*Monday Memos*

*MONDAY MEMOS*

            

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

dear monday run, it was a gorgeous spring day and I really have to say I enjoyed nearly all of those 7.3 miles.  I could tell the weather has put the animals in good moods as well because the horses were uber friendly today.  They were begging for me to pet them.  The goats are always friendly, no matter the weather. 

It's always a good day when you find so many love signs from heaven!

dear st. paddy's day dinner!  Even though St. Pat's day was on Tuesday, I had to move our celebration to Monday because everyone had other places to be on Tuesday.  It felt like I spent a lot more time this year in the prep of the meal.  Not sure why, but I felt like I was in that kitchen all day! 

I made basically the same menu that I did last year.  I usually change it up a bit, but this year I just kept it pretty much the same.  I bet I have been doing some form of this menu for at least 30 years.  I began doing the Shepherd's Pie with green mashed potatoes the past few years and it's been a fun new addition. 

We invited Dave's parents over to join us as we have done the past several years.  They showed up wearing green even though tomorrow is really the wearin' of the green!  That made me smile!

I tried to set the timer on the camera so we could do a full group shot (Dave captured me trying to focus everyone in).  I felt SO bad that Taylor was unable to make it!  He has missed it now for three years in a row due to his mission.  Dang!  If I had done it on Tuesday, he could have made it!  But, that day was too crazy for me to make it work and Dave had meetings as did I.  Oh well. 

This was breakfast.  Green French Toast made by Dave.  I'm rubbing off on him.  hehe

The Leprechauns forgot to color the milk green this year.  Wow, they are slacking off! First time in decades that they forgot!  Their brains must be suffering from so much green food coloring fumes or something.

After dinner, I made some fun little gifts for my lunch with my friends the next day.  I think they turned out super cute!

dear real st. patrick's day!  Look what I found on my run this morning?!  A rainbow of colors!  The things I find on my runs are always my favorite part of running outside.

This little guy is also  becoming one of my highlights when I go the route he is on.  He has the deepest, scratchiest voice, but is just SO friendly and loveable!  He tried to follow me again today.  What a cutie!

dear fun bunch lunch!  We planned to have the lunch on the 17th and so in honor of St. Pat's day I thought it would be fun to do it at RAINBOW Garden's at the Greenery Restaurant! 

We only had five show up, but we would manage to have a good time even if only two came.  It was a fun group.  Kathy had to go to a funeral and felt bad she couldn't come so she sent a stick figure of a sunshine so she could feel included.  We tagged it as her in the photos. 

We never lack for photo opps!  We can find one almost anywhere, but this place is packed with them!

What a fun bunch of friends I have!

Some people may think we are little crazy or immature, but we don't care.  We LOVE to have fun!  What is the point of life if you don't ENJOY it!?  It's just too short to NOT have fun! 

Everyone brought something GOLD to share and this is what we ended up with ↓.
FUN STUFF!

We made instant use of the bubble guns Robin brought us.  Those things worked so well!  We had a total BLAST with them!

Some guy offered to take photos of us. He said it was his birthday and then he said every day he is alive is his birthday!  He was a war vet and is appreciative of each day he wakes up alive.  Wow!  We can all learn a lot from that!  What a fun day!

I passed this ↓ on my home and as I drove past I thought I should take some photos of that place and post on my blog for historical purposes!  I worked at this place for four years while I went to Weber State.  It was called Developmental Day School then.  I was a preschool teacher there and loved it!  I was majoring in Child Development and so it fit in well with that.  Once I got my Associates in that field, I was promised I would start making more moula, but then they sold it and the new owners changed the name to The Jungle Gym...a much less professional name for sure.  I still kept my job, but didn't get the extra moula I was planning on.  

I have a lot of memories of this place!  It's so crazy it's still there and is still a preschool!  I worked there from 1980-1984.  Over 34 years ago!  One of my favorite kids that I remember is Buck.  I felt sorry for a lot of those kids.  Many of them had hard home lives and they stole a part of my heart.  I loved that job because I love kids.  Great memories!

dear relief society birthday dinner, once I got home from Ogden, I hurried over to the church for the dinner and visiting teaching conference.  Look how cute it was decorated?  And look at the Leprechaun I found decorating it?  hehe  I think she is wearing the shirt I gave her that says something like I'm not short, I'm a Leprechaun!  It was a fun night and the dinner was so good!  The breadsticks were to die for!

Another green day in the books!  These colors make me happy!

dear wednesday, I got up and did hill repeats with Robin this morning.  It was her first time so I went easy on her, but she did great.  We ended up doing 10 total.  

Dave was off and so he joined us for his Mom's birthday lunch at Maddox.  It was fun to have so many be able to make it.  I wish my boys could have come, but Bryce was camping and Taylor and McKay had school.  Dave and I went and did some shopping after.  And then attended the Stake Talent Show that night. 

dear LONG run!  I was really dreading this week's long run because I had to do 19 miles and no one could do it with me.  Robin and Sherri could do part of it with me IF we started at 5:00 a.m.!!!  Holy heck that is early!  I got up at 4:30 and just pretended like I was getting up for a marathon (even though that would be more like 3:00 a.m.!).  It was in the 30's temp wise and DARK!  Sherri brought her head lamp and so that saved us!  It was a little scary not being able to see what you are about to step on.  I was super worried I was going to trip and biff it.  We headed out west and then to Perry and ran back on 89 and then back to their houses where we dropped Robin off (and I made a pit stop at Robin's house).  We had gone 11.5 miles at that point and then Sherri and I continued north and west. She had to be home by 8:00 a.m. and so we parted ways at mile 16.5 on Forest and I headed more west until I got to mile 19.  I then called Dave for a ride.  I had stopped my Garmin somewhere and lost a mile on it, but I DID go 19 miles!  My legs attest to that!  It definitely felt like a long run!  I was happy to be done!  But I discovered I REALLY like running that early in the morning because I was done before 8:30 and I had my whole day ahead of me!  Normally long runs eat half my day!  I was tired for sure and knew I would need to take a short nap at some point because Taylor had a game that didn't even start until 11 p.m. and so I knew I would be staying up way past midnight!

It was awesome to watch the sunrise! It felt so good to have that over with so early! It was hard to take a photo when it's so dark!  Thank heavens for Sherri's headlamp! 

dear easter, I always take photos of my decors each year so I can remember where to put things the next year.  No, my brain does NOT remember where it all goes!  I really love my Easter decors.  Probably because I love the colors and I have a lot of purple!

My sweet friend Jamie, posted this picture on Facebook and said she made this cute little bunny for me!  Isn't he cute!  I need to take a picture of him in my house surrounded by my other decors.  I seriously have the greatest friends!

dear mr. cat, I can't help taking photos of you when you are so relaxed and look so peaceful sleeping.  Watching a cat sleep really does relax me.  Love this boy!

dear amazing scenery!  Bryce went camping in Spanish Fork Canyon this week and he took this GORGEOUS photo!  I want to frame this!  Oh, those colors! 

This one is incredible too!

dear first day of spring!  YES!  It FINALLY arrived!  I don't see how spring isn't everyone's favorite season!  Oh my goodness, it's just beautiful and smells so good and is so heart warming after a long and dreary winter!  LOVE!  LOVE!  LOVE!

dear taylor, so glad you are going to school at USU so you can come home often.  You showed up on Friday because you had the Todd Morrison Basketball Tourney but you had a ton of homework and so this is where I found you ↓...

We ran and grabbed a bite to eat but you just wanted a shake. Thanks for sharing!

It's always fun to have this kid visit!

dear todd morrison alumni tournament, Taylor's team (2012) didn't play until 11:00 p.m.!  But we would have gone even it had been later.  This year the money went to a darling little girl named Allie Herbert who has cancer.  It is such a worthy cause!  I am so glad they started it years ago.  Someone should do the same for the football alumni too.  That would be a blast to go watch as well.  Of course, they wouldn't be able to have as many teams because too many of the alumni would be too old to play football.  At least with basketball, there's less chance of a serious injury happening even for the oldies!  And there were some oldies!  The oldest team was from 1984!  That is OLD!  Younger than me, but still old to be playing in a tourney!

It was SO much fun to see these guys back together again.  What a great bunch of boys! These boys haven't been able to play in it for two years due to missions.  Everyone is back now except Trevor McCarrey.  Jeremy filled in for him.

They had to play 2011 for their first game.  They were the seniors when our boys were juniors so they were all good buds.  It was fun to see so many smiles while they were out there even though both teams played VERY competitively!  They played well, but got beat.  2011 went on to play for the final championship.  They lost to 2003 who has won it I think every single year since 2003 started to be alumni.  They have the famous Jared Quayle (who played for USU) on that team.  It was my son's Skyler's year.

Taylor played awesome!  I was so proud of him.  He was in the double digits on points and rebounds. 

So fun to be back together with these fun ladies.  Miriam is still as crazy and funny as ever and Sarah is just plain fun.  I wonder how many hours of games we have sat through over the years together.  Sadly, Jalyn was out of town and couldn't make it. 

I tried to get a good team shot after the game, but they were SO tired and a bit discouraged they lost.  I got a photo, good or not, but at least I have one!

Hopefully every year I can get one of them.  Great memories with all of these boys.  They are a great bunch of kids.  Two of them are married already! (Riley and Kolby)  So bizarre!  Jeremy wasn't on the team, but he loves basketball and is pretty good.  He played with them as freshman and so he filled in for Trevor McCarrey.  Riley got cut his junior year, but he is still part of the team and is a great athlete.

The roster:

They played on Saturday at 1:30 against 2008 in the small gym.  WOW!  What a game!  It was one competitive game and went into overtime.  We were ahead pretty much the entire game and then because of a stupid mistake, we ended up losing by ONE!  It was almost an exact repeat of Taylor's buzzer beater game, only we lost this time.

A lot of Taylor's old fan club came and supported him!

Taylor played so well.  He hasn't lost it the past two years, that is for sure!

This game was SO intense! 

A very sad loss, but they didn't take it too hard because they knew they deserved the win and they played their guts out!

A few candid shots...

McKay and his followers.  That kid is like a sponge or a magnet - people just flock to him.  He is a great kid and I am glad he is so well liked and respected.
We headed back at 5:30 for the third game.  They played 2015 but not one of their players was there because they are seniors it was the junior prom.  So they recruited the best players that were juniors or had graduated and they were a formidable team.  We held our own though.

Taylor was acting as coach and even though he was a natural, it cracked me up. 

 Jarom Meacham was a three baller and never missed.  He is a junior this year.

It was a great game as well.  I was so tired from just watching them play that I needed a nap.  Hah  What's cool is they get to do this every year!  They have been doing the tourney now for over 25 years I think. 

dear last prom for mckay, oh wow, that's hard to write!  My baby's very last prom!  His group were all seniors and at Box Elder the prom is really geared to the juniors.  Seniors can't even be in the promenade unless they are with a junior.  His group decided to bag the tuxes and limos and expensive flowers and dinner and just have fun!  Luckily all the girls were also seniors and so they got to experience the full blown experience last year.  All the boys wore khakis and hats turned backwards. I was not too thrilled about that, but what do I know?  He looked handsome either way.  They did their day date on Friday (they went to some fun center) and so on Saturday he left about 5:30 for pictures. 

I did not get to see his date (one of those major disadvantages of being the mom of the boy) but I found one on Facebook her sister posted.  She looked very pretty.

Now I have to wait until the formal pictures are back to see how they looked together.

dear crazy day!  Besides attending all of Taylor's game on Saturday, I also got in my five mile recovery run, prepared my Sunday School lesson, got Dave's mom a birthday gift, made Twix bars, made brownies, made McKay's cake and made fancy croissant sandwiches for the starving boys.  Weston spent the day here as well and so it was just so much fun listening to those boys.  They just crack me up.  It's so nice to have everyone back together again. Just like old times!  I love it!  After we ate dinner and Weston headed back, Taylor had three buds stop by and stay really late hanging out. One of them just got home on Wednesday from his mission.  I love it when my boys are all here and when they bring their buds over.  CJ is so cute.  He pulled me aside and asked me if there were any updates on the love life of Taylor.  There actually was and so I gave him the rundown. ☺ It was late and I finally had to go to bed! 

I added bacon to some of my Twix Bars for my friend Brian (I owed him a huge plate of them!) and since he is a bacon-ater I thought, "What the heck?"  They were great with the bacon!

dear turkeys are back!  Taylor saw these guys out in our yard about 7:00 on Sunday morning!  We haven't seen them for years!  Like 10!  It was so fun to see them again!  Tyson used to get such a kick out of them and he would gobble at them and they would gobble back.  I think these were all hens, and the gobblers were usually Toms.  But still fun! 

I remember one time years ago I heard a knock on my door and so when I went to answer it I thought no one was there until I looked down and there was a Tom turkey just standing there looking at me.  He had pecked our metal plate on our door!  After I opened the door he took off, but he left me a nice little "gift".  The boys told me that I scared the crap out of him!  lol

I got a lot of photos and I scared them off (no crap this time!).  They took off up our hill!  LOL  Hope they come back and visit soon!

dear mckay's 18th birthday!  Holy heck, my baby is 18!  How can that be!  HOW????   I have no idea but it has thrown me for a loop!  I usually make THIS cake when they turn 19 NOT 18!  This is a hard thing to grasp knowing he will be heading on his mission in just months!   WOW! 

We found a time (miraculously!) when everyone was home so he could open his presents.  Dave had been gone almost all day and Taylor had homecomings and Bryce had to work.  BUT, we managed to find 15 minutes before his party right after dinner.  We had a nice dinner (Applewood pork roast - his fave) and all the trimmings. 

He got a shotgun!  Just in time to leave it for two years!  hah  Taylor and Bryce gave him a SKY DIVING excursion!  What?!  Yep!  Even though I have been sky diving it makes me nervous whenever my boys go again!  McKay wasn't 18 when we all went and he has always felt bad and so they were so nice to give him that thrill before he leaves on his mission.  GULP!

It was a busy day!  McKay had his mission interview with the Bishop and finished up his mission papers!  Wow!  Can this really be happening already!  Then McKay had to speak in church and he spoke on faith and told the story of when he was only five or so he carried our pet rabbit Bandit up the stairs and since he was squirming so much he held him really tight and then once upstairs he laid him on the bed and noticed that he wasn't moving.  He killed him.  He squeezed him so tight he quit breathing.  Tyson had just got him for Christmas that morning and he was dead!  McKay came and got us and Dave gave him a blessing and he came back to life!  TRUE STORY!  Only McKay remembered it a bit different and said that we prayed and he came back to life.  Probably a good thing because not sure how it would have been taken if he told everyone Dave gave him a blessing.  Either way, it is true!  Everyone was laughing SO hard.  He could have said anything and they would have laughed because he is just one those kind of kids that makes you laugh.

What a good looking kid - if I do say so myself!
We had the family party at the park and combined it with Dave's mom's bday as well.

With my Mommy and Pa!

Karen and Aubrey ended up being sick and couldn't come.  We still had a good turnout and it was fun and not too cold!  McKay had to leave early to go his last mission prep class.  I still can NOT believe my baby is 18!

Here's some photos I posted on Facebook along with this:
My baby turned 18 today! Seriously wondering HOW that happened! He also finished up his mission papers today. This all came way too fast! Speaking of babies, where is my security blanket! Waaaa.....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY McKay!!! You have made me proud from day one! What an amazing gift you have been to our family! You truly are outstanding in every way! Love you bud!

 

dear I NEED ONE OF THESE!  The Hollingsworths stopped by Sunday night to check out our daffodils on the mountain.  I got to hold this cute lil guy while they were outside.  Isn't he adorable!?  SO. SO. CUTE!  They came in and we made them ice cream cones and their boys kept going back out to climb on the rocks and the mountain.  It was a fun visit.  I hated to see this little guy leave. 

Look at that face!

dear inspiring quotes this week, 

 ♥♥♥

Cherish the moments...

The joys of womanhood...

But at least we have this to compensate a bit!

A few running cartoons since so much of my life is running right now while I'm in full blown marathon training...

 Well... minus the wine ☺

Yep!

Hahaha!

Mostly like the busted can of biscuits lately!

Gearing up for my first race next week!

dear message this week,

Today, Jodi, we believe God wants you to know that ...

everything passes. Nothing is eternal, even the sun will one day disappear. Remember this simple truth whenever you are suffering, - that the suffering too shall pass, - and it will become easier to bear.