*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 monday, I got up early and it was so quiet and peaceful.  I loved it.  I have been lacking in that department lately.  I just soaked it in.  It felt so good to be able to just be still.  No pressure.  I did put away all the ornaments and that took quite a bit of time.  Not my favorite thing to do, but I am so grateful everyone helped last night or I would have spent all day on it.  My body was feeling unusually sore on my right side and both hips and since it was painful to even walk, I decided I probably shouldn't run today. Jen text me to go on a hike with her and I debated for a while as to what to do because I love going with her, but I decided I better be a wimp and not chance an injury.  We did go to lunch though.  We went to Old Grist and had a great three hour chat.  

Time always flies when we get talking.  It's always fun to catch up.  I can NOT believe she is a grandma!  Seriously, I cannot believe it!  Crazy!  She is a great person and I love spending time with her.  We have been through a lot together over the years and it's always so good to have a friend that gets you and doesn't judge no matter what.  I came home and should have cleaned or practiced, but I just enjoyed the quiet and did some reading and catching up on stuff that Christmas put me behind on.  We had leftover Wok for dinner and so that was easy.

dear tuesday, I had a hard time sleeping after about 2 a.m.  Gah!  Frustrates me so much!  It was pouring rain when I got up.  Dave left to go play Pickleball and I broke my new morning plan all to heck today and did my email and social media before I did what I had planned.  But, I knew I wouldn't be perfect at it. Oh, and I also ate cake for breakfast. 

I guess if you're going to blow it, you might as well go all the way!  I love cake!  Cake is my weakness.  Sounds like one of the characters in Jumanji. I can't remember his name, but cake was his weakness and it made him explode.  It makes me explode too, but in a different way!  hah  It really is true though...cake IS a weakness for me.  But, if I had no self control, I would have eaten the entire leftover pan of it and enjoyed every bite.  Fortunately, I do have some self control, though very little when it comes to cake.  The scales can attest to that the past two days.  Sigh...  But, at least if I eat it in the morning it will be less likely to be stored as "cake" in the thighs and buttocks right?  Right or not, it was a very tasty breakfast. 

We can at least pretend...

I dressed in my rain gear and headed out to get in my shower, therapy, and exercise all at once.  It was still raining hard.  I sat in my car for a while hoping it would slow down a bit (while I responded to group texts) and luckily it did.  It was only sprinkling when I started out. I got in five miles and found some coins at the high school parking lot. Yay.  

No pix of the run because my phone battery died again.  Dave was off today.  I practiced my harp for quite a while because I hadn't got in much time last week.  I worked on photos and had to delete a ton from my PC because I am almost out of storage.   I have less than 5 GB's right now.  Not good.  Since Dave was off and it was raining, I planned an afternoon date for us since Friday nights haven't been working lately.  We left at 3:45 and went to Maddox's drive in and got mini burgers and then went to see The Greatest Showman. I have read so much about it and everyone is hyping it up saying it's the best movie EVA and so I have been really excited to see it.  I think it was a bit over hyped.  Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but I think I was expecting more from all the hype.  However, having said that, I would recommend it to anyone.  It had several great messages throughout and I would go see it again.   Of course, that would be the case with any movie starring Hugh Jackman.☺

Dave had meetings and I tried to catch up on the blog a bit. I should be cleaning, but I can't get motivated to do that right now.  I have been savoring the peace and quiet the past two days because I haven't had any of that for the past month with the holidays.

dear wednesday, I actually slept in until 6 a.m. today but then Dave rolled over and woke me up.  Oh well, at least I got more than I normally do.  I practiced the harp for an hour and then got ready and headed to my lesson.  It went well.  I feel like I am finally progressing a bit faster than before even though things are more difficult. Maybe that's why, because I have to practice much harder now.  I then went to Farmington and tried to find Dave a leather jacket. Nope.  I think I have looked at every single store now.  The one I found at TJMaxx I had to return because the arms weren't long enough.  Dang.....it was one nice jacket too.  I found Taylor some shoes at Nordstrom Rack, so that was good.  I sent him pix of a bunch and he told me which he liked best.  He narrowed it down to two so I got both and will return one later.  He kind of needs to see them in person to really tell. Which one did he pick?

I then went to Riverdale and returned a few things there.  I also hit Kitchen Kneads and felt like my life was in danger. It's in one scary part of town.  I talked to mom for over an hour on the phone.  I made dinner but Dave was late getting home.  He had meetings and sadly I felt like I accomplished nothing because I was so dang tired.  Not sure if it's age, lack of sleep, nutrition (that cake for breakfast!), too much running (nah), exhaustion from such a busy month with Christmas, or what, but I'm tired of being tired! Even my tired is tired!  I feel like I'm never going to catch up this blog!  Argh!

So, today, my ONE WORD reminder necklace arrived.  I took a photo of it and low and behold will you looky there?  My FOCUS is out of focus!  Oh, the irony.  I pray it's not a sign of things to come!  Brouhaha!

On another note, Dave was given this↓ by an overly generous lady.  

dear thursday, I headed out and got in an 8 miler today. I can't run tomorrow and so I decided I better go at least 8. I am so not looking forward to my 14 miler on Saturday.  But...it has to be done!  My bones hurt from running today.  Not sure what is going on but I am feeling the effects more this round.  Got a little bit of snow.

 It is crazy to me that here it is mid January and we have ZERO snow on the ground right now.  Can't ask for better conditions than that to train in!

It's feeling more like spring than winter!

I went to Homemakers and Julie Ellis gave a talk titled, "You Are Awesome!"  It was "awesome"! 

I didn't "hang around" and chat much because I had to get home and get a lot done.  We take dinner to Dave's parents every Thursday and so I worked on that and then had to run back to the dentist to pick up my trays.  The bottom one didn't work and so Lori did it again.  I chatted with Robin and Katelyn (about Taylor - she is going to get him married off! Hah).  I ran to Wallies to grab some stuff for the Hoop Shoot tonight and it was really windy.  Like hurricane force winds!  Okay, maybe not quite, but sheesh!  I ran Dave's parents dinner to them and then went to the church for the stake YW Hoop Shoot.  It turned out really well.  We had a clinic first and then the contest. We had way too many treats though.  Mostly just Beehives showed up.  

I actually had more energy tonight than I have lately and so I published a blog post. I am still so far behind though.  This dang blogging takes so much time. I truly wonder if I should keep doing this, but something I can't explain compels me to do it. I got the Sista VDay invite out too. 

dear friday, I had to be to Sky's to tend Carson by 9:15 a.m.  He was still sick but feeling a lot better.  He was pretty excited to have me there and showed me all his toys and we watched part of a movie.  I took him some prizes.  Some Lincoln Logs and some gummy bears and a couple other things.  We went outside for a bit.  He had a lot of energy.  Hopefully, he over his sickness.

We talked to the horses and decided to go get an apple for one.  Carson named them.  The one he named Star is the one we gave an apple to. I tried to smash it into half by throwing it on the ground but it didn't work.  When we gave it to Star, he bit it in half and broke it.  He ate it and was loving it, but then he started to choke.  I felt so bad!  I wasn't sure what to do because he was on the other side of the fence and so I told Carson that I think we just killed him.  We decided we better say a prayer to ask HF to help him.  We did.  He was still choking!  So Carson said we better pray again.  We did.  He was still choking.  We prayed at least three times.  Panic!  He finally stopped choking.  Whew!  Then he started again!  But he eventually stopped for good.  I told Carson we needed to thank HF for answering our prayer and helping Star.  So we did.  It seriously was a miracle. I could see him choking to death right there as we watched.  Oh. My. Goodness.  And he's a show horse too!  Yeah.   Once we knew he was going to be okay, we went inside and played some games.  Carson is a total blast to hang out with.  Sarah came home and we decided to head to the clinic to get her head looked at by Dave because she had a huge bump on it and Sky was very concerned (all the way from California) and insisted she go.  She isn't comfortable driving here yet and so she was going to follow me (I had Carson with me), but I took the wrong turn out of their apartment. She made it there okay though.  We had to wait a while before the surgery room was open so Carson played like he was the doctor.  He examined my leg and cut it open (pretend) and dug all kinds of stuff out of it.  Great doc!

Dave lanced Sarah's head to get the infection out.  He gave her several shots to deaden it and she was pretty brave but you could tell it hurt her and she was very scared.  I felt so bad for her.  Carson was so cute.  He held her hand and whispered to me, "We need to say a prayer for my mom."  So we did.  Dave worked on her for a very long time.  I really felt so bad for her. I am sure it was killing her.  Poor thing.  

FINALLY, he was done and we headed to Walmart to get her script for an antibiotic.  Carson found a bunch of furry friends!

Sarah had a hot pink corban band around her head thanks to Dave.  I said goodbye to them and Carson was sad, but I told him he was coming to Grammy's party on Sunday which helped a little, but not much.  Dave didn't get home until about 7:30.  We ate at Old Grist so I could carb load.  I love their grilled sandwiches.  Turkey Bacon Pesto!  Mmm....  

I hid some water on my route for my long run tomorrow.  We watched a movie on TV. It was a Three Musketeers one.  I fell asleep after about 20 minutes.  Hah.  Big date night!

dear saturday,  I was really dreading my long run today.  It always takes me a while to really get it in my brain that it's here and happening.  Today was a 14 miler.  I expressed my sentiments to Dave.  Well, more of a, "Why do I do this to myself?"  He responded with, "Because you can!".  I was grateful he reminded me of that at that moment because I really needed to hear those words.  I met Sheri at 7:30 a.m.  Originally we were going to run to Perry and back, but I just could not wrap my head around that.  I decided it wouldn't seem so far and long if we did a bit of an out and back and avoided Perry.  At least when I do my 10 milers, that is how it feels.  Sheri was on board.  She is pretty much good with whatever.  My hips have still been sore and painful, and bothered me during but not as much as I thought they would.  I forgot about the hidden water and so we stopped at the Nat for a drink.  We were just a bit over halfway then.  I was not feeling as good as I usually do on long runs and I was much slower, but we ended up doing a 10:12 overall pace so I was okay with that.  Not sure I could have pushed it much more with how the old bod was feeling.  I miscalculated a bit and so we were done when we still had over a half mile to go and I was ready to walk as soon as our Garmin's beeped.  Sheri would have ran another 14, but I was done.  It felt good to have that checked off. 

I look a little giddy.  I think I was just SO glad to be done!

I felt like I had done a 20 miler.  I took a hot shower and that helped. Taylor showed up and we caught up.  McKay was still here as well. I spent the day working on my SS lesson, cleaning, and making lasagna for dinner tomorrow, which took an hour.  Lasagna is my all time favorite, but I don't make it as often as I would if it were a little quicker to make. I do have a good crockpot lasagna recipe, but it's not quite as good as my regular one.  I ran to the store and bought a bunch of food for the boys to take back to college.  They always appreciate that.  Taylor headed back as did McKay.   

Mr. Cat loving this mild winter as much as I am!

The case of the missing snowmen has been solved!  Dave found all of them in a box in the basement.  Not sure how the story on that one pans out, but just glad they have been found!

dear sunday, I got up early as per norm.  I worked on my lesson, my mom's cake, her gift, party prep for tonight, the dinner, and barely made it to church on time even though it doesn't start until 1:00 pm.  

She wanted money and so I had to think of a creative way to give it to her.  The candles (made out of paper I printed on the computer) have money in them.  Kinda fun!

I made my mom a chocolate raspberry ganache cake, but it had a mind of it's own.  I cut it in four layers and the top layer decided it wanted to be the second layer.  Sigh.  I had to dowel it and work my magic but somehow I managed to get it lookalike presentable.  That's what you get when you do things on the Sabbath that probably should have been done the day before.  Sacrament was really good. Kim and Audrey spoke and I loved both talks.  Audrey inspired me to want to get back into family history or indexing just by doing it once a week.  Kim talked about goal setting.  I needed both talks.  My lesson went well. I am really liking this new class. I told them the story of how Carson and I almost killed the horse and how we prayed and prayed and our prayers were answered even though I didn't have that story in my lesson plan but I felt inspired to tell it.  I have learned that personal stories always grab their attention 10x more than one you read or tell.  I need to use more of them.  I had teacher development during RS and I told them that experience because that is what the lesson was on. I told them it wasn't in my lesson plan, but I felt inspired to tell it and how sometimes I feel I failed if I don't get in everything that I had planned.  I rarely get all of it in, and I still feel like I left something out, where truthfully, they gain more from hearing the unplanned stuff.  I rushed home and worked on my mom's dinner.  No boys were going to be here tonight but Sarah and Carson were coming.  Dave helped me with the salad and then everyone arrived.  Carson was so cute. For her birthday, he made my mom a picture and picked out a frame to hold a photo of her and him (and me) and also a panda night shirt.  I made lasagna but it wasn't as good as usual. Not sure why.  Carson said something to Grammy about the whole horse story and the apple.  He said, "And we were prayer-ing....".  Too funny.  He said he is glad Star didn't die.  Me too!  Whew!  After dinner we had her cake.  It was pretty dang good if I do say so myself.   Then we opened presents and Carson was so stinkin' cute.  It was fun just visiting.  He wanted to play so I asked him to bring out the toys in the family room so we could still visit with everyone.  He brought out Star Wars and we played.  My parents left and then McKay showed up.  He had been to SLC to the worldwide devotional by Pres. Uchtdorph with Maddie. I was happy they went together.  Sarah and Carson stayed awhile longer.  I have to say I was beat.  Sunday is NOT a day of rest!  Hah

Snowmen today!

Presents from Carson.  He picked them out for her.  

Dang good cake if I do say so myself!  Can't wait for breakfast tomorrow!  :)

Happy 79th birthday to my AMAZING Mom!!! I sure do love her!

Mr. Cat is so tolerant of Carson.  He is not like this with everyone.  Too funny!  Let me rephrase that.  He is not like this with anyone!  Just Carson. Carson has a way with people and animals.

McKay and Maddie at the worldwide devotional in SLC.  They turned the lights back on just for tonight.  Cute couple.

dear quotes, all running quotes this week because I need the motivation!

dear random, I read this on a blog and I wanted to add it here because I thought it was very motivating. From: Elyse from Notes on Bliss

17 powerful miracle mindset shifts to take into 2018.

A miracle is a shift in your perception (mindset) that creates miracles in your life (love, money, success, freedom, happiness).

These are the thoughts of billionaires, the happiest people, those brave souls living their authentic magical best life, instead of the safe-but-boring life everyone expects of them.

1. Stay close to the things that make you feel alive.

We make it so hard. We ignore what actually makes us happy (personal growth, facing our fears, travel, deep conversations, the stars, pampering, creative expression, music, doing what we love) and instead try to squeeze happiness out of the wrong job, the wrong relationship, getting approval from others, procrastination, and our comfort zone. It’s like trying to squeeze coffee from a stone. Not happening.

This year stay close to (or pursue) what makes you feel fully alive.

2. The work takes work.

Some people come to me wanting a magic pill to happiness, worthiness and manifesting their dreams. The truth is that transformation is a process and it takes commitment. If you want a magic pill to your divine powers and fabulous abundant life, I'll give you one = a mirror. Because YOU are the secret ingredient to owning your worth, raising your vibration, and living with purpose and passion.

3. You will never escape your heart and soul so listen to what they have to say.

You can feel when you are not tapping into your full potential or following your desires. This feeling will not go away; it will only get stronger so you may as well pay attention to it.

4. It's not what you think you are that holds you back; it's what you think you're not.

Have you ever thought this? I’m not good enough. I’m not pretty enough. Smart enough. Capable enough. Worthy enough. Enough.

I call BS!!! You are an unlimited being of light. You were born inherently powerful, creative, worthy, loving, capable, abundant, and you matter way more than you know. You are needed.

Anything else is just a story. Start to own your truth. You ARE enough. You CAN do whatever you set your mind and heart to. You DO deserve an epic life. You CAN make a difference.

5. The standard of success in life is absolutely the amount of joy you feel (Abraham Hicks).

So many people do things for conformity, approval or security, without actually questioning the price they are paying... happiness. Measure your success by the amount of joy you feel.

6. You don't need to know how to create your dreams.

The how is not up to you. When you have a desire, your inner being immediately calculates at least 20 or 30 ways to make that happen for you. Your job is to believe, to vibrate with the energy of your desires, and to follow the inspired nudges... the baby steps. It can be so much easier than you thought was possible, and your impossible dreams become possible, through the power of miracles.

7. The longer you wait, the longer you wait.

A year from now you could be in a totally different place. But the longer you wait, the longer you'll wait.

8. You are worthy for no reason.

You are worthy because you live in an infinite holographic Universe of parallel realities where your dreams already exist. You cannot not be worthy of them; they already exist.

Abraham Hicks teaches that the cosmos is constantly providing a limitless downpour of blessings, abundance, love and opportunities to you. Your downpour (thriving and success) does not take away from anyone else. Some people have just put up their umbrella to block the miracles.

9. When you show up for the world, the world shows up for you.

The world is responding to your vibration and action. When you take a step towards your truth, alignment or your deepest desires, the Universe takes a thousand steps. But you have to go first.

10. Sometimes faith has to be the down payment on our future.

So many people stay stuck because they don't know how their desires are going to unfold. This is where faith comes in. Faith is believing in your desires before they show up. That is the whole point. If your dream was a reality, it wouldn’t require faith. Believe and you shall receive.

11. If it's both terrifying and amazing you should definitely pursue it.

If you are not growing, you are dying. Our comfort zone is by definition comfortable but few miracles happen there. If you are terrified it is probably a good sign you are expanding.

12. Make time for YOU and you will be amazed how much more life you have time for.

Invest time in yourself each day. Because 17 seconds of alignment is worth 2000 hours of hard work. You cannot compete with the power of source energy, so learn to use it to your advantage.

That is what the Mastermind is all about. It sounds like an investment of your time, but the 2 hours a week you spend on this high vibration life-changing material, will actually save you thousands of hours of busyness, struggle, drama and hard work. Because you will learn to be present, in your authentic truth and power, and a magnet to creative ideas, guidance from your inner wisdom, and miracles.

13. You can be the victim or hero of your own story.

I know it’s tempting to blame and stay stuck. 1000 times a year my ego mind tells me, if only you had a non-toxic mother, then you would be different. Then you would believe in yourself more.

But the truth is only you can be your own knight in shining armour. You cannot change the past but you can create a new future. And it starts now. Your point of power is what you decide now.

14. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results (Einstein).

You have to change your approach to get a different result.

15. You need to change the software to change what's on the screen.

Success is an inside job. What's stopping you is on the inside.

When you shift the patterns in your mind, and learn to deliberately focus your thoughts and emotions, you can live the life that you desire. Change your mindset and energy = change your reality.

16. Sell yourself on the idea that you deserve a great life.

Because you do. You are the Universe experience itself as a human. Give it a good show!

17. It takes consistency to create magic.

You don't have to be extreme or perfect... you just have to be consistent. Consistency is what creates huge change over time. Small daily shifts over time lead to huge miracles and dreams coming true.

 Jack Canfield's article about visualization can be found HERE.  It is really good.