*Monday Memos*

*MONDAY MEMOS*

   

 (If pictures are too small, just click to enlarge) 
Weekly recap of my rather crazy, insane, but fun and rewarding life!

dear monday, since Saturday was crazy, I ended up doing my long run on Monday again.  I only went 10 miles, but some of the roads I ran on were snow packed and my toes were pretty much numb before mile 2.  I was regretting not going back and putting on an extra pair of wool socks.  It took me a while to thaw out once I got home, but a hot shower helped with that. 

Bryce's boss stopped by to pick up a care package I had made for Bryce.  He needed some warmer stuff and so I sent a bunch of stuff I had bought him for Christmas like a warm hat, thermals, wool socks, etc.  He needed them now.  

I worked on the Missionary Newsletter and got it done and mailed out to the other eight missionary mamas.  I was questioning my sanity for volunteering to do it, but it is always worth it once it's done.  Only 19 more months!  :)  I also did some Cyber Monday shopping online.  I got some really good deals this year.

dear first day of december....how did THAT happen?  Seriously, this year has flown by!  Now it's almost 2016!  

Dave was off today and so we went to Costa Vida for lunch. We LOVE that place!  It's either that or Maddox Drive-In or Old Grist Mill or Taco Time.  Sheesh, sounds like we eat out a lot! haha  Actually, we really don't...but much more so now that we are empty nesters.  After lunch we decided to head to Smith and Edwards and do a little shopping.  I appreciate it when Dave will go because he always finds things the boys really want, whereas sometimes I just hope they like what I find.  Then we came home and we got down the Christmas totes.  The boys usually do that, but since they aren't around, I got to climb up on the very high shelf in the garage and hand them to Dave as he lifted them down the ladder.  Fun fun.  Not!  Once we got them all down, I put up the Christmas decorations.  It took me several hours as it always does, but it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated.  It's still a lot of work knowing it's going to be all taken down in a few weeks.  But it does make the house look Christmasy!

 I used my new lighted tree behind my Willow Tree Nativity. 

I didn't put up all my nativities this year.  But I got ambitious and FINALLY decided to dejunk the Christmas stuff that I no longer use or love.  I packed up six bags and took them to the DI.  I'm already regretting a few of things I gave away (haha), but it does feel good to get rid of all that stuff that I haven't used in a while.  Most of it was really good stuff so I hope someone will be able to use it that needs it more than I do.  I am going to sell some of my Christmas lighthouse stuff though.  I can't just give that away because it more valuable.

dear hill repeats, I really didn't want to do hills or run for that matter on Wednesday, but I knew I needed to and I also knew that running would make me feel better physically and emotionally and I needed all the help I could get!  I did 15 repeats. I felt like I was slower than tar, but my overall time wasn't too bad.  This cute little puppy (Missy) greeted me several times.  She used to bark at me and try to bite me. Now she's like a little sweetheart.

dear tyson's 10 year angelversary, I am truly shocked it has been 10 years!  So hard to believe!  It was a tough day for me this year.  Most years, the week leading up to it is harder than the actual day, but not so this year.  I struggled the week leading up to it a bit, but I was surprised how hard the day of was.  I had a few good cries.

 I belong to a group on Facebook that is for people who have lost children and one of them posted the above photo of Tyson and wrote a remembrance of him.  I loved it.  I think one of my biggest fears is that he will be forgotten and I don't want that to ever happen.  I want to keep his memory alive and I think Facebook is a good way to do that.  

This is what I posted on Facebook today:

Today marks the 10th Angelversary of our incredible son Tyson. It's hard to imagine that we have been without him now for 10 years. I've been reflecting this past week about how much we miss that little guy, as well as all the things we didn't get to experience with him...i.e. high school graduation, mission, college, vacations, marriage, starting his own little family (wow that's hard to picture!), as well as his daily laughter, wit, mischievousness, fun personality, pranks, bravery, courage, kindness, and just his overall amazing happy presence. There is a huge hole in our hearts now that he is no longer physically present in our daily lives, but I must express the deep gratitude I feel because we were blessed with 17 wonderful years with him. 17 years! What a blessing! I will be forever grateful for the wonderful memories we made during those 17 years, and even though some days are still difficult and there will continue to be tears shed when our hearts ache for him, but we choose to focus on the gift we were given to have him for as long as we did instead of on the sadness that he is no longer physically here. We feel his presence with us daily as he continues to be part of our lives from the other side. The words on his picture says what is in my heart today. In honor of Tyson, I would challenge each of you as you go about your day today, to stop and remember that life is short and to CHERISH THE MOMENTS and hug everyone a little tighter. Each day is a gift! __̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.__ I love you bud! Keep 'em laughing in heaven! #alwaysinourhearts #neverforgotten --- thinking about my son.

I always get such great support and love from my Facebook friends.  It really is therapy and helps me through the day. If I had room I would paste all the kind and loving comments I received today.  I also get great support from my dear friends each year as well.  Bonnie showed up with a gorgeous floral arrangement of Hawaiian flowers including Birds of Paradise.  She called all over to find a florist that had them and ended up getting them in Ogden.  Who does that?  She is the dearest friend and so compassionate and so kind.  I don't deserve her.  When she gave them to me, I started to cry.  I never do that.  But I couldn't help it.  The emotions were raw today.  We talked about Tyson and the experience of losing him and we hugged and then both cried a bit (she just lost her dad) and has a tender heart right now as well. The flowers really do help.  They are so Tyson.  Just knowing someone cares that much really does help.  Then I got a delivery from a florist with another gorgeous bouquet from my dear friend Jen.  She also remembers every year and always give me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers.  This year's bouquet was just beautiful and smelled so good.  It reminded me of the day we lost him and the mortician brought me a rose as they were taking Tyson out of our home.  That was really hard, but for some reason the scent of those flowers gave me comfort.  I truly have the best friends.  I'm not sure they realize how much it means to me to have Tyson remembered and how much comfort these gifts bring me.

And of course, my dear sweet friend Audrey (just like clock work) delivered the traditional chocolate ecstasy.  She lost her son BJ a couple of years before we lost Tyson and we have been doing this tradition now for 10 years.  We take one to them on BJ's angelversary and they bring one to us on Tyson's. It's so crazy how knowing that is coming helps make the day a little bit easier.  Chocolate can fix anything!  Well, maybe not "fix" it, but it sure does help!

My cute friend Robin also gave me a sweet card, a candle and some chocolate!  Did I mention I have the best friends because I do!

I wrote a separate post on this 10 year angelversary here.

Dave tried to get the lighted palm tree fixed so we could put it out tonight. That has been our tradition in year's past but he didn't have time to get it working yet. 
Taylor stopped by because he thought he had a basketball game but it ended up being a different night.  He ate dinner with us (me - Dave was at meetings) and then did some homework before he headed back. It's always so good to see him even if it's just for a bit. 

dear utah homemakers christmas party,  I always look forward to these parties.  I love all the women in this group and we have been friends for many years.  At least most of us, there are a few new ones that come now too.

We mostly just ate and then did a white elephant exchange. 

I made this cute GRINCH to take.  He is made out of guacamole and I think he turned out so cute. I wish McKay could have seen him. 

This is what I took for my white elephant.....

Along with a bag of Sour Patch Kids.  hehe   I made out well on the white elephant as I got some Dove chocolates!  Mmm.....  I think Grumpy Cat is hilarious though. 

After the party, I headed to Ogden to go to a boutique and back to Smith and Edwards.  I am getting a pretty good dent in my shopping.  More so than most years this early on.  

dear christmas tree hunt, we made history this year.  It was the first time since we became parents that we shopped for a tree without the boys.  SO sad!  I did not like it one bit!  We broke tradition too!  We didn't eat at Village Inn after.  Mainly because we had to get our tree in South Ogden instead of downtown Ogden where we usually do because we couldn't find a good one there.  So instead of eating at Village Inn as per "tradition", we ate at Longhorn Steak House.  Last year the same thing happened and so we ate at Texas Road House. So now two years in a row we broke the tradition of gong to Village Inn after getting the tree.  I do not like to break traditions, but it is something that I have to accept and who knows...maybe a new and BETTER one will emerge instead?

Dave checking out some trees.

Me standing by our choice.  That was until we saw it was covered in moss!  There was this mossy stuff all over the trunk all the way to the top.  Dave said it's called Old Man's Beard or something.  I didn't want to deal with that stuff!  It would have made the biggest mess and could have very possibly started on fire if the lights got too hot! 

We choose another one and headed to dinner.

I love the food at Longhorn.  Mmm...  The photo on the far right is of Dave dying laughing.  I was going on and on about something and he just started to lose it.  I'm still not sure what was so funny, but he had tears streaming down his face.  That is a rare thing to see.  I had to take a picture.  He was laughing so hard he couldn't breath!

dear saturday, Taylor stopped by on his way home from Weston's (they had a group date last night) and I made him breakfast.  Then he had to get to work.  I headed out on another long run.  I am trying to get back on schedule for doing them on Saturday, so I went 10 miles.  It was freezing!  I saw these cute heart snow shapes....they are the same one but my camera made them look different.  Pretty cool!

I love this llama guy.  He is always so alert when I go by and just stares at me.  Cracks me up.

Then I went to our city's home show with Robin and her daughter Sam. There were about 8 (?) homes in it this year and we made it to all of them.  I LOVE looking at other people's homes to get ideas and to inspire me.  Sometimes it depresses me, but we had a great time.  Some were very elaborate and others were down to earth. 

Check out the purple dresser! ↓ Check out the chick in the mirror taking the picture!  hah  And notice she has only one bootie on her foot.  I lost it somewhere in the house!  Oh well!  Made me laugh when I saw it in the picture.  That's Robin in the other one at this really amazing home. That one was my favorite.  Sometimes I just want to move and start over when I see so many amazing ideas and rooms.  But then I think of how much work it would be and I am happy for what I have.

This happened today at my house in my backyard...

The deer and the turkeys....just chillin' together.  Either that or they are trading secrets of the best hiding places for hunting season.

The turkeys crack me up.  But I have never seen them interact with deer before.  The deer was more afraid of them though.  He ended up running away up the mountain like a scaredy cat.  Speaking of the cat, I wish he had also been in the mix.  Now that would have been a cool picture!

dear hospital christmas party, Saturday night we headed to the golf course for the doctor party.  We hadn't been for several years, but this year we had an open night so we went.  It was delicious!  Iron Grate Grill catered it and I love their food.  We sat with Dr. Dibble and Raquel, Dave's parents and the hospital administrator and his wife.  It was fun.  There was no entertainment this year, just socializing.  There were a ton of docs not there that I would have liked to have seen and caught up with (their wives), but it was still fun.

Okay, this photo was actually two separate ones.  There was no one to take a photo of us and so we each took one of the other and I Photoshopped them (without Photoshop - just Picasa) to make it look like we were standing together. Not bad for a total amateur!  Other than it looks like we don't like each other because we are standing so far apart.  lol

dear bryce, I LOVE this photo you posted on Snapchat of you in your new hat I bought you.  You look like you should be in Russia with McKster!

I also had to take some still shots of the squirrel video you posted. It was hilarious!

Here's a few shots of some of your hard work....

dear mckay, your Mission President's wife sent these pictures to me of you at the mission zone conference.  So grateful to her for doing that and so grateful you look so happy!

dear mr. cat.... ahhhhh.....dorable!

dear made my day, I received this amazing note in the mail this week and it truly made my entire week!  I decided to not show who sent it for privacy purposes, but this person truly was so thoughtful to send this to me.  I had set a goal once to send a thank you note to someone once a week and I am going to start that again because of how this made me feel.  When someone takes the time to write a note and then send it snail mail, it just means a lot more than a quick text or internet message. 

dear quotes,

This made me laugh so hard!  Same thing for a full marathon. 

 Yep....

Love this...

Such great wisdom!

Profound...

Oh how I love this times five!

I called it and it was cute!  Try it!