*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, •★ * ░H░A░P░P░Y░░B░I░R░T░H░D░A░Y░*★ to my work hard, play hard son Taylor Wilding today who is celebrating it in Tennessee this year where he has been working and living life to the fullest as he always does while finding adventures along the way. He is not one to sit around and wait for life to happen to him, he creates the life he wants and goes for it. Our family wouldn't be the same without his teasing, funny, laid back personality! He heads off to begin a new chapter in his life in a couple weeks as he begins his dream of attending medical school. We love and miss you Taylor! Thanks for being such an outstanding son! We couldn't be more proud of you! •★ * Feliz Aniversário!!! •★ *

I can't believe he is 26!  It's pretty sad he isn't home for his birthday.  But I am glad I will get to see him on Thursday. He gets in late Wednesday night.  He is a great kid.  I guess we will celebrate at the cabin for Dave's side and once we get back for my side.  He is in an exciting time of his life right now and we are so proud of him and so happy for him.  

 Taylor's best bud CJ and him have so much fun.  CJ somehow got these pix and made a post about them for his birthday and it was hilarious!!!

 He also did this one ↓

Some serious GQ looks going on. LOL

And he posted these ↓ when it was NOT Taylor's bday.  These two crack me up!

I went to the PT gym and worked out on my own this morning. I came home and Sky and crew had gone to Bear Lake.  I took advantage of the quiet time and worked on photos and my blog. I am wondering if I need to rethink things. The blog and photos take too much time. My life right now needs that time to get caught up on other things.  I need to dejunk something fierce right now.  It's amazing how everything you own has babies and then grandbabies.  We have just TOO. MUCH. STUFF!  And I know this is a morbid thought (though reality), but when our parents leave this earth, we will have to figure out what to do with their stuff as well.  We won't have any room for it...that's for certain!  I made dinner but Dave got home pretty late.  

dear tuesday, I had my PT appt this morning.  Sad to say, my extension is still not at a -4.  Last week it was between a 1.5 and a 1 and today it was back up to between a 2 and a 1.5.  Ugh.  I am not working on it like I should be I guess.  I faithfully did my PT exercises for 5 months without missing a single day, but the past two weeks, I have not been very good. Mainly, because the exercises I do now at the gym and the home ones are more for other parts than the extension.  I have my flexion back and so I quit doing those but I need to do the others on the days I don't go to the gym.  Sky, Sarah, and boys were working at the apartment today.  I decided to head to O town and get a bunch of gifts I needed (shower, baby, birthday) plus all the stuff for the cabin food. I was assigned a giant pasta salad as well as jungle animal pretzel rods.  I went to Winco for that. I was not successful in finding Taylor anything for his bday though.  I delivered a gift to Janet for her bday and she was looking a ton better than the last time I saw her.  Sky was working late again. He is doing so well.  

I got ALL of this for TWO BUCKS!  I was shopping in Smiths and they announced this (3 packs of chips and 3 bags of tortillas with the attached coupons for $1).  SCORE!

dear wednesday, HAPPY PIONEER DAY!

May all your pies be chocolate! 😂 #trek #7yearsago #meadowmuffin

I went on a walk this a.m. and got in 3 miles.  I was keeping a pretty good pace. My ankle is still pretty painful and I have been limping more than I was a couple weeks ago.  Not sure why.  

I came home and watched a bit of the parade on TV. I can't believe I have never been to the big SLC Pioneers Day parade!  Well, other than when I ran the Deseret News Half Marathon that was on the parade route.  I love parades!  

Sarah, Carson, Chayden and I then went to the Pioneer Day event at Linda's church. It was city sponsored.  They had a train ride and we did that right off. We found out after that you needed tickets.  Hah.  Oh well, there was still plenty of room and it was free so we didn't feel too bad.  

On the train ride

We dressed up in pioneer clothes and got a photo.  Fun.  

Brother Brigham himself!

We got shaved ice and Carson made a bracelet out of pulled wool.  We also pulled a handcart!  Big day!  

Grammy and Grampy stopped by and then we went out to Asian Fusion to lunch with them.  Sky made it back and he joined us too.  

Then they had to rush off to the crater and I headed home and made the HUGE pasta salad and the jungle pretzel rods for the family reunion.  

It took much longer than I planned. I didn't get packed or Taylor's cake done either.  Sky and crew didn't make it to the crater because there was a semi on fire and it shut down the freeway so they came back.  They gave me and early bday present. PURPLE COWBOY boots!!!  

I was SO SO SO excited!  I can wear them to Bar J!  Yee Haw!!!  Sky is so nice and volunteered to go get Taylor tonight from the airport. He lands at 11 pm. 

CJ posted this ↓ and it seriously made me cry!  He was yelling, "Taylor! Taylor!"  and then Taylor turned and CJ said, "Dang it!"  Meaning their days together are over and real life has now happened.  It was soooooooooo sad!!!!

dear thursday, I went to the gym this a.m. and got in over an hour.  Not another soul in sight!

I need to get that last little bit of my extension back! It's so close! I then headed to Farmington for my appointment with Dr. Poretta. It was kind of surreal being back there.  I looked around at the women in the waiting room and I couldn't help but wonder what their stories were.  Some without hair, some with wigs, some looking frightened, some I'm sure in the beginning phases of treatment or maybe just finding out.  Cancer is a demon and I wish they would find a cure.  

My appointment went well. I really love Dr. Poretta.  She is a great doctor.  She went over my future treatment plan and told me that she thinks it might be a good idea to also get MRI's with the mammos because the tumor was the highly aggressive kind that likes to come back.  Ooooooookay.  I had not heard that before.  That shook me up a bit.  She was very concerned and basically told me that I need to be very vigilant in my self exams and be on top of the meds, mammos, and visits.  I was not expecting that. In my head, it's gone and is never coming back.  This was not what I was expecting to hear today.  Did I mention cancer sucks!  But I am going to remain positive and not focus on it At. All. and move on with my life and not give it any more of my time or attention. I will do all I need to do prevention wise and testing wise, but I am going to continue on as it was in the past and is going to stay there.

We got loaded up and headed to the cabin for the family reunion.  Dave and I drove up alone and Sky and crew drove up separately. Bryce and crew will come tomorrow as well as Taylor. I am so happy all of them can make it for part with the exception of McKster.  

Sarah and I dressed the part.  I wore my new cheetah jumpsuit (or is it leopard?) and she had a jungle print.  She also dressed Carson and Chayden in jungle shirts.  I love it!  We are so much alike that way!  No one else was dressed in jungle attire. Party poops!  Dinner was in the works when we arrived.  Everyone loved the jungle pretzel rods.

We had fun and then played a game called nine square which was really fun. We got some photos and then after doing the dishes, we had a bonfire and Aubrey played her guitar and sang.  It was fun. We had Smore's and then listened to music that Dave's parents love.  It was nice. We slept in the upstairs room with the door and basically got zero sleep because the bats are back and were walking and coming and going all night.  UGH.  I hate those things!  

dear friday, today it was weird to not go on a run. I could have gone on a walk but I was so sleep deprived thanks to the bats that I didn't feel like it. If I was training for a race I would have gone anyway.  That was kind of nice not to have to. We had a great breakfast and then Linda had lots of games planned for us.  It was a jungle theme and we got divided into our teams (we were the giraffes) and then had relays etc.  We had to design a giraffe out of a few things we were given.  We kept winning the games.  We ended up taking first place over all!  Yahoo Giraffes!  It was fun.  

GO GIRAFFES!!!

 Cousins lined up from tallest to shortest!

 The animal creations.  I was pretty impressed!

 But, ultimately our team the Giraffe's WON!

We then played more nine square and just hung out. 

Taylor and Bryce and crew arrived just in time to go to Bar J.  I usually dislike the ride home in the dark down the canyon but today the ride up could have been disastrous.  Dave actually fell asleep with his eyes open. He started to swerve over to the oncoming traffic and if I hadn't yelled his name, we would have had a head on!  I had just opened my eyes too because I had been resting them.  Way too close of a call!  I told him I was driving home!  But he wouldn't let me.  We had a good time but there was a bit of a conflict over the tickets.  It all worked out. We walked around before it started and got some fun photos. Haylie had never been to Bar J. The program had a ton of new stuff which was nice for a change. We laugh so hard even if it's the same jokes for years. They are just such good entertainers.  So much fun.  

 Beautiful view of the Tetons!

Missing McKay

 Traditional family photo at Bar J

Sarah saw some horses and told me I should get my photo with them in my new cowboy boots.  Not exactly a photo shoot (I couldn't keep a straight face) and the horse got really friendly!

 Bar J is such a fun place!

dear saturday, today we had another delicious breakfast! 

Everyone hung out and played games and it was fun.  It rained!  It was so pretty. Linda had a cake walk planned but we had to do it in the garage because of the rain.  She had a lot of fun crafts for the kids to do as well.  

My cute niece Sarah is the student body vice president at her school in Vegas that has over 3500 students.  The crazy thing is she ran unopposed.  We have some cool cousins in the fam!  
Then some went river rafting on the snake.  I opted out this year.  I am a little leery of getting in any kind of adventurous trouble I guess you could say. I love to float it but I also know it can be dangerous.  But I did have a bit of FOMO anyway.  LOL  Taylor is the only from our fam that went this year.  Highly unusual for us.  But with so many littles, it's hard.

 Taylor and Trevor rode over Lunch Counter and Big Kahuna in this little kayak. 

 They got a little water in the kayak!

Cute cousins

I made Taylor a birthday cake while they were gone.  I wanted to do a really cute white coat cake, but I ran out of time at home and that would be too hard to make up there. We had a little party for him when everyone got back. 

I spent the next hour or so cleaning the cabin.  Linda made sure Julie helped.  Haha  It was nice to have lots of help.  Taylor stayed with the Toone's and we headed home.  The goodbye was a riot.  

dear sunday, Pat Bott is my new Sunbeam partner. She will be good.  I taught today and it went well.  These kids are so stinkin' funny and so innocent.  I unpacked today and took a nap. It felt so good. I made brownies and Carson went with me to deliver them to a sister I minister to and to Linda.  I am so far behind on this it's not even funny.  I have no idea what else we did today since I am writing this so much later.

 A couple of my favorite brownie recipes to document:

Mr. Cat enjoying his summer.

dear random,  McKay was in HEAVEN when he got to go see the Panther's stadium in North Carolina!  He loves his Panthers!!!  I was so happy for him.  If only he could have got to see a game!  The stadium was closed, but he was still on cloud nine!  This was pretty sweet for him!

They also got to spend some time at the beach!

Carson when he saw Chayden. He really LOVES his brother!

Some cute pix of these cuties:

Stunning! 

Sky is the cutest Dad to Carson!

 Some shots of the remodel Sarah posted:

 Carson's Kindergarten class last year

 Sarah posted this about me on International Women's Day

 Some random shots and some cute ones of Bryce and the Littles

Here are few of my last few posts on IG.....

Some Facebook memoirs

dear quotes,

This a great article HERE about what we do before bed and first thing when we wake up.  And no, you should not be grabbing your smart phone!