Sunday Thoughts

I've been thinking lately how thankful I am that most of the people I associate with are comfortable talking about spiritual things. This is because I live in Utah and am surrounded by fellow church members who believe the same things I believe, so that means that most of my friends, most of my co-workers and many of the people I encounter around town share my feelings. Though this also means we don't have a whole lot of diversity around here, this post is NOT about diversity. Ha.

I have been touched by various conversations with people I work with and am so thankful to be united in our beliefs. The other secretary in the front office (Wendy) has a son on a mission in Texas and she tells me stories every week about how he's doing and the miracles going on in his life. It is not unusual for us to both be in tears after one of her stories. 

I've gone walking a couple times recently with my friend Cathy (who I know from church) and have loved that as we do laps around the temple we can talk about spiritual things. I sometimes tell her about Relief Society lessons she has missed while serving in primary and we have both gotten choked up as we discuss them. It is a blessing to be able to speak freely about the Atonement.

As I speak with other women it is apparent that we all feel the weight of our responsibilities as women in the gospel, as mothers, friends, neighbors and daughters, but we all feel comforted by our heavy reliance on the Lord and the ability to turn to Him in prayer. We are all trying to do our best and are there to help each other do likewise. I love the gospel and I love being surrounded by people who love it too!

I feel like a huge part of myself would be left out of every conversation if I had to keep spiritual things out of my conversations. How does the rest of the world function?

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: It's emotionally exhausting to lose two streets of families from our ward! That's 58 people we love and who add so much to our ward family...wahhhh!

Surprise!

I got a great surprise at work today! My cute blogging friend Erin (from Idaho) popped into the front office at school to say "hi" and to give me a Cherry Limeade from Sonic (my new favorite). Her visit could not have been more unexpected. We had a really quick visit, took this self-portrait (complete with the chunk of my face missing from my trip to the dermatologist Saturday) and hugged...it's was great. I love a good surprise.

**How was your day?

Do you enjoy a good surprise?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Whitney came home sick from school today (she's fine) but that meant she didn't go to orchestra or dance so I got a delightfully productive afternoon at home instead of running her around.

Creative Friday--Special Guest Edition

Even though yesterday was the first day of school for 7th graders and my first day of school with students in the building (i.e., office craziness) Michelle and I planned a Creative Friday gathering because it was early-out (1:45) and because our great blogging friend Rebekah was in town!

I picked Rebekah up in Orem at her friend's house. She is so stinkin cute and so fun to be with. Michelle and I adore her because she is a faithful and insightful commenter (a very rare combination). She often goes without commenting for a few weeks and then will go back and read and comment on every single post she has missed! Last week I had 25 new comments from her...that's super endearing to me.

It was a very productive day because we had so many questions for Rebekah. It's one thing to know someone from their blog, but it's an even better thing to then get to talk with them in real life and fill in the gaps that are obviously left out from blogging.

Eva and her cute friend Eva (with the cutest voice I've ever heard) were around for a little bit.

Lucas showed us his incredible stash of birthday iTunes gift cards...I offered to buy back the one we gave him because now that I have an iPhone and have been reunited with my iTunes music library I am itching to buy new songs and apps.

Marc joined us for awhile to discuss his blog and some stuff going on with work.

Michelle cut out some really cute Back to School printables she'll be using for a super cute back-to-school dinner...I will not be doing anything cute for back-to-school dinner (I don't even have dinner planned, so maybe a celebratory bowl of Rice Krispies is in order).

Michelle taught Rebekah how to make paper flowers and even though Rebekah didn't think she had great crafting skills she made great flowers.

Michelle showed us the paint colors she is planning to use for her living room, kitchen cupboards and hutch. She has a lot of projects planned since Eva is starting school full day.

Our not so secret stash of treats for the day was Reese's Pieces (I love those) and some banana chocolate-chip muffins made by Michelle.

I got 4 items of good mail put together.

Michelle is letting me borrow the limb-trimmer saw her dad bought when he was visiting last week. We're good about sharing things with each other, but this was a new exchange for us.

**Have you written any cards lately?

Have you ever read Rebekah's blog?

Are you happy about school starting?

Ever used a limb trimmer?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Work is so busy, but I'm loving my new job!

Bookclub for Six

For the first time in 4 months we were finally all together for book club at Collette's house! And even though Jana's birthday was in May and Amy's birthday was 2 days before mine in July, we ended up celebrating my birthday with dinner, dessert and gifts.

I should have taken a picture of my plate before I started eating it, but Michelle made a great tri-tip roast, Jenn made gooey red potatoes, Collette provided Shirley's dreamy rolls, and Jana made a spinach salad with a dressing so delicious we wanted to finish it off with a straw! Amy didn't have a food assignment this month because she had just arrived home from vacation an hour before book club started!

After dinner we did some iPhone App talk and phone number swapping. Amy showed me a Paris Metro app she said I should have even though I have no idea when I'll ever get back to Paris. She's going again this fall (for her 5th time)!

For dessert Collette made some tasty chocolate chip bars with salted caramel ice cream and then we put Jenn's wonderful caramel on top of all that, plus Jenn sent me home with a cup of the remaining caramel! I ate some of it in the car on the way home with a spoon.

Mudbound was actually our book for July, but since only Collette, Amy and Jenn were able to get together that month (a first for us) they ended up just having dinner and talking that night and saved the book for this month. Next month's book is The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig, but I just finished reading it (and loved it) last week so I'm ahead for once!

We discussed the book for awhile and all liked the writing and the story. It got a little harsh at the end due to the touchy subject matter (race relations in the South), but 5 of us were fine with it and 1 was not. It made for a good discussion.

At the end of the night they presented me with 2 pedicure gift certificates (woohoo, woohoo, woohoo) and $50 for XPEDEX (they don't have gift cards there) so I can buy the super thick, expensive white cardstock I like to make my photo cards with. Plus they gave me 2 Twix bars...it's wrong how pleasing this is to me, but I never buy them for myself.

**Are you reading anything right now?

Do you buy candy bars for yourself?

Do you have a favorite app?**

Commitment Window Tidbit: I'm kind of in love with the Words with Friends game on my iPhone. Do any of you want to get a game going?

4 Days of Birthday

I already posted about Landon's birthday breakfast at IHOP, but the festivities continued for the next few days as follows. I took Wednesday (his actual birthday) off work and ended up shuttling he and Lucas to the Lehi Trafalga Fun Center so they could play miniature golf, 5 rounds of laser tag and do a little "rock" climbing.

Landon didn't have any pockets in his shorts, so Lucas ended up carrying his own wallet, plus our cell phone and Landon's cash in his jeans.

The boys played there for 3 hours then had a couple hours to play here at home until it was time for Landon to go to scouts and me to take Lucas home so he could go to his scouts.

On Friday evening, Landon had his friend party with 7 friends, 1 cousin and 1 sister (not pictured). They played "night" games outside until 10:30pm. It was the easiest party I've ever thrown! We provided chocolate donuts, Gatorade, nonhovering supervision and rides home.

One of the action shots, Whitney cracks me up.

On Saturday evening we had his family birthday party.

It's always comical trying to fit the crowd in our little house, but somehow we do it. It helps that the girls ate and played outside most of the time.

Landon had wanted everyone to contribute money so he could buy a Wii game system, but Adam had found one (preowned) for a good price at a game store and bought it along with a game (Madden Football 11). Of course Landon was thrilled!

Megan made Landon a flowery card and wrote the number 31 on it accidentally, but when he turned the card to read the inside it actually looked like she wrote 13!

Tess made him a football shaped card with this cute note inside.

Landon requested the super chocolately cake from Costco (I don't make cakes if I can help it). I appreciate the simplicity of such a request and love that they'll write on the cakes.

Wow, 13 candles!

**How do you make birthdays last? 

What's your favorite cake?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Time at work is picking up now that it's getting closer to school starting. I didn't even have time to eat my string cheese and wheat thins for lunch today!

Miscellaneous Monday--So Busy Edition

In general blogging isn't hard for me, but lately I've been feeling like time is slipping past me too quickly and like I haven't gotten around to blogging about certain little things that I'll end up missing if I don't figure out a way to catch up. My memory is so bad that I am highly motivated to blog regularly so that I don't forget everything! Aargh, Ginkgo Biloba where are you?

Rewinding to Saturday July 23rd, Michelle and I were able to meet up with our sweet blogging friend Amanda L. (from Connecticut) at Goodwood for a long lunch. Michelle, Kristi and I were in the dorms at BYU with her husband Terry (isn't that funny) but Amanda is several years younger than us. I actually found her blog by clicking a link on Chanel's blog and immediately recognized Terry. It's a small world really.

Landon left for a 6-day Scout Camp/50-Miler (which ended up being more of a 70 miler) with the Young Men and leaders from our ward, this was his to-do list for the morning.

The boys had to carry a third of their body weight in their packs, and his was so heavy I thought he would tip over, but he did it!

Of course there were dinosaurs eating spaghetti at our house during the week. These squishy dinosaurs have been well worth their $3 cost.

Randy's parents wanted to buy us something for our house to thank us for letting them stay here (thus saving them a lot of money) while they were in town. I had been wanting a nice picture of the Savior, but knew that wasn't going to be in our budget any time soon. We found this one at Seagull Book on sale for $100! We love it, it is so peaceful! We put it over the mantle where our big clock has hung for 7 years, and it looks like it has always been there. We moved the clock to the opposite side of the room over to the backside of the kitchen cupboards...it will take some getting used to, but it's a good alternative.

My old friend Alissa (from my ward in Michigan while I was in high school) came to town last week and we got to meet up for a 3.5 hour lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. We only see each other every 5 years or so and through Christmas cards so it was good to catch up in real life.

After I dropped off Alissa, I went to the D.I. on 45th South in Salt Lake (I'd never been there before) to search for books. Obviously I hit the jackpot! I was originally searching only for church books (and scored 6 of them) but then looked for other books and found so many that I just kept loading my arms until I literally couldn't carry anymore (I never let myself get a cart there or I'd be in big trouble). The books at this D.I. were about a dollar cheaper than the D.I. near me, so I got all of these for $21! Also, I totally scored because one of the books I bought had a partially filled sheet of .80 cent postage stamps inside it! It was meant to be!

This photo is scary (I was so very sweaty) but I went to Camp Jeremiah Johnson with the Activity Day girls last week (remember I went last year too?). It was mighty hot there, but the girls had a great time shooting a bow and arrow, paddling a boat, tying knots (Whitney was less than thrilled about that), making a bracelet, visiting the trading post, and shooting BB guns.

 

My wonderful headlight, given to me by Betsy over 8 years ago, finally died last week. Technically the headlight still worked, but the battery cartridge was broken and could no longer be held in place. I suppose I could have duct taped it, but I thought that would just be inviting a bunch of new issues with the light. I replaced this light with a much simpler (and cheaper) version (no more night vision for me) and am still able to read in bed without disturbing Randy too much. I really don't know how I functioned before headlight technology!

**What's your miscellany?

Can you believe I found stamps in that book?

Have you embraced headlight technology yet?**

Comment Window Tidbit: The school doesn't have funding for the teacher assistant job I did last year, so they offered me a job in the front office. But I found out yesterday that I have to go in to work tomorrow to be trained on a copier and then will probably have to go in several more mornings this week, then possibly start next week! I am super sad that I won't be working in the classrooms with the teachers and the kids anymore and I am really bummed out that my last 3 weeks of summer just got cut down to almost nothing! But I'm grateful to still have a job there.

Women's Conference--Day 1

Good heavens, it has taken me a week to load these photos and finally sit down to write this post, crazy.

So rewinding back to Wednesday April 27--I took the day off work so I could finish cleaning and preparing the house for Kristi's arrival. It's ridiculous how long it takes me to thoroughly clean when preparing for a guest, but turning the kids' room from a kids' room to a guest suite is a lot of work!


I finally finished at 6:01pm and was ready to fall into a heap; this is always a problem for me when hosting something because I wear myself out so much in preparation that I'm not always in good form for the actual event/guest arrival. This time I was tired and experiencing day 1 of a cold (what the?!) but was happy for Kristi to be coming.


My mom had made a bowl of her fantastic caramel popcorn, so I knew that would say "Welcome" more than anything else.

Kristi arrived bearing a bag of pebble ice and looking cute as always.


We were both starving, so before doing any real chatting we decided where we were going for dinner.


After a leisurely dinner with lots of conversation we stopped in at Wal-Mart to get some soft tissues for my newly irritated nose (what horrid timing). Kristi freaked me out by suggesting we buy these scary nightgowns. They were on the clearance rack but were still $11, so that was too pricey for a joke (in my opinion), plus I told her my self-esteem could not handle the blow of wearing such an ensemble.


Back at home, Kristi brought out these great gifts for me. I didn't have anything to offer her except for clean bathrooms and bedding. It's ridiculous how much I love those monogram pencils! I always use pencils at school so I get to see them all the time, woohoo.


The next morning was Day 1 of Women's Conference and we actually arrived on time (in years past we have been a bit late) and were very happy to score a sweet parking spot directly across the street from the Marriott Center. Kristi paid the guy who lives in the house (he made a lot of money that day) and even paid him to hold a spot for us the next day.


While standing in line waiting for Kristi's name tag she was texting back and forth with Michelle who was already inside saving us a seat; their smart phone technology mocks me so (I'm still kicking around with a flip phone so texting takes me forever).

Dinosaur me.

We made it around to Gate "N" just as Denise, Charlotte and Emily arrived too, so it felt like the party had really begun.


It was quite pleasing to look down the row to see all these great women from Michelle's family taking notes. The opening session by Virginia H. Pearce was quite good.

For the next class we all schlepped down to the Smith Field House to sit on bleachers to hear John and Kim Bytheway.The tulips are always one of the highlights for me.


Michelle and I actually got to sit together (and be overheated) for this class. In fact, Michelle's mom (who is ALWAYS freezing) actually said, "It's kind of hot for me." So you can just imagine how much the rest of us were suffering!


We were delighted to find that we were sitting a couple rows above our blogging friends Wende, Laurie, Patsy, and Kristy.


The hike back up to campus almost killed us (or maybe it was just me and my clogged head), but was so beautiful.


We split up with the group after that because they had other classes they wanted to attend. Kristi really wanted to see the Carl Bloch exhibit while she was here, so we went to the museum to see about getting stand-by tickets. The stand-by line was over an hour wait and it was mighty warm in there. I was NOT dedicated to doing this (I know my limits) and would have gone somewhere else if she had wanted to stay, but we found out that coming back at 9:45 (just before closing) would be the best plan...phew!

I love this view on the East side of the museum.

We took a shuttle (sweet mercy) back up to the Marriott Center, bought some Cafe Rio-type salads and mint brownies for lunch then went in to hear a class featuring 5 former General Relief Society Presidents.


Since we were staying in the Marriott Center for our next class, Kristi got the smart idea to move down to the cushy seats on the floor (I always thought they were reserved) and found out we could sit in them for that class, but would have to leave for the last session. It was so glorious to sit on a soft comfortable seat while feeling the air conditioning.


While waiting for the class to start we had a couple celebrity sightings; Kristi got her picture taken with Elaine Dalton and I got to visit with Michelle's in-laws, Bob and Mim, who are quite possibly the nicest people on the planet.


After all our classes we headed to the bookstore to wander around with the hordes of women. I was once again reminded of how much I hate being overheated and hate crowds, but then one of the women turned out to be our blogging friend Shannon (from Pennsylvania) so my bubble of irritation burst and turned into fun instead. We knew she was at Women's Conference and that we were going to meet up at some point, but it was quite fun running into her unexpectedly like that.


Poor Shannon was roasting in her boots and wanted to fold the tops over but hadn't because the size information was written in white text inside, so Kristi went and borrowed a black Sharpie and solved the problem; this was quite random and funny.


These were my only two purchases (granted, I didn't browse long and was repelled by the crowds) but is this indicative of my job at the junior high or what?! I never would have thought I'd be excited about buying a book about math.


We met up with the whole gang in the book store and I was struck (as I always am) by how glamorous Michelle's mom is. It cracked me up that she had her name tag fastened to her waist so as not to ruin the effect of her ensemble! She was wearing 3 inch wedges for all that walking too, I don't know how she does it!


We drove up to the mall to have dinner together at California Pizza Kitchen, which ended up being really fun despite the size of our group (sometimes it's hard to talk in a big group like that).

Windy group shot outside.

After dinner we went inside to shop for clothes and ran into Patsy's group!


Our day just kept on going when we went back to the Marriott Center to see the Evening Concert. There were some good parts, but pretty much it wasn't worth sitting in those cramped seats for another 2 hours, especially when we could have been lounging at home in cozy clothes.


Kristi and I ducked out of the concert at 9:30 (it went until 10) so we could get into the Carl Bloch exhibit. It felt so fantastic to walk outside in the cool breeze by ourselves since all the crowds were at the concert. We didn't have to wait at all to get into the exhibit and had just enough time to see it at a comfortable pace before the museum closed at 10:30. It was an excellent way to end our incredibly busy day.

When we got in the car at almost 11:00pm I got the world's saddest phone message from Whitney, this is what it contained.

Pause....
Mom....Whitney, sob, sob
Magic died! Sob.
Click.

Oh my goodness, it was painfully sad to hear. It was too late to call and talk to her about it, and I couldn't believe this happened while they were staying at Robyn's house (how's that for dramatic house guests?).

**Did you make it through this post?
Would you wear a nightgown like that?
Do you enjoy decorative pencils?
Do you have a smart phone/iphone?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I STILL have my cold that started on April 27th!