Temple

Tuesday afternoon I kept getting these thoughts that I should really go to the temple and I kept dismissing it. It has been kind of a dreary weather day and I hadn't really dressed for the day. I was on a roll getting a few things done like laundry and tackling some things in my office. Plus it was a night where we had absolutely nothing going on. I was kind of looking forward to having an evening to do whatever.

However, as I thought about it, I knew this coming week would be crazy trying to tie up loose ends and get ready for our spring break trip. So with that I decided to just go. Tyler was a little surprised by my sudden decision, and I was just as surprised.

When I got to the waiting room I watched as quite a few of my old Salt Lake 11th Ward members came in. I didn't remember most names and some faces didn't quite look the way I remember, but I guess that's what 16 years will do to some. My old Relief Society president in particular looked as if she had aged quite a bit. It was a nostalgic feeling as I sat and reminisced to myself. I was certain no one would surely remember who I was. And I was right. No one did.

All through the session I sat close to a woman by the name of Mary who was very good friends with my friend Nancy Peixhot, both from the same 11th ward. Shortly after moving to Salt Lake, I was asked by our Relief Society president if I could be Nancy's helper. She was an older lady living in our complex who had just had her leg amputated below the knee. She needed help cleaning and running errands. 

(Bad picture, but it's the only one I have of Nancy. She's the one on the bottom left with red hair.)

Never did I ever think it would turn into the friendship it did. We stayed in contact even after moving to Magna. Things took a turn for the better with her for several years and then she had a few bad years. My kids remember the year we visited her at Christmastime in a nursing home, bringing her a Christmas tree and goodies. I was able to track her down six or seven years ago and went to visit her with Ashlyn and my niece Makayla. She was so down and depressed and simply did not want to see me. It was so sad to see her like that and it was the last time I saw her. I lost contact and for years I read the obituaries thinking, hoping, I would see hers and know what had become of her.

Well, when I saw Mary I knew she would know about Nancy. I followed her out of the celestial room and quietly told her who I was and if she knew anything about Nancy. I must have missed her obituary because she's been gone for about 3 years. It made me happy to finally know about my friend. I knew there was a reason to go to the temple that evening. I'm so glad I followed that prompting or I might still be wondering today "Where in the world is Nancy Peixhot?"

I have an announcement

Announcement, announcement, announcement

A horrible death to die,

A horrible death to die,

A horrible death to talk to death,

A horrible death to die.

Announcement, announcement, announcement.

Anytime, anyone has said announcement these past couple of of weeks, that little catchy tune that I used to sing at girls camp many, many years ago would run through my brain. This is something I haven't thought of in years!

I think I was being prepared for a new calling in addition to my Primary Music Leader job.

I was called to be the assistant/co camp director for our ward.

Wow! It's been 20 years since I've been. I LOVED girls camp and I'm quite sure I never really understood all the time that my leaders put in to making it successful. But these days they have themes and camp chefs and I'm sure a whole lot more that I'm not attuned to. I'm a little nervous.

But I am excited. Kiersten's excited. Ash is wishing she could go (you've got three more years girl).

(me at girls camp my first year hiding behind our craft)

(me in the sunglasses holding our clean camp award; my mom is on the end)

 (ready to head out my second year; I'm hiding in the back with the short hair)

(last year; I went after I graduated from high school)

 I'm still not exactly sure what my role is going to be. The actual camp director is going to be 8 months pregnant and the stake won't allow her to attend. I know I would hate to put in all the work and time that goes in to getting ready for girls camp and then not be able to see it carried out. I'll have to see just how much she really wants to be involved.

Although between me and you, I secretly want all the help she's willing to give me.

Purging

I'm attempting to clean out and organize years of papers. Papers that have just gradually piled up. I have a habit of writing thoughts and impressions that come to me on little scraps of paper and sadly they get buried . . . deep, never to be retrieved for several years.

I seriously threw out the BYU Women's Conference booklets from 2006, 2007, and 2009. Now why would I hold onto those? I'm sure I had a reason at the time, but by now my memory has failed me. So to still preserve some of the things I must have recorded for a reason, here ya go.

Wealth lies not in the extent of our possessions, but in the fewness of wants.

Alex: "Ashie sang Jingle Bells and it was beautiful."

Alex: "It's frozen out here." (I think he meant freezing.)

Nate in discussing real Christmas trees versus fake Christmas trees: "We live in a world with so much artificial stuff. It's nice to have something real."

LDS bishop post on Facebook: A family living in a trailer park was needing some help and someone posted on Facebook that they could contact so and so who was an LDS bishop. I thought how nice it is that the church is known for helping those in need, whether they are members of our congregations or not.

Look at what else I uncovered:

This is something Tyler wrote about me for church one Sunday when we were newlyweds living in a small Logan apartment, doing our best to get through college 16 YEARS AGO!! This scrap of paper has moved from Logan to Salt Lake to Magna to Stansbury and finally here to Lake Point.

Some of it is true. I was born on March 9 in Logan. We did have a tree house we played in a lot. It was more like a house on stilts.

(1st tree house)

(2nd tree house that had electricity)

I do have two brothers but I remember a lot more fights with them than actual playing. In fact one day I wouldn't allow Reed to play house with me and Matt under a tarp out in the grove of trees in our front yard. Well, he wasn't too pleased with that and found a hammer and proceeded to hit me over the head with the claw end. I ended up only needing several stitches. I suspect he was only trying to knock some sense into me.

And as for fishing . . . I've never really enjoyed fishing. I simply don't have the patience for it, except maybe when we're reeling in striped bass as fast as we can.
If I had a million dollars, I would NOT buy scuba gear. I tried it once in our backyard pond and absolutely thought I was going to suffocate when I got to the bottom. I never really got the hang of breathing and couldn't stand the sight of fish swimming right in front of my face.

I do love my vacuum. Tyler thinks I always have this happy smile on my face when I'm vacuuming. Maybe I do. But he always has a happy smile on his face when he's driving MY Toyota truck. :)

And we definitely found the right small town to live in. Our little town reminds me so much of home but with more conveniences.

Stayed tuned for some other exciting pieces of history to be uncovered.

Alex

FROM NOVEMBER . . . because apparently I forgot to hit the publish button.

Every day he climbs the stairs to Ty's office to ask him, "Dad, can I have something from your drawer?" because Tyler keeps treats in one of his desk drawers and Alex knows it. Today was no different and Tyler gave him a sucker and then helped him unwrap it. Alex reclaimed it and then held it up for him to see and said, "Dad, do I hold it correct?" as if he were holding a pencil. I've been attempting to teach him to hold his pencils and crayons in the right position and apparently he's catching on.

One day I came down the stairs and Alex was in the kitchen looking my way with his hands up by his eyes as if looking out of some binoculars. "Mom, can you see my lookers?"

Alex has a favorite "white blankie" that tends to get lost a lot or left at grandma's. One day it was lost again and we searched and searched. Tyler told him to go look upstairs. "I already did and it's not quite here." Well, go look downstairs. "I already did and it's not quite here."

A hok gog to go with your nilk in the gark, but don't bring your wankie (A hot dog to go with your milk in the dark, but don't bring your blankie).

RECENTLY

"I'm not hungry. I got all filled up to my head."

"Mom, I love you so much."

His favorite game is Candyland and boy do we get to play it a lot in our family. Seriously, I think it might be around 50 times a day he's managed to con someone into playing with him.

For Primary he was picked to recite the monthly scripture. We practiced it for a whole week and thought he had it down. When he got in front, he froze but still managed to eek it out with me whispering in his ear.

He's OFFICIALLY potty-trained. We made it into a game where he beats us to the potty and then flushes so "you don't get to see the pees!" I love having no diapers. It's a wonderful thing to be done with that.

As the chorister in Primary, I've had the kids review Choose the Right this last month. Sometime this last week I overheard Alex singing choose the right to himself. He's also been singing a lot of Doing As I'm Doing.

This past year Alex has been part of a little neighborhood co-op preschool. I had to teach the letter P one day and we Pretended to be Pirates. Erik even made me a treasure map for a treasure hunt where the treasure was Pretzels and Purple (Koolaid) Popcorn. Every day he wonders if preschool is at his house.

Last week he tried to escape twice from two different places. The first time Ty and I were at the Deseret Industries browsing the book section when I hear over the loud speaker, "We are looking for a lost mom. This little boy has a Harvard sweatshirt on." The funny thing is I had MY Harvard sweatshirt on. It wouldn't have taken much to put us together. The second time happened a few days later when he tried to walk out of the stake center with my friend Hannah after Erik's basketball game. Apparently he was going to walk home. The little stink now needs 24-hour surveillance.