Miscellany

Landon started working at JCW's back in December. He works 2-3 shifts a week and gets 50% his food purchases while working. He has been hitting me up for money each shift because he hadn't gotten paid yet so it actually costs us to have him work! It's kind of funny.

My last Secret Pal was quite good to me and rocked my world by getting me 3 kinds of Sour Cream and Cheddar chips because she didn't know which kind I like best. I like them all!

A student brought these goldfish to the office to have me babysit them until after school. Apparently she'd won them in a class but couldn't walk around school with them for fear of mishap. It was a weird afternoon for me but kind of fun. The student forgot to pick them up after school so Whitney was kind enough to change their water before we went home for the day.

Sweet Junie comes in several times a day to nap or get some loves. She's pretty much the perfect cat.

Whitney got a phone for Christmas so now I get all kinds of interesting texts from her, like this one. (Sadly for her I came home empty handed.)

Amie and I have been going to lunch every other Tuesday or so and always have a good time.

She gave these cool chalkboard tags and mini boards, and a fabulous eyelash curler for Christmas during one of our lunches. I haven't even figured out what I'm giving her for Christmas yet!

Whitney made this cute thing at a YW activity recently.

This is what my car lunches on work days look like.

My current pedicure design. This color is actually a dark purple but appears black...I have done this 3 times now! Apparently I need to give up on dark purple polish.

Whitney recently took the initiative and applied at the "sticky shoe" movie theater in town. I don't know if they'll hire a 14 year old but I was super happy with her go-getterness.

Michelle gave me a gift certificate for Chatbooks for Christmas, so that covered half the cost of getting my first 12 books made. Each book has 60 Instagram posts in it, so I will always be contributing to future books as I post on Instagram. The books are very pleasing and they're such a good record of my daily life.

Book club--January 2015 Edition

We always celebrate Jenn's birthday at our January book club because her birthday is on New Year's Eve.

She requested Magelby's for dinner, but they had a 40 minute wait when I called for take-out, so her 2nd choice was 5 Guys.

Amy's family spent 2 weeks in Costa Rica over Christmas and brought us all this amazing degreaser dish cleaner that works in cold water some passion fruit candy.

Jana told us of her crazy Christmas activities.

Michelle made her wonderful vanilla cream pie (as requested by Jenn).

(I forgot my camera so these are phone photos...not good.)

We gave her $100 Visa Gift Card.

We discussed The Gifts of Imperfection and plan to continue discussing it a chapter at a time this year because it's so good.

Jenn gave each of us a notebook, chocolates, tissues, thank you notes, and a cd of dance music along with really nice reasons for each of them (relating to our long-time friendship and the book).

Flashing Back to September

Back on September 6th, me, Lori, Landon and Whitney went to see Howard Jones & Tom Bailey in concert.

We got there about 40 minutes early and then ended up sitting through multiple opening acts so we really could have shown up 3 hours late and been right on time. Ugh.

Whitney found a notebook in the back pocket of my lawn chair, what a find! She drew for a long time and had a fan club (the people behind us) watching her. This notebook probably saved her life because she was having some serious attitude problems and I was close to freaking out.

We had to wait an hour for the show to start and then sit through three other acts (who were fine) before the headliners performed...Landon had a good time taking selfies with my phone.

Tom Bailey was fantastic! He sounded so great and was super high energy. I hadn't realized how many Thompson Twins songs I knew, but they were part of my high school years' soundtrack for sure.

The song from the end credits of Sixteen Candles pretty much does me in no matter how many times I hear it.

More selfies.

Howard Jones was good too.

And more selfies.

I enjoyed the concert more than Lori or the kids because those songs are linked to many memories for me, but we all had a good night.

12 on the 12th--January Edition

{Click to Enlarge}

1. I'm participating in BofM 365 so I've been reading every morning.
2. Ten minutes of Jimmy Fallon.
3. For family scripture time this year we're watching church videos on the Mormon Channel, so far so good.
4. I stopped at McDonald's to get my Coke.
5. It was seriously rainy all day (rare for Utah) so it felt like it was night time at school.
6. My desk at work.
7. Whitney had to wrap Junie in a towel to get the mud off her paws so she could be inside.
8. I started a new book!
9. We went to Landon's football banquet (for 3 hours!).
10. Landon hit the homework as soon as we got home.
11. Whitney cleaned out her binder for the new semester and found all kinds of doodling.
12. I have a couple stacks of books on my dresser, so pleasing.

Musical Theater Girl

This year Whitney has a Stage Crew class and an Advanced Musical Theater class at school, both of which are taught by a guy who was a 16 year old priest in our ward back when Randy and I were first married! We actually went to see him play the Tin man in the Wizard of Oz back when Landon was a baby!  He's now an amazing actor, dancer, performer and teacher at our junior high. How's that for a small world?

I signed up to help with publicity so I had this vinyl on my car window for a month and a sign in our front yard.

Whitney was all kind of busy leading up to the play because she was doing double duty with rehearsals and stage crew (painting sets and props, etc.).

She was a Who Mom and is seen here with her Who husband and Who daughters.

I had never seen Seussical before and wasn't expecting it to be very good because Whitney had made it sound lame, but I thought it was great! Ridiculous, but great.

The kids were impressive and such good singers.

Whitney as a jellyfish.

I never had the inclination to be in a musical back in high school, I'm far too wussy for that so it makes me emotional and impressed when I see kids participate in something like this. It looks so fun and is such a memorable thing to be a part of.

Randy was out of town on opening night, but my mom, Lori, Amy and the girls, and Landon all went to see the show.

These are the "Act-o-grams" we bought for a dollar to wish Whitney well.

Christmas Book Club Gathering 2014

We met at Collette's house on December 12th (a busy Friday night). 

Though we usually all bring our own dinner, for our Christmas gathering we all contribute something prearranged so that we'll have a nice dinner.

Collette is an excellent hostess and sets a lovely table. This year she made a roast, I brought mashed potatoes, Michelle brought a salad, Amy brought bread, Jenn made a tasty drink, and Jana made 2 desserts!

Jenn has a gift for making festive beverages and garnishing with raspberries. This was a sparkling white grape juice concoction we all loved.

After dinner we did our book exchange. Collette gave these two books to Jana.

Jana gave to Amy.

Amy gave to Jenn.

Jenn gave to me.

I gave to Michelle.

Michelle gave to Collette.

Originally Jana made a pumpkin cake for dessert but then remembered I'm not a fan of pumpkin so she made a chocolate bundt cake too! That was guilt-inducing for me, but so kind of her. Everyone else enjoyed both desserts and I happily ate the chocolate cake.

We also exchanged gifts, this was the pile of goodness I left with!

It was late and we almost didn't take a self-portrait but I'm glad we did.