Category: Uncategorized (Page 3 of 118)

When my amazing friend Melinda got married to her sweetheart, Paul, it was a big deal. For all of us. Melinda had been one of my super best friends in high school, and we roomed together at BYU for two years. We shared everything. We lamented over boys, grades, lack of sleep, assignments and papers. We said goodbye to all our missionary aged friends, and we made fantastic memories together.

So, when she and Paul got married, it was kind of like the end of an era for me. We were graduating from college, she was getting married, I was going on a mission, we were growing up.

I know there are plenty of jokes about bridesmaids dresses, but this one was lovely. Not poofy or unflattering, but a dress that I wanted to wear again. Her grandma sewed these dresses, if I’m remembering it correctly. And she worked in a fabric store at the time, so she picked out some lovely fabric. Anyway, I really loved that dress.

There’s a lot of hair there, I know. This was back when I permed my hair every six months.

But aren’t we pretty in our matching dresses?

I wore it after the wedding, as well. This was was with my roommate, Laurie. I don’t know why we were at the temple, unless it was for her sister’s wedding. But I was wearing that dress.

I even have pictures from me in the MTC wearing that dress. I didn’t take it with me to Germany because I didn’t want it to get ruined and worn too many times. But I did wear it in the MTC. Again, Not a great picture, but you get the idea.

Well, soon after the mission, I got married, and the weight crept on. No longer did I fit into that dress, but I still kept it. I also kept the dress that I wore on our wedding day before the wedding dress. It’s also special to me. Soon, these two dresses and a few other sentimental clothing items were in a box up at the top of the closet.

But I’ve been cleaning out the closet (after I read the life changing magic of tidying up), and I’ve gotten rid of quite a few things. Bags of shoes and clothes, and I still have a LONG way to go to declutter, but at least it’s a start. What to do with those two dresses that I love, but that do NOT fit. I actually even tried them both on, just to see. Nope.

I even texted Melinda and told her that I still had this dress, and how much I have loved it throughout the years, and to thank her for picking such a lovely dress for her wedding. She was sweet, and said she’d actually like to have it, if I was getting rid of it. So, I was prepared to do that. I brought it down before book club so I could take it to her, and my daughter snatched it up.

“Where did you get this dress? It’s so retro! Can I try it on?” I told her she could try it on, but she couldn’t make fun of it, because I really loved this dress. She put it on, and it fit her.

She posted a picture of herself in that dress on her instagram and got a LOT of nice comments, so she decided to wear it to church today.

I’m so glad I kept that dress. Flowers and lace are coming back in style. She may take out the shoulder pads, but she really likes that dress, and it makes me so happy to have it be loved again.

Sentimental? Yes. I will always think of that as MY dress, but I’m so glad that I can share it with my daughter, too.

Blah.
I feel so blah.
The sun in shining and that is wonderful.
I still feel blah.
I’d better not be getting sick.

It’s all hormone related, I’m sure.
Stupid hormones or lack thereof.

Yesterday I went to visit a wonderful lady in the hospital. She’s amazing. I think I got more out of the visit than I gave to her.

Today when I came home from chime choir, I went upstairs and took a nap.
I need to go to the grocery store, but I don’t want to. Do I really have to leave the house?
I’m happy that I have no obligations tonight. One of my teens just left to go babysit, another one is at work. I guess it will be a small group for dinner tonight. Maybe college boy will be home for dinner. Maybe not. I never know if I’ll be feeding him. But there’s a tortellini soup in the crockpot that I’ve been wanting to try, so whoever is here for dinner will have something.

In the good news section–College girl got accepted to do a spring break job at Tuacahn center for the arts in St. George. She’ll stay for a week and work on set construction and whatever else they need. And get paid in addition to room and food for a week. Sounds like fun.

As the weather is warming up, it makes me want new chickens. We stopped by the feed store but did not buy any chicks, because my mommy chicken is not currently broody. She needs to be ready to sit on the chicks and take care of them, raising them as their mommy. She’s done it twice for us before and it makes raising and integrating the chicks so much easier! I saw her out there sitting in the nest box looking all comfy, but alas, I think she was just in there laying an egg, not getting ready to hatch anything for me.

Some days are just like that. Some days you are sad, or feel yucky, or just blah. Thankfully,they are just days for me. Not weeks or months of feeling blah or sad, or depressed.

To help us get over our blahs, I’ll leave you with this.

And if you’d like to see more amazing cuteness, check out this page.
That will definitely make you say “oooh.”

I try to not be a complainer, but I am So. Tired. Of. Snow. And cold.

Trudging out to take the garbage can and shuffling through 4 more inches of new snow.
Shoveling the path to the chickens. Again.

It seems a lot of people are escaping the snow and going to warm place because I keep seeing their pictures in Hawaii or on a cruise or in California.
Ryan gets to go to a warm place next week and I’m jealous.

I know it’s winter and we need the snow for our water supply this summer. Yes, I KNOW that. But these gray cold days make me depressed. I don’t see the joy in the snow. I’m not a skier. There is no snowman in my yard. My kids don’t even want to go out in the snow. Only grouchy that I ask them to shovel again and again and again. When I ask them to shovel, they say, “But I DID shovel last week.” Um, right. And there’s more snow. Our snowblower is broken, and we have a big driveway, so it’s not getting shoveled all the way anymore. We have a wonderful neighbor who will often come over and clear our sidewalk and front walkway, just to be nice. He’s pretty awesome like that. Once he even cleared the whole driveway for us.

The chickens have no where to go. They end up huddled underneath their house. The cat looks at with her sad little eyes silently begging to be let in.

Tonight John has the Klondike campout. Where they go camping. In the snow. It’s 25 degrees outside, and our boys are going to go camping? How awful does that sound? If I were a scout, I would definitely be skipping this one.

Update- He actually had a great time at his winter camp! What?

My husband is great. However, impulsive he’s not. He’s always trying to use words like “SAVE” and “BUDGET”.

So Monday evening when I saw in a facebook buy and sell group that a guy was selling his 1997 Chevy S10 pickup for $1500, I was intrigued. He wasn’t asking very much, and we’ve been looking for a truck for over a year. I told him I was interested and asked if we could come and see it Tuesday night. Sure, he replied. So, I went to show Ryan the listing and ask if he was interested in going to see it. (Usually this is where he tells me that it is junk for these reasons, and to stop trying to buy things online.) But this time he said, “Wow, that looks like a good deal. The guy’s a mechanic and it looks like he’s maintained the truck really well.” But then the guy replied and said, “Not a problem, I do have one kid who wants to come look at it tonight and if it does sell then I’ll let you know.” To which I replied, “Ok, we’ll come in half an hour if that’s ok.”
What? It’s 8:30 on a Monday night? I was seriously just about to go get in my pajamas, but instead, Ryan and I hopped in the car and drove to Orem to see this truck.

When we pulled up, the guy was outside taking his stuff out of the truck. “Oh,” he said, “I was expecting someone else. But that’s ok. Want to take it for a drive?” Of course we did. We couldn’t find anything glaringly wrong with the vehicle in the few minutes we drove it, and decided to be impulsive and get it. As we returned to the house, the other guy had come to look at it. Oh, no. We don’t have cash. All I have it a check. How much cash can I get at 9 at night? $300 from an ATM? We decided it was worth it to us to offer him a bonus if he took our check, since there were multiple buyers interested. “We would like to buy this truck, but we don’t have that much cash on us. Would you take a check for $1700?” He said yes. So, now we have a truck again. A manual truck. The kids can learn to drive stick shift again.

Natalie was excited about the new addition, since that means she will have something to drive, but of course, she’s the one who didn’t learn to drive stick. Some lessons may be in her future. I think Cole and Ryan are excited to drive it, too. We’re all happy to have a truck again to haul stuff instead of hooking up the tiny trailer, which is honestly such a pain.

So you see–even Ryan can be impulsive and spontaneous sometimes.

Of course, the next day he said, “It’s time to work out the budget.”

2015 brought a lot of good. So much good.

-Missionary returned. He worked and started school again. He’s also got himself a cute girlfriend and we’ll see how that goes.
-We have TWO kids in college, now. Both of them are about halfway through their sophomore year. Megan will need to decide where she wants to apply to go next year, as Snow College is for getting your associates. I’m so glad she has good roommates this year (all of them) and that she is having fun.
-Natalie started teaching piano lesson AND got herself a part time job at CVS. She’s doing well at school, has lots of friends, enjoys debating, and is even out there dating.
-9th grade is good for Jenna. She is creative, always drawing, or playing video games. I think she may be a game artist someday.
-John is dyed his hair for halloween, and we are finally used to it being brown. Although he got a haircut today and it’s a bit blonder. Scouts is great for him. He enjoys school, too, which is great. He got a pogo stick for Christmas, too.
-Ryan continues to work at Control4. At home, he tinkers, fixes things, uses his 3-d printer, takes long bike rides, and works on all kinds of projects. He tolerates the cat, likes the chickens, now. He had too many days off that he didn’t take, so he’s ended up with every Thursday and Friday off for the past 6 weeks. He’s loved having the time to work on some things. Today, in fact, he installed speakers in the basement. I’m hoping I can talk him into painting the entry way this year.
-A big change for me this year was being called to be the Relief Society President in April. It was totally unexpected, and not something I thought I could do. But I did receive an answer that I would be blessed for accepting this calling, even with my time consuming bells calling. Playing bells is kind of like my part time job that I go to once a week and for three weeks a year. And I love it. I can honestly say the RS gig is not as bad as I thought it was going to be (at least not this year). We have such a wonderful ward. I love that my ability to care for people has increased. I don’t know if I can help them as much as I would want to, but I do my best. I love my counselors and really love the sisters we serve. I didn’t do a play this summer because of that calling, but we’ll see what 2016 brings.
-We did also host quite a few people this year. For a month in the winter we had those two Brazillian boys. That was really not a great experience, but we’re trying to put that behind us. We took a risk and hosted again, with Rika from Japan, who stayed for 2 1/2 weeks in the summer, and then Nozomu, who came from Japan to and stayed with us a week in October. Robin and Ron also came to stay with us twice. We are even considering hosting a full year exchange student again. Thinking about it.

Our chicken count is up to 14 right now. I was disappointed that the three chicks I got in the spring all turned out to be roosters, so I got three more chicks. I’m pretty sure one of them is a rooster, but if the other two are girls, I’ll be happy with that. 14 is a lot to keep through the winter, but I hate to get rid of them. I really enjoy the chickens, even if they aren’t pulling their weight right now in egg production.

For 2016, I’m sure we will see more changes. I’m hoping to get my teen chime choir going. Cole will maybe decide that she’s the one. Or she will break his heart. Megan will finish up at Snow College. John and Jenna will both move up to middle school and high school. So, even though I hope that not much will change, I do anticipate changes this year. Good ones.

May 2016 be a great year for you, too.

The church bag. Every mom has one. The church bags evolve through the years. What was once filled with cheerios, books, crayons and toys, now carries a huge Relief Society Binder, calendar, and many papers. It was time to get ready for church, and I had to make sure I had everything I needed. Can I take some stuff out so it’s not so heavy? Where’s my journal/notebook I like to have with me at church? Down at the bottom of the bag was a birthday notebook, tied with a bow. It’s not my month to deliver birthday gifts anymore. Just more stuff to lug around. Mine is the only birthday left this year, anyway. I should take it out. But in looking for something else, I didn’t take it out.

At church, I tried to take advantage of the few minutes before sacrament meeting to talk to a few people. I haven’t been in sacrament meeting for two weeks because of other music commitments, so it felt like I hadn’t talked to certain people in a while. I slid into the bench next to Ryan with about a minute to spare. Behind me, a young college student was sitting with her family. I haven’t seen her in quite a while, but thanks to facebook, I remembered that it was her birthday. “Happy Birthday!” I turned and said.

During the meeting (which was awesome, by the way–6 of our young single adults spoke on challenges they have had this past year, and what they have learned), I remembered that notebook in my bag. It was still sitting there, and it was her birthday. After sacrament meeting, I turned around and handed it to her and told her happy birthday once again.

Later, in Relief Society, the person conducting decided that everyone should sing happy Birthday to both this young sister and to me. We both could have done without that, but maybe people will remember our birthdays (Remembering my birthday is BIG with me, and I’m quite impressed when people DO remember it, since it’s right after Christmas and all).

Later, when hubby came home, he made a point to tell me that this young sister’s dad had come up to Ryan. He told him to tell me that he really appreciates the job I’m doing as the Relief Society President, and how sweet it was that I was prepared and gave her a gift. That touched me that he would think to pass along his gratitude. Today I didn’t really feel like I’m doing such a great job in this calling. Things have been so busy, and I feel like I haven’t been as available or as on top of things as I should have been. So it was so nice to hear this man’s sweet comment. As I thought about the birthday notebook in my bag, I realized that I was about to take that out, but a loving Heavenly Father knew that this sister was going to be there today, and he knew that she, like me, would really appreciate being remembered and thought of on her birthday.

It’s moments like this that remind me that we are here to help each other, and Heavenly Father will help us to help each other. He will plant ideas in our heads, he will place people in our path, he REALLY is in the details of our lives. So many little coincidences go unnoticed, but if we pay attention we will notice. And we will feel His presence.

I’m thankful that I was able to fulfill a tiny need, and I’m also grateful that someone noticed, and was able to comment, thus helping fulfill My tiny need. I’m thankful for the church bag.

Dear Daughter needed to find some shoes to wear to a debate thing last week, and in her frantic looking, I tried to help her. I brought a few pairs of black shoes for her to choose from. She didn’t like any of them, and found her own grey shoes. (Maybe that was my evil plan all along–Find your OWN shoes, kid.)

Well, then I remembered that she needs black shoes for work, and thought I would try to find some good shoes on sale.

These came yesterday, and I showed them to her. “Look at these cute shoes! You could wear them for work.”

Um, no. and she would find her own shoes, thank you very much.

WEll, how about these ones?

So cute, and comfy!

I could wear either of these shoes for bells, I thought.

Her response was basically a no thanks. More specifically, a no thanks with an eye roll. “Mom, those are old lady shoes.”

“Old Lady shoes? I do NOT wear old lady shoes!” I said, as I looked down at my Birkenstocks sandals I was wearing with socks. Ok, bad example. But then as I was looking through my shoes, I realized that I don’t wear anything with a heel more than about twice a year. I spend most of my time in my pink Birkenstocks or running shoes with heel inserts in them. Plantar Faciitis, dude.
Comfort!
When I get dressed for Wednesday night bells practice, I think, What’s the most comfortable shoe I can wear and still have it look ok with a skirt? And those black shoes? I’ll probably use those for concert shoes. In the 10 years I have been in bells, I’ve probably bought 10 pairs of black shoes.

On Sunday, I do wear cute shoes, but that’s only because I know I will be sitting most of the three hours that we are at church.

So, I guess I’m an old lady and I wear old lady shoes.

Darn.

It’s a slippery slope.