*Monday Memos*

*Monday Memos*

 

dear mckay, having you gone for the entire week with Cooper and his family at their cabin in Island Park seemed much longer than a week to me!  I'm glad you had so much fun though and got to see Cody WY, and spend the night in Yellowstone and see two bears!  I have to say I am very jealous because I have not seen a bear in Yellowstone since I was a wee one!  I'm glad you have such great friends!

I'm grateful to Dottie for taking so many pictures of the boys and being so thoughtful to print some out for me.  

dear national running day, I had to get up at the crack of insanity so I could get in a run on this very significant day!  I was only able to get in about 5 miles because I had a meeting at 8 a.m. but I really enjoy running in the early hours before the world is awake.  Well, the birds ARE awake!  I think I live in a rain forest each morning because we are against the mountain and have a lot of birds that really enjoy singing starting about 4:30 in the a.m.  Sometimes they sing ALL night long.  I guess there are early birds and night owls in the bird world too.☺ 

I am hoping I can write an entire post very soon on how much running has blessed my life and changed it in so many ways, but until I do, I want to say that running is one of the hardest things I do, yet one of the most rewarding things in my life.  There are some days that I love it and other days that I really hate it.  But the bottom line is the fact that running has taught me so many life lessons and it has shown me how strong I really am.  I believe it has also forced me to be even stronger.   Because of running, I have learned for myself that I can do hard things and that I will not quit.  I will push through no matter the pain or the will to want to throw in the towel.  And for that, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the sport.  I am thankful I am a runner every single day of my life and I am sincerely grateful I am able to run because there are so many who can't.  It truly has blessed and changed my life.  Happy National Running Day!

Below are a few of the things I found on my run... I actually saw two chickens cross the road.  Why they did that remains a mystery. ☺ I tried to get a shot of them mid-street but it didn't happen.  I also thought about buying the exercise bike, but I couldn't come up with the extra $1.75. ☺  Yes, I'm being a smart aleck!  At first I thought it was a joke, but they haven't moved them from their curb yet and it's been almost a week! Oh, and the chair is DISGUSTING!  It's not worth 60 cents!

dear women's forum meeting, I am so excited I was able to get Julie Toone to come present a workshop at our conference this November.  She has an amazing story and I am so excited to hear her in real life.  She was the mother of three boys and expecting boy #4 when her husband was killed, leaving her a widowed single mom.  She then remarried a man who also had four boys of the exact same ages.  Together they had another boy!  Nine boys!  She finally got her girl on #10!  Two of her boys have severe health problems and she has a blog called Breaking the Silence here and a facebook page here titled: "My name is Julie and I love my crazy, tragic, wonderful life!"

I am also very excited I was able to get Don Aslett  -America's King of Clean-  to also present a workshop.  He is great!  I have met him many times and I've read most of his many books on de-cluttering and cleaning and I've had him speak at a few other events.  I was so happy his schedule allowed him to do this one!  He's always kind of been my hero.  I have always wanted to be like him, but I'm still working on it! Check out his blog here.

His book Clutter's Last Stand was one of my favorites. He is a very entertaining speaker and very funny.  I read the book Make Your House Do The Housework before we built our home and tried to implement a lot of his ideas into our house plan as well.  He is what you would call a type A person and has more energy and enthusiasm than most people you would meet.  I feel like I used to be like that, but since Tyson passed away, I somehow lost some of that energy!!  One of these days I'm going to a blog post on the facts and fallacies of grief and how it can effect your normal characteristics. Nothing like jumping from the Women's Forum to grief!  ☺

dear adorable nieces!  I was so excited to get to have lunch at Zupa's with you two and your mama.  I'm glad that Mackenzie (aka Mickey) made me get a Creme' Brulee.  She knows how much I LOVE Creme' Brulee!  This one was chocolate and to die for!  After lunch, me and Mickey told her mama and Aubrey goodbye and went to the mall and did a little shopping.  We saw this sign ↓ and both loved it!  

Tyson always loved Mackenzie to pieces and I think it's because those two are so much alike as far as being just a wee bit mischievous!  Not sure where he got that from! ☺ Then I brought her back to my house for a sleepover.  Aubrey was having knee surgery in the morning and so I got to keep Mickey. 

There is NEVER a dull moment with her around!  She is one entertaining girl!  Bryce also adores her and they had some good fun together.  She loves the game Hay Day and got us both signed up on it.  Luckily she got my farm going for me, but I have since neglected it and I'm sure all my farm animals have starved to death by now.  ☺ 

The next morning Dave made some extra large pancakes for breakfast, and then we went on a walk to 7-11, but she only had flip flops and after a mile she had a huge blister so we called Bryce for a rescue ride.  We did get some Slurpee mustaches while we were there though.  I wanted her to meet my dog pal who lives by 7-11 that I go see nearly every day while running, but she wasn't in her yard.  Crazily enough while we were walking back, we ran into her and her owner out on a walk!  I asked the owner what her name was, (after explaining to her how much I love her dog and that she greets me and brings me sunshine each day), and she told me her name is Izzy.  Her little pal is Kadence.  I was so happy to run into them! 

Mickey has never seen a snake and amazingly we had one on our back lawn.  EEK!  I hate SNAKES!   She took off screaming and running into the house faster than a snake on wheels!  The ice cream in the photo  has a YUMMY purple sauce on it that is the best stuff on the planet!  Run...don't walk...to grab some of this amazing syrup!  I even had it on my pancake for breakfast!  I LOVE IT!  And I'm sure it's not just because it's kind of purple! Mmmm.....  I should get paid for this endorsement!

  
We made some delish blueberry cupcakes for Aubrey to wish her a quick recovery.  They turned out pretty and were yummy!

And then - sadly - I had to return her home to her mama.

dear sugar daisy bakery in kaysville, oh my holy sweet tooth!  I HAD to stop by you after taking Mickey home to get my fix!  Your peanut butter bars are my newest addiction!  I can't even explain how perfect these things are.  The frosting is so good that I could eat just it, but the crunch and perfect texture of the peanut butter bar is beyond satisfying!  The first time I stopped there they had a plate of just edges of the bars and I bought them and I was in heaven for days!  Sadly they didn't have any of those this stop.  YUMS!

The photo DOES NOT do this thing justice!  It had been wrapped in plastic and so that's why it looks like it does, but no matter the look, it tasted like heaven!

dear skyler, thank you for sending these AWESOME pictures of you living the dream in Hawaii.  I am extremely jealous, and it makes me more determined to come and visit you before you leave.  You are definitely looking good with that six pack! 

This is the rest of the waterfall.  I am praying that you didn't attempt a jump.  What I don't know won't hurt me.  Right? 

dear date night, we spent you at a High Priest Stake party eating and listening to cowboy poetry.  Luckily, I mean sadly, we had to rush off and attend a wedding reception.  The yard it was held in was beyond gorgeous.  The pictures don't do it justice.  It was inspiring!  So inspiring that the next day Dave hit the nursery and spent a small fortune on more plants for our yard!

dear brother brigham half marathon, after stressing about you for over two weeks, and coming extremely close to bagging you because I have not recovered very quickly after my full marathon, you were NO where to be found!  I got up at 5:45 a.m., got ready, worked out some nerves, talked myself into running you even though I wasn't ready and I knew my competitive side would show up and I would push it and probably get an injury, and NO YOU!  Dave and I drove around Main Street and back about seven times looking for ANY sign of the race. NOT. A. THING!  I was beginning to wonder if you learned to hide this well because you had so many wives!  Finally we called the police dept and asked them if they had any races on their schedule and they said no.  I got on the website and called the number on it but they just had a voice-mail.  I left a message and wondered what in the heck happened because the date was correct and the time.  I didn't see another runner searching or any signs of a race so I was pretty sure there was no race, but when I didn't see a single porta potty, that is when I KNEW there was no half marathon going on in this city.  Not a single one of my friends had signed up to run it either and so I just decided to run the course anyway at a relaxed pace and get in my miles. 

Here I am ↓ confused at what is going on...  getting ready to head out on my own without a bib number or medal to run for.  

I must say I was secretly thrilled!  I had worried and stressed about this race so much that it was like a HUGE tender mercy that it wasn't happening!  I was so relieved that I didn't have to run that distance (on a real tough course!) at my regular half marathon pace because my legs just haven't been in the mood since the full.  The only thing I was bummed about were the treats at the end of this race last year were the best!  They had a spread of fresh fruit and sweet bread and Brigham's Brew and the best watermelon ever - like no other race I have ever run.  And the medals were pretty awesome too. 

Some sights on my half marathon non race...  

I ended up going the full 13.1 on the course and then ran home for a total of 14 miles and I was terribly sore the next day, but happy I was able to get in the long miles without an injury!   I saw Jen in her yard just as I was nearing home and I stopped and chatted for a bit and then my phone rang.  It was the race director apologizing to me.  He said they cancelled the race about a month ago because they only had 28 registered and it just wasn't cost effective for them to put it on.  He said they sent out an email to all those that registered, but I never got one.  He felt bad and informed me that refunds were going out this week to everyone.  When I got home, I checked in my spam folder and sure enough there it was!  Dang spam!

Since I wasn't regularly blogging last year, here are some photos from last year's Brother Brigham's Half Marathon...it was the Inaugural year!

With my racing buds Heather and Jen...

Under the arch.  Some race bling and brew!

Getting ready to run!  The race started right under the arch in downtown Brigham.

We had some fun after with the complimentary Brigham Brew!
The way we are acting makes you wonder if that Root Beer had a little brewsky in it after all. ☺

BLING! BLING! BLING! I got TWO medals!  One for finishing and one for winning my age division! The medals were really cool!

Let's hope this race is a go next year!  I'm craving me some Brigham Brew! ☺

dear young women of mine who keep growing up!  STOP IT!  Well, okay I am just kidding, but it's so crazy to see all you girls that I taught now getting married and becoming mommies.  It's that circle of life, and I'm happy for you, but it does magnify how quickly time passes.  You were just my little beeheeves only yesterday!  Below is Kimberly at her shower in my neighbor's backyard.  She is getting married next weekend.  ♫♪Time keeps on slippin' - slippin' - slippin' into the future.  ♫♪

dear mr. cat, oh you are so gorgeous!  Look at you next to those red geraniums!  And I love how relaxed you were with Dave's heavy hand on your tummy while you were sound asleep.  Mmm.... I can't get enough of you!  I just love you to pieces! 

dear summer reading, I really LOVE to spend time with you especially when I'm engrossed in a really good book!  I read a book this week that I could not put down, but it didn't leave me with a very good feeling.

I read the book Finding Me by Michelle Knight.  She is the girl who was kidnapped in Cleveland for 10 long years.  This book was very disturbing to me because I just could NOT understand how a human being could treat another human being in such a despicable way.  It is a very dark book and I must say a very hard read.  I am sure I learned something from it and so I don't think it was a waste of time, but it really was tough for me to even comprehend how someone could survive a life like she did, let alone how someone could put another human through that!  And the hardest thing for me to comprehend was how horrible her life had been before she was even kidnapped.  Reading this made me feel so grateful and so blessed for my life and yet the sadness I felt for her because she never had what I did growing up is really hard to grasp.

Elizabeth Smart's book, My Story was a tough read as well, but this one was MUCH more disturbing.  Now, after reading this, I need to go find a good light hearted romantic comedy to read!  Any suggestions?

dear sunday school class, oh my!  It's not very often that I lose it in Sunday School when I am teaching, but this week was an exception.  I was teaching about women and the Priesthood and we got talking about the group Ordain Women and how they want to be ordained to the Priesthood.  I asked the girls how they felt about it and if they wanted to hold the Priesthood....

And I was not meaning it in this way........ ↓

hahahaha!!!

Well, one of the girl's was totally confused by the question and after a long pause of waiting for her to answer, I asked, "Do you feel like you need the Priesthood?".  She paused again and then very seriously replied, "Yes".  Well, her answer was not meaning to say she felt she wanted to be ordained to it, but she answered how I asked it instead of how I meant to ask it.  For some reason, the way I asked it and the way she answered just triggered everyone's funny bone.  The boys started to just lose it and burst out laughing.  Once they started to laugh, I couldn't hold it in and I totally lost it!  I had tears running down my face and couldn't even get composed enough to talk!  By now the entire class was giggling and I'm sure some were thinking, "This is the Bishop's wife?".  I am also pretty sure the sister that team teaches with me was also wondering the same thing.  But I could NOT help it.  I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time!  I thought I was going to pee my pants!  When I was finally able to compose myself, I did inform the girl that responded that we were laughing because I asked the question wrong and not at her response.  She is such a sweetie and so childlike and Christlike that I would feel terrible if I offended her! 

Yeah, I think it definitely was one of those "had to be there" moments!