*Monday Memos* (Thanksgiving Edition)

*MONDAY MEMOS*

 

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

dear gorgeous run, I sure do appreciate running outside so much more now since I was stuck on the dreadmill the last couple of weeks.  And this week we had some amazing weather!  Especially this day...

Look at that sun!  Oh my, there was one day this week where I actually got hot!  It reached 50!  Finding a couple pennies made it even better.  I have been finding quite a few lately.

dear mr. cat, there is just something so calming and relaxing about watching a cat sleep.  There has actually been scientific proof that petting a cat can lower your blood pressure.  That's all good and fine unless petting the cat results in raising the cat's blood pressure because the cat only likes to be petted on his time schedule.  That in turn raises your blood pressure.  This guy ↓ has certain times he only likes to be petted.  Mostly, around 3 a.m. when I am sound asleep.  He jumps on the bed and wakes me up and purrs his little heart out until I pet him.  Then he lays on me for about 10 minutes and is gone.  But... I actually don't mind it because I love it when he purrs and wants to be all cuddly.  It happens so rarely that I cherish whenever it does!

 

dear bryce is home!  Yay!  Bryce was able to make it home for Thanksgiving!  We didn't think he would when he left, but we were so excited he could!  It was a long drive for only a couple of days, so I hope we made it worth his time!  This is a bad picture, but just glad I got one.  We made him a steak dinner to welcome him home.

dear manic manican, it looks like you think it's still summer.  Hmm....

dear virtual turkey trot, in order to keep myself motivated to run at a race pace (since there are very few races in the winter), I signed up for a "virtual" turkey trot this year with US Road Running.  And no, virtual does not mean it's not real and you just pretend you do it, it means you race the distance on your own without an official race. ☺ 

I decided to do the 10K because I felt like I needed to really do that distance while pushing myself instead of just a casual daily run.  Since the Peach Days course is a 10K, I decided to just run that course even though I really hate it and it's touted as the toughest 10K in the western states.  I needed a challenge and so that was the plan.  After I started though, I came very close to taking a different course after mile one because I really dread the uphill of that course.  But I told myself to buck up and do it and it wasn't as bad as I anticipated.  Even though it was Thanksgiving day, I saw a lot of Christmas going on including this...↓

Perfect photo opp!  I was seriously going to set my timer on my phone and sit on his lap for a photo, but I saw someone in the garage and chickened out.  But...I plan to do that before Christmas is over! ☺

When I got on the website to post my results, I saw that I came in at 1st place!  I was so happy!  My time wasn't even that great, but I was excited until I checked it the next day and I had been bumped to second place.  There are no turkeys or pies for prizes, just medals.  But the medals are super cute!  I have also signed up for the Reindeer Race for December. I almost signed up for the half marathon, but ended up doing the 10K again.  I have until Dec. 30th to do it. 

dear thanksgiving, this year after I got home from my virtual Turkey Trot, we watched some of the Macy's parade on TV (one of my favorite Thanksgiving Day traditions!) and then got the food prepared and headed to my Mom and Dad's.  We were the first ones there this year.  That's never happened! hah

My Mom had worked her little tail off in preparing it all.  We only contributed in a small way.  But the food was delicious as always and there was plenty of it!  It was just us and my parents and my brother's family.  I told my Mom I would do it the next time because she looked really worn out!

Max even came!  But it was because he has been sick and just got home from the vet at 3 am.

It was such a gorgeous day that the boys ate outside.

We tried to do a family picture with the timer on the camera. These were some of the shots when we were testing it.  They made me laugh, especially the first one with Taylor's peace sign.

We got a pretty good one...  just missing Sky!  And of course, Tyson.

My cute parents!

My bro and his cute fam!

The WHOLE gang!

(minus Skyler, Tyson, and Chantel)

Here are few of the out-takes.  The timer snaps six photos at a time and so these were some of the results.  These just make me smile....

My bro also makes me laugh...

As does my Pa.  He was hamming it up!

We had a great time visiting, eating, playing games and watching football.  I am very thankful for my family!  I love them all so much and I am so happy I am part of them.

haha

After we got home, we decided to go see the movie the third Hunger Games.  This is not something we have ever done on Thanksgiving.  I was NOT about to go Black Friday shopping and so we thought it would be fun to just go chill at a movie.  I thought it would be packed, but it wasn't.  However when we drove home past Shopko, we knew why.  EVERYONE was shopping!  I was so happy I was not in there fighting the crowds.  I have always been a Black Friday shopper, but I just can't do it since they have begun the whole thing on Thanksgiving now.  I think those employees should be home with their families on this holiday. 

Taylor's art work ↑

dear black friday, instead of fighting the crowds on Thanksgiving, I headed out on the real day...FRIDAY!  Thanksgiving is the new BLACK!  Taylor wanted to go, and so we headed to Walmart first around 7 a.m.  The parking lot was the most empty I have EVER seen it!  It was even emptier than on a normal day.  It was apparent everyone had gone on Thursday and was in bed sleeping.  As in keeping with the past few years, I still got everything I wanted and I didn't have to go on Turkey Day to get it!  That's because I didn't want anything big or electronic and so I was satisfied.  We also hit Shopko and it was the same story there.  Hardly a soul in the entire store.  I wasn't complaining.  It was kind of cool actually!  I wish I would have taken some pictures of the empty parking lot.  I took Taylor to Betos for breakfast and then dropped him off home so he could go to work and I headed to Honeyville Grain.  Last year, Dave and I stood in line there on Friday morning for a new Bosch.  This year, I didn't do anything crazy like that and it was such a nice feeling!  I think I am done with the insanity.  Been there done that and I am good. 

 

dear bryce leaving again for vegas...we had another dinner for Bryce on Friday night since he was heading back to Vegas on Saturday morning, only this time we did steak AND halibut.  He won't be home for our big Christmas Eve dinner and so we thought maybe this would be a small substitute for that.  And...yes, I forgot to take any photos!  Dang! 

 
I TRIED to get a shot of Bryce the next morning as he was heading out, but as you can see my camera skills were not in working order that day.  Oh well, I tried!  It is not fun to keep saying goodbye to these boys!  I guess I have to learn to accept the quote that you teach them how to fly and then you have to let them soar.   There are times I'd rather just clip their wings!  ☺

dear blog book,  oh my gosh I was so excited you arrived!  I did my Jogging Beats Blogging running blog book first to see how I liked the company I published it through.  It's so fun to have my blog in a book form!  It is really exciting!  As imperfect as it is, it's still pretty cool.  I am disappointed in the fact that they post all the photos on the side of the page and so none of the photo captions are even near the photos.  That makes it really confusing to follow.  I may have to try out Blurb for this blog.  I went with The Cutest Blog on the Block for my running one.  It was super easy to do, but it really bothers me about the photo captions. I could go back and put the captions as an addition right on the photo, but that would take FOREVER! 

 

 BUT... it's DONE and DONE is BETTER than PERFECT!

dear facebook book, I found a coupon for 30% off a social media (Facebook) book for Black Friday and so I got one of those done too!  I'm on a roll! Give me 30% off and I will get them all done! ☺ It will only be for a half of a year because I added all the photo albums to it as well (unknowingly).  I am excited there is a way to do this because it will be like a history and journal of sorts of my life.  Especially during the time I quit blogging.  It's not cheap, but so worth it!  Now I just have to wait for some more sales to get the rest done!

 dear saturday, I had great plans and dreams of getting a gingerbread house done today to enter into the city contest, but I spent too long trying to come up with a plan. I wanted to do a lighthouse gingerbread house.  The problem is I just found out about the contest and the deadline is Monday.  I went and bought all the candy for it but couldn't find any rock candy in town and since I don't have time to run to Ogden before the deadline, I decided it will have to wait until next year.  I would have entered the one I have stored but it has to be made in 2014 and it has to be 100% edible.  That one isn't real gingerbread, but plywood or something that looks like it.  I like it because I can store it and use it each year without it dying. I have always make them out of real gingerbread except that one.  I was sad I wasn't able to get it done, but there's always next year.  Here are a few I've made over the years:

The one I currently have stored ↓ 

Haunted Halloween gingerbread

 I did this one more than once!  Kinda crazy, but it was really fun!

Since doing my first blog book and realizing how small the dang photos are, I decided a collage of these would not be so good for the book even though it looks great on the blog and so I am adding them again as single photos.  Someday, this may be the only evidence I have!

 I made this one for my friend....

 So sad this is so blurry....

One year I did a nativity gingerbread.  Unlike my others, this one was from a kit. 

They are a lot of fun to do...although time consuming.
~~~~~~~~

My friend Robin text me to see if I had gone on a run yet and I hadn't and so we headed out and got in a six mile run.  It's always more fun with someone to chat with.  It was a much warmer day today too although the sun wasn't out.  Anything over 32 degrees seems warm now!

Taylor had got up before dawn and went with Amber to the lake for a run.  Then she made him breakfast....Ebelskivers!  I wish I would have got an invite!  hah

I really felt like I hadn't accomplished much the entire day since the gingerbread house didn't get made due to lack of candy rocks and I didn't get my Christmas decors out. We had a family birthday party for my nephew that night and so it just seemed like my day got away without much to show for it. So I just snuggled up with Mr. Cat and my electric blanket throw.  Felt so good!  He even stayed by me for about 20 minutes this time!

dear snow! On Sunday we got a very short snowstorm and I tried to capture the beauty of it looking through my windows but you can't even see it.  It was a quickie and nothing stuck, but it was beautiful.

dear purple house, quite frequently I will have friends post photos of purple homes or other purple things on my facebook wall.  This was one of them this week.  Truthfully, that's even too much for me!  It would be a fun vacation home though! 

If they aren't posting things about purple, then it's about chocolate!

dear another homecoming, Taylor's friends are coming home from their missions in droves!  I went to his buds CJ's this week.  He is an outstanding kid and I have always really admired him and he did a great job!  His mom moved to a different city while he was gone and his old ward divided and so he came home to a different church and house!  He gave his homecoming in our town, but the ward was new as was the building.  I am excited he is going to room with Taylor at USU.

CJ is in the middle.  He went to Argentina.

dear quotes, you fill me up when I need it and I really look forward to checking facebook each day to read what others have posted.  Thoughts give me the inspiration I need to start each day.  I like to post uplifting thoughts as well.

A few things I posted this week:

 Cherish the moments...

 Yep...

And I few I didn't but should... 

Hahaha! I really love this because it's just so true!