*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 walk, yep, STILL not running.  I'm surprised I have lasted this long!  I did walk though.  I went to the track and my friend Sarah was there.  I walked with her for a mile or two and then she left and I headed out around the school.  I had to rush home because Dave called and said the fridge repairman was waiting at our house.

Fall is definitely here in full swing.  I wish I could say the same about my running!  It was raining when I started out but unfortunately didn't last long.  Nothing like a rainy fall day!

  These were taken with my trusty iPhone camera.  Glorious flowers in the fall.

The bees are still buzzing!

dear fridge NO repair, welp, the good news is it IS the compressor.  (Still under warranty! YAY!) The bad news is it's going to take three more weeks because they are back ordered!  WHAT?  Yes.  Three. More. Weeks.  Good thing I'm not having Thanksgiving at my house!  The repairman said he's had 16 cases with the same issue the past few weeks.  Great.  Back to pioneering.  


dear lunch with ma and pa, my cute parents came up for an appointment with Dave on Monday and they called and invited me to lunch at Idle Isle.  It was later in the day and so I had already eaten, but I went along for the company and one of Idle Isle's famous rolls!  Mmmm....  It rained off and on all afternoon and night.

dear garden harvest, Dave brought home some green peppers from the garden and so we (I) stuffed them for dinner.   They were so good.  After we ate, he watched the game so I watched Dancing with the Stars.  They kicked Marcia off (technically Maureen, but she's still Marcia to me).  I was sad.  I have loved watching it this season because she was on it.  I am so not used to watching TV at night, that I forget it's on and have to go and find it sometimes On Demand.

 Dave put up several quarts of grape juice this week as well.

dear taylor home from tx, Taylor arrived home from Texas about 2 or 3 a.m.  He wanted his hair cut and so I decided to try the Flowbee again.  He wasn't real thrilled, but it does a good job.  He's got some whiskers going there.  I think he looks cute. Like a true Texan.  Dave was off and made us an omelet with fresh veggies from the garden.   Mmmm....

dear hill repeats, I went to Kotter and did 11 hill repeats.  Walking hill repeats, mind you!  Oh man, I was so done by the 11th. Actually, I was done by the 8th.  This not running is going to kill me. :) I always thought walking was easier, but I'm not so sure!  There were a million grasshoppers today!  I counted over 140 just going up one trail! 

dear $700 worth of food down the drain, okay maybe not down the drain, but out to the garbage.  We cleaned out our main freezer today and the door had apparently been left opened for a time and then closed again because things had been thawed and then refrozen.  We had some berries that had leaked (from the thaw) and it was a mess to clean!  It needed it anyway, but we threw out a lot. Wow between the kitchen fridge and freezer and now this one, we have lost a lot of food.  I do have to say it feels good to have it cleaned out though. 

 The berries left a huge mess when they thawed!  It was amazing how just a couple squirts of Clorox and it was instantly white again. I love that stuff!

dear sky coming for christmas, Sky called me to tell me he will be coming home for Christmas.  He is bringing Sarah and Carson with him.  That will be a new thing for us.  I need to figure out how this will all work out. I have to say I am excited though!
   

dear harp lesson, I didn't feel as prepared this week as I have been recently, but it still went okay.  I enjoy my lessons.  She is an amazing teacher.  I am grateful to Karen for referring her to me.  

dear scary movie day, Carla was hosting our annual scary movie Halloween party this week.  After my harp lesson, I headed to Krispy Kreme and got a dozen donuts.  They were making pumpkin spice ones all day today.  I turned them into Vampires for the party.  

It was so much fun.  We had chili and cornbread that Carla made and Dawn brought a brain dip and Jody also brought donuts.   I brought some cute Halloween dish towels to give them all.

I took the movie Rear Window with James Stewart.  It's an Alfred Hitchcock film from the 50's.  Kathy arrived while we were watching it.  It is a classic.  I do have to say I never knew it was a comedy, but when watching it with these guys, it totally was.  Especially Robin.  Oh my, she can make anything funny.  The special effects were a bit much for her and she had us dying laughing at her remarks.  We all had a good time making fun of some of it.  

We took some photos after of us with our apple juice. Or should I should say warming our apple juice like James Stewart and Grace Kelly did with their brandy?  Yes, we are grown women that act like teenagers half the time, but it keeps us young!  We have a great time together.

dear ward party,  we had our annual chili cook-off slash Halloween party tonight.  I made a pumpkin sheet cake. This was the first time I made it and it were REALLY good. I will include the recipe here because it's really yummy if you like pumpkin!

Pumpkin Sheet Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup pureed plain pumpkin (canned plain pumpkin)
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

  Frosting

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 5 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 13 x 18 jelly roll pan with butter or spray with Baker's Joy.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together melted butter, milk, pumpkin and sugar. Whisk in eggs and vanilla extract. Then whisk in flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt.
3. Pour batter into prepared jelly roll pan and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
4. Once cake is baked, place butter and cream cheese in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 1 minute and try whisking, if not melted enough, microwave for 30 seconds more and whisk until well combined. It might have some lumps in it from the cream cheese, but those will go away once you add the rest of the ingredients.
5. Then whisk in milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon and powdered sugar - until smooth. Pour on top of hot cake and spread icing out to the edges. (This makes A LOT of frosting.  Could probably cut it by a third or at least a fourth).
6. Let cool until frosting sets before serving. You can speed up this process by popping the cake in the fridge!
7. Refrigerate cake until ready to serve, and let cake rest on counter for 10 minutes before serving to let it warm up just a little.

Dave made clam chowder to enter in the contest.  He ended up winning an award!  I wish I could say it was good, but I wasn't about to let those clams pass through my lips!  Bleh! I did try it before he added them and I must say it was pretty tasty. Not sure why he would go and add those nasty slimy things to a perfectly good soup.   

The McCarleys were there too.  We have a ton of new ward members and I didn't know half the people that were there.  I talked Betsy, Bonnie, Jen, Audrey, and Janet into going through the spook alley as per tradition.  We lost Audrey, but headed through it and we all came out alive but with asthma thanks to the smoke machine. 

It's been a rainy week and it was raining when we left to come home.  No, no, no, not complaining. I love the rain.


dear study group, I actually got my reading done before this month's meeting.  I was so proud of myself!  I also took some handouts to everyone about the question that came up last month about denying the Holy Ghost.  I did some research and found a quote by Pres. Kimball that said many think Judas Iscariot will be a son of perdition, but since he didn't have the fullness of the Holy Ghost at the time of his betrayal, it sounds like he will have another chance.  I was happy to share that.  I am always rooting for the under dog and I really believe he felt bad and would make it right if he could.  None of the apostles had their exaltation (or damnation) sealed because they didn't have the Holy Ghost at the time.  We talked about that quite a bit and then Anna Marie took us into a room where she had a ton of stuff on display from the Holy Land.  Her husband served a mission to Palestine. The mission was only open for three years and he was one of the 28 missionaries to serve there.   Cheryl also brought a lot of her souvenirs from her trip to the Holy Land as well as her photo album.  It was really interesting to see all of the things from there. I would LOVE to go visit there, I just wish it were safer.  It would be such a life changing experience to walk where Jesus actually walked.  I am sure the spirit of that place is incredible.  But then again, we can all have that spirit with us whenever we want if we but ask and are worthy of it.

dear walk, I headed to the track to get in my walk after our meeting.  I walked down west of the school and almost stepped on a snake!  Sheesh!  Just when you think they are hibernating! 

I also found some coins under the bleachers.  They were camouflaged, but I was not leaving until I found at least one!  Here's a Where's Waldo moment. Can you see them? ↓

Fall is spectacular!

I had a million gnats attached to my shirt.  I think they thought it was a light because it was so bright!

dear stake volleyball, Thursday was out our last game for the season.  It was the girls vs the leaders.  It turned out to be one of the funnest nights so far.  We had a ton of moms and leader show up to play.  Ayako was definitely inspired with this idea.   

I also had been thinking about the cute girl that helped us with the scoring two weeks ago who isn't a member, but such an adorable thing.  I felt a connection with her for some reason and she is moving in three weeks and so I felt an urgency to share with her what we have.  I was going to take a book to her, but then didn't feel it was right and so I was just praying things would work out.  McKay asked us to look for a miracle in our lives each day and today I didn't really even have to look.  It was obvious what it was.  The sister missionaries showed up to play.  I told them about her and they talked to her about setting up a time to chat.  She agreed on a time and I was so excited.  I knew that the miracle was that both her and the sisters even came tonight.  Sadly, I was told on Sunday that her dad wouldn't allow them to come and meet with her.  But I will keep praying for her.  She's like a soul sister.  Just love her.  

dear bike ride, I decided to try out some biking to see how that works.  I haven't been on my bike all summer.  Crazy, I know.  It felt good.  I ended up going out west and got in almost 15 miles.  I wasn't even sore after.  

dear date night, Dave and I headed to Bear River in the pouring rain to McKay's friend Jordan's wedding reception. It's so crazy that he is married. He was just hanging around at my house a year or so ago and now he's married.  He asked about McKay and told his wife (who had never met him) that he is the most positive and happiest kid he knows. He asked me if he was ever sad because he had never seen him sad except when he talks about his brother (meaning Tyson).  I told him he was a really happy kid and always positive. He told me he how much he admires him and what a good friend he was.  He said something about me running Boston and about how much I love purple. I left there very impressed that on HIS big day, when he could have talked about himself, he instead talked to us about McKay and my interests.  I really admire people like that who focus on others instead of themselves especially when it would have been totally normal for him to do that since we went there because it was his big day.  I think that is a rare thing in this world because most people would be talking about themselves.

dear dinner, after the reception since we were almost to Tremonton we headed to the Pie Dump but it was closed. We decided to try El Parral.  We waited for at least 45 minutes for our food and the food was "okay" at best.  It was pouring outside!  We came home and I snuggled up in my heated blanket in my chair in my room and watched some scary movie while Dave watched the rest of the World Series.  

dear boston marathon acceptance!  My "official" acceptance into the Boston Marathon arrived in the mail this week.  I have to admit, it made me stop and have to pinch myself again.  It's so hard to believe it's real!  Now to get that lodging before we end up on the streets!

Woo-hoo!  So excited!

The backs for my St. George Marathon medals also arrived.

dear saturday, I headed out on my bike again on Saturday. I only got in 12 miles today, but I enjoyed it a lot.  Biking is fun because it is fast. But since I forgot my sunglasses, I kept getting small gnats in my eye!  I could hardly see at one point!  But it was worth it because fall is so beautiful!

I don't usually find coins while riding my bike, but today I actually saw a quarter!  I also found a couple pennies in the high school parking lot.  That place hasn't failed me yet! 

Shortly after I got home, Taylor got home from duck hunting with Scott and Rob.  They didn't catch anything.  Correction, I mean "get" anything.  Dave always tells me you don't "catch" a duck or a deer.  You catch fish!  Rouze did homework while I got busy organizing and cleaning my room.  I need about a week!  When Dave got home we took Taylor out to lunch at Golden Spike Burgers. He loves that place.  I got a salad and they got burgers.  This not running is making my pants fit too tight!  Ugh! 

 We came home and I worked the rest of the day on my room.  I did practice the piano and worked on my SS lesson as well.  Taylor headed back and I watched another scary movie before bed.  I love scary movies as long as they aren't gory, evil or satanic. I like the intense scary kind.  So fun!

dear sunday, I got up at 6 a.m. and finished preparing my lesson. It was on parables and object lessons and it was a lot of fun to give.  I brought some treats (I ALWAYS do!) that doubled as an object lesson today.  I asked three of the kids to pretend I was Heavenly Father and they were praying for something they wanted.  I then had them draw a piece of paper.  Two drew papers that said YES and one drew one that said NO.  To the ones that drew YES, I gave them a mini candy bar.  To the one that drew NO, I gave him a giant candy bar.  I used the analogy that sometimes HF has a better plan for us than the one we are asking for and when He says NO sometimes we end up much better off than if He had just said YES.  It was good. Then I gave them all big candy bars.  One of the SS Presidency came in to observe, and after the lesson he told me I did a good job and he was very impressed how I kept them engaged and participating and how well prepared I was.  Whew!  Glad I was today!  haha  There are some days, that even though I am prepared, it doesn't always come off as if I am.  Today was a good day.  I had some good object lessons and had them all take an item I brought and come up with an object lesson they took and they did an amazing job.  I also had them try to come up with a parable.  Those that did, did great.  I love teaching these kids so much.  

I was so hoping for a nap today.  I was able to get in an hour or so.  I did start watching another scary movie to help me fall asleep.  It worked!  I love that at this time of year so many of the good ones are on and I have a hard time not watching the really good ones.  The oldies are my faves!  We had the home teachers come and they are always a lot of fun.  Then Troy and Carol dropped by.  I feel blessed because I started asking her about my injury (she is a PT)  and she told me to not start running until I get it strengthened. She told me what exercises to do this week and see if I can get it stronger.  Then next week I can maybe run.  I am still going to call my PT and see what he says as well.  It does make sense to get it strengthened.  And it explains why it still feels the same. She says it's an over use injury and in order to get it better I need to get it strong.



dear volunteer mckay, Yay!  I got more pictures this week!  It's winter there already.  He is really loving Sakhalin.  Some pix with his new comp Elder King.

dear mr. cat, yeah, I know.  But still gonna keep taking them!

dear halloween, check out what I found (and did) in Shopko!  I was laughing so hard.  THese are great!

Some homes in the hood!

Hahahahahaha ↓

dear random, what the?????  Lilacs!  At the end of October?  How?  No idea.  Explain!

Not sure how, but I can see a great talk in here somewhere.  At the very least a great quote or analogy.  I'm working on one.  I'm thinking "late bloomer" or even how sometimes thing happen in this world if it's Heavenly Father's will even though it is sometimes almost impossible to explain how.  But we must have FAITH that even those things we can't understand or "get" at the time, can still happen.  Yeah, it needs some work, but I am out of time for now.

Check out what I found in the bread bag! You don't see that everyday!  Instead of pennies from heaven, now I might have to start collecting manna from heaven!  :)

A few lost photos that I got from Dawn at our party.  These were taken on my birthday.  Love these Sistas!

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