*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 crepe's suzette, since Taylor spent the night, I decided to get up and make him his favorite for breakfast....crepes!  I love them too, so I guess it wasn't that big of a sacrifice.  haha  I made Orange Suzette Sauce to go on them as well and let me tell you there is just nothing better!  It's more like dessert for breakfast though, but aren't the best breakfasts like that?  Donuts, cinnamon rolls, muffins (aka cupcakes without frosting), waffles, pancakes with syrup, french toast, etc?  Yeah, pretty much!  That's why I love breakfast!    

The picture in the center shows my crepe maker a little closer.  I have had it for almost 35 years now!  I LOVE IT!  None of the new ones compare.  I miraculously found me another one on Ebay a couple of years ago because part of my original one cracked.  Now I have two.  They quit making them in 1980 or earlier and so I am grateful I have two.  Crepes are just so delish and so fun and festive.

Taylor's on the left and mine on the right.  I prefer mine without Nutella, but he loves it.  I keep mine simple with strawberries, bananas, Suzette sauce, and whip cream.  He loads his down.  I am so in love with these plates!  They make me happy when I eat off of them.  Well, I am always happy when I am eating, but eating off them makes me even happier!

This is my cool little gadget to slice strawberries.  It makes it so much faster. It's a Joie brand.

Going running after eating breakfast has never been a favorite of mine, but I did it anyway.  It was REALLY windy today.  Full tummy and cold wind made for a very sluggish run. 

That flag looked like it was going to be pulled out of the ground from the wind.  The picture doesn't do it justice.

dear winter second edition, we woke up to snow again.  The poor daffodils really take a beating in Utah.  I wonder if it will be the last?  Doubt it.  I remember it snowing once in June.

I decided to bag my run today since I can run on Thursday this week.  I had so much to do today and I wanted to get an early start.  Besides, it was freezing!  

dear closet cleaning....today was a closet cleaning day!  First, I finally decided to tackle my linen closet.  It's really a linen slash medicine closet.  I have been wanting to just get in there and dejunk and reorganize that thing for a long time.  I knew I wouldn't get it done in one day, mainly because we have a lot of meds and valuable home health supplies from Tyson and that kind of stuff takes a long time to sort through and to decide what to do with it now.  Today my goal was to go through all the towels, sheets, quilts, blankets, pillowcases and tissue/TP stock.  Since I didn't have a ton of time, I was able to do that today.

Then I headed to the church and met Ayako and Val and we had our own little closet cleaning party!  We cleaned out the Sports closet.  I wish I would have taken photos of the hall where we had the stuff all scattered as we each went through stuff.  It was a lot!  But somehow we managed to get it all done in about an hour and a half.   

BEFORE

AFTER

It's really hard to see from the pictures the big difference it made, but it really looked a LOT better!

Our silly selfie!!!  Love these women!

The boys took advantage of the new snow and both of them hit the slopes!

Taylor ↑  Bryce ↓

dear morningside, Dave was asked to speak to the seminary students at the tabernacle for a morningside on Wednesday since it's late start.  I went and sat in the back.  He told me the wrong time!  Oh well, I only missed a few minutes.  He did a great job.  He had them laughing but also really taught them.  It would have been a daunting task, but he nailed it.  They had donuts for everyone after!    

When I got home, since I had on a dress and I had to be to my ortho appointment in 50 minutes, I bagged my run thinking I would get to it in the afternoon.  That never happened because I buried myself back in the linen closet for a good chunk of the afternoon.

The city paper came out today and Dave was on the front page. He is standing in the line at the caucus. I'm in there somewhere by him.  We look like little ants.  He is the tall one on the far left (in the line) standing under the O on SCHOOL.  That is only about 1/4 of the line.  It just kept going and going! Quite the turnout!

dear run, I got in 8 miles on Thursday morning.  It was one of my best runs I've had in a long time.  I felt energized and no pain.  I felt like I should have kept going and got my long run done for the week.   

 A fork in the road...made me laugh as it always does when I find one.  And a heart rock in the road...good thing I only had to carry it for half a mile! 

dear utah homemakers.  It was our annual Home Tour today.  It's always a favorite of mine.  Dave asks me why I go because I always come home and tell him we need to redo this and that.  Well, we do!  We basically need to redo it all!  Today's was a little bit of let down since I had already seen three out of four of the places we went on the Christmas home tour.  The one house I hadn't seen was worth it though.  However I was thinking I probably should have just gone to Las Vegas with Karen.

This was in one of the homes.  I may have to make me one.

We ended with going to Consignology (a store in town) and I fell in love with these dolls.  Everyone tried to talk me into buying them for me since I had no daughters with doll.  It was tempting, but they would have just been clutter.

When I got home, I worked on the missionary newsletter, tried to catch up the blog. We got some rain this afternoon.  Loved it.  Bryce headed to Lava.  


dear mckay's new companion, I talked to McKay's companion's dad on Facebook.  He introduced himself to me and told me about his son and wanted to know about McKay.  I think they will get along great.  Of course, McKay gets along well with everyone.  I also got some photos from his mission President's wife.  His new comp's dad posted the one of him and McKay on our Vlad FB page and several of the moms made some nice comments about McKay.  One wrote:  W(McKay) was Mitchell's companion in the MTC. absolutely amazing boy! I'm sure Roosa will start out his mission strong and happy with W(McKay) as a companion!
 And then another mom wrote: What exciting news! We love Elder W (McKay)! He trained our son and prepared him so well for all that he is facing now! He is gentle, kind and brought great peace to my son as he was adjusting! I also love reading Elder W (McKay's) writings home, we learned little extra's that really made our hearts rejoice! He is a wonderful and amazing man filled with great faith and dedication! 
Okay, the "man" part got me a bit.  He is still a boy to me!  :) But those are the things Missionary Mamas thrive on hearing.Talk about a mom payday! Gosh, I miss that boy!

Sister Perkinson sent these photos:

With Elder Roosa - with Elder Lyman - McKster- he looks very happy!

Meeting with President Perkinson and the new greenies

dear april fools day, you finally arrived!  Best holiday ever!

I look forward to this each year, but this year I have to admit I was not as prepared as I usually am.  I didn't get Dave very well and my attempt to get Taylor backfired.....however HE got his roomies really well!  He told them they got a letter saying they were coming to inspect their apartment and if it wasn't up to standard they would be fined and so his roomies spent the day cleaning it up!  haha  He then printed out an official looking form that had a check list on it and what didn't pass inspection and stating the fine was $800!  They all fell for it!  He didn't tell them until that night!  Good one Taylor!  Looks like someone got my prank gene. :)  I did get Robin though!  I text her that we would not be going on the cruise because Dave had a mandatory medical training that he forgot about.  I told her they emailed him a few months ago but forgot until he got an email today reminding him.  I told her he would lose his license if he didn't attend it. There was absolutely no way I thought she would even kind of believe it.  But she totally did. She was pretty upset.  We went running together and as soon as we met, she said that she was really hoping it was an April Fool's joke but knew it wasn't and then I caved and told her April Fools!  She wanted to punch me out!  haha  I ran four miles and then she met me at the pickleball courts and we ran another 7 miles.  I did not like the run at all.  Yesterday I felt like I could run forever but today, not at all!  

Our selfie...  The green grass in the stream is just stunning!

I told Dave that Robin couldn't go on the cruise and he fell for it but it wasn't a freak out thing.  He is hard to get.  Mainly because he's been living with me for so long, he expects it now.  I didn't live up to my reputation this year at all.  All I posted on FB this year was: I have an extra bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs to share........ any takers??????? 
In fact, one of my friends posted on Facebook first thing this morning to be aware of me and she wrote under my post: "Don't be fooled by this little vixen. She may have tainted them with exlax".   Nope.  I was pretty mellow this year.  Two years ago I posted a photo of a leg in a purple cast and wrote, "Bye bye marathon".  Got a lot of peeps with that.  Sometimes it's exhausting to think of good pranks.  Did I just say that?  Getting old?  Okay, I guess I need to start preparing now for next year!

I worked on the linen closet for a while today....it's almost done.  Just a few more things.  I ran some errands and Dave had a dinner medical meeting so I watched a movie about Henry the 8th and it was disturbing. Queen Anne was beheaded and it was brutal!  And true!  Oh my!  I think it was called The Other Boleyn Girl or something like that.  I cannot imagine living in that time with the fear of being beheaded!  It really bothered me.

dear NOT april fools! 

Now there is a candidate I can get behind!

dear saturday, I woke up with a killer headache and so I didn't get out on my run as early as I had hoped.  Once it felt manageable I headed out west.  I listened to conference while I ran and got in about six miles.  Conference was great.  Just so great!!!  I soaked it all in! 

I saw this interesting plant on my run.  Kind of looks like a heart. A dilapidated one, but a heart.

I found a recipe for a double lemon pie.  We really love the Maddox one and so I hoped this would compare. I love lemon anything.  I made two so the guys could take one to Dave's Dads after Priesthood meeting.  I found the recipe and it sounded a lot like the Maddox one.  I would change it a bit next time....I didn't like the topping. I think I would just use whipped cream instead of what the recipe called for.  That would have made it so much better.  But it was still luscious!

Taylor stopped by for a few minutes with a cute girl he had taken to Conference.  They attended the morning session.  His roomies had gone to Moab right after conference which he would've also but he had to take his date back to Logan.  I told him to come back and I would pay for his gas.  I wanted him home especially since all his roomies were gone.  So he did!  Bryce also made it back.  

While they were at the Priesthood session, I finally finished the linen closet.  I worked on all the sample meds we have. I call it our pharmacy.  I reorganized them all and it took a while. But I am done! It's hard to tell but I did get rid of at least 25%...pretty sure close to 40%.  Now onto my next purge project...

Before and After

 Dave's sister Julie sent me these pix of Sky who was in Vegas and spent the night at their house....and apparently attended a couple of her boy's soccer games.  She said the kids get so excited when he stops by.  I had no idea he was in Vegas.  Why is it mothers are always the last to know?  It was a quick one night one day trip to give a friend a ride he told me when I finally did talk to him.

dear sunday, Dave got to sleep in today!  By sleeping in, I mean not waking up at 5:15 am but 6:30 am instead.  We just hung out in bed and chatted until about 8:00.  That never happens!  We watched conference with the boys (they played Monopoly). 

Conference just really spoke to me this round.  So many great talks and the music was amazing.  I loved Pres. Uchtdorph's talk.  It was so touching.  He talked about when he was a child in Germany during the war, that many beautiful buildings and entire towns were destroyed...completely.  He told how now they have been rebuilt and restored and are even more beautiful than before.  He said that if a man can rebuild something so well, think of how much better God can rebuild us when we fall and stumble and are torn.  It was very touching.  He also jokingly said that German was the Celestial language.

So in his honor, we had our traditional German Pancakes topped with bananas, blackberries and strawberries with orange syrup.  Mmmmmm........  Actually we had them in General Conference's honor since it has become a tradition of many years now.

My favorite talk of all (possibly of all time) was Elder Holland's talk.  (Well, his one talk titled Because She Is A Mother [HERE] may still be my fave all time.)  He was the very last speaker.  It was the perfect ending to a perfect weekend of inspired messages.  It was JUST. SO. GOOD.

Here are few of the things he said: (the entire talk could be quoted since it was so good!).

                Jeffrey R. Holland - Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

"The great thing about the gospel is that we get credit for trying- even if we don’t necessarily succeed .”
“The first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all our heart, might, mind and strength but the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind and strength.”
“His divine love and unfailing help will be with us even when we struggle—no, will be with us especially when we struggle.” - "Brothers and sisters, do you have any idea... do you have any notion or inkling whatsoever of how much we love you?"
"You are the miracle of this Church, and we love you."
"[If you find] elements in your own life that don't measure up to the messages you've heard this weekend... don't give up."
"We CAN improve. The great thing about the gospel is that we get credit for trying, even if we don't always succeed."
"Remember tomorrow and all the days after that, that the Lord blesses those who want to improve...who cherish Christ-like virtues and strive to pursue them."
"We're going to be blessed for our desire to be good, even as we actually strive to be so."
  "The first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all our heart, might, mind and strength."
"The first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind and strength. That love is the foundation stone of eternity, and it should be the foundation stone of our daily life."
"God will never desert us -- He never has and He never will.""Keep loving, keep trying, keep trusting, keep believing, keep going. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow and forever."

You can listen or read this amazing talk in full HERE. I would suggest listening to it.  Elder Holland has such a profound way of presenting his message that doesn't fully come across on the written page.

You can find all of the talks for General Conference HERE.

Yippee!

We were all VERY excited when Pres. Monson announced that Belem Brazil would be getting a temple!  Taylor was thrilled!  As were all his friends in Brazil!  What a blessing!

There was an amazing special on after conference that talked about Elder Nelson's talk he gave last conference on women. You can find that talk HERE. It was very inspiring. 

A few more of the quotes from conference:

 dear random, another photo from Facebook memories.  Me with Bryce in Puerto Rico many years ago.   Love this photo.  Love that boy!

And....one of my (many) Elementary Schools is being torn down!  What??!  I attended half of third grade at Club Heights.  My Aunt Fern taught school there for years.  So sad!

dear quotes,