Sunday Thoughts

Earlier this month (before my computer died) we had our Relief Society President's sister as a guest speaker on the topic of “Strengthening and Protecting Families”. She did an amazing job (I was a blubbering mess by the end of it) illustrating 5 principles of power she has learned from attending the temple. 1.    Gather 2.    Sacrifice 3.    Refuge 4.    Divide the light from the dark 5.    Work Gather—Alma 26:6, Family time doesn’t require an event it only requires a family (it’s about building relationships). The power comes from choosing time with family over spending time doing something else. We are laying bricks of a solid and firm foundation when we spend time together. Sacrifice—When we sacrifice the time to get up early to read our scriptures we feel a different spirit than when we read at night (which is still good, just different). Sacrificing binds our hearts to Him. Sacrificing for each other stitches our families together. Refuge—There are no judgments or criticisms in the temple it is a place of refuge from the world. Our homes should be a place of refuge where we help our children define themselves. We can teach them to be like the Stripling Warriors who came through battle bruised and bloody but with victory in the Lord. Divide the light from the dark—Teach the why's behind the don’ts. Teach kids to recognize how their prayers have been answered. Help them identify their daily interactions with the Lord. When they have dark experiences, help them recognize Satan’s influence and what darkness feels like, then help them return to the light through scripture and prayer. Work—The Lord cursed the land for Adam & Eve’s sake. The fight with Satan is real. Courageous families need to stand up and fight for each other and whoever you are called to protect. Challenge: Go to the temple and identify a principle of power for your life.

Trio of Randomness

1. I actually got some good mail together on Monday afternoon! It was a minimal day which meant I was home by 1:55 (after picking Whitney up). The afternoon felt gloriously long and I wasn't totally wiped out so I wrote 3.5 cards and got a package together, woohoo!

2. I really don't enjoy all the shuttling around I have to do, but I DO enjoy the 45 minutes I spend reading in the car while Whitney is at Elementary Band. Of course, I'd rather be at home reading in the cozy, but I'm trying to see the silver lining involved in the hassle of my Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am currently reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob deZoet (which I'm not even sure how to pronounce) and have had moments of wanting to throw it across the room because I don't know who is who. Fortunately Michelle warned me of this and she gave this book 4 stars otherwise I probably wouldn't be sticking with it; every chapter feels like starting over.

3. Michelle brought Wendy and I drinks at work today (it's so thoughtful that she brings one for Wendy too and knows that she likes Country Time). It was lunchtime and totally crazy but so fun to talk to her (with many interruptions) for 5 minutes or so.

Miscellaneous Monday

1. Way back on Friday the 14th Michelle brought Cafe Rio and we had a marvelous car lunch. We see each other so rarely these days that we had to cram a lot of talking into the 30 minutes!

Oh glorious Cafe Rio goodness!

2. Whitney and Madison found out they both didn't win the student council election (12 kids won out of 37). They took their defeat gracefully and I took them to Sonic for Happy Hour slushies.

3. Landon's football team all decided to dress up last Tuesday in honor of their Tuesday Night Lights game. I happened to see him walk past the office in-between classes and snagged this photo of him in his new red shirt.

4. We helped Lori move into her new Townhouse over the weekend and then went over yesterday to try out the "girl cave". She has a big room with a ginormous tv and sectional where we could all lie down and watch "Mall Cop" together. We'll probably be visiting her often in her new place.

5. This display currently resides on our dining room table, just a couple of dinosaurs out on the town.

6. Landon had a morning game on Saturday.

Whitney had been wandering around with my camera and took this photo of me fixing Landon's shirt at half-time.

6. This is the very pleasing inside papers of next' month's book club book...I like it already!

Tuesday Night Lights

All of Landon's football games are on Saturdays except for one glorious night game on a great field. I knew this game was coming and was so excited for him to get to have this experience that I emailed a bunch of family and friends to invite them to cheer him on.

Whitney decorated lunch sacks before we filled them with movie-theater popcorn and m&m's.

The energy before the game was palpable and it was so fun to be out there on a nice, warm night under the lights with "Eye of the Tiger" playing over the speakers.

Landon is number 0.

The boys on the other team were almost twice as big as our guys, so we ended up being unevenly matched, but our boys played great.

I was so touched by the great cheering section we ended up with! From back to front--Lori, Randy, Austin, my mom, Lucas, Whitney, Me, Robyn, Ashley, Michelle, Brother Johnston, Brother Pyper and Olivia!! It was such an amazing show of support and love that I felt weepy about it. 

I was especially touched that these two guys from church game, they had been at the church for meetings and to do visits but drove the 15 minutes to come to almost half of the game. These two guys have been Landon's leaders/teachers over the years so this meant a lot.

Despite playing well, the final score was 6-44 (ouch), but we heard later that their coach said we were the best team they have played so far. I think their size at this age level is carrying them more than their skills because it took like 4-5 of our guys to bring down theirs.

Post-game photo of Landon and Lucas.

Update

 

• The computer is still down and this laptop is better than nothing for sure.
• Our road is still torn apart but I'm getting used to cutting through the medical plaza's parking lot to get home so I'm handling it.
• I went to the doctor today and have been advised to double my meds several days before my monthly melancholia sets in. This may seem obvious, but I never really knew exactly when those days would be until having them hit around bookclub time two months in a row. Now I scheduled with myself so I hopefully I can nip those irrational feelings before they take over. Ah womanhood...
• The DISH guy came on Tuesday and figured out that the trees in our front yard have grown so much in the 8 years we've lived here that they're blocking the signal to the dish. He had to move the dish to the back of the house and tweak the angle...who knew? Now we'll be able to watch our shows without them turning into muted, garbly pixels of doom!

Lemons?

Good grief. Between our computer being down with a virus, our DISH receiver freaking out so we can't watch anything without losing the signal, and the insane amount of construction plaguing our every path (the detours have detours) I feel like I'm losing my mind! I'm trying to be a grown-up about things, but it's not going so well.

Five for Friday

1. Last Saturday our Relief Society had an Education Day from 8-3, Michelle joined me until noon. I'll post some notes in my Sunday Thoughts.

2. Randy "helped" Whitney make a couple posters for her run for Student Council. They weren't what she originally envisioned, but I think they ended up looking better than our original plan.

3. I managed to surface from my gloom on Tuesday night for book club at Amy's house. We discussed Gold by Chris Cleave and had a heated discussion about modesty as well...interesting.

4. We took this feet self-portrait after our soccer game on Wednesday...I'm in flip flops and Whitney has the red laces, I kind of love this photo.

5. While waiting for Landon to finish football practice, Whitney did some dramatic leaf dancing in the wind.

12 on the 12th--September Edition

Michelle saved my bacon by making my grid for me this month since our computer is currently down with a virus.

{click to enlarge}

1. I listened to Elder Scott's talk from April's Conference while I got ready for work.
2. Landon took this shot of us reading scriptures.
3. My huge new computer at work!
4. Amie and I had a car lunch woohoo.
5. We're living in road construction hell around our neighborhood and I fear I'm going to lose my mind because of it.
6. I came home to find Landon on the computer...he Facebooks now yo.
7. Whitney and I managed to make each other completely mental while trying to figure out her skit for Student Council elections...our time together ended in tears (hers), but she regrouped later and all was well.
8. I consoled myself by reading in the cozy.
9. I dropped Landon and his friend Brian off at football practice.
10. I coached Whitney's soccer game (it was a 2-2 tie) then we had this self-portrait with my mom and Randy afterward.
11. Whitney and I got some carbs at Costco before picking the boys up from football.
12. I watched So You Think You Can Dance while eating cold pizza. 

Better

I'm happy to report that whatever wave of hormonal hell plaguing me has passed and I am back to normal! I was totally fine at work today and had a great 12 on the 12th...grid to follow soon! Thanks for all the kind words!

Not Myself

Oh goodness, I haven't been feeling like myself for the past 3 days and it's exhausting. I ended up coming home after Sacrament Meeting on Sunday because I felt like I couldn't function properly. I felt tired, anti-social, cloudy-headed and like an all-around mess. I spent the entire rest of the day in bed reading/sleeping until 9:00 when I officially went to bed for the night.

I somehow muddled through work yesterday, but felt impatient, cloudy-headed, anti-social and a bit panicked at the thought of having to do my job day after day after day for another school year and beyond. I came home from work, did some laundry and vacuuming (I thought I was restoring order and would feel better), then spent the rest of the evening reading in bed until I officially went to bed at 8:30! I had a headache and the weather had been rainy (which usually hurts my head) but still this is not normal.

I woke up at 5:30am and still had my headache, so I texted my boss, took some medicine and slept until 11:00!! What is up with the universe? I can't figure out if I'm severely depressed (though I've been taking my meds), am just in a funk, am hormonal, or what. Surely this can't continue. Aargh!

Consumed

Today was so busy at work (we were covering for the attendance secretary while still doing our job) that I only managed to consume the following...

44 ounces of Coke (which took way longer than usual to drink)
1 Rice Krispie Treat
1 Mini bite-sized Butterfinger
1 Handful of popcorn

Shockingly I'm not shaky, nor do I have a headache...I'll never understand.

Just Keep Swimming...

We had some glorious storms on Saturday, with blue skies and sun in-between, it was weird but kind of great too. We had a mellow afternoon at home together hanging out (very rare for a Saturday).

The weather is similar now so I just made 9 phone calls to cancel soccer practice, woohoo, bonus hours in my day! I am so weary, despite it only being a 4 day work week. I feel like I'm constantly review the "open loops" in my brain (i.e., pick up Whitney, buy posterboard, go to band, call about football carpool, make chicken salad for Saturday and on and on), I realize this is normal life but it is exhausting!

That's about all I've got to say.

What Life Looks Like These Days

Landon is a big 9th grader this year and is more social than in years past (he now has a Facebook account--I finally caved). He has always been good at stopping by the office at lunch time to give me a hug and say "hi", but this year he has forgotten a couple times...ouch!

We've been having some weird weather lately but it has produced some pretty evenings.

 

Whitney has decided to play the flute as part of Elementary Band! This means on Tuesdays and Thursdays I leave work at 3:30 in order to pick her up at school only to bring her back to the junior high! Aargh! We're giving her one semester to show us she's commited (i.e., will practice) otherwise she'll have to quit in December (remember we did this runaround with viola last year and it was awful). 

During the first day of band last week I went and got some frozen yogurt (I had a coupon) and read my book in the car, it wasn't too bad but I can't get yogurt 2 times a week or I'll have to get another job! The really maddening thing about the yogurt run was that I'd planned to hang out in the yogurt place to read, but ended up fleeing because there were some super obnoxious junior high kids (not from our school) dominating the place with their noise. The acoustics are so bad in there that it was painfully loud; I commiserated with the teenager working there (he wasn't keen on the kids either).

Landon's 2nd football game was last Saturday, here he is on the ground making a tackle, woohoo! It's amazing how much football has become part of our lives. He has practice from 6-8 Monday-Friday and then games on Saturday, this is a whole new world for us.

Whitney has decided to run for student council! The school requires 8 hours of service (4 at school and 4 outside of school) just to apply! I'm impressed with this and truly amazed Whitney is willing to do this. She came home Thursday afternoon and got busy picking up trash along the street for 45 minutes, then helped Randy with a car repair for 15. She also spent 2 hours helping Lori pack (she bought her first place and is moving soon) yesterday and has been going early to school and staying late as well. Who is this girl?!

Last Friday was Landon's first ever school dance! I took him back to the junior high after football practice (making my 3rd trip to the school for the day) and gave him a head start before going in to take pictures of the kids (for school bulletin board purposes). He got lost in the crowd, but lots of the other kids came running over to me to take their pictures. It was so fun! It kind of made me want to volunteer to chaperone next time except that then I'd have to be hot and sweaty and stay for a long time. My 10 minute visit was fun enough...oh those were the days weren't they?!

First Day of School Pics

Since I had to be at work by 7:15 that meant Randy was in charge of the first day of school photos. It made me sad that I wasn't there as the kids are leaving for school, but Randy does a good job "managing the children" each morning and I ended up so busy at school myself that I didn't really think about it. (Almost every day when I leave for work I tell Randy to "manage the children" which means keeping them on task so that they get their work done, he always sings it back to me as if to say, "yeah whatever, of course I manage the children.")

Whitney did some lunch bag art work for their big first day.

Landon's face seems to be saying he's too cool to be holding up 9 fingers to indicate 9th grade. Check out the bright orange, nonBYU t-shirt.

 Whitney is in 6th grade this year!

Whitney decorated my lunch bag too and it made me laugh and cry a little bit...I actually saved it and still have it in my drawer at work...I may laminate it. She captured my feelings so well.

Sunday Thoughts

Every morning as I put on my make-up I either listen to General Conference talks or Conversations on the Mormon Channel. Yesterday I was listening to Sheri Dew's conversation with Elder Christofferson and his wife. The whole conversation is great, but this part stuck out to me (I had to find it online and transcribe it).

"High expectations  is our potential and what over time we can become. We ought to accept His correction, we ought to welcome it, because He’s leading us into greater things. But also remember at the same time that He’s not just standing on the side saying “go do this be better”, He’s helping us,  He’s giving us the gift of the holy ghost, He’s giving us constant help, direction, comfort and protection. He’s got the gospel in our lives and the commandments that are really the blessings that point the way how we go. 

He knows what we can be, He knows what makes us happy, He loves us, He’s showing us the way, He’s giving us help all along the way. He provided the gift of repentance, we can change, we can back up and start again." 

This reminds me that Heavenly Father really is our father and He wants the best for us. I understand this feeling from being a parent myself. I can see potential in my kids, I know where they can do better and how with increased effort they can achieve more and be their best selves. This makes me want to try harder and it give me comfort knowing the Lord is on my side cheering me on.