4 Days in 26

I am home.  Duff and I packed up and drove it today.
I am soooo glad.
I have only been home 4 days in the last 26.
I am ready to be h.o.m.e.!

Not that I haven't enjoyed being in Arizona and Utah.  Every thing I did and went to was important.  But I am ready to be home and settled.

Here's what's been going on:

• My mom's hip replacement surgery.
• Natalie and Robert bought their first house and moved.
• Natalie started her brand new job and had no day care since my mom is convalescing.
• Christine's football game one on one weekend.
• Brooke's open house.
• Brooke's wedding.
• Josh and Meredith's football game one on one weekend.

And during all of this, all of the normal stuff with the rest of the fam.

I did make some headway with my Christmas shopping in the two days in between Brooke's wedding and when Duff and Josh and Mere got there.  Thank you to Wal-Mart, Home Depot, The Store, and on-line shopping.  I'm just about done and it feels good to be there before Thanksgiving.  I used to be such a procrastinator with Christmas shopping.  The last 4-5 years I have made a lot of progress in starting early and minimizing the stress I always self-imposed.

I am looking forward to a nice Thanksgiving and putting my Christmas tree up!

Journal Jar

This cute little journal jar is the last activity I did with the ward Activity Day girls.

We taught them how to decorate it with ModgePodge.

Inside are little strips of paper with prompt questions to write about in their journals.

Journals are important. They are sacred.

All of the scriptures came from journals.

The girls had a great time and loved their jars.

(Behind the jar are all my nieces and nephews high school graduation pictures.  I love that I get to see them everyday.)

2011 YW In Excellence

Last month was Young Women In Excellence.

What's Cooking?

The YW Values!

When you mix them into your life you end up with a no-fail recipe!

Each YW took home a cookbook filled with recipes from their leaders.

Every recipe section coordinated with a value color.

Clever!

They spent several activities making these aprons.

Christine's value that she chose to highlight this year was Divine Nature, so her embellishments were blue.  That is the color associated with Divine Nature.

Each girl told about their value accomplishment.

Every apron was the black and white polka-dots, but after that they were all different with the girls individual colors and interpretation.

I helped her with this flower.

I saw it on a tutorial from the Quilted Fish on the Pine Needles blog.

Individual circles folded in half and then in half again, pinned and sewn in the middle in a circular pattern. Cute huh?

Pleated pockets.

It was a great evening.  Good talks, fun games, and of course, dessert!

Thank You to our YW leaders and the girls.

A Boy And His Mud

Lisa and Craig got Natalie and Robert hoses and nozzles as a house-warming gift.

I don't think anyone outgrows how fun it is to play with water!  She enjoyed spraying everything down: the stucco, windows, concrete, rocks, garage, patio.  You never notice how much dust is on things until you spray them down.

Ah, how clean it is now!

Linda working away in the kitchen.

John immediately found the mud puddle.

That is what little boys do, right?

He enjoyed himself, completely! and was covered in mud by the time he was done playing.

Lisa and Duff took him back to her house--in the buff--to clean him up, have lunch and a nap.

Cleaned up and watching Elmo's Song on you-tube.

More Homecoming Pics

Such a pretty waterfall in the background.

So many different shoe choices.



Group photo.

Homecoming Float--Batman

This is Christine's Batman costume for the Homecoming half-time show.

She was part of the junior dance portion of the show.

It was AWESOME.

She wore the costume for Halloween too.

Birthday Haircut

When Opa gets his haircut that means it's time for John to get one also.

He likes to go bye-bye to the barber.

He sits on Opa's lap and wears the fishie drape.

The barber is good with little ones and introduces the 'buzzer' each time so they aren't afraid.

All Done!

He looks all grown up now.

(Notice the big bandage on the left side of my dad's face.  He had a cancer removed.  It looked like a brown spot about the size of a quarter.  It didn't appear to be anything dangerous, but the dermatologist said the lab results came back pre-melanoma.)

Big Rig on I15

Duff had to fly home today.
I stayed because there was no reason to pay for another flight only to be home for 35 hours and come back for our game weekend with Josh and Meredith.
I took him to the airport in Salt Lake and started back up to Midway to meet the boiler repair person.  We have radiant heating in the cabin, but it's been acting up.
I got in the left lane of the transition ramp where it splits to turn south and become the 215 belt route or goes east and remains I80 and climbs to Parley's Canyon.
In the right lane were 3 big rigs.
The last one wanted to pass the other two in front of him that were losing speed with the climb.
With no warning(!) he merged into my lane without looking or anything.  I was furiously honking my horn.
He didn't stop and PUSHED ME ALL THE WAY OVER UNTIL I HIT THE CONCRETE CENTER DIVIDER!!!!!!
It was one of the scariest things I've ever gone through.
I don't know if he even knew what happened.  He kept going.

I am ok.
The car is ok.  No big damage.  A few scratches.
It could have been SO much worse.

I sat there for a few minutes--but it seemed like forever.
I drove to Midway.

After a while, I realized I was in a little bit of shock.  I was shaking and cold and emotional and couldn't focus or concentrate.  It's a wonder I was able to drive to the cabin, as I look back on it.  I should have gotten off and gone to Jan or Ann or Mike's.
I wrapped up in a fleece blanket, made some hot herbal tea, put a fire in the fireplace, had a good cry and a prayer, and watched some tv.
Later that afternoon I was my old self again.  Cleaned out some garage cupboards.

Oh.  And we have to replace the boilers.

Brooke and Doug's Wedding

 Today was the wedding day.

 Heritage Gardens.

The ceremony began at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.  The Bishop gave some good remarks on marriage and how it relates to the Proclamation on the Family. 

The ceremony was short, simple and sweet.

 Beautiful grand staircase.

 Reception and dining area.

So pretty.

 The centerpiece at our table.

Each table had a different one.

They all had an autumn theme.

 Had to have a picture of this roll.

They were scrumptious.

The dinner was very nice.  We had salad, the best chicken cordon bleu I have ever had, rice, and carrots with green beans.

 Jack and Brandon.

 Ann and Jan.  Mike Davis was to the side of Jan.

 Cutting the cake.

It was white with lemon, and white with raspberry.

They also served a chocolate mousse with raspberries and whipped cream.

It was quite delicious.

 These are pictures of her bridal portraits.

Her dress was off white with a beautiful silver sparkly band around the empire waist.  It was classy and timeless and when she looks at her pictures years from now it will still be in style!  Unlike mine from the 70's that was totally trendy.

 Because I liked the lamp.

 Pew decorations.

 Entry display.

 Gorgeous flower display in the great room.

 A little bubbly brook outside on the terrace.

 And fragrant pine trees decked out in mini-lights.

 Fall bridal bouquet.

 Brooke's rings.

Sisters.

Katie, Bethany, her daughter Taylor, and Melanie.

It was a nice afternoon and good to be there to celebrate with them.

CONGRATULATIONS, BROOKE AND DOUG!

May all your dreams come true!

Brooke and Doug's Open House

We went to Brooke and Doug's open house tonight.

It was beautifully done.

Intimate with good food.  It was nice to see and visit with family and friends that we know.

Doug's parents hosted it at Red Butte Gardens Orangerie at the University of Utah.

Christmas Shopping

I went down the canyon this afternoon to get some Christmas shopping done.  There are just some things I can get here at Costco and Walmart that I can't get at those same stores at home.  Like Deseret Book items for a lot less than at Desert Book minus the shipping cost.  It feels so good to begin to gather those items.  And I also did some online ordering.  Bingo.  I purchased some generally summertime things on sale and no shipping cost!  Yahooie.  And it comes right to my door.  Ahhhh.

Then over to Deseret Book for the things I can't get at the above mentioned stores, and some serious browsing of the home department.  Can I just have one of everything and wrap it up, please?  The blue and white soup tureen and the large serving platter.  The blue beehive dessert plates.  The beehive jars.  Just a few.  You know.

Next to deliver the blanket set for Ashley and Cortney's new baby.  Every baby needs a new blanket, don't you agree?  We met up at her sister's house and I brought each of us a black and white cookie from The Sweet Tooth Fairy bakery shoppe.  We sat down in the living room and ate our treat and talked away.  She has had some scares at the end of this pregnancy.  Little Theo could be born this Thursday or by next Tuesday for sure.  They will be taking him early at 37 weeks. The doctor gave her encouraging news today at her appointment.

There's a First Time For Everything!

Sarah had never been in snow.  Believe it or not.  So when we woke up this morning to two inches of fresh snow on the ground and it was still falling, she was excited!  It was a beautiful sight I have to admit.  It was a wet, heavy snow and the flakes were big.

We went to church.  The sacrament speakers gave good talks.  We came home and had Sunday roast chicken dinner and then they packed up the car for the trip to the airport and the flight home.  School is back in tomorrow morning and Duff and I are staying for Brooke's open house tomorrow and the wedding on Tuesday.  Duff drove them to the airport and I stayed here and cleaned up dinner and worked on a white with a smidge-of-pink scalloped baby blanket for Baby Girl's blessing day.  It will be here before we know it.

Now we just have to decide what we are doing for the rest of the week and how we are doing it.  Too many things to do and places to be.