Time out for Women

This past weekend was the TOFW seminar. We originally purchased tickets for this seminar in November of last year. It was to be held in January of this year, but that turned out to be the weekend that President Hinkley's funeral, so it was postponed until September (we went from first to almost last on the schedule). Let me just say it was worth the wait.

Friday night Leslie, Melissa, Kelly and I attended. We heard from Hillary Weeks, Elia Gourgouris, and the Jason Deere and the Nashville Tribute to Joseph Band. They were all great. We enjoyed the music and heard about how to develop relationships.

Saturday, started early. Leslie had to work this day so Lauren joined us for the day. We again heard from Hillary Weeks, then Virginia Hinkley Pierce speaking on prayer, Pam Hansen on how to like yourself, Amanda Dickson on how to hand a messy life, Michael Wilcox on "Accents of Wonder" how to learn to love Heavenly Father through recognizing what he has given us. Then Chris Stewart on redefining joy.

We had a picnic lunch out side under some trees on a perfect LV afternoon. Lauren had tickets to a home show going on at the same time in the Convention Hall, so after eating she and Melissa walked through the displays and then joined Kelly and I for the second half.

Mike had a band job that morning playing for the Diabetes Foundation. He arrived a short time before we did and started barbecuing chicken for us for dinner. What a great weekend! It was also topped off by being able to do temple sealings for family names Friday afternoon.

The only sad part was that we didn't have Lauren and Leslie together with us the whole weekend to get a picture! I am so happy that Kelly and Melissa were able to make the trip.

What does your favorite color say about you?

Does this sound like me?

What Your Favorite Color Green Says About You:

Balanced --- Relaxed --- Flexible Compassionate --- Philosophical --- Humble Loyal --- Inventive --- Unique

What Does Your Favorite Color Say About You?

find yours here: http://www.blogthings.com/whatdoesyourfavoritecolorsayaboutyouquiz/

Have fun with it!

My Baby is 20!

Leslie in her new dress I made for her birthday

Today is Leslie's 20th birthday. I can't believe the time has gone so fast and she is all grown up (well somewhat grown up). It seems like yesterday she was eight and getting her picture taken with the cast on her leg(for the second time)! Or wearing her sunflower dress and hat. Gone are the days that I had to ring the door bell for her at her friend's house, because she couldn't reach it.

Now we have fun days of shopping and going to movies and laughing until it hurts. Working on quilts together, sharing jewelry, and picking out clothes for each other, trying to sign to each other. I look forward to the next twenty.

I love you Les!

Opening gifts

Remember I said "somewhat grown up"

Random Thoughts

You ever have a week that you are just happy to be at home? This one of those weeks. Since I work at home many times I can't wait to get out of the house, but this week I have loved being at home!

I have finished many big sewing projects this week, including several Renaissance costumes for our high school madrigals, 2 dresses and altering a wedding dress, with a many other alterations thrown in there too. It is always a good feeling to know that I have finished a project and the customer picks it up and is happy with what I have done.

We have been cleaning out closets and getting our food storage organized. We emptied out a closet and put in a food rotation system to hold can goods. It looks great and works well. The problem is that we had other things in that closet that no longer fit. The "other things" have been piled all over the family room floor for weeks. I spent yesterday going though those items and deciding if I needed to keep them or if I could find them a new home somewhere else. After spending most of the morning going through things, I could finally say my upstairs family room was presentable again!

I have so busy sewing that I have not had time to play with any of my stamp sets. I recently received a few new ones and had not even had them out of the package yet. That was also something else that I did yesterday. I am hoping that I can start making some cards tomorrow.

Rain! We had a fun rain storm Monday afternoon. It rained so hard that two of my afternoon appointments cancelled, because they did not want to drive in the pouring rain! We have a metal patio cover in our backyard right off our kitchen/family room, when it rains it is really loud hitting on the aluminum. Monday's storm was so loud that when I turned on the TV, I turned on a channel and was watching a movie for almost five minutes before I realized that I was watching it in Spanish!

Well, I guess that is everything that I had on my mind. Sorry for the rambling!

call the police!

After extensive training at the Metro Police Academy, on August 28th Garn graduated! He is now into the second part of training, which is the field training. After his first week he still loves it and seems happy with the choice. He has told us of a few experiences last week of routine stops to finding a dead body.

Leslie and I joined Lauren and Garn's family at the graduation ceremony. It was held in the ballroom at the Orleans Hotel. It was well attended. The Sheriff spoke well of his graduating class of 33 officers.

We further celebrated that night at their house with Pizza and cake. We are so proud of you Garn.

Kelly...leaving Las Vegas

Kelly has known that she was ready to move and get a new start, but as parents we kept denying it. But, I saw the reality of it this time. Kelly has been restless and I knew that she was ready for a new adventure in her life. She flew to Salt Lake on a Friday and interviewed with a company. They spent three hours with her and took her to lunch and offered her the job! Kelly found an apartment in the last few hours she was there and then flew home and gave notice and two weeks later she was on her way to Utah.

After we had spent the busy week at BYU and visiting family, we helped Kelly move into her own apartment in Sandy, Utah. Saturday afternoon Kelly arrived in Utah with part of her belongings packed in her car. Mike, Melissa and I were there to help unpack and get a few things set up. Melissa and I washed dishes and put them away. Mike and I hung her shower curtain and helped get the bathroom set up, while Kelly started to unpack clothes and organize her bedroom.

Then that evening Lauren, Garn and a friend Josh arrived with the truck and all the furniture. It was all moved in so quickly. I told Kelly after everything was in that I felt right at home, because most of her furniture was ours! Saturday night LATE we went shopping for a few items like a tool kit, curtain rod, kitchen odds and ends and food. We got back to Kelly's about 11:45 and fell asleep in just minutes.

Mike and I stayed Saturday and Sunday with Kelly. We went to church in Melissa's ward and had dinner at their house. Monday morning Melissa and Asher arrived to help. We unpacked more boxes and Melissa and Kelly rearranged furniture, put out some decorations and Mike made the trip down two flights of stairs many time to throw out the empty boxes. Soon we were ready to head home(this was our 8Th day of being gone, Mike was ready to be home). We did make a stop in Santiquinn to buy a case of peaches. It was a nice trip but we were glad to be home.

Kelly's apartment building Her apartment is on the 3rd floor!
Kelly we miss you though!

Unlocking the door to her future? Haha

While this was a staged picture, I am sure she has or will do plenty of dishes

Her living room With the curtain and pillows I made for her.

Bathroom with new shower curtain and towels she picked out.

Visiting

During the week of Education Week. We always get to visit family. We went first to Melissa and Curry's. We played with the kids and had dinner with them. Asher is getting such a personality and talks so much. Her favorite game to play with us is "hide and go seek". She would hid with one of us and then call "come get me!" After dinner Asher danced for us. All to soon it was time for us to head to Provo for the night and the kids to go to bed. Thursday night that week we met them at The Texas Roadhouse for dinner. This was a new place to Mike and I. It is very similar to Lone Star here in Las Vegas, but the food there was 10x's better! I think we have a new favorite place to eat in Utah.

We stayed this year with Marilyn and David. We had a great time in the evenings visiting with Matt and Rob but this year we also got to see Kristin and her baby Sydney during her visit to Utah. Valerie and her three little ones, Andrew, Sarah and Emma, also were there several nights to visit.

One night we roasted marshmallow's and made s'mores, our last night we had a picnic in Provo Canyon at a park. Melissa and Asher joined us for that night. It was a beautiful spot for a picnic, lots of grass and a river running right next to us. It was very relaxing and enjoyable.

Mike and I at the park

Saturday morning, Marilyn and I made a couple of stops at Provo Craft Outlet and a cute little store called The Busy Biddy. We made a few good deals at the outlet. It was funny to see that they had all their Easter decorations on clearance. So we are ready for Easter next year!

What a busy week!

Students Again

Mike and I spent the week of August 18 th at BYU. We attended Education Week. This was Mike's 5th year and my 4th. The classes I chose this year were amazing. I attended 6 classes during the day, Mike attended 7, and we took 3 classes together (that was a first).

My favorite was a scripture study class. It taught us how to take a scripture apart to get more meanings and apply it to our lives. The teacher was very good and I learned much from this class. My next favorite class was "Handmaids of the Lord in the New Testament" Mike attended this class with me. I was nervous that he would not enjoy it since it was geared to women, but the teacher is one that is on the BYU station often and she did a great job and we both enjoyed very much and learned some history and little known facts.

My very first class of the day was with MaryEllen Edmunds. She is so funny and was a good start to the day. Her subjects were serious though, (avoiding contention, not comparing ourselves...)but she got the day off to a good start.

I always try to work one class by Marilee Boyak. Her classes have grown each year that I have gone, that this year she was in the largest ballroom at the Wilkinson Center! (and the class was full!) She is a great motivational speaker and is a great person.

Our last class was Bro Hall. This is Mike's favorite teacher. He is a professor of Ancient Studies at BYU. He is a very intelligent man. I enjoyed his class and learned quite a bit on the Apostle John. I am glad that I finally got to one of his classes with Mike, since he has talked about him for years. This class was on the first floor of the Tanner Building. When you enter this building at street level you are on the fourth level, so the class was 3 flights of stairs down. This is no problem going down, but remember this is the last class of the day, it is now 5:30pm and I have walked most of the campus by now and sat for an hour in this class. I about needed an oxygen mask by the time I made it to the top the first day! But by the end of the week it was easier to make the climb.

This was an intense, but amazing week to spend learning. I hope that we can go again next year!