Busy Times

Did you check out the June birthday list?  Holy smokes!  It should be one long, continuous party month!

A quick reminder of the Stake 5K Fun Run starting at Sandridge Park this Saturday (June 9th) at 7:30 a.m. Everyone is invited to bring family and neighbors to run, walk or ride.  Breakfast will be served after the run.  In addition, there will be a really fun car show at the stake center until early afternoon.  A dutch oven lunch will be served around noon.  And finally, remember Sunday evening at 7:00 p.m. begins our neighborhood walks to enjoy the evening with friends and a few treats to enjoy as you walk around the neighborhood.

Many of you may have heard through Chris Hall about Love Soup, a non-profit organization established by our neighbor, Cindy Ferneau.  She makes homemade soup, rolls and treats to serve anyone in need of a warm meal once a week on Wednesday nights at Layton Christian from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m.  Kelsey and I volunteered a couple of weeks ago (Kelsey was a server and I was a dishwasher).  We both enjoyed it and I'll definitely volunteer again.  I think I sometimes can get lost in all of our church activities and it was nice to roll up our sleeves in a non-denominational christian effort, together side-by-side.  If you get a chance, please take a look at the website.

And, it wouldn't be a post unless I shared something personally.  Lee and I were camp parents for First Descents in Moab this past week (for Nick's first anniversary).  I wrote about it on the Wacky website, if you want to read about it.  Great experience!

Have a good June!

Lori Brower

What's New....

Ok, since no one else has stepped to voluntarily share their news, this posting will once again be all about me!


First of all, a big congratulations to Jamie Skinner in winning the Les Schwab "Do The Right Thing"  award for the month of April presented on Good Things Utah last week.  Lori Chase did the right thing herself in nominating Jamie and her Winter Foundation.  Jamie's foundation helped 178 children in six different elementary schools this past holiday season.  Well done, Jamie - you truly deserve this recognition.  Our ward has always known the wonderful work of your foundation; now the entire state knows, too.  On a personal note, James and Jamie both wore their WACKY pins at the taping of the show and Jamie said that both the producer and one of the remaining original hosts remembered Nick.  Aw.

Next, our daughter Carly, received her mission call to Sydney, Australia in a Mandarin Chinese speaking mission.  We can't help but think that Nick had something to do with that - "Yes, you can go on a cool mission, but let's make it a little interesting, shall we?"  It was also interesting when we went to shop for her first visit to the temple next weekend.  As the clerk was ringing up her items, she asked Carly about where she was going... then the clerk asked Carly, "Who is Nick?"  His name popped up on her screen under my Deseret Book membership number.   Hmm.  She leaves for the MTC on August 15th and her motto is "Flirt to Convert" as it was the motto for several of her missionary friends just now returning home.

And lastly, but enormously important, is to announce that I am putting a Wacky team together for the Ogden 5k on May 19th.  Please visit http://www.getoutandlive.org/races/5k-ogden-marathon to register for our team.  Be sure to enter "wackywarriors" as the event code - that will help me keep a list of everyone who is going to be on our team! Note, you will need to register individually, not under a "team" name.

The plan is to visit our home on May the 18th for an informal dinner - probably around 7:00 p.m. after you have picked up your participant packet at the Union Station in Ogden. Be sure to stop by and visit our Wacky booth at the expo! At the dinner, I will have official Wacky running shirts to purchase if you want to wear it for the 5k. This is really the only fundraising us 5k'ers will be doing. Dinner is optional, of course, and you just need to let me know if you want a shirt before the race and we'll make some other arrangements.

On race day, we can all meet up at the shuttle in Ogden which departs at 6:00 a.m. I know. I know. We will, of course, be dressed in wacky attire. We will also have a Wacky booth at the finish line where we can meet up again and wait for our half marathoners - unless they pass us up, which could happen! 

Call me if you have any questions. Please don't hesitate to invite any other family members or friends who you think might enjoy being Wacky for a day!

Thanks for the support!

Lori Brower

108 Year Old Woman Survivor of a Nazi Concentration Camp

I was sent a link to watch an interview by Anthony Robbins of an 108 year old woman that survived a Nazi concentration camp.  I actually had it in my inbox for a month before I finally took the time to watch it.  I feel badly that I missed an entire month of not hearing this lovely woman's words.  So, I share this with you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj-RJ4k9c04&feature=youtu.be

Although the main message she delivers is about gratitude, the following quote impacted me tremendously:

"Hatred eats the soul of the hater, not the hated."  Alice Herz Sommer

I also paid particular attention to when she talked about being a mother to her five-year old son, "He saw me laughing.  How can a child not laugh when he hears his mother laugh?"  I love that part.

I hope this brought you a smile, or at least something to think about.

With gratitude, of course -

Lori Brower

Emergency Flashlights

Another message from Chris Hall:


Neighbors,

I love it when we work together to make our neighborhood safer and let each other know about great emergency prep opportunities.  

Camden Van Tassell has such an opportunity for us if you wish to participate.  Camden is selling three types of emergency flashlights to fund a soccer camp this summer.  

1.  Hybrid Light Solar Spotlite super bright solar LED spotlight with battery backup.  It holds 10 hours of light on a 10 hour solar charge.  It is rechargeable, waterproof and durable.  Cost is $30 (retails for $60).

2.  Hybrid Light Solar Lantern with battery backup.  It recharges with any light source, holds 6 hours of light on one full charge, no bulbs or mantles, cool to touch, lightweight and portable.  Cost is $30 (retails for $60).

3.  Hybrid LIght Solar Flashlight with battery backup.  Recharges with any light source, hold 8 hours of light per charge, waterproof and floats.  Cost is $20 (retails for $40).

Check out the information at hybridlight.com for more information.  I have looked at the product and I am very impressed.  Please pass this along to your neighbors if you can.  Thanks.

Please call Camden Van Tassell at 801-771-0557 if you have any questions.  He needs to know if you are interested by March 4th

Keeping Food Safe

Chris Hall would like to share some safety information for you.  Please visit the following link to learn more about "Keeping Food Safe":

Click here

Dr. Mark Hyman

Twice a year, Lee and I attend a conference for the Transformational Leadership Council.  Each conference lasts for five days, attended by 80 to 100 “motivational leaders” and their spouses from around the world.  The intent of this council is to network together in an effort to make a global impact – “together we’re better”.  Ideas are shared, collaboration is solidified and the learning is exponential.

Some conferences are better than others.  But there always seems to be at least one presenter that makes such a significant impact on our lives, we can’t wait to get home to share it with our own personal network of individuals.  Last week, we had another such experience and I would like to share it with you.

Dr. Mark Hyman had flown in directly from participating with Bill Clinton’s Health Matters Summit to our conference.  He’s a smarty pants (yet one of the most humble human beings I have ever met) in the medical field, especially when it relates to the function of the human body.  He began his presentation by sharing his photos - he, his wife (an orthopedic surgeon) and her father (also an orthopedic surgeon) were one of the first medical teams to reach Haiti.  What a tender story!  He then went on to explain he had spent two full years working in Washington, DC trying to change the health care system, as his patients were not getting the proper care or insurance.  Finally, a smarty pants in the political field explained to him that he was just not going to win this one.  The lobbyists are too strong, regardless of his powerful political connections.  So he decided to take another route in attempting to get to the source of why his patients needed healthcare to begin with.  His findings are consistent with what we already know – DIET.  He just expresses his knowledge in a gentler, kinder and reasonable manner.  He soon had the opportunity to direct a social experiment on how to change lifestyles when he heard from Pastor Rick Warren.

You may remember Pastor Rick – he wrote the “The Purpose Driven Life” and has a congregation of about 30,000 members.  He was hosting an event, which included baptizing over 800 new members.  After about 500 full-dunk baptisms, he realized his congregation was fat.  He also realized he was fat, too.  He soon contacted Dr. Hyman and together with a few other experts, they designed “The Daniel Plan” – based on the story from the Bible, Daniel 1:15.  Here you have a Jewish doctor working alongside a Christian pastor with a single-minded intent to bring about a healthy change in the lives of thousands.

Dr. Hyman explained it like this:  In Rwanda, there are 3 hospitals in the entire country and it can take up to 3 days to reach one.  Then there are about 20 clinics throughout the small country – about a day walk.  However, there are hundreds of churches – taking a Rwandan an average of 5 minutes to reach by walking.  So if you want to introduce an idea to make significant changes in health, it makes the most sense to work with the churches.

In “The Daniel Plan”, the support system with a community working together is phenomenal and the results are astounding! These small groups would get together often and be each other’s cheerleaders.  They shared recipes and went on group hikes together.  They immediately stopped bringing donuts to church functions and replaced them with healthy alternatives.

But what I found extremely interesting is the REAL key to their success:  they did it for Jesus.  Instead of having guilty pressure and self-depreciation for a lack of a healthy lifestyle, they acknowledged the power of being a better servant to God by having a stronger body.

Please take a moment to check out these two articles:

http://drhyman.com/new-cure-for-chronic-disease-discovered-8270/

and

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/24/health/saddleback-warren-diet/index.html

It certainly is food for thought, so to speak.  I would really love to hear feedback on this subject.

For what it’s worth, I’m the one that fell apart when Paula Deen announced her diabetic condition.  I have THREE of her cookbooks, dang it!  I’m a true follower and love, love, love that she cooks with butter, sour cream, cream cheese, etc.  You have no idea how much it ticks me off that even the queen of cream is vulnerable to her own culinary creations.  Crap!

So, I will close with Dr. Hyman’s closing remarks when asked how can we begin to make the change (it wasn’t me asking, I promise):

1.     Eat more at home – take back our kitchens.

2.     The worse the food is, the more you will see it advertised – take back our media and stop the media poisoning.

3.     Take back our food in our schools (referred to the book, “Two Angry Moms”).

4.     Provide healthy workplaces.

5.     Watch who and what you support – take back our democracy.  Vote with your fork.

6.     Avoid artificial anything.

7.     Food labels should have less than 5 ingredients.  Then ask yourself if your grandmother would recognize them.

8.     Avoid alcohol, sugar and gluten.

9.     Eat plant-based foods; not foods made in a plant.

  Eat protein with every meal.

11.  Eat early and often.

12.  Eat lots of beans, nuts, seeds, veggies (preferably local), lean protein, butter (YAY!)

13.  Supplements – our soils are depleted and stress equals toxins.  Suggests just a multi-vitamin and vitamin D.

14.  Get outside – we need light, fresh air, clean water.

15.  Find your meaning and purpose in life.

16.  Find an activity that involves movement and rhythm.

17.  Find your connection with LOVE.

18.  This one is from me – rely on HIM to get you through!

I hope you all can find something in here that resonates.  This obviously is the Word of Wisdom.  I just like how it is being applied.

With love,

Lori

Something to make you smile!

Good morning!  I am back from a very relaxing vacation and am ready to face the new year!  To start us off, I want to share the following.  Enjoy!

New signs: