My last post of Sarah Palin jogging in front of the Mendenhall glacier reminded me of the day my husband and I hiked there.

This was the glacier by my sister’s house when we lived in Juneau.

It is a massive beautiful piece of ice so big and cold it is blue. This is a very old picture so you can’t see the color. You can hike next to it without a jacket in the summer.

There is a trail to hike up the mountain next to the glacier. My husband, our 1 year old on his back, and I headed up for a nice day activity. It rained almost everyday but this day it was 70 degrees and sunny . There was a nice trail to follow with signs pointing to the 3 mile or the 7 mile hike. We thought the signs were a little confusing but thought we picked the right way. Pretty soon we noticed that the trails that we had been following were branching out, taking us crazy places and we knew somewhere along the path we had taken a wrong turn. At one point it was so muddy there were no more trails.

After 6 or 7 hours, finding ourselves lost in Alaska’s wilderness, we both started to panic a little. We started talking about bears. What if we run into one? We started being really quiet. We found out later this is the opposite of what you should do. If you come upon a bear and frighten him, he might kill you. We were suppose to yell and make as much noise as possible to scare wildlife away.
We were climbing over fallen trees and falling down ourselves because of the muddy ground. I suggested an idea and we would go with it until we exhausted that idea, then we would go with my husbands idea until it didn’t work. It was getting dark and we knew it would be cold at night, probably rain and we didn’t even bring jackets. We didn’t know if anyone even know where to look for us. The worst and scariest part was having our baby with us. How could we fight off a bear with a baby on our back?!!

I remembered going one direction and getting excited because we thought we recognized it. We were walking and walking feeling quite optimistic when we came to a dead end, a cliff that had a 300 foot drop off to a river below. We were stumped. We had been walking for hours and didn’t have a clue where we were. I asked Kyle which way he thought it was and he pointed to the right and I said I think it is to the left.

We had no one to ask except the Lord. I said a prayer and as soon as I finished, I immediately knew exactly the way home. It was clear and I was confident. I told Kyle I know how to get home! We went the direction of my prompting and we came to a deserted log cabin that we had passed earlier in the day. In front of it we could see the paths and we saw where we had taken the wrong turn.

We made it home safe that night. Besides our daughter getting a sunburn she thought it was just another fun day.
I have no doubt in my mind that my prayer was answered that day and I am very grateful.

I enjoy learning about successful people especially women. I am not pushing her as a candidate. I’m saying,” Look at this powerful mother of 5!” Incredible! What are her secrets? As you will read she normally runs 7-10 miles a day. In my experience successful people exercise regularly. I wish it weren’t the truth but I think it is.
This article came directly from the Wall Street Journal Magazine. I enjoyed hearing what she eats, how she exercises etc.

WSJ. Magazine
Gov. Sarah Palin: Midnight runs and caribou dinners
Coming Saturday Sept. 6 in the debut issue of WSJ. Magazine, a conversation with Gov. Sarah Palin about her unusual workout and fitness routine. Preview excerpt
By JEN MURPHY
August 29, 2008 8:26 p.m.

Brian Adams for WSJ. Magazine
Gov. Sarah Palin has always been a runner. Her parents were marathoners and high school track and cross-country coaches. “Running was a family affair,” she says. “I didn’t have much choice. Thankfully, I’ve never tired of it.”

Gov. Palin, a mother of five kids, says exercise is still very much a “family thing.” She and her husband, Todd, also an athlete, named their first son Track because he was born in that sport’s season. Gov. Palin (above, near Mendenhall Glacier, outside of Juneau) and her family live in Wasilla, about 45 miles north of Anchorage.

Workout

“Conventional running is my sanity,” Gov. Palin says. Having recently given birth to her fifth child, the governor is trying to get back to her old workout routine. She was running 7 to 10 miles almost every day but switched to aerobics classes at her gym when she became pregnant. She has worked her way back up to running three miles every other day.

In the summer, when it’s always light, she’ll sometimes run as late as midnight. In the dead of winter, when it’s dark, she sneaks in an afternoon run, or else grudgingly runs on the treadmill at home or at the gym in the evening. Gov. Palin keeps dumbbells at home, but she says most of her upper body strength comes from snowmobiling with her family. “It’s the best upper body workout you could ever have,” she says. “You’re maneuvering through hundreds of pounds of powder.” (Todd is a four-time champion of the Tesoro Iron Dog, the world’s longest snowmobile race.)

Brian Adams for WSJ. Magazine
Gov. Palin in Juneau, Alaska
Diet pitfall

“My family and I eat a healthy diet heavy in wild Alaskan seafood, moose, caribou and fresh fruit,” she says. “I guess my biggest pitfall is breakfast. I know it’s the most important meal of the day but I still haven’t bought into it. I hate to admit it, but a skinny white-chocolate mocha is my staple in the morning.”

Workout gear

“My ideal fantasy is to be running on a hot dusty road just wearing running shorts and some kind of top that wicks away sweat. But in reality I’m running in 20-below temperatures, so I wear layers of fleece and always a good outdoor waterproof trail shoe. Right now I’ve been running in Nike Air Structure Triax. And I always wear sunglasses. My kids tell me to put them on so I don’t freak people out when they see me with a goofy hairdo and no makeup.”

While I’m working out

“I’m thinking about my next speech. I usually write my best speeches and letters [in my head] while out running. That is my inspired time.”

Postworkout food

“Nothing. I just drink water.”

Workout pitfall

“Being pregnant every few years. If I get lazy and go weeks or months without exercising it’s not because of circumstances but because I’m being less disciplined. Shame on me.”

I am a political junkie. I watched Obama’s speech last night and then John McCain introduce his VP pick this morning. My opinion of Obama’s speech was that he is a good orator and even sounded a little bit like Martin Luther King at times. I heard a lot of the same old thing and wasn’t really touched by what he said. It felt more like a performance that was staged and calculated, than him being himself, connecting with me.

Watching McCain and Palin had an entirely different feel. I watched a genuine person that said things from her heart. There was authenticity there. You could feel that she was who she said she was. I liked her. I am happy McCain picked a woman. We need more role models. I was just enjoying the speech and was surprised when a tear fell down my cheek. I thought wow! I am really being touched here. I didn’t even realize that this would be such a big deal for me. I realized how the African American people were feeling when they watched Obama before them as a Presidential candidate.

I see her as a great role model for women. She has a nice family, was a team mom, served in the PTA, served in her city council, as mayor and now Governor. She makes me want to be a better person.

Shawn Hannity made a great point on his talk show today. He said she reminds him of his wife, she reminds him of the wives of his friends, and his kids friend’s moms. I feel the same way. I feel like I could hang out with her. You can definitely feel that she is a quality person.

I am really excited about this campaign now. I was concerned about who John McCain was going to pick. I feel like this is a very balanced ticket and fun to see a new face for a change.

Here is John McCain introducing his Vice Presidential running mate Sarah Palin.

This isn’t as good a quality but I wanted you to see her introduce her husband and children.

This is just part of her speech. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the whole thing in perfect order.

Do you like her as much as I do?

The picture to the left was taken in high school. Top to bottom, Lorna, Colette, Davina, and me.

This is Colette, Me, and Lisa on a high school ski trip.
We have been friends since we were 15. We have gone through the same stages in life together. For sanity sake, when our kids were little, we would meet every week at a park in the winter and a pizza place in the summer. (Seems backwards I know but I live in Arizona). As the kids got older we would meet for lunch once a week. We found that once a week was just what we needed to get advice, get things off our mind and catch up with each other. We also made sure we fit in one girl trip each year, usually to Calif. This was always the highlight of my year.
You all know that a vacation with the husband and the kids is really not much of a vacation for the mom. In fact, I just ran into a young mom of 5 and she said she just got home from a vacation. She said she needed a vacation from her vacation! I can relate. The reason girl trips are so great is that you are only responsible for getting yourself packed. The agenda is shopping, movies, out to eat and of course lots and lots of talking. If you have never been on a girl trip you should try it. We have even gone an hour away and got a $100.00 hotel room and split it 4 ways, so cost doesn’t have to be an issue.

Here are my friends as they look today. Lisa, Colette, Lorna and Me. Do we look better now or with the Olivia Newton John headbands?

I have basically been out of town the whole summer. It has been quite the challenge to keep up with this blog. I’m excited to get home and get back to normal.
I spent 7 hours in the Salt Lake airport yesterday. I won’t go into ALL of the gory details….. Ok I will mention a few…..3 airplanes got cancelled, I was on and off of 2, there was a woman shoving match next to me on the plane in the isle, I had to go to the ticket counter 4 times to get new boarding passes, was personally escorted by a TSA agent through security, and they called in 4 police officers to keep peace because there were 200 people in line.
I thought it was interesting to watch how different people handled the same problem. Some freaked, some thought of better ideas, some were bullies, some had to complain to people even when they knew those people couldn’t do anything to remedy the problem.
I thought to myself, since everything was handled at home and it wouldn’t be a problem if I didn’t get home that day so I used it as a good excuse to catch up on my to do lists, blog ideas, Christmas lists, and I wrote an hour seminar. After being out of town for 4 days I knew when I got home I would have to cook, clean, unpack etc. This was 7 hours of bonus time for myself. I watched CNN, read a good magazine, met a new friend and made plans for the next 3 months.
I did learn a great travel tip during this fiasco. We were on the first plane and the pilot stood up front and announced that the door wasn’t closing properly so they were calling maintenance. We sat on the plane while they were fixing it for an hour. All of a sudden the lady next to me said they cancelled the flight! She saw the first class passengers standing up to get their luggage. She got out her itinerary with the 800 number on it and called the airline with her cell phone. She said “I am on Flight 5 and it has just been cancelled, can you put me on the next flight to Phoenix.” By the time she was off the plane she was set. She didn’t have to stand in line for hours. (This was the 3rd flight cancelled.) It was a brilliant move on her part and one I will do next time. Me and about 5 others ran out though security and got our tickets changed to the next flight before our planes passengers got up to the front in line.
The airlines are cutting back on flights so this scenario is going to happen more and more. My son just spent 3 hours in one of those lines in Boston when his flight was cancelled 2 weeks ago. I didn’t know how to help him then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7Bd3y_Ip4Q
You tube won’t let me embed this link. Copy and paste into the address bar.

This video is from 1991. If you can get past the hairstyles and clothes this video is pretty inspiring.

My favorite part of the song is about trying something foolish, doing something crazy, getting away and doing something for herself. She loves her family and doesn’t want to leave them but she wants more.

She’s always lived for tomorrow
She’s never learned how
To live for today
She’s dyin’ to try something foolish
Do something crazy
Or just get away
Something for herself for a change

Is there life out there
So much she hasn’t done
Is there life beyond
Her family and her home
She’s done what she should
Should she do what she dares
She doesn’t want to leave
She’s just wonderin
Is there life out there

It is smart to do some of your dreams while still raising your children, like going to school and getting a degree. When you take care of you, you’re happier and better able to take care of others.

In the book The Five Languages of Love by Gary Chapman you can find out what ways help you feel loved. At the end of the book there is a quiz that you and your spouse can take. These are the answers.
Words of Affirmation
Quality Time
Receiving Gifts
Acts of Service
Physical Touch
Different people feel love in different ways. One might feel love from compliments, one from gifts, one from doing nice things for the other. Everyone interprets love a different way. Once we find out the way our spouse feels love, we can be more effective. Instead of giving them love the way we would want it, we give them love how they want it.
For instance, one of my love languages is acts of service. I would love it if someone cleaned the kitchen, cleaned my car or ran an errand for me. This would show me that I was really loved. If I were given a gift it wouldn’t mean as much to me. My other love language is words of affirmation. If I get a card that says really nice things I keep forever. This might be the complete opposite of someone else.
A clue to finding out what someone’s love language is to see how they show love to you. I have a daughter that loves to throw parties, decorate and buy gifts. I can assume that is how she would like to be treated in return.
The book is to help you find out what the other person’s love language is, so you can show them love in their language not yours. My husband’s language is quality time. He just likes to hang out with me. He doesn’t care if I am serving him or buying him stuff. Because I know his love language I make sure that I don’t get too busy and ignore him.
When we are not showing others love their way we are just spinning our wheels.


For those of you who’s love language is words of affirmation you are going to love this idea. I gathered up all the cards and notes that people have written me and I put them in a scrapbook. Now whenever I need a little boost I can go to this book and see all the nice things people have said about me.

I make this when I have leftover chicken and potatoes. These are the ingredients pie crust(pillsbury is better than the store brand.), cream of celery soup, cream of chicken soup and evaporated milk. (If you use beef instead of chicken, use cream of mushroom soup.)

Add cut up chicken, mixed vegetables and potatoes.


Mix 1 can cream soup with 1/2 can evaporated milk. I was making 2 pies so I did 2 soups and 1 milk. Stir together. (You can stir the potatoes, chicken and veggies so you know how juicy it will be.)

Pour on soup mixture and sprinkle with lots of Laury’s seasoning salt.

Cover with the other crust. Smooth milk on top of crust and salt it generously. Cut a hole in the middle of crust.

Cook at 350 for an hour and 10 minutes. If the top is getting too brown I move it to the bottom shelf or cover the top with foil. You don’t want to undercook it or you will have a raw crust.

You can basically put any meat and vegetables inside this pie. It is a hit no matter what combination I do. I got this recipe from my sister in law. It is yummy!

What if you had to go without water for a few days? I live in the desert and wonder what would happen if something went wrong with our water supply.
I just received a pamphlet in the mail from my city. It says that FEMA recommends every family in America have a 2 week supply of water.
This is from the pamphlet-
Rule of thumb: One gallon of water is needed per person per day. With careful rationing, this amount would be sufficient for drinking, food preparation, brushing teeth etc. An additional 1/2 gallon to 1 gallon per person per day would allow for hygiene care.
They recommend cleaned and sanitized two-liter soda bottles or heavy opaque plastic. Do not use milk jugs or juice bottles. They cannot be cleaned well enough and can crack and leak after a year or two.
I have saved some 2 liter pop bottles. I have them in the back of storage room shelves and in the back of cabinets. I also refill bleach bottles for washing hands. I know I couldn’t live with myself if my children were hungry or thirsty.
My sister was without water for 2 days in N.C. She had water stored in pop bottles too. She was the only one in her neighborhood that had water and could use a toilet because she was able to pour water in the back of the tank. She went through 60 bottles before the water was turned back on.
With the world as crazy as it is right now, a little water stored away sounds like a reasonable thing to have on hand.

When I first started coaching I assumed that I was the only one that was unsure of myself. The people that were in my first class were 2 MBA’s, 1 PHD, 1 President of a well known company, a motivational trainer, and a professional speaker that traveled the world speaking. Then there was me, a housewife and mother.
Was I ever intimidated. These women were the people I had always dreamed of becoming but because I wanted to stay home with my children, I hadn’t done all of those grandiose things.
When I started coaching, I found one thing in common, no matter how beautiful, no matter how successful, no matter how confident on the outside, when you speak to people heart to heart, everyone has insecurities and doubts on the inside, some people just hide it better than others. This was eye opening to me.
When I see this photoshopped billboard it makes me sad. There are so many women who feel bad about themselves because they look at fake perfect people in magazines and on TV and know they don’t look like that. They compare their morning face with no make up and hair done, to this billboard model that isn’t even a real person.
Why do we continue to read magazines with airbrushed faces and photo shopped bodies? It only makes us feel less confident.

As I skim through fashion magazines, I unconsciously ponder on what qualities I can fix with myself. For a few hours, after looking at the glamorous pictures of celebrities and cover girl models, I become much more aware of my flaws. My sense of self may be dampened for a few hours, until I hit reality.

What I and billions of other females around the world are being fed is a lie.

Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman said, “The big success story of our entertainment industry is our ability to export insecurity: We can make any woman anywhere feel perfectly rotten about her shape.”

I wholeheartedly believe this. Research conducted by Stanford University and University of Massachusetts found that 70 percent of college women say they feel worse about their own looks after reading women’s magazines. Another study by Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that the more frequently girls read magazines, the more likely they were to diet and feel bad about their body shape.

Ladies, these magazines are ruining our self-esteem. I won’t go out on a limb by being so broad as to say that everyone is affected, but … This was written by a college age girl.

Let’s quit buying the magazines that make us feel inferior.
The only person we should be comparing ourselves to is our self.
Are you being the best you, you can be? Not perfect, but a good version of yourself?
Are you following your dreams? What have you been putting off that you would love to do and would make you feel fulfilled?
Are you being authentic? Do you follow the crowd or are you being your true self?
Are you doing a little better than you did last month? Baby steps are great!
Are you taking care of yourself? Are you in need of a haircut or color, new outfit, gym membership, massage, pedicure, nap, lunch with a friend, movie, an hour at the library, a song from Itunes?
Do something nice for you. You deserve it!!