Pickleball

 Got up early this morning to go play pickleball with Cindi Caldwell and my husband.   We played for almost 2 hours, it is fun to be out on this cold snowy day and get some exercise we are enjoying playing  pickleball.  I’m starting to play a little better I got enough exercise that I broke a sweat today. Today is my young women’s day but we thought we would try to take the time to drive to Logan and see a movie this afternoon I really want Craig to see the movie, “ The Greatest Showman”, I saw it twice when I babysat grand kids last week.  It is the best musical, I have to say it is going to be remembered as one of the best musicals ever!!  The music and acting in the movie is amazing!!

Working On Young Women Values

I am really enjoying my Peace in Christ personal progress journal this year, along with the young women I am working on my personal progress, the quilt that I just made definitely counts as one of my 10 hour projects- for Good Works, I exceeded the 10 hours no doubt but I’m making it to give to Tia my beehive adviser, for her new little baby boy due this week.  I made it in love and service to her.  Another value project is  New Beginning’s, that is scheduled for March 6th with all of our young women and their parents.  I have been working on the decorations for the program I made these darling banners to hang throughout the room with the value themes- faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge,choice and accountability, good works, integrity and virtue.   I also made personal progress charts for each of the girls, I have got to remember to take their photographs tonight so I can get those printed to put on the personal progress charts that I made, I’ve been working hard to get things done before Craig and I leave town to go to Salt Lake tomorrow for a week I will be back in town just in time for the program next Tuesday.  I am grateful to be serving in the young women’s, I am having lots of fun serving those in our ward.  Making this quilt has been a great winter project, we woke up to lots of snow this morning.  January was a dry month, but the end of February we are getting lots of snow, "Old Man Winter Back!" 

Sewing Project

It is very cold and snowing today.   We had a very nice day at church.  I was much more relaxed this Sunday, not singing a solo. But I do plan to sing again in March or April for Easter.   Tia Mckee my beehive adviser is having a baby boy this Thursday March 1st.   I thought it would be nice to make her a quilt.   I got out a quilt I was going to make 3 years ago and have never tackled it.  I had bought the fabrics, The Cat in the Hat", theme for Winston bedroom.  He no longer has this theme and has now out grown it.  So decided to give it to Tia,  I have been sewing away.  I got everything out on Sunday afternoon and started working on the darling baby quilt.  It has been a lot work for me,.  I knew this quilt was going to be a new challenge, I’m sure this is why I hesitated in tackling it for so many years.  My first attempt did not go well, I had to unpick my very first strip, it was sewn very tightly so it took me almost 2 hours to unpick it.  My second and third attempt the same I had to unpick again.  I need to figure out something that works easier, the instructions I do not like, I gave up and just finished how I thought would work the best for me. keeping straight lines for Mickey fabric is very challenging, it stretches and moves, I had to pin each strip individually and make sure I pinned it exactly to hold in place.  I had 12- 60 inches long by 5 inches wide strips to sew together to make the backing for the quilt.  That was the challenge of getting it all put together, I sewed all day Monday, I was obsessed with getting it done finally at 11 o’clock Monday night I had to quit, my machine was not sewing, I only had about 12 inches left to finish the binding and my machine kept acting up.  I just had to quit and go to bed.  Today trying to figure out why my machines not sewing, I figured I must just need a new needle, I traded the needle out and sure enough that was the problem, mission accomplished, I finally finish this baby quilt.  It’s not perfect but it still turned out cute, very soft and cuddly.  I’ll take it and give it to Tia tonight at young women’s glad to have that project done. Hope she appreciated the effort I put into making it for her new baby boy.

Cold Snowy Day

 It’s a cold day from Our big snowstorm, I’m sitting at the Bear Lake car wash with Craig right now he’s thinking of buying this car wash, partnering with the owner, they are clearing the snow off right now, we got lots of snow, old Man Winter is still here!!!  We went to subway for lunch just to get out of the house for a bit it’s actually starting to snow again.

Singing A Solo

I'm singing a solo in Sacrament this week for Ward conference, I'm singing the song, " Love One Another", it is a beautiful arrangement that was written back in 1980- I learned to sing this song when I was in my 20's now 60 years old and still singing.  I was afraid to sing, I have not sang a solo in many years, my voice is not what it used to be, I prayed that I would be able to perform to the best of my ability and I practiced with the limited time I had to work with.  Sister Larsen, in the ward is a very good pianist and she played for me she made me feel really good about singing, said that I had a beautiful voice and it was an honor to be able to play for me.  I felt the spirit very strongly as I sang, you could hear a pin drop, the audience was very quiet, it was a large congregation this Sunday with it being a holiday weekend, we had about 800 members there.  A sigh of relief when it was over, I did receive many compliments for my performance in sharing my testimony in song. Sister Hislop sent me the sweetest note after church on Sunday:  Thank you for your song today. It was beautiful. You helped me leave church with a much better attitude than what I went to church with. Thank you ,  Sister Pope: I loved your musical number today! Thank you for sharing with us! Beautiful!!!❤

Winter Is Back

When we got out of sacrament yesterday the snow was coming down hard, already about 6 inches of snow on all the cars, didn’t even know if we were going to get home the roads are still snowy and it snowed all evening, Trisha and Buck were going to head home, they drove to Laketown and turned around and came back to stay for the night because the roads were so bad, they’re still here waiting for the storm to clear out, that has traveled south and is heading to Salt Lake Valley area, we needed the snow it has been such a mild winter this year.  We have over a foot of snow now at the cabin and it has turned off very cold in the low 20s.

Valentine Arrangement

Sister Menlove called me Saturday morning to ask if I can help decorate for Anita Jones wedding that evening. I told her I would see what I could come up with.  I got out my Valentine flowers and flower box to see what I could create with what I already have.  I made a fun flower arrangement.  It actually turned out really pretty.  I took the arrangement, my red table cloths and punch fountain down to the church to help decorate.  The Bishop stopped by to let us know that the wedding is cancelled for now.  So I took the arrangement and placed it in our young women's room.  It looks really pretty sitting on the table for display.

  

Our Aubrey Girl

Aubrey has grown into a beautiful young lady, for her birthday they re-painted her room and bought new bedding a pretty yellow and gray, it is fun colors as she grows to be more mature for her bedroom.  She is now 14 years old.  I love her long blond hair.  She reminds me so much of Sharlena at this age.  They do look a lot alike as Mother and daughter.  Aubrey has the bedroom set I had as a young girl at her age.  Sharlena grew up with the bedroom set and now Aubrey, a third generation bedroom furniture set,  I had purple colors, Sharlena had peach and cream and now Aubrey with a fun yellow.
Fun daddy daughter date that has been a tradition for many years Dave and Aubrey, fun to see how Aubrey has grown over the years.

The Sweetheart Dance

Cole’s enjoying being 16 and dating.  Shar just posted some darling pictures of him and his date at the Sweetheart dance he is so handsome.  

Farrah Broke Her Leg

Our little Farrah was jumping on their new trampoline that they got for Christmas, it has been a great babysitter for the kids especially when I was there helping Stacy in January but sad to say little Farrah landed wrong and broke her leg, she now has a hot pink cast on.

Valentine’s Day

I was babysitting in Salt Lake and Craig was at the lake on Valentine’s Day, our first Valentines to be away from each other, I do love my husband very much, he is so thoughtful, he sent me a cute picture of a chocolate heart that he had bought me, when He came to town on Monday he brought me some pretty flowers and some chocolate strawberries they were yummy!!
I was so tired on Valentine’s Day that when I got the kids off to school by 8 o’clock in the morning I crawled back in bed and slept till about 1:30 PM, I then took the time to get cleaned up before the kids got home from school by 4 o’clock.  We drove out to see the Chaudhry family for a couple hours and delivered our chocolate covered heart cookies.  Baby Ashtyn is getting so big she’s so adorable, Love her beautiful red hair.  Annie and Ashtyn had fun playing together while we visited.  Annie is three years old and Ashtyn is now 18 months old in another year they are going to be best cousin's playing together.

Back At The Lake

The Burbidge kids and I drove back to the lake on Thursday evening so that I could make it to my stake leadership meeting for Ward conference, I was glad I made the effort to be there and fellowship with the Saints.  The Burbidge kids are enjoying their time at the lake but looking forward to their parents arriving home on Saturday night.  Trisha and Buck did surprise us and arrived about 10:30pm Saturday night, they had a long day traveling over 24 hours, the red eye flight from Hawaii then drove seven hours from Las Vegas to Bear Lake they were really tired but excited to see their kids after being gone for a week fun to visit with them this weekend we have enjoyed babysitting the Burbidge kids.

House Hunting

Eric Towner Jr. Told me about a house up by the temple that was going to auction on Monday morning at 10:30am.  It was short notice for us.  I have been watching the market and there has just not been anything we have wanted to buy, hard to find anything when I loved our last home.  The grandkid's miss us being here in the valley, to come visit, which does pull at my heart strings.  But we do come in town almost weekly so we do see them often.  I have missed being in the valley thought about getting a condo.  Yet still don’t know if I’m ready for a condo.  I drove up Sunday night to look at the home going for auction,  I had seen it when it was for sale last year before we moved.  I knew what house it was.  It didn’t wow us.  I looked at the pictures online,  it is a nice house but didn't like the master bath and bedroom it was really small and the house would need to be remodeled.  I did not like all the slate in the home but that could be changed.  I could have been tempted to make an offer. I told Craig about it Sunday night, we conference called Eric to discuss the home.  I had decided it was just not the right timing for us yet.   Buying another home just complicates our lives again for now it has been nice to free things up not having two homes to care for and the extra expense.  Craig did surprise me arriving early Monday morning.  I was on my way over to the Thomas home when he called and told me he was at the house checking it out.  There were lots of investors there also trying to get in the home but the renters were not going to let us in.  The opening bid was going to be 620k it would be a good buy to pick up in the low 600’s but that would be the big if ?  Paying Eric 3% commission going to the auction would be close to $20,000. And the remodel atleast $30,000.  We would be close to $700 thousand,  we just decided to wait for something we like better.  We are in no hurry.  I want this to be right it will be our last home.  We have things that still need to be done at the lake.  I really want to get steps down the driveway and our driveway down.  It will clean things up and look so much better,  Craig got a bid back from Jason Olsen and it was $40,000 we were shocked how much.  Got to get it done, we will see how much the Madsen’s bid comes back as?   With the weather so warm for winter,  it is a good time to get it done.  We will keep our eyes and ears open for the prefect home for us, Time will tell.  Eric did text back and the home auctioned off for $625,000 which is a good deal for the investor,  we could have bid that low but felt it was not the right house.

Baby Sitting Thomas & Burbidge Kids

Tasha flew out Sunday evening to Las Vegas for another buyers market.  So I have a double shift watching the Thomas grand kids during the day on Monday and Tuesday this week.  I spent the day tidying up from their messy weekend. They finally got their wood floors done.  They are slowly moving things back in from the garage.    The basement was messy from Boston’s sleeping over Saturday night they had a great time playing.  Today I’m trying to get the house somewhat tidy before Tasha arrives from her trip.  I’m at gymnastic’s for Winn & Annie  They go to  the little gym on Tuesday for 2hrs  I pick Tasha up at the airport today, her flight arrives at 3:15 pm.  I will only have two hours to finishing cleaning things up for her.   Last night was a little crazy with all the kids.  I took the Thomas kids over to the Burbidge home for the evening while Bridger went to a Jazz game, he didn’t pick them up until 10:30pm.  We watched movies, they played dart hide and seek.  I fixed spaghetti for dinner.  I was beat when things calmed down for the night.   I had to just go to bed and tidy up in the morning from our evening.   We had a short family night. Boston & Lincoln are getting baptized in the next few months so we talked about baptism with the kids.  Craig surprised me yesterday morning,  he got up early and drove down for the day and slept over, nice to see my hubby after four days I was missing him.   Nice to have him here to help with all the kids.  6 kids is enough for us both to mange for the day and evening.  Today is another busy day, up early getting the Burbidge kids off to school.  I tidied things up from our crazy evening.  We then left to watch the Thomas kids for the day.  Craig headed back to the lake.  Today is another busy day.

Sabbath Day

I took Saydee and Karlee to our old ward that we moved from after living there for over 12 years, since they moved back from St. George they have only attended their new ward once and did not feel comfortable going to all the classes yet,  they just wanted to go to sacrament, it is the same time 11am so I decided to go to my old ward so I could see people that I knew, it was so fun to hug old friends and see how they’re doing since I’ve been gone for a year.  I miss our old home, I drive by every time I come into town we have such fond memories that we created the 12 years we lived there, our grandkid's tell me how much they miss it too and it does pull on my heartstrings.  I miss having a home that we can gather as a family here in the valley.  Holiday's are the hardest for me miss getting them together.  April is coming up and we always had our annual Easter egg hunt with the grandkids I don’t know what we’re going to do this year, it is on April 1st.  I guess we could all gather at Tasha's house, maybe on Easter Sunday.   It is conference weekend.  See what the family wants to do this year.

Movie Outing

I woke up this morning and it is snowing, it is a cold drizzle day for Saturday, I was out driving around looking at houses this morning, decided to call the kids and told them let’s go to the movies, I wanted to see “the greatest showman” - they had only seen it once, wanted to see it again too, so I grab tickets, hurried home and hurry back for the 11:20 am showing of “the Greatest Showman”, it is the best movie, we all love it so much, after the movie we went to Freddy's to have lunch.  Trying to enjoy spending time with the grandkids.  Tasha  invited Boston to sleepover and to go to church with Lincoln in the morning, so we headed back over to their house to visit for a little bit, their hardwood floors turned out really nice, they’re excited to get their house back in order, it’s been about a six-week project for them, it did turn out really nice, in the car driving we have been singing all of the songs from the movie, the music is so beautiful.

Our Snow Skiing Night

Craig and I went snow skiing on Wednesday night for our stake ski night outing -the Ward paid for our ski pass and we rented skis, it was a beautiful evening and we had a good time skiing after about seven runs, I was tired - we had fun visiting with Ward members socializing, eating yummy soup and donuts by 7:30pm I was so tired. Craig and I had played two hours of pickle ball earlier that morning, I have burned lots of calories for the day,  I’m ready to go to bed.  We don’t have much snow this year.  It has been a warm winter,  the ice and snow is all melted at the cabin. Just barely enough to snow ski.

House Hunting

I was up late after I got home from the movie.  Got the kids all in bed.  I started looking  on Zillow house listings in Draper and Sandy area.  A listing came up in Pepperwood, just down the street from where Tasha lives.  This house is schedule to go to action this Tuesday Feb 13th. I took pictures of several houses on my phone that I could drive by to look at.  I got up early Saturday morning and drove by several homes while the kids where still sleeping.  I drove by the one in Pepperwood to take a look.  There were no pictures online.  It is an amazing house.  I love the outside of it, better than anything I have seen.  It is a Wow house!!  If we could pick it up for a good price, it could be a good investment for us to buy and sell.  That is the big IF?  I talked to Eric Towner to see what he knows about it.  He was very informative.  There are lots of unknown's in the deal and it very well could not even go to the auction.  Many times they get cancelled. It is something to think about.  It is hard for me when I come back to the Valley for a length of time, I do miss having a home here.  I'm still in a season of life that I want to do things with my family.  I have missed giving that up.  I miss our beautiful home in Draper.  When we buy another home I want to buy a wow house of some kind.  My standards are high!!  I'm having a hard time finding what I think I want.  House hunting is so time consuming.  This has gotten me all mixed up again in my feelings.  It can consume my mind and become a big distraction.   Just going to have to think about it some more.

Baby Sitting The Burbidge Grandkid's

This week I have another baby sitting shift.  Trisha and Buck left for Hawaii on Thursday.  I got up early Thursday morning and drove to Salt Lake, arrived by noon.  Trisha is so organized, she had their condo all neat and tidy for me and a list of what to cook and their schedule for the week all typed up for me which does help.   We have kept busy so far.  The kids are in school during the day so that has given me some free time.  Thursday afternoon first thing I went and got a pedicure from a gift card Trisha gave to me for my birthday at Crystal Nails.  It felt really good to be pampered, I love getting a pedicure.  I got home just in time for the kids to arrive from school.  Friday tidy up the condo after the kids left for school and then I went to the gym to workout, met Tasha at the Tree House where she goes.  Fun to see her and little Annie, She loves her grandma.  I wanted to go to the temple but they are closed for cleaning, So I went shopping for a couple of hours.  I bought a new black skirt and blouse to match, fun outfit to wear to church.  I have a TJMax's coupon to use but have not found anything to buy there the last two times I've been there, so I will just wait until I find something.   There is not much to buy right now.  The cabin is full and I have our life collection in storage in our lower garage.  I don't need to be buying anything else.  I came home in time for the kids to arrive from school.  I took the time to clean up and was planning on meeting Shannon for a 12 step class that Christy Dixon a dear friend is teaching, but she cancelled on me.  Getting Shannon out the door is a huge challenge for me.  I tried to get her to go to a class with me on Thursday night and she couldn't make it work.  I went without her, it was a very informative class it does tell me that Shannon does need help.  Pray for the insight I need to encourage her and get her the help she needs somehow.  My heart has been aching for her.  She has suffered for so many years.  I will keep trying.  Christy said to attend a class tonight in Draper, on Sunday evenings is a really good class too, so I will see if I can get her to go with me.  Saydee babysat Tasha's kids here at the condo Friday evening.  With Shannon not going to the class, freed up my evening so I took the time to go see the new movie "The Greatest Showmen" by myself.  It was fun to just get out and relax and enjoy the movie.  I loved it,  It is so good, one of the best movie's I've seen in such a long time. 

It’s February- Fast Sunday

The month of January flew by so quickly babysitting three weeks definitely took a chunk out of our January.  I had to prepare to teach the lesson this Sunday, the theme for the month is the “Plan of Salvation”.   I really have enjoyed studying for this lesson, I have learned so much, it is a good refresher course for me about the Plan of Salvation.  I want to be better in articulating my thoughts and knowledge about the plan of salvation, it is a good missionary tool to share, is such an important aspect in presenting the gospel to nonmembers and our family.  I enjoyed reading the many scriptures that testify of this gospel doctrine.  I felt the spirit bear witness to me that this is the true plan of our Heavenly Father.  I have enjoyed listening to the Book of Mormon while I work out in the mornings.  There is so much to learn and I love learning the gospel message in the Scriptures, my lesson went by very quickly I didn’t get as much information covered as I would’ve liked and that’s how it always seems to go but I think I planted some seeds of knowledge with the young women I taught today.  I really did enjoy our fast and testimony meeting there were so many beautiful testimony's shared that have nourished  my spirit.

Going Through My Winter Clothes

Craig and I were gone for about 24 hours, we arrived Friday night from our trip to Salt Lake.  It was cold when we got home, we cranked up the heater it was about 57° in the cabin, Craig always turns the heat down when we leave, it is unusually warm for this time of the year though.  I went upstairs in the bedroom where the heat was blowing stronger to get warm and started looking at my clothes.  I don’t have enough room in my closet in our bedroom to keep all my clothes, I have to use the bedroom closets upstairs. I have been frustrated lately,  I have all these clothes but I don’t know what to wear.  So I spent the evening going through my wardrobe trying on everything, what didn’t fit I packed it up in a box for now, the things I would still like to keep when I lose some weight, maybe I can fit in them.  I tried to lean my closet out and get rid of a few things that I don’t wear, I went through and created as many outfits as I could so that I can just grab them quickly so I don't  have to stand there and think about what to wear.  Making do with what I have, I do have to rotate the seasons, my winter clothes for now and then I have to pack them away and put out my summer clothes in the space I have to work with, it’s working for now.  I spent the rest of the day Saturday working on the project going through all of my clothes,cleaning out my drawers and doing several loads of laundry, it wore me out I had to quit by evening time to get ready for Sunday.  This has been a rewarding project, it motivates me to work harder to lose some weight, I really would like to lose 10 pounds and keep it off I don’t like weighing 165 pounds.

Feeling Better

Baby Enzo, Farrah & Yael

Stacy called this week while she was out on a walk to let us know that she’s feeling much better, it was a beautiful sunny day and she had the kids in the stroller walking to the park, We were able to FaceTime them and see their fun laughter and smiles, so glad that our Stacy is doing much better, she had a rough go for about a month with illness.

Missing Our Grandkids

We were missing baby Ashtyn, we have not seen her since Christmas, we drove down to visit this week.  She is so precious -I love her beautiful auburn hair, we enjoyed seeing the Chaudhry family for a little bit and visiting with them.  We Stop by Natasha’s house for the afternoon and Craig helped her with several of her home maintenance chores, fixed the garbage disposal, fixed the door jam on the garage door and we helped her hang her pictures in the entryway, that was a huge chore that evening. When we went to visit Ashtyn, we took Annie with us, baby Ashtyn and Annie had a fun time playing together. They are two years apart, It was fun to see them interact with one another. Annie was so excited for us to sleep over!! She had to sleep right in the middle of the bed with us. She did not want us to leave the next day.  She loves her Papa!! Craig calls her Annie Gun, She tells everyone that her name is Annie Gun, we were at McDonald’s Playland while I was babysitting her, a little girl asked her what her name was? she told her that her name is “Annie Gun.”  It was so funny to hear her say that.  I guess the nickname is sticking, Bridger said that everyone they meet, she tells them that’s what her name is.  We love all of our little grandkids so very much.