*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 back to reality!  The one thing I dislike about vacations is coming home to all the stuff that you didn't do while you were gone that still has to be done and being jet lagged on top of it all!  Laundry, newspapers, mail, cleaning, unpacking, emails, trying to write a blog post on it (didn't happen yet for our Hawaii trip!), all the things you put off doing until you get back because you run out of time before you leave, and on and on.  I'm overwhelmed!  And I thought I was behind before...  I want to go back to paradise!

Here's a little preview of the cruise:

dear lunch at an apostle's house, well...I can honestly say I never thought I'd say that.  Another great opportunity provided by American Mothers.  Some of my life's greatest experiences have been because of AMI. What a great day I had on Tuesday.  We had our American Mother's State Board meeting at Lesa's house this month.  She has a second home in Bountiful now since Gary was made an apostle because he has to be close to SLC.  It is as beautiful and majestic as her other home in Cache Valley.  Lesa has been and still is one of my favorite people on the planet.  It's no wonder she is where she is today.  I am not sure I have met a more sincere and kind hearted person than her.  I was so excited to see her.  I saw her a few months ago at another AMI meeting at Maddox, but there were so many peeps trying to talk to her, that we didn't get much time.  It was good to see her still standing after the life she leads now. haha  She gave me a hug and said, "I just love you Jodi". That made my day.  That's the kind of person she is.  So generous in her words, and everything else she has.  I told her that I can't even express how much I admire and love her.  I think I have known her for around 25 years now.  She was the Young Mother search chairman the year I was nominated for Young Mother. I came to love and admire her so much way back then, but now with all she has gone through, my admiration for her is even stronger.  She has always been the Hostess with the Mostess and has a reputation for being amazing at entertaining.  Her recipes are always the best and the way she presents everything is always high class.  She is just as humble as can be and so warm and welcoming.  We had a large group at our meeting - probably at least 25 or 30 women....some I didn't know and some I haven't seen in 15 years.  It was a very long and informative meeting.  It lasted almost three hours.  I am in charge of the Triathlon this year.  Great.  It's our only fund raiser and pretty much what we run the organization on.  I have never even been to it, but hopefully I can pull it off.

It was an ARMY theme

This is only about 1/3 of who attended.  Back row:  Dixie, Jenneice, Lesa, Yvonne, Sheri, WCMOY, me  Front Row: Sheri's daughter, Diane, and Diane's mom.

I sure do love these ladies!  There are some amazing women in this photo. I am not sure how I got to be in such great company.  Each and every one of them is doing the most amazing things to promote goodness in our world. I feel beyond honored to call them my friends. 

The AMAZING view from Lesa's home.  The picture does not do it justice.  I felt like I was flying in an airplane looking down on the valley. I imagined what it would be like to live there...to be in that room studying my scriptures or reading a book or even just sitting there relaxing with a view like that.  Her home has the most amazing spirit inside.  No one wanted to leave.

dear trek meeting, I was asked (with all the other past Ma and Pa's of our ward) to attend a meeting for the new Ma and Pa's of trek this year.  It was to give the new ones helpful ideas, tell them the things we learned, and to help decide how many kids are needed in a family.  Taylor couldn't go and neither could Dave, only me. I got there late because I had been gone all day and barely had time to throw dinner on the table, eat, and rush over.  They had already started.  It was fun to discuss our experience because it brought back so many good memories.  I loved trek.  It was hard, but it was a wonderful experience for all involved.  Brandon was cracking me up with his stories and Bonnie remembered so many details that I had forgotten.  We really had a good group the year we went.  Dave is going this year, but hasn't really asked me to go and so I am not planning on it.  I think he knows he will be so occupied with so many things and since I won't be a Ma, I would most likely just be just floating all the time.  However, if he asked, I would go.  I love being around the youth and I know I would have a great time.  But, I have the Triathlon I'm in charge of that weekend anyway and so I don't feel too bad.  Janzen really had us laughing when he told us one of his ancestor's was known for cannibalism.  Mont looked it up online during our meeting and sure enough, it was true.  He was reading us all the stuff he found online.  It was hilarious.  The guy even had a cafeteria/grill named after him and the slogan was "Have a friend for lunch". We were all dying laughing at that point.  It got worse when Mont read that he became a vegetarian later in life. Oh my gosh, so funny!  We spent about 10 minutes on that topic.  Everyone kept chiming in with funny comments.  Janzen says he is walking for him on trek.  Someone told him to get an old animal bone and hang it around his neck and gnaw on it while he walks.  It was a good time even if it did last almost two hours.

dear ortho, I am on my last two weeks of aligners!  But I think I will keep on going for another three months or so.  I am happy with how they have worked but I still feel there are a couple teeth that need a little more moving.  Clark agreed.  Oh well, the end is near!

dear trip to o town, I had a group harp lesson this week instead of a private one and so I headed into Ogden early so I could get some errands done.  My main goal was to find a new phone today!  I can not even tell you how possessed the one I am using has been.  It will be sitting on a counter and randomly dial people.  All. The. Time.  The home button doesn't work and so I have to reboot it every single time I need to get to something else.  Takes a minimum of two minutes each time.  So if I am texting and I need to make a call, I have to turn it off, then wait, then turn it back on.  And then suddenly the Voice Control has gone berserk and constantly flashes on so I can't even use the phone.  It has tried my patience, but I have been very tolerant.  I am not sure how much longer I can take it though.  I honestly want to throw it against the asphalt on the road.  It called about five people of it's choosing today.  Happily, Sky text me saying he found me one.  It is an iPhone 6 with 64 GB. I was so thrilled. It worked out so perfect since it was right on my way home.  I am hoping the guy I bought it from is legit.  I am just so happy to finally have a phone that is reliable and one that I don't have to charge six times a day and one that won't freeze on me.  But the best part is, I will have memory space and it won't constantly tell me there isn't enough storage to download an app or take a photo.  That was the most frustrating thing of all....having the perfect photo opp and then have it say I couldn't take one. So excited to have a reliable one!  YIPPEE! 

I had four baby gifts to buy and I needed to go visit Mona.  I stopped in but she had gone to a nail appt. so I did some errands and then ran back.  She looked really good.  I am glad she is doing so well even with all the life changes she has to go through.

My harp lesson was my last one before the recital on Saturday.  It was a group lesson.  We sounded okay for the most part, except I messed up on the easiest song of all...Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.   I am actually a little excited for the recital.  Mainly because I am interested in hearing the other harpists.

dear friday, I had a huge list of things to do today...and even though I didn't slow down all day, I didn't seem to get many checked off.  It was one of those days where a lot of unplanned things snuck in.  A sister that I visit teach was in need of a meal and a few other things that I needed to purchase for her daughter who just had a baby.  I also ended up needing to do my long run because I have my harp recital tomorrow.  I got in almost 11 miles.  The Ogden half marathon is next week.  I am surprised how much I am stressing over that since I'm only doing the half.  I am praying it won't be another downpour this year!

The pony is back!  He looked healthy!  The geese were cracking me up acting as if they own the road.

Mr. Llama.  The Iris's are in full bloom!  And I found another snake!

I spent the day doing a bunch of other little things that had more of a priority than my list of things to do.  Such is life.  We didn't go on a date tonight because I got home pretty late after taking dinner in and Dave was working on one of his four talks he has to give in Stake Conference this weekend.  We just stayed home.  I was so beat.  This jet lag thing is lingering. I am still on Eastern time!  I am beat by 8:00 pm and I wake up by 5:00 every morning.  I would love to be back on that cruise!  It was so fun!

dear saturday run, I got out on my run by 7 am today.

There is really no season more gorgeous than spring!  It was a lovely day!

I ran past the Pickleball courts and saw Dave down there participating in a clinic.

I found a mother lode of coins at the high school parking lot again.  I get so excited when I find that many!  I found three more on my way back as well.  When the sun is shining the direction I am running, it's so much easier to see them.  What's crazy is I see some in the exact same spot I just ran that I didn't see when I was going the opposite direction because the sun wasn't shining that way.  It's a great little message that can be applied to our lives.  When the "son" is shining in our lives, it is easier to see the good things.  He shines His light on them so they are more visible to us.  When we don't have Him in our lives as brightly, then we miss a lot of things that are already there, because we can't see them without His help.  

When I was about a mile from my house, the song "Stayin' Alive" came on my play list.  No sooner had it come on when I saw a Hearst driving down the street.  I had to stop and take a picture of it because I was laughing out loud at the irony.  After five or six miles, everything seems funnier.  Hah  

I then hurried home and planked and did my leg circuit.  I got my plank up to over 4 minutes...no idea how because just last week I could barely do 3 minutes!  

I found these gorgeous geraniums on my porch that a very kind and generous friend had left for us.  I love the colors!

dear first harp recital, Dave and I headed to Kaysville for my recital. I had to deliver my harp an hour before so she had time to tune it and get it set up.  There were a lot of harps in that house.  We had some time to kill and so we headed to Bountiful to get a Nielson's Frozen Custard to share....which was basically lunch.  Our favorite is Bumbleberry with cashews.

We barely made it back to the house in time, but luckily there were still a couple harpists that hadn't arrived yet.  I have to say I felt a little embarrassed being so much older than most of the others.  There was at least one woman older than me and maybe two.  But there were only four women, the rest were girls under 18. I was glad I got to sit by Katie.  She has her lesson before me and she is really nice.  The place was packed with harpists and audience members.  She made each of us stand up and introduce ourselves.  I could have done without that.  

The recital.  My teacher is on the top right in the mint green.  We had over 20 harpists crowded into that little room.

My adorable niece Mackenzie.  She is doing so amazing!

I was the newest beginner there.  The girl that was to my right is from Corrine and has been taking lessons for 8 years since she was six years old.  She was so good!  It was so fun watching those who have been taking for so long!  My favorite song of all time was on the program... Pachel's Cannon in D.  It is my dream to learn to play that song.  Pirates of the Caribbean was very impressive as well.  My niece played both of those and she has only been taking for a year and a half.  Maybe by next spring I will be playing something like that.  We can only hope!   I was in five numbers.  

I was in Lavender's Blue, Fairy Ring, Wind Spirits, Rustic Dance, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

First harp recital

My favorite piece is called Fairy Ring.  It's fun to play.  I like playing with two hands.  Three of my five pieces were two handed.  The best part was this was a group recital and so I didn't have to play a solo....but I will in the fall recital.  Most of us have different parts for each song and I think it sounds so good when we come together.   All in all it wasn't too bad, though it was a bit embarrassing being a beginner at my age.  Next year, I hope I won't feel like such a rookie.  What made it worse is my niece had a lot of family come and I knew most of them.  Her grandparents from her dad's side and of course, her parents and siblings.  But it was okay since I am close to them all.  Dave came to support me and Bryce text and asked for the address because he was going to come as well. How nice is that?  I told him to not worry about it because this was a group recital and he could come in the fall when we play solos.  Yikes!  I am going to have a really hard time doing that!  I did okay but once again I messed up on Twinkle Twinkle.  Hahahaha  My easiest one.  Oh well.  I have to say I felt overwhelmed with emotion when I heard the group playing Pirates.  It was so beautiful and so inspiring and it made me want to practice really hard so I can get that good.  Dave isn't as impressed as I am with the harp.  He can take it or leave it.  Not me. I LOVE it!  

*Weston's adorable wife Mary brought me a bouquet of flowers and CHOCOLATE!  How nice is that!  I totally was blown away by her sweetness to do that! *With Mackenzie at my first recital. I think it's her 4th.

*With my niece Aubrey who was babysitting my teacher's boys while she set up.  *The little guy I am with in the bottom picture is named Anders and is my teacher's son.  He kills me!  He makes me laugh every single week.  He is so much like Bryce at that age!  LOVE HIM!

Gorgeous flowers and chocolate from Mary

I will try and download a few videos Dave took of the some of the songs.  Someday I will love going back and listening to these I'm sure.  Haha  Keep in mind I have only been taking three months.  My favorite song is the last video.

Rustic Dance, Twinkle Twinkle, Wind Spirits, Fairy Ring

dear saturday night stake conference meeting, 
I sat with Dave's counselor's wives at the adult meeting and Robin and Grant asked me to save them a seat too.  We ended up sitting on the second row.  It was a good meeting.  Dave did a great job.  I am not sure how he handles it because I would be so stressed out.  He has to give four talks in two days. After the meeting, we went to our friend's the Andersen's son's reception.  Grant and Robin came with us.  It was a gorgeous wedding.  Their cake was just like the one I made for Weston and Mary only it was much better than mine.  I wanted to ask them how much they paid for it.  It was a three layer on each tier instead of two and red velvet inside.  We had fun talking to Clark after and then came home and crashed. I've been so tired this whole week!

dear sunday stake conference, we woke up to rain!  I love the rain but it was really chilly!  We headed to the Tabernacle for conference and Dave's parents saved us some seats.  Taylor's long legs make it very uncomfortable for him to sit for two hours but he managed.  That's one advantage for Dave now. He "gets" to sit on the stand in the comfy chairs.  He did a great job as did all the speakers.  I took really good notes and learned a lot. 

dear homemade rolls, I decided to make Ayako's rolls for Sunday dinner.  They turned out pretty yummy.  Taylor wanted some of them cinnamon, and so I filled a few of them with cinnamon sugar before I rolled them up and then iced them after.  They were really good!  There is nothing as delicious as hot rolls fresh out the oven!  Mmmm................. 

dear random, Sunday was National Chocolate Chip cookie day as well!  I found these on the internet.  How pretty is that?

Mr. Cat with his favorite person.  Taken two different days.

I love this picture of these two deer. One is a buck.  You can barely see his antlers.

This is how I found Taylor studying.  What a crazy kid.  Maybe that helps you learn better since all the blood has flown to your brain!

Manic Manikan is back!

dear quotes,