12

In the Mormon Church, 12 is a significant age for young men and young women. They get to advance from Primary and into Mutual. They are also old enough to start serving in the Temple by doing Baptisms for the Dead. My brother’s daughter turned 12 earlier this year, and more recently our nephew on Evan’s side turned 12, which also makes him eligible to receive the Priesthood.

Evan, his mother and I made a “quick” day trip to Afton and back today. Our nephew, Jacob, was ordained a Deacon. It was an honor to be there and witness the amazing blessing he received from his father.

Rivalries and Moods

Here I sit, 4th Quarter, 30 seconds to go and the game is just tied… Evan’s good mood is diminishing and Kylee
is feeling better. Either way… I win.

Being neutral has it’s benefits.
Too bad I still have to deal the the aftermath.

Family Ties

I love it when I get surprise phone calls or emails from extended family members.
That is . . .  the ones that don’t accompany bad news.

Today, I received one of those “GOOD” emails. Evan’s cousin, Sip, sent me quick note. (I assume he is a stalker of my blog, because he mentioned that he should have dropped by yesterday since it looked like I had plenty of room.) He attached a photograph that was taken of some family members at his fathers funeral. 

Uncle Eddie passed away last April.

Eddie and Ester Trujillo – two of my favorite people.  

I am so grateful for the Trujillo side of the family. I hope that Aunt Ester has been able to fill that void in her life with happiness and hope as she anticipates the wonderful reunion that we are able to enjoy through the Plan of Salvation. I am grateful to Sip for provoking fond memories of some great people!

How to feed 26.

1. Remove the furniture from the family room.
2. Start cooking the day before.
3. Make assignments to other guests (Thanks everyone for your help. It was an easy day!)
4. Finish cooking and calculate your timing carefully (especially if you only have one oven).
5. Eat and clean up!

Round ONE

Home from work @ 3:30 and I dove right in…

Moved some of the furniture and started preparing food.

Homemade cranberry sauce – DONE

Stuffing – DONE

4 pumpkin pies – IN THE OVEN and it’s only 7:30.

Pies out before 9pm and I get to go to bed at a decent hour, provided my mind does not keep me up as it runs up and down the list of the things I have left to do.

Luckily my guest are fabulous cooks and are making significant contributions!!

22

22 years ago today, I married the love of my life.

10 years later, our first nephew was born.
Happy Birthday Jacob.

It’s been a while.

No thanks to the Mtn., my football hostessing projects have been few and far in between. In fact, I don’t think we hosted a game at all last year.

I finally got my chance today. There were a couple of hiccups, but I was able to feed a few of Evan’s friends an abundant buffet complete with 7 layer dip, Piglets in Blankets, Deviled Eggs, Triple Tear Brownies and Peanut Butter Chex . . . good practice for Thanksgiving. (My count is 32)

Hiccup #1– the spare alarm clock was still on daylight savings time. This was something I did not know.

In a groggy state, after sleeping in until “7” am, I got out of bed and started baking. When I pulled the brownies out of the oven, I noticed the clock on the stove said “6:30”. The up-side: I had enough time to take care of some unexpected business… (see hiccup #2)

Hiccup #2– the server at work crashed last night. I got the call around 6 pm and immediately went back.

After a series of some very “unfortunate fortunate” events, a corrupted file was discovered. I found it interesting that finding some minor errors and problems caused me to react in a way that lead to the discovery of a more serious matter. I am convinced that I was led to those initial discoveries and then prompted to react they way that I did. I called it quits after two hours, but not without the assignment to recover and rebuild the file on my own. With some instructions, I returned to work this morning and after a quick prayer, fulfilled my task successfully. We were back in business two hours later.

Now, after an exhaustingly busy day, I am ready to crawl into bed and prepare myself for a relaxing quite Sunday.

On a scale of 4.0

Taylor is a

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

3.8!!

I am so proud of her.

Retro

Tonight for Young Women In Excellence, it was retro night. The YW and their parents were invited to flash back and wear something from the past.

Taylor called my mother and they dug up her Granite High Pep Club uniform from  1960. She looked adorable.

I opted out – nothing kept. Besides, if I did keep anything, I would have to loose 20 lbs in 15 minutes to make it work. I did, however, share a photo for the display board.

 

I have spent some time over the last week or so, looking over the new Family Search web page. What an awesome tool for the members of the church. As I dig deeper, it will be interesting to see how many names still need to be submitted for temple work. It seems like an overwhelming job . . . and a slow process because accuracy is so important. I really don’t know where to start, but what is important is just starting . . . that is what I need to work on for now. I hope other members of the family will also contribute and speed the process along. It will be fun to see the family tree grow.

Frozen

Ever since Saturday’s snow fall, I have been cold and cannot get warm.

This is why I HATE winter.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s more like a Love/Hate kind of thing.

I love the white blanket of a snowy morning.
I hate the “dirty” snow after traffic splashes it around.

I love wrapping up in a warm blanket and sipping hot chocolate.
I hate that my feet are always cold.

I love the peace and beauty of a quite snow storm.
I hate blinding blizzards.

I love the extra hour of sleep in October.
I hate the dark evenings.

I love the winter holidays. I love having friends and family around.

I love my space heater.

You know you’re a…

You know you’re a Mormon living in SLC when you dine at a local restaurant and the man at the table next to you is the Prophet. It was fun to see President Monson tonight taking the time away from his evening meal to visit briefly with the children who so excited to see him.

You know you’re a gadget junky when you attend a “Symphony Orchestra, Collegiate Singers, Men’s Choir, and Women’s Choir” performance at the Tabernacle and you are most intrigued by the camera boom. I found myself thinking how much fun it would be to have one to hang over the back of the boat.

You know you’re an UTA Trax driver when you take pride in publicly humiliating people who get stuck like a sardine in a train car and the doors won’t open to let them out before the train leaves  for the next stop . . . which creates the possibility of loosing the rest of their party who barely managed to make it out of an open door. (I was not the sardine, but a member of our group was.)

I stand all amazed…

at the true spiritual giants I gave birth to.

I never would have guessed as a new mom almost 20 years ago,
that I was holding in my arms one of my greatest examples.
And again, three years later.

My first born is attending institute at U and loving it.
She is there on her own free will.
She is excited to learn more about the gospel of our Savior.

My second, is attending the temple weekly.
Yesterday, she went alone.
She loves serving the Lord and is not afraid
to do so when no one else can.

I often wonder what I have done
to deserve such righteous daughters.

They are far ahead of me in spiritual matters,
and I am grateful.

Love girls night!

I’m thinking… we need more of these.

Consequences

Kylee was sick ALL week. No school, no work.
Consequence – a LOT of makeup work.

Evan had a quick business trip to St. George.
Consequence (?) – a LOT of golf.

Taylor was called as the Laurel Class Secretary.
Consequence – a LOT of blessings.

I had a stressful week at work.
Consequence – a LOT of knots in my back.

We all beefed up on the hand washing and sprayed Lysol every time Kylee left the room.
Consequence – the rest of us stayed healthy (so far).

Kylee announced tonight that she is feeling better.
Consequence - She will make it to the “So You Think You Can Dance” tour tomorrow night.

I am looking forward to the girls night out!
Consequence - a happy mom.

Pink

In order to please my daughters, I dress up for Halloween. I don’t go anywhere. I just answer the door and pass out candy. But, I dress up. The most requested… SLC Punk.

(I sometime wonder how much it reflects my inner-self.)

As with every other year, I forgot to put gloves on my hands when applying the pink. So, I  scrubbed with Clorox scouring powder with bleach, followed by gobs of lotion to soothe the skin.

I ended the evening with a double hair washing and still ended up with a touch of pink. I washed again this morning, still pink. So off to church I go, presenting sharing time with remnants of pink in my hair. I hope the kids take me seriously.

More importantly, I hope the extra hour of sleep was sufficient enough for the sugar to run its course.