Don't Wish Your Life Away

In our RS lesson on Sunday our teacher shared that her Mother always said, of life, "Why wish it was Friday? Don't wish your life away!"

I used to wish when my children were little that they were older. Got my wish. I don't miss homework, school projects, teen drama and early morning seminary. But I do miss my babies, sweet little hugs and kisses, easy Christmas shopping, Easter dresses, Junk Food Friday nights, road trips singing to The Beatles, everyone agreeing on what video to watch and having them think I was the smartest, wisest person in the world (although I am and they're beginning to realize it again).

I used to wish I would be older and have more time on my hands. Older. Don't mind it. I kind of really like it, but still don't have that time. According to my 88 year old mother I will never find that time. Oh, well, at least I won't have to wish for it anymore! Win!

I used to wish life would be easier. Can't lie, I still wish this. I guess we're never done learning and growing, even when it's annoying and painful. The bumps in the road give me a clarity on my real blessings that I wouldn't have without them. Even with the cracked and sinking cement slab in the garage I must remind myself I still have a home (an older one that needs a lot of work, but...).

I used to wish church meetings would go by faster. Okay, still wish this one too. I sat through two mind numbing travel log testimonies on Sunday, each taking 10-15 minutes. At the end of the meeting a sweet little girl and her Grandfather got up. She gave 3 sentences expressing gratitude for her family. He stated simply his love for the Savior, the love of our Father in Heaven and his blessings without telling long stories. Brother Brown, you made sitting through that meeting worth every minute.

Resolution made. Not wishing life away. Well, maybe during certain teaching assignments? Please?

Warning, long post alert...

I think I'm back in Colorado. I can tell by the dishes I have to wash, the luggage to unpack, the laundry to do and the million little tasks I can see around my house. Sigh. I've been sitting here trying to improve my blogging. New, prettier look for Spring? Check. Photos on computer? Check. Wait, problem... I forgot the cool website Kami told me she uses for her cool collages on her blog. Help me, Kami!!!

It was one wild and crazy time. I think I'm going to blog in bullets to simplify things. Ammunition at the ready, go!

• Dog injured before trip. Minor surgery involved (I pay for a doctor for the dog when I haven't been myself? Really?). Now had to give dog pain killers and antibiotics.
• Due to lack of sleep was driven to paranoid heights by "warning" signs along the side of the road (see previous post). Learned CO has many more dangers than NM and AZ put together. Maybe that's because I'm driving through muy mucho mountains?
• Was able to spend a lovely evening with Dean and Renda in NM before leaving early the next day for AZ.
• Reached the intersection of Gilbert Road and Southern (yeah, like 3 miles from Richard's house) when I realized my purse with driver's license, debit card, checkbook, cell phone, reading glasses and, LIP GLOSS (my favorite, magic lip gloss, sniff) was still in Dean and Renda's kitchen.
• The Merry Go Round Effect in Communication. Before I explain this I just want to say to my mother, I love you. During conversation the whole time I was gone Mom would go off on the most random tangents. It reminded me of being on a fast moving merry go round and she would just let go. Wheeeee! Kept us on our toes following her. Again, I love you Mom!
• Got to see my Aunt Shirley and meet my cousin Babs for the first time ever! Babs, if you read this, I love you too. Poor Babs! Trying to navigate in a strange city with her Mom sitting next to her (I can really relate to the "with you Mom sitting next to her" part). Thank heavens for cell phones.
• GRRRRR!!! Forgot to take my camera to Tyler's house when all the Dean Ellsworth children gathered. SO sad! It was so fun! Cookies! Brownies! Lots of "great" and great-nieces and nephews! Time on the trampoline? Fun, until I couldn't escape. Yeah, five 9-13 year old girls zipped the enclosure shut and effectively trapped me. Kind of funny until I was on my stomach with KT straddling me, then I really had to go to the ladies room! My thanks to Macy and Emily for enabling my dismount even if it wasn't graceful.
• Loved going to Costco with Richard and Sherri. It was fun making good food with them. They made it possible for me to find awesome cupcake displays for Chris and Christina's open house. Sad  footnote: I still have a lump on the back of my head from a chance encounter with the freezer door in the garage while putting groceries away.
• Fun BBQ at Bryan and Lyndsey's house with the Richard Ellsworths. Loved, loved, LOVED meeting Kami and her parents Jim and Nancy!! Hope I didn't scare them. Who would have thought playing trampoline dodge ball, with 2 balls being thrown at us, on a tramp without a screened enclosure felt safer than facing my 5 awesome great nieces the night before at Tyler's? Note to Lyndsey: Tell Ella I will show no more mercy... cling to me during dodge ball and I will not care for your safety (I still have a bruise from the ball I took for you girl! Love you).
• Took Emily on a whirlwind tour of Mesa. She was driven past my childhood home, the little house it only cost Mom and Dad $8,500 to build in the 50's and the Mesa Temple. We had a nice interlude at the Mesa City Cemetery visiting Dad's grave. In keeping with the general skewed weekend there happened to be a Cubs game that afternoon (for those of you who don't know, the Cubs spring stadium is directly across the street from the main entrance of the cemetery). It was still peaceful but we found the front gates chained shut as we went to leave! I found later the cemetery has had problems with some fans cutting through there to get to the game faster. Twisted, no?
• Looking for a specific movie in AZ? Forget it. After two WalMarts, a Target and Best Buy no luck! It's not even an old movie people! Em and I declared, warm and tired, "Gilbert sucks." Will not be sharing what the movie title was due to someone in AZ thinking of gifting it to another said Arizonian.
• Leaving town was fun? Poor Sherri couldn't find her car keys so Em and I felt good that I was moving slowly and we were able to take her to work that morning. Got almost out of town and realized I still needed to fill the car with gas. Shell stations have an agreement with Kroger stores up here to get the same discounts on gas that you would at the store. YES! I received a discount!
• What is the East Valley Sertoma Club? I felt the mile of highway they cleaned might be contagious.
• Decided that if Emily or I wanted to jump and roll from our moving vehicle we really needed to be careful of cactus.
• Decided that bicyclists in CO are way more serious than bicyclists in AZ. In CO there is a surfeit of spandex, aerodynamic helmets and goggles. All cyclists we saw in AZ were dressed, well, kind of homeless and walked their bikes a lot. Hmmm, maybe they've been in the sun too long.
• Surrounded by cars I missed the turn from Gilbert Road to the Beeline Highway (if that's what it's called, I just know it by the road I take to get to Payson). I drove straight into the Landfill and tried to a)find a way to turn around and b)figure out why I missed the turn. Aha! Turned to my sleepy daughter and declared "I didn't take my pills this morning!" She jerked into a tense posture and exclaimed "Really!! WHY!?!?" and she dove into the luggage to help me. I suspect she was a little worried about herself as well.
• Dean and Renda were SO sweet to me. They had even overnighted my wallet to me so I wasn't driving illegally. They were ready to play cards with us. Dean and I were gracious enough to let Renda and Emily beat us by a measly 4,000 points. Now that's love. Know what else is love? Dog proofing your house so your sister's separation anxiety ridden dog wouldn't hurt anything as we were gone for a little bit. All doors closed except the pantry door and it swings inward! Dragging the love seat to the kitchen seemed the only option. It worked.
• Emily gained serious experience driving the last leg of the trip from NM to CO, all 7 hours of it. I became really concerned for a 50 mile stretch of high mountain highway where the winds were upwards of 50 mph, constant, and we knew a stretch of road ahead had been closed earlier for blowing snow and several serious accidents. She forged ahead, even through patches of whiteout blowing snow. They only lasted a few seconds but they were even scaring the dog!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

Beware, BEWARE!!

I had a wonderful time this past week. Steve was able to come home from Idaho for 5 days! It was just like a honeymoon. Well, a honeymoon with my mother, two daughters and a dog. I am going through "honey withdrawal" big time but I must soldier on!

Currently I'm on a road trip taking Mom to Arizona with Emily. And the dog. Does anyone else find that in preparing to leave home there are so many things to take care of but there may be just as many things pop up that need your attention before you can take care of the things you needed to take care of in the first place? Sigh. Since Allison couldn't take time from school she didn't get to come with us. All things taken care of, hopefully, we're on our pit stop in New Mexico with Dean and Renda, finishing the drive tomorrow to Arizona.

I am SO glad we made it here in one piece. The Colorado Department of Transportation has scared me to death! My eyes were glued to the road as I scanned for all the dangers they saw fit to warn me of with their bright yellow signs. Falling rocks! Leaping deer! Bighorn sheep! Larger deer with large antlers! Fire trucks! Farmers on tractors! Hikers! More deer! More falling rocks!  AAAaaaaaa...!

My paranoia has peaked. I am now weary enough to relax. Until I see what the New Mexico and Arizona DOT have planned for me tomorrow.

PS.  Allison! Please remember to take out the trash tomorrow night!  Thanks, honey!

A Good Heart Is Better Than All The Heads In The World... or is it?

Allison started school on Monday! I'm already jonesing for her to be able to cut my hair, give me highlights and do my nails! And she's still working as many hours as she can at King Sooper's (I know, right? It reminds me of all the young mothers today who want to have unique spelling for all their kids names, taking attendance is a nightmare!). So her first day of school, on Valentine's Day, she went to school from 9:00 to 3:30 and went straight to her store and worked until 11:00. She called me and said she wanted me to help her label her school supplies when she got home. I groaned! I'd been to the school with her. I knew how much she would be bringing home. I was so tired but I am Mom, so...

Here's her stuff. I thought it really nice that part of her things were duffel and a rolling supply "kit" to take around with her. Sharpies were wielded and where Sharpie wouldn't work silver nail polish was employed. Alli has all the curlers, clips, pins, clippers, scissors, shears and razors. There are textbooks and spray bottles and combs and brushes. We see curling irons, flat irons, blow dryers and a color kit with brushes and bowls and hair extensions in many colors and lengths. There is also a kit with manicure, pedicure, facial and nail filling supplies But the supplies that kind of creep people out are "the heads."

From left to right meet Tiffany, Angel, Courtney, Kevin and Destiny. Tiffany has already had her hair colored by Allison. Kevin is cool because he's so "hippy." He even has eyebrows and nose and ear hair! By the time Alli graduates he'll have a clean shaven face and a crew cut, and less hair in his ears and nose. Destiny will help her learn to deal with heavily textured hair. The school makes their own mannequins and the hairs are inserted to lay as if there were on a human head. And, this is what makes people shudder, it's all real, human hair. Why does that make people cringe? It's pretty funny to see friends say, "oh, how cool" and then draw back their hands in horror as you tell them the hair is real. But for all that reaction this is what creeped me out...

... unpacking all these realistic looking heads from the box. Now that's creepy.

If She Plays Her Cards Right...

Emily works customer service at a local supermarket and has the joy of working at the store's fuel center. Her shift has been, unwaveringly, 1:45-10:15 p.m. She's my little veal in a stall (after a few of us had said that to her we explained what it meant, she laughed!).

(The cute necklace she's wearing is her "panic button" to summon immediate police assistance. It can provide material for another blog entry which could be titled "Did She Really Have To Use It", a.k.a. "Are The Arvada Police Officers As Cute As The Arvada Firemen?" which can be another blog entry...).

Last night, being Saturday, was very slow at the gas station. I received a text from her. "I'm making tiny playing cards, I'm so bored! And I can't remember what a club or a spade looks like." I know, hard to believe in our card playing family that she could so easily forget. Guess her mind was a little numb.


Here's what she created, a complete deck of 2 inch playing cards.

The beautiful part was that they were cards on one side and puzzles on the other. Recycling cigarette cartons, she's so green!

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated...

... or maybe not. In spite of the fact that I lost my way on the blogging path I have set foot upon said path once more. I've always felt badly that my attention to my blog fell through the cracks in my life. My Mother is always asking, "Have you read Marianne's latest blog?" and I get to say, "No, I don't think I've read any blogs for almost a year." After looking it turns out I was right. Where did the year go? Strike that, I know where it went and it's been a long, bumpy ride. Annoying piquant moments accentuated by the good.

Haven't looked at Marianne's blog yet but I'm pretty sure she said something about Michael and Sarah's wedding last September. It was anticipated, planned, put on hold at the Army's whim and pulled off in a week. It was perfect. The temple ceremony was beautiful. Contrary to everything I was told I would/should feel I really didn't feel a loss. I knew is was a natural and correct flow of life, content that Michael and Sarah were so right for each other, in love, and blissfully happy. My only threat of tears was when the officiator told the Mom's to be the first to hug the newlyweds. I was so happy for them.

Christopher started school this Fall after a good working summer. He had found a great place to live and work was looking good, especially when he met a cute babe. She told him she didn't date co-workers so he asked if they should just hang out. They developed a fast friendship and I knew the bachelorhood was in jeopardy when he told me how they watched "Anastasia" and sang along with the songs, both of them knowing all the words. Chris made plans to visit with her family in Maryland at the beginning of the Christmas break. He brought the lovely Christina to our home for Thanksgiving. They had just come back from Rexburg, visiting her sister, Rachel. While they were there Rachel (an amazing talent) took their engagement pictures. Yeah, no questions needed to be asked but the official referring to them as "fiance and fiancee" waited until Chris spoke to her father and proposed at the Washington D,C Temple while the Padilla family was there to see the Christmas lights. The wedding will be there on Saturday, May 7th. Now, I can explain why I called Christina a "cute babe." She and Chris call each other "babe" all the time. They danced and sang all through the fixing of Thanksgiving dinner and, true to unspoken form, Chris took her down to the floor with a botched dance move. They're perfect for each other.

About my sons and their women? West coast girls may be hip but there's something about those girls from the East. I like them and apparently so did Michael and Chris.

Allison and Emily had a real world experience with disappointment. After getting all installed at UNC and ready to go they found out the state of CO had pulled about $5,000 in funding from each of them. We brought them home and they've worked to save money and take their next steps. Allison is starting her career at the Empire Beauty Institute next Monday. She's thrilled! It was kind of what she wanted to do but was going to give college a year to make sure (more for her parent's I think than for her). And Emily needs to get her application for BYU resubmitted! They accepted her for last Fall so I feel pretty confident they'll want her back.

In April 2010 Steve's unemployment came to an end with a bump. The contract he was given was for a company in Carlsbad, NM. He took it and lived for the next six months down there. It was so hard to have him gone. I was reminded of all the men during the Great Depression who left their homes for work. Now it's happening all over again in America. Most men at his level in their profession are now mainly contract workers, companies too cheap to keep them on their payroll but will bring them in when things are going toe up to get everything set straight. He came home in September. He received another contract with a company in Idaho Falls two weeks ago. Yep, he's gone again but this time it's winter and running back and forth is more than a challenge with the weather the way it is. I'll get to see him again at the end of the month.

I'm still substitue teaching. My dreams of my own classroom went with the wind of the economy. We'll see what next year brings.

Now you know I am still alive. But no kicking. I'm too tired from shoveling snow for kicking.

Don't Keel Over!!

No pictures. The only pictures I've snapped lately have been for Ella Mortensen's school project involving "Flat Stanley" (ask elementary teachers about that one). I'm going to rely on the other parents to get pictures of my daughters in their last HS musical (Thoroughly Modern Millie, terrific). As I sat watching I realized why my fingertips were always sore; I'd altered and repaired about 25 of the costumes on the stage, not to mention the hats, headbands (flappers you know) and all the makeup. I guess I've been busier than I even realized. And I learned a valuable lesson: NEVER volunteer to be on a costuming committee again if you are the ONLY one who knows how to sew!

I'll get to the point. I'm hoping that I can find a way to make it back to the blogging world. I love reading others posts, even though it's been about a month since I have. I feel negligent. Let's face it, I'm finally posting with wet hair and church starts in 55 minutes (thank heavens all I have to do is go through my back gate).

Highlights (wish they were in my hair):

1. Michael is finishing his 3rd week of Boot Camp. Some lovely person at Fort Jackson is even maintaining a page on facebook for us. I get to see him from time to time in pictures. Like when he came out of the "gas chamber" with others; noses running (like faucets, ew), eyes streaming, etc. He's doing great. Biggest drawback? Not seeing his fiance, the lovely Sarah.

2. Musical. It's over and I got to bed before midnight for the first time in 3 weeks last night. Who would have thought that 11:00 would fill me with such contentment?

4. 70 degrees one day, next day 6" of snow. No wonder I have a sore throat and a runny nose.

5. Substituting. Since our last layoff (yes, I'm trying hard to stay positive and not let it give me too many new gray hairs, although I really don't mind the grays) I've been, blessedly, kept very busy. It's tiring but rewarding.

6. Girls getting ready for the end of their senior year. This has included the musical, getting 75+ photos of them gathered for their senior slide show for the church's "Honor the Grad" night, happily attending a banquet for Emily's $2K yearly scholarship, Allison gaining a half tuition scholarship, getting them registered and finding the right dorm for them at UNC (in Greeley, about 90 minutes from here), making lists of what they need (including wish lists), etc. I'm SO happy for them! They have worked really hard to be where they are! And I must admit I'm very ready to move on from High School.

Now, off to church!

Happy Valentine's Day

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves."
-- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7