*Monday Memos*

*MONDAY MEMOS*

 

                          
 (If pictures are too small, just click to enlarge -if print is too small, you need glasses! ☺)

***STILL TRYING TO GET MY HAWAII POST UP BUT HAVING DIFFICULTY GETTING MY PHOTOS TRANSFERRED ON THIS COMPUTER.  MY DISK IS OUT OF SPACE BUT TRYING TO FIX IT!

dear last day with aunt dixie, so sad to see her go, but it was fun while it lasted.  We met at Village Inn for a yummy breakfast (I had orange crepes!) and Cathy (she's my Mom's cousin) also joined us.  There was a creepster who was stalking me when I came in (held the door open and wanted to know about my life) and then sat down to eat where he could see me.  He wasn't a creepster in the physical way.  He really wasn't too bad looking.  But in the mental way.  He was trying to come off as being friendly, but I know a creepster when I meet one.  As soon as we got up to leave, he came up to us and asked me about my Lexus.  I told him it was my Mom's (which it was) and directed him to her while I tried to get away from him -haha.  She did not appreciate that! lol  I pretty much ignored him, but he followed us out to the parking lot.  He was talking to us all as we walked out and I made a quick get away knowing my Mom and the others would be fine because there was three of them.  As I pulled out, I saw him high tail it to his car and so I called my Mom for the scoop.  She said, he was still in parking lot and by then I knew I had made a safe get away.  But I still kept looking in my rear-view mirror! Crazy!  I told her to make sure he didn't follow them too.  Seriously...  Do I have "stalk me" written all over my face?  It was funny because my Mom told him I was in a hurry to go buy a harp and he said in all seriousness, "Oh she must be an angel."  That totally made my day!  Hah!

dear dream, sigh...  I have been wanting to play the harp for at least the last 15 years.  I have no idea why, other than it has been one of those feelings inside that has been nagging at me for years.  It might be the only way I get into heaven.  You never know, there might be a shortage of harpists up there and if I can say that I play the harp, they might give me a free pass in! ☺ When my cute niece moved back from Arizona, she also decided she wanted to learn it as well.  I told her we would learn together!  Well, this week her mom signed her up for lessons and invited me to go with them to pick out a harp. I told Dave that I was going to finally get me a harp and that I was signed up for lessons starting next week.  He was not on board.  At. All.  He thinks it's some whim of mine and an expensive one at that.  Harps are not cheap!  I tried to explain this is not a whim in any way, but something that is deeply set inside that I really want to do.  It's still going to take some convincing, but I'm not going to give up my dream because of $.  There is always a way.  I was even more determined to make this dream a reality after I sat at the harp at the store that day and played it.  I was not intimidated at all like I thought I would be because I have been told it's a very hard instrument to learn to play.  I like challenges and so that didn't scare me away, but while sitting there, I felt so at peace and calm...like I was home.  I know it's something I'm supposed to do.  I just need to get more support so I can do it.  

I really would prefer to start with a pedal harp, but they are over twice as much as a lever harp.  So, I decided I would be happy starting with a lever, even though that's not my preference.  I did enjoy the sound of them.  The salesperson played them for us and it just made me happy to think that someday, that would be me playing one.  Mackenzie decided to rent to own the one that I wanted.  It was the only one, but the lady said they could order in some more.  I knew I had to talk Dave into this dream first.  I called and postponed my lessons until that happens.  He wants me to check KSL and Craigslist to see if I can find a used one that isn't as expensive.  At least that's a positive!  Maybe I can get him on board after all!  The timing isn't really good with all the not so favorable changes the clinic is going through right now, but I still have hope!

It was very sad leaving without my own, especially as I watched them load Mackenzie's in the back of their SUV, but at the same time it gave me chills from the excitement for her and because I know deep down that it will be me someday too.  I can feel it.  It's meant to be.  Now to be patient enough to wait for the right time!  Hey, it's not like I am getting any younger here!  If I don't hurry, I'll be playing it at my own funeral!  hah  
I firmly believe this is true! ↓

dear city creek shopping, after harp shopping, we headed to City Creek and did some shopping.  We always have a good time.  Mickey is out of school for a month due to year round, but Aubrey begged her mom to let her come with us as well.  I'm glad Karen gave in because we had a blast.

We were trying to get this dress off the manican so I could try it on.  They didn't have my size on the rack and Karen and I always strip the manicans.  We realized after she was half nude that it was the kind that you have to twist off the arms first.  A man that works there saw us and asked if he could help us.  We told him we wanted to try on that dress.  He said we couldn't remove it.  Against store policy or something.  So we told him that he most likely just lost a sell then.  It was stinkin' cute and I really might have bought it.  We went to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and got some goods there too.  Then I headed home and made a couple stops on my way.  I stopped for the first time at Wasatch Running Store in Centerville and I am in love.  They have everything!  I talked to the owner who has been running for 30 years and he told me how bad he hated the new course for the Big Cottonwood Marathon course too.  He said he hasn't had one customer come in that liked it and everyone has complained how brutal the out and back was on their time.  Made me feel a little better, but also kind of ticked they had to go and change it when I felt I could have BQ'd!  Sigh...

  

dear fall trail run without fall colors, I went with Jen and Heather on our favorite little trail run this week.  Sadly, the fall colors this year are dull and not vibrant at all like last year.  In fact, we only saw one bush that was even pretty.  Kinda sad.  It had rained all night and most of the morning and the trail was wet and muddy in spots.  We had to take it slow on the wood panel parts because they were slippery!  Luckily no one biffed it! 

But we still had a great time running and chatting while we run trying to catch up on each other's lives.  I feel so blessed that some of my best friends are also runners.  It would be sad to not have any pals to run with.

Cheese!

dear things that grow crazy big or crazy weird, yes that is a conjoined twin cantaloupe!  Too weird!  And yes, Dave grew it in his garden!   The giant sunflower is one that him and Bryce planted this year and they got a ton of sunflower seeds out of it.  It was gigantic!

dear mr. cat, you have been sneaking in Tyson's room and sleeping on his bed lately.  I think it's so cute that I also sneak in to take your picture!  Tyson would have adored you.  Hopefully you would have been more snuggly with him than you are with me.  Unless, of course,  it's 3 a.m.!  Then you bring on the purrs and charm.

dear blessing from running, like I said I feel so blessed to have some of my best friends also be runners.  It's amazing what spills out of your mouth when you are out running.  Especially long runs!  We talk about everything!  And I mean everything!  hah  If they weren't good friends before, then they are after just by way of being sworn to secrecy about some of the stuff we all leak to one another!  It's kind of funny how that happens.  My dear friend Robin has been training all summer for her very first marathon.  It is on Saturday and she stopped by and brought me this sweet thank you gift to thank me for running with her and helping her train and for being the one to encourage her that she could do a full.  Jen and I told her after Peach Days one year, that she now needed to do a half and then that would lead to a full.  So true and it did happen!  We knew it would.  Natural progression.  Hah!  Well, at least for the crazies like us!  ☺  I am now hooked on Caramel Dove Chocolates that she gave me!  Oh wow!  SO good!  And the head band is my fave!  It says: WILL RUN FOR CHOCOLATE!  Perfect!!!!

I also took her a post marathon treat bag, but forgot to take a photo of it.  I know she is going to do great!  I look forward to running more races and training runs with her. 

dear running surprises, I almost missed this little guy while out running. When I say little, I mean little!  He wasn't much bigger than a dime!  And just so cute!  When I as a little girl, I would catch these guys when we visited my cousins in California.  I loved them.  Today, I wouldn't really want to catch him or hold him like I did then, but I still think he is dang cute!  You really just never know what you are going to find on a run!

dear "awe moment"... when I got on the label maker to print out some labels, this is what I found...

He really is a hopeless romantic!  I have to say I appreciate all the cute little things he does like this.  I have been very blessed that way!  Of course, I answered back and wrote: HE DOES?  JODI LOVES DAVE TOO.  I'm pretty romantic myself now aren't I? ☺

dear busy night dinner, this was a quick meal thrown together this week because it has been crazy!  I'll take these anytime!  Dave and Bryce planned them and put them together.  We actually had enough to eat these for dinner twice this week.  No new recipe this week.  I just haven't had time.  I did make some "to die for" pork chops with carrots and potatoes and onions on Sunday.  I should have taken a photo of those because they were just so so so tasty! 

dear total insanity!  YES, insanity!  My goal was to get the house painted BEFORE Taylor got home from his two year mission to Brazil.  He is now coming home in less than three weeks and we finally got it in gear to actually do it!  Dave and Bryce started to spackle all the holes in the wall (think five boys over almost 20 years in a few rooms that we have never repainted since moving in and you can imagine all the spackling involved!).  Well, as they began to spackle the family room with it's 18-19 foot ceilings, Bryce turned to Dave and said, "This is going to take 1000 hours!".  Bryce NEVER complains or makes remarks like that and so Dave took him serious.  I have been bugging him to hire it out (thus the main reason it hasn't happened in the past two years) mainly because it will be a huge job with a lot of scaffolding and dangerous heights, but he is a do-it-yourself-er in the worst way and hates to pay someone to do something he is perfectly capable of.  But, with the time crunch and the overwhelming-ness of the project, he turned to me and told me to go ahead and get some bids.  WHAT?  Did I hear that correctly?  Did he just tell me to go find a professional and we will pay them?  Yes, he did say that, but I have a hunch once the bids come back, he will put on his painter hat and go to work burning the midnight oil until it's done.  But I am praying that does not happen!  He always says no professional does as good a job as we do because they don't care about it as much as we do.  That IS true, but in this case, I really don't care.  It's too massive of a project to risk paralysis etc.  I have been telling him that if he does do it himself and gets up 19 feet on that scaffolding, that when he falls and is paralyzed, I am NOT going to change his diapers! 

 Dave patching the wall holes from pictures.

dear the insanity continues!  I have been telling Dave we really need to get the carpet cleaned in the family room before the homecoming as well and I don't think our little shampooer is really qualified to help it much this time.  It needed to be professionally done.   Well, as chance (or luck) would have it, we were just trying to decide what to do and a couple of days later right when I was putting up Halloween, we get a knock at the door.  It was a guy saying he would clean any carpet in one room in our house for free!  Free?  He had me at free and the one room carpet cleaning!  He said he was selling Kirby vacuums but he said that he gets paid by how many appointments he makes to clean carpet and so there would be zero pressure.  We liked the sound of that and so signed him up to come back in a couple hours (so we could get everything moved out of the room).  Dave also told him upfront that he was not going to buy the vacuum and so they had no false pretenses.  So Dave and I (no boys home at the time) hurriedly moved all of it out.  Not usually a big deal other than the fact that I was already in a mess putting up Halloween.  I have a lot of Halloween crap stuff and so I really had my hands full.  If I had just had another hour to get it all finished, I would have felt less chaotic.  But, I just went with it knowing it would be nice to get that carpet cleaned and off my to do list. 

They did an okay job, but I wish they had done a great job.  It didn't look that much better to me after they were done and so I was disappointed, but still grateful at least it was better than it was.  We have decided that we need to replace the carpet soon anyway and hoping we can afford to do that after Christmas sometime. It's 20 years old and really needs it. 

 The furniture all stacked up in the kitchen.  

I got most of my Halloween up!  I will post pictures of the inside once the inside looks like the inside and not the eye of a hurricane. 

What's really crazy is the fact that on the one day that I have my house turned upside down with putting up Halloween and moving furniture and just total chaos, is the day I have two vacuum salesmen, a neighbor stop by, and a guy coming over to give me a bid on the painting.  And the next day before it was all put back where it goes, a vacuum repairman stopped by to fix our vacuum.  We probably should have bought that Kirby!  

dear women's forum luncheon and meeting, our big conference is less than a month away and we are pretty well planned.  This week we just mostly worked out last minute details, (who is introducing who- water break stations - Facebook publicity, etc) and the hospital provided us with a yummy lunch.  Homemade chicken noodle soup with the big thick homemade noodles and a nutritious and yummy sandwich.  I really should have taken a photo of the scrumptious chocolate mousse cake!  It was to die for!  I also should have taken a photo of the committee. They used to take one for the local paper, but this year they didn't.  But I have loved working with such amazing women.  They are all such upbeat and great women.  I am glad I was asked to be on it this year again.  Now can't wait for the big day!

HERE is the link if you are interested in attending!  We have some amazing speakers and Gail Miller (Larry H. Miller's wife) is keynoting.  I got Don Aslett to come as well as Julie Toone and I can't wait to hear them both!  There are so many good ones it will be really hard to choose!

dear chair shopping, I can not believe what a find I made!  I have drooled over this ↓ decoration that has been at Maddox for a couple years!  

I went into the Room Loft in search of the perfect chair and ottoman (ours has given up the ghost and desperately needs to be replaced!) and I found this!!!  Yes, the exact one I have wanted for so long!  I did a thorough search online a year or more ago and the best I could find was one that was kind of similar for $300!  I would never pay that for something like this and so I just tucked the desire away and hoped I would find one less expensive someday.  Someday happened!  I can't believe I actually did!  Isn't it funny how when you are off in search of something completely different, that is when you make your greatest discoveries?  Not sure why it happens that way, but it ALWAYS does!  I was SO excited! Even MORE excited that it was only $79!  There was nothing that cheap on the internet! The hub STILL won't think that is cheap, but I know what a great deal I got.  Now maybe I'll find that perfect chair when I am off searching for a new frame or something! I hope so because it keeps alluding me!  I really need to find one!  And hopefully before the homecoming!

I also found this great comforter!  I did NOT buy it though I really loved it and would love to redo my bedroom.  But, I must hold back and take baby steps or I may be divorced!  I just want to re-do everything right now!   

dear friday night lights, this week we played my Alma Mater!  I never know who I should cheer for when this happens, but suffice it to say I cheered really loud for the Bees, and slightly softer for the Lakers!  I felt I had to because we were killing them!  But in the end, I was happy the Bees stung the Lakers.  I do have blue and gold blood running through my veins unless my boys are playing against them and then my mother instincts come in full boar and I want my boys to win!!! 

It was just Dave and I.  My Dad was sick this week and so he didn't make it.  

dear saturday long run, even though I really was wanting to just stay home and chill and listen to conference, I knew I had to get out and get in some miles if I want to keep up my fitness level and not end back at square one.  Knowing that I had seven good friends running the St. George Marathon today gave me a little bit of motivation.  If they can go 26.2, I could do 10.  I headed to Mantua because I didn't feel like seeing any passerby's today.  I ran around the dam once and then reversed it and ran around it again and then through the town to get in 10.  I listened to Conference while I ran and I'm not sure if that's why or what, but those 10 miles seemed to drag on forever!  It felt like I had run a marathon!  I think my music helps me more than I realize!  Just not sure because the talks were wonderful.  In fact that Saturday morning session was my favorite out of all of them.

This beat up mile 10 marker I depicts how I felt at mile 10.  After this run, I was really glad I turned down my opportunity to run the St. George Marathon today! 

Some sights I saw along the way...

Water skiing in October!  Yes, and in Mantua!  A baby snake in October!  I thought they were all born in the spring?  A VERY fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar. I heard that is a sign of a brutal winter?  Halloween decorations in October.  Yeah, can you believe that?  ☺

dear mr. cat, it's your birthday!  Happy 3rd Birthday!  Since you were a rescue, we were never exactly sure what day you were born and so we had to guess.  We knew about how many weeks you were and so I decided you were probably born the first week in October.  Dave's dad suggested I go with 10-4 because it's easy to remember and so I did!  October 4th!  I am so happy I choose to take a chance on you even though when I saw you for the first time you were wilder than a caged bull!  You have never been wild since.  Just pretty mellow and chill.  I guess the real risk was not worrying about you being wild, but being brave enough to tell Dave I rescued you!  He is NOT a cat fan!  Well, technically a lady rescued you but she couldn't keep you and I gave you a home.  The lady saw your mama and your sibling get run over by a semi truck in Willard and she watched as you just barely escaped getting hit as well.  She stopped and grabbed you and brought you home.  My other cat had just died and I was looking for a new one.  The timing couldn't have been better.  My son Bryce saw a picture of you on his Facebook that one of his friends (the lady's daughter) had posted saying that you needed a good home.  He sent me the picture and I fell in love!  I took my nieces and Dave's sister and mom to go see you for the first time.  That's when you were wild!  Holy cat, you were tearing around her house and furniture like a ninja and even knocked a big picture off the wall!  My mother-in-law said, "Okay, let's go.  This cat is way too wild and Dave won't like it!"  I have to say I agreed with her, but luckily I decided to test you out first.  You were an angel from the start and I am so glad I took a chance on you!  I luff you very much Mr. Cat!

That's canned food - not a cake!  And if Dave ever sees that his paw was on the counter, I'm pretty much dead meat!

What's not to luff about this?

dear general conference, as per tradition, after watching the Sunday morning session, we indulged in yummy German pancakes!  Dave made them this time and when we went to eat them I noticed that there was sesame seeds in the Orange Suzette sauce.  I asked him if he accidentally used sesame seeds instead of dried orange peel.  He had no idea, but he had!  It was funny!  They were still tasty!  I am so grateful that Dave likes to cook and is so good at it!

While I listened to the sessions, I worked on the boy's memory boxes.  They are taking much longer to finish than I had planned on.  It was like doing family history while watching conference.  I worked on them in between sessions also and then even after as I watched a re-run of the morning session.  I finished Bryce's, and McKay's, but I still didn't get Taylor's all done.  It is monotonous work, but also very fun because I found so many funny things and I loved going back through their childhoods!

Conference was awesome as usual!  But my favorite talk of all still has to be President Uchtdorf's that he gave at the General Women's meeting last Saturday titled Living the Gospel Joyfully.   It just touched me deeply. My favorite part of his talk was this:
"Whether you are 8 or 108 there is one thing that I hope you truly understand and know: You are loved. You are dear to your Heavenly Parents. The infinite and eternal Creator of light and life knows you! He is mindful of you. Yes, God loves you this very day and always. He is not waiting to love you until you have overcome your weaknesses and bad habits. He loves you today with a full understanding of your struggles. He is aware that you reach up to Him in heartfelt and hopeful prayer. He knows of the times you have held onto the fading light and believed—even in the midst of growing darkness. He knows of your sufferings.  He knows of your remorse for the times you have fallen short or failed. And still He loves you. And God knows of your successes; though they may seem small to you, He acknowledges and cherishes each one of them. He loves you for extending yourself to others. He loves you for reaching out and helping others bear their heavy burdens—even when you are struggling with your own. He knows everything about you. He sees you clearly—He knows you as you really are. And He loves you—today and always!"

  I also liked Elder Holland's and Elder Bednar's - but that's a given!   They were all just so good!  The best part of all was being able to listen to some of the speakers speak in their native tongue!  I was excited when Elder Carlos A. Godoy spoke in Portuguese!  That was so cool listening to how Taylor sounds!
 
*You can find all the talks HERE.

dear gorgeous purple hawaiian sunset!  Skyler sent me this picture this week and it sure makes me want to go back!  Wow!  It just doesn't get prettier than this!

dear new state record holder for the largest lobster!  Way to go Sky!  I am so excited for you!  You got the record on this crazy GIANT!  I would have been scared to death to even get near him, let alone capture him!  To beat the previous record you needed for him to weigh in at 6.5 lbs and he did!  You will now be in the record books!   So exciting!  Especially since you got the record on another fish a couple of months ago, but cut him up before you knew it was a record.  I'm so proud of you!

WOW!  Just wow!

New record!  That guy is huge!  I wonder how old he is.  He would be a great Halloween decoration!
 

dear blogging, I really can't express how much I enjoy you.  Sometimes I feel like you are just a huge burden that I am always behind on, but when I have had a couple of weeks like my last ones, I see what a luxury it is to just sit and write.  I really do love to write.  I am grateful I have a place where I can do that!  Now, if I can only get all those posts up that I am so behind on.  Park City, Sister's Fling, and Hawaii!   Someday...