09/03/23 Exciting week...living my best life!

Sunday morning clouds in St George

Buried the whole where the kids
put garbage and kept moving the 
pallets

Working on the weeds

 Haha...so AJ was tracking me yesterday and asked me where I was going...Dad and I were on our way to Parowan to High Voltage BBQ for lunch. Cade Boardman, dad's BBQ friend had a grand opening for his restaurant and we wanted to support him.  Plus it was the holiday weekend and we figured it would be fun to do something different. Aj said, WOW, you've had an exciting week to which I replied, Living my best life!  

Then I turned to dad and was like...what's he talking about!?  

Then I remembered, I had a pretty fun busy week! 

Monday, as you know, I went with AJ to Navajo Lake, Duck Creek area and hiked cascade falls and floated around on Navajo lake. Then we went to a cute diner on the west side of cedar and had a burger and pie. Yummy. AJ got altitude sickness up the mountain, which put a damper on our activities as he could hardly function while he battled his headache. But we had a nice day together anyway.  Once we came home we celebrated AJ - it was his 32nd birthday!! -- with pizza and Menchi's ice cream cake. 

Tuesday was a regular work day for me but a little extra busy cause of taking Monday off. 

How to live to 100 guide

Wednesday was YW and we played a really fun game -- maybe you should try it if you ever need an easy activity. Someone asks a question...like what's your favorite animal? Or Movie? Or color?  Everyone (including the person who asks) fills out the answer on a piece of paper. Then all the papers go in a bin in the middle of the room. Then you go around the room and choose a paper and try to guess who's answer it was. The girls really enjoyed guessing and getting to know a little bit more about the other girls. 

Hike to Cascade Falls, up Cedar Mountain

Thursday at 7 I went to the Dixie Conference Center for the RISE Conference - put on by the St George Chamber of Commerce - it's a day of talks by community members and motivational speaker from out of the area. Overall - it's a nice networking event and good info too. Dad came after his show and we got to spend a couple of hours together before I had to leave to Red Robin to do a review for our new court clerk Melissa with the Judge and Thad.  (Double lunch day! )

I went back to work from 2:30 - 4:30 and was REALLY busy!!!

Nothing like a lake and a tube
In my happy place!

Thursday after work I went to see Holly's new couch - it is soft and squishy and comfy and she loves it!  They also got an entertainment center and bar stools. So exciting for them!  

Friday Dad and Gpa and I went to lunch at Durangos and then Holly came and spent the evening with me. We went to the mall and ross and target looking for some lil girl dresses for the wedding. Fail. Nothing. 

But the weather has been CRAZY here for days -- we keep having long thunder & lightning storms and rain rain rain!  So we were out in a little bit of that. 

Navajo Lake
up Cedar Mountain

Yesterday was a really productive day - I had to return stuff at Target, UPS store, and Walmart. I also needed stuff so I shopped at Target, Lowes, Walmart and Home Depot.  It was like a real live busy shopping day. Then I came home and went to Parowan. Due to all the rain I had to work on the pool cover quite a bit.  It's been turning green so I worked on scrubbing it -- to no avail......and I bought a little box and instead of the big hole in our back yard covered by pallets I installed a sprinkler box and buried it so it's nice and even back there - but it was a lot of work to get it that way! We even got in a swim for about an hour and then I trimmed some trees and picked up debris from the storm. I mopped and scrubbed the grout in my bathroom, colored my hair (it came out too dark, darn it!) and then folded three loads of laundry. Whew. What a day!

This is what elevation
sickness looks like

This week I have been listening to a TIME OUT FOR WOMEN. There have been some really fun inspiring talks and I've really enjoyed it. I think there are about 20 speakers and I've listened to 9. 

The most recent one was David Butler -- (I have no idea what makes him special or important enough to be a speaker there!!!). -- but he talked about how special and important each one of us is. He told the stories from the bible about how you lose a sheep and go hunting for it and was like...I'm gonna be honest...if I had 100 sheep and I lost one I wouldn't be too worried about it...I mean I NEVER got a 100% in my life at school...shoot if I was down to 85 I would still be feeling pretty good about things and wouldn't be searching for anything...

Then he told about the lady who lost her coin and searched all day and night and when she finally found it she sent out invitations and had a party and celebrated...and he was like...you know if she had just gone to work for the day she could have earned the coin easily...AND she is going to spend more on the party celebrating the coin being found than the coin is even worth. 

Navajo Lake

Then he got serious. (kind of?!) and told about how he was in line at Disney for an $18 hamburger when he realized he had lost his little boy. And he was like...shoot...I've been in line for a long time and I'm almost NEXT!!! Dang it!  So he gets out of line and goes to his wife and says ... do you have our little guy? And she's like, no...YOU had him! So they call his name out and hunt high and low and spot him outside the restaurant...and so he wants to teach him a lesson ... so he runs up behind him and "kidnaps" him... to teach him a lesson....  And causes some concern by other patrons in the park...and he's like...I'm his Dad...it's ok!!!! I swear!!! ANYWAY...he talked about how relieved and happy they were to find him and how they celebrated with $18 hamburgers...

Beautiful sunrise

And he told of the story of the son who asked for his inheritance early and squandered it all and how the father anxiously waited for his return and was so happy when he came back even though he lost all his money. 

High Voltage BBQ, Parowan Utah

And it's true...we love our kids no matter what and just want them to be close to us and we value each and every one of you.  And God values all of us even more than we can imagine and more than we can love our kids. 

Colored my hair...dark!

I've been talking to several friends who've had kids "go astray" and do things that they don't condone. Some of these parents have cut off the kids and shunned them and won't associate with them...and I'm really struggling with that type of parenting...since when are we to judge?  When did we get taught to stop loving our kids because they think differently than we do?  I may not be happy with my kid's decisions but they are adults...they get to pick...and I need to love them anyway!!!!

Cade's Ribs from High Voltage

So there ya have it! It's been a great week and I'm trying to live my best life...Really seize the opportunities that come my way and enjoy the journey. I hope you also are cherishing your mission... this is the last little bit where you won't have to worry about where your $ is coming from or food, or schooling or whatever...you'll have to start working and going to school and maybe even getting married and having kids and taking care of house and cars and whatever else life is going to throw at you. So for now, stop and take a breath and thank heavenly father for this time to learn and grow and develop your spiritual self that will be the foundation of the rest of your life. And try to enjoy every last minute of it...and don't let stupid stuff bug you...enjoy your journey!!!!

Sound boards, recovered

I love you!!! Mom