Waiting . . . Waiting . . . PAYOFF!!!

Celebration time. Brennan just scored a full tuition scholarship to USU. He had been nervously awaiting word that seemed a long time coming, but it came today!!!

It came while he was out, and being used to just opening his mail without thinking. . . because most of it comes to my house . . . I opened his notification letter, so I knew before before he did. Which was a good thing.

Because it gave me time to set up this celebration!! Congratulation to our soon to be Aggie. I wish they had made the scholarship conditional upon his getting his hair cut! Maybe I'll have to talk to them about that . . . .

I'm Just A Girl Who Caint Say No . . .

Remember this car? Remember my mantra? It's a disturbing thing to discover that you really have no will power at all. On the bright side, no more "Chevron only" gas, no more chug, chug, chug between 40 and 55 mph, and no more walking away from the car, hearing a noise, and turning around in time to see all the windows rolling down and the sun roof opening. And this one is much less expensive than that Honda Crosstour I was eyeballing.

Speaking of no will power at all, here is our table full of pies. All Dave's. He was celebrating.

Tomorrow we head home. Good Bye vacation. Good Bye Denver. Good Bye On The Border. Although we will be bringing some of your fabulous chips and salsa home with us, we will miss you the most.

Amy Grant Has A New Fan

Bad picture, GREAT concert!!! I was not what you would call an Amy Grant fan before tonight. In fact, before tonight I could not have named a single song Any Grant has ever sung. So why did we get tickets, get dressed up and drive into downtown Denver on a Friday night to go to an Amy Grant concert? Well, because she was here . . . and we were here . . . so why not? We were close enough to the stage that I actually saw her change the capo on her guitar from the second fret to the fifth fret right in the middle of a song! She wowed me. She was delightful. I haven't laughed so much in a long time. In fact Dave turned to me sometime in the middle of the concert and said, "You're having fun, aren't you?" Yes I was, and I will be buying some Amy Grant CD's, oh, probably tomorrow.

We also went here today. The Denver Temple, which is in Centenial, not Denver, but still a welcome retreat for some quite thinking about . . .

This handsome man in his new suit and the car that we are NOT buying. No matter HOW much Dave begs and pleads, we are NOT coming home in a new car. That is my mantra and I'm sticking' to it.

From Way Out West in Denver . . .

I bring you the home of Margaret Brown, better know by her Titanic fans as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown". Here is the house she lived in right in the middle of downtown Denver. It is a beauty!

Here I am leaning over her balcony wondering what in the heck Dave's doin' down there, just as Molly must have done some 110 years ago.

And here is Dave not at all trying to look like Molly's husband, the well-to-do J. J. Brown. And you can see the gold plated top of the state capital building in the reflection in the window.

Funny what history will do to ya. Margaret Tobin Brown was never called Molly in her life. She was known only as Margaret or Maggie. It wasn't until Hollywood made a movie about her that her name was shortened to Molly. Now, what would have been wrong with "The Unsinkable Maggie Brown"? This dress shes' wearing was hand beaded in France and cost $2500.00 in 1900. Now, that's rich.

This is the entryway. It is to die for!! Well, the whole house is to die for, but this staircase???? Wow! We got to walk up it. You can, too, if you're so inclined to come to Denver.

This is Molly's bedroom. I always knew we were kindred spirits, Molly Brown and I. Her favorite color was green, just like you-know-who. And I'll bet her kids didn't give her crap about all the green in her house, either.

And the dining room. So pretty :)

This was an intriguing little unit. Different rooms in the house were listed on here and a servant, when she heard the servant bell ring, would look here to see which room in the house she should grace with her presence to answer the bell. Because if she showed up in the wrong room and at wrong time, she could be fired! I really, really want one of these. Maybe I'll buy one while I'm in Denver :)

Finally, Proof That He's Actually There . . .

Right there in that red spot. On the Island of Puerto Rico. That's where Drew is, just in case you were wondering. I was, so I looked it up. According to my co-worker and former Puerto Rican Missionary, Travis, it is the hottest place on the island. Lucky Drew.

And here he is in living color holding the flag of Puerto Rico along with someone whom I can only guess is his companion. Ahhhh the comfort of a photo. And now, with the reassurance that Drew is safe and happy, we are off to Denver!! See ya

New Beginnings

Literally! We had New Beginnings tonight. I had forgotten how much work it is to put on a program, but how much fun it is to watch Young Women stand up in front of a group and shine. These are the girls of the 3rd Ward with their NEW Personal Progress books. Aren't they adorably cute? They could be a New Era cover.

And here are Nikysha and Morgan internalizing their values. We had Values cheesecake for desert :)

Maddi dressed up as a woman of strength and courage, which was our theme -"Women of Strength and Courage". She was Dorcus, and she giggled every time she had to say that name.

And this is LacyAnn telling about her project, which was excellence in tennis playing. She went to state!Have I ever mentioned how much I love Young Women's? They keep trying me in other places, and I've served in every organization in the church a women can serve in, but I always bounce back to Young Women's. And when I do, my heart smiles, my soul sighs and I say, "Ahhhh, I am home again."

Baby, It's Cold

Besides showing how incredibly cold it STILL is here, I think this icicle forming on the TV cable outside my kitchen window has an underlying story. Something along the lines of not holding tight to the iron rod or something. I just haven't figured it out yet.

So, I try hard not to go outside . . .where it's cold. So, on Thursday as I was on line watching Drew fly from Salt Lake to the Dominican Republic - pathetic, I know - I discovered a new passion. www.swaptree.com where you can enter books that you have to trade, and enter books that you want to read, and they, the swaptree people, will match you up with someone who has the book you want to read, and wants the book you have already read and don't need anymore, or a threesome combination therein, and you swap! You just stick your book in a bubble envelope and drop it in the mail and a few days later, you GET a book in return. It's SO easy!! You can even print a mailing/postage label from their website so you don't have to go into the post office. On Thursday, my first day, I traded Breaking Dawn (Stephenie Meyer) for The Sea (John Banville), Pirate Latitudes (Michael Crichton) for Water For Elephants (Sara Gruen) , and Three Weeks With My Brother (Nicholas Sparks) for The Westing Game (Ellen Raskin). By Friday morning, my already read books were in the mail and now I am waiting for my new books to come. And let me tell you, ANY package coming in the mail in January is something to be excited about. So check it out! Because the more swap people there are out there, the more packages I will have to look forward to. And believe me, I need something to look forward to, because baby, it's cold here in the deserts of Moab.