08/28/11 Aj's 20!

8/28/11

How does it feel to be 20?  All grown up now!  We'll have to celebrate the day without you.  We were going to go to Texas Roadhouse in your honor but they didn't open till 3 Friday and Dad had to go to Vegas...maybe next week!

Well I got all my work stuff figured out and done.  Judge went out of town this week (up the mountains, no cell service) and both he and I forgot we had a hearing set for Friday at 5 p.m. to accommodate a guy that works in New Mexico.  The other party came down from SLC.  I called all the judges in the area and everyone was out of town, sick, birthday party, etc.  Except one.  He came over at 6:30 Friday night (asked the parties to come back and give me time to find a Judge) and when he got there he decided he didn't have jurisdiction to hear the case.  So these poor people had to wait around for over 2 hours to not get their case heard.  He said he had to be appointed by city (Mayor) in order to have jurisdiction and without the proper paper in place he wouldn't hear it.  (We've never done that in the past, and never had a problem...???)  He indicated that even if I got the paper he wasn't sure it would be legit.  So I got the paper and called a different judge (who never heard of that) and was happy to come sit and listen to a case on Saturday at 2 p.m. for us.  I got the paper signed by the mayor (Just in case).  And Whew....I'm worn out!  Teach me to not forget appointments and let the judge leave town!

Everybody has been busy with school and the start of a new year.  Katie is enjoying student council (had to go early every day for 2 weeks to do safety patrol) and she is the "cartoonist" for the school newspaper that will print 3X this year.  She is pretty excited.  She is also going to start dancing again soon and girl scouts never quit and achievement days and piano lessons.

Holly decided dancing sounded fun and will join Katie this year and as luck would have it they get to be in the same class (YEAH!!!!).  That means less running around for me!!!!

Dallas and Bryce go to school together every day and are enjoying the band.  They are both in the presidency for their quorums and stay busy there too.  I am more and more impressed with them as they are growing up into nice young men.  Bryce has really matured and is always willing to help with chores and things.  He is probably the best right now at me asking for something to be done and him jumping right on and doing it, no complaints, no follow up needed.  You just can't imagine how nice that is!  I think he doesn't get the credit he deserves sometimes!

Went to Gma and pa last night since we have leadership meeting today at 5.  We enjoyed ravioli and bread and brought cream puffs for dessert.  We played farkle and the girls played wii for awhile and then Dad had to come home and get back to work on the mag.  It's deadline is pretty much now.

I saw there was a nasty storm hit the P this week.  By Manilla.  Did you get any of that?  Said 7 people died and others were missing.  That's not too far from you, is it?

I have a pres. meeting this morning so I am heading out pretty quick.  Just enjoying some p&q this morning as everyone is still asleep.  Read my scriptures, took a bath, made cafe rio chicken and got ready, now writing to you...all in quiet.  So strange!

I love that picture you sent...that artist is really talented.  I show EVERYBODY that comes to my work.  Did you guys pay him to do that?  Does he charge a lot?

Well I hope you have (had) a great birthday and everybody treated you well!!!  Keep up the good work and know that you are loved!  Tassle your hair for me!!!  xoxo mom

08/21/11 GS Luau, and why I don't use self checkout...

8/21/11

I can't believe another week has come and gone.  Where does it go?  Seems like it's been a good one!

Last night the girls and I went to a Girl Scout Luau.  They had all the usual...kalua pork, rice, chicken, salad, dancing girls, big dude doing the hakau 3/4 naked, and some hulu dancing lessons.  It was good.  We got all dolled up and had a good time together.

Riley Lewis is home and I guess speaks today.  That went really fast too!  I think Sis. Turner will be back any time now too.  (18 months goes even faster!!!)

I think Riley is heading to BYU tomorrow to start school.  Crazy fast!  I think he just got home Thursday last week.  That's a lot of change in a young man's life in a big hurry!

Work has been keeping me totally busy.  Seems the faster I go the behinder I get.  Or something.  I have more help than ever before (community service workers, volunteer, part time girl from the office and I'm putting in some OT and still can't keep up.)  This new program is trying me!  I know how to do it for the most part...all the processes are just slower.  Ugh.  Me and slow don't get along well.

YW is still coming along.  I'm frustrated still with the lack of commitment on the part of our members.  I just don't understand why they don't LOVE it.  I couldn't wait to go each week.  These girls I can't drag here!  My non-members still enthusiastically participate most Wednesday's so I am thankful for that.  If it weren't for them I'd really wonder about all this!  We did have a girl move in recently who is a sweety and she has been committed so far!  That's good!

We are getting ready for the marathon -- I'm the captain this year.  (Ym and Yw leader trades each year...Brandon did last year so it's my turn).  That'll be fun.  Hopefully we can get enough to come.  I enjoyed it last year...we'll have to get good breakfast to bribe them!?

So Friday night me and the girls went to Walmart after swimming and D.I. and getting gas (the usual Friday night stuff).  We get a small basket of stuff and figure, hey, let's go to self check out.  Terrible idea!  We get in a line that has just one guy in front of us and he's about done.  Only the machine won't return his 77 cents.  So he calls for help.  Who calls her boss for help.  Who eventually (after we've completely unloaded all our groceries on the belt) says you better go get in another line.  Look around and there are people EVERYWHERE.  No problem, come get in this line (another self check out with just one person in it...basically "butted" me in line).  Ok, so I go over there.  Load up the stuff.  Check an item through, put it in the bag.  Seems easy enough, right?  About the third item it says the item needs to be in the bag (it already is!).  Get help.  It continues on like this through our items needing assistance every couple of items.  We finally finish and I have 2 coupons.  One works, one doesn't.  Call for help, who calls for help.  Who finally gets it to work.  Then try to pay with credit card.  Declined.  (WHAT????).  Ok, no worries.  Get another card, won't read it.  WHAT THE CRAP!!!!  Girls start putting the groceries in the cart.  Machine goes bezerk...the groceries don't weigh enough.  Tell them to put it back.  Again, only now it weighs TOO much.  Lady comes over AGAIN and finally makes it read my card and we go home.  GRUMPY.  So, just in case you're wondering why I don't do self checkout...there you have it.  I had to come home and make banana chocolate chip crumb muffins and eat like 5 of them before I felt better!  And it was 10 p.m. at night!!!!!!

We are fortunate to have no BYC today and no WARD COUNCIL next Sunday so I enjoyed a very lazy morning!  Didn't even make anything for dinner tonight...although I might still do that...I have a few minutes yet.  It feels good to not be running somewhere all the time!

Well I hope you are still doing well. You are looking thinner and thinner...do I need to send you more food?  Don't they sell brownie mixes in the grocery there?

Bryce still hasn't gotten whatever you sent for his b-day.  What did you send anyway?  He still checks the mail box every day.  He is still like a little kid in this GINORMOUS body.  Kinda cute!

Can't wait to hear about this weeks adventures. Love you lots! Mom.

08/14/11 Katie joins student council, GS camp, & consecration & sacrifice

Cookie queen's -- Holly & Katie

8/14/11

Just got through with our early morning meetings and had some breakfast and getting ready to go to church.  All the girls are prettied up and the boys look handsome!

Last week before school is now over and school officially starts tomorrow morning.  Yikes!  I don't know if I'm ready to jump back into busy busy busy again!  Ready or not, here it comes!

Katie is on student council this year and starts off at 7:50 with her first meeting tomorrow before school.  I'm not sure what Holly will do since I prefer to take them up together.  I'll have to try to find some acceptable activity for her to do.  Katie says she can go to the library but I'm not sure if she would...and behave.  She needs something busier like being a teacher's helper or breakfast helper or something.  I don't really want to leave her to the play ground.  Kids can be too mean out there w/o supervision!

We went to GS camp this week and the girls had a great time.  The camp was supposed to be 3 days, 2 nights and kept getting shortened until it was 22 hours.  But I think they still crammed most of the activity into the 1 day that was going to take place over 3 days because they kept them really busy.  They did watercolor painting, made dolls, made bracelets, necklaces with flashlights, blew bubbles, played games, sang campfire songs, ate s'mores (lot of them...think Holly was up 1/2 the night from sugar overload), did orienteering, archery, made puppets, tye-dyed a hanky, told stories...seriously...it was just really action packed!  The kids were great and had a great time.  We had 10 girl scouts and I was a little nervous (about 3 of them can be a handful usually) but they were all just really well behaved.  At night they put all the kids out on the floor of the lodge and by 11ish things were pretty quiet.  The adults got to sleep upstairs in beds (there were 7 beds in the room I slept in and it looked like the 7 dwarf's bedroom).  I was dopey!  At least I wasn't sneezy...my new meds are really doing the trick!  No asthma/allergy problems for quite some time now!!! Yippee!

I think the boys were supposed to go to school this week and get "stuff" like their lockers...but we all forgot and so they didn't go.  Ooops.  They totally could have with Dallas driving now...but nope.

Took Bryce out again driving yesterday.  He's still pretty apprehensive and better off without traffic.  So we went up on the hill and drove around for awhile.  He'll get it eventually!

**

Went to church and had a nap and it's dinner time already!  Getting ready to head up to grandparent's for dinner.  Aunt Wendy and family will be there.  She is about ready to pop...next month I think.  Brittney will be closer to Thanksgiving time.

I am going to try to send you some pix from gs camp.  I selected a couple but they were huge so I'll try to send separately.

My lesson today was on consecration and sacrifice and how often when we think we sacrifice we are actually blessed many times more than the sacrifice we made.  For example you with your mission are "sacrificing" these two years but you will come away with so many blessings and things learned that you will treasure for a life time that your sacrifice won't seem a sacrifice when you look back.

So I hope you enjoy your sacrifice now because you will be blessed many times over for the things you are giving up right now.  I wish I had thought to say that in class today.  Oh well.  We talked about giving up tithing money and receiving blessings or giving up time to serve others and receiving blessings.

Well it's been a good week here.  I hope it has been there also.  Thank you for your example and sacrifice.  

You are blessing our family in countless ways.  Love you. Mom.

8/7/11 New tires and fun at the St. George City Park

8/7/11

Hi AJ!

Seems like just yesterday we were talking to you about our quick tire change on the freeway...and it's Sunday again!  End of that story is we went to Walmart the next morning and they told us it was our fault the tire blew (alignment issue) and they would not honor the warranty.  Went to Costco and paid $435 for 4 new tires and then took it to a mechanic down the road to get an alignment.  He wouldn't give me one.  Said I don't need it and that I just had CRAPPY tires.  No charge, No alignment.  (Seems crazy that he wouldn't just go ahead and align it...I was ready to pay about $100 to him, ya know?)  I don't know what to think...if Walmart and Big O are messing with us (they say I need an alignment every time I go in there) or if they really sold us crappy tires. So the guy at the alignment shop said to come back in 3 months and he'll check things again...whatever!

Another busy week flying by.  The girls have been keeping busy playing with friends and enjoying the lazy days of summer.  Oh the good ol days, eh?  My friend Jamie and her daughter Ady and the girls and I went out Friday night.  We took the girls to McD's for kids meals and then to St. George water feature in the middle of town.  I think you've been there.  Just a big fun play stream down by the St. George library.  They ran around in the heat and loved it.  St. George City also installed a $300,000 carousel next to that (everybody's complaining about waste of tax $ money etc) and the girls rode it 3X.  It is 50 cents a ride so it doesn't break the bank.  The LOVED it.  Afterward we took them to a new ice cream joint called Menchie's.  They got to get a cup and put whatever they want in it.  They had about 12 flavors of frozen yogurt. Then they had like 100 different toppings.  Fruits, candy bars, gummy stuff, brownie squares, cheesecake squares, praline covered chocolates, on and on and on.  Katie was lost in little girl heaven for awhile.  At the very end there is some syrup.  The kicker about this place is you have NO idea how much you are spending until you get up to weigh it.  39 cents per ounce.  When Ady put hers on it said 12.5.  Her mom thought that meant $12.5 and she almost fell over dead right there!  Turns out that was OUNCES not the price and it was about $5.  Which is still kinda pricey for a kids ice cream but after the initial shock it seemed quite reasonable!  Katie's and Holly's were similarly priced at $3.5 and $5.  Keep in mind they were set free on this place...it could have been a lot worse!  Any way the girls were very happy with their evening.

Things are getting a little better at work, I guess.  I still have a lot of kinks to iron out but slowly but surely I'm working through things.  All my community service workers dropped off the face of the earth which has been a bummer but I have 2 promises that they'll be back next week...we'll see.  So I have high hopes for a productive couple of days next week.

The girls GS overnighter is coming up.  They have shortened it yet again.  Now it's basically 24 hours.  Go Thursday at 2, come home Friday at 2.  Ok.  So much for Thur, Fri, Sat.  It is actually nice for leaders but a bummer for the girls.  They were really looking forward to a "weekend" not an "overnighter".  We'll eat smores and sing songs.  It'll be a blast I'm sure.

All the girls have started coming back from vacation and stuff so we had a good turn out at YW this week.  Took the girls to see a murder mystery cruise thing directed by Emily Holt from our ward.  The price is $95 a head (fund raiser) on Friday but for the dress rehersal we were able to get in free.  It was pretty fun.  We had 2 cars FULL of girls/leaders.

Today I am teaching in YW.  The lesson is on forgiving ourselves.   You know, once you've completed the repentance process...allowing yourself to move on.  It is a pretty good lesson.  I hope I'll be able to deliver it well.  Not my best thing but I'm gonna try!  There are some really good stories that go along with the lesson so if I can just keep my head together it should be fine.  We've only been having like 2 girls lately in YW and 4 leaders...but I still get nervous.  Go figure.   I don't know what to do with our lame attendance.  The one family takes the 2 girls to their old address most weekends, others just won't come.  I guess just keep plugging away and inviting them and hoping it gets better!  Sometimes I wonder why I waste my time for nobody to come...but then I think of poor Nikki and our new girl Vanessa and realize that THEY want to be there and THEY want to learn and even if you are only doing it for one person it's still worth it, right?!  (I learn a lot if nothing else, right?!)

I guess I'll sign off now.  I hope you are having great success.  Your blog is often spoken of by people so I know that you are touching people here in addition to whatever great things you are accomplishing there!  We are very proud of you and I hope you can feel our love and support for you always.  I hope that you're example will help us with your brothers and getting them to also serve a mission.  What a great life lesson that is.  Imagine if I'd have gone -- teaching YW would be EASY now!!!   (Course you wouldn't be here...!)  

Anyway, I love you lots and hope you know that.  You are amazing.  Keep up the good work! Love mom.