*Monday Memos* (New Year's Edition)

*MONDAY MEMOS*

            

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

dear monday morning run, as I headed out on you I saw Jen in her yard shoveling snow and I so I asked her if she had gotten out on a run yet.  She said she hadn't and so she hurried and finished shoveling and off we went.  The roads were pretty snowy and a little slick.  I was glad I had on my Yak Trax because I most likely would have biffed it if I hadn't.  We only went four miles because she is still trying to recover from an injury, but I was happy to have the company.  We haven't ran together in so long that it was good to catch up a bit.  She invited me over after running to do some strength training with her.  I was happy I had the time because I need to do that every day!  I just don't.  We went in her backyard and did about 30 min or so of squats, pushups, some lifting, etc.  It was still pretty cold, but that warmed us up fast!  Now I need to keep it up on my own!  Yeah right!

dear long anticipated movie night at the packers, we look forward to this every year but this year we had a really hard time getting it scheduled due to Dave's crazy work schedule and now the new Stake President thing.  We finally found a night (even though it was after Christmas) that we thought would work.  Come to find out, Dave ended up on call!  Did I mention he has a crazy work schedule now that two of the docs are gone?  But, we knew we had better just do it or it would never happen!  McKay, Taylor and I went over at 6:00 pm and Dave showed up much later about 7:30 pm or so.

 The Packers always show us a good time and the quality of their movies are better than watching them in the theater!  Richard knows his stuff when it comes to technology and the way to watch a movie!  They always have a huge spread of munchies and this year was no exception.  The Coleman's always join us for this too because Dave is also our home teacher. Julie brought a cheesecake and I took Christmas Crack. 

We watched the movie The Hobbit this year.  Richard gave us a list to choose from and when the boys saw that one on it, it was a no brainer for them.  I hadn't seen it and so I was okay with it.  It ended up being a great movie.  I know that Tyson would have loved it.  After it was over, we watched some clips of the Little Rascals...always so fun to see those old shows!  I really enjoyed it.

The best part of the night is touring the shop.  These two are so talented it's sickening!  Very skilled and creative in all ways!  They make amazing wooden creations and each year Richard takes us in his shop and shows us his current project.  Jill paints them and they sell the plans online.  Jill also is an amazing artist.  I am always in awe at the things they come up with.  This year he had an airplane hanger complete with many planes and a cute little European village.  One of my faves will always be the Bear Cottage and the nativity.  Oh, and the unique Noah's Ark - which I forgot to take a photo of!  It's incredible.  But my all-time favorite is the amazing lighthouse they gave us last year.   
Just. So. Much. Talent.  

We are very blessed to have such great friends and neighbors!

dear frigid temps! Well, winter has decided to show it's freezing face!  Single digits!  Below zero with the windchill!  This week we had some cold and chilly days!  The wind was one of the main culprits and caused it to feel 20° colder than it actually was, and it was cold enough without the wind!  Tuesday morning was neither fit for man nor beast -  not even a running beast and so I stayed in my nice, warm, cozy house and did my pilates video. 

dear crepes, Taylor requested crepes for breakfast and since it was so blasted FROZEN out, I attempted to make FROZEN crepes.  Frozen as in the movie Frozen.  Frozen as in light blue crepes.  I forgot the batter had so many eggs and only added blue food coloring - thus GREEN crepes!  A fairly UN-frozen color!  But hey, they tasted good!  Skyler even liked them and he's not usually a crepe fan!

dear hair cut, I'm glad the boys still like me to cut their hair, well...if the truth is being told I don't actually enjoy cutting hair, I only do it for the savings and convenience.  However, it's no longer convenient for me, just for them.  But what I do like is the fact that I have them held captive for 20 minutes so I can get info out of them about their life that otherwise I wouldn't.  That alone makes it worth it for me!  I got some good stuff out of Taylor today!  ☺

dear fun friends, we have been friends with these peeps for many, many years but we don't get together and have fun as often as we used to.  You would think the older our kids got, the more time we would have to party, but it seems to have been the opposite.  We used to get together much more than we do now.  But thanks to Johnny, we got this party planned.  The ironic thing is, Johnny and Jenny were the ones who didn't show up!  He had something come up. Just goes to show you why we don't plan things as much anymore.  Kim and Audrey hosted it in their beautiful newly remodeled family room.  It was held the night before New Year's Eve but we stayed up just as late as if it was New Year's Eve.  Time seems to fly when you're having fun!  Of course, we arrived late because Dave had stake meetings and business that he couldn't get away from.  We didn't get there until about 9 p.m. but we made up for it in fun! 

The Parrishs and Herzogs concentrating deeply during Taboo.

Dave and Kim ↑ concentrating deeply during Taboo...me not so much!  Dave was still in his stake clothes because he had to go back and release a missionary at 11:30 p.m.!  Yeah, his schedule is a bit insane!  The missionary ended up cancelling because her plane was delayed and he ended up doing it the next morning.  We also played the game called Telestrations.  Oh my!  It was hilarious!  We were all laughing so hard I thought I was going to have tears running down my legs!  Instead they were running down my face, right along with my makeup!  Some of the drawings and results were just so funny!  We really had a good time!  We really need to get together more often!

dear six miles on the dreadmill!  Ugh!  I really do not enjoy treadmill running.  In fact, I have pretty much decided going out in the frigid cold might be less painful!  But, I was just not feeling like braving those temps and so I forced myself to do it.  Sky downloaded a movie for me on my iPad and that helped a lot.  I am grateful I finally own a treadmill, but at the same time I just wish it didn't feel so much like I'm running uphill, against the wind, in a heatwave, carrying a 25 lb. pack.  But it does.  Mr. Cat enjoys watching me suffer. 

  

dear mr. cat, you aren't supposed to eat your new toy Grammy gave you, you're supposed to play with it!

 For some reason he has really liked sleeping in my mess of wrapping paper. 

dear new year's eve party!  Karen hosted the family party at her house again this year.  Kudos to her for doing that!  That is a lot of people to cram in a house for so many hours, but she willingly did it.  She does have the perfect party house though.  We almost didn't go because Dave wasn't feeling too great when he finally got home from work.  We didn't arrive until after 9:00 and then left by 11:00 so Taylor could get back to another party.  But it was a lot of fun while we were there! 

Taylor had fun photo bombing a few shots.  Karen's dog Minnie, is pretty leery of others, but she was so cute with me.  She actually came up from behind me and put her paw on my shoulder to get my attention!  It was so sweet.  I couldn't resist her after that!  Well, I can never resist her, but it's easy for her to resist me!  Dave and Beattie decided to take a long winter's nap in the theater room.  With a heated blanket and the lights out, that's easy to understand.

We played a lot of games.  Barry is always hilarious when we play Taboo, and this year was no exception. I knew he would be good for a few calendar shots!  He didn't disappoint!

Mickey snuck me upstairs to play me a song on her harp.  Then she showed me some good technique. I should have been playing this for six months by now!  Dave has finally hopped on-board and so I just need to find me a good harp.   I thought Santa would bring me one, but I guess I was too naughty!  ☺ 

With Emily and her Frozen hat.

Since we left the party early, we came home and watched the ball drop on TV and snuggled up in my heated blanket.  Mr. Cat likes the heated blanket too.

A shot of Taylor at his other party. It looks like from the look on his face that he's holding the real stuff, but it was just sparkling cider. 

I stole this from his phone.  I really need to get McKay's phone now and steal some of his only he really doesn't take any.  Smart kid!  haha McKay was at a party that I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall. 

dear new year 2015!!!  Wow, that came fast!  I started the day off with a six mile run.  It wasn't quite as frigid, but not balmy either!  I sadly scared these geese half to death.  I actually almost caused the death of two of them because I got this whim to just chase them and as I ran after them and they took off like the wild animals that they are and two of them couldn't get under the fence and almost strangled themselves to death!  I felt terrible!  But they eventually made it through.

 Proof I was out there.

Here's a few thoughts to ring in the new year:

And what's the start of a new year without a great joke?

dear word for the year, I have done away with new year's resolutions for the most part and have now become an advocate for the One Little Word movement.  This year the word I chose was NOW.  For more about the reason why go HERE.

dear girl's night out!  My darling niece Aubrey invited me to her 16th birthday party!  Yes, me an old geezer!  However age doesn't matter especially when you act like you're 16.  Which is probably why.  Hah.  My philosophy is, why act your age when you don't feel your age?   Her party was an over-nighter in SLC and so her mom Karen needed some moral support considering she was taking a car load of other 16 year old girls!  I thought it sounded like so much fun and it was!  We met at Karen's house and took some pix and then loaded in my car to head to the big city.  When she asked me to drive, I thought she must not know of my incredible driving skills in SLC.  I have a reputation for driving 16 year girls around in that city, that may or may not be reputable.  If I had time to go back on here and find the link to the Festival of Trees excursion with my Young Women, I would, but let's just say, I have never been given a ticket while driving a car full of girls around in Salt Lake.  Or a bunch of women at an American Mothers National Convention.  I didn't say I shouldn't have been given one, just that I haven't.  

We began the evening checking into the Marriott Hotel after some adventures trying to get to it.  But, still no ticket.  I didn't even get pulled over.  We got all checked in - after playing on the elevator. I read that if you push EVERY single button on the elevator that you can double push them and they will all disconnect.  Let's just say, don't believe everything you read on the internet.

We then headed to The Melting Pot.  None of us had ever been there and so we were super excited.  It's a fondue restaurant.  We put on our crowns and beads and took this glamour shot.  Actually Nick our Valet Parking man took it for us.

Oh my that place was expensive!  We decided instead of getting the full course to just get the cheese and chocolate fondue.  Still not cheap!  The full course would have been $40 a head!  

Aubrey's friends were super darling!  They were all such beautiful and sweet girls.  We had a great time!

After dinner, we headed back to our rooms.  The girls went down to the pool to swim and Karen and I were going to hit City Creek and go shopping, but we ended up just talking.  I always love just talking to her and we had a good long chat.  

When the girls got back, they were hungry and so Karen ordered a pizza and then we all crammed onto two beds and watched a movie.  Karen and I headed to our connecting room and pretty much hit the sack, but I don't think the girl's slept all night.  Thank heavens we had our own room!  

The  next morning we all just talked and then packed up and headed out. We stopped at In and Out on the way home.  It was really a fun outing!  So happy I was able to go!  Happy Birthday to my beautiful niece Aubrey! 

dear taylor's adventures, this kid never lacks for things to do or invitations to do them.  I think he could choose from 3 or 4 things everyday.  One of his adventures this week was going snowmobiling with Amber's family to some really cold place near Bear Lake! 

He also went to the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas concert in SLC, but I didn't get the pictures until this week, so I am adding them here.  And the only way I did get the pictures was because when I cut his hair he was looking through some.  He gave me his phone to look closer and I sent them to myself.  See, cutting his hair does pay off.   Check this one out ↓

The only reason I got this one was because when I was sending the above pix I saw this and I sent it to myself as well.  He's wearing the bearded hat I gave Skyler a couple years ago.  He will probably kill me if he knows I put it on here.  Hah

 I got this one too.  I had another one of him and his friend Taylor taken at the same time as this one just before they went to the Hobbit premier but it wouldn't load here.  It has something to do with Snapchat not allowing anything taken for it to load on my computer.  I had to screen shot it and then crop it and I lost the quality.  But you get the idea. ↓

 I really need to steal my other boy's phones!  I am thinking blackmail! haha  Luckily Taylor is pretty easy going and won't care if I post these.  At least that's what I'm going to say if he does get mad! 

dear movie night and dinner with the fam!  This doesn't happen too often and so it was super exciting for me!  When I planned this, I thought for sure someone would have had other plans, but no one did!  Have miracles ceased?  I say unto you, "Nay!"  Since Dave got home so late from work, we ended up going to the movie first.

I've been wanting to see Unbroken since I heard it was being made into a movie and I have only heard good things about it.  I must say it was a wonderful movie.  Definitely hard to watch during some parts and difficult to understand how one human being could treat another the way he was treated in prison, but so worth seeing.  I have the book too, but I haven't had time to read it yet.  After the credits starting rolling, the audience erupted into a loud applause.  You don't see that very often.  I would highly recommend this one.

We then went to El Toro Viejo!   I wasn't very hungry after the popcorn and so I just shared some of Dave's.  It was fun being able to all be together but we did miss Bryce!  He's coming home this weekend!

dear l0 miler, I really didn't want to do a 10 miler today so when I left my house I told myself I would just go as far as I felt like it.  That always works.  I was feeling pretty good for the first six or so, but by then I had no choice but to go the full 10 because I went out five and no matter what way I went back home, it would be end up as 10.  It was pretty cold at first, but I warmed up fast.  I stopped and talked to the horses today because they were being friendly.  I was sooooo happy when I got back home inside my front door! 

dear pomegranate cheesecake!  Oh my, you are to die for!  The only thing that would make you better is to have some chocolate drizzled across the top!  My boys loved you too!   In fact, I made two of you within as many days.  You went fast! 

The recipe for the topping is:

• Seeds from 2 pomegranates
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/3 cup pomegranate juice
• 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Directions:  Place juice in a 1 cup liquid measure and add water. Sprinkle gelatin over pomegranate juice and let stand 1 minute to soften gelatin.  Transfer gelatin mixture to a small saucepan. Add sugar and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Pour mixture into a bowl and set bowl in a larger bowl of ice and cold water, stirring mixture gently until it is cold and slightly thickened but not set. Stir in pomegranate seeds and spoon topping onto any chilled cheesecake. Chill cake until topping is set, about 1 hour. Remove side of pan and serve chilled.

dear welcome home dinner for bryce, we killed the fatted calf for Bryce who was finally coming back home from his job in Vegas!  Okay, it was a fatted turkey.  But then we decided to make him ribs because he likes those the best.  So we ate the fatted turkey on Saturday. 

On Sunday we had dinner all ready and waiting for him and then 
 he text and said he wasn't going to be home until 11:00 pm.  Whaaaat?  He had to drive the motorhome back and it took him 11 hours!  He said to not wait and so we had our welcome home celebration dinner without the honored guest we made it for.  But we made him a plate and put it in the fridge for when he did get arrive.   I was just happy he was finally coming home!

Finally home!  With a new stache to boot... Yikes!


It was so nice to have all four boys home!  I forced them to let me take a picture of all of them by the tree. I tried to get them to put on their matching pj's they all got for Christmas...you would have thought I asked them to cut off a limb or give up their driver's licenses or something. Needless to say, I didn't get that picture, but I did get this one.

And these...

Mr. Cat lets me take his picture when I want.  And...he will be rewarded.  

dear mckay, you are one amazing son!  That was confirmed intensely today as you received your patriarchal blessing.  I always knew you were amazing, but after hearing of your potential and what your Heavenly Father thinks of you, it was overwhelming.  You have a lot of incredible things in store in your life.  I feel honored to be your Mama.  Patriarch Allred is probably the sweetest man I know.  I just love that man.  He is so Christlike and so full of the spirit.  What a great and powerful thing to witness.  A very special day.

dear downton abbey, well after one full year, it's about time you have returned with all your drama and addicting plots!  This is really the only show I watch consistently on television.  I just don't have time to get hooked on all the stuff out there.  I just don't know where people find the time.  I do however wish this one would last longer than a month or so.  I would like to watch it all year long.  I'm loving it so far!