*Monday Memos*

*MONDAY MEMOS*

            

 (If pictures are too small, just click to enlarge) 

dear memorial day, I posted all of the pictures from Memorial Day on last weeks blog because I didn't want to break up the cabin weekend post, but here is one of the guys floating down the snake.  

After our scary drive home in the EXTREME rain and hail storms, we ran over to the cemetery.

 I believe this is the first year since Tyson passed away that we didn't meet my parents at the cemetery in the morning and then go get breakfast at Bert's.  I can't believe this is our 10th Memorial Day visiting Tyson's grave.

dear run in the rain, I should say "first" run in the rain because nearly all of my runs this week were in the rain.  I ran to the cemetery on Tuesday because it's always so pretty the day after Memorial Day.  

 I had to stop and swing and it was just so peaceful and such a gorgeous day.  My description of a gorgeous day is not what most others would be.  Today it was cloudy, dark, and overcast and sprinkling.  Just gorgeous!  I LOVE the rain!  I LOVE stormy days!  I like sunny days too, but I REALLY LOVE the stormy ones.

dear relief society board meeting, I am still on the board as the Humanitarian chairman.  We had  a meeting to plan next month's night meeting.  I feel like I have been on the RS Board my whole life.  I have served in the RS in some capacity for many years, but that's okay. I do like it.  I just don't feel like my heart is in it right now.  Shauna's new kitten came out and I played with him for a while.  He was so cute.  I just love cats!

dear run in a downpour, on Wednesday I had to get in 8 miles. I started early and even though it was overcast again and sprinkling I didn't think much of it.  I took this photo of a heart puddle.  Cool huh?  lol  And these cows (bulls) were so funny because they were scared of me.  Yes me!  And they had sharp horns!  It was rather humorous.

 I was running down 9th north on the highway and I heard some noise off to the side. I glanced over and saw movement in the bushes and so I stopped and saw this! ↓

 I must say I was having quite the 'scent'sational run!  They were actually babies and totally oblivious to me. But still a little unnerving!

 When I was about three miles from home, it just started to POUR!  And then it started to come down in buckets!  The gutters were flooded over and the roads were puddles of water.  It came down fast and hard.  I only had one person offer me a ride and that was Dave who called from work and asked me I needed him to come find me since it was raining so hard.  I actually was enjoying it, though I was getting a little cold since I had no water proof gear on.  I was dripping wet when I got home!  I looked like I had been in the shower for a while.  I had, just not the hot steamy kind.  It was really fun to run in that!  I loved it!   

There is nothing like running in the rain!  It is just so peaceful and so quiet.  Probably because no one else is crazy enough to be out in it getting drenched.  But I LOVE it!  Now to say that I love to run a long race in it, especially a full marathon, is going a little too far even for me.  That is not fun because you get too cold and miserable after several hours of it, but to just run a short 8 mile run or so, is one of my most favorite things to do. 

dear baking, one of my favorite things to do when it's rainy is bake.  It was time for my Amish Bread to be baked again anyway and so I made two recipes of it.  This stuff is really good!

dear study group, once again it was time for our Jesus the Christ study group and for the first time since we started, I found myself unprepared. I hadn't read the chapters that were assigned for this month but I went anyway. I figured I would still learn a lot from the others that had read it.  I was right.  I am so glad I went.  I just love learning about the Savior and his amazing life.  What I loved learning today was when he cleared the temple in Chapter 12 how He was so forceful but so tender with the animals.  Here is a portion of what it says,  

"He promptly applied physical force almost approaching violence - hastily a whip of small cords, laid about Him on every side, liberating and driving out sheep, oxen, and human traffickers.  With tender regard for the imprisoned and helpless birds He refrained from assaulting their cages."-Jesus The Christ - James Talmadge

I just love that.  I love that He was so gentle with even the birds.  I have always believed how people treat the helpless animals of our world shows a great deal about their character.  So I loved to hear that Jesus was so tender with them as well.  I have a soft heart for all animals. Especially those that are mistreated.  I believe He does as well. 

dear severe weather watch, my phone kept getting severe weather watch warnings.  It was right!  About 2:45 in the afternoon, we got blasted with torrential rains that turned into hail!  It was awesome!  It was thundering LOUD and lightning was flashing like crazy and the hail just came down in full force and hard.  I loved it!  We have had so much rain this month!  It feels like we have had some every single day!  This one had to take the cake though of all the storms so far this month. 

 It just kept coming down! 

KSL posted these funnel cloud pictures on it's website and they were just west of us!  That's kind of freaky! 

 Oh my hail!

 Mr. Cat had been caught in it, but soon managed to get home and this is what he does while it storms.  Smart cat.

 This is where I caught him the other day. 

 Bryce was totally jet lagged from Hawaii and he was trying to catch some Zzzzz's and Mr. Cat wanted to join him. 

 My porch pots survived the pelting hail but I am afraid my pansies took a real beating.

dear going away party for loraine, just an hour or two after the huge storm, the skies cleared and the sun came out.  It was amazing!  Good thing because Julie had a party for Loraine. She is moving in a few weeks to St. George. I am so sad. I really love and admire Loraine and we have had some good times together.   She is an incredibly talented woman as far as quilting and hand stitching. I have never met anyone that can do it like her.  She blows me away.  She is on the front row sitting on the bench in the tan pants and black cardigan.  We will all miss her.  She is one of those incredible people that is without guile and just always so kind and sweet.  I have never heard her say a bad word about anyone and she just lives her life as happily as she can.  I truly admire her deeply.  I hate to see her go.  

 We had some fun taking group photos.  Some people had left, but it was still fun!

 Some had a lot of fun posing for the individual ones.  We are making her a book and so we took pictures of each person that came for the book.

 Silly girls!

dear new water bottle!  Yay! It came!  My last one is in porta potty #289 somewhere.  May it rest in peace (or whatever it may be resting in!). ☺ I will never carry one again in a marathon if it's a downpour!  My hand were so frozen.

dear manic manican, you had some interesting garb on this week.  I wasn't able to get very good shots though.  Oh well.... You are still good for a chuckle or two!

dear friday run, I came out to see this in my yard.  I had no idea Taylor's friends had all spent the night at our house. He forgot to tell me that little detail.  

I am sure they were hoping for a good breakfast from me, but I had to get out on my run.  I had picked his friend's brain the night before about Russia since he had served in the one next to McKay's and just got home two months ago.  I asked him if it was true that the missionaries got beat up over there and he said it was.  He said he got head butted really hard by a drunk and it knocked him out.  Lovely.  Just lovely.  I am praying McKay's area isn't quite like that.  But he also said that Russians really don't like Americans and for the last four months of his mission he couldn't wear his name badge. None of the missionaries could.  He also said missionaries frequently get thrown in jail over there too because they think they are American spies.  He said they get out in a few hours, but still!  I learned a lot.  And the crazy thing is after hearing all the scary stuff he told me, I actually felt more at peace.  I think it's because I was talking to him and he survived it all and I know McKay will too.  McKay is tough and strong and determined and has such a positive attitude about life that I know he will thrive and do well.  It's still just SO HARD to let him go!

I ran out by the bird refuge and so I had to take some shots of the scenery because it really is beautiful!

dear trapped hummingbird, I had left the back door open to get some fresh air inside and a cute little hummingbird came in and got trapped in my window.  I have a tree branch decoration in that window and so he thought he was still outside.  I tried to get him out but to no avail.  I finally had to leave and so I left the door open and when I got back he was gone.  Hoping he made it safely outside and didn't die somewhere inside.  I drew a circle around him in the second photo so you could see him.

dear mckay's pictures, FINALLY!  Yes we finally actually got them done!  After cancelling at least five or six times due to rain, sickness (from his vaccines), swollen face from wisdom teeth, etc. we were able to actually get it done!  And not a second too soon!  I have less than a week before he graduates and I still have to make his grad announcements!  Aaaaaaaa!

 She did a good job and I was just so RELIEVED to finally have them done!  Pictures STRESS ME OUT!  They always have, and I'm sure they always will.

Here are a few she emailed me so I could get working on the announcement.

I got a few more a couple days later...so here's some of them. I know I need to do a post just of the pix.

 I think he is one handsome guy!  Just love that face!

I was happy with how they turned out!
He was also glad to have them done, in fact he tried to get me to bag them altogether because he was going to be late for his Purple and White dance day date.  I made sure he understood without any doubt in his mind, that THAT wasn't happening!  What a hassle it has been to get these things done and NOTHING was going to come in the way TODAY!

dear wedding reception, Dave and I headed up to Logan to Taylor's friend Denisse's wedding reception. She is a darling girl and Taylor and all his buddies played a part in her baptism when they were seniors.  It is a cool story.  We stopped by and then went to dinner at The Juniper Inn. I love that place. Dave not so much. 

dear long run, I got in my first long run on my new training schedule. Yep, not much of break!  Oh well, I guess it's better to jump right into it while I am still trained!   Robin and I ran 10 miles around the city.  She prefers doing the canyon, but I had a feeling we shouldn't do it today and so she was nice to follow my change of plans.  It was nice.  I did a lot of venting today - my stress level is at it's peak right now - and she was sweet to let me!

 We stopped by the Pickleball courts to see Dave (and to borrow their porta potty!).  I need to start playing again so we can play together.

dear frustration!  I hurried and showered and got busy working on McKay's announcements.  I wish I had time to just send them in to Shutterfly or somewhere, but I had to do them myself due to time.  I am pretty handy on the computer to do basic stuff, and so I thought they were good to go.  I got them on a flash drive and ran to the UPS store to print them.  The lady was NOT helpful and really wasn't sure what she was doing.  She was kind of not nice.  She told me that the front and the back didn't match up and so it would take her several hours before she could get to them.  I told her I would go back and match them up and try again.  But on my way home I decided there is no way I was going back there.  The store I wanted to go to was closed on Saturday and so I decided to head to Logan to Watkin's to get them done.  BUT before I could do that I had to get the front and the back the same size.  Oh my gosh, Picasa was being so stubborn and wouldn't let me back in to edit it.  I tried everything. I had Bryce helping me. I was beyond frustrated due to the time crunch and he was also frustrated because we couldn't get it to work.  Finally I called Watkin's and she told me to email them to her and she would she if she could do it. She WAS nice.  It is so nice when people actually try and help you! I was pretty frustrated at this point. Computers can sure bless your life, but they can also drive you mad when they don't do what you want!  Anyway, she took FOREVER and I kept calling and I had to get them done and I knew I would still have to drive clear to Logan and back before I could even get them in the envelopes and we had plans to leave at 6:00 that night.  So the pressure was building and I was just so frustrated. I finally told her I was on my way and I would check them when I got there even if she hadn't got them done. 

 Here is what I did that I wanted but they didn't match up.

  This is what they ended up being more like.....

But she changed the front a lot (no picture of that) and at that point I just had no choice but to go with it.  UNTIL, I saw that I had put one of the same pictures on the back that I had on the front!

 WHAT?!!!!  YES I DID!!!!  HOW DID I DO THAT!  SERIOUS WHERE IS MY BRAIN!?

  And so I told her that I would have to fix that and she just talked and talked and talked into just printing them and told me that no one would notice and that it was not noticeable and that I really should just print them and get them done and out of the way.  Being BEYOND frustrated at that point, I agreed even though deep down I knew I should just re-do them!  BUT she talked me into it and as I was paying I asked her if she had noticed that there was two of the same while she was working on them.  She said she had but I had already left to come up or she would have had me send her another picture!  WHAT!  The entire way home I was so upset thinking WHY didn't I just do that STILL?  But I had already paid $30 and they were done and maybe no one would really notice or care. BUT IT BUGGED ME!  I am way too much of a perfectionist for it not to.  The entire drive home I kept thinking that I had made a mistake in printing them.  I know she just wanted me to do it because she had worked so hard on them and I don't blame her but she still charged me a fee for fixing it and so what did it matter?  I also wasn't happy with the quality of the print.  It seemed more blurry than it should.  As soon as I got home we had to get to Centerville for dinner with our friends and as I was telling Dave about it all, the tears finally came.  I was so frustrated with being frustrated. It seems like very step of the way of getting McKay ready to go has been met with major roadblocks and frustration.  I know it's just Satan trying to thwart my progress and trying to keep me anxious and stressed because everything we are doing is not what he wants us to do.  But seriously! I need something to start going RIGHT! 

Patience....

GROAN....

THEN I ended up redoing them AGAIN because McKay said something about the same picture and THEN the photographer got me the rest of them sooner than I realized and so I redid them on Monday (the upcoming Monday, but since I am so behind publishing this, I can write about this week!)

 The final...

I am very happy with the final one!  Relieved sigh...

dear mckay's VERY last high school dance ever! Oh man this is so sad for me!  And I didn't even get to take picture of him and his date as usual!  Seriously, mothers of the boys get the raw end of the deal!  But I found this on Facebook....

 This is McKay's date Wylee.  She posted this picture on Facebook or I still wouldn't have one....

Here is what she wrote as the caption:

Purple and White with this boy was a blast. He made me feel great even tho I wasn't feeling so great! 😅 it was a honor to be his last high school dance date! Looks like Russia is getting a good one here in 2 weeks!! Thanks McKay! 💜🔥💃

dear dinner to the mandarin!  Yes we FINALLY got this on!  We have tried for a year and a half to get this dinner planned!  A year and a half!  We just couldn't coordinate schedules!  We started the plan after Colleen moved to get together with them but now it's been so long that Loraine and Kevin are moving too!  Since they are going in a week, we all knew we had to do it and amazingly enough EVERYONE'S schedules were open for Saturday night!  Kevin is a pilot and so it has been really hard to get it set when he is around, but we did it!  And I am so glad we did! We had so much fun!

Loraine and Kevin and us...

Brad and Bonnie and Carl and Colleen...

The food was BEYOND good!  It really does have the best Chinese food around!  We stuffed ourselves and then sat around and talked for another two hours!  We were laughing so hard and having so much fun telling stories.  It was so much fun.  I was getting razzed for touching the sea turtles and for pushing the limits on things like taking photos in the chapel when Pres. Monson came to speak at a funeral with Dave.  Seriously WHO wouldn't do that?!  Anyway it was just a lot of fun because everyone we were with is a lot of fun.  I didn't think we could laugh any harder and then we headed to Nielson's Frozen Custard and we were laughing even harder.  Kevin is really hilarious.  We didn't leave until after 11:00.  But it was worth the loss of sleep and the long drive home.  I hope we can do it again soon!

dear facebook post that brought me much needed peace!...I copied and pasted what Elder Dallin H. Oaks posted.  This is very cool.  It really gave me some peace I needed, to know that McKay has been called by an apostle and he is going where Heavenly Father wants him to go. Still not fully there yet, but I'm moving the right direction!

I recently assigned missionaries, a sacred responsibility for which we always come fasting. I assigned 240, my share of the 1,047 (which includes young missionaries, senior couples, and senior sisters) whose papers were ready for assignment last week. We are assisted in this sacred experience by a member of the Missionary Department staff, who keeps records and manages the computer screens on which we view the essential information on elders and sisters and the needs (including languages) of our more than 400 missions in the world.

These pictures show Dwayne Saviano and I at work in that missionary assignment meeting.  To those of you who have served or will serve missions, thanks for your willingness to serve. We pray that the Lord will bless you in and for your missionary labors.

How cool is that?

dear invite, I thankfully remembered to get this sent out this week too!  Things are happening SO fast and THIS is coming way too fast for me!  So much to do!

 dear messages this week,

Today, Jodi, we believe God wants you to know that ... you are created just right. Each kind of bird has a uniquely-shaped beak, wings, and even feather shape so that everything about it is perfect for the lifestyle it lives. The various wing shapes allow them to dart after a bug, soar miles above a field, or fly for months over the ocean. Just as God cares enough to give each bird exactly what it needs, so you have been given the exact talents and personality to live the life God has given you. 

  I loved how this one went with what I read in my Jesus the Christ study group this week.  
And one more...

Today, Jodi, we believe God wants you to know that ...love is the way. In this world hate never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is God's law. Knowing this, how can you quarrel?