Week in the Life - Day Seven

Hip Hip Hooray, this is my last day! Posting this project has been the very toughest part of the whole thing. If I was a little more computer literate it would have helped.

Thursday, October 16th:

1. Finally Thursday, my last work day of the week. I start out with a breakfast of pretzels and peanut butter. I'm sure I had something for a snack later because that definitely wouldn't hold me over until lunch.  2. Me and my cute prego friend Kass riding to Cafe Rio for Boss's Day. We always look forward to an outing. It was not easy to get this picture. I used the self timer and put the camera on the dash. Again, I do not recommend taking self portraits while you are driving.  3. Cafe Rio sweet pork salad. I am normally not a salad person, unless it's a Cafe Rio salad.  4. Most of our contracts department enjoying our yummy lunch. My boss Kirk has his back to the camera. He is a good man to have to manage 14 women and never complain.

1. Since we are SO close to Michael's, we run in real quick to check things out and I need a birthday present for a party Michaela has been invited to.  2. Get back to work and need some help making it through the rest of the day from an old friend. It's been a couple weeks since I've done the Dew and I even resisted caffeine at lunch and had water, but I could resist no longer.  3. Rush home from work and Reagen has her last soccer game of the season. Mike has football practice so I'm on my own again tonight. She plays in Tooele again. It's been a fun season for her and she had awesome coaches.  4. Fill up the car on the way home. 

The odometer on my 1995 Honda Civic. Thank goodness for this car and it's ability to just keep running.  (Knock on wood)

1. Catch this dude eating my leftover Cafe Rio salad. Not really - I told him he could have it, but he sure looks like a deer in the headlights here. 2. Soccer in the house...yes this is my life.  3. Michaela had her first babysitting job.  If Tiff is going to pay this well, I'm going to start babysitting.  4. Every time I look, my sink seems to be full of water jugs from soccer and football.

Week in the Life - Day Six

Wednesday, October 15th:

Arrive at work at 5:42 am. Oh Joy! I tell myself I am halfway through the week.  I can make it.

I start the day with a fairly healthy breakfast and I only go down hill from there. (don't know why this is underlining)

I'm a list maker. I usually have a list in my pocket and I'm always adding to it or crossing something off. It helps me feel in control. This week I have quite a list.

This is my wall of fame (and why I work).  I am faced with tough decisions all day long...apple or chocolate.

This is what I usually see when I get home. Either backpacks or sports gear in the rocking chair.

I get home in time to change and then run to Reagen's soccer game. She has treats and of course I forgot about it until now so we have to make a couple of stops.

She runs fast and plays hard, but really enjoys the time on the sidelines comparing water bottles with her teammate.

Rush home from soccer and make visiting teaching treats for tomorrow. I think we sat and watched the end of Biggest Loser after that and then headed to bed.

Thankful Thursday

I almost forgot about this because I'm in the middle of making cupcakes for the Pumpkin Walk tomorrow and it's 10:00 at night. 

I'm so grateful that the price of gas is going down.  It makes me feel hopeful.  Now, if we can just get groceries to drop a little so we can quit living off of ramen noodles.

I'm grateful to have a job and for the friends I've made there and the whole social aspect of it all. 

I'm grateful my last batch of cupcakes just finished baking so I can go to bed. Have a great Friday, everyone.

Week in the Life - Day Five

Lots of pics on this one. If you'd like to see it larger, just click on it.

Tuesday, October 14th:

1. Up at 5:00 for work and this is the only little face I see in the morning before I get to work. He looks as tired as I feel. 2. Mindy has Halloween candy out on her desk. This is not good for someone with absolutely no willpower. 3. Try and drink lots of this during the day because for some reason when I'm home, I forget that I need water. 4. The only problem with drinking lots of water is that it leads to lots of trips here and I HATE public restrooms. 5. Work on my least favorite account for most of the day. Major spreadsheet and major headache. 6. On the road home. I spend approximately 4 hours a week on the road. **disclaimer - I would not recommend taking pictures while driving, but for some reason I took a lot today. 7. I think this rock would be a cool place to come and take pictures, but I've never done it. 8. Bored in the car so more pictures. 9. The exit I take everyday. I've been making this drive for over eleven years and sometimes I don't even remember driving home.  10. Welcome to Grantsville. 11. Check the mail. I love to get magazines, not so much love for the bills. 12. Check homework. 13. I got home right as Mike and Dal were walking out the door for football, but Mike had this yummy hamburger ready for me. I wolfed it right down. Michaela stayed after school to play soccer with her friends. 14. Reagen drew me a lovely picture. 15. Michaela home and I made myself go for a walk and when I downloaded these pictures, I realized that I don't exercise as much as I thought I did...hmm. Michaela watches Reagen while I'm gone. 16. Reagen wants to be a vampire for Halloween, no a witch, no a vampire...look through the Halloween costumes. When Mike and Dal get home, we all watch one our fav shows, Heroes. Then the nightly ritual of telling everyone to get ready for bed 10 times before they actually do it.

Week in the Life - Day Four

Monday, October 13th:

1. Monday means back to work...argh. This is where I spend at least 8 hours a day, 4 days a week so your going to see a lot of work pictures. They may be a little boring, but this is my life. 2. Lots to do today. Monday's are always busy because I am off on Fridays. 3. It's nice to be appreciated. I received a huge planter from my Big East district for Customer Service Week. That almost made my Monday bearable. 4. This little instrument reminds me every day that I haven't walked enough. Some days I don't know why I keep wearing it. Maybe I like feeling bad about myself...ha! 5. Done with work and on the road to meet Mike and the kids at Flying J's to come back in to West Jordan for Michaela's soccer game. 6. Froze our fannies off a the game. I had told Mike to bring blankets and he brought the two littlest blankets that we own. With the wind chill, it had to be 10 below zero. 7. Drive to work in the dark and drive home in the dark. This is the sun setting over the lake. 8 & 9. This is what Mike does everyday without fail along with 100 other things. If it weren't for him, none of us would have clean clothes.

Week in the Life - Day Three

I have to thank my friend Chelsea (photoshop princess) for giving me a crash course session in photoshop. I spent over three hours the other night trying to figure some things out with no luck. She spent ten minutes with me and taught me so much. 

Sunday, October 12th:

"Is it church day?" This is Reagen's question every Sunday morning. Church doesn't start until 11:00 so we get to sleep in and still have plenty of time to get ready for church. Somehow, though, when it's five minutes 'til, we always have someone that hasn't combed their hair, brushed their teeth, or put their shoes on. We usually end up walking in a few minutes late. I am currently the secretary in the Primary and I love the job. After church, Mike took Dal to do his fast offerings. He's covering his chin because he's got a couple little pimples...bring on the teen years. Usually, on Sunday we have some type of roast, potatoes, gravy, corn, rice-a-roni, and rolls. Today, we totally went in the opposite direction and made pigs in a blanket. It was a nice change and the kids thought it was great.

After we ate, Michaela showed us a really cool thing on you tube. You put headphones on and listen to a virtual barber shop. It is so awesome, if you close your eyes, you feel just like you are getting a hair cut because of the 3D sounds. Get on and try it. Reag was so cute listening with her little eyes shut the whole time, and yes, that is ketchup on her face from the pigs in a blanket. Red reader books are due on Monday so we read through the books again. Dal decided he wanted to make cookies, but somehow I ended up making them. Funny how that works. That was about it for the day. Another weekend gone.

Week in the Life - Day Two

I told my friend Keysha she had to to this little project with me and she is totally kicking by booty at getting her pics posted and her story told. I can't let her get too far ahead of me and Sunday is one day that I'm not running around like a chicken with it's head cut off so here we go again.

Saturday, October 11th:

We woke up at 7:30 this morning to the smoke detector in our bedroom beeping every 10 seconds. I guess the battery was going dead. If I would have had something to throw at it, I would have because that was way earlier than I planned on opening my eyes. It rained and then even hailed a little. I really didn't want to get out of bed when I looked out the window.

Everyone up and going soon after. Mike gave Reagen this hat yesterday and I think she may have slept in it. She wants to wear it everywhere. No soccer for Michaela today and we found out Reagen's game in Dugway was cancelled due to the weather. She was bummed out because she was going to ride with her coach to the game.

Once a day, every day...sometimes twice a day. I'm so glad the kids are old enough to help load and unload. I wish my OCD wouldn't make me reconfigure everything when they are done. 

Before we head off to football at Deseret Peak, I jump on the computer and Reagen colors me a picture. She won't allow me to peek at it until she is all the way done. Total hat weather for both of us. It's breezy and wet.

Even colder at the game. The wind is really whipping. I am sporting a sweater, my coat, baseball hat, and then a yellow rain slicker with the hood cinched tight enough that my eyes and nose are the only things showing. I am really looking like a hottie. Reagen stayed with Amy and Michaela went to TKD. We beat Tooele 42-0. They are our long time nemesis...and the Tooele coaches are really mean, screaming people so it was good to beat them again.

Right after the game, Dal and I went to WalMart for groceries. I usually don't like to grocery shop on Saturday and now I remember why. We are both starving so we split a foot long from Subway. It was nice to have just a few minutes to sit and visit with Dal alone.

$188.00 later and I'm sure in two days, everyone will be saying, "we don't have anything to eat."

Here's the church and this is the steeple...I had to do this with Reagen about 20 times this afternoon. I think I finally distracted her with some candy or something.

Noticed this today (bottom right corner). Who knows how long it's been here, but I consider it evidence that a five year old obsessed with stuffed animals lives here and decorates even my room with them. A lot of days I open the refrigerator and find a stuffed crocodile looking me in the eye.

One tired girl and her bestest friend. It's been a long, cold Saturday and so we all  just lounged around for a while. Mike went to Bountiful to watch their game against Olympus and got home around 6:00.

Mike lost his sunglasses today (this is pretty much a daily occurrence, but today he lost them really good).  Guess who found them out in the shed? Reagen!  When she found them, she came in really proud of herself and had to call Mike right away and let him know that he owed her a frozen yogurt from Maverick. I helped her think of that because it sure sounded good. After the cold yogurt, we were all ready for a nice warm bed.

Week In the Life - Day One

After 3 1/2 hours playing in photoshop (maybe I shouldn't call it playing because that implies that it was fun) and pulling my hair out, you are getting a plan old post. I had dreams of this neat 4x3 template from photoshop, but for some reason I can't get it to pull up in my blog. 

Anyway, if I don't get this started, it's never going to happen, so here we go.

Friday, October 10th, 2008:

I slept right through the kids getting ready for school this morning. After getting up at 5:00 am all week my brain and body were just done. Thank goodness for Mike. I felt a little guilty because Friday is the only day I get to do Reagen's hair for school and we try and come up with something cute. 

When I finally pull my butt out of bed, I start the Friday morning ritual of cleaning up. Spray all the kitchen counter tops, load the dishwasher, clean off the table, try and go through mail, grocery ads, and schoolwork that are strewn from here to tomorrow. Next, I usually shake the rugs and vacuum the living room. For some reason vacuuming is a little therapeutic.

A little after 10:00 I talk myself into going for a walk/jog (a lot of walk, a little jog). Michaela's ipod is required to help me keep moving. I've been taking the route down Clark Street to Soelberg's and then return on Main St.  I think it's just under three miles. I'll do this route for a while and then get really sick of it and find a new one. Mike is hiking up the mountain the same time I'm walking...show off! I get back and stretch a little while I fast forward through a tivo'd Good Things Utah. I don't seem to have time to watch the whole show anymore so I just forward to what looks interesting. I love when they have a good crafty segment.

Every Friday I pay the bills. Mike made brownies while I paid the bills and cancelled out the little walk that I took this morning.

If you're going to eat bad you might as well go all out. How about a little homemade Boboli pizza for lunch? I met Reagen at the bus stop and she had left her coat on the bus so we ran home and made Mike go chase it down. Good dad. When they got home, we all ate pizza.

After lunch, we rented Reagen a movie and she took a little break on her bed. I still haven't showered. Is that bad?

After her movie, we read through the two books that come home in her little red reader bag. She is doing great at reading. I think a lot of it is that she has such a good memory and memorizes what is on each page. I have to hide the pictures to make it a little tougher for her.

Dal comes home with a friend and they play x-box for a while and then go and chase chickens in the field. Who needs x-box when you have chickens?

Reagen completes her 100 chart. She wants to take it back to show her teacher that she was able to do it.

I finally shower and then play on the computer for a while. The kids all watch a Halloween movie together and say it's too cold to go to the high school football game like they had planned.

Reagen is in her cowboy gear for the football game. The kids decide to go after all, but it's way too cold to let her go. Tears are shed, but she is ok when we let her lay in bed and watch TV with us.

Thankful Thursday

1. I am thankful for my health and the health of my family. Over the last couple of weeks, I've had three friends that have been affected by the health of a family member. You don't realize how lucky you are to have everyone healthy until something happens. My prayers are still with you all.

2. I am thankful for Halloween and how excited the kids get over the decorating, dressing up and pumpkin carving. As you get older, some of the excitement of birthdays (especially your own birthday), Halloween, and other holidays is lacking. It's good to have little ones around to get you in the "spirit" and share their excitement.

3. I am thankful to have a home and as crazy as it may sound, I'm sometimes even happy that it's a small home. No matter where we are in the house, we are always pretty close. I can hear the kids playing (or fighting) in the other room. I hear little giggles and know whenever anyone comes in or out, and of course it's a little less to clean than most people.

WTH???

I didn't know that I had such a following in China. I had two comments that I had to delete from my last post. One from "Andy Guo", and he told me that he marveled to see such a blog and that it was sparkling. (It's sure been a long time since anyone's called me sparkling) He's really looking forward and waiting with curiosity to know my innovation. He even had a profile picture of himself and I have to say he is quite a strapping fellow. Wow! I am flattered...HA! I also had a comment from "Learn Chinese", and he wants me to come on over to his blog and visit.

I thought the word verification field would stop some of my Chinese boyfriends from commenting on my blog, but I guess not.

**One a different note, I downloaded a bunch of the pictures for my "Week in a Life", but didn't quite get them posted yet. I am having a lot of fun with this and I'm not letting it stress me out. Last night I organized the pictures that I've taken so far by making a folder in iphoto for each day. I thought that would make it a little easier to manage when I start getting them posted and eventually printed. I'm still jotting down notes throughout the day. Realized that I sure spend a lot of time at work so you'll see quite a few work pictures and trust me that are not action shots. Reagen has soccer tonight and I have to get some visiting teaching treats made, but if I have time, I'm going to work on it again.

I know a few of you are going to give this a try and I can't wait to see some posts.

A Week in Your Life

As I was hopping from blog to blog the other night, something caught my eye. The queen of crafty, Ali Edwards, was talking about documenting a week in your life through photos and words. I don't know why, but this really interested me. Maybe because I love photography and when I don't have my camera, I feel kind of naked. I'm always pulling it out for pictures of the kids and their sports and when Reagen has a cute little bow in her hair. Never to just document life in general, my life. So guess what I have committed to do for 7 full days? 

This isn't easy because I am really good at starting things and not so good at finishing things, but I'm doing this and I would love for some of you guys to do it, too. Don't think that you don't have enough to document, snap pictures of what you have for dinner, playing on the computer, your messy kitchen, potty training. 

I keep my camera out all the time so that I can see it and remember to take pics. I even took it to work today. The pictures aren't all great or real interesting, but my life isn't always real interesting either. I've kept a notebook out, too, so I can jot things down that I want to remember. I think it will be fun to look back in 10 years and see a whole week of our lives. Here is the link for Ali's website and more ideas if you want to try this. I will try and post some pictures tomorrow. My plan is to get the whole week in a little album, eventually. 

I have completed a few days and it is actually turning out to be a fun little project. I hope you guys will try it and share...all of you.

I'm a normal girl, pretty average in every way, but I have a group of friends that are just plain extraordinary. They make me laugh until I pee, cry like a baby, think outside the box, and teach me all kinds of new things, and this is all within a ten minute period. We can go without seeing each other for over a month and then pick up right where we left off. We try to get together twice a year for a long weekend in the mountains and we scrapbook, eat yummy homemade food (and a lot of junk food), watch movies, have "Music of the Frickin' Night", and talk, talk, talk. We have been doing this for close to ten years and I hope when we are in our eighties, we are still getting together talking about unmentionable things and laughing our guts out. Each one brings something special and unique to the group and it wouldn't be the same if any one person was missing. We all accept each other just as we are and it's a comforting feeling to be with them and so hard to leave them when the time comes. These girls mean the world to me and I don't know what I'd do without them. Here's to another 50 years together!

Left to right, starting with top row: Adrian, Erin, 

Susan, Ashley, Amy, Kiley, Me

Thankful Thursday

1. I love the weather we've had so far this week. True Fall weather.
2. I'm so grateful that Reagen doesn't tell time. I got her to bed early tonight and she was none the wiser.
3. I love seing peoples yards decorared with grave stones and skeletons for Halloween. The kids love to drive by at night and see them all lit up.
4. I'm grateful that Amazing Race has started again.

We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Program...

...For Some Serious Bragging!

As most of you know, Michaela plays in an all boys competitive soccer league. This is her first year playing in the comp league and it has been so exciting to watch. There are seven teams in the league including Orem, Murray, Ogden, Roy, West Jordan, and Salt Lake. We've played nine games and have five left. The league has a website that keeps track of the stats and guess who is #1 in scoring??? My girl! Can't even tell you how proud I am. Here is the link to the website. 

http://uysa.affinitysoccer.com/tour/public/info/scoring_leaders.asp?sessionguid=&flightguid={88F05C9B-3D9C-4ABC-ACB9-AE0712501D75}&tournamentguid={3AB6FCBE-B141-426C-A2ED-D36765DE0EBC}

A Few Things...

1. Has it really been two weeks since I've posted and is it seriously October already?

2. I totally forgot Thankful Thursday, but starting next week, I'm on it.

3. I had the best time ever in Heber with my friends and I am "so seriously blessed" to have them. I will blog about the trip soon.

4. I posted the first pic ever of myself in the sidebar.  I really hate pics of myself so this was a big deal. It's my obituary picture (I'll explain that in my blog about my Heber trip) and no, I'm not planning on using it any time soon, but if something does happen, you know to use this pic and not the ones Mike takes of me without make-up, hair not done, and wearing pajamas.

5. I will be emailing you all your obituary pics soon. I keep trying and the file is too big so I'll figure it out.

6. As soon as you have your obit pics, you have to put your favorite one on you sidebar for all to see.

Thankful Thursday (yes, I'm a day late)

1. One week until I'm in Heber, in the mountains, in a cabin with the funnest friends ever doing a whole lot of nothing.

2. That I finally got my hair cut and colored last night. I was seriously starting to look like Courtney Love, minus the smeared black mascara.

***Sold***

I just took the post about the slide/play center down because it sold. I had three women racing to see who could get to my house first from Herriman, Lehi, and Draper. All I can figure is that there must be a shortable of kids play equipment in this area. That totally stressed me out because they all wanted it and I had to tell two of them that it had been sold and they thought if they got out there before the other person, I would give it to them. I should have posted it here first because my cute niece Angie wanted it, too, but emailed me after the lady from Lehi had already left her house to come and get it. Sorry, Ang. :)

Thirteen years ago today...

Mike and I dodged pedestrians on North Temple that were going to the state fair to get to the hospital to have this little dude. My contractions were two minutes apart and I told Mike just to run them all over or he'd be delivering Dallon in the back seat of our car.

Well, thirteen years have gone by in the blink of an eye and I am now the mom of a teenager. He's such a good kid that he's made it easy. It's been fun watching him grow into a young man.

Here's 13 facts that make Dal, Dal.

1. He has an amazing memory and remembers facts out of books, things he's heard on tv, or things that people have said.
2. When he was little, he loved to watch infomercials. He also loved to watch the history channel.
3. Women would pay big bucks for his long eye lashes. Man if I could just have half the lashes that boy has.
4. He is super smart in math and science.
5. He is very generous. If he has earned money, he buys everyone a treat with it.
6. Since he was little, he's loved to get into small spaces. If he came up missing, we would usually find him hidden under the cabinets or in the entertainment center cupboard.
7. He will not go without a shirt. It took him until he was 10 or 11 to even swim without a t-shirt on. As a baby, he wouldn't let me even hold him if I had a tank top on because my arms were bare. Weird!
8. He loves super sour stuff. (I craved lemon heads the whole time I was prego with him.)
9. He has a huge baby toe nail. Not long, just a big nail.
10. For the first four years of his life, he called his cousin Kristin, Dot Dot.
11. He hates to talk on the phone.
12. He's always been an early riser. I'm hoping the teenage years change that and he starts sleeping in a little.
13. He does a really good impression of Napoleon Dynamite.

Dallon had to hunt for his birthday present when he woke up this morning and then he got the good ol' birthday spankings. This is one of those stupid traditions that just doesn't go away in our house. These are Dal's legs, but I really couldn't tell you where the rest of him went.

Oh, there he is.

Happy Birthday, bud!

Thankful Thursday

Once again it's Thursday so here we go:

1. I'm thankful for a yard. I love to sit out in the shade under the trees. I love having a place for the kids to play,run, and terrorize our cat. All that good stuff.

2. I am thankful that I found out today that I can save 15% on our Family Plan with Verizon through my work. Wish I would have known six months ago, but thankful I know now. Little things like this just make my day.

3. Thankful for the relationship my girls have. Last night Mike and Dal were gone and I just enjoyed listening to them play and color together. Michaela was teaching her the song/chant, "We're Going on a Bear Hunt", and that's the only line she knew so they were making it up from there. (We are not musically gifted in my home.) There's a five year difference between them, but Reagen just thinks Michaela is the best sister in the whole world and will do anything to please her big sis.

Sharing the Joy

You know how when you experience something really great and you just want to share that with someone else?  Well, I thought Mike would like to experience O.P.A.Y. (one project a year). He would really rather not experience that, but I really wanted to share that joy with him so I've been encouraging him (a.k.a. - nagging him) to work on a little project. 

We have had wainscotting for Michaela and Reagen's room for over a year. Of course it's been sitting out in the garage and then the shed, unopened this whole time. I've been thinking that if we, meaning Mike, doesn't get it painted real soon, it will be sitting there for another year. 

Imagine my happiness when he called me at work today and told me that we are going to need at least six more boxes. I wasn't happy that we obviously don't know how to measure a room, but that he had gotten it out of the shed and was working on it. He remeasured and cut for one wall. Once I get him going, he's pretty good about completing something, but we're right in the middle of the football season so I'll be encouraging him lots.

I took some before pics tonight and as soon as we, again meaning Mike,  starts making some progress, I'll take some more pics and post the before and after shots.

If you have an unfinished project, I challenge you to get someone else to finish it for you and then let's hear about it and see some pics.

Tagged

Thanks for the tag, Ade. Better late than never, right?



4 Things I Love About Mike:

1. He's an awesome cook.

2. He'd sacrifice anything for our kids.

3. He makes me laugh.

4. He cleans the toilets.



4 Movies I Can Watch Over & Over:

1. Home movies

2. Shawshank Redemption

3. Finding Nemo

4. Lonesome Dove (this was a tough question. theres not too many movies I watch over & over)



4 TV Shows I Watch:

1. The Office

2. Survivor

3. Heroes

4. Amazing Race



4 Places I've Been:

1. Cabo San Lucas

2. Jackson Hole

3. Florida

4. Erda (don't be jealous)



4 People Who Email Me:

1. My scrappin sistas

2. Kassy

3. Keysha

4. My sis, Amy



4 Favorite Foods:

1. Chocolate or cheesecake or anything sweet

2. Pizza

3. Steak

4. Olive Garden bread sticks w/Afredo sauce



4 Places I'd Like to Visit:

1. Italy

2. Hawaii

3. Holland

4. Australia



4 Things I'm Looking Forward to Next Year:

1. Getting some stuff done around the house, remember O.P.A.Y.?

2. Warm weather. (I'm w/Susan on not liking winter)

3. Any retreats with my friends.

4. A secret trip that Mike is planning for just me and him (this isn't really happening, but hint-hint, Mike)



4 People to Tag:

1. Whoever

2. Wants

3. To

4. Play

Thankful Thursday

I forgot to do this last week, but I'm going to try and do better.

1. For this cooler weather. Even though it means that winter is around the corner (yuck), I love fall and I can feel it in the air.

2. For laughter. Last week while Mike rested/slept in the recliner, Reagen clipped his toenails (what was he thinking?). A couple of times I heard him jump and say "owww!", but he didn't pay much attention to what was going on down there. When she finished it looked like someone had taken a weed eater to his toenails. Some of them looked like they had fangs on the sides. We laughed and laughed and laughed. It was quite a chore to get them evened out again because some were right down to the skin. I really wish I'd taken a picture. Poor Mike. It seems like laughter often comes at his expense in our house. This world would be a better place if everyone had a Mike to laugh at. :)

And I live to tell about it.

So, I had to speak in church yesterday.  It's been years since I've had to do this, and trust me, I was totally ok with that. I'm really not one that longs to do that sort of thing. I'd rather just sit near the back of the chapel and take in what everyone else has to say. They say that this is right under being attacked by sharks, as far as people's fears go. Hey, I'd rather take my chances doggy paddling around in shark infested waters than get up in front of a bunch of people I kind of know and talk. I had five weeks to prepare and I don't know if that was a blessing or a curse because it gave me five long weeks to worry about it and wake up with that panicked feeling over and over. It may have been better if they would have sprung the news on me the day before. 

I was asked to speak on prayer and I decided to narrow it down to family prayer. After writing this talk in my head for five weeks and going 10 different directions with it, I actually started writing a few thoughts down the week before. Finally, on Friday I pretty much had it prepared. I just had to clean it up a little and time myself. There were three people speaking including myself. I locked myself in my room and piled some pillows up on the end of my bed like a pulpit and timed myself with Mike's stopwatch. What a dork I am. It took me exactly 15 minutes and that's what they wanted so I was good to go...all except the nightmares to come that night.

Sunday morning came and we were suppose to meet 15 minutes before church. I found out one of the speakers wasn't going to make it. That's REALLY not what you want to hear! I'll just speak a little slower, right? I was so glad to see Janet Cook, a spirtual giant and a lady I look up to so much, was speaking with me. If my talk didn't go well, I knew she'd do great and she was speaking after me so everyone would remember her talk. Her talk was amazing and I really don't remember much about my talk. I was just so glad that my knees didn't buckle and my mouth worked for the most part. I'm pretty sure I only teared up twice. Once when I talked about my kids praying for Papa when he was sick and then when I talked about Reagen's bedtime prayers. I was proud of myself because usually all it takes is me stepping in front of the pulpit and the tears start falling. (I think my practice run with the pillow pulpit really helped.) 

Anyway, I felt such a sense of relief when I sat back down and my heart stopped pounding. I was going to have one of the members of the bishopric sign my talk and excuse me from talking for the next five years, but I thought that they might think that was a little weird. I did gain a greater testimony of family prayer by doing this because in those five weeks that I had to prepare, I made sure that every night we had it and I felt the subtle blessings that came from doing this. I guess the Lord knew that this was something we needed to work on a little harder. 

Fall is just around the corner...

...and life is in full swing again. I love this time of year. It's hard to keep up with everything going on, but I love seeing these three busy with the things they love.