*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 run, I headed out later than I hoped and only got in 3.5 miles because I had to be in Ogden by 11:30 for a Sista lunch.  It felt good to get outside for even a short time.  It's still thawing fast!  Gives me hope that spring will be here soon!  Yippee!

The turkeys were above my hill when I left.  The males were trying to win over a female but she was playing hard to get!  LOL

dear sista vd lunch, I got up early and made brownie hearts before my run and threw together my Valentine's for the Sista lunch.

We met at the Olive Garden and interestingly enough every one that is going to Boston was there.  It seems like that the same peeps always come. I wish we could get the others out!  Dawn was also there and I really wish she was going, but she has family commitments.  It is Easter weekend and I am very surprised so many are going just because of that.  But, I am SURE GLAD THEY ARE!  We chatted about that a bit and other things. I wished that we would have requested a round table because I was on the end and didn't feel like I got to talk much to those on the other end.  Round tables rock!  I have always wanted one in my own home.  We stayed for quit a while.  I think the waitress was wondering when we were going to leave!  But it was fun!  

We exchanged Valentines. I got a LOT of chocolate!  MMmmm

I then went to Jody's car and traded my Lipsense that I bought from her a couple months ago to a new color because I really disliked the one I got.  One of her tubes exploded all over her bag.  I felt bad.  I then rushed off and got my errands done.

dear taylor home, on Monday night as I was practicing the harp, Taylor and CJ arrived home from their southern Utah trip.  They were starving and so I made them beef stroganoff.  Dave got home really late from work, but in time to eat with us.  It was nice to have them join us for dinner.  But, I forgot to take a picture!  I keep doing that lately!  Dave took this one of my makeshift shoes though while I cut Taylor's hair. 

dear vd!  Happy Valentine's Day!  I started it off doing the dreaded speedwork!  UgH!  I went to the high school track and decided I just wanted to get it over with and so I dove right in. I did 4x800's which was my goal but I really wasn't sure if I could do four since I haven't done Yasso's since before the St. George marathon.  But, somehow I survived. I was not as fast as I had hoped and I am not sure if that is because it was my first time doing them in months or if it has to do with my injury. I guess time will tell.  Either way, I am relieved those are done for two weeks!  

After my speedwork, I stopped at Val's to check out what she found on the bobble heads for our Stake YW halftime show.  I was there for quite a while trying to decide what is the best way to do them.  I am getting so excited!  It's going to be GREAT!  She told me to email her a photo of me for my giant bobblehead.  I had Dave take some photos of me but I had a hard time deciding which to send.  I ended up going with just a normal smiling face.  I am kind of wishing now I would have done a really crazy face.  Maybe a scared look.  Next time...

When I got home, these were on the counter.  HAPPY VD!!!  Dave was off today!

I got roses and chocolate!  What more could a girl want?  Okay, maybe diamonds!  But I'll settle for the flowers and chocolate.  I would actually like a dog even more than diamonds!  heh

I gave him a bag full of goodies and just fun stuff (DVD etc)

We decided to go to a late lunch and an early movie to avoid the crowds.  We have spent more than our fair share time waiting for a table on Valentine's night and so we figured out a way to beat the system.  It worked!  We ate at Corbin's Grille right here in town and there were only maybe four other tables taken.  Of course, it was 3:00 pm.  We even got to order off of the lunch menu!  Score!  The food was really good and it was even romantic!  

I had Thai Chicken and I loved it! 

We then headed to the movie.  I wanted to see LaLa Land (it came recommended by several of my peeps) because it was a romantic movie.  We have watched a lot of action films lately and we were due for a good romantic love story on Valentine's Day.  It definitely fit that bill.  The only problem was, the ending was not what I hoped for OR expected!  Dave hates sad endings anyway, but the music and dancing in it also made him dislike it. I personally LOVED all of that.  I just wish it ended differently!  So, in my head I am having it end how I wanted and how it SHOULD have!  LOL   There were only a handful of other couples in the movie as well.  I would say we did it right this year!  It's nice when Dave has the day off, which rarely happens.  Maybe he should take half a day off from now on so we can continue this tradition!  

Carson face-timed me when we got home!  He is so cute!

dear harp lesson, I had a really good lesson this week.  I felt like I improved a lot on my technique, even though it is still really hard for me.  I am excited to practice this week and get it even better.  

dear cancelled plans, the City Creek Crew had planned on meeting today after my lesson at City Creek for lunch and shopping, but the two from Pleasant Grove were unable to make it and so we postponed it.  I felt bad because I had cancelled my brunch with Karen we had planned for today because of it.  I forgot about this when I made the plans with Karen even though we've had it on the calendar for a couple months.  I knew it was too late of notice to reschedule our brunch, so hopefully next week.  I went to Park Station and grabbed some donut holes for Dave (he loves the raspberry and lemon filled ones from MadBrooks Donuts) and then I returned a couple things. I always have to run into Home Goods to just browse.  I didn't buy anything but I did find my purple chairs!  They had moved them but they were still there.  I am SO SO SO tempted to get them.  But, then I will have to do an entire room makeover and I am not sure I am ready for that quite yet. I need to find the perfect couch first and work around it.  But maybe I am wrong, maybe I need to work around the chairs?  I don't think that's a terrible price, but I would be more tempted if they were lower.

Then I met my friend Kathy in Roy to grab her emoji masks so the Stake ladies can use them for our halftime performance.  I really wish I would have suggested we do lunch, but I felt like she was in a rush.  I headed to visit Mona and take her a donut.  She was sound asleep when I arrived and I hated to wake her, but I knew she would be upset if I didn't and so I did.  When she saw me, she grabbed me into her arms and hugged me so tight and told me she was so happy to see me.  I haven't been to see her for over a month and a half and I feel bad. I need to do better.  We had a nice chat.  It's kind of sad for me to go there because I can see how she has lost so much of her freedom and lifestyle she had before.  It's so sad to get old and lose your independence.  To just sit in your little room all day and watch TV or stare out the window with the same view every single day, is just so sad to me.  Sigh.....

This is on the wall outside of her room.

dear make bobble heads, I met Val at the church and she brought the bobble heads she had copied and so we cut them out and traced them onto foam board and then cut them out of the foam as well.  It took a lot longer than I planned on. I was over there for over two hours.  Ayako showed up to help when she could.  I am so excited for our performance! It is going to be hilarious! 

The process.  Before the foam board!

Tracing to the foam board

Cleaning up

This makes me laugh!

dear run, I didn't get out as early as I had hoped on my run and so I didn't quite get in five miles.  Close though.  

I found these today while running.  The top right penny is FAKE!  I had no idea until I got home!  It looks so real but has a thicker edge.  Haha!  I wonder if someone planted it because it was right on Highland!  LOL

I also found some LOVE from heaven! 

dear revelation study group, I studied and did my reading assignment and also my city assignment several days this week.  I was assigned the city of Smyrna.  Carol amazes me!  She is in her 80's and yet she is so intelligent and so wise and so organized!  She is amazing. I feel so blessed she is teaching this class so I can just be near her to soak in her example and knowledge.  She is one of the most intelligent women I know.  I am enjoying the class.

dear practice for halftime, I had a lunch planned today that I had to cancel because the stake ladies could only practice at that time.  I ran to the church and we basically threw the whole thing together in two hours.  I am excited!  It is going to be fun!  It's amazing what you can come up when you put seven fun (BIG) creative heads together....literally!  We decided to put the emoji masks on the back of our heads and come in with those on as we looked back at the stage...then we would grab our huge bobble heads and it would be like SURPRISE!!!  Sherrie and I did most of the choreography and everyone was so willing to do whatever!  It all just came together thanks to everyone's help and ideas.  Everyone kept thanking me for coming up with the idea and how fun it is and what a riot it is going to be tonight.  I am just happy they were willing to do it!  haha  When I suggested we do a halftime show, I honestly thought they would laugh but say no thanks.  Nope, they were all on board and enthusiastic about it from the first suggestion. I love working with all these women!  I came home and got my outfit ready and made the sportsmanship medals.  Then I headed back to the church.

dear halftime show!  We met at the church a bit early to run through the dance one more time.  We all wore referee shirts and black yoga pants.  The first game went well but there weren't as many girls or spectators as there usually is because we found out there was a band concert at one school and something else big at another and so it took a lot of the girls and parents to those things.  Oh well.  We were still excited!  

We did our first show and it went really well!  The girls were getting a kick out of it as well as the parents.  It was SO much fun to do!  The second game we were also lower in numbers, but we still had a pretty good crowd.  That performance went even a bit better.  We were just all having the time of our lives and enjoying it!  These woman are all so fun!  The third time, the place was packed!  We have never had SO many spectators EVER in the two years we've done this!  We joked around saying that the word got out that The Stakettes (what we called ourselves) were performing and they were breaking down the doors to get in!  We actually had to set up more chairs!  A lot more!  That made it even more exciting, but we were also very nervous!  haha  Dave even showed up after his visits!  

We totally messed up the kicks on the last one. haha  Oh well.  Overall, all three had good and bad parts. If we could combine all three of only the good of each, we would have a perfect one.  But, it really doesn't matter because we had such a good time doing it!  Now we want to go and perform at our stake girl's camp in June!  haha  We seriously do!  Someone suggested blowing up our high school pictures so the girls can see what we looked like when we were their age.  Maybe next year's halftime show.  Not sure how we can top this!  LOL

Sherrie was ecstatic about her bobble head!  She now wants a full body one!  LOL  We had some good laughs that's for sure.  I think the girls loved seeing their leaders let down their hair (or paste it on foam board!) and have fun!  

Sherrie posted this ↓ on Facebook: Don't mind my friends... just because they have big heads doesn't make them a bad person.  Too funny!

Here is the youtube video of our last one:

Here is the clip of the second performance that we nailed the kicks on.

dear friday run, Bryce headed back to Idaho and so I got out a bit later than planned.  It was warmer that way!  It was 42 degrees, which feels like a heat wave!  I went and did some trail running out west.  Still pretty soggy.  Everything is so wet.

We have so much run off from the mountain that our waterfall is going full blast.  This photo didn't capture the water for some reason, but it is roaring.

What remains in the yard from the SNOWMEN. Kinda sad!  hah

dear date night, Dave didn't get off until almost 8:00 pm.  They are short on docs right now and he has been working late almost every night.  We decided to go rent a movie again.  We went so long without doing that, that now we are having fun doing it again... almost every weekend.  Haha  We rented Arrival this week.  But first, we went and ate at Old Grist.  I have a 19 miler run in the morning and so I wanted something substantial and ordered my fave, the Turkey Pesto Bacon Grilled sandwich.  It was soooo good! I always give my bacon to Dave and that makes him happy. I love bacon, but only well cooked! I always bring the other half of my sandwich home so I can snarf it after my long run!

I forgot to take a photo so this is from the internet. :)

We didn't start the movie until after 9 pm.  Not too late, right?  But... apparently we are old.  We both fell asleep before the first 30 minutes!  Serious!  Oh well!  In our defense, it was a slow moving movie.  Haha  Zzzzzzzzzzzz

dear long run, I headed out to get in some miles before I met Robin because she isn't running a marathon until June and so her long run miles aren't the same as mine.  So, I got in seven miles and then ran home to change my clothes because I overdressed and got too warm.  I also tried to eat something because I didn't before I left and I knew I would need some fuel if I was going to get in 12 more miles.  I ate half a banana and a granola bar.  Not smart.  I immediately started to feel sick to my stomach.  I met Robin and luckily she had some peppermint gum with her that she gave me and that helped calm my stomach a lot.  I'm never running another race without some of that!  We took a different route and headed towards Perry.  The wind picked up and it started to rain.  I can handle the rain, but the wind......ugh!  We were running with a head wind for at least 7 or 8 of the miles!  Once we got back on the highway in Perry, it finally stopped.  We made one potty stop at Walmart and four stops for water breaks.  One at Common Sense, Maverick, Taco Time, and 7-11.  That might be a record!  haha  I took a blox with caffeine about mile 8 or 9 (mile 15 or 16 for me) and it gave me the energy I needed to finish.  Robin wasn't feeling the same. She really struggled the last couple of miles.  I think those things give me a bigger boost because I don't ever drink anything with caffeine.  I was so grateful I was able to finish strong.  But, I was pretty useless the rest of the day.  

As soon as I stopped running and got home, my stomach started to really hurt.  I was not feeling well.  I showered and got ready for the day, but had to lay down for a bit.  I felt bad because Taylor had come home and my plan was to make raspberry rolls.  I just couldn't do it.  I could barely stand.  I am glad I don't feel like that after all of my long runs because I felt like I had wasted my day.  Dave and I decided to give the movie one more attempt before we returned it.  This time we both stayed awake.  Probably because we started it at 6:00 this time!  haha  It was an interesting movie.  Not sure it was worth our time.      

dear sunday, Dave had early meetings and I woke up with him at 5:30 a.m. I couldn't go back to sleep and I had a lot to do and so I just got up and practiced my songs on the piano for Relief Society.  Then I worked on my Sunday School lesson and made treats for my class.  I hurried and got ready and ran to the church where he was speaking to try and catch his talk.  He doesn't always get much time to speak, but I feel bad I have missed so many of his talks and I don't think I will be able to attend most of the rest of them because they will be at the same time as our sacrament.  I am speaking next week about McKay's mission.  I am actually excited!  It's not hard to get a mother to speak in sacrament if it's to talk about her missionary son!  On my way to my class, I had a rip-snortin, root-tootin' time!  :) ( Inside joke with my friend Tammy.)  We laughed and laughed.  My Sunday School class went really well and we even had a member of the SS presidency attend.  I only had three kids, but they were all participating really well.  I did an object lesson on agency where I had one feed the other one of the cookie bars I made without them doing any of the work. I think it made the point how important it is to use our agency to act and not be acted upon.  Taylor came home and we fed him and then the home teachers came.  Taylor made the best smoothies later that night. Oh, so good! 

dear mr. cat, we all know who he really loves.  Look at that arm wrapped around Dave. Hmph! 

dear i am in LOVE!  I found these absolutely DIVINE cookies in the Kent's Bakery donut case!  They are just as good, if not better than SWIGS!  AND.... they have LEMON flavored as well!  AND....they are only 79 cents!  Anyone who knows me knows that Swigs sugar cookies are one of my greatest weaknesses and I often say I am glad I don't live close to one because I would be a TWO TON TILLY!  Well, now I have a place to buy them (only maybe better) for even cheaper!  I could even grab one while I was out running!  Which I will have to do a lot more of now that I discovered these!  OH MY!  HEAVEN SENT!

They look misshapen because that's the way I eat them.  I cut off a little piece here and there over the day so I don't scarf the entire thing at once (which is what I REALLY want to do but I try to have some control!). One of these times I am just going to eat the whole thing at once and go into a sugar coma.  I actually think I would enjoy that! 

dear random, I love this story here. It's titled: "Brothers Who Started $100 Million Company Say 1 Question Mom Asked Every Night At Dinner Sparked Their Business".

When my boys were little, each night I had them tell me one thing that happened that day that was happy and one that was sad.  We called it Happies and Sads. I kept their answers in a notebook for many years.  I have several full notebooks.  After reading this story, I wonder if I should have just asked for their one happy and not the sad, but the more I think about it, I am grateful I included the sads as well, because I hope it taught them that each day is going to have both, but we can choose which one we focus on.  It also helped me to learn what was happening in their little lives at that time because boys aren't always so willing to tell Mom about things like that.  I learned a lot from doing it.  It's one of those things, I am so grateful I did and followed through each night even though it wasn't always easy. 

 These are some copies of a few pages of one of the books.  What a crack up!  I was laughing or crying just from reading some of these!  Mostly laughing!  McKay was about four years old and his happy was almost always that his "boo"-tiful Mommy was home and his sad was that we had to wake up in the morning.  LOL  I noticed the boys often wrote their happy was that we were altogether.  That says a lot because it was a gift when we were altogether during that time because Tyson was frequently in the hospital or Dave was working long hours.  I am so glad I have these precious memories.

Speaking of memories...  A high school friend posted these ↓ on Facebook.  I may have added them on my blog before, but just in case.  Can you find me?  Hint:  I'm always one of the shortest so always on the front row.   And probably wearing some shade of purple.

 Mrs. Grow (6th grade - above) was probably my favorite teacher.  She had a fish named Barney that we got to take turns fish sitting over the weekend and cleaning his bowl.  I still remember the putrid smell of that bowl!  Bleh!
 

A Taylor snapchat a few weeks ago

My Mommy's dance group

 Not sure who to credit these gorgeous photos with, but they are just stunning.

 This is a lighthouse taken in Brazil.  What an amazing photo.  It should win an award!

As I was scrolling through Facebook last week, I saw this post.  I completely forgot I had a luncheon with American Mothers for the Mother of the Year!  I even paid for it!  I simply didn't put it on my calendar and so I FORGOT!  The worst part of all is that the winner of the Mother of the Year was from my town this year!  I can't believe I did that!

 Taylor showed me how we can play games on our phone via text messages and so we like to play a couple of word games with the new IOS update.  That kid is hard to beat even though I am the reigning Boggle champ in our family (oh yeah!),  but he can sure take me down on this electronic version.  But it's fun! I play with his friends too.  One is called Anagrams.

So excited I beat him and tied him too!

dear quotes,