by serving others too.

Twilight ...

I finished the "Twilight" book this past week-end and now I dream about vampires! At least they are good ones. I have also started the second book in the series, "New Moon" and I am so anxious to see if and when she is going to find Edward back in her life. I can't believe how crazy this makes you and there is no stopping points in these books! That makes it so hard to put them down and take a break from reading them. I assume since there are two more books to read in this series that she will find Edward again, I will be mad if she doesn't!

New Book to read. . .

OK, now on to the next book. . . I guess since everyone I know keeps raving about the Twilight books, I got one and I have started to read it. I haven't gotten past the introduction yet since I only got it yesterday. We will see if I can read it quicker than the last book or if life's craziness will stop me from quick reading. Here I go........????

I have finally finished the Secret Life of Bees. . .

I loved this book. It was a great story and helped me to realize how I really feel about how discriminating against others because of race or poverty is such a horrible practice and there is still alot of it going on even though we have made a lot of progress since the 60's era. This story is mostly about the struggle of women and how they were treated, both colored and white, and I found myself understanding and feeling the turmoil that Lily experienced because of the tragic life she had and how she found herself in a terrible situation and the strength she developed to take care of herself and find the answers she needed.
I have a stronger realization that we can all grow and learn from others how to overcome the bad things that happen to us and that if we reach deep within ourselves we will be able to find the strength we need. And as women if we have faith in God's love for us, we will recognize our divine nature and see the path that we need to go down in order to find true happiness and peace for us and all who are a part of our life.
I am now anxious to see the movie that is coming out in October based on this book.

I am on a Savings High!

I joined the coupon sense website this past week and I used their expertise for my grocery shopping this past week-end and WOW! I saved almost 40% on my groceries!! I don't have a large collection of coupons yet but I still did great because coupon sense helped me see the best deals for what is on sale at all of the different stores. I can hardly wait until I actually have a lot of coupons to use. Some of the ladies posted comments that they save anywhere from 80 to 95% on their purchases. I find this amazing! With finances so tight for everyone right now it is good to save any amount on necessities like FOOD! I would recommend checking out their website. It is http://www.couponsense.com/ My first week I saved $153.63 and I spent $256.78 and came home with over $410.00 worth of food, I can't imagine how much I would have saved if I actually had coupons for more of the things that I bought! This is only going to get better, I hope.
After you check out their website and if you decide that you want to sign-up to use their expertise in saving money too, please enter my full name as the referral and select Sarah Watkins as your instructor. This will help me win some cash for the August Referral Contest!

Want to make a memory....Well just leave one really!!!

Leave a Memory:

Here are the directions...

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty cool (and funny) to see the responses.

If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you are playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. :) If you don't want to play on your blog, or you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

A Great Big Thanks!

I just have to give a big THANKS to my sweet daughter Cassie. She called me last week and told me she wanted to have a jewelry party at her house and she was inviting a lot of her friends over to see the jewelry that I make, because she wears hers all the time and everyone tells her how much they like it. I am sure she did this partly because we haven't seen her little family for several weeks and this was a good way to get me to come for a visit, especially now that gas is so expensive!! It was so much fun to be able to take what I had on hand and also the ones that my girls have (they loaned them back) so people could see them and meet Cassie's friends. I sold several jewelry items, a couple of my epoxy pictures and a couple of my fancy flip flop shoes. I also have several special orders to do now and I am so excited to get busy creating them. I just love doing this kind of stuff. Also I want to thank all of the cute friends that came over to Cassie's, it was a pleasure for me to get to know you.

Check it out!

I have been having a lot of fun creating things for my Jewelry and other fun stuff site. That site is nanastreasurebox.blogspot.com
Check it out and let me know what you think of my stuff. I would love to hear some feedback!

New Movie based on Book

So I am still reading the Book "The Secret Lives of Bees" and I am not giving up until I finish it. You know how sometimes life gets a little crazy so that your goals gets put in the back seat for a little while, figuratively speaking. Although, I am kind of excited because I just found out that in October the movie is coming out based on this book. It is starring Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson and Queen Latifah. I watched a clip of the movie and I am sure it will be a good one. I want to finish reading the book first so that I can compare the accuracy of the movie. So far I have been surprised at the way people were so cruel in the days of the 60's era. I have never understood why predjudice could make people do such crazy things. It is also interesting to learn about the ability to love and care for others and the transformations love brings us. If you are reading this book I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on what you are getting out of it.

All Together Again

It has been so wonderful to have all of the family together again. Now that Michael and his family are back in Arizona we feel like a complete family. The kids are growing so fast that most people don't even recognize them. I think that being able to keep close to each other is the most important thing in life and our Grandma's and Grandpa's are getting older! So it is great to be able to gather often as a whole family group. Reunion's are such a blast and our big one is just around the corner! It will be a blast!!

A New Baby!

Well Michael and Angie finally got their new addition to their family this afternoon! Brigham weighed in at 6 lbs. 2 0z. And he is a blondie. They are very excited as are their other 7 kids. I can hardly wait to be able to hold him, Michael called and let me listen as they were checking him out and his tiny cry brought tears to my eyes. He sounded so sweet and angelic. We will all be able to be together as a family again soon!

We are so HAPPY for Matt and Brianna...

Yesterday was such a special day for all of us. We were so thrilled that Matt and Brianna were able to be sealed to each other and also to Jack. They have waited so long for this day, Brianna was worried that she wouldn't get to this day, sort of. But they are now a Forever Family!!! They have such a sweet and beautiful family. Oh and of course Jack stole the hearts of everyone there!!! He was such a cutie in his little white Tux!

More about my Book Club...

Well I don't think I am going to finish reading by my original goal of May 10th. We have had a lot of things going on this past month, although I am almost half way through it. So I am setting a new goal to be finish by the end of May. So if anyone is reading the book "The Secret Life of Bees" I hope you are patient with me. I hope that someone will be ready to share their thoughts on this book with me then. Then the next book I have been thinking that I would like to read next is a mystery by Mary Higgins Clark titled "Daddy's Little Girl" if anyone thinks this would be a good one too, please let me know what you think.

I've Been Tagged!!

5 things on my to do list:
1. Finish the orders I have for making necklaces this week.
2. Organize my office (this is never-ending!)
3. Find more pretty frames for my epoxy pictures.
4. Finish fixing Marilyn's jewelry. (almost done!)
5. Get my year supply together (food storage)

5 places I have worked:
1. Safford Florist shop (long time ago)
2. Safford Movie theater
3. Anderson's Dental office
4. Payson Gas office
5. an Independent Mary Kay Beauty Consultant

5 favorite foods:
1. Bean Burro enchilada style
2. Pork Burrito at Cafe Rio
3. Trudy's Chicken
4. Homemade Ice Cream
5. French Silk Pie

5 places I've lived:
1. Safford, AZ
2. Provo, UT
3. Mesa, AZ
4. Missoula, MT
5. Orem, UT

5 things you may not know about me:
1. I was once a skinny cheerleader!
2. I love to play the piano (privately)
3. I am a diabetic
4. I need to have lots of family around me (obsessively)
5. I like to collect books

5 things I would do if I were a Billionaire:
1. Get out of DEBT!
2. Buy a house big enough for all my family to have gatherings in
3. Help my family get out of DEBT!
4. Take my family on a Dream Vacation
5. Give some to charities

5 people I tag:
1. Cassie
2. Alyssa
3. Joan (as soon as we get you a blog set up)
4. Shelley Blair
5. ?????

This is Awesome!

I am so proud of my granddaughter Lexi! She is in 2nd grade and she wrote a personal narrative essay. Her teacher entered it in a contest that the school district held and she won 1st place for the 2nd grade! This is awesome because there were 72,000 entrys and less than 100 winners. They published all of the winners writings in a book and gave each of them a copy of the book, a ribbon and a certificate. So now she can say that she is a published author! We love you Lexi!

Great News!

Matt and Brianna are so excited! They are going to be a Forever Family now, they have finally got their clearance letter so that they can be sealed to each other for eternity. Brianna has been anxiously waiting for this day for 2 years. Now all the "red tape" has been cleared and they will be sealed on May 3rd at 12:45 pm in the Mesa Temple. Tyla will get to be there as a witness too, I can't even begin to explain how happy they are now! What a beautiful Family. . .

Book Club Reading

I want to do my book club on this blog page. I am currently reading the book "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd. It is about a girl who is 14 years old and she is learning how to deal with life while trying to figure out what happened to her mother who was killed when she was very small and why her father seems to be so cruel to her. If you are interested in reading it and then sharing your thoughts about it with me I would love it. I am on Chapter 4 and it is a very easy book to read. I used to belong to a book club a few years ago and it was so much fun, but I haven't been able to find one to join recently so I am going to try this and hope it will be as much fun.

Also I would love to hear some recommendations for other books to read next.

Welcome to my house!

I have decided to create this new blog to share and talk about all the things and people that I love and I will keep my treasured creations for others to buy on my nanastreasurebox.blogspot.com web page. Hopefully this will make everything less confusing. I hope everyone will still check out the stuff I make on the other blog. I will continue to add all my new creations as I complete them.