*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 new calling, yes, another new calling.  I say "another" because this is now my 4th calling.  I honestly thought I was getting called in to be released from (at least) one, not given one more.  But that is okay.  I am never going to complain about serving the Lord.  My new calling is the Relief Society pianist. Which is surprising because I have tried to keep it under wraps that I play the piano! Mainly because I was the Primary pianist for four years right after we first got married.  Four years was a LONG time. Playing the piano in front of others or to accompany them while they sing, is not my favorite thing to do.  It makes me nervous.  I am hoping this won't be too bad.  The good thing is my good bud Audrey was also called and so we will share the calling.  When I asked Dave who told them that I played, he answered with, "The Lord".  Hmm......  He was trying to be funny, but truthfully, I have kept it well hid for at least 28 years or so and so I think he must be right!  If that is the case, then I am happy to serve where I am needed.  My other callings currently include teaching Sunday School to the 16-17 year olds, Humanitarian specialist in Relief Society, and the Stake Young Women's assistant sports director. All four of these put together are still less time than when I was Young Women President and so I am going to just go forward and do them all to the best of my ability.

dear run, today on my run I saw this little dead sparrow. 

I couldn't help but think about the promise in the scripture that not even a sparrow will fall without Heavenly Father noticing. (Matt 10:29)  It always puts me in awe of how if a tiny bird is that important to Heavenly Father, how much more must we all be to Him.  He knows when we fall and when we need Him.  It increases my faith whenever I think about that scripture because I know how much He truly loves each of us and how much he wants to help us.  Sometimes we just have to ask.  I should remove the "just" from that sentence because even though asking may not seem like a big thing, for some reason a lot of us hesitate to "just ask".  Maybe because we know He is the God of the universe and He surely must have much more important things to worry about than our little problems (though big to us).  But the scriptures testify He does care and He wants us to ask for His help.  Sometimes He can't help us unless we DO ask.  (Look up Prayer in the LDS Bible Dictionary).  I am so grateful to a Father in Heaven who loves and cares about me and each and every sparrow.  It is hard to comprehend, but I know He does know what is going on in each of our lives - no matter how small or insignificant - and He is there for us.

 On another note, I also saw this!  A house with PURPLE shutters! 

I also saw Dave playing pickleball, but didn't have time to run over and get a close up of him.

It was a HOT day!  This summer has been pretty intensely hot.  Do I just forget or are they all like this?

 BUT, I am NOT complaining!  I so much prefer to run in the heat than the cold!

dear birthday lunch with my twinsee, I met Dawn at Hug Hes in Ogden and we had our traditional birthday celebration.  We exchanged gifts (well we ate first!). Dawn gave me a water holder filled with chocolate!   I was so excited to get a water holder that will actually keep my water cold even in the hot sun!  I needed one of those!  I gave Dawn a jar of chocolate with BLESSED on it and some jewelry I found that reminded me of her and a cute Hershey candy dish with mints because she loves chocolate as much as I do!  Oh, and a cute sign that said, "All I ask is that you treat me no differently than you would the Queen."  Hah!  We took some fun pictures.  They gave us cookies bigger than our heads for our birthday! 

After I collaged the others, I decided I liked this one ↓ better, (so a double) but I am not going to redo the collage due to time.

We then headed to the store to buy chocolate and ice cream sandwiches to give away.  In case you missed the last couple of years, Dawn is born on National Milk Chocolate Day and I am born on National Ice Cream Sandwich Day (yeah, she lucked out a bit better than I did! hah) and so we decided it would be fun each year to go and pass out those things to brighten someone else's day!  It really is fun to see the reactions people give you!  Some are hesitant, probably wondering what kind of crazy person does this and worrying it is tainted with poison!  Others are just plain grateful and happy. Today, everyone was VERY happy!  Especially one adorable little girl who immediately was covered in ice cream!  It made me happy to see her so happy.  

And that is WHY we do it.  Truly there is no greater reward in life than making others happy.  There really isn't. 

We went to Beus Pond near WSU and we had a bit of a hard time finding peeps at first, but in the end we wish we would have had more!  One guy even gave us movie passes. Karma!  It was great.  We did have one guy turn us down because he said he is trying to not eat that kind of stuff.  But overall, everyone was happy.  Next year we will have to do twice as many.

Dawn and I call each other twinsee because we have so much in common.  We are born a year apart (and a couple of days) and so much about our lives mirror each other.  We get along famously and love to spend time together.  I wish I had more time to do that!  Dawn is so fun and upbeat and I love being around her.  Yea for birthdays!  Yea for great friends!  Yea for free movie passes!  :) 


dear speedwork, I tried to get to the track early on Wednesday before the football team was there.  Success!  But...the cheerleaders AND the Rockettes were there practicing!  Ugh!  And I was the ONLY runner on the track!  It was a bit awkward, but I didn't want to have to go to the cemetery again and do speedwork, so I just did it with an audience.  They were practicing, but they had a lot of breaks when they were doing nothing (except watching me!).  UGH!  I did 6 x 800's on the track.

I was a little disappointed in my time.  Last year I was consistently getting 3:44 on my 800's, but today the best I could do was a 3:47.  That is six seconds slower per mile.  Times that by 26 and that's almost two minutes.  Two minutes might not sound like a lot, but it IS HUGE!  I really want to get a sub 4:00 again in St. George but since I got 3:58 last year, I am not sure if I can.  I need to work harder and push myself more.

dear grandma practice, Robin asked me if I would do her a big favor and watch Freddy for her while she went to her nail appt.  She didn't have to ask me twice!  I love Freddy and he was a blast.  I only watched him for about an hour and a half, but it was a lot of fun for me!  I just love little kids and babies and I am seriously in need of some of my own grandbabies! 

What a cutie!

dear birthday lunch, I went to lunch with my friend Susan for our birthdays.  Hers is one day after mine and we try to get together every year to celebrate but we haven't been too successful the past few years.  But this year, we made it!  We went to the new Corbin's in town and both got yummy salads. 

Susan is a lot of fun and an amazing woman.  Her kids are also amazing.  Her daughter is an incredible violinist, as is Susan, and when she told me her daughter practices 4 hours a day, I decided I need to practice more on the harp. Just not sure when!

dear long run before long run, my training plan said we had to do a 10 mile on Friday the day before our 19 miler.  I was not thrilled, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.  Robin showed up at my house about 6:30 and we kicked out 10 in no time at all.  hah   We did okay, but no record!  I took her on my usual 10 mile route.

dear long run, my alarm went off at the crack of insanity (5 a.m.) Saturday Dave took us up to Sherwood for our 19 miler.  It was dark when we arrived and it was a little chilly at the start.  I kept my long sleeve on until we got to the dam.  I did okay on airplane hill and all in all it wasn't too bad.  Grant's car was at the dam with some food in it we dropped off and so that helped.  I decided to not think mentally it was a 19 miler, but an 8 miler (to the dam), then a 4 miler (around the dam), then 7 miles home.  That always helps!  The canyon was busy today!  We saw so many bikers and we even ran with three more runners for a bit. 

The fish were biting in Mantua today!

I was doing great until mile 16 when I ran out of gas! We were going up a hill over the overpass and I had to walk for a bit.  I am not sure what happened, but it was feeling like a full marathon.  Probably due to the 10 miler yesterday.  And that is why you do a long run the day before the really long run.  So you are running on tired legs which will simulate the marathon.  It worked!  Ugh!  Next week we have our first 20 miler! 

dear dinner at maddox, Dave and I met Karen and Barry at Maddox to discuss concerns about the cabin venture.  The food was great and the company was awesome.  We had a good time.  And I am just almost giddy about the thought of actually having our own cabin!  Dave and I spent several hours discussing it today and weighing all the pros and cons and we think it is the right thing to do.  I am so excited!  There is a lot to figure out, but I am going to go in this with a grateful heart and not let all the details (that can be a pain) bother me. It's going to be a grand adventure!

dear more wedding pix,

 I should go back and add these to last week's post, but for now they are here.  They were too good not to post! hahahha  Aubrey and Taylor above and Barry below being snapchatted to the max. 

These were also on Snapchat.  Taylor's is the first one and my nieces are the other two.  So sweet!

dear love your spouse challenge, I accepted a challenge on Facebook in celebration of love and marriage, in which I had to post a photo of myself and Dave every day for a week.  I was also supposed to nominate two people each day.  Only about 6 or so of them actually did it.  I had a hard time (as I always do) narrowing it down on which pix to post and so I did collages on some of the days.  Here is what I posted: (These are not mushy posts because I really don't believe in all that mushy stuff on Facebook!)

DAY 1

DAY 2 

Because he comes to every race that he is able, just to support me. ‪#‎my‬#1athleticsupporter
 
DAY 3

Because he is there through it all. ‪#‎calmseas‬ or ‪#‎lifesstorms‬ 

DAY 4

 Because sometimes he will wear PURPLE just to indulge me.

DAY 5

Because he makes me a better person.

DAY 6

Because I look up to him...in more ways than one ;) 

DAY 7

Because he doesn't complain when I "encourage" him (aka force ;)) to have my kind of fun and because he takes me to the ocean (my happy place) often.

I really need to get my cruise pictures posted!  UGH!  I get so busy that I just forget!  We have so many good ones too!

dear volunteer mckay, oh my sweet baby sent us a real letter from Russia!  Yay!  So cool to see the stamps!  And just crazy to think it traveled half way around the world to get here to our home!

 He did add something that freaked me out a bit. We had a code in case he couldn't tell us what was really happening and he used it!  But I forgot the small detail that if he used it before a sentence that sentence wasn't true.  I thought what he wrote was.  Oh well... glad it wasn't!  He's a funny guy.

 Here are some pictures from this week's letter!  YAY!  PURPLE TIE made in Russia!

He is the 1st counselor in a Branch Presidency! Crazy!  Not many 19 year olds can say that!  

 His old apartment ↓

 What a cute kid!  I sure do miss him but I know he is where he is supposed to be.

dear temple, we had a glorious sunset on Saturday night.  I wish I would have had my real camera, but these aren't too shabby.

dear mr. cat, what a pretty boy you are!

dear boys, Taylor has been in Oregon all week and so I grabbed these off of Facebook and Snapchat.  This hammock photo should be framed!  He's the top one.

 They had a lot of fun! Oregon is the best!

Bryce also had a few adventures this week.  He is always camping or rock climbing!

dear oldies, a few photos I found from way back!  Look at how young they were!  I'm talking about Dave and I!  hah

 This is from our girl's trip to Las Vegas.  SO MUCH FUN!

 Taylor and I right before he left on his mission to Brazil.

 This memory popped up on Facebook! So I used it to wish Lisa a happy birthday.  It was taken on her 50th and this week she turned 55.

I used this one to wish Shauna a happy 55th! ↓

dear random, cute little baby deers!  Triplets!  They are always hanging out and jumping around in our backyard!  SO CUTE!

A cat quiz!  LOVED this cat photo!

dear quotes, 

HAH!

YEP!