Winter Stuff

We watched Payton Bell open up his mission call.  This was the first "friend" of Brock's to get a mission call.  It has begun!

Maddie played in the Young Women's basketball tournament.  

Maddie also helped me make tortillas.

I was asked to bring a cake to the stake relief society cake buffet.  I wanted to do something really fancy I had never done before.  It was a lemon cake with mascarpone inside and raspberries on top with whipped cream frosting.  It was fantastic.  There were like 80 cakes and only 2 got eaten entirely.  Mine was one of them!

The girls' Young Woman's president, Mary Anne Ahlstrom got released.  It was sad for everyone.  It is always so hard when your YW president gets released.  I remember crying when mine did.  Mary Anne was so great to the girls.  She loved them and dedicated her life to them.  

After the great room switch I kept going with my organizing and decided to get out and organize all of our memory boxes.  First we went through all of the kids' stuff, including their school papers I saved.  That was really fun and eye opening for some of the kids.  Then we did mine and Jason's.  The girls went through all my old notes that my friends and I used to send.  They kept calling them "texts", "listen to this text" Megan would say.  It was so funny.  When I got them out I said, "since we didn't have cell phones or text, we used to write notes during school and pass them in class or in the halls" and Maddie said, "I have heard of  this".  It was great.  It was also good reflection time.  I found some old journals and realized some things about myself that I hadn't considered.  

A 7th grade boy was killed crossing the street in our neighborhood.  We didn't know him.  But it was still heart breaking.  Maddie and I went to his memorial one night and left some stuff.  This kind of  thing is hard for everyone.  But it is hard to not relive Mandy, Ali, and Jara's deaths every time someone under 18 dies.  It changes you in a way that you are never the same.  There is life before, and then life after.  It is a defining moment and it doesn't take much to put you right back in the moments of the days following the death.  

I had to spend over 5 hours in front of a computer trying to register my kids for FSY.  So that was fun.  We did not get the dates or locations we wanted.  So that was more fun.  But I have faith they have ended up where they are supposed to be.

We had a BYU fireside where Elder Gilbert, Elder Meredith, and President Reese came and spoke to us.  It was so exciting.  I tried really hard to find a way to meet them - but nothing really worked.  Although Brock got called on by Elder Gilbert to give an answer, so that was special.  It was a great answer to.  He said we get an education because we need to know how to do things when we become Gods.

I don't remember why I took this picture.  But it is a good one.

Megan is a great snow shoveller.  I can count on her to do just about anything.

In January my foot was finally considered "healed"

I February I got my screw placed for my implant.  Boy am I sick with dealing with this tooth (or lack there of now).  It has been hurting every day for 15 years.  I really do hope this is the answer.