25 Haziran 2017 Pazar

Success or Failure, You choose



Dear lovely people,

I have learned that no matter how much you want to control the final outcome of everything that happens to you, you can’t.  All that you can do is control the controllable, take responsibility for doing all that you can and leave the outcome up to God.”

Let me tell you a story distilled from an unknown author. A jobless man applied for the position of ‘office boy’ at a very big company. The HR Manager interviewed him then watched him cleaning the floor as a test. “You are hired.” – the employer told him at the end of the test. “Give me your email address, and I’ll send you the application to fill, as well as when you will start.” Surprisingly, the man replied, “I don’t have a computer, neither an email.”

“I’m sorry,” said the HR Manager, “if you don’t have an email that means you do not exist. And who doesn’t exist, cannot have the job.” The man left with no hope. He didn’t know what to do, with only $10 USD in his pocket. It occurred to him that whether you register success or failure in your live, you choose.

He then decided to go to the supermarket, bought a 10kg tomato crate, then sold the tomatoes door to door. In less than two hours, he succeeded and doubled his capital. He repeated the operation 3 times and returned home with $60 USD. The man realized that he could survive by this way, and started to go everyday earlier, and returned late. Thus, his money doubled or tripled everyday. Shortly later, he bought a wagon, then a truck, and then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles.

Five years later, the man’s company was one of the biggest food retailers. He started to plan his family’s future, and decided to have a life insurance. He called an insurance broker and chose a protection plan. When the conversation was concluded, the broker asked him his email. The man replied: “I don’t have an email.”

The broker replied curiously, “You don’t have an email, and yet have succeeded to build an empire. Do you imagine what you could have done if you had an email?” The man paused for a while, and replied: “An office boy!”

First thing first, I don’t want to sound as if there is no point having an email address, far from it. I rather want to send home the message that you can’t afford to allow the lack of an email address to come between you and the future you want for yourself. The internet is not the only solution to your problems in life. If you don’t have an email address and work hard, you can still be a millionaire.

More importantly, you should NEVER ever be discouraged if something does not work in your favor today. Better opportunities are always waiting ahead if you stay through to your cause and learn from every single mistake you make along the way.

Does Discipline makes you Deserving


This is a post from my other blog. It was written on 21-Aug-2006; almost a decade ago! Republishing it here - 

Deserve, as I understand the word, means something that you believe should happen. It only expresses a strong desire. Ravana deserved to die – because you think he was wrong and therefore, must be punished. I deserved a promotion because I did so much work. Deserve however, should not be mistaken for somebody’s definitive right over something – moral right, emotional right, social right etc.

When I had left my seat at NITIE, it was because I believed I deserved an IIM. I believed that I have the capabilities of being a good leader and simply because I am naturally gifted in it, it makes enormously more sense for me to go to only the top institute so that I don’t dilute my ability. It makes sense for Arjuna to be trained only by Drona. Nobody else would give each of them what they deserved.

However, the closest I came to IIM was a call at IIM-K. It wasn’t that I was bad. I believe I had reached the position where I was a very strong contender. But I was not consistent. On the day of the exam, I was not good enough. Not once but twice, I did not perform to my capabilities on the day of the exam.

If I get down to analyzing why it happened that I could not perform when it mattered, it was because I was operating in a range. 94% to 99%. It could have been any of them and on those two days – it was 98% once and 95% the other. What I lacked was consistency.

And why did I lack consistency – because I lacked discipline.

To think of it, I lost out on something that I deserved because of lack of discipline. And today, I run that risk again, unless I learn from my mistake.

Here is what I think of it now, on 28-May-2015

Do not agree with this anymore! I did pursue my entrepreneurial venture in a fairly disciplined manner. But discipline alone does not guarantee success either. And therefore the failure above should not be attributed to a perceived lack of discipline alone either! 

Discipline is what helps you get through the execution bit! If you are disciplined, you'd execute better but the strategy, the idea, the environment; everything matters! 

In the case above, the strategy was wrong! I never really understood the art and science of writing exams!

Fall Break


Fall Break

We were on fall break last week, and I can honestly say that I enjoyed every bit of it. Several people I know traveled to either the beach or the mountains, and I have to admit I was a wee bit jealous of them at the beginning of the week. Mr. P (I still call him that even though the blog has changed, I'll come up with a new nickname sometime.) is on a big project right now so he could only take Monday off of work. But I ended up enjoying the down time, and I was glad that we stayed at home. We managed to stay pretty busy, so here's a recap of our week. I've tried to do some collage pics to keep this from being a total photo unload. 

We started our fall break off by spending last weekend atJellystone Mammoth Cave. I've blogged about this park before, but I'll say it again-this is an awesome family park. If you live anywhere near this area, I highly recommend it. They have themed weekends each week from March until the end of October, and we usually go 3-4 times a year. This past weekend was the start of their Fall Festival weekends, which run until the end of the month. They had hayrides, visiting the pumpkin patch, painting your pumpkin, a costume contest, trick or treating (at over 300 campsites/cabins!), and karaoke. In addition, they have putt putt golf, basketball, a jumping pillow, two playgrounds, and a huge field to play football and other games in. They also have two pools and some water slides, but it was too cold for them this past weekend. We usually only camp with one other family, but every year for the past 4 years our Fall Festival weekend group has grown. This year, we had 6 families and 19 kids, including Mr. P's sister and her family. So much fun! Saturday was cold and rainy, but we managed to do most of the activities anyway. Sunday was a beautiful day, so we spent as much time as we could at the playground, playing basketball, riding bikes, and more. I was glad the weather cleared off after Saturday because we stayed an extra night at Jellystone and came home on Monday.




Tuesday was my birthday, and even though Mr. P had to work he made sure that I would have a special day. He had his mother to watch the girls for part of the day, and arranged for a spa day for me. Such a sweet guy! So I got some much-needed "me time" during the day, then we grilled steaks and enjoyed birthday cake as a family. It made turning 45 very painless! ; )

Wednesday was our first Gotcha Day. Mr. P was of course working, but I wanted to make it a special day for the girls and me. I decided to take them to Bowling Green to the train museum so they could learn about some of their ancestors. My grandaddy, great-grandaddy, and several uncles worked for the L & N railroad, which is featured at the train museum. I made my homemade lasagna for our celebratory dinner that night.

Thursday was another beautiful day, and we needed to scoot out of the house while my trusty housecleaners came to work their magic. So we packed a picnic lunch and headed out to one of our local parks. We ate lunch under the trees, explored the historical school house and residence, then spent some time at the playground before heading home.

Friday was a cloudy, rainy day so we decided to make that our stay-in day. I caught up on laundry, redid my blog, did my meal planning for the upcoming week, and made out my grocery list for Saturday. We had make-your-own-pizzas for dinner and watched a movie on Netflix. Little A made a traditional pepperoni pizza, Little A made pepperoni-onion-bacon (yuck!), Mr. P made an "all the meats" pizza, and I did chicken-bacon-alfredo with veggies.

Saturday morning was soccer, followed by lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant. Saturday afternoon, Mr. P took the girls to a church function for a little while and I did some grocery shopping.



Today our  minister was out, so Mr. P, being a lay speaker for the church, delivered the sermon. I think it was his best sermon yet, and I was so proud of him. I am so thankful to have him in my life.

Well that's all the news that fit to print from our house! Mr. P and I are sitting here eating the last of my birthday cake. It's a good thing that it's all gone now because I have to get back to healthy eating tomorrow. I've had a little too much food in the past week, but it was my birthday week after all! Tomorrow starts back with school, dance, soccer, tumbling, and everything else. Have a great week!

Happy Father's Day 2017



Happy Father's Day to the world's greatest dad!!! 🎉💙😊 Thank you for always being just one call away whenever I need to talk. I want you to know that I have treasured every moment that we have had together. Thank you for giving me the most amazing childhood. I will never forget our family vacations, our father-daughter bike rides and hikes (followed by yummy lunch dates), and all of the random adventures we always seem to go on. Your sense of humor and fun loving attitude provide for endless fun times and plenty of laughs. You always love to tell me about all my "best qualities"...but what you somehow don't realize is that I get all those qualities from you. A father is neither an anchor to hold us back nor a sail to take us there, but a guiding light whose love shows us the way. I love you daddie! 😍 


Today we of course spent sme time with both of our families! First we headed over to the Donelson's place. While Laura finished up cooking, Mike and I built Peter's new outside playset. The little cutie was so excited when it was done! He didn't want to come inside when food was ready! :) The meal was so delicious. I loved my steak, veggies, and noodles! Then Mike (Sr.) opened up his gifts from Mike and I, which consisted of about six different dry-fit t-shirts and polos. He was so surprised and excited! He would walk away and try on a new shirt almost every twenty minutes, lol. 

Eventually it was time to say goodbye, so we headed over to my family's house. We gave my dad his gifts right away and boy did he love the skull!! He made all kinds of comments and kept staring at it for awhile. In addition to the carving, we also bought my dad a volleyball. He had mentioned earlier this week that he wanted to go play a game of volleyball at the park by our house, so Mike and I made sure to pick up a ball. :) Mike decided to get creative and paint on "Wilson". Of course, that was a big hit with my family lol. Once everyone was rounded up, we set out to Covington Park to play. The teams were mom, dad, Mitch, and I verses Mike, Jax, and Zack. The first game we totally destroyed the boys. But in the second game, they had a huge comeback and won by like two points! We played one last game to break the tie, and it was very intense. Unfortunately, my team ended up losing. :P It was seriously so much fun though and I'm really glad everyone came out to play! Once that was over and everyone had cooled down, we headed to Taphouse for dinner. We had a nice time eating outside together and being our usual goofy selves. :)

Harper's Blessing

Dave blessed Harper in the Price 9th Ward on December 4, 2016.  It was a wonderful blessing.  We were happy to have Grandma and Grandpa Oberholtzer and Uncle Darin travel for the special occasion.  We are so blessed with great family and also so blessed to have baby Harper in our family.







Newborn Days

Newborn Days

I keep thinking about what a shame it is that I can't enjoy the newborn stage more.  I seemed to be in a fog of exhaustion and hormones.  Harper really was a sweet little newborn baby.  She was so tiny for so long.  I was breastfeeding her but I don't think I was making enough milk for her.  Once I started supplementing her with a couple of extra ounces of formula at every feeding she really started to gain some ounces, and get some fat rolls and chubby cheeks!  Here a few pictures of her that show her progression over the first couple of months of her life.
Dec. 7, 2016
Dec. 9

Dec. 19
Dec. 21
Dec. 25
Jan. 8
 Jan. 10

Jan. 31

Feb. 7
     
Feb. 9 (In some pajamas that Haylie wore too!)


Feb. 25
Feb. 26 (4 months old)

Big girl desk

Big girl desk

Linnea's room has had yet another make-over recently. Now that she's going into Middle School she needs less space for her little trinkets, and more space for her school work. There was no way the old desk would have room for her laptop, school books and notes etc all at once. So we sold her old desk, and got her a bigger one.

This was how it was before, although since this picture was taken we had also removed the collection of Schleich animals, and the shelving is now housing photos and decorations.


 And now:


Bir An Önce Tanışmanız Gereken Şifası Kendinden Büyük Bir Besin: Arı Poleni

İsmini belki de ilk defa duydunuz ya da hali hazırda karşılaşıp güzelliklerinden ve şifasından pek de haberdar değilsiniz. Yazının geri...