Ann Curry–My Frienemy

Posted on June 29, 2012 by

After watching TODAY from my sofa for six years, being there in person was a real thrill!

Even though I’m still a little bit mad at Ann Curry, I was sorry to see her leave the TODAY Show.  She’s a ground breaker and probably the hardest working woman in the news industry.

I’ve been a loyal TODAY show viewer for more than six years.  I started watching as a new mom.  It was my entertaining newsfeed while trying to nurse my baby.

The TODAY anchors have become important fixtures in my life.   On our trip to New York last summer, visiting the TODAY show was the first thing I did.

I love to meet famous people. My goal was to meet my TODAY family and get on camera, which I did. Here’s me and Matt.

I screamed at him to get this photo.  I didn’t think he’d hear me and I didn’t think he’d respond, but he did on both accounts.

I also had a photo with Ann Curry. Unfortunately I didn’t realize my camera was way zoomed in and all I got was her tweed jacket and my eyebrow.  Oopsie!

But, the Universe LOVES me and I ran into her several hours later in the basement of 30 Rock.  She was in a hurry (Curry in a hurry…ha ha ha). Even though I know she didn’t want to, she stopped to pose for a photo.  That one thing I have noticed about her, she cares about everyone. It’s easy to tell she has a BIG heart.

If you want to get on camera on the TODAY show, bring a cute poster unique to where you are from. Be sure to incorporate the word TODAY on the poster.

I’ve seen several anchors come and go in six years.  I’ve come to know and trust Ann over the last five years and really enjoyed the hard news and difficult reporting assignments she covered all over the world. I was confused when she was selected to replace Meredith Vierra since I’ve always found her to be a little more awkward off-the-cuff with the fluff stuff.

On this mornings broadcast she announced that she was leaving the show.  I wasn’t surprised.   I knew I couldn’t be the only one not connecting with her in a casual way, the way I did with Meredith and Katie Couric.

I haven’t cared as much for her interviews with authors, celebrities and other fluff assignments.  I actually got mad at Ann after an interview she did with my personal hero Dr. Larua.  I didn’t think she showed the same respect and courtesy that she showed to other TODAY guests because she personally didn’t agree with ideas and concepts presented in Dr. Laura’s featured book.

Hard news always seemed more like her thing. While somewhere abroad covering a tough assignment, she really shined. She excels at bravely delivering hard-hitting news and gets answers to the difficult questions. She has a lot of guts.  I can’t believe some of the places she reported from.

It was obvious from her farewell that leaving the anchor desk wasn’t her choice. Even though we’ve had our differences, my heart ached for her as she cried explaining what her new role would be.

She reluctantly reported her new assignment covering various stories here at home and around the world.  Her reports will be aired not only by TODAY, but on all of the NBC News platforms. I hope in the end, she will find her greatest joy in what I see as her true talent. She’s the best in the business.

Sometimes we fight for things that aren’t right for us.  I know I personally have wasted a lot of time pushing against the grain for things I thought I wanted from life.  Somehow, life has a way of forcing us into the roles that suit us best. I wish Ann the very best in her new assignment.  I am still a little bit mad at her for the Dr. Laura interview, but I am willing to overlook it if she’ll continue to travel the world to tell me the things I should know and bring me amazing stories. I’ll never forget Ann Curry landing at the South Pole.

My very best Ann Curry, thanks for a great 15 years!

 

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Rethink Possible

Posted on June 27, 2012 by

Have you ever wanted to do something that you thought was out of your reach. Something you didn’t think you were capable of?

This photo might make you think twice about those kinds of things.

My husband and I were driving home from a fun weekend out of town when we came upon a traffic slowdown on the freeway.

It was nothing serious, just a slower vehicle in the center lane.

From behind we couldn’t quite see what it was. I changed lanes like all the other cars and zoomed past. Afterward, I realized that it was a Geo Metro pulling a LARGE sailboat.

Have you ever seen a Geo Metro? Geo Metros are not supposed to pull anything. I’ve seen a lot of Metros that had a hard time pulling the passengers in the back seat. But what they are really NOT supposed to pull are gigantic sailboats down the center of the freeway.

After we passed the outfit, I started to laugh. I actually started to laugh uncontrollably. It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen!  I decided I had to see it again and snap some photos. We slowed down and pulled over to the right lane to wait for it to pass. Slow and steady, it came back from behind cruising at a healthy 48 MPH.

Not only was the Metro pulling the boat, it was pulling it at a legal speed, 3 MPH above the posted freeway minimum of 45 MPH.

This leads me to the title of this post. Rethink Possible.

Next time there is something in your life, something that you are NOT supposed to be able to do, or something you don’t consider yourself capable of doing, envision this.

These people are just doing it anyway. Driving their Metro, on the freeway, in the center lane, towing a sailboat. They don’t care. They don’t let their life circumstances stop them. They want to sail, so they sail. End of story.

There is a lot of hope to be gained from this photo. If these people had waited until they had a large truck to move this boat, they wouldn’t have sailed that day. Let’s be like these people and make the most of what we DO have.

To close I thought I’d leave you with this. This is certainly what these people were listening to, windows down, in their Geo Metro.

Christopher Cross always says it best! With views like this, how could you put off sailing for one more second!

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It’s a Terrific Tuesday!

Posted on June 26, 2012 by

I don’t normally post on Tuesday, but I don’t normally have two articles featured in the Deseret News!  It’s a big deal for me. I’ve wanted to do this for more than a year but I was too afraid of rejection.  Fortunately, they didn’t reject me. I submitted two articles and they published two articles.

Maybe they’ll publish anything I don’t know…

I mentioned my first article in the D News yesterday.  I was surprised yesterday evening to find my second article had been on-line all day and I didn’t even notice.  Oopsie!

The second article might seem quite familiar. I re-wrote a blog post from last month and submitted it to them after I got  an overwhelming response from the post.

Anyway…please excuse me for being a little self indulgent and celebrating this accomplishment.  Tomorrow will be back to the regularly scheduled happiness blogging.

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Writing Articles About Glitter #261

Posted on June 25, 2012 by

Who knew working on a parade float would lead to writing an article published in a large newspaper. You never know what might happen when you start having a little fun.

So I have this list of Pleasant Events.  If you haven’t checked it out, you probably should.  You’ll never be bored again.

I’ve been having a Pleasant Event now almost everyday for several years.  I have to say…I feel pretty good about my life. I’ve never been happier.  I always have something to look forward to and something to talk about when I’m done.  You should try it.  I dare you.

Anyway…I accomplished #261 this week. It asks the participant to write (poems, articles, journal entries, or start your novel)  Thanks to this blog, I’m actually writing pretty much all the time. For it to count as a Pleasant Event, I knew I had to do something different.  Something a bit more challenging.

I’ve been a contributor to the Deseret Connect for more than a year now.  I’ve never actually contributed anything until the last two weeks when I submitted two articles.

If Deseret Connect likes your work, they’ll publish it on KSL.com, The Deseret News or the Deseretnews.com.  So far I am two for two!  They accepted both articles and ONE got published YESTERDAY at the Deseretnews.com.  It’s a story about a parade float I’ve been working on and put last couple months of my life into building. It’s been fun and interesting project but it’s brought a bit of stress.  You can read about why in the article.  

Anyway…Yesterday was a big deal for me.  It was my first published article in a large newspaper.  It was something I have wanted to do for a long time, but have been to chicken to do until now. I owe it all to my list.  It’s always pushing me to do fun things I know I want to do.

If newspaper articles aren’t your thing, try something else.  But please, do something fun today. You’ll be glad you did.

Post Note:  I know you are all sweating it, wondering what the fate of the other article is.  The answer is, I don’t know.  I guess they’re waiting for a slow news day perhaps a day when there are less fires burning. It’s a great article though and its related to this blog post.

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Lost in Love or Outer Space

Posted on June 23, 2012 by

This is one of my favorite songs of all time.  No, really, it is.  I’m being serious.  I totally have this CD and every song on it is amazing.

I think you’ll really enjoy this video particularly if you’re recovering from open heart surgery or your doctor has recommended that you reduce your blood pressure.  This video might be the MOST MELLOW  4 minutes and 9 seconds of your week.

I hope you especially enjoy the hair and wardrobes in this video.  They’re true to the 70’s.

What’s your favorite Air Supply song?

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The Food Nanny–A Cook Book Giveaway!

Posted on June 22, 2012 by

The Food Nanny helped me branch out and try new recipes like FISH TACOS.

Raise your hand if you are frustrated with your meal planning and preparation.  Is everyone raising their hand?  I know I am.  Especially now that it’s hot outside, I don’t feel like making anything.

It is important to me that we eat most of our meals at home.  The family gathered around the dinner table is an important memory from my childhood. We almost always ate dinner together.  We rarely ever ate out.

Things seem to be different now.  We eat out way more frequently than I would really like to.  I always have the best intentions to make dinner at home, but it doesn’t always happen that way.  I have found that having a menu and a shopping list and a plan make a huge difference.

The difficult thing is actually making the effort to plan. Sometimes the thought of making my weekly meal plan is so overwhelming that I just can’t do it.

Liz Edmunds, The Food Nanny, teaches a class on cooking from scratch at the Breathing Space Retreat in Daybreak.

Enter The Food Nanny.  You may know her from her smash hit BYU-TV reality show where she enters someone’s home and helps them recover from bad eating/planning habits.

She hasn’t been to my house (yet), I was lucky enough to meet her at a recent conference I attended.  She taught a class on cooking from scratch.  I think the world around us has taught us that convenience cooking is the only option.  The Food Nanny, Liz Edmunds is on a mission to right this wrong.  She is a ball of energy and her passion for planning is very convincing.

I witnessed her make, in just a few minutes, the most delicious French Baguette. While she was preparing the dough, she disclosed many cooking secrets and gave those in attendance a formula for meal planning that I thought might even work for me.

The kids LOVED eating their first ever fish tacos.

She recommends that each night of the week has a theme, for example, Mondays are Mexican night, Tuesday are Fish/meatless nights, Wednesdays are Italian nights, and so on.  The first thing you have to do is pick your theme nights based on what your family likes.

She inspired me to make FISH for the first time in my life.  We ate Fish Tacos recently at our house and guess what…everyone LOVED them, even me.

With each night having a theme, I found it to be A LOT easier to decide what to make.  Before the Food Nanny, I spent so much time hemming-and-hawing about what random recipe to make.  The theme nights provide great guidance in meal selection and we eat a better variety of food.

This was my first time ever making FISH. I thought my house would stink forever, but with open windows it didn’t stink at all!

I am NOT being paid for this post, I’ve just found her and her system so helpful that I had to share.

She had a few copies of her cookbook and I was lucky enough to be able to purchase one.  In it, she reveals her system for meal planning, shares her favorite recipes and gives tips on how to save a small fortune by simply cooking from scratch.  I highly recommend it to anyone who struggles with what to make for dinner.

The Food Nanny was nice enough to agree to give away a copy of her book to one of The Vocal Sokol’s readers.  If you’d like to be the recipient, leave me a comment and tell me about what meal planning is like at your house. Tell me what works and what doesn’t.  While you’re at it, go ahead and like TheVocalSokol on Facebook.

The contest closes NEXT Thursday, June 27 so enter before then.

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Pink Sugar–How do you do?

Posted on June 20, 2012 by

One of these things is NOT like the others. Which one you rather ride in?

My husband Steve e-mailed me this photo from his I-Phone the other day.  I LOVED it.  My little girls did too.  We have a special affinity for Slug Bugs.

I look forward to good times, but this girl, Miss Pink Sugar, She wins the award to appearances when it comes to hands-down having a good time.

I LOVE pink and sparkles and sugar (in limited quantities) more than anyone I know, but even I probably wouldn’t have the guts to drive this car around at least not full-time.

I don’t know her story, Steve didn’t stick around (for fear of being arrested on voyeurism chagres) long enough to ask.  I don’t know, maybe her other car is a 97 Ford Taurus and she only drives this one when she’s in the right mood.  Either way, I have to hand it to her for doing what makes her happy.  

I’ve discussed the idea of covering my boring gray Honda Odyssey with pink polka-dots to cheer it up a bit.  I’ll have to talk to Steve about that when he gets home.  After meeting Pink Sugar today, it probably wouldn’t seem that “out there” to him.

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Alyssa’s Green Thumb

Posted on June 18, 2012 by

Alyssa’s first attempt to prove she’s got a green thumb

Alyssa had the opportunity to plant a little bean at Kindergarten a few months ago.  It was a very exciting task! One that every kid should do during childhood.

She knows how much I love my hibiscus plant and has really learned to LOVE gardening after watching and helping her Grandpa grow wonderful things in his garden.

She knew this bean plant was her big chance to get in on growing stuff!

When I was a kid we had what seemed like and unjustly large garden.  Most the time it was a big weed patch and we were required to weed on a regular basis.  This was the WORST thing that could have happened to me as a child. I hated weeding the garden. With a passion.

Now, as a grown-up, I’m starting to realize gardening is possible in smaller areas.  This is probably the last year we’ll get away without having a real garden at our house.  I think the children will demand it next year.

Anyway…back to the bean.  After watching it grow in the house for six or so weeks Alyssa insisted we plant it outside.  Knowing it was just one plant made it a pretty easy pill to swallow.

She planted it in the flower bed since we don’t really have any garden space. Yet.

We actually had three little gardeners helping on this job.  The boy is my pseudo son who lives a few doors down.  Isn’t he the cutest thing ever!?

She dug a little whole and un-cupped her boisterous bean plant and made it a nice little home in the ground. 

It was a very exciting event for the whole family!  I know it’s a pathetic attempt at gardening, especially since the bean promptly died after being transplanted, but we’re still counting this as # 268 on the list. 

The reason it died so promptly may have been related to the fact that she accidentally stomped on the plant just a few minutes after the transplant while watching some busy bees pollinating some nearby flowers.  Oopsie!

Even though our “garden” didn’t yield any produce for us, it got us excited about gardening.  I think next year I’ll invest in some of these Lifetime product garden boxes and we’ll give gardening a real go.

What are your favorite things to grow or eat out of your summer gardens?

 

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Mr. Mister–Still Cool

Posted on June 16, 2012 by

Today’s song is Broken Wings by Mr. Mister.  I bet you didn’t even know who sang this song before you started reading this so you’re welcome.

Unlike so many other videos featured here on Sappy Saturday this video doesn’t feature really, really strange looking people.  In fact, i’d even say these cats are pretty good looking in a Blue Steel kind of way.  Or even, dare I say, a Beckham-ish sort of way.  

I know everyone in the whole world loves this song, so I hope everyone enjoys watching the video.

May I also just say in closing that I hope the book of loves opens up for you and lets you in.

 

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A Delicious Accomplishment–Turner’s Dickey’s BBQ Pit

Posted on June 15, 2012 by

In addition to their full-time day jobs and opening a new restaurant, the Turners are also the new leaders of our church congregation spending countless hours providing compassionate service.

We lucked out and moved into a house that shares a back yard with Paul and Sharon Turner.  They’ve been the greatest neighbors to us.  They’ve also been great neighborhood grandparents to our children.

I have long admired this couple.  They have been through a lot of difficult things.  Things I’m sure I wouldn’t have endured well.  Despite their highs and lows, they have remained true-blue outstanding people.

They have three sons who have grown up to be exceptional adults.  After saving money for a lifetime, they have recently opened up a family business.

If you haven’t been to Dickey’s BBQ Pit at Jordan Landing, you should probably make plans to do so right away.  The food is great, and no one is paying me to say that. Plus, everyone gets FREE soft-serve ice cream after their meal.  Beyond just the food, the atmosphere is really great.

Being in their restaurant is extra special because I know it’s the realization of Paul’s dream.  The restaurant is the result of saving and sacrifice through the years.  Paul told me that he and the boys had been saving money since they were young children to be able to open a family business together.

After living near the Turners for the last 7 years I know that it couldn’t have been easy.  They endured periods of unemployment, had a child who spent most of his first 15 years at Primary Children’s Hospital with a variety of health conditions and had various other hardships.  Through it all, they stuck with their plan.

Opening the restaurant was no easy task either and life didn’t take it easy on them.  There were countless frustrating delays and unexpected expenses.  The day before the restaurant opened, Sharon’s elderly mother, who had been ill for 10 years, died.

Despite the family tragedy, the show went on at the restaurant.  Dickey’s has been wildly popular and exceeding expectations.  Everyone in the family has been taking shifts after their day jobs, coordinating catering jobs, washing dishes and doing whatever it takes to keep the restaurant up and running smoothly.  Their new norm is 18 hour days.  Isn’t it exhausting just to think about?

I am really happy for the success they’re having.  It really is inspirational.  Sooner or later the dust wilI settle and I hope they won’t find themselves having to work as hard or long.  I’ve got dish-pan hands just thinking about it.

Mainly, I am just really proud to know them and proud that they have planned and executed something that has been so successful.  This is what it looked like at their grand opening.  The line wrapping around the building.  Don’t let this detour you from visiting Dickey’s.  These lines were one night only.

Do you have a dream?  Maybe yours isn’t to open a restaurant, but is there something you’d like to see through?  Don’t let your idea stay on paper.  Make it happen.

If you find yourself at Dickey’s be sure to try the marinated chicken.  There are so many delicious things on the menu, but the chicken is DELICIOUS.  Also try making a root beer float with your free soft-serve!

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