Word To Live By Alec - Missions Plans

Alec is really quite a modest person, if you call boxers modest.

When he went to Catalina, he spent the entire weekend in his wet suit or boxers and a hoodie. That is how he lives around the house! Not necesssarily the wet suit, but definately boxers and a tee shirt.

When Glenn and Amy were here, they were talking about his mission. They asked, "What if you are called to Alaska?"

He said, "I'll take Jack (his Huskey) as my companion.

They asked, "What if you go to Guatelama?" His answer? "No pants!"

Word To Live By Alec - Good Idea/Bad Idea

Good idea - drinking milk right from the carton.

Bad idea - drinking milk right from the cow.

Be Kind To Everyone You Meet - We Are All Fighting a Battle.

In the Old Testament, the people were taught, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. In my younger days, this seemed to give me silent permission to be mean to anyone who was mean to me. It made sense, if you hit me, I get to hit you back - If you talk trash about me, I can talk trash about you. To me, that is an example of fighting fire with fire. Well, I have found out that when you fight fire with fire, you just get a big, destructive sweltering fire! This never brought me peace. I then adopted the theory of fighting fire with water.

As I awkwardly tried to practice this theory, I ran across Steven Covey’s 7 Habit that seemed to help describe this in a more eloquent way, “Seek to understand, then be understood.” I find this to be much more challenging, yet in the long run, much more rewarding.

When someone is in your face, literally screaming and accusing you, it’s difficult to look at them calmly, realizing that their anger is not about you, but about some inadequacy they feel, or weakness in themselves that is over-whelming to them.
In general, people are most impatient with other people when it involves their own personal weaknesses. When you are guilty of an action or thought, suddenly it’s everywhere you look! I can’t tell you how many times I have heard of someone in the news that condemns others about illegal or immoral actions only to find out later that they are guilty of the same, if not worse, action.

What you notice in others, seem to be what you are judging about yourself.

I'm always curious about the people I notice. I know that Haley notices thin people. Kellie, do you notice all of the pregnant people? I would like to say that I notice the well-balanced, secure, happy, beautiful people. Yeah, that's it!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Word To Live By Alec - On Scripture References

When the kids were finally old enough to be left on their own, Paul and I went out for a needed date. As we were sitting in the restaurant, Pauls cell phone rang, it was Melanie. She asked, "Alec wants to know if he can go to Joes." Paul asked, "Has he finished his work?" Melanie turned to Alec and asked, "Did you finish your work?" He answered, "Yes." Melanie relayed the message, "Yes".

Paul asked, "Did he really finish, every jot and tiddle?" Melanie turned to Alec and asked, "Did you use the bathroom?"

That's when it made us realize, we need to do more scripture study as a family!

The Difference Between Men and Women, EVERYTHING!

President Uchdorf spoke at the Women's Conference about the difference between men and women. His example was basically, when a woman cooks a meal, it's a beautiful, delicious spread, yet she still criticises her culinary expertise. He said, when ever he makes fried eggs and toast, he pats himself on the back and is very proud! I got a big kick out of that! How is that like my life?!?!
I got up Saturday morning and began cleaning. I started laundry, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, pulled weeds in the front flower bed and scrubbed both bathrooms. I sat down for a minute when Haley came over to visit and she said, "What have you been doing?" My first thought was, "Nothing." because the house still needed vacuuming, dusting, mopping, window washing, and don't even get me started on the yard work. When I started thinking about it, I had done A LOT! I ignored the rest of the house and began to scrapbook! Yeah, I paid for not finishing, later, but I felt so masculine! I had patted myself on the back and celebrated!

Last week, Elliot gave me a book to read. It is called "Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys". Evidently, Pres. Uchdorf barely scratched the surface. At one point, while reading it, I had to close the book for a minute. I was laughing so hard, I began to cry!

He not only wrote about the difference between men and women, but also between men and guys. In his book he made a "Stimulus-Response Comparison Chart" He states, "if a woman sees and untamed river in the wilderness and woman response would be to contemplate its beauty. A typical Man response would be to build a dam. A typical Guy response would be to see who can pee the farthest off the dam." It just gets better from there!

I am surprised how I, surrounded by boys growing up, still ended up with such feminine characteristics and Paul, surrounded by women, still ended up with not only men traits, but guy traits as well. I guess it just proves that it is innate! It's our DNA! It just proves to me the importance of Psychologists and Counselors. As long as there are two genders, we will ALWAYS need counseling!