What a Week!

On Wednesday of last week, Brian started back to school. He called me in the afternoon and reminded me that I'd told him I'm make his name "tents" for his students' desks. And would it be possible to get them before "Meet the Teacher" night on Friday?? Of course! I got right to it and it took less than two hours from start to finish. And since we didn't really have anything else going on, Mark and I drove them to Brian that evening so he could get them set out and ready.


Last week, Erin and Brian had a wonderful week in Hawaii, so we got to enjoy their girls off and on during the week. On Thursday, we picked up the three older girls and brought them to our house. Libby was so excited to get to finally work on her jewelry making...a well deserved reward for her. She made jewelry. Then she made more jewelry. Then she made jewelry again!! She had such a good time. Ellie got in on the fun, too and made four bracelets and a necklace, which she proudly wore for the rest of the week. Eliza made a pair of earrings that she could wear that evening to her Meet the Teacher night. All in all, Libby made 14 bracelets and a necklace. She would have happily made more, but between the time of night and my dwindling beading supplies, we decided we'd save the fun for another day. Before we went to meet the girls' teachers, we dropped Ellie off for a sleepover at Brian T's sister's house. The girls met their teachers and looked around their classrooms. They found their desks and got a feel for the layout of their new rooms. They even convinced Grandpa that they "needed" a school t-shirt, so he obliged. Then we went and picked up Abby and Dallin and brought them back to our house for one last summer sleepover. They watched the movie, Race to Witch Mountain, and then they all sacked out on the living room floor. The all went to sleep quite quickly. The next morning we had a French braiding session with Abby and Eliza. Libby just wanted a couple of clips. And Dallin was lucky enough that he didn't even need a comb! Then we headed out to find a new outfit for each of them for school. It was a long morning, to say the least, but I think they all were happy with their choices. After picking up Ellie, we delivered them all back to their respective homes and Mark and I crashed for a few minutes!

On Friday night, I finished reading our RS Book Group book, Peculiar In a Good Way, by Mary Ellen Edmunds. I loved the book. She has such a unique style of writing (and speaking). I can really relate to what she has to say.

On Friday night, after his Meet the Teacher session at his school, Brian headed to Urgent Care. He hadn't been feeling well all week and thought he should have things checked out. He found out that he had a viral infection and the Dr. told him he was highly contagious (Oops!) and should not plan on returning to work until at least Wednesday next week. Poor Brian. That's not the way a teacher wants to start off the new school year. So Mark and I spent a good part of Saturday at the school with him getting things ready for a substitute and disinfecting his classroom!! Tomorrow won't be a good day for him, I'm sure. He'll be missing out on meeting his new students and seeing Dallin start his first day of kindergarten. Hopefully, he'll be back at it on Wednesday!

Today was my lesson in RS. It was on the Wentworth Letter. I was a little concerned about having a good discussion, but my worries were all for naught. It was a great discussion and we ran out of time WAY before we ran out of material to discuss. It's a wonderful lesson and I would recommend it as good reading annually.
I hesitate to say this, but my calendar for next week is totally BLANK! I probably just jinxed myself....I hope I can get some things done around here, though.

Friday Funday

Today was a bit of a fun day. Erin and I packed up three of her girls and headed to Mesa to the Modbe sale at the Mesa Hilton. I didn't think they had a lot of choices, so I was a little disappointed that we went that far for not much. Erin managed to get a couple of shirts for a birthday party the girls were going to this afternoon, so all was not lost. I'm sure she could have found a few items for herself, but she restrained. The girls were great the entire time we were gone....no whining, no fussing...total cooperation. We had a picnic lunch in the car before we headed back to the west side of town. Eliza even posed under a tree for me so I could get a picture for my Project 365. We had parked under a BIG old tree that was VERY shady. I was particularly impressed with the trunk of the tree. It would be a great climbing tree. There was a funny sign on the block wall between the cars and the tree that said something like....Park at your own risk. There are birds in the trees. We thought that was worth a chuckle. After stopping for refreshment at Sonic we trekked back to Glendale/Peoria. Erin went home from here and I worked on my lesson for Sunday. It wasn't coming together like I'd like, so I set it aside for a bit. After Mark came home, we went junkin' for a while. We found a couple of fun things....I got a gallon ziploc bag full of ink pads (not sure if they're even any good), and a bunch of OLD stamps from some business. They're great and I can't wait to use them on an upcoming project. Another find was a totally retro footstool. It's about a foot tall, about a foot wide and about 18" long. It has wooden legs with metal ends and "feet". The top is a cushion covered with orange vinyl. Can you picture that? I'll have to take a photo when it's lighter in here. It's in perfect condition! I have been wanting a table/stool to put next to the recliner and to use when the grandkids come over. It will make a great stool for them to sit on. And it's a beautiful orange color. Can you tell I was excited. And it was only $5!! Another item I saw and wanted was an old, green depression glass citrus juicer. It wassss gorgeous, but I wasn't willing to pay the $25 they wanted for it. I'll wait. But I'll probablly be sorry, too.
Tonight I finished grading papers and went back to work on my lesson. I finally finished. But I hadn't realized how challenging this lesson would be. It didn't seem to flow as easily as lessons I've taught in the past. It seemed like there was a LOT of repetition in the lesson and I felt like I would be saying the same things over and over and over again. I hope it goes well. I've been working on the lesson for almost two weeks now...since I was first called. So it's not like I've been putting it off. I like to wait until near the lesson time to pull it all together so I've had a chance to study/pray/research before I tie it all up. Anyway, I may need to rethink that strategy.
Tomorrow is the Chocolate Affaire in Glendale. At least some of our kids/grandkids are coming. It should be fun.

Christmas Day events

I'm a day late posting about Christmas day, but I have good reasons. Yesterday was a fun, fun day, but it was LONG! And I was tired. And today I forced myself to pull together my Relief Society lesson for Sunday before I "allowed" myself to blog! I'm teaching the TFOT lesson and using President Eyring's talk "Our Hearts Knit as One" from October's general conference. It's a great talk!!
Our Christmas day didn't start real early since we don't have little ones eager to see what Santa left. We were a little lazy in the morning. After we got up and going, Mark and I exchanged gifts. We both were ver practical this year (as always!). He got socks, ties, razors, new dress pants and a new white shirt. I got new tennis shoes, socks, UV lens covers, a circular polarizing lens and a new purse from Mark and Erin. The kids gave us movie passes, a Cheesecake Factory gift card, a book, some serving dishes, Mark a new jacket and after shave and me some Scentsy bars. It was a wonderful Christmas.
Our first stop was Dad's and Aunt Dovetta's. I know that probably sounds funny, but a while after Mom died, Dad married our Aunt Dovetta. She's Mom's brother's wife. Uncle Mancel (Aunt Dovetta's first husband and Mom's brother) passed away about a year before Mom. Aunt Dovetta and Dad married about three years ago. And it's been wonderful blessing for all of us. But I know it sounds funny since she's my Aunt and my step-mom. But that's how our family is!! Anyway, we (along with Erin, Brian and their girls) went there for lunch.






We visited for a while and then the Trimbles came to our house to celebrate Christmas with us. The girls had a great time opening their gifts. BT got a Nike gift card, Erin got new clothes, Eliza got new clothes, Libby got games, Ellie got a new bedspread and a sweat suit and Hattie got a church bag and a quiet book. It was so funny....the older girls had opened various clothing items and they immediately wanted to put them on. Well, when Hattie opened her quiet book, since it was made of fabric, she immediately thought it was clothes. So she quickly took off her pants and wanted to try it on!!! Funny girl. They stayed around for the afternoon and we played games (Libby's), Eliza wrote a story about going to the snow and everyone nibbled on various cheeses, dips, crackers, beef sticks and chocolates. We had a great day.
We had celebrated with Dan and his family on Monday. I'd post pictures of that celebration, but I didn't take any. I'm waiting for Dan and/or Chris to send me some of theirs. Bad mom, I am!





We celebrated with Brian, Kamille and their family on Christmas Eve. That was fun, too. Kamille worked that day, we so we started with a pizza dinner. Then we opened gifts. Abby got some Barbie items she wants, Dallin got a Hot Wheel track and cars and a transformer, Luke got an Elmo garage, cars and a little stuffed Elmo. We gave Brian and Kamille a Home Depot gift card. It was what they wanted, but I almost felt guilty giving them something that meant they had to work!!
Today Mark and I made one return (my socks) and we had Dallin's RideMakerZ car repaired. We made a stop at Seagull Book, Mystic Paper (one of my favorite places!) and DI...another great place to go junkin'!!
Mark's at Great Skate working. And I've spent this evening working on my lesson. It's done! Yea! Now we can have a fun, relaxing day tomorrow.