*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 porch pots, FINALLY!  They are looking pretty good right now.  They will start looking even better in a week or two and then by mid July, the purple flowers will be dead.  For some reason I can't keep them alive on my porch due to the sun vs shade factor.  Oh well, I love them for the month or so that they live. 

dear running, I run past this glove in the road nearly every day.  It is a nice glove as it is giving me a thumbs up each time I run past it.  I appreciate it's encouragement.

I found this penny in a most unusual spot RIGHT after the thought crossed my mind that I would love to find a penny.  Within two seconds, there it was. 

I don't like this photo of me, but posting anyway because you can see the dirt I am kicking up with my back foot. I've been trying to get a good action shot for a while now and I'm not having much success, but I do like the dirt flying under my feet in this one.

These were some serendipitous photos. I was trying to get just one good jumping shot, (very hard to do)...my camera timer app takes a shot every second and when I saw the pix, it had captured each stage of a jumping shot.  Funny surprise.

I think the background is just perfect for running shots.  Though I still didn't get what I was trying for.  This is a secluded spot that many photographers take their subjects to for family or senior photos.

The only bad thing is, even though it's beautiful (it also has a stream running along the side), I know there are many snakes nearby and I always fear I'll run up on one.  Been there done that!

dear mr. cat, not sure this can get any more funny.  You came in and found a patch of sun and fell asleep immediately.  It must have got too hot, because then you moved on the other side where there was no sun.

dear fiasco lemon bars, Bonnie and I were in charge of the Taster's Table for Relief Society this week and since the evening theme was "When Life Gives You Lemons......"  we decided to get her friend's lemonade stand and do lemonade and lemon treats.  Our display turned out way cute, but I had some trouble with the lemon bars.  I have made more than my fair share of lemon bars and so I didn't even worry about them not turning out. I made six dozen bars.  I have to say I was more than shocked when the first pan came out seriously soupy.  WHAT?  That has never happened to me!  

There is some curse on me right now that turns anything I have to make to take somewhere into a fail!  It has been happening so much lately.  Weston's wedding cake was the worst so far, but I am not sure what is going on.  If I am making something for just my family, it always turns out perfectly.  Case in point:  the first pan of lemon bars, I stuck in the fridge to see if they would set up.  They did.  So I told the boys and Dave that they could have some of those from that pan and put the other two pans in the fridge knowing they would set up just like the first pan.  When I got home from my hair appt. I took them out and they had not set up ONE BIT!  Great!  By this time, I only had about 90 minutes before I had to get them to the church.  I hurried and made another batch and put the ones my boys hadn't eaten that did set up on a platter. I altered the recipe a bit and added some flour to it to MAKE sure they turned out.  I really like my lemon bars gooey and not firm.  The recipe I used is always so good to turn out and so I have no idea why it didn't this time.  The only thing I did different is used freshly squeezed lemon juice instead of the stuff in the bottle.  Luckily, the batch I added flour too turned out.  Not as gooey as I like, but at least they weren't soup! 

No, that quote is not an error. ↑ Twice in Relief Society when the presidency was announcing tonight's activity they accidentally said the theme is on how to make lemons out of lemonade. Those that caught it laughed and it got repeated verbatim the next week. Pretty soon it started sounding right and everyone was saying it without even knowing.  So, I HAD to write that on the board.  No one really noticed unless we pointed it out.  But it was good for a laugh.

Bonnie made Lemon Lush.  It was so good too!  
Posing in the Lemonade stand. 

This cute sunflower was the craft for tonight.  

We also had a speaker that gave an excellent talk on "When Life Gives You Lemons...."  She did a wonderful job and I enjoyed it.  Most of what she said I have heard before, but it's always a good reminder and helps motivate you to do better.  One thing she said was to hang out with people who make you laugh because laughter is one of the healthiest things we can do for ourselves.  Then after when we were cleaning up, I was in the kitchen trying to get the automatic paper towel dispenser to work and I was waving my hand underneath it over and over and it wasn't working. I was perplexed and Bonnie burst out in laughter.  She told me I had to wave my hand in front of it.  So I did and it worked.  She got quite the laugh out of watching me try over and over to get it to work with no success.  She said that I am good for her health because I am always doing things to make her laugh.  Maybe I should charge for my services.  ;)

When I left the meeting, this was the view.  It was much better in real life.

This is how Taylor arrived home after a four wheeling trip with dates. Those white pants will most likely never be white again.

dear speedwork, I headed to the track on my speedwork day (Wednesday) and it was closed.  There were still several peeps on it and so I just hopped the fence and joined them.  It was late morning and so stinkin' hot and so I decided to only do two Yasso 800's.  But once I got going, I ended up doing four.  I try and trick myself into doing more that way.  If I tell myself I am only going to run five miles, once I reach the five miles, it's always easier to go 6 -7- or 8.  It ALWAYS works with speedwork as well.  I was happy that my time was where it was last year.  I was averaging about a 3:44 pace.....BUT, my phone's stopwatch clocked me in with a 3:28!  I am still not sure I believe it because that is crazy fast and I am not sure if it's even possible for me.  The time you run two 800's is supposed to be a marathon predictor time.  So if you run a 3 minute and 28 second Yasso (two times around the track or half mile), then you should be able to run a marathon in 3 hours and 28 minutes.  It made me feel GREAT, but I'm still betting my phone was somehow off.  Either way, it got me to go another two rounds!  :)

dear run with robin, we did a quick five miler early Friday morning and just happened to see Dave as we ran up 500 South.  We had no idea he would be there, but he was there working on the lawn at our apartment that we rent out.  He snapped this photo of us as we ran by.  We had a good run.  Five miles almost always feel good.  Anything over that... I can't always say the same. :)

dear lunch and shopping with mom, I picked up my mom on Friday and we took my phone in to get the screen replaced.  The guy is amazing and I highly recommend his business.  It was only cracked in the corner when I bought it from him and he said he would replace it for free, but since then it has gotten much worse. I could barely read what was on it.  And when swiping, I would sometimes get little pieces of glass in my finger.  

While we waited, we went to a hardware store looking for a trellis' for Dave, but to no avail, however, we did get laughing.  My mom makes me laugh.  She is hilarious.  After that we decided to go visit her cousin Cathy. I've always called her Aunt Cathy. She is actually my 1st cousin once removed.  She is also a hoot.  We had a nice visit and also got a tour of her new 5th wheel. It is brand new and gorgeous.  I would love one of those someday, but I can promise that is never going to happen.  I think they cost as much as a house!  Oh, I loved it though! 
We then headed to Olive Garden for lunch!  Mmmm.....

We saw this ↓ as we were walking in.  I've been finding lots of knives and spoons, but today I came to a fork in the road.

As we were waiting to be seated, my friend Deanna, who I went to high school with and whose son also served in the Vlad Mission, came walking in with two of her sisters.  I told her I would come and find her after we were done so we could chat. When we finished, we found them, and they invited us to sit down.  We talked for at least 30 minutes.  My mom became best friends with all of them in that short time as she is famous for doing. We also saw Dave's parents as we were leaving.  We chatted with them for a few as well.  Then we hit TJ MAXX and my mom ran in to one of her good friends in there and chatted to her for a long time. While they were chatting,  I found me a cute running skirt and top. I told my mom her long chat cost me $40.  After that we got a Lime Rickey at Warren's and hit the car wash.  We sipped our drinks while we waited for my car.  I very rarely drink pop, but they were on special for 99c and so we both got one.  I only took a few sips and then I was done.  I just don't really like pop and I'm so grateful. I have enough problems with chocolate, I don't need one more addiction!  hah

At the car wash.  I think my mom is so cute.

When I took her home, she showed me this photo.  It's of her and her sisters and her mom....my Grandma Mae. 

Aunt Sharon, Grandma Mae, Aunt Dixie, my mom

This is another great photo!  It reminds me of the wonderful childhood I had with great cousins, grandparents, and parents.
Front:  my cousin Shelley (who I idolized!), my bro Jerry, cousin Bill, my Dad at the grill.  Back:  my cousin Mike sitting on my Grandpa Ed's (Eddy Bone) lap, and me in the stylin' lawn chair.

dear rainstorm, man, it really came down several times this week!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE summer rain so I'm not complaining!

dear long run, Dave took me to the sheds and I met Robin there because she had been in Logan helping her daughter with her new baby.  It was great weather!  No wind!  That has to be one of the first times ever going down Sardine. It's always windy.  It was my first time running the canyon in about nine months.  Dave really doesn't like me to and I am even hesitant because if we got hit by a distracted driver, we would not survive. And after our close call last year, I have been a little more cautious.  But I know I need to run downhill for my training for Big Cottonwood, or I will not survive since it's mostly downhill. I was so sore after the Ogden Half this year because I hadn't trained any downhill.

 Robin talked me into it today because the poppies were in bloom and she said we needed to get pictures.

They were definitely in full bloom! GORGEOUS!

We had fun taking a lot of poppy pix!

Oh man it was humid! 

We found more as we came out of the campground!  SO BEAUTIFUL!

The canyon flowers are gorgeous this time of year.

Posing with the Poppies!

We ran a little over 11 miles.  I am not looking forward to the upcoming longER runs!  But, here we go!  Bring it on!  Marathon training has commenced!

dear all hail broke loose!!!!  Holy hail!  We had one hail of a storm!  (Sorry, I like plays on words!)

I took some of these pix from the city's newspaper Facebook post that people were sharing. These are some pictures of the storm from a distance.  It was UNREAL!  

This↑ is it at our house!
This is the hail at our house AFTER it had been melting for at least 20 minutes. 

HOLY HAIL!  These are pix from the internet of what others posted.  They were golf ball size hail!

 It was so powerful that it broke many home windows, as well as car windshields and it dented trailers and cars and caused accidents and basically wrecked havoc!  It hit so fast, NO ONE even knew it was coming!  We got a weather storm warning about 10 minutes before and then it just HIT with a vengeance.  It was exciting, but WOW!  Just crazy!

The hail shredded the leaves right off the trees and leaves were EVERYWHERE!  It was a mess!

This was posted on the Facebook page of the newspaper.  I left on the name of the person who posted it.  Isn't that stunning? 

This is the aftermath of Mother Nature's wrath the next morning!

I took these on my run the next day.

The city was a MESS!

The bottom right photo is of a newspaper that had blown on the curb after the hail had shredded it.  It dried that way.
I've never seen anything like this, even after a bad wind.

Before and After of our garden......

NATURE'S WEED WHACKER!

It did a number on our tomatoes!

The orchard.....

Hopefully it will all recover, but man, Mother Nature seriously needs to get on some hormones or something!

dear quotes,