*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, I had a lot on my mind as I headed out on my run today.  I have a dear friend who is going through some really hard times right now and I am just feeling so much sadness for her.  And of all the crazy things, I actually saw her and some of her family as I was out running as they were going in to a place that was going to make things even harder for them.  I kept running and started praying really hard for her.  Maybe I should have ran over and hugged her, but I didn't think it would have been appropriate timing.  My mommy heart just aches for her. 

It was really foggy this morning.   As I was running north, little bitty snow crystals were falling that looked like silver glitter falling from the sky.  I tried to get a photo of it, but they were just too small.  It was the most beautiful sight!

     I met some of my Sista pals in Ogden for lunch at the Pizzeria.  Only four showed up.  It seems that we are getting fewer and fewer in number.  But there were a few sick and others that work and have a hard time coming. But the four of us had a good time. 

 We had a good visit.  I got to hear about Dawn's and Carla's cruise.  I am so excited for mine!

I loved this cute chalkboard art that was hanging in the restaurant! 

     A candid shot Dawn accidentally took. Hah!  It makes me laugh!  I would caption it, but I am in too big of a rush!  Go ahead if you want!

I hurried after and ran some errands (shower gifts, bday gifts, etc) and was going to see my parents, but my Dad is still sick and I decided I didn't want to get the same thing and then bring it home to my family so I came home.  

I found my dream car in a parking lot.  Well, one of them!  Pretty cool!

     When I got home, Dave was in the kitchen making a chicken pot pie since Taylor was coming home for dinner because he had a game and it's his fave.  I helped him finish making it and then we went to his game.  He was playing like he was still a youngster in high school.  He was making three pointers and dunks and it was so fun to watch him.  They won, but the other team gave them a run for their money.  We came home and ate dinner and it was fun having all three boys here.  Love it!  

 The game was at the Intermediate school this time.

dear tuesday,  I seriously about froze to death on my run today!  The temp said it was 18 but it felt like -18!  My hands were froze the entire time even inside my gloves and I was just chilled.  By the time I got back (after seven miles), I was finally warmed up.  Brrr......   I am so done with winter!   But, I keep thinking of my freezing cold son in the tundra of frozen he_ _ and how he keeps smiling without ever complaining and I buck up!  Well...kinda.  :) 

When I see these kind of ice patches on my run, I can NOT resist jumping on them and listening to them crack underneath my feet.  I will go out of my way to do it.  It's addicting!  Who said running is boring?  :)

Mr. Pony just chillin'.  I feel so sorry for him and all animals out freezing in this weather. 

     Today, I got some more of my "purging" done.  It's slow but I am making a dent in it.  Very slowly.   I started with my knife drawer today.  I have a lot of knives.  Only because when I find purple ones I "have" to buy them, so I have accumulated way more than I need due to that purple fever sickness I have.  :)  It was so fun because Sky helped me.  Bryce also contributed as well.  If Sky is around, you get rid of stuff you never would.  He is so good to coach me through because he has no emotional attachment to anything and logically explains how ridiculous it is to keep things when they are not needed.  He is a riot to do it with because he is just so dang logical and it makes sense!  If I had done it alone, I wouldn't have gotten rid of half...well, okay, maybe half of what I actually did.  We spent most of the afternoon de-junking drawers and cupboards in the kitchen.  I love the feeling of having less crap to deal with.  Especially in drawers.  My goal is to purge 25% of my stuff.  I think I came close on most of the drawers, but maybe not quite.  Either way, I am making progress!

The boys after the purge!

     I made banana chocolate chip cookies while Sky and I talked.  He is still trying to figure out where he is going to be living and working right now and is a little stressed out.  It's been fun to have the day to chat about it.  We were both freezing!  Neither of us can get warm this winter!  Then I had to run to the church and get set apart for my new calling.  Brrr.....

 I made these using my cute friend Dawn's recipe she shared with me.  They're good!

dear wednesday, Dave was off today and so we took advantage of the time and went and got our passports done!  We have been talking about getting them for years and this upcoming cruise was what finally made us do it. 

 Here's our mugshots:

Egads!  Dave looks great as usual, but yikes on mine!  The lady told me not to smile or laugh, and so what did I do?  I laughed!  I had to step aside and have Dave go instead while I tried to compose myself.  But.... it didn't work.  I could NOT NOT smile!  Actually, I was just happy I was able to stop laughing for a brief second to get this.  People were watching which made it even worse!  Oh well... if they send it back, then they send it back!

It was really foggy on my run this morning.  Which also made it humid.  
WHERE ARE YOU SPRING? 

 This cold makes everyone want to hibernate!  Mr. Cat took up residence in Sky's lap today.  They were both out!

 I had a million errands to run today and got most of them done.  Then I went to a shower for Heather (a girl in our ward) at Karen's house.  It's always fun to visit with the ward peeps.  She served hot soup and breadsticks.  Mmmm....  Perfect for a cold winter night.  I caught up a bit with Bonnie and then headed home.  Dave was gone to meetings but the boys were here.  I read my chapters for my Jesus the Christ study group and tried to catch up on the others I have missed.  It is such an amazing book.  I have really learned a lot.

dear thursday, Sky took off at 5 a.m. to go hunting in Nevada.  They were hunting coyotes but got mostly bunnies.  Sad.  Poor little bunnies.  

When he got back he headed to SLC to get his hair cut.  I was so glad!  It looks really good!

He wouldn't let me take his photo and so this is the best I got!  Dang kid!

 I went to my Jesus the Christ study group and it was so good!  I love it.  Then I went on my run.  It had warmed up to about 25 and so I was happy!  I waited around ALL day for the microwave repairman to show up. They told us between 8 a.m and 5 p.m. and of course he shows up about 4:50! 

We have had a week of repairs!  The microwave, then the furnace, and then a huge water leak from the kitchen sink to the basement ceiling that leaked on the ping pong table!  The worse was the furnace not working!  It got down to 60° in our house!  We have two furnaces, so the upstairs was still warm but the main level and the basement....brrrrr!!!!  Sky and I have been wearing our jackets indoors all week! Dave thought he could fix it and so he tried several things, but finally called the furnace guy (who couldn't come until Friday night) and a good thing because it needed a LOT of repairs!  A new motherboard too!  It was so nice to have it working again!  But all these repairs are SO EXPENSIVE!  The microwave will cost over $300 to fix and so the guy said it would be smarter to just buy a new one.  Sheesh!  We've only had it for three years and have already had the motherboard replaced in it!  They do NOT make things like they used to!

 The leak is going to take a lot of time and $$$ to fix as well.  The ceiling in the basement is going to need some repair work now because of it. And we need a new faucet.  Groan............  These things come in threes and so I hope we are done for a bit!

 On my way to the Stake YW basketball games, I saw these deer crossing the street.  A busy street!  It was crazy but hilarious.  It's pretty common around here.

Basketball was fun!  We kept joking that we would be pros this week because we have now been set apart and that should kick in and make us automatically pros at it.  Hah!  Didn't happen!  But we kept on top of it and had a blast doing it.  I gave Jaida a huge candy bar I have been saving for her.

 I came home to this calm and peaceful scene. I love my lighted tree!  It's so beautiful and I'm so glad I got it now!

dear friday, I was going to take the day off today from running, but Robin called and asked me if I was planning on it and so I thought maybe I should do my long run today instead of tomorrow.  Then when I saw the weather forecast for tomorrow, I decided to for sure.  It's going to rain and snow tomorrow.  I got in 5.5 miles on my own and oh man, talk about sluggish!  I had NO energy and NO speed and just wanted to quit!  I haven't had a run like that in quite a while.  I did have on my snow tires but those don't usually make me feel like that.  I decided to go home and get some fuel and see if that would get me through the next 6 or so with Robin.  I am glad I did!  We ran another 6.5 and I was doing a lot better on those miles but still, I was so happy to be done! 

This picture was absolutely hideous of me and so I had to do the pixel thing to it so it doesn't make anyone gag. 

It was Audrey's son BJ's birthday today.  He passed away a couple years before Tyson and she asked me and Marilyn the other day if we could play games tonight.  I told her I could depending on Sky's schedule.  He leaves next week and I am trying to be around when he is home because I know I won't see him again for a very long time.  He had other plans and so we were free.  She text back and said she wasn't up for company. I totally get that.  Birthdays and angelversary's are just plain hard.  They really wipe you out.  It's different every year and different for everyone, but no matter what, those days are really hard and exhausting.  I decided to offer to have games at our house but then the furnace never got fixed and it was SO FREAKING COLD in our house.  So we went to dinner instead.  We went Idle Isle and met the Parrish's, the Hepworth's, and of course the Olsen's there.  It was fun.  We used to do things with these guys all the time but haven't in a while.  We used to have so much fun playing games with them.  We need to start it up again! 

 Here is a shot of half of us!  I gave Audrey my phone to take us and the Parrish's but my phone is a pain and it didn't take it.  Oh well... the Parrish's were really there as were we!  hehe
Here's proof at least I was!  

 As we were sitting at our table I saw this cute lady walk in.  It's my mom's good friend Margaret. I just LOVE her.  She tap dances with my mom and so I have gotten to know her quite well.  She is the cutest thing ever. I took this photo and sent it to my mom and said, "Look who I bumped into in BC!".   The place was hopping with peeps we knew.  The other counselor in the Bishopric came in (Alan) and so all three of them were there.  Then the Lindsey's also came in.  We should have all sat together.  haha 

dear saturday, HOLY SNOW!  We woke up to a TON of snow!  I think we got 9 new inches total today.  It was gorgeous!  I love how pretty it is when it's falling.  I am so glad I got in my run yesterday because today would have been near impossible.  The roads were terrible and it would have not been safe out there.  I got some awesome shots of the deer hanging out in our backyard during the storm.  It pretty much snowed all day long! 

We finally got the driveway and walks cleared.....but it took shoveling them many times today.

 Bryce's post of the turks.....

This is how Taylor and his pals spent their day....

Dave and Bryce replaced the pedals on my piano and found this ↓ (Ninja Turtle leg) inside the piano.  

I about died laughing.  So that's what they were doing when they were supposed to be practicing!  No surprise there.  The pedals were actually broke because when I was a kid and supposed to be practicing, I was doing back-bends over the piano bench (like mother like sons) and one time it fell into the pedals and broke them. 

This is pretty much how I spent my day.... 

 Baking and decorating birthday cakes for my parent's birthdays.  
I did not even realize until today that tomorrow is my Dad's 80th birthday!!!!  I knew it was his birthday, but I didn't realize he was turning 80 this year!!!  I felt bad all day that I hadn't planned some big shindig for him.  The boys and Dave all said that it was no big deal and he wouldn't have wanted that anyway...but I still feel bad. I guess it's a girl thing because I found out they were right and he did not want some big party.

But...

I WAS going to make him a BIG cake for it!

 I was in the mood to experiment with some new techniques and so I had fun doing a giant rose on one layer and some horizontal lines (to redeem myself from Weston's cake) on the other layer.  Those lines took me less than 5 minutes (as they should) vs taking all day like the wedding cake one.  I was having a lot of fun doing it.  Sky helped me spin my turntable while I did the rose layers.  He wouldn't let anyone take his picture dang it!  I wanted that picture of him helping me! 

I made a smaller one for my mom.  I had fun with this ruffle cake.

 This was the true color.... ↓

 I had fun making these.  Much more fun than the wedding cake.  I wanted to do these for FUN without pressure.  I have to say I enjoyed every minute.  Well, except for the first purple rain one.  It totally crumbled and I had to start over. I was about to throw in the towel right then for fear it was going to be a repeat of the wedding cake disaster. Luckily, it wasn't. I felt a little bit redeemed.

Speaking of wedding cakes...

 Check this thing out!  We went to a wedding reception and this was the cake.  I am standing by my cute friend Jamie (a cake decorator extraordinaire) and we were both in awe.  Come to find out the entire thing is fake!  With the exception of the little cake off to the side...the one they cut!  It's actually ingenious!  Use the same cake for every reception (or have a variety of fake ones to choose from) and then just make a small one to match for them to cut!  Think of the stress and hassle it would save!  And you could charge much less!!  I LOVE THIS IDEA!  In fact, for a brief moment I even thought of going into the wedding cake business!  It would be great!  You would only have to make the big ones once and they would be easy peasy to transport because they don't weigh anything and making the small ones would be no stress!

After the reception, we took Bryce to Golden Spike Burgers.  My guys love that place!  I love it too, but I always get a turkey salad.  They are tasty too.

dear dad's 80th birthday!!!   WOW!  It is so crazy to think my Pa is 80!  He just does NOT seem like that.  But then again, 80 IS the new 60!  He seems as young and as spry as a 60 year old.  He is truly one amazing man.  He has always been the best Dad and honestly I can't think of one vice that this guy has.  He is kind, nice, well mannered, always on time, spotlessly clean (we nicknamed him Mr. Clean), an amazing golfer, an outstanding grandpa, fun, cute, sweet, nice, patriotic, always smiling, happy, and just an all around great guy!  I could not have had a better father and I am so grateful and blessed that I got to have him as mine.  He is one of a kind.  A hole in one!  I hope he is around for 80 more!  Okay, maybe not quite. I wouldn't wish that on anybody! 

This is one of his most prized moments!  He LOVES Johnny Miller and the day he met him was one incredible day!

 This guy LOVES to golf!  Rain, snow, sleet, or shine...he will be hitting the balls!

After church we headed over to their house for a party.  We had a haul to take because we were also celebrating my mom's birthday today and we also had several Christmas gifts to exchange.  
This ↓is me trying to be sneakily get a photo of Sky.  You can tell by the look on his face, that I wasn't sneaky enough!  :)

 HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU PA!!!

AND.... Happy Birthday to you Mom!!!

Her birthday was two weeks ago but she was too sick to celebrate then so we combined them together.

 What cute parents I have!  The cakes were a success and even tasted pretty good!

 When Sky arrived, Mya went NUTS!  She absolutely WORSHIPS Skyler.  She talks about him every single day and Britt said she has been so excited to see him today.  She just beamed from ear to ear and sat on his lap for almost an hour.  He used to live with them about three years ago and she fell in love with him then and still adores him. It's just the sweetest thing ever!

She was in total heaven.  Britt sent me a text the next day that said Mya got up at 4:00 a.m. to be sure to catch her daddy before he went to work to tell him: "Daddy, I saw Skyler AND Aunt Jodi AND Grandma Shelley twirl fire.  It was the BEST night of my whole life!

 It doesn't get any sweeter than that!

It was a par-tay!  The best part (aside from Jerry and Britt's stories) was watching OLD HOME MOVIES!  Oh wow!  I was nearly wetting my pants.  Mostly from Jerry's commentary, but it was so much fun to go back and see myself as a little girl and to see my dogs Prince and Queenie and my cat Lightning and my parents when they were so young!  Part of it was a dance recital of Shelley's students ( me included - I was twirling baton) and at the end Shelley twirled fire baton (what Mya was talking about above).  It was so funny!  I was quite the ham and kept photo bombing nearly every chance I got.  It was awesome to see my Grandma Mae and Grandpa Ed and my Grandma Helen and Aunt Carmen.  It's so sad that they have passed on now, but I know they are still near.  I know I get coins from them too.  Mae sends me dimes, Shelley nickels and Ed quarters.  Not sure how I know that, but I do.  Call me weird and strange because I know it sounds like that, but it's something I just know.

Home movie...this is Candi as a baby and me with her in our backyard.

FUN TIMES!

You can see me taking the photo in the mirror...so I waved.  Then Dad waved back!  haha

Sure do love all these peeps!

LOVE my cute parents!

These pictures bring back such fond memories...This one is of Grampy with Tyson in the hospital.  He would often spend the night with Tyson when he was in the hospital.  They watched Evita (or joked about watching it) and he would bust Tyson out of there and take him across the street to the golf course to get some air. Tyson loved that!

I love this one of Grampy and McKay.  It shows how much fun he was with the boys.  He was the best Grandpa.  I hope they understand how lucky they are to have him.

 Happy Birthday Pa!  I sure do love you!

dear mr. cat, I love how much more lovable you are in the winter when you HAVE to be with us.  You jump on our bed at least three times every night purring away and snuggling.  That lasts about 5 minutes, but hey, it's better than nothing! 

dear random, I snatched this off of Taylor's phone.  I am probably dead if he sees I posted it.  Him and his roommates went to a Great Gatsby night at USU and this is how they dressed.  Or how they ended up dressing. I'm pretty sure the pearls were not part of the attire at the start. 

I can't even say how much I LOVE this!!!  Now I have to make sure I have enough large and small white plates so I can pull this off.  Have you ever seen anything so dang cute?  I'm in LOVE!  I already adore snowmen and all that comes with them, so this is absolutely perfect!

I saw this on an Instagram post and it got me SO excited!  One year from now and I will be training full swing for BOSTON!!!  I still can't even believe it!!!  

dear quotes,