Fibituary

Cora the fish, passed away in her sleep last night.
She left our family as quickly as she arrived.
She outlived her other fishy predecessors by a day or two.
She left behind a full container of goldfish flakes.
Her makeshift fishbowl will be cleaned and prepared to diplay candles again.
In lieu of flowers, please take the extra fishfood off our hands.
She was buried at sea.

Powell

This last trip to Lake Powell, Evan wanted to capture some of the scenery to share with his boss in Portland. He wanted to show him what the hype was all about. Of course, nothing compares to the live show, but this is what we shared with him.

The password is "powell"...

Dear Cora:

I did not know the door bell ditchers left you on our doorstep.
It was very nice of them to give you a name.
You must be a very strong gold fish to be able to survive the night there!
I hope it was not too cold.
It is the Sabbath, and I cannot buy you fish food.
I hope you like Rice Krispies.

Dear Doorbell Ditchers:

I understand your need to pull pranks.
I enjoy a good prank myself.
I knew it was you, it was obvious.
I did not open the door.
I even waited at the door, hoping to catch you if you returned.
(Just like last time.)
You did not come back.

What I do not understand. . .

How did you know that I only had a few hours of sleep last night.
How did you know I was up for 22 hours before then.
How did you know you would wake me up.
How did you know I would not be able to go back to sleep.

As long as I'm up, I am going to enjoy one of THESE.
A major sugar overdose won't hurt me now!

Wallet Mystery

After several phone calls to wrong numbers, we gave up on looking for the owner of the wallet.
It was obvious what course of action to take.
We took it to the bank where the credit cards were issued.
They were grateful and promised to secure it in their vault and contact the owner.
I reminded them that the owner was probably frantic and requested they call right away.
The assured me they would and that they would also take care of any follow-up.

I hope the owner is breathing easier at this moment.

22 hours

4:00 am – alarm… snooze for 30 minutes.
4:30 am – one more short snooze
4:45 am - get up and give Taylor here wake up call
5:00 am - @ the gym with Tay
6:30 am - arrive at work
3:15 pm - arrive home
3:30 pm - grocery shop for tonight's out door movie
4:30 pm - make caramel corn
5:30 pm - change for wedding reception (look forward to seeing old friends)
6:45 pm - hunt for a phone number for the wallet we just found in the parking lot (fail)
7:30 pm - leave for home to set up the movie
7:45 pm - one more try to find owner of wallet (fail)
8:30 pm - warn the neighbors of the upcoming invasion
9:30 pm - start movie
10:00 pm - assist the fire starters
10:30 pm - receive hugs from several strange men (it's ok, Kylee knows them... I still don't)
11:30 pm - break down the movie
12:00 am - start bringing in food remnants
1:00 am - douse the fire
2:00 am - bed time

What Chester ate today...

1 wooden spoon, laced with Mac-N-Cheese remnants.

Happy Birthday

To the man who raised the man I love.

August 18, 1938 – August 12, 1996

Whew! (part 2)

Second lesson over.

Nausea -  subsiding.
Pit in stomach - diminishing.
The shakes  - dwindling.
Diet Coke – soothing.

Dear Kylee

This is what your dad did for you today.

I recorded it so you would have proof.

I hope you feel better.

Love Mom.

(There is a story... Click HERE if you want to read it.)

Dislike

I dislike confrontation.

So much so, I threw up at work.
Then I went shopping.
I bought a dress.

I feel much better now.

Evaluation

The year is more than half way over.

I must declare, that this is the only year in my memory that I have been able to stay on top of my New Years resolution of a daily good deed.
I admit, it has not been a daily deed lately.
One thing is for certain, contrary to the "going on a diet" resolution,
this resolution is SO much easier to get back on track with.

I recently came across an interesting article that was posted by the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation.
It was not surprising to learn that kindness has significant health benefits.

Some of the key points that I found to be the most interesting are:

• Helping contributes to the maintenance of good health, and it can diminish the effect of diseases and disorders serious and minor, psychological and physical.
• Stress-related health problems improve after performing kind acts. Helping reverses feelings of depression, supplies social contact, and decreases feelings of hostility and isolation that can cause stress, overeating, ulcers, etc.
• A decrease in both the intensity and the awareness of physical pain can occur.
• An increased sense of self-worth, greater happiness, and optimism, as well as a decrease in feelings of helplessness and depression, is achieved.
• The practice of caring for strangers translates to immense immune and healing benefits.

You can read this article in its entirety HERE.

What Chester ate today. . .

7 lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting.

Fortunately, they were of the mini variety.

Week In Review...

Monday -
Taylor and I headed down to Provo for dinner and a concert.
Mindy Gledhill had a premier concert for her new album being released this month.
I was a great time.
I even had the opportunity to catch up with some family friends.
Thank you Courtney for putting together a great event.
Stephanie, you made Taylor's night with your comment about going to one of her concerts! (When she is famous - you get front row seats.)

Tuesday –
As part of my calling as transition specialist, I get the opportunity to join the Laurels when they hold class activities.
They are learning some basic quilting and I joined them with my sewing machine in hand.
I learned a few things myself.
Thank you Jen for such a great message about womanhood and creating and encouraging these great YW to use their hands and serve.

Wednesday –
A downpour of rain stirred up the desire for soup.
So on this hot and muggy evening, we ate delicious soup for dinner.

Thursday - 
Evan and a few of his High School buddies got together and headed out to the RUSH Concert.
The girls and I went to the Cheesecake Factory and over-ate.
We did, however, share ONE piece of cheesecake, saved $15 and about 10,000 calories.

Now,
As I am approaching the weekend, I am getting more and more anxious about my next Relief Society lesson.
I have 10 more days to go.
Needless to say, I will be fine tuning this weekend and praying for peace, comfort and confidence all next week.

The greatest place on earth . . .

At least one of them.

Lake Powell is one of my favorite places.
The magical beauty of this place is rarely justified by photographs…
but I am more than happy to try and capture what I can.