New Calling

I have a new church calling. It is the enrichment counselor. (Tami, I will need your input.) Most of my life I have always served elsewhere. I have only served in RS two times in my married life. This is a huge change for me. I'm really not quite sure how I feel about it. I really look forward to working with the rest of the new presidency but honestly I'm a little concerned about time, ideas, teaching, conducting, just about anything that goes with this. This is definitely not my comfort zone. I haven't even been able to attend RS for several years. And the last time I was able to go, it was for a short time. I'm usually the one who loves change. I still really do but just maybe not this one. I guess time will tell, but I am really feeling the pressure. I'm just extra, extra, extra relieved that I'm not the president!! I'm probably making this a bigger deal than it needs to be so I'll just stop and try to be patient and teachable.

New furniture

I was talking to my mom this morning and was telling her about our new furniture. I told her that I would post a picture since she doesn't get to my house very often. What would we do without Internet? Brooks and I bought this sectional last week after making a visit to RC Wiley. We went to just look around and get some ideas for a new desk that I was going to have Brady make for us. As you can see, we kind of got side tracked and found a new sectional instead. We really needed a new one, the frame from our old one was not holding up so well. Brooks was never very happy with the old one. (I bought it without him) I made sure that Brooks sat in this one and really tested it out. Now that we have it home, he isn't too sure if he likes it or not! I quite like it myself. The blue recliner has to go now. As soon as I get around to finding something else, it will be gone.

Road Trip

This week I was so excited to have two days off in a row from work. I thought I could get so much done. I really wanted to hang some pictures on my walls. Since the remodel, I have been slow to get stuff back up since I'm not exactly sure where and what I want to put up. Anyway, I was sort of piddling around when Brooks called and said that he needed to "run" to Blackfoot to pick up a tractor part. He wanted to know if I was interested in going with him. I really didn't want him going alone since he had been up since around 4:00 AM so I agreed to ride along. The ride to Blackfoot is roughly three hours round trip. It's really not a bad trip because it is mostly freeway with little traffic. I am familiar with Blackfoot because I spent about six weeks of my nursing education there. Three of the weeks were spent in the ER up there and the other three were at the state mental hospital. My memories aren't really fond because it added another half hour to my already long commute each way. Brooks and I spent about 20 minutes in town. Long enough to pick up the part and try to find a place to have lunch. The "city" really hasn't changed in the last 17 years since I've been there. We could only find a Wendy's, McDonald's, or Arby's. (yea Kade, I know you're wishing for Arby's) We decided to drive back to Pocatello and find somewhere there to have lunch. After lunch, we made it back home in good time to make it to another of Jaxon's soccer games. It was good to make the drive again after all of this time, but I'm really okay if it's another 15 or so years until I do it again. (It will probably be sooner since I live with a farmer who needs parts.)

Mother's Day.....Late!

I realize that I'm a week late in posting this but that just seems to be the way it is for me. I have a really good intentions but have a more difficult time following through. Anyway, I hope anyone who reads this had a great Mother's Day.

My day was pretty fun for me this year. I refuse to cook on mother's day and other years I've tried to have everything ready the day before so the men in my life would only have to grill something and then do a little clean up. That way always left me a little disappointed. Usually something got burned and the cleanup was a little scarce. This year, I decided to purchase Kentucky fried chicken the day before and once again have everything else ready and just do the clean up myself (especially considering Brooks had his knee scoped two days before). We had a fun time, all the kids came except Kelsey because she was in Vegas for the weekend. The Grand kids also played really well. Since Brooks was out of commission this year, I also decided to purchase my own gift. This was one of the best things I've done in a long time. I told my kids that all I wanted was toys for my playroom. I knew they wouldn't do this because they think they need to get me something for me. So I decided to get the toys myself and have it be from Brooks. He did a really nice job this year! I went to Kmart (took my mom with me) and bought a play refrigerator, microwave, toy food, some pirates and caves (playschool stuff) and a few baby toys. I found it really hard to stop. I also want to add a stove when I find what I want that won't cost an arm and a leg. My mom and I had a really good time. I put the fridge together the Saturday night before mother's day and it took me three hours! I might have to do the same thing for my birthday and Christmas.

I want to say that I love being a mother and especially a grandmother. This truly is the best calling in life! I am really grateful for my own mother and for everything that she has done for me and taught me. She is one of the most thoughtful people that I know. I can't even come close to doing what she does for others. She would also do anything for me. I think I did inherit that part from her because I would also do anything for my own kids (and children in laws). My mom is a great example to me and she is always good for some serious shopping! Love you mom.

The Best Weekend!

This weekend has been one of the funnest I've had for a long time! We started it on Friday and we're not quite finished. Friday, Kelsey, Jessica and I got up just a little early and went to the JJ Cole warehouse sale. (I'm still not quite sure why I went.) We arrived at about 9:05 AM and it was already packed with women, kids, strollers, more women and so on. The cars were parked everywhere into every nook and cranny. We all decided that I would let Jess and Kelsey out and then I would try to find a park. We pulled up to the door and what do you know, there was an empty parking space. So in we went to brave the chaos. In just a relatively short time, we had all found what we were looking for and so we got in line hoping to make a quick getaway. This was not to be, it took a good hour to get through the checkout line. After checking out, we grabbed our stuff and headed home. After all this was not our only plan for the day, in just a few short hours we were leaving for more shopping and "WICKED"!

Kara, Jessica and I left Lewiston around 12:00. (Kade was in charge of Molly-thanks Kade) With just a couple of stops in Logan we were then on our way. We first stopped at Tai Pan, looked around, purchased just a few things and then drove to Rod Works. Purchased a few more things here, I needed picture frames and a rod for hanging, the girls hadn't been to Rod Works before and I think they enjoyed it.

As you can see, the car is not yet full. We then drove to Target. Need I say more? It's really hard to get out of Target without spending a lot of money. Even though the prices are so reasonable. We had a great time in Target but with all this shopping, we had really worked up an appetite, so next we went to Training Table to eat. I'm sure it seems crazy to go for a burger with all of the great places to eat in the Salt Lake area, but my girls love to eat there and I love the cheese fries. We enjoyed our meal and after finishing, we then went to Old Navy to grab a few more things. (needed of course) After we finished in Old Navy, we drove to a new boutique close to Lagoon that Jessica has a family connection to. It is a fun little shop with designer jeans, great purses, shoes and other accessories. We all decided that we would save our money and return to buy some jeans. By now it was time to leave for the theatre so we drove to Salt Lake, and as luck would have it again, we got a really great parking spot and a few minutes later, we were seated on ROW TWO to enjoy the show! What a great show it was, it was my second time but the first for the others. We all loved it! It was a really long day and a very late night but well worth it. Kade and Phil seemed to do okay with the kids and the kids seemed not worse for the wear. Thanks again guys!

Saturday morning, Brooks and I got up and headed over to Jaxon's soccer game again. They either tied or won this one. It was sooooo cold, windy and rainy. Jax wouldn't put an extra shirt on for the first half but after running around the entire half and still feeling cold, he finally agreed to put another shirt on. Phil had several kids on the team that wouldn't play at all and a few more that kept saying that they were either finished or need another break. It was a lot of fun again but I was happy when this one got over. It's so much fun to watch these perfect little people play and just have fun. I watched everyone of these kids play so unselfishly, if they saw their teammate trying to kick the ball they would back off and cheer for them. I could seriously hear Jaxon yelling encouragement to his team. So how do they come up with all of the bad stuff? Yea, I know the answer to that. It is really refreshing to watch these children play.

Notice the very large child? It was a little intimidating for our team!

The rest of the day, once I was able to warm up, I just played catch up with everything. Saturday evening, Brooks entire family (minus Kent, Holly, Raquel, and Lauren) went to Maddox for our annual birthday celebration for my father in law. This is something that we always really look forward to. It's fun to see everyone and to just eat some really good food and spend time with those that we love. We still have a little more planned, Today is Jessica's birthday, last Thursday was Kelsey's and so tomorrow, we are planning to go golfing as a family and then to have cake and ice cream after. I hope that the weather will be nice. If not we'll just have to make do.

I'm thinking that I might be just a little tired when I go back to work on Tuesday.

Soccer

A first for us.....our first grandchild's, first soccer game! Here are the pictures. I might be just slightly partial but I'm quite sure that Jaxon is the best I've ever seen! Honestly though, we had a lot of fun just cheering the kids on and it was great entertainment. There were no out of control parents (or grandparents). The coaches were very fair and encouraging. Hopefully every game will be that positive.

The Masters

Today was the final round of the Masters tournament. I realize that my favorite, Phil, didn't win today, but he won another prize of sorts. Phil beat Tiger! After their round was over today, the tournament was over for me. This was a great TV golf day for me. If Phil isn't in the running then I'm not very interested. Don't get me wrong, I like Tiger, just not as much as Phil. Soooo, even though Phil didn't win, I still really enjoyed the competition.