I love living in Southern California

Tonight my mom called a spur of the moment family gathering at Hometown Buffet. Yes, she fell for their kids eat for .99$ commercial they have been running. My immediate response was, "No way in heck I am going!" Every time I go to a buffet (which is not very often) I see those disgusting germ commercials play over and over in my head as I grab a set of tongs and get some food. You know the ones where they zoom in on the germ worms. But I did not want to miss a family event so I reluctantly went.

As I drove down to the restaurant I was taken back at how beautiful it is here. We live in the best place! Our mountains and valleys are so amazing. From where we live, every time we drive anywhere we come "down" from this small town and on a clear day can see all the way out to the Pacific Ocean. It is so beautiful. My in-laws are coming to visit tomorrow and just had a huge snow storm pass through Utah (where we use to live) and I am so grateful I live in this warm, happy climate. I am curious to see as they drive in what they think of our fire ravaged town. It is hard to get the full effect over video.

I am trying to get to a point. Lesson #3 is (and these do not come in order of priority): Have a balanced family life. My most important job is being a mother and a wife to this awesome family I have been given. When work is taking up to much time our family is way out of whack! The result is I work hard, long hours and only get half as much done. It is challenging to have to work and live in the same environment. Some days it is so hard to separate the two very different jobs I have. For me the balance comes when I am being patient with my 4 sweet kids, my house is somewhat under control and I have been keeping up on my spiritual quest to become a better person. Then I am the most productive of all.

Lesson #4 is; surround your self with successful optimistic people. I have always had a strong desire to own my own business. I am constantly coming up with new ideas. For instance today as I worked, my little girl danced a zillion times to the music video on 12 Dancing Princesses. I thought to myself how great would it be if I could buy a video that was a dance class for toddlers. Then she could get her dance class in, I could work and we could do all this from the comfort of our own home. Or after the SoCal fires came through I wanted so badly to thank the firefighters for all they did! So I thought why not start a website thankyoufirefighters.com where you can send your favorite firefighters cookies, flowers, or whatever firefighters like with your personal message. Anyway, back to lesson #4 I could go on and on. When we lived in Heber, UT 80% of our friends were successful business owners. It is amazing. Everyone in Heber owns some type of business. It is so inspiring to see people like that and that is where I got the guts to start. One of my best friends from Heber owns a restaurant called "The Hub" on Main Street in Heber. She took that business and made it very successful, very quickly. There is something about being surrounded by people who are that driven. It gives me the confidence to keep going and work that hard. All our friends in Heber have very different businesses that are growing and thriving but they all share a similar work ethic.

Tonight as I sat filling my body with sodium rich, germ infested, I do not even want to know fat content food it was nice to sit and talk to my brother who owns his own network cabling business. We share ideas back and forth helping each other along the way. He knows how it is, become inspired!