*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, ugh!  I am SO SO SO SO SO behind on this thing!  I can't believe I got caught up and then BAM! Christmas hit and now I am a month behind. MORE actually!  Sigh.  But, I DID get my photos to work again. With my new phone, they were not downloading onto my computer and it's been SO frustrating!  So, that's good. Now I just need about 24 hours to catch up!  Like I said, I might be rethinking things. Seriously. I still haven't done the family newsletter!  UGH!  I thought for sure New Year's. Then Valentine's Day. But even that isn't looking too good at the moment. I just need to go to a secluded island and be alone for a week and it would get done. Actually, I wouldn't want to do it if I was on a secluded island. Who would want to?  I would just bask in the sun and the beach. I hit the gym early this morning. It was packed. 

Today is Martin Luther King Day and so everyone was at the gym. LOL  Dave stopped by to say hi between his treadmills while I was on the treadmill.  I came home and hung out with McKay for a bit and then headed to Maurice s and ran into Robin. I then went to lunch with Julie at El Toro. It was so good. I always order the same thing!  Enchilada El  Mole. The sauce is made with chocolate in it. Mexican choclate so it doesn't even taste like it but just knowing it has chocolate in it, makes it taste good. Hah

We ran into Holly there as well. I practiced the harp for almost two hours. Dave got home and we watched the YouTube video called Don't Miss This  which is on the Come Follow Me program. 

It was over an hour long but we both loved it. Check it out on YouTube. Such a great thing to help with the home study for Come Follow Me.  

I saw this quote from MLK and so I made a meme out of it. I loved the thought with the photo. They go together well.

dear tuesday, I got up early and practiced the harp and then headed to my lesson. As I was walking in I noticed I had on two different boots!  NOT AGAIN! Yes, I did it again!!!  Seriously!  This is the THIRD TIME I have done this!!!  

Nanette was laughing so hard she had tears coming down her face as did I. Katie was also dying. Nanette gave me some boots to borrow. Hers are so cute I might have to keep them. Hah  That is the problem. I obviously have too many shoes!  This morning I couldn't decide which ones to wear. Gray or black. I even asked Dave what he thought. I usually go with the opposite of what he thinks. LOL  And... I even had the thought as I was deciding, "Be sure to not leave with these two different ones on again". And then I DID IT ANYWAY!!!  Geeze!!!  It is funny, but really?  THREE times now?  I put on Nanette's and ran into Target really fast. Then I met Sky and Sarah at Costco so he could get her a laptop. My feet were killing me. Her boots were too tight on my right foot that is still swollen. Yeah, a year later, it's still swollen.  So I took them off and faced my embarrassment at lunch with the Sistas. Actually, I knew they would get a hoot out of it since I have done it BEFORE.  

Some people noticed but most did not. We had some good laughs! They are all so fun. It was just a small group today which is sometimes nice because we get more of a chance to talk. We dressed Hawaiian. I kind of did. All my Hawaiian clothes are too summery and I was freezing this morning. Dawn brought leis though. We went to Mo Bettah's.  

I just learned (from Sky) who lived in Hawaii that it means "more better".  Had no idea. I was saying it wrong and so he informed me. I went and got Carson and he went with me to deliver Bonnie's gift. Then we came home and got stuff for Haylie's bday and Dave was surprisingly home early so we all went over there to wish her a Happy Bday. I got her a cake at Kent's since I was gone all day and didn't have time to make her one. 

The kids were so cute. We didn't stay long and when we were leaving Liam said, "Go? No go." So sweet. He was sad. Luckily Dave had a sucker to distract him. Dave had meetings as per the usual. I worked on this and some other stuff.

dear wednesday, today I hit the gym. I worked out on the elliptical and the treadmill. 

I didn't stay as long as I would have liked because I had an ortho appt. I went there straight from the gym. They are always all so nice over there at the ortho.
Dave was on call this week. Today was the third day in a row I went to lunch. It was with Robin today.  I picked her up and we went to Costa Vida again because that is about the only place she likes around here. We had a good chat and caught up. She is running the brand new half marathon with the St. George marathon this year. I told her I am tempted to sign up and see how I can do. I have no idea if that is even a possibility but it's not until October. I wonder. Even if I walked most of it. I wonder if I could do it. Oh...I SO WANT TO RUN AGAIN!!!  I want to fly down the hills and feel the freedom that comes with running. I miss it sooooooooo much! It's supposed to be the fastest half in the state. I would love to run the inaugural one. Only time will tell.  We hit Maurice's after and I got a couple pair of earrings. When I got back Dave had just left to the church. I saw him for about 5 minutes before he had to head back to work. 

I enjoyed listening to a podcast while walking this morning from Emily Freeman. This afternoon I listened to some of her other stuff. I joined the Deseret Bookshelf for a three month trial and I am seriously loving it. I have listened to a lot of books and TOFW talks that I wouldn't normally have listened to. It's been great. One of the messages was on gratitude and this scripture was listed. I have read it a thousand times but for some reason today it made a huge impact on me. 

In Doctrine and Covenants 78:19 we are taught, "And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more." 

When we are grateful we are given MORE. Just for being grateful. So why aren't we all more grateful? It's a principle with a promise. ALL things will be ADDED.  Even a hundred fold and MORE!  Such a great promise! 

Dave had meetings. I tried to get some cleaning, organizing, and other things around here done. 

How cute is this?  This cute boy crawled in my basket and slept. I bought him a snuggly bed once and he refused to even touch it, but for some reason this was okay.  

dear thursday, 

I had an amazing experience on my walk this morning. As I walked I was listening to a book on tape called Even This by Emily Belle Freeman, which by the way, I highly recommend. 

One of the chapters talked about instead of focusing on what you need God to DO, focus on what you need Him to BE. I gave it some serious thought and I decided what I really need him to be right now is trustworthy.  Of course, I know He is already that, but that is what I need Him to be for me at this point in my life. With all that is going on with my leg and feeling so discouraged lately with how slow things are moving and wondering if it will ever heal enough so I can run again as I was promised in a priesthood blessing, I really need Him to be trustworthy to His promises.  I hate to even ask Him of those things because like I said I KNOW He is ALREADY all those things.  But I went ahead and did anyway.  In the book she talked about how as she asked God what she needed Him to be at that time, she was walking along the ocean in the sand and wanted something to remind her of the things she asked. So she asked Him to send her a sand dollar that she could take home to visually remind her.  After searching hard, she found one. I was thinking that I also needed some kind of visual reminder of what I asked. I thought that it would be pretty tough to find something while out walking to help me remember that kind of request.  There is definitely no sand dollars around here.  I thought about the penny I had found just a few minutes earlier, but thought that's not really going to help me remember my request. And then immediately the thought popped into my head what is inscribed on every penny.  I pulled the penny out of my pocket and held it up to my eyes and read the words In God We TRUST!  I couldn't hold back the tears.  It seems like such a small thing, but it was so powerful to me. God is in the details of our lives so much more than we even realize.  I looked at it again and realized the date on it was 1982. That is a significant date to me because that is the year I got married.

I took dinner (clam chowder) to Dave's parents. His mom had the TV trays all set out and ready to go. I think she was hungry.  

 I had to watch a couple YouTube tutorials on how to get my new camera to get a clean zoom shot. 

Sarah and Carson stopped by. I helped her fix her sweater that Sky washed and it was unraveling. I had to hand stitch it as well as by machine. Then I had to run to Stake YW basketball.  Those girls are so fun and entertaining. Brielle kills me. She scored most of the points but then wanted to commentate instead. She is hilarious. 

dear friday, today I went out to walk and it was raining. It then started to snow and hail. I went to Mary C. park by us and decided to run a lap and walk two. One lap is about a quarter mile. 

My goal was to do one full mile of running. It was broken up into four parts, but I got in a mile!  There was a creepy guy hanging around which bugged me, but I loved the weather. I love to run in the rain and snow. It felt so good to run!!!  Walking is a bit different because you aren't as warm when walking vs running. It brought back a few memories of Boston.  At times I still can't believe I was blessed enough to run Boston. Twice. It's such a blessing to me. Maybe the reason I have been so grateful for that is because all that has happened this past year and who knows if I will ever be able to even run a full marathon again. I came home took a hot shower. I didn't want to get out. It felt so good. Carson was sick today and so this afternoon I took him a Slurpee. He was so cute. 

He is just all smiles and was so happy to see me. Taylor facetimed me while there. Carson took him on a tour of his room. LOL  I came home and we ordered a pizza and rented a movie called Ad Astra. It was more Ad Nauseam. Not so good of a plot. Kind of boring. Dave hated it. McKay came home. 

dear saturday, I went on a walk at the high school and after a long time I thought I would come home empty handed as far as coins go.  By the end I had 49 cents! I'm rich!  :)  It was so foggy and the humidity was high. Pretty chilly! 

 Heavy fog today!

I actually caught up one post on here today. Christmas and New Year's posts always take longer due the busy week and amount of pix. Carson was still sick and so I headed to Wallies and grabbed him some little surprises. I got him some colored cardstock for his crafts (cards) and some stickers. I also took him the brownies I got him the other day. And I took Sarah some Lucky Charms cookies that she loves. I thought I should stop and grab him some chicken noodle soup as well. Then I stopped by and visited for a while. He was feeling okay but not himself. 
McKay helped his bud with an engagement tonight and has since decided him and his friend are going to open their own business doing that. Great idea actually!
We had spaghetti for dinner. Yummy!

dear sunday, I woke up when Dave did at 5 a.m. Ugh. I tried to go back to sleep but to no avail. I listened to some meditation on an app to no avail either. I turned on KBYU-TV and watched some devotionals since I was awake anyway I thought I might as well be learning something. Headed to church. I had two Sunbeams that were sad today. Eden and Liam were crying and did not want to come. We ended up getting both of them in class without parents by the end. Liam's dad was so appreciative. I love every one of those littles. Each one is so sweet and has such a special spirit about them. I can't imagine anyone not loving little children. How can you not? They each have my heart already!  Pat taught today and we did a little walk about with the "Liahona". We borrowed Brian's beard when they were Lehi. Too funny.  

 Brian in his beard at singing time....

Bryce and crew stopped by and we had fun.

This little guy looked so stinkin' cute and I wanted his picture in his leather jacket and turtle neck but he wasn't feeling well today. I told him I just needed a little smile. He tried but it wasn't working...

So I told him whatever he did to not think about Lila (his Kindergarten girlfriend last year) and his smile increasingly got bigger and bigger....

 It cracked me up!

He made me these "presents". Love him!

dear random, some throwbacks...
My hurdling fiasco years ago...

College days

dear quotes,

One Word 2020

It's that time of the year again where I choose my ONE WORD for the following year.  My words usually come to me before the first of the year and come easily and leave no doubt in my mind that I chose the right one.

This year however, that did NOT happen.  It took me almost three weeks into the year to confirm what my word would be for 2020. 

This was my word for last year:

SANGUINE

It was the perfect word for 2019.

 

Comments from that post ↑

Here are my ONE WORDS from the past several years:

Like I said, this year I have struggled trying to decide my ONE WORD. 

A lot.  

I have tossed around several words and each time I thought I had the right word and then I would suddenly know I didn't. 

A few of the words I have really given some deep thought to are:

EMBRACE

I want to embrace the reality of my situation with my leg and my running. I want to embrace the Lord's timing in all of it. I want to embrace the suck of it all. I want to embrace the gratitude I feel for the miracles I have had. I want to embrace LIFE!

BUT...

It just didn't settle in as the right word.

So, I thought about ...

TENACIOUS

It's a really good word as well.

Yet it's almost the opposite of embrace.

I want to be tenaciously FOCUSED on my VISION (20/20 vision in the year 2020) TENACIOUSLY! I don't want to give in or settle on not being able to get back to running as I was before the accident. I want to be determined as can be to get my leg back to normal.

I like TENACIOUS a lot. I really thought it would be my word. I even had these online downloads made with it. 

But then I wanted something to tie in with the year 2020 and the 20/20 vision and so I tossed around:

PERCIPIENCE

It just feel quite right either.  So I took a quiz on the website HERE that helps you find your word based on your answers.  The word I got was:

I wasn't too sure about that one and so I took it again and changed one of my answers that I wasn't sure which to pick and got this instead:

That one really doesn't feel right to me because I feel like that applied more to last year than this one. This year needs to be more than stand. It needs to be RUN!  Hah

I REALLY thought strongly about .....  AFFIRM.

I came close to going with that one, but I really wanted my word to have to do with 20/20 vision and focus.

I thought about the words VISION or VISUALIZE.  But, I wanted something more. 

Any of these words would have been amazing. But, none felt quite right.

After the New Year came and went, I still hadn't decided upon my word. I kept waiting for it to fall from the sky like in year's past. But it didn't.

So I kept searching for that ONE PERFECT WORD for 2020. I knew that when I found it I would immediately know it was the right one. 

I was just praying it would happen before 2021! 

After a LOT of pondering and thinking, and a lot of words that were almost right, but not quite, I finally knew what my word was to be this year.

Drum roll please......

ENVISION

Yep!  That's my word!!!

I want to go into 2020 with a clear focus. A 20/20 vision of what I want this year to become. I want this year to be one of a complete focus on envisioning the outcome. I want to make it a daily practice to envision how I wish for things to transpire. Mainly with my ankle, knee, and overall physical health situation.  I also want to envision a better spiritual, emotional, mental and overall human experience in every way.

If 2019 taught me anything, it was the POWER our minds have and how visualizing things in our minds along with actually feeling how we would feel once it happens (while going forth with complete faith) can bring about miracles and what we desire.

I have big plans for this year and so I need to be focused on working hard at doing that. It's not easy. It takes work. Mental work. It is draining but so worth it.

This word captures all those things.
So, YES! I found my perfect word for 2020!

What is YOUR word for 2020????

Sidenote: This year marks the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith's First Vision as well. I didn't even think of that until after I had chosen this word. But, it's kind of cool. 

Sidenote:
I have to add this little thing that popped up on my Facebook memories because it made me laugh.

I love #4 - I'm Still Standing song by Elton John because it was so perfect, but #3 on the date of when one of my biggest dreams will come true --- it wasn't that exact date, but close to when I was told my ankle bone was not dying!  I love it all!