Victory is Mine

Today I was plunged into the the world of the grand-daddy digital copier (which looks almost exactly like this only slightly smaller--it's still a beast) because the woman who makes all the copies for the teachers was out sick today. The teachers were in a panic and so was I. After a slight learning curve I figured things out (it has a computer touch screen that sort of walks you through things) and got my mojo down. I brought my iPhone into the work room and played music while the copier cranked out about 4000 copies! It was unbelievable. I don't think I would want to do that all the time, but it's kind of cool to know how to work this machine (it collates, staples, does your taxes, makes breakfast and irons shirts!) and to have a slight change of pace. My dogs are barking though. I need a pair of shoes made from that squishy black rubber they use for those mats the greeters at Costco stand on. Hasn't anyone invented those yet?

**Have you ever used such a machine?

Did you know it can make 85 copies in a minute?**

Comment Window Tidbit:I'm so glad it's Conference Weekend!!

Guess What?!

I started taking a tap class tonight and loved it...though it proved to be way more of a workout than I thought it would be, especially because of my gimpy left ankle. I think this is going to help though. Good times! (Don't worry, I will not be wearing a leotard ever or doing recitals!)

Comment Window Tidbit: It feels a little crazy to me that I'm choosing to add one more thing to my schedule but dance is good for the soul!

Wordless Wednesday

Comment Window Tidbit: I'm to the point where having 3 hours of awake time at home after work and running the kids around feels luxurious...weird.

Creative Friday--Finally Edition!

Monday was one of our quarterly Minimal Days at school so the junior high got out at 12:55 and I was able to leave at 1:30. Landon usually takes the bus home, but did his homework in the office while he waited for me this time.

We headed over to Sonic to grab drinks and then hit the highway to get to Michelle's house for our first Creative Friday in a long time (since Rebekah was here!). I'm way overdue to get my hair done, my roots and the grays are getting feisty, so I have an appointment for next Tuesday.

Landon and Lucas hadn't played together since the week of their birthdays in early August so they were very happy to get together!! Lucas finally got a haircut! It looks great...it's been a rough couple of years, ha.

Michelle had a variety of projects on the docket including some embroidery hoop art for Eva's walls involving these cute fabrics and buttons.

She also spent some quality time fighting her printer as she printed a bunch of stuff for General Conference kits and handouts for her Young Women. She recently was moved from YW Secretary to the counselor over the Beehives and I didn't even know about it!

I had some thank you notes and just because notes to write and it felt good to do them.

Max was gone at the beginning of our time together because he had his weekly Cello lesson, only this time he could drive himself there and back! Woohoo! He has 5 AP classes so he joined us at the table to work on his homework.

Eva created a "surprise" for her cute friend Eva's reward at the end of a treasure hunt she'd made.

Michelle loaned me a couple of books, this is always pleasing to me. I'm just bummed that my reading time in the cozy has been so drastically reduced because of my busy schedule!

P.S. Whitney went home from school with Madison.

**Have you sent any notes lately?

What are you reading?

Do you share books with anyone?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I slept straight through from 9:45-5:15 today, it was glorious!

Sunday Thoughts

Next week is General Conference, and I am more excited for it than I ever have been before. I taught a Family Home Evening lesson a couple weeks ago about preparing for Conference and then included these thoughts to my Sunday School lesson today. Also, I've been listening to April's Conference messages on my iPod lately and have been enjoying them a lot. Plus today in Relief Society the lesson was from President Holland's talk An Ensign to the Nations.

 

I love this part of his talk, "Perhaps you already know (but if you don’t you should) that with rare exception, no man or woman who speaks here is assigned a topic. Each is to fast and pray, study and seek, start and stop and start again until he or she is confident that for this conference, at this time, his or hers is the topic the Lord wishes that speaker to present regardless of personal wishes or private preferences. Every man and woman you have heard during the past 10 hours of general conference has tried to be true to that prompting. Each has wept, worried, and earnestly sought the Lord’s direction to guide his or her thoughts and expression."

I fully believe that our prayers can be answered through General Conference talks, so it is important that we prepare ourselves ahead of time and then listen with our hearts so we'll receive the messages the Lord intends for us. It's exciting when I think of it this way!

I gave this hand-out for my Sunday School class today.

Preparing for General Conference

·        Think about things you would like to know more about or issues you’ve been struggling with (no matter what they are).

·        Pray throughout the week for inspiration regarding those things.

·        Pay attention while watching Conference, take notes, listen with the Spirit and you will hear the message you need to hear.

·        Pray about what you heard and ask Heavenly Father to guide your actions.

·        Follow through on the instruction you received.

·        Review Conference Talks by reading them in The Ensign or listen to them again through LDS.org.

**Thoughts??** 

Comment Window Tidbit: The primary program was today and it was the first time in 6 years that I wasn't involved in it as a teacher or a presidency member. It was glorious to be able to sit in the congregation and enjoy it. Of course I sobbed the whole time!

Tidbits

I have started playing music on my phone while I shop, so it's like I have my own little soundtrack happening. I don't wear headphones, the music plays out loud from my purse. It's not loud enough for anyone to notice unless they're close to me.

 Landon's 1st place soccer trophy!

One of our ward members keeps a meticulous lawn, but always puts the BYU logo on it in the fall, I enjoy this.

I have started bringing my camera to school every day and am snapping random photos of students and items around school. I am in cahoots with the yearbook teacher and with the administrator who controls the big screens in the common area. He used a disc of my photos as a slideshow for all to see on Friday...the kids loved it. I'm excited to do this!

I haven't posted any good mail since February when my computer died! I never even posted about my birthday (did anyone notice?), but rather than doing an official good mail post I'm going to slip in a couple belated birthday items I've received recently. Lisa sent me this book she loved and some cash for Cafe Rio, two of my favorite things!

Natalie sent me a disc of her Summer Mix and a bag of my favorite treats! I just love getting good mail!

I came out of Wal-Mart recently and saw a beautiful rainbow.

Whitney and I saw this sky the other night after leaving D.I.  I don't think she enjoys how I'm always pointing out beautiful sunsets, but it seems criminal not to appreciate them.

The kids have been playing with a crazy Face Goo App that distorts photos; this one of Landon is particularly funny and cartoon-like. He messed with a photo of me, but it wasn't funny, just disturbing.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: I was home alone for 3 hours today and loved it! I caught up on the cleaning without anyone making new messes, woohoo!

Five for Friday

You all know by now that "Five for Friday" is a way of labeling a miscellaneous Friday post and may or may not actually contain only five items right? It's a lot like how "Creative Friday" is the term for the creative gatherings Michelle and I have whether they occur on Friday or not...there, I feel better for having clarified these things.

Last Saturday I agreed to take Whitney to D.I. to look for shoes (I promise it's not gross) and to look around. It's not my favorite place to go, but since I've been in the market for church books lately I didn't mind perusing their selection. I hit the jackpot and got all of these for $15, plus Whitney found two nice pairs of shoes for $4 each! We left there with a ton of stuff for less than we would have had to pay for 1 pair of shoes in a real store.

Whitney spent her own cash (of which she has very little) on this beauty. I tried to dissuade her, but the lankiness of the legs appealed to her since she can make him do all kinds of fun things. Of course we had to wash him first and I burst out laughing when I saw him peeking out of the hamper like this.

By Monday he was clean and fresh, wearing a velvet cape and attending Landon's flag football game. What can I say, the girl knows what she likes?!

Soccer season ended last Saturday and Flag Football started on Monday, there's never any break there. The weather has been beautiful and mild though so it's nice to be out enjoying his games before it gets cold enough for "nard removal" posts.

Oh my gosh, while going back through my archives to find my "nard removal" post I found this picture of Landon! This was taken almost 2 years ago exactly but he looks like a chubby little kid compared to the thin teenager he is now! It's freaking me out.

I had to have my school picture taken for the first time in 22 years!! I thought it was just going to be for school purposes, but then I got an envelope with an 8x10 (what the?!), two 5x7s, and a bunch of wallets. Good grief, what am I going to do with these? This is so surreal for me.

Also crazy is that this support staff photo is framed in the entryway to the school! I'm so glad my big, beefy arm is showing in it.

Speaking of big and beefy, my co-office worker gave me this for helping cover the office while she was at a doctor's appointment the other day...of course I was thrilled.

**When was the last time you had a school picture taken?

What do you think of my book score?

Ever had the Pink Panther in your hamper?**

Comment Window Tidbit: It's Friday again which is just plain crazy to me! My weeks just fly by since my work days are such time warps (in a good way). Weird.

Bookclubbing It

We gathered at Amy's house on Tuesday evening for our bookclub discussion and to finally (her birthday was in May!) celebrate Jana's birthday!

Amy grilled steaks, I brought some cheesy crockpot potatoes, Michelle brought salad, Collette brought rolls from Shirley's, Jana brought sparkling white grape juice and Jenn brought dessert.

We gave Jana a $100 gift card to the mall, which also includes all the restaurants in the surrounding area as well...decisions, decisions.

Amy had these cute boxes filled with autumn-colored candies on our plates.

After dinner we moved down to the theater room to continue our life-catch up and to have our book discussion.

Jenn brought me these glasses that her girls had found in their yard 5 months ago. She wasn't familiar with the designer Jill Stuart so she thought of me when she saw these, it's kind of weird to see my name on the side of glasses.

What do you think? I don't even recognize myself!

We mapped out our dates for the rest of the year and the books we'll be reading.

October--ROOM

November--Jane Eyre

December--The Continuous Atonement

This month's book was The Whistling Season, which almost all of us loved. Michelle, Amy and I especially loved it because we enjoy character-driven books where nothing much happens but the book still feels rich and full.

Jenn made this refreshing, frozen dessert that had a pretzel crust, strawberries, lime and ice cream (?). I could only eat about 1/3 of it.

 I was finally able to squeeze a pedicure into my schedule last Saturday and used one of the gift certificates the bookclub girls gave me for my birthday, woohoo! I even walked on the wild side and got this purple color rather than something in the hot pink family.

**Have you read a book lately?

Have you bought an autumn-colored candy?

Are you heels smooth?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I was in bed by 9:05 last night and slept like a rock (woohoo). I actually woke up at 4:50 this morning thanks to a barking dog and a full bladder, but I was alert and ended up getting up for the day.

Super Education Day

Last Saturday our Relief Society Committee (which happily I am no longer a part of) put on a fantastic Super Education Day. We arrived at the church at 8:00am for muffins, bagels, fruit and juice, then had an opening session with an great lecture from a man in our ward who is a BYU professor and scholar of the New Testament. He spoke about Peter and John and their relationship to Christ...it was wonderful.

We had registered a month in advance for the classes we were going to take so they gave us each a personalized schedule when we arrived.

These were the centerpieces for all the tables, isn't this cute? I definitely appreciate these sort of things but don't like having to be the one to come up with the ideas or do the set up and clean up.

This display was on the food table. I just love school supplies.

My first class (after the opening session) was a glass etching class to make a "Celebrate You!" plate for special occasions. It wasn't a difficult project, but I still managed to mess mine up, it's a good thing I only paid $4 for it.

They had these schedules on the door of each room where the classes where being held. There were always 3 classes going on at a time throughout the building.

I attended a class on being frugal/couponing since I'm still struggling to find my couponing mojo.  I  get 4 newspapers every Sunday and I faithfully pull out the coupon circulars and date them, but I'm definitely not doing this the way I originally intended (because I started working and lost all those hours in the day).

After one of my classes I stepped out to call Randy to see how Landon's championship soccer game was going. I hated to miss it, but I couldn't miss this Super Education Day either. I snapped this photo of my reflection in the church doors.

My favorite class of the day was taught by a therapist in our ward. She talked about "Burying Our Personal Weapons of Rebellion" and being honest with ourselves about our damaging behaviors. The 45 minutes flew by and I felt like I could listen to her talk about this subject all day.

Everyone gathered for lunch (they're not all pictured here) for crock pot soups, rolls and dessert.

The mother of one of Landon's teammates got a call from her husband saying that the boys won their game and got 1st place in their league!

Our Relief Society President taught a follow-up class to her fantastic lesson on the Atonement. It was a review of the class she'd already taught, but she had more great stories to illustrate the principle she taught us.

I also took a photography class, which reminded me how befuddling I find all the technical aspects of photography.

My last class of the day was a self-defense class, which I loved! It was so fun to learn some moves and yell "Hi Ya!".

**Have you had a day like this?

Do you know any self-defense moves?

Are you befuddled by f-stops?**

Comment Window Tidbit: This nonstop schedule of mine is kicking my butt. I need to sleep.