Saturday's are for...

1. Sleeping in until 7:30.
2. Getting ready for Primary on Sunday.
3. Grocery Shopping.
4. Making a list of things to do and ignoring 90% of them.
5. Running errands with my hubby (my favorite part).
6. Lunch with the family (another favorite).
7. Laundry
8. Cleaning the house (kinda).

Work weeks are for...
1. Recovering from the weekend.

Gamma

(by the way - my keyboard is better)

Tonight, I was lucky enough to be able to spend the evening with Kylee and the Gamma girls. (A chapter of Lambda Delta Sigma - the LDS sorority.) The catch: haul up to the institute several boxes full of audio / video equipment, set up a video camera, record music videos, playback on a big screen.

Good thing I have a hobby that makes me a strong candidate for these requests. Even better - I am the first person my daughter thought of in her time of need.

So, I loaded up the rig and did just that. I had a great time watching these young adults interact with each other.

I am grateful that both of my daughters are surrounded by such great friends and examples and hope that I will have more opportunities to contribute and participate in more events like this.

My keyboard has a mind of its own

For what ever (haunted?) reason my keyboard is forcing me to type everything backwards. This is going to take all night and I dont want to reboot, so I will just say goodnight.

THGINDOOG

Dad...

I like it when

you are subpoenaed to testify in court and you never get called to the stand.
Too bad you don't get called to speak in church and never make it to the pulpit.

I am a planner.

I plan far in advance. I start packing a week before a trip. (starting with a packing list weeks before that.) I study recipe's before a meal, I calendar an entire year for Primary. etc.

Occasionally, the lack of planning on the part of other people becomes my problem too.

Case in Point: Last November, I met with my counselors and we planned the ENTIRE year for 2009. We set themes and dates for Quarterly Activities, Great to be 8, Priesthood Preview and the awesome Primary Program. The next day, I logged on to the Church calendar and booked the various buildings for the dates and times we needed. I was rewarded with an approval and penciled everything in on my calendar.

This Sunday (yes, tomorrow) is our Great to be 8. Planned and scheduled MONTHS in advance. Last night I received a phone call from another Ward in our building. They were panicking because they also wanted to hold the same event on the same night. I, of course, could not refuse their request to share the building, but I would not budge on the rooms that we wanted. (I do deserve first choice for planning in advance and following proper channels.)

Unfortunately, this is not the first time that I have to make exceptions for them, and I am certain it will not be the last. So, my greatest hope is this... If by some unexplainable reason I need to schedule the building at the very last possible minute, I am given the same consideration.

(getting off of her soapbox)

It seems to be

that every time the batteries in the smoke detectors start to go out, the chirpy notification comes in the wee hours of the morning.

Today's notice came at about 1:30 AM. And since I am the lightest sleeper in the family, I am the only one that gets to bask in the high pitched chirps of these round disks.

I took it as long as I could and then embarked on my treasure hunt. The reward: Peace and Quiet. I bounced around the house from one point to another in hopes of discovering the culprit. I know I was too drowsy because the chirp seemed to be anywhere BUT where I was standing.

After a complete check upstairs and again, downstairs and no great discovery (and consequently, no reward), I gave up and went back to bed. Unable to fall back to sleep I turned on the TV in order to bring on the trance. As I started to doze about an hour later, I packed my ears with plugs and sandwiched my head between pillows.

I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep before my 4:30 GET OUT OF BED AND GO TO THE GYM alarm went off. I was very quick to dismiss it and snooze another hour away before getting ready for work.

I called Evan later that day and assigned him the task of tracking down the chirping creature, but just my luck... not a sound during daylight hours. I am hoping that we are not dealing with a nocturnal chirping disk and that I get a full nights sleep!

More strange luck

Taylor was caught in the middle of both bomb threat on her school yesterday and today. I noticed many police cars on campus yesterday when I picked her up. She and all other remaining students had been kicked out of the building, but we did not think much of it. Then again today, just before school started - another evacuation. She and the other students were kept out of the school while bomb sniffing dogs swept the building. At 10:30 they were given the all clear and school started. There is a 17, or a sophomore (conflicting reports) year old student in custody, and the student body has a story to tell their grandkids.

Kylee's typical CRAZY wednesday

6:00 am wake up
7:00 Drive to U
8:30 Dance Class
one hour break
10:45 Math
break/study at institute building
go to Primary Children's Hospital
eat lunch
volunteer 1-4
4-5 Chemistry Study Session
5:45 Chemistry Class
7:10 wait for Trax to commute back to car
7:20 Drive home
8:15 eat dinner
8:45 chill with mom

What I've learned today.

1. Some holidays are a rip off. Especially when you have to work

2. There are not enough winter holidays. I can't believe we have to wait until February and then NOTHING until May.

I am a big supporter of any movement that will require at least one holiday a month.

A conversation for Eric...

I was checking in on facebook and our cousin Melissa posted this notice:

Melissa Smith Enger is wondering if anyone wants to run a 5k on April 11? http://tinyurl.com/9yvheg.

My reply to her:

I do, but my body won't let me. My bro Eric might join you... and I will work on my body in the mean time. (Meaning I doubt my body would EVER be ready that soon)

Her response:

that loser brother of yours needs to add me to his blog! How am I supposed to know what my favorite cousin is up to, otherwise?? Tell him that for me! :)
Really though - mention the 5k to him. I would LOVE to hang out with him for a morning run!

I explained to her that you do not have a blog, but I would pass the message on and reminded her that I invited her to participate in The Smith Reader. I mentioned that you were an author too, but was currently unpublished.

Do you feel this way too?

Speaking from experience... while it is WONDERFUL to spend time with your loved ones... It is true that there can be "To much of a good thing" and that "absence makes the heart grow fonder."

I love my family dearly but by the end of our vacation (I'm sure I speak for all of us) I was ready for some solitude - even if it was spending five days with my colleagues at work.

I am grateful for jobs and good schools that not only provide and educate, but give us the opportunity to love each other even more.

Vacation highlights

As I sit here wondering where this week went I can't help but think of what a great time I had with my family on our trip. We did so many things together but TWO of them stick out in my mind the most...

1. The HOURS we spent together playing cards on the deck.

2. The Book of Mormon we took from the hotel (Thanks Bro. & Sis. Marriott) with the commitment to place it with someone during the trip. On the last night, we gave it to our waiter, Meriam from Botswana Africa. Not sure what her reaction was since she was still working and we told her to open it in private. We can only pray that curiosity will get the best of her and she will start to read... the Holy Ghost will take care of the rest!

What I've learned today

1. Vacationing after the holidays... causes a delay in packing away the Christmas decorations.

I spent this evening (and certainly tomorrow) taking down and packing up Christmas.

What I've learned today

1. It takes a week to recover from a long vacation.
Laundry, time zone transitions, grocery shopping, finding your groove at work, etc.

New and Improved

I finally had time to put together a quick slideshow. Here is the new and improved show of our trip: (Warning... This takes 4+ minutes.)

The password is "hero"

On solid ground

so here we are... sitting at the Tampa airport at 9 am waiting for our 5:15 flight back home. We already checked... nothing else available to get all 4 of us home earlier. It's going to be a LONG day.

2 1/2 hours later...

we made it out of town on another plane that was brought in... we made it to our destination after a 6 hour delay.

Today

7am wake up, shower
8am leave for airport
10 am flight scheduled to leave
10:30 am turning back to terminal - mechanical problems
12:00 leaving plane while mechanics keep trying to fix problem
12:30 finding lunch in terminal.
1:30 plane's take off scheduled (not holding our breath)
How was your day?