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 Because the day was so nice, because we had too many things we were "supposed" to do, and because Brennan had spent every waking moment of the last week sitting at a desk studying, we chose to be irresponsible on Saturday.  So, we rented a Razor for me, loaded up the bikes for Dave and Brennan, and went playing in the dirt.

 

These guys like to ride fast, and I like to stay out of their dirt.  So they spent a lot of time coming back to look for me.  I'm flattered :)

 We called this place "The Craters of the Moon".  We tried to take a group picture, but I had my long telephoto lens on.  So I had to set the camera quite far from our posing  spot, push the button and run.  This time, I didn't make it. 

 So Brennan took over.  Apparently he can run faster than me.  Go figure.

 Here they come, the Cozzens men on their motorcycles

 A photographic moment.  I was trying to pan as Brennan and Dave rode past me.  This was the best of the panning bunch.

 Here is some of the pretty scenery we got to see.  It was so quiet and nice and beautiful.  A fun day for me :)

 More scenery - I thought this was interesting.  This is some kind of pump . . or something . . . that keeps this water tank full of water . . . or something.

My favorite picture of the day.  I came around a corner and found Brennan hanging out on his bike waiting for me to show up.  Just melted my little heart.  And now, the day is over and we're back to our regular over scheduled lives. But we have the memories. 

A Little Behind, A Little In The Way

 

Some days you can just be standing there minding your own business, offering support to the man and two little boys running the track hoe and all of the sudden . . . 

 You are not my mother, you are a SNORT.  PUT ME DOWN SNORT!  PUT. ME. DOWN!!!

 And the Snort DID put the scared Grandma down.  But the boys in the Snort thought the whole thing was pretty funny : )

Good thing they're sweet boys.  Who will pose with me on the bridge while Drew tries to get his composition photography assignment done.  This one was supposed to show lines leading your eye towards something . . .or something like that.  Whatever it was, I'm not in a track hoe bucket, and I AM posing with a cute Porter face :)

Keeping Busy Part 2

 This week it was my turn to teach Young Women's.  The lesson was on Finding Joy Now, so I made these little Almond Joy handouts that say Happiness does not depend on what happens outside of you, but what happens inside of you.  That was a quote by Harold B. Lee.  They were fun and easy to make, just paper and glue, but the girls thought I was MAGIC!  I love it when they think I'm amazing :)

 I also made these cute little "Spiritual Bucket List" journals.  Because my lesson on Fast Sunday is also supposed to help them work on a Personal Progress goal, I chose Individual Worth #4 - in which they are supposed to make a list of their hopes and dreams and then map out a plan for them to accomplish those things.  So I had them list one hope or dream or goal at the top of each page of these little memo books and then use the rest of the page to map out a plan of how they were going to accomplish that thing.  I gave them ten minutes to write in them and they were quiet and frantically writing the whole time.  A miracle!!

 

I also spent some of my day yesterday making these.  This is a "mini" or  "pocket sized" Book of Mormon and the cute little cover is all iron on.  No sewing involved at all!  We are going to make these for the girls for their birthdays - plan B after the UNO cards wouldn't fit in the cans we were going to put them in.  So cute!  In fact, I think I'm going to make one for me to throw in my purse. 

Dave is still drywalling.  Funny how I can spread drywall mud and the mud stays on the wall, but Dave gets it everywhere!!  But I couldn't drywall yesterday.  I had cute little Young Women's projects to make :)

Insuring That We're Busy

One of the purposes of trying to blog every day - I know, I haven't blogged EVERY day, but much more frequently than in the past, you have to admit - is to insure that I DO something worthwhile every day.  The danger of being "empty nesters" and not having anyone depending on you even getting up in the morning, especially if you aren't very self motivated, is that you may spend your days watching 39 episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" instead of accomplishing something of worth.  So, inspired by pintrest, and much to Dave's chagrin, I have made some assignments.  This is Daves:

This has been a closet without a cause and we have tried to figure out how to put doors on it or something to in some way make it fit in the nice, fairly new family room.  Then along came this idea on pintrest.  PERFECT!

So some day soon we hope Dave's project above will look something like this.  We shall see : )

My project is the stairs.  They have never been finished and I have so many unfinished areas of my house that I just didn't care until now.  Today I have been drywalling and sanding with the intent that some day soon, my stairs will look like this.

  Without the wall board, with the stair rail on the other side and all that.  But similar.  These are long term projects, I understand that, even though I'm not patient with it : )  But just so my soul is able to survive the slowness that we are, I did do a project today that I could finish. 

Ruby slippers for our New Beginnings that will have a Wizard of Oz theme.  The Ruby Slippers are going to have a cellophane bag with Hershey kisses inside the shoe, because the idea is that Dorthy was given everything she needed to succeed in her quest to get to Oz - Ruby Slippers and a kiss.  And Young Women are given everything they need to succeed at Personal Progress - a Personal Progress book, leaders and parents.  Now, I just have to make another 25 or so.  Thank goodness for projects.  Projects will save the world - if just from bad T.V.

The Life of Pi

 I am going to have to admit I was wrong when I said I had read the best book of my 2012 reads.  NOW I have read the best book of my 2012 reads. . . .I think.  Life of Pi.  It is not at all what you would expect a book by this name to be about.  I expected it to cover the history of math, or at least be mostly about math students, or numbers, or something.  Not the delightful fantasy tale of a boy NAMED Pi from India - yes he's Indian, the Dot, not the Feather : )  - who becomes, over the course of his young teen aged years, a Christian, Muslim, and Hindu,  all at the same time, unbeknown to his parents OR any of the above religious leaders.  THEN, when his family leaves India by boat for a move to Canada, he ends up shipwrecked alone with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker as his only companion for seven months!  I know, it sounds cheesy, but as one reviewer put it, this book grabs your book loving mind like a trap and won't let go until the bitter end.  Just read it!

Here are some tidbits of wisdom I gathered from MY reading of this book - which, BTW Kyle and Brennan BOTH read years ago, told me I should read it, but I resisted because . . .well, I thought it was about math.

"It's important in life to conclude things properly.  Only then can you let go.  Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse."

"The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar.  It was natural that, bereft and desperate as I was, in the throes of unremitting suffering, I should turn to God."

"I must say a word about fear.  It is life's only true opponent.  Only fear can defeat life.  It goes for your weakest spot. which it finds with unerring ease.  It begins in your mind always.  One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy.  Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild-mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy."

***** = five stars.  LOVE this book!
 

Pretty Mountains

 Every evening when I leave work the La Sal Mountains are lit up with the last of the sunlight.  It's like someone painted them with light.  And every evening I think, "I wish I had my camera so I could take a picture of that."  Today, I remembered my camera. 

The pretty La Sals, dusted with snow from the last storm that moved through, missed us completely, but dumped on the mountains.  Ahhh, the beautiful place I live : -)

My Big Dream . . .

Today I continued with my 52 weeks to clean closets goal.  I know - it's supposed to be 52 weeks to a more organized you, but hey, you have start somewhere, right?  And today it was the lockers in the kitchen. 

I cleaned them out, moved shelves around, put things where they made more sense - that kind of thing.

In the middle of the project Dave texted me and asked if I wanted to come out and help him dig holes.  I said, "No thank you, I am cleaning out lockers and I now have EMPTY SHELVES!!"

And his reply was:  "Your big dream . . .die with half your shelves empty".  Does that man know me or what?  Mine and Dave's philosophy on the storage of items is quite a bit different.  He is of the following mindset - "If your head was flat, would you store stuff on it?"  Dave's answer would be a resounding "YES!"  Not that it's a bad philosophy, just different from mine.

 

The great thing about cleaning out closets is the strange things you find in them that you either forgot, or never knew you had.  Like this - Red Wine Alternative?  Where did I get this?  How long have I had it?  And what am I supposed to do with it now that I know it's there?  Much of my life is a mystery - this just adds to it :)