*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 went to PT early. I got in a good workout. 

I came home and worked on my decade book that I made earlier but they did a horrible job of. I worked on that thing for a good three hours. Ugh. I thought it would take me one. I was going to make macarons but it snowed some and I knew with the humidity it would not be wise to attempt them today, plus I ran out of time. Julie and I went around trying to collect money again for the neighbor gift, but only found one more person home.  We are going to get them a Christus because Sharon was so Christlike. She truly was. 

Dave and I watched several of the Book of Mormon videos for FHE.  They are so good. I wanted to keep watching them. I was freezing all night! I am so done with winter.

dear tuesday, Dave was off today. We went to Sharon Ketner's viewing this morning and then came home for a bit before the funeral. He had to speak so I sat by the Lindseys. I chatted with Rob about the storage sheds and doing a FB page for them.  The funeral was very good. Everyone that spoke did such a great job. I learned a lot about Sharon and I think everyone left feeling as I did, that we all need to step it up. That woman was in constant service of others. She was amazing and was such an inspiration. I am in awe of her life. She will be missed. 

I chatted with Barbara Findley after and she was very impressed with the service. She is not a member. I tried to put together an outfit that I can wear to funerals with my new long black jacket.

I made macarons for VDay. They turned out okay, but not as perfect as I hoped. Do they ever?  But they had feet and not as spread out as the last ones so that was good. 

I filled them and as I was doing that Sky and crew showed up. Carson ate about three of them. He loves them. He is so cute!  Julie and I delivered the Christus (neighbor gift) to Don Ketner. We had a nice visit with him and learned that Sharon was on American Bandstand many times and she met Elvis on her birthday.  Pretty cool. Dave got home and I hurried and packaged them and then ran to Relief Society. It was on the 5 Love Languages. There were several speakers on each and it was pretty good. I sat by Bonnie and Julie and it was a lot of fun. 

dear wednesday, I didn't get up quite early enough to get in a good practice session before I had to leave for my lesson. My lesson went well. We worked on my new recital piece the whole time. I learned a lot about changing the left hand to chords. I hope I can remember it. I ran to Home Goods and returned the baby chair thing I bought a few months ago. It was a dumb purchase. I shopped a couple stores and then went and picked up my harp string that broke. It was $20. For one string. Yeah. I then went to Roosters and met the Sistas for our VD lunch. We had fun. It was good to see Bonzo. I ordered the Pepper Jack turkey enchiladas and OH. MY. GOSH. they were the best things!  Mmm.... I also ordered a caramel bread pudding to go. 

I then ran to Costco real quick and as I was shopping this lady came up to me and said, "Jodi?"  I said, "Yes."  She asked if I knew who she was and I said, "Valerie?" I was thinking it was this new relative of ours on FB. But it was Peggy Despain who lived next door to my parents in Farr West when they built that house. I did remember her. We chatted for quite a while about my boys and her kids. 

I had an ortho appointment in BC. Since I was Clark's last patient he told me about his trip to Dubai this coming week. He got on his computer and showed me the resort he was staying at. It was unreal. Seriously!  Looks like the cheapest room there is $5000 a night!  The Presidential suite is $28K! 
He is a hoot. That's always been on my bucket list to go to Dubai. I came home and Dave had made dinner. He is so nice. It was heavenly. Then he had to go to meetings. I've been listening to a ton of Joseph Smith books the past week or two and I am enthralled with it all. I listened to Saints tonight.

dear thursday, today I got dressed to go out walking and then decided I had way too much to get done today and so I showered and got ready and got busy. I cleaned the house and then I made cookies for VDay and put together all the Valentine's for tomorrow and realized I didn't have enough. 

Dave got home for lunch and we got the dinner together for his parents. My parents dropped by for a visit. While they were here Sky and crew stopped by. Carson was so cute. He gave me the biggest hug. 

Only my mom!

When she came walking in like this, she literally scared me half to death! I thought it was some zombie in my house!  She's wearing one of Sarah's princess wigs! LOL

We had a fun visit and then Carson had to go to the clinic and get his eyes checked. I went along to get my Prolia shot. Teri (nurse) gave it to me and I barely even felt it. When Dave it to me, it was the worst shot I have ever had. And I have been avoiding ever since. I am two months behind because of it. Sigh...  Dave said the needle it is supposed to come with was too big or something. What "I" think is doctors should not give shots. Only nurses! hah I hit Wallies and it was packed!  I came home and worked on the Valentine's and the dinner. This is Dave's creation. It is stuffed turkey roll ups with stuffing and mashed potatoes on top. 

I practiced for a bit while waiting for Bryce and crew to stop by. Haylie called me and asked if they could stop by because Brinlee made me a Valentine. Ahh... I was so excited.  Her card was adorable. She worked hard on it!  And it was purple!!  I sure love this little girl. Even if she won't smile for my pictures!  LOL

Dave left for a meeting and they arrived. We had a fun visit. Liam had surgery on his ears yesterday. They removed his adenoids. He was so cute and seemed to feel pretty good. Haylie told me it was so hard on Bryce watching him go through that. He has such a tender heart. He is such a good person. Truly one of the best.  Little Liam is so sweet. He has my heart.

I put their pix up over my lighthouse pix for now. They are so cute!

dear friday, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

From Dave:

I bought myself the tulips from Costco the other day. I have been buying myself flowers lately. Now that I can afford to do it, I am sad I haven't done it my whole life. Fresh flowers in the dead of winter can really brighten my day! I hit the gym early this morning. I made some Vday deliveries on my way. Dave stopped by and visited after his treadmill. 

I am a bit frustrated, not to mention perplexed that my right ankle STILL won't bend as far as it should. Here is the left one compared to my right:

Sigh...

I came home and put together Valentine's for Dave, Carson, Sky, and Sarah. I practiced the harp for a bit and then ran some errands. I picked up Carson from school and it was Dapper Day and look how dang dapper he looked:

He is so adorable!  You can't help but love this kid!  I brought him home and he gave me all his Valentine's he made for me. He made me a lot!!  He is so stinkin' sweet!

 He was VERY excited to see me!!  Same for me!

 He cute up some pix from Aubrey's wedding we took together and gave them to me as well.  haha I sure do love this little man!

I gave him my Valentine's. I overdid it too but only because everywhere I turn I find pandas! They are everywhere right now and I can't resist. 

 Carson opened all his Valentines he got from his classmates. Made me kind of miss those days when I came up with something creative for each of my boys and making their Valentine's boxes. Those were fun days. But honestly, I am glad I no longer have to worry about it!  hah

Sky and Sarah arrived and we all chatted for a bit and then they left. Sky made this cute snowman for Sarah because she was sad she didn't get to build one.

No sooner had they left, Dave got home. We took off for our Valentine's date. We had reservations at La Nonne in Logan. It wasn't busy when we arrived at 5:00. We had a nice dinner. 

 They gave me a rose!

Our bread had a heart inside it.

I found a penny! Happy Valentine's Day to you too Tyson!!!  We then picked up McKay so he could show us where the Valentine's Day Date Night event we were attending was. Good thing he showed us because that campus is a maze!  We had to walk a long ways but arrived. McKay just started doing keto yesterday. He is amazing at how disciplined he is. We got seats on the front row!  

That's a first but good for Dave's long legs. We got chatting to a cute couple who live right by Matt and Sally in Deweyville. We had fun talking to them. Then Hank Smith started his presentation. He was so funny. It was really good. Here are some of the pix of his power point (much easier than taking notes!). 

They then had a break for hot chocolate and donuts. They didn't have it set up very well because the line was not moving and we stood in it for a good 30 minutes. 

We headed back in and John Byetheway began his part of the night. He is such a great guy and a great speaker. He had me laughing so hard as well. I learned a lot. Here are his pictures:

About five minutes before he finished Dave started to get really sick. He had to leave. It's a good thing he left when he did because he didn't even make it to the bathroom when he threw up seven times in the trash can.  Oh man. He was so sick. We are not sure why. I was so glad he got out of the auditorium especially being on the front row. I drove us home. He was not feeling well at all. Poor guy. I felt so bad. 

dear saturday, I headed out by 9 a.m. to go pick up my mom so we could go to Marva's funeral. She is my mom's cousin in law but we all loved her. She was a really neat lady. We sat in the parking lot waiting for Cathy and Angie and my mom yelled, "That man just fell!" An elderly man fell right as he got out of his car. He hit hard. I ran over and helped his wife pull him up. I felt bad for him. Me and my mom went inside and waited for them inside. We chatted with Laurel and then Curtis and Gary (Marva's sons) as well as their wives. I haven't seen them in forever. I watched the video and was very interested in what ages Marva and Ronnie's babies were when they died. Connie was two and Roger was 18 mos. They had some rare form of MD but I had to research to find that out. I was wondering if he could have been failure to thrive which could have been CF but it wasn't. 

We got seats and waited for the funeral. Robin and Gordon also arrived. It was a great funeral with the exception of it being way too long. It went almost 1 hour and 45 minutes. And ironically when Gary was speaking he said Marva wanted a short funeral. That it was not!  

During the last song her granddaughter was singing and there was a long pause and then she started back up again and my mom said (not so quietly), "I thought she was done." Angie was trying to hold in her laughter as was I, but it was hard. It was so hilarious. My mom kills me. She says things how they are and doesn't mince words. We tried to decide where to go eat with Cathy, Angie Gordon, and Robin.

We ended up at Zuppas which was almost to North SL. Oh well. It was good. Me and my mom shared a soup and a salad. We chatted for a bit. I was getting ancy to get home since was getting so late (after 2:00 by now). We left and I made good time coming home.  Dave had made dinner. One of his new concoctions. He likes to cook in the winter. I'm not complaining!  He also made banana bread. He forgot to put the nuts in it and so he put them on top. It looked so pretty!  McKay was home. 

dear sunday, it was snowing this morning. Church was good. Primary was fun. Our little Sunbeams are so stinkin' cute. Sawyer did not want to sit down today in singing time. And Sam and Ezra (our old Sunbeams) wanted to sit with us. I don't mind, but the new Presidency isn't for that. Sam stayed though.  As we were heading out to the car, we walked past the Bishop's office and he yelled out, "Hey Jodi!". I backed up and went back in and he threw me some chocolate. I asked if it was a bribe. Hah! It was!  He asked me how long it's been such I spoke in church. I could not even remember. Stake conference yes, but sacrament, I'm not sure. He asked me if I would speak on Sunday. THIS coming Sunday?!  Yep. A bit reluctantly, I  told him I would and asked for the topic. I was a bit surprised to hear it was the First Vision (or the Apostasy). I chose the First Vision. Secretly, I was actually excited because I have been studying my brains out on that topic lately. Coincidence? Not sure, but either way I was kind of excited. Not normal when asked to speak in sacrament. I really have loved all I have been learning. In fact, I came home and had my talk written in 30 minutes!  It just came. I am sure I will edit it a lot before Sunday, but there is so much info and so much to say, it won't be hard to write. Just to cut and edit. McKay was home all day and spent the night because tomorrow is President's Day and no school. 

Cute Chilly Bam Billy!  Love this little feline even if he does wake me up at 3 a.m. to snuggle and purr each morning. He climbs on my chest and pushes his face into mine until I pet him. If I stop petting him, he does it again more forcefully. It's actually kind of cute even if it is annoying. Why can't he do this at 3 p.m. when it would be welcome!  Even still, I love it!

dear random, 

I'm bawling:

Dania Richardson Williams is with James Joseph Williams III.

January 10, 2016 at 5:59 PM

"It's not a death. And it's not a tragedy. But it's not nothing, either..."💔 I feel like this little boy walked out the door today, not the fine young man we've raised. Today is hard. Very hard.

"I wasn't wrong about their leaving. My husband kept telling me I was. That it wasn't the end of the world when first one child, then another , and then the last packed their bags and left for college.

But it was the end of something. ``Can you pick me up, Mom?" ``What's for dinner?" ``What do you think?"

I was the sun and they were the planets. And there was life on those planets, whirling, non stop plans and parties and friends coming and going, and ideas and dreams and the phone ringing and doors slamming.

And I got to beam down on them. To watch. To glow.

And then they were gone, one after the other.

``They'll be back," my husband said. And he was right. They came back. But he was wrong, too, because they came back for intervals -- not for always, not planets anymore, making their predictable orbits, but unpredictable, like shooting stars.

Always is what you miss. Always knowing where they are. At school. At play practice. At a ballgame. At a friend's. Always looking at the clock mid day and anticipating the door opening, the sigh, the smile, the laugh, the shrug. ``How was school?" answered for years in too much detail. ``And then he said . . . and then I said to him. . . ." Then hardly answered at all.

Always, knowing his friends.

Her favorite show.

What he had for breakfast.

What she wore to school.

What he thinks.

How she feels.

My friend Beth's twin girls left for Roger Williams yesterday. They are her fourth and fifth children. She's been down this road three times before. You'd think it would get easier.

``I don't know what I'm going to do without them," she has said every day for months.

And I have said nothing, because, really, what is there to say?

A chapter ends. Another chapter begins. One door closes and another door opens. The best thing a parent can give their child is wings. I read all these things when my children left home and thought then what I think now: What do these words mean?

Eighteen years isn't a chapter in anyone's life. It's a whole book, and that book is ending and what comes next is connected to, but different from, everything that has gone before.

Before was an infant, a toddler, a child, a teenager. Before was feeding and changing and teaching and comforting and guiding and disciplining, everything hands -on. Now?

Now the kids are young adults and on their own and the parents are on the periphery, and it's not just a chapter change. It's a sea change.

As for a door closing? Would that you could close a door and forget for even a minute your children and your love for them and your fear for them, too. And would that they occupied just a single room in your head. But they're in every room in your head and in your heart.

As for the wings analogy? It's sweet. But children are not birds. Parents don't let them go and build another nest and have all new offspring next year.

Saying goodbye to your children and their childhood is much harder than all the pithy sayings make it seem. Because that's what going to college is. It's goodbye.

It's not a death. And it's not a tragedy.

But it's not nothing, either.

To grow a child, a body changes. It needs more sleep. It rejects food it used to like. It expands and it adapts.

To let go of a child, a body changes, too. It sighs and it cries and it feels weightless and heavy at the same time.

The drive home alone without them is the worst. And the first few days. But then it gets better. The kids call, come home, bring their friends, fill the house with their energy again.

Life does go on.

``Can you give me a ride to the mall?" ``Mom, make him stop!" I don't miss this part of parenting, playing chauffeur and referee. But I miss them, still, all these years later, the children they were, at the dinner table, beside me on the couch, talking on the phone, sleeping in their rooms, safe, home, mine...."

- Beverly Beckham

These popped up on my FB memories. The top one is with Jerilyn Berheimer (Pam and Randy's daughter - friends from med school in St. Louis) and her hub and sister Stephanie.
The bottom one is our good friends, the Nance's from Centerville eating at the Mandarin.

This is the best recipe!  The cookies are one of my most favorites of all time!  

ME! ME! ME!
I'd just be happy with warm weather!

I took Japanese in college and I couldn't remember a few of these numbers so had to do a Google search. Haha  How can I not remember how to count in 10? UGH!

dear quotes,