*Monday Memos*

*MONDAY MEMOS*

   

 (If pictures are too small, just click to enlarge) 
Weekly recap of my rather crazy, insane, but fun and rewarding life!

dear monday, it's so depressing how behind I am on this....but I am going to keep trying to catch up.  I finally decided to try and use the laptop but it's so ancient and huge that it's awkward and I can't put it on my lap because it's too heavy and hurts the back.  But, I can use it small increments of time, so that helps.  Sky and crew were still here for Sarah and Dave's birthday.  They share a birthday!  I stole a few pix of Sarah's off IG because they were so cute: 

 She also posted some of our backyard deer:

It's Dave's 60th birthday!  Wow!! WHERE DID THE TIME GO!  Serious!  Man, I had no idea how fast life would fly by!  It really has flown by!  Before you know it, I will be that age! Yikes!  Well, right now I HOPE I WILL BE!  Cancer changes your perspective big time!  I am so grateful I have already reached the age I am.  If I had been born in my grandmother's time, I would not live to see my 60th birthday due to the cancer.  That is a sobering thought.  I started to think about my relatives, and with the exception of Shelley, most of them have lived very long lives. All my grandparents made it with pretty healthy lives until the end, well into their 70's and 80's.  Interesting thought.  My great grandma Nellie, was 83 and my Grandma Helen was in her 90's with relatively good health to that point.  My mom's mom Mae, was only 65.  

This is a photo of my Dad with his two sisters Sharon and Gay.

Sky brought me lunch.  He's so nice.  Some Olive Garden soup we had and rolls.  So good. He's been making sure I don't overdo it and has been so nice to clean etc. 

It's also Sarah's birthday as well.  Linda offered to make a cake and I told her no initially, because Sky said he would, but then decided why not?  She is so nice to offer and she has kept wanting to bring dinner and we say no, and so I decided I should let her for Dave. Carson visited me a lot today.  He is so much fun.  I was pretty tired all day. I watched more of Poldark.  Intense show. I like to watch comedies too like I Love Lucy and old sitcoms.  I went downstairs and made sure things were cleaned up since Linda was coming over.   Wasn't sure if anyone else would.  Bryce and Haylie and her cute kids came.  McKay came home.  Taylor was here this morning but had to leave for work and had a basketball game tonight.  And of course, Sky and crew.   

 This little guy cracks me up.  He is so quiet and serious, but once in a while his personality shines through.  He looks like a mini pro boxer in that jacket.  hehe

Brinlee's face cracks me up!

I felt bad Dave made dinner... some pizza and chicken.  We sang to Sarah and then Dave.  

I feel so bad I couldn't do more for both of them for their birthday.  Sigh....  Sarah's mom didn't even call her.  So sad.  I just hope I can make her feel loved because we truly do love her.  She really is the sweetest thing. 

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Wishing my wonderful hubby Dave a very HAPPY BURRRR-THDAY today!!!

He's going to need ALL those candles to keep from freezing to death!! ;)

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dear tuesday,  got up and showered early today.  It's sometimes the biggest accomplishment of my day!  I then read my scriptures, worked on this, wrote in my one line a day journal, and then worked on this again.  I was all alone today for the first time in a while.  It was kind of nice. I just soaked in the peace and quiet and enjoyed it.  I had to be off my knee and so it was actually really nice.  It is really hurting when I put any weight on it and so now I truly am a cripple!  It's hard to get anywhere with both legs bad now.  I hope just easing off it for a while will heal it fast.  I kept ice on it all day.  I watched Poldark again.  Very good series other than I can't get season 4 unless I pay for it or watch it on the laptop.  I did a little reading.  For some reason reading exhausts me and I haven't done much of it.  All this time I have waited for a chance to be forced to be down so I could catch up on my reading and now it is here and I don't want to.  haha  Oh life!  

dear wednesday,  today I washed my hair!  Quite the ordeal!  I had to double bag my cast to make sure it didn't get wet.  It felt so good to have clean hair!  But my good knee gave out on me while in the shower. That scared me!  I need to stay off longer so it can heal.  I really rested well once I was done and back in my chair.  I rewarded my efforts by watching Poldark.  Karen text me and told me to try a show called Manifest and so I did. It's good too.  Here I am the person who never watches TV, now a binge watcher.  haha  It's kind of fun actually, but after a while I get sick of it.  I have watched a lot of oldies...I Love Lucy, Home Improvement, That Girl, Mary Tyler Moore, etc.  Kinda crazy. I really like the old stuff.  Haha   Pretty sad when you post about TV shows!  LOL 

Dave was off today.  McKay was here part of the day too.  I rested my knee again and iced it.  It is so frustrating that it has taken such a brunt of it all.  I hope it heals quick.  I have been able to put more weight on my casted leg recently though, so that is good.  I spent a lot of time responding to texts and messages.  I wonder if my muscles will ever fully recover from this?  I think Dave is getting concerned that things are healing a bit faster too.  But, what can you do?  Be patient. That is all.

dear thursday, today I got up early and showered.  I am getting the whole shower thing down pretty well.  I am only in it for about a minute or two and then out.  But it is still a major workout.  Haha  Jen came over and brought me lunch.  A yummy salad from Old Grist.  She also brought me a yummy sugar cookie.  She knows me well!  hah Dave and McKay were here for a bit during her visit as well as Linda Baugh stopped in too.  She brought me a some books to read and a card and gift from Utah Homemakers.  Today was our meeting and I was unable to go. I felt so bad because it was a good one.  

Jen and I chatted for a long time.  It was nice to catch up.  As soon as she left Linda S. from our ward came and brought me the softest sweater and a shawl for spring.  How kind is that?  Then she brought in two kinds of soup and bread from Old Grist.  

She came to tell me she had breast cancer as well and if everything else she brought wasn't enough, she brought me great hope because she only had to have chemo every three weeks and she didn't lose her hair.  It gave me so much hope I cried.  She is the sweetest lady.  And for someone who doesn't have much, she was so generous.  Then Julie C. came over and brought us dinner.  I just can't get over how kind everyone is.  I was downstairs for over seven hours and by the time I got back upstairs, I was exhausted.  But, it felt so good to be up and about.

Here is a photo that was posted from today's Homemaker's meeting. I feel so bad I missed it.  The lady in front was the speaker.

dear friday, today I got up early and showered and got ready.  Dave brought me breakfast but I wasn't hungry really.  I just had some hot cocoa.  He came home for lunch and I still wasn't too hungry.  I told Robin I was good for visits now and so she came over about 2:30.  We had a good chat and had a lot to catch up on.  She brought me my favorite Old Grist pumpkin choc chip square.  Mmm....  She is the sweetest person.  I have been so blessed to have such amazing and kind and caring friends.  You really see how many people care when you go through things like this.  I also got a sweet card from Cathy (my Mom's cousin who has been sitting with her EVERY day so my Dad can go home and do what he needs to do).  She sent me Dove chocolate and some of the wrappers that have quotes on them.  So sweet. 

Bryce and Haylie and her kiddos then showed up. I stayed down a bit to visit with them.  Little Liam cracks me up!

Taylor then arrived from snow boarding and within minutes was off again to head to California to watch the Ram's play in the playoffs.  I worry so much about him getting there safely.  This whole ordeal had made me very fearful of things like driving places and other things that could cause harm.  Hope it's only temporary.  :(  I headed back upstairs and rested more.  Mr. Cat has been my little buddy and pal.  He is either sleeping above my head on the chair pillow thing or on my chest or on the purple box thing.  He likes to be near me. I am sure he senses something is off.  

I got the workings for my Mom to bust out of the rehab tomorrow.  Well, I told my Dad what he needed to do and she gets to leave tomorrow!  Yippee!

dear saturday, I got about four hours last night.  I was awake at 1:30 and could not go back to sleep.  Frustrating!  I got ready and came downstairs and worked on this blog for a while. Good thing because all the stuff I wrote on the laptop, did not save. I must not have had internet or something. I spent a lot of time fixing it and updating everything.  I even cleaned the playroom, at least what I could physically do.  My sciatic started to hurt after a while and I had to stop.  It took so long to get just one post done!  Holy!  Why do I do this again?  My Mom was able to come home today!  I called her at 7:30 a.m. and she was not happy because she was still there. I told her she had to wait until at least 9 a.m.  She is one happy camper to be out of there!  I'm so grateful she is doing so well!  Her heart rate is elevated and that is a concern, but she needs to be home to heal faster I believe. 

Here are some pix from the Ram's playoff game Taylor posted.  It looks like he had an amazing time!  That kid definitely lives his life to the fullest and I am so glad!

dear sunday,  Sky and crew went and visited my Mom this morning at her house.  They said she looked great.  I'm so happy!  

Then they came over here and stayed all day. I stayed upstairs all day today because I kind of over-did it yesterday being down so long and my legs were not too happy about that.  Carson came up and we watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for a while.  He loves to snuggle.  

Eating our Everlasting Gobstoppers while watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Sky and Sarah came up and visited with me for a while too.

Taylor arrived home and brought  me this basket of purple goodies from Julie's fam in Las Vegas.  It was so cute! I loved it!!!

 These two are good buds!

Gratitude may seem like a simple thing, but there is great power that comes from it. Just as gravity has to obey the laws of the universe, I believe gratitude follows the same principles and when we are grateful, it’s impossible to be unhappy. It is the key that unlocks the door to light, love, and joy. #gratitude#poweringratitude #gratitudemiracles

BRRRRRR.........

dear quotes,

Boston Trip #2 Sistas

Wow!  What a great trip this has been so far!  
Here is PART 2:

The SISTAS!

I had five friends fly from Utah to cheer me on.  They arrived on Sunday morning and so I didn't see them until after the marathon.  Another friend, Shauna,  lives in Maine and she offered her home to all of us while we were here.  She is really the reason this all happened.  Years ago she told me, "Hey if you come and run the Boston Marathon I will be there to cheer you on!"  I told her that it wasn't quite that simple and that running Boston means I would have to qualify first and that isn't exactly an easy thing to do.  She also said she would let whoever came stay at her house in Maine.  That one comment really helped fuel me to want to set the goal to qualify. In the back of my head (when I wanted to give up and quit trying to get there), I would envision her and my friends at the finish line.  When I DID finally qualify, it took a few years, she was one of the first ones I told.  She was ecstatic!  We told the Sista's the plan and right off the bat several said they wanted to go, but deep down, I honestly did NOT think any of them would actually go when it came right down to it. Boy, was I wrong!  I could not have been more surprised when these five ↓all made plans to come and actually did!

This is Shauna picking them up at the airport in Boston.  She sent me this photo and said, "They're here!"  I was so happy!

They had some fun without me the first day in town.  I was with my family still.

  The first time I saw them was after I crossed the finish line.  (That is me doing my jump that the close camera man missed and so I look like an ant.)  Happily, they DID see me cross the finish line with the exception of Patti. She had gone to find Kathy.  Kathy made it back, but Patti was still looking for her.  They had all actually left BEFORE I got there because Shauna got an update saying I was at the 40 K mark and she thought that meant I had already finished. Luckily, she text Dave and he told her that no, I still was running.  So they all went back through security again so they could watch.  They yelled at me, but I couldn't hear them. The crowd was deafening!  They did see me stop before the finish line and take some photos and turn on my video.  That was a joke for the rest of the trip!  haha

 Yep, only moi would STOP after running 26 miles to video and document the finish!

 But I picked it back up again!

 On the jumbo tron! (Bottom left corner)

OH. WHAT. A. FEELING!

 It was so good to see all of my friends!  It made me SO happy to know they came all this way to watch me do this.  I have the best friends.  A couple of them I wasn't even friends with in high school, but they joined our Sista group on Facebook and so we have gotten to know each other. I feel so blessed!  The post of the race is HERE and the post of the first part of the trip with my family is HERE.

Look at the cute shirts they wore to support me!  So cute!  Sole Sista's!  Cute!  They gathered with my family and we took lots of pictures and then they headed to eat and we went to our hotel to get our stuff.  We had already checked out but they let us check our bags until the flight left.  Which means, I did not get a shower!  They let me us a bathroom to change in and luckily I had lots of wet wipes.  Dave and the boys were flying out that night and so we met the Sistas at the airport. I told my family goodbye and the Sista's hi!  

Here they are waiting for me to join them at the airport.  We took the van Shauna had rented from the airport to a cottage we had rented in Maine.  It was pretty late when we arrived.  We had to wait until morning to see the gorgeous views!

And.....wouldn't you know it!  PERFECT race conditions the next day!  Ugh!!!

Our adorable cottage on the beach!

THIS ↑ is my little souvenir from Boston!  Yeah!  This was on my thigh thanks to my phone being in my pocket!  It continued to get worse and very painful.  When Dave saw the photo (I will spare you the really bad one a day later) he called me in some antibiotics and told me to get on them right away.  Who gets a staph infection from running!  Me, that's who!  Oh well, not everyone can say that after running the Boston Marathon!  Haha

We had THEE BEST time at Buck's Naked BBQ!  Of course, the name provided us with a lot of entertainment as well! Waiter photo bomber was on point.

I was in one silly mood and I think it was contagious!  We had some serious laughs!

So many photo opps!

This ↓ one is my favorite!

We spent a lot of time driving and while driving we spent a lot of time speaking in Bahstan-ease.

We are definitely having an advencha heeya in gawgiss Maine while riding in the cah!

This was our view at our little cottage!  Gawgess!

I saw SO many purple houses!

We went to Portland to check out the amazing and famous Portland lighthouse! I was SO SO SO excited!

This photo looks like it is from a postcard!  But I took it!  

Oh, I can't believe I am here!

It was very windy and cold!  We didn't hang around too long because we were all freezing!

This little guy is called BUG LIGHT.  How cute is that?

We were VERY squished in the back of the van. Somehow I was lucky enough to ALWAYS sit in the back and everyone else rotated. They said it was because I was the smallest one. Maybe I should have carb loaded more! 

MORE purple houses!

We stopped at L.L. Bean and took some fun photos!

We were 'mainly' having a great time in Maine!

We arrived back at Shauna's lovely home!  She is out in the boondocks!  She has so much privacy!  We all found our rooms and settled in for the night.

We hit Mickey D's in the morning but it was the cutest Mickey D's on the planet!  

We then traveled and stopped at a lot of sights she was anxious to show us.  Some of them were closed.

But the beach was always open.  Kathy had us all DYING with laughter because she leaned over on the shore (just why I am not shore sure), but she fell right in head first!  Yep!  Oh. My. Gosh. We were almost peeing our pants!

We continued on our journey and stopped at some fun gift shops along the way! 

More photo opps!

So many fun sights to see.  A lot of lobstah boats out there.

We stopped to eat at Cook's Lobstah House.  There wasn't much on the menu for non fish lovers but I managed to find something.

Posing with the giant Lobstah!

That night we went to see the BOSTON DOCUMENTARY!

I was a little worried the others might not be as interested in it as I was, but I was very surprised how much they all loved it.  It was SO amazing!  I think it's because they now felt a part of the Boston Marathon.

You will have to click to enlarge what is on the screen. It gives some good info.

We headed back to Shauna's to sleep.  We didn't spend much time there because we were always on the road. The next day we decided we all wanted to head back into Boston for one more day! I am so glad we did!  We had so much fun and saw so many amazing sights!

There is such incredible architecture in this town! 

We went into the running store and read all about the history of the marathon which was even more interesting after seeing the movie the night before.

We saw the place of the bombings and saw a lot of memorials.  

Only 360 more days (marathon countdown) until I am back!  At least I hope!  

I can't wait!!!

Wow! There are some grand churches and the library is unreal!  I could look at this stuff all day!

The library ↑

We saw the Trinity church and it was spectacular.  We saw the South Church and it was sublime as well!

We then went to the Prudential Center and ate lunch and some did the Sky Walk.

We shopped a bit in the mall there. We kept losing Kathy.  She wandered off several times.

Most of us took the Duck Tour.  It was great. It actually went into the water!

Boston is so loaded with history and amazing stories!  I should have listened better in school!

Check out the purple polka dotted Duck Tour trolley!

I met up with Robin and Grant for a super quick visit!  They were eating lunch and we had only a few minutes before heading off. I was super happy I got to see them for a bit!  We talked about the marathon and it was great to see them.  It was so fun to see everyone wearing their Boston jackets around town!

We stopped by the Finish Line for a bit.

And, of course, we had to hit Mike's Pastries!  Holy Cannoli!  Those things are good!  I personally like their almond or pistachio cookies even better! We loaded up for the ride home!

 We ate at a good place in Little Italy

We rode the T back to our car.  

We spent the night at Shauna's and in the morning we had fun chatting for quite a while before we headed out.  Jody and Bonzo wanted a picture wearing my medal.  

We took off for our last "advencha" before heading to the airport.

It was pouring rain all day.  Check out the penny I found!

We ate at another lobstah place (can't remember the name!) and I just had a salad and so did Bonzo. 

We shopped at some cute stores and we all bought the same Lobstah book.  Robin read it to us on our drive to the 'ehport'.  I found the most delicious of all deliciousness M&M's! They are strawberry flavor!  Oh man!  SO SO SO good!

Then the advencha was ovah and we had to say goodbye to Shauna and boad ah plane.  I'm gonna miss this place. But I think the Bahston lingo will stick for awhile!  

We were sad to leave!  I think Shauna was sad to see us go.  It was still raining.

After a little meltdown between a couple, we were off for home!

WOW!  I still am so happy that these Sistas of mine came all this way to support me and to cheer me on!  I am beyond blessed to have friends like this.  They really are the best!  I hope they can all come out again if I am lucky enough to run Boston again!  Such a fun experience and definitely one of the best of my life!  But now, I have the travel bug in me!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE to see new places. I always have.  Dave doesn't feel the same so I am glad I have Sistas who also love it! I wonder what will be next?

Bye-bye Bahston!  

I am in love with you forevah!