Sunday Thoughts

I had an interesting experience this week that I think falls into the "Sunday Thoughts" category. It's related to my word for the year as well.


The other day, I was driving Whitney to her art class and took a different route because I needed to drop something off at the post office. While driving, I noticed a woman running across the street and up the sidewalk. She wasn't dressed like she was out for a jog, she looked like she was in a hurry to catch a bus or something, and I thought "I wonder if she needs a ride". But I thought this as I was passing her and continued up the street to the post office. As I dropped my parcel in the mailbox I thought "she needs a ride, I'm going back to get her."


So I turned around (Whitney didn't notice any of this as she was concentrating on the school book she was reading out loud to me) to pick up the woman. I pulled up along side the woman and asked her if she needed a ride. She said, "No, I'm just going to the post office." The post office was about 3/4 a mile from where she was and she had been running, so I said, "I'm passing by the post office". Then she happily got into my car and exhaled as she said, "You're an answer to my prayer!" (Kind of funny that she didn't immediately jump at the chance for a ride, she must have been checking us out.)


It turns out she had been frantically driving to the post office to get there by 5:00 (I picked her up at 4:55) and she'd run out of gas and was trying to run the rest of the way. I dropped her off at the post office (she needed to go inside) and told her I'd just take Whitney to art class and then I'd come back and get her.

So I went back to the post office and picked her up. She hadn't brought any money with her when she left home so she wanted me to take her home. I wanted to help her get gas in her car so she wouldn't have the hassle of calling her husband and having him meet her somewhere. So as I was driving her home we were chatting. I said, "Running out of gas, how did that happen?" and then went on talking. Somehow the organizing class came up and it turns out she had taken it last year.

When we got to her house, I said, "So do you want me help you get the gas?" because I didn't understand why she seemed to be wanting to just go home instead of taking me up on my offer to help. I had a gas can at home and everything (she lives near me). Then she said, "I don't have any money for gas, it's the end of the month, we'll figure something out, thanks, bye!" then she got out of the car and ran to her front door.

I felt so stupid! I hadn't even considered the possibility that she had run out of gas because she didn't have any money. I had assumed that because she was a 50ish, normal looking woman that she had somehow just spaced getting gas. I felt like such a chump for asking her how she'd run out of gas (no wonder she hadn't answered my question) and chuckling about it. My heart hurt for her to be in this situation, and for me not considering all the possibilities.

Overall it was a good experience and gave me a chance to talk to Whitney about listening to promptings and being the answer to another person's prayer. But it also taught me to think before I speak and not to assume that I know what's going on in someone else's life just because they look a certain way.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: I have had a really great Sunday, 2:00 church really agrees with me!

Creative Friday--Woodland Creature Edition

Creative Friday this week started with m&ms. I was a bit out of sorts due to my face being a zit-riddled mess, being agitated from listening to NPR (our country is a mess!) and getting stuck behind slow, slow drivers on the way to Michelle's. Diving straight into the m&ms definitely helped take the edge off my irritation.


Michelle was a bit bugged because Eva wasn't feeling well and was being clingy and whiny (a wretched combo for anyone really), but she was the picture of patience in the face of Smotherhood as usual.

We had some very tasty lasagna and Texas toast for lunch.

Michelle copied all the notes from this week's organizing class (she couldn't go) and we went over all of it. We're learning so much from it, I just love it.


I worked on some birthday good mail and some notes. I was so out of sorts when I got ready for the day that I forgot to put on jewelry (highly irregular for me) so my hands look naked.

I got this card Whitney made ready to be mailed to Randy's parents.

Our big excitement for the day came when we heard (how could we NOT hear them) some birds outside going absolutely crazy with their squawking and what not. It turns out there was an owl in the tree right above Michelle's deck! How bizarre is that? I've only ever seen an owl at the zoo before, never in a setting like this too.

I stationed myself in the kitchen window to see the owl, but Michelle's side view from the sliding doors produced the better picture of the owl looking at the camera. Though, I do like this view of Michelle's fancy soaps in her window with the owl in the distance.

Here is my happy pile of mail for the day.

I was so bugged when I got this package returned to me this week because I was .26 cents short on postage. It appears that this sticker is saying that now that my postage has been postmarked it is no longer valid. What the? Does this mean I paid $3 for the privilege of mailing something back to myself?!


Michelle has been reorganizing her kitchen as a result of the organizing class and has been cleaning out her kitchen drawers. She discovered that she had two dough scrappers and was kind enough to give me one.


I was just too unsightly for a real self-portrait, so we opted for a feet shot this time.

**What makes you feel out of sorts?
Do you hate it when you forget to wear jewelry?
Have you ever seen an owl outside a zoo?
Did you write any cards this week?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I finally took the garlands off our fence today since it was rather nice weather (though muddy out there), and then finished packing up the Christmas stuff I'd just thrown into the garage. Now all the Christmas containers are up on the shelf and our garage looks decent for the time being, woohoo!

Five for Friday

1. This was on the back of Whitney's spelling test last week. Pledge, edge and stage were all words from her list, but I think she added the blah, blah herself.


2. This picture of Andrew's recent graduation from "school" is hilarious to me because...

A. Whoever took it had no zooming skills whatsoever
B. His hat is slightly askew, which is just too perfect.
C. I can't believe they got him to wear the cap and gown at all.

3. A couple weeks ago during Sharing Time I had the kids draw pictures of things that let them know Heavenly Father and Jesus love them. The kids drew their families, nature, scriptures, and one little 8 year old girl drew Target! I thought that was hilarious and oh so true!


4. It was Whitney's teacher's birthday this week so I brought balloons and donuts, and the room mom made a video of all the kids answering questions about the teacher and put it together as a little movie. I thought it was a very cool gift.


5. Amie and I went to lunch at La Dolce Vida yesterday on a spontaneous outing to Provo because Amie had to deposit a check.

Good times and good lunch.

**Who knew spelling test art could be funny?
What do you think of the Target incident?
Do you have movie making skills?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I'm having a bizarre case of left nostril itchiness. It's driving me crazy!

My Debut

I met Ciria last spring at Women's Conference when she introduced herself to us because she recognized us from our blogs. She has commented on my posts here and there since then, and in December emailed me to ask if I'd be interested in teaching a class for her Relief Society's Enrichment night.


So on Tuesday night I taught a class in Provo all about the importance of sending good mail. It was the first time I've ever had to prepare a presentation like this that I never once got nervous. I kept thinking how weird it was that I wasn't feeling panicked as I prepared or as the day of the class got closer, but I never did. Apparently this is one topic I feel completely comfortable talking about even in a room full of strangers.

{click to enlarge}

This is the hand out I made based on the outline of things I talked about. I used the input of those of you who answered my good mail questions on my last good mail post a couple weeks ago, so thanks for helping me out.

I am so glad Ciria asked me to teach this class. It was a pleasure for me to think about what I wanted to say and to actually organize it into a flowing outline. It was good to stretch myself a bit and speak to this group of women. I really, really hope they'll recognize their correspondence for the gifts they can be and cultivate the habit of writing more often.

Ciria was super nice and had me and the rest of her RS Presidency over for dinner before the meeting, and made the best chicken I've ever had (which is really saying something!). She also gave me a bundle of colorful envelopes (woohoo) and hat she knitted (she made the gorgeous sweater she's wearing in this photo).

**Would you be comfortable speaking
to a room full of strangers?
What topic could you talk about without being nervous?
Can you believe she made that sweater?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Today was so sunny it felt almost like spring, it was delicious.

Day 3 of 100

Remember last week how I posted about my gift of service for my mom? Well it turns out that this project is WAY bigger than I thought it would be, so I may be in for a couple years of weekly visits to Freakin Eagle Mountain (my mom even joked about giving me gas money).


We spread all our bags of sorted photos out on the dining room table again (that table is so awesome for big projects) but didn't end up doing anything with them.


Instead, I spent the majority of my time there scanning old photos. I had no idea my mom had so many, but she kept pulling more out of boxes, so I kept scanning and scanning them. I'm bummed that her computer kept freezing up because I wanted to load them into Smugmug so I'd have access to them from home (hopefully I'll be able to do that next week), but that didn't happen today.

{My mom's parents}

It's so great to see all the really old photos of my grandparents, they had such great style back then.

{click to enlarge}

I was surprised when my mom pulled out this little gem from my high school days. I have no recollection of making this and don't know who it was for, but it was fun to see and read. Apparently I cracked myself up back then too.

The typed section reads, "Forest Hills Northern cheerleader, Jill Maher led the huskies to an overtime victory last Tuesday night against Caledonia's fighting scots. You can see in the picture that she's yelling to huskies leading scorer Brent Myers, who is also a locker neighbor to Miss Maher, that he better make the short or forget living. Her coach says the squad would be lost without her and that the crowd only does what she says to do. Her friends call her a Godsend, all-American, numero-uno and "the ultimate cheerleader". We would like to commend Jill for her superior efforts and intense affects, it's scary to think what basketball would be like without her."


My mom made us tasty taco salads for lunch this time. Between Michelle and I my mom I'm guaranteed two great lunches a week now!


Just when I thought I was done with most of the scanning she brought out more boxes!


It's rather amazing how easy it is to scan photos and documents and to store them online, it's kind of exciting.


I stopped by Amie's house for a 7 minute visit before I had to head back home to pick up the kids from school. (I'm looking seriously pasty and am dealing with some PMS-related acne the likes of which I haven't seen in years!)

**Do you have any projects that are way
bigger than you thought they'd be?
Do you love the style of the 1940's?
Are you ever plagued by acne?
What do you think of my high school commentary?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I feel headachey and tired even though I slept uninterrupted (woohoo) last night. What's up with that?

R.I.P.

Bubbles didn't make it. Randy drove to work with him sitting in the baggie on the seat beside him, and said that his breathing was labored and he was curled up like he was going to die. He was still alive when Randy in to work, so rather than dump him in the trash or something, he left him in the car!!! What the?? I had specifically told him not to leave him in the car because if he escaped we'd never be able to get him out of there!


But Randy could see that poor Bubbles was at death's door, so he left him in the car with the fishy crackers to die in peace. (Could this be a stranger scenario really?) When Randy came out to the car at lunch time Bubbles had passed on to the big Swiss cheese in the sky.

I will admit that as Randy reported this news to me last night I felt a little sad and guilty for poisoning Bubbles. I'm relieved that I didn't have to see his labored breathing or stiff body, but I will be haunted by the visual of him in the baggie. But then again, what if Bubbles had been heading under our couch to die?! That is NOT okay!

Whitney asked Randy if he dug a hole to bury Bubbles...um no. When I asked Landon how he felt about Bubbles' passing he said, "It's kind of sad, but I didn't get as attached as Whitney did, he was cute though." And thus ends the story of Bubbles.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: I ended up showering by 9:30 yesterday because I just don't function well when I haven't showered. But I didn't put my make-up on until 5:00pm. Sadly, I accidentally rubbed foundation into my eyes (I'm retarded) and ended up with majorly irritated eyes and flesh-colored eye goo, so I didn't look particularly good anyway. Drat!

Our Mouse Relocation Program

So this morning, Randy saw a mouse run under our couch! What the? I thought we were mouse free because we haven't seen or heard anything in awhile and we have wedges of mouse poison around. I'd assumed it/they had eaten the poison and gone outside to find water and to die (a girl can dream right?).

The video is really dark, so you can't see much of anything, but you can hear the incident.

I didn't think he had any chance of catching the mouse because they scurry so quickly, but he wanted to try. I stood on the hearth of the fire place out of the way in case it made a run for it in my direction, Landon held up the love seat so Randy could reach under it, and Whitney filmed it. The mouse ended up being paralyzed with fear (or perhaps it's dying from poison consumption) but it just sat scrunched down next to the leg of the couch.


Randy made some gloves out of Ziploc bags and ended up trapping the mouse!


Whitney wanted us to adopt it and name it Bubbles. She kept saying how cute it was and gave us the play by play on its fast breathing. I felt sorry for it too.


Randy decided to relocate it near his work in Provo, so the mouse is currently making a drive with Randy (this is hilarious to me) and was given a couple fishy crackers for the ride (as if it's going to kick back and enjoy the heated car ride and its time with Randy). This was a highly entertaining start to our day.

**Would you have relocated the mouse?
Would this have wigged you out?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Do you ever put off showering until later in the day in an effort to look better for something in the evening? That's what I'm doing and it's a chore because I really like to be presentable early in the day, but that means looking wasted in the evening. What's wrong with me?

Miscellaneous Monday

I took this picture the other night, isn't it weird that it looks so bright? Notice our Christmas garlands are still hanging on our fence (as are our two wreaths outside). We finally packed up Christmas on the 14th, but I can't bring myself to stand outside to untwist the wire that holds the garlands up, is that so wrong?


I had some pancake flipping issues last week when I made breakfast for dinner. When Randy makes pancakes everything looks perfect, not so when I do it!

Landon took this picture of me last week, I think it's both frightening and funny.

I bought this dresser earlier in the month after spending a few hours at IKEA with Lori. We desperately need more storage and work space in our kitchen and this is what I came up with. I haven't officially moved into it yet because after attending the organizing class I've decided I need to reorganize ALL my kitchen drawers and cupboards, so I don't want to be hasty about putting stuff in these drawers. I'm considering using one of them as a place for all my Rubbermaid/Tupperware type stuff because the cupboard those things are in now is a joke.


It was nice to have the extra counter space when we had a family party a couple weeks ago to celebrate Jared's new job.

**Do you have any Monday Miscellany?
Any suggestions for the new drawers?
Do you flip pancakes with grace or mishap?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I have issues with chicken. I hate dealing with it, but need to use it in recipes occasionally (like today) and have to psych myself up in order to work with it. It just grosses me out.

Sunday Thoughts

We had a rather interesting Sacrament Meeting today because the 3 speakers were from a new family in our ward. They are Italian, but lived in Brazil for a long time, and now are living in the United States, so they are a flavorful family who speak several languages.


Their oldest son just returned from serving his mission in Boston where he spoke both Portuguese and English (English being the harder language for him).

I really enjoyed their global perspective on being members of the church (the parents both grew up Catholic in Italy).

Here are some of my notes:
--His mission really was the best 2 years of his life so far, it meant everything to him.
--Many of the church members they've known have had to travel several hours to get to church, and do so because they really want to take the Sacrament each week. (We have a 30 second drive to church or a 4 minute walk, and there are people in our ward who get there too late to even take the Sacrament! Oh the shame.)
--It isn't a sacrifice because they get so much more than they give.
--The Spirit really does the teaching.
Everyone has their own time, and sometimes they're not quite ready to accept the gospel.


--The gospel is true everywhere you go.
--People around you can become converted because of your life. (I love this!)
--For awhile in Brazil, she had to fit 15 people in their car (not a van) in order to get them to church each week. The car was so heavy that they had to get out when they went over speed bumps or it would get stuck!

--Preparation is very important.
--If a person is prepared, when they hear the gospel they will feel happy and receptive to it.
--The gospel is true in all countries, but there are different challenges with each. In the United States it's very easy and free of many of the challenges members in other countries face, but because of that we often don't appreciate what we have.

These talks were so interesting to me because my perspective is NOT a global one. I know we're spoiled here in Utah to live so close to our buildings and to be surrounded by other church members, almost everyone I know here is Mormon. I've lived in other states and remember having to drive 20 minutes to get to church (which really sucked when I went to early morning seminary), and remember how far my parents had to drive when they did their home and visiting teaching. It always upsets me when people here don't get theirs done even though we live so close to each other. It's so true that we work harder and appreciate things more when we've had to struggle to get them. I want my kids to recognize this and not take things for granted. Should we move to Brazil?

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: Oh how I love to change into lounge clothes after being bound up in church clothes for 3 hours!

Creative Friday--Super Productive Day Edition

We couldn't get Creative Friday started until we'd taken our self-portrait for the day, and sadly we have to hold the camera up higher and higher so as to minimize our chins. Oh the humanity!


Eva had a jammie day (I'd do the same thing if I looked cute like she does) and told me to "take a close-up" of her toe peeking out.


Marc was around for awhile before heading off to the Sundance Film Festival, and amused us by reading an email from one of his precocious students and his reply. We advised him to reword his reply, but got a kick out of it anyway. (Apparently students these days are rather aggressive and obnoxious! Not Charlotte and Emily though.)


Michelle served this tasty potato soup that had a kick of cayenne in it, along with some wheat miracle bread. It was deluxe and wonderful as usual.


Michelle continued to work on Christmas thank you notes this week (it's amazing to think how many there are to write when you really stop and think about it).


I wrote a lot of notes too and used photo cards and these darling cards given to me by Michelle's mom for Christmas, I love them.


Here's a shot of our Creative Friday mess, which wasn't too crazy this time.

I also cut out the new good mail labels I made for Michelle.

Max got home from school at 2:30 and immediately got down to business with his homework.

I also spent some time going through this wonderful book I bought awhile ago all about correspondence, and found quite a few pages to mark.


I finished the day by doing a little coloring in Eva's Hello Kitty coloring book. We shared some Twistable mini crayons and did some good coloring. I always sign and date the pages I color just for fun.

This was my final output for the day, not too shabby eh?

Lucas came home with me so he could have a sleepover with Landon, and we stopped (as usual) at the post office to drop off our day's work. Michelle ended up with a pretty stack (hers are the white envelopes) as well.

**Did you write any notes this week?
Do you have jammie days very often?
Do you have good mail labels?
Where do you get most of your stationery?**

The big winners from my last good mail post are:
43--Amanda L.
17--Nichole
29--Becky
34--Katherine
8--Cheryl

Comment Window Tidbit: I have 4 zits at this time! What the heck, I'm 38 years old, isn't that adding insult to injury at this point??!