Life Update--Phone Style

On October 2nd I went to a Secretaries Conference in Park City along with 4 other ladies from work. The highlight of the day was the scenery on the way there!

The Conference itself was okay, but it was a long time to sit and the room was freeeezing! (And you know if I was cold everyone else was downright frigid.) I kept looking around at all these women who are used to being so busy and thought it was a colossal waste of time. It's nice to recognize secretaries, but I don't think having them sit in a room for 5 hours is the way to do it!

I saw this Personality Test on Facebook and was immediately drawn to tree #2...which one calls to you?

Apparently this means--2. You are a fun, honest person. You are very responsible and like taking care of others. You believe in putting in an honest day's work and accept many work-related responsibilities. You have a very good personality and people come to trust you easily. You are bright, witty and fast-thinking. You always have an interesting story to tell.

Landon's football game on October 3rd was a freeze-your-nards-off event that meant I needed hot popcorn and hot chocolate...the only problem is that I either scald my tongue on hot chocolate or have to wait until it's just warm chocolate so mainly holding the hot cup was soothing.

I love the view at his home games, especially with the leaves changing on the mountains and the temple in the background.

I'm happy to report that my Secret Pal has been pretty good to me and that I'm enjoying being in charge of the whole thing. I've cracked myself up by sending a couple "inspirational" emails with quotes in them to help nudge the slacker pals (why do they even sign up?).

I used these 2 quotes:

"Generous people are rarely mentally ill." --Karl Menninger

“I got him a cool gift. I got him a pack of razors, and a really furry dead cat.
”-- Jarod Kintz

Since Adam and Amy have been in Europe (I'm so happy for them...) we had the girls here two weekends in a row. I picked them up Friday after school and enjoyed this lovely view from their front porch.

It's amazing how much talking one little girl (Megan) can do!

Lori and I went out for awhile Saturday evening.

Fall is officially upon us and is so beautiful! I was driving home from work and had to pull over to take this picture.

I found this note on my computer at work, so sweet.

Whitney and I met with her school counselor this week for a routine check in (they do that with all the 7th graders!).

I proposed that we take a self-portrait after our meeting and this is what we got...remember how Landon used to hug me in the middle of the hallways at school when he was in 7th grade?!

I spent most of the next day (which was my day off) listening to this!

And planting these.

I don't enjoy having this on our counter but our dishwasher is so lame that we haven't used it in over a year!

This week's installment from my Secret Pal.

Lori and I went out yesterday as part of Fall Break.

I texted this picture to Landon to see if he would wear this shirt ahhh technology.

Lori and I saw "Gravity" which proved to be a stressful movie. At one point I leaned over and said, "next time maybe we can see a movie about being stranded in deep water with sharks".

Later we picked up Whitney (who had stayed at Lori's place to play with the cats) and went to Michael's, Gordman's and Hobby Lobby. Even though my last sewing project was an exercise in swearing I am going to try again but this time with Michelle's help. There are so many cute fabrics how can I resist?

We spent a long time looking at all the cute miniature stuff because Whitney is always thinking of stuff for her Barbie creations. Of course I was drawn to the tiny good mail packages available and told Whitney she should make me some!

Whitney and I stopped at IFA for little pumpkins and these orange wheel barrows caught my eye.

I was scrolling through all my Instagram posts and am smitten with these little grids. I took screen shots of them just because they delight me so.

Tidbits

The 6th graders at Whitney's school put on a Renaissance Fair for all the students. Whitney has been looking forward to doing this for years! Her group made an Apothecary booth and each contributed over 100 items to sell for a .25 each.

I thought they had the best looking booth full of clever items.

Whitney got called into the principal's office this week because she was awarded "The Student of the Week". This came with a coupon for a free meal at Cafe Rio, oh la la.

My secret pal gave me this strange item. I have never seen this sort of thing before and thought it was funny and weird.

My mom, Randy and I roasted ourselves at Whitney's soccer game last Saturday (I got super sun burned on my pasty-white legs).

We had a family party to celebrate Robyn and Olivia's birthdays.

Landon is still the sweetest guy ever.

Amie brought Cafe Rio for a tasty car lunch this week.

Michelle surprised me by showing up with dessert for Wendy and I, which was very unexpected and nice.

I caught Landon walking by the office; I consider Landon-sightings a perk of my job.

Landon and I went to the high school to register him for his classes for next year! This was a bit daunting at first but he got everything he wanted so we were thrilled.

Lori and I went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point on Monday. It was perfect weather and we spent 2 hours wandering around enjoying it.

 

This is one of my favorite photos from our wanderings, but I have many more I love.

My mom and I froze our nards off at Whitney's soccer game on May 1st! It has snowed earlier in the day and then was super windy and cold. We had dressed for the weather but still froze!

Not Quite Easy Casual--Day 3A

Water activities seemed like the best bet for our crowd, so Whitney and I got online to search out another fun pool for the day. We settled on the Scera Pool in Orem (which we had never been to before) because it had 2 diving boards, slides and lots of fun stuff.

We got there right when it opened at 12:30 and took this quick self-portrait that Owen and Whitney somehow missed out on.

It was overcast, but the it was supposed to be sunny and 91 degrees that day so we weren't concerned.

The new floatie was a hot commodity, especially since I'd accidentally popped the blue one while closing the back hatch of the car.

Lathering up!

I enjoyed all the colorful Adirondack chairs.

Owen entertained himself by going off the diving board over and over again.

The rest of us hung out in the pool next to the diving board and took turns on the floatie.

Betsy, Landon and Whitney went down the slides a few times, but it got kind of cold so there was only warmth to be had in the water.

My kids are huge.

We lasted almost 3 hours but were so freezing by the end that I was having visions of hot chocolate and a bread bowl of soup! It was ridiculous to feel so cold on a summer day and it made the outing feel like a bust.

F-F-Freezing

Whitney had her first soccer game of the spring season at 6:00 tonight and it was super cold thanks to the wind. I like it that soccer games are played no matter what the weather is (except for lightning), but it's crazy that we can be freezing at some of the games and then sweating at others even though they're part of the same, short season.


Whitney played goalie for the first half of the game, which involved standing around a lot peppered with several good saves and one ridiculously close call.


It's far more exciting when she plays Forward and has a chance to score, but that also means I yell a lot. My throat has gotten soft since the fall soccer season ended so it's raspy and sore after tonight's game. I am relieved not to be coaching this time around, but was still very vocal...I can't help myself.


Since the majority of the girls on her team this season have never played soccer before, we've been trying to help Whitney mentally prepare herself for possible frustration and losses. But they ended up being better than the team they played tonight (though not by much) and won 4-0. It may have been a fluke.


I apologize for the nostrily self-portrait, but this is the only one I was able to sneak in since I was sitting by so many people I knew (I had a bout of self-consciousness); but I think it shows my layers of attempted warmth quite well.

**Have you been to any sporting events recently?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I ran two different math classes today, this pretty much blows my mind.