"The Event", Santa and Sunday.......

"The Event" (as Walmart was calling the big 5 hour sale instead of "Blitz") was truly a spectacle. When I pulled up to the light at the intersection you could see a line of traffic down the freeway waiting to turn in to the store. When I pulled into the parking lot I could not find a parking spot in the whole lot. People were starting to park along the freeway and in any available adjacent parking lot to the store. I ended up pulling into the yellow zone (I wasn't the only one) and told Bob when I walked in that if my car got towed he was paying for it.

The office associates (Jade, Jan, Connie and myself) were given the job to carry around a bag of candy and orange juice and pass them out to customers that looked like they needed it. The last 2 years we have had the same lady (who is diabetic) pass out in the store and we've had to call the ambulance. Bob did not want that happening again this year. It didn't, I'm not sure it was because of us though. We didn't even know what the lady looked like.

It was a fun job. I just got to walk around handing out candy and making nice to the customers. I got to see a lot of my friends and I could stop and talk to them with out being in trouble.

Saturday was the official arrival of Santa to Brigham. Usually it is in the evening but this year they had it at 11 in the morning. I think it was better because it wasn't as cold, but the wind did blow and make it colder than it should have been.

Leslie and the kids couldn't come in this year because Paul's Grandma was having her Christmas party at noon. Jamie and the boys did come up.

Trevon, Jamie and Jax ......
They had a children's group singing Christmas songs to entertain us while we waited..

Trevon and Jax drinking hot chocolate to keep warm.........

Here he comes (he is at the very back on the ladder)

Trevon with Santa.....

Jax with Santa, or as he put it "the man in the costume". He is getting older and I think he is questioning his belief in Santa.

After they saw Santa we went and had lunch at Wingers (Jax's choice). Then we ran to Walmart (I know, I broke my own rule) so Jamie could look at the Christmas trees we had and Jax and Trevon could show me some of the things they wanted for Christmas so I would have some ideas of what to get them.

Leslie and Paul went to dinner that evening so Cambria, Braxton and Gunner came over. Gunner had his Christmas stocking that Grandma Moore had given him (she gives one to each grandchild every year). He had to show me everything that was in it. He is 2 now so he is going to be so much fun this year.

Today I had to play a musical number for Sacrament meeting. This made it so that every Sunday this month I have been a part of the musical number. Edris called me Monday to see if I could do it. Then I was at Angel's for a couple of days and then with work and Santa and everything I really didn't have a lot of time to practice.

I picked out a piece that was Thanksgivingy (is that a word?) and was practicing it Saturday. This morning when I sat down to practice it and I decided to check our music list (as organist we get a list that has the songs that are being sung each Sunday and it usually covers 3 months). Well they had us singing Christmas songs today. That's okay with me but I felt like I should change my number. So I quickly looked through my music and found Sally Deford's arrangement of "The First Noel" I practiced it for about half an hour and that was it. Once again the angels were with me and it turned out great.

It was my Sunday to teach the lesson in Primary. You could tell it was a holiday, the kids were all wound up. After church was over we of course had choir practice. We are doing 3 songs for Christmas and they are all going pretty good. We had a huge turn out for practice, we usually do for December, everyone like to sing Christmas songs. I wish we could get these kind of turnouts all the time.

I've just been lazy all afternoon. I even took a nap. Jackie came over for a visit this evening. It is always so much fun to talk to her.

Well that's my weekend. It's now almost my bedtime, have to be to work tomorrow as usual.

The rest of my adventure........

Wednesday I woke up to Puddi sniffing and licking my ear....not something I'm used to.

Angel made her famous cinnamon burst french toast for breakfast...very yummy. Then we just hung out and watched TV and played on our computers until it was time to get ready for the concert. She gave me the rest of my Christmas present...the box set of TSO (Trans-Siberian Orchestra) Christmas Trilogy with DVD and their newest double CD set "Night Castle".

My next adventure was taking Trax to the arena. Riding public transportation is a feast for people watching. It was great though because it dropped us off right at the arena.

Trax.........

The Concert was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They played for almost three hours. Just them, no one opening band. They put on a great show. Very high energy. Classical and Rock, two of my favorite genres put together, what more could you ask for?

This is the picture Angel took with her phone.

There was a little boy around Jax's age sitting next to me and he was loving the concert as much as I was. It was so cute to watch him.

It was very interesting... I have listened to TSO Cd's but I have never seen them before. They have several vocalists both male and female. We noticed to be one of the female vocalist in the band that you had to have long blonde hair, which they all had. I pointed out to Angel that there was one brunette, she said that she was the token brunette. Their hair had to be long because it wouldn't have had the same effect when they flipped their heads while singing and dancing (and they flipped their hair A LOT).

They have 2 extremely talented violinist, one male and one female. Of course the female had...you guessed it....long blonde hair! I sat there and tried to figure out how when she flipped her hair it didn't get all tangled up in her violin and bow while she played. They used a local string ensemble that played with them.

The men in the group were...your typical rock band types. Tall, long hair and using the classic rock "triangle" stance (as Angel called it). I did have to remind her it WAS a rock band. One of the singers I wanted to take home with me.

I could go on but I have more to write about. After the concert was over Angel and I got in the line to look at the TSO stuff. She was going to buy me a t-shirt but then she saw in the other case that they had PIANO BOOKS!!!! She turned to me and asked "do you want a T-shirt or a piano book?" DUHHHHHHHHH...I want a piano book!

The worst part about that was she doesn't have a piano and I had to wait until I got home Thursday night to play out of it. That was shear torture. Whenever I get new music I beeline straight home and immerse myself in it.

Then we went to Joy Luck for Chinese/Thai (no Sushi this time). It was good, I had the Thai Pad Noodles.

Then we went to Target because I told her I wouldn't go into Walmart on my days off. It's a rule I have always lived by working in retail. We picked up some munchies and some things for Thanksgiving to take to Jamie's. I was getting tired and when that happens I start to giggle.

On Thanksgiving Angel made croissant,egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast (she is pretty handy in the kitchen). Then we watched "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" which is Angels tradition. She is a huge Peanuts fan.

I had been telling her that we should put up her Christmas while I was here. She kept telling me no that she didn't put it up until Dec. 1st. Well the next thing I knew she had brought up all her Christmas decorations.

So I got busy and put up her tree and decorated it while she and Puddi just sat on the couch and watched me. Then I delved into the box of other decorations. I was giddy! There were things she had that she had never even opened. She told me that she didn't have room for any of it. I proved her wrong. I got it all out but a couple of things.

My family knows how much I love Christmas and the things that go with it. I had so much fun and her condo looks very festive now. I tried to talk her into getting a wreath for her door. But she refused. (spoiled sport)

We headed to Jamie's that afternoon for dinner. Jax was with his dad and Patrick was sick so it was just Jamie, Trevon, Angel and I. That just meant more food for us! Jamie is a good cook and puts out quite the spread.

We had Thanksgiving with a southern flair (Pat is from the south). Ham, deviled eggs, scalloped potatoes, macaroni and cheese (the good kind that comes out of the oven not the box), hot wings, olives, green salad, little wieners in BBQ sauce, and shrimp.

After that Angel drove me home since the Front Runner didn't run on the holiday. So that was my adventure. I had so much fun and did lots of things for the first time. Oh yea, the minute Angel left I pulled out my new piano book and sat down and played before I even unpacked.

The Front Runner........

I couldn't wait for my work day to be over. I have the next 2 days off! I haven't had a Thanksgiving day off since 1977, SERIOUSLY!

After work Leslie and the kids stopped by so I could give them their Christmas ornaments and see them before I left.

Carol picked me up and we dropped my turkey off to the family that needed it. Then is was off to Ogden. I had my camera but forgot to get a picture of the station.

I got on the train and the adventure began. Sitting across the aisle from me was a very old man in his Jazzy (motorized chair). He had a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off (and it was cold outside) a portable CD player in a case hanging around his neck and great big headphones (not the little ear buds) on.

I quietly sat down and pulled out my phone and started to update my FB minding my own business when he suddenly started to talk to me. He told me about how he rode the train all the time and he did seem to be a regular. The train workers all seemed to know him. Then he told me about all the places that he likes to go to sing karaoke (oh my...). Then he told me about how he needed some kind of surgery (heart I think).

Through the whole conversation I just kept playing on my phone and nodding my head and smiling. I don't think I ever uttered a word to the man. But that seemed to be okay with him and he just kept talking. He was a little hard to understand sometime, he had that old man slur to his speech.

I just thought this is all part of the mass transit experience.

The train makes 5 stops between Ogden and SLC. It only stops for maybe 2 0r 3 minutes at each stop. Woods Cross was the last stop before the SLC station. So I got to watch people get off and on at each station.

The one worker that kept going through our car and a police woman (who when she got on checked all of us for tickets) sat behind me and we all chatted about various things for a little bit.

I couldn't see much of the ride because it was dark when I got on the train. I could see car lights from the freeway and at each railroad crossing. I could also see the houses that had their Christmas lights on. For some reason the song "Over the River and Through the Woods" kept running through my mind.

It was a very nice ride and was quit enjoyable. I brought my book along but never even opened it. It was just too interesting and I didn't want to miss a thing on my first train ride.

We arrived at Woods Cross in record time. Left Ogden at 6:20 and pulled into Woods Cross at 6:54.

Debbie was there to meet me. Yes I would do it again and probably will.

The Front Runner.....................

After Debbie picked me up we went to their house and picked up Charles. Then we went to Mimi's Cafe where we met up with Angel.

Mimi's is a nice place. I had their chicken pot pie. Yummy! We sat and talked like brothers and sisters do.

Angel has gotten a new phone and it is like mine in the applications it uses. She was asking me how I saved picture from Text messages to my phone. So I showed her which application to download and then I showed her how to use it. Charles stated that it was the first time he had seen ME teaching Angel how to use something high tech. Angel always calls all of us the Technology Handicapped.

When we got back to Angel's she worked on my computer and cleaned up the mess it was in. Then we just watched TV.

I will not be sleeping alone tonight........Puddi (her dog) will be sleeping with me.

And the adventure continues........

The Adventure.....

For Christmas Angel bought me a ticket to go with her to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert this Wednesday. I am soooooooooooo excited. I've wanted to see them for years.

The adventure starts tomorrow evening. Any one that knows me knows that I HATE to drive the freeway to SLC (Salt Lake City). Solution.....the Front Runner. Originally I was taking the Front Runner to the SLC station and then jumping on Trax to the station closest to Angel's condo. Now I am taking the Front Runner to Woods Cross and Debbie will pick me up. Then Charles, Debbie and I will meet Angel for dinner in Salt Lake. After which I will go home with her.

My friend Carol H. is going to drive me to the Ogden station. Since my Thanksgiving plans were cancelled I have a 19 pound fresh turkey in my frig. I got with Carol, who is the Relief Society pres, and asked her if there was a family that could use it. She got with the bishop and he has someone that needs it. So we will drop it off on the way to Ogden tomorrow.

Angel and I are going to the 4pm show on Wednesday afterwards I think Angel is going to take me for Sushi since I have never had it and am already having an adventure. So sure, why not try raw fish?

Then I will stay over one more night and spend Thanksgiving with Angel and I think we will be going to Jamie's for dinner. Then Angel will take me home Thursday evening since the Front Runner isn't running on Thanksgiving. Just in time to go to bed so I can be to work at 4am Friday.

So for the next couple of days I should be able to have something interesting to post about. Maybe even a few pictures of my adventures.

November 21st........................

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to write anything for a few days. I have honestly tried but would always just sit and stare at the computer trying to will myself to say something interesting or share something about my day.

Things have been happening but it is nothing that I want to share because it is between myself and my girls.

I have spent my entire life trying to make everyone happy even when it meant sacrificing my happiness to do that. More than anything in life I have always wanted a close family.

I have tried my hardest to be the perfect daughter, sister, wife, mother and grandmother but I am not a perfect person and have never proclaimed to be one. No one know my faults and insecurities more than I do.

I did my best with what I had. I could never live up to any ones expectations of me, not my families, not Kelly's, not even my girls, not even mine sometimes no matter how hard I have tried.

Once again in trying to do what I thought was a good thing it has caused heartache and plans being canceled. I could not take having a Thanksgiving celebration and not have both of my daughters present. They are all I have.

I've been fighting tears for the past couple of days. Even the "happy" pills are not helping. I'd probably be a mess without them though.

I've been accused of changing into someone unrecognizable . In truth everyone changes as their life progresses. Change is a part of life . But in reality I am still the same person that has always wanted to be loved and needed and to make everyone happy.

I apologize to you all if I have done anything to hurt you and hope that you will forgive me. I am trying to do my best.

I want ALL my family to know how much I love them and need them in my life.

November is half over.........

The snow we received over the weekend has been melting today. It's was also leaking into the store in a couple of places. That kept the managers busy.

I bought my turkey today. We will have our Thanksgiving dinner this coming Sunday afternoon.

I did a little Internet shopping yesterday and now I am finished with Gunners and Braxton's Christmas presents. Two down three to go.

I also spent some time on the UTA site trying to figure out the Front Runner schedule for next week. I am going to Angel's on Tuesday evening and coming home on Thanksgiving afternoon/evening. I am going to give mass transit a try, especially since my car is not trustworthy any more. I will just have to drive to Ogden to the train station. It will be an adventure, that's for sure.

There is also a Front Runner station a couple a blocks away from Jamie's apartment that would mean I could go visit her more often with less wear and tear on my car and my nerves. This could be the start of a beautiful relationship......

This morning I went to church as usual. The choir sang and it went well. It amazes me every time that we struggle to get people to come to practice and then people come up when we sing that have never been to a practice yet it ALWAYS sounds perfect. I tell you the Angels sing with us.

It was my week to teach our class. The kids were a little hyper today but I think it was because it was our class' turn to do sharing time in Senior Primary. So I shortened the lesson so we could practice what we were going to do. We planned it last week and the kids really came up with most of the ideas.

In class we timed it out to be the perfect 15 minutes but when it was time to actually give the sharing time they got done in 10. Oh well.... it just gave us more time for singing.

We were practicing Christmas songs for the ward Christmas party and for the Sunday before Christmas program. We were learning the sign language to the last verse of Silent Night. It will be really pretty when the kids sing it at the party.

We had choir after the meetings. We have so much fun. We talked about how the kids were learning sign language to the songs and that if we did it as a choir then no one would be off key and they wouldn't have to learn their parts. But there would always be that one person who would be a beat behind with their hands.

Over the ground lays a blanket of white......

This was taken about 5:30 this evening. At the time it was still snowing but it has since stopped. The bright dot in the middle of the page is not a UFO but my flash reflecting off a snowflake in front of the camera.

It started snowing lightly this morning and never really stopped. This morning I heard some loud cawing and looked out my kitchen window and my yard and maple tree was FULL of big black CROWS taking refuge from the snow! I tried to get a picture but when I went outside they flew away and I was trying to be so quiet.

It was a quiet Saturday. I went to the Hallmark store and picked up the last of the ornaments that I had ordered and looked at all the Christmas stuff they had put out.

I have actually spent most of the day playing the piano. I had to give Dale the feedback on his sheet music today. I just finished the email a few minutes ago.

Leslie stopped by on her way back from Layton. Jamie was having a Cents of Style party tonight. Leslie is selling it now. She said the roads were a little slick but it wasn't a terrible drive.

Jax is on FB now and he always chats with me if we are both on together. Today it popped up and it said "Grandma it snowed an inch here today!!!" See I'm not the only one that likes snow. Then Cambria got on Leslie's FB (she is very proud that she knows Leslie's password) and her chat started like this,,"Hi grandma, it's me Cambria". Like I wouldn't know this because it started out with 'Hi grandma'? That is not Leslie's usual greeting.

Well I'm off to put away my clean laundry (I remembered this week). I also need to read through my Primary lesson for tomorrow. So chow for now!

I haven't gone to bed yet.......

Leslie just picked up Braxton and Gunner. Today was Paul's birthday so she was taking him out to dinner and a show. Cambria was spending the night at her friend Makayla's house so it was just the boys and I.

When they first got here I put a couple of those Totinos's frozen pizzas in the oven (see I do know how to use it). You know the ones that taste like cardboard. But Braxton loves them and Leslie brought them so that was dinner. Gunner was asleep when Les dropped him off and didn't wake up until after 8.

Braxton helped me farm on Farmville and then wanted to go downstairs to play and watch TV. He is the BIGGEST chicken!!!!! He would not go down by himself and then when we were going down the stairs he stopped because he was in front of me and turned and said "Grandma you go first".

Oh and he was so worried about Gunner who was asleep on the couch in the living room. He wanted to lock the back door because... "What if someone comes in and steals him?" I told him no because then his mom wouldn't be able to get in the house when she came back. Then he asks "What if Gunner wakes up?" I told him that we would hear him and he would come downstairs (which is what really happened).

After Gun had woke up, he was cuddled in my lap, so I sent Braxton upstairs to get a couple of bottles of water and the bag of cheese cornpuffs for us to snack on. He must have lingered half way up the stairs for a good 10 minutes. He first wanted Gunner to go with him (you know because he is so big and menacing for a 2 year old....). Then again he wanted to lock the backdoor. The basement stairs go into the kitchen and it is an open stairway. You can see most of the kitchen from the bottom of the stairs. I finally said "Braxton, just go and get the water and treat, NOTHING is going to get you in this house!"

Then he had to go to the bathroom.....another long walk up the stairs and then I could see him flipping light switches in the kitchen. So I asked him what he was doing and he told me he was trying to find the light to the hallway.

Okay my house is not that big and scary. The light from the kitchen gives you enough light to get around my upstairs (it's the only one I use most of the time unless I am in the living room or my bedroom) From the kitchen to the bathroom is probably 3 Braxton size steps, you don't even have to go down the hall, you more like cross the hall.

Usually Gunner is the first to fall asleep and Braxton is the night owl. Well tonight Braxton fell asleep around 9 and Gunner stayed up wanting to watch movies. He was still awake when Les and Paul came at 12:30.

When we came upstairs I found (beside the usual light on in the kitchen) the light on over my kitchen table (it is all one room, kitchen and dinning room), the light was on in the hallway and in the bathroom. so it looks like Braxton found all the light switches all right.

Leslie said that he is the same way at home. He also loves to watch the "Goosebumps" series and we don't think that is helping him. But he really does like to watch them.

Be careful what you wish for..........

So......I said I needed to challenge my abilities on the piano. So......I volunteered to help Dale Jesse and test out his arrangements as he puts them into sheet music to sell. So.....he sent me the first piece. ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is a beautiful piece. He took Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A-minor (that I actually could play at one time), Carol of the Bells and O Holy Night and tied them all together.

He sent it to me on Saturday the 7th and I was given a week to play it and then give him feed back. First obstacle: I don't have a printer. Second obstacle: I couldn't find my jump drive and kept forgetting to buy one until yesterday. So I didn't get it printed out until today.

It actually isn't that hard of a piece but it looks a little intimidating so I went to his play list on his FB site and listened to it while I followed along reading the music. The music he sent me has no dynamics written on it yet. I've already found a couple of problems with the way he's written some of the rhythms, they don't quite work out the way they are suppose to (at least for me they don't). Plus I just want to be perfect at it......like yesterday.

Then the two Christmas songs we are singing for choir have some tricky accompaniment. They are really neat arrangements of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear". I'm used to Rhonda picking out songs that I just have to run through the accompaniment a couple of times and I'm good. These will take a little practice time.

Then the piece Robin brought over that she is singing on the 22nd. It's called "The Olive Tree". Pretty song but the accompaniment has the triplets from hell in it.

So I will be putting in a lot of piano time because that is the way I roll. I practice and practice until my hands ache and then I practice some more. Why? Because I have to be perfect!!!! I blame it on my piano teacher that I had the longest Mrs. Wasden from when we lived in Colorado Springs.

She gave out gold stars for perfection within specified time frames depending on the piece of music. Then at recital the student that had the most gold stars received an award and a box of chocolates. I can proudly say that I was the recipient of this honor every year that I took from her.

Also she wouldn't let us play for the recital unless we had both pieces (we each played 2 songs) memorized and perfected. So you see besides the fact that I am a perfectionist already Mrs. Wasden just made it worse.

Falling leaf trees..........

When Leslie was in grade school (almost junior high) and we had been living in the duplex, she used to tell me "Mom I want to live in a house with falling leaf trees."

When we lived in our house on Willow before Kelly got sick we had trees but they were young and Leslie was too little to remember. Then we lived in that old house on Main after I sold our house and it had the huge trees that are on Main Street. But this was at such a time of change and so much was going on with Kelly that we didn't do much in or with the yard. Dad and Charles used to come and help me out with it. Then we moved into the duplex and it had two great big ol' Pine Trees.

So when I decided to buy the house next door to the duplex Leslie was quite excited because it had 2 Quakies and 1 big Maple tree in the front yard. In the back yard there is no trees but my neighbors Walnut tree is huge and 1/3rd of it hangs over into my yard.

So while Leslie still lived at home I think she helped with the "falling leaf trees" maybe twice. She told me when the girls were here a couple of Sundays ago helping me in the yard that she didn't help because she was a teenager and had other things to do. Yea, like sit in the house with her friends and watch me rake leaves. Really she did....but I still love her.

I do remember her and Jax when he was a baby raking leaves and taking pictures. Since then I always make it a point to have all the grandkids over when my "falling leaf trees" are losing their leaves so that we can play in them and take pictures and just have fun. Which we did a couple of Sundays ago (see previous post and pictures on FB)

The "falling leaf trees" in my front yard are all done losing their leaves. So today when I got home from work I got out my rake and raked them all to the curb so the city can come and vacuum them up. Hopefully before this storm blows in tomorrow or Thursday. It isn't hard to rake leaves just time consuming and every other year my Maple drops seed pods that are major pain to rake up. Yes, this is the year the seeds dropped. I couldn't find my gloves so now I have two big blisters on my right hand.

The walnut tree in the back has not finished dropping all it's leaves and as a bonus it also of course drops walnuts. The leaves are huge and easy to rake. The walnuts on the other hand are in the same class with the maple seeds.....a pain and they unfortunately drop EVERY year. So I still have the back yard to clean up but that will have to wait till this weekend after the storms go through. Hopefully I can find my gloves before then.

Pop Tarts and Pepsi....

I've gotten into this ritual every morning at work. I come(run) in and right after I punch (swipe) the time clock I go to the machines in the break room and get a Pepsi and Pop Tarts and then go to my office.

I'm not suppose to have the caffeine (doctor's SUGGESTION) but I figure one Pepsi in the morning (and that is really all I have) should be okay. The Pop Tarts they usually keep in the machine are either brown sugar cinnamon (my fav) or cherry.

It's a good breakfast. You may wonder why I just don't eat something at home before I come into work. Well..... 1-I usually don't have enough time because I have hit the snooze button one too many times or ..2-I have nothing in the house to eat for breakfast.

I am a Pepsi drinker. I did go through my Dr. Pepper stage when I was in high school. Kelly was a Coke drinker so if I ran out of Pepsi I would just switch hit and drink one of his Cokes. But when given the choice I will always choose Pepsi over Coke.

Kelly was a coffee drinker so I did try to drink coffee. I love the smell of the coffee beans on the aisle in the grocery store. I love the smell of coffee brewing. I just don't like the taste of coffee. I have tried it every way there is. When I would have coffee I put umteen packets of sugar in my cup. Kelly would just cringe (he drank his black). I never knew if I was getting a caffeine buzz or a sugar high. So I just quite drinking it and stuck with my cold caffeinated beverages.

Robin D. just came by with some music. She has to sing for Sacrament meeting on the 22nd. But she will be out of town until that Saturday night. So we ran through it real quick. What would these people do it I couldn't sight read? Luckily I now have about 2 weeks to practice it and then we will run through it that Sunday morning before she has to sing it.

Monday.......

Sooo.....

Hmmmm..........

I'm not even sure what to write about today. It was the usual Monday at work. Conly is off on Monday's so I don't have to worry about him throwing markers at me through my office window. Megan worked 11-8 so I didn't get to talk to her much, which means I won't get the weekend scoop till tomorrow. Dave was off so it was VERY quiet. At least it was Jade's day to work so I had someone to talk to and keep me from going completely insane.

I woke up this morning and realized that I didn't do the laundry Saturday. I always do my laundry on Saturday but this last Saturday I went out to Tremonton and when I got home I decided I would just do my laundry after church Sunday. Well I didn't even think about laundry on Sunday.

I had to scrounge for a pair of pants to wear. Luckily I had a pair of dress slacks that I use to save for Market meetings when I was in Personnel. I have plenty of the ever fashionable navy blue shirts so that was no problem.

So as I type this I am waiting for the dryer to buzz letting me know that my last load of laundry is finished and then I can go to bed.

Sorry this is the best I can do but at least it's an update. I guess I'll have to get a little creative.

Official Sunday post.........

Went to church this morning. The song Amber and Jodi J. sang went really well. There were some great talks on gratitude given. I sat in the row in front of Amber and Jodi's family.

Laura (their mom) has had breast cancer and has gone through a mastectomy, and both chemo and radiation therapy. In fact her last radiation therapy was last week. Now she will be going through the reconstruction surgery. Today she was actually not wearing a scarf on her head because her hair is starting to come back in. I tell you this because our opening song was "Count Your Blessings" and Laura sang this song with such feeling and conviction you knew it was coming from the heart. I just stopped singing and listened to her. It was inspiring.

I didn't have to teach today, just play referee to keep the kids in line. We had choir practice after the block. We practiced the song for next week and then started on the Christmas songs for December.

The rest of the day I was just lazy and played on the computer and watched TV.

I did hear back from Dale Jesse. He emailed me the rough draft of his arrangement of Christmas Bells. I will play it for a week and then I email him back with helpful feedback on what I liked and didn't like about the arrangement. There is also 3 specific questions I need to answer. When he has the completed the arrangement I will get a copy of the finished music for free. Free is my favorite price!

I'm excited to be part of this process and I hope that this will be something I can be a part of for a while. It will give me new and challenging music to play and a new friend to support.

OOPS....Saturday

I can't believe I did this. I feel asleep watching tv and when I woke up I was so groggy that I just went upstairs and fell into bed. I totally forgot to do my daily update (and I think my crops are dead now). I will do two today and hopefully that will make all things right with the world once again. Right girls?

Saturday was a beautiful day. Did I do any yard work??? No..... I played instead.

I went out to Tremonton and I took the old highway because I can't trust my car on the freeway. I like to take the old road because you can see the seasons change in the farmer's fields. It was pheasant hunting today and there were several groups of He-Man type hunters with their guns ready to shoot and their dogs trying to scare them up some birds. I felt bad for the people that live out there cause all they got to hear on this beautiful fall day was the barking of hunting dogs and the shooting of guns.

I stopped at Crossroads Motors. My friend Brent W. owns this lot and I wanted to look at a couple of cars he had. I drove a 07 Cobalt, it was white and a four door and has 78,8?? miles on it. Not usually what I would think about buying but he only wants $7400 for it. It was a nice clean little car. He had a silver 2door Cobalt with a spoiler and I really liked it but it was out of my price range but it was more the type of car I would like.

I didn't make any rash decisions yet, I might go out and drive the 01 (or was it an 02?) Toyota (I can't remember the name of the car but it is their 2 door version of the Camry)it has low miles and he wants around $7000something for it. He also has a Saturn out there on his lot. Also I want to look at his brothers lot here in Brigham to see what he has.

TJ where are you when I need you?!:) I'm thinking the answer is "far away from you" cause I'm sure I drove him crazy when he helped me look for cars when I bought my Grand Am. It was the first time I had gone car shopping in my life and I was very indecisive. If you knew how Kelly was about the cars we had you would understand more.

After that I went to a little craft boutique that was at the house of one of Leslie's friends. Leslie was there selling her Cents of Style items too. I love to walk through craft boutiques and shops. It's fun to see what people can do with their hands. I bought two pairs of shoes from Les. Then just sat and talked with her for a little while. We discussed the car thing and she was going to talk to Paul and maybe go look at the cars I had looked at.

On the way home I stopped by Rigly's because Leslie said that they had these cute totes that Cambria wants to carry her scriptures in for church. They were cute and only $7.99! So I bought one. Who'd have thought to find a Christmas present at a little grocery store in Treetown?

Since I was hungry (it was 2 and I hadn't had anything to eat yet today) I wandered over to their hot cases. They were having a special: 8 pieces of chicken, 4 rolls and a side for $6.99! It was my day for bargains! I was feeling so good I picked up some of my favorite pumpkin chocolate chip cookies from their bakery. I will be able to feast for a couple of days on that!

The Jensen girls came over after I got home. We practiced the song they will be singing tomorrow (today). I had to tweek the arrangement a little. It was written for a choir and it is just 2 girls singing. We got it all worked out and it will sound great.

Friday........

So the first week of November is over. The weather has been great. The leaves are almost done falling off my trees. Which means I really should do some raking tomorrow.

Yesterday Rhonda brought over the choir music for the next couple of months. So today after work I came home and ran through the songs she has planned for November and December. I think she might me trying to kill me. They will be a challenge but I really do need to be challenged more often and I am up to it so bring it on! I also practiced the song that the Jensen girls are singing Sunday. They will be coming over some time tomorrow morning to run through it a couple of times.

I am really in the mood for some new piano music. It's been a while since I've bought any. If my car was in better shape I would run to Ogden tomorrow and hit Murdock Music. Maybe I'll do a little Internet shopping. It is not as fun because I can't look through the books to see what songs are in them and see how they are written.

There is a new pianist/composer (Dale Jesse) that friended me on FB this week. He was asking if there were any pianist that would be willing to play (tryout) some of his sheet music. So I of course told him I would be interested in doing that. So we'll see what happens with that.

Illustrations just for Diana.........

Tonight was week nine in the twelve week Know Your Religion class that I have been going to every Thursday. It has been very good and I have had much food for thought. Every week I grab an extra handout and I am going to send them to Mom.

Driving to the class I saw 3 houses with their Christmas lights up already and one of the houses had their tree up. Everyone knows I love Christmas but this is just too early for that. I like Thanksgiving and it deserves it's recognition.

Speaking of Christmas I really need to start getting my shopping done. I do have Leslie and Jamie's present and yesterday I bought Braxton's. I know what I'm getting Jax but I'm waiting to see if it goes on sale anywhere. I have no idea what to get Cambria, Trevon and Gunner. When it comes to Paul....I just get whatever Leslie tells me to.

Cambria has written her 2 page letter to Santa and Leslie told me she was adding to it yesterday. I need to see it so I can get some ideas.

For your viewing pleasure here are a couple of pictures from Sunday when the family were all over here playing in the leaves......

Gunner eating his pizza while he walked around.........
Trevon, Braxton, Cambria and Jax chowing down so they can go out to play. Aren't they just the cutest?!?!?!?

November 4th...............hey it's an entry!

Today Jade was runing late for work so she decided to stop by The Pie Dump (in Tremonton)and bring us some hot rolls and gravy. It was brilliant. The rolls are huge, homemade, fresh, warm, buttery goodness. The gravy is used for dipping the rolls. I hope that Jade is late more often.

Yesterday I was pretty much done with my work by noon (like usual) and Michelle (our receiving clerk) came in and asked if I was busy. She had a huge pallet of Anderson to check in and they wanted her to go out and clean up the pallets and things behind the store.

So after I got back from lunch I went down to receiving to give her a hand. I needed the practice checking in things since I have only spent half a day with her training me.

Okay, so Anderson was probably NOT the freight that I should have been helping with. Anderson is our book and CD vendor and the Christmas shipments are coming in now. I don't know how much of a help I was because I had to keep stopping and checking out the books to see if they were something I would want to read and yes there were a couple. Then I was stopping to check out the new CD releases. It was just like Christmas morning opening all those boxes.

I remembered everything she had taught me from before and managed not to mess up any receiving's. Which would be okay because that is my job to check the receiving's to make sure they are correct. So if I messed up I would just have to yell at myself and that would just be embarrassing.

Gratitude Night......

Tonight was the Gratitude dinner for Relief Society.

Carol was not about to let me miss it either. She had to go early (she it the president) so she made sure her daughter Emily came and got me. She was just as stubborn as her mother..

It was a nice dinner. Naomi was there, she works with one of the ladies in my ward. We all sat at the same table. We had salad, turkey, baked potato, veggies, rolls, pumpkin cake and lots of fun conversation.

Rhonda's group Cinnamon Creek was the entertainment. I never get tired of listening to her group. They are so talented and I love the old folk songs.

I have some very good friends in this ward. I don't know why because I certainly don't deserve them.

Amber J. came up to me at the end and asked me to accompany her and her sisters when they sing this coming Sunday. Of course I will do it and she just dropped off the music. It is Sally DeFord's arrangement of "I Need Thee Every Hour". I'm just glad they gave me more than one day's notice this time.

I am thankful for hair color......

I remember when I was younger I used to think that when the time came I would just "grow old gracefully". That was until my hair started turning gray.

A couple of years ago when I had really short hair I had finally cut out all the color and was back to my natural color which I hadn't seen since I was 18. My "friends" all told me "oh it looks good with a little gray in it". So I didn't color it once again thinking that I could handle having gray hair.

Well it was growing out and everyday I would look in the mirror and wonder about my decision not to color away the gray. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and made an appointment to have the gray covered up. What really hurt that day was while I was sitting in the chair choosing what colors I wanted to try when Jen (who was doing my hair) turned to the owner of the salon and asked how long she should leave the color on since I was SEVENTY-FIVE percent gray!!!!!

That's when I changed my mind and decided that I was going to grow old kicking and screaming.

Why is it that when men go gray they look distinguished and women just look old?

So I had let my color go a little longer then it should have without a touch up (mostly due to lack of funds) and I was sitting at my kitchen table with Cambria the other day when she asked me "Grandma, why do you have white on the top of you head?"

Need I say more? I immediately texted Brittani the next day to see if she had time today to do my hair. So I got off work a little early so I could make my 4:00 appointment.

I love going to Brittani. She was an assistant manager at the store but she quit to go back to being a principal at a beauty school in Layton. But she still does hair in Brigham every Monday. It is so fun to talk to her. She is very upbeat. We talked about books (she is a reader too) and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and all kinds of things.

So now my hair looks great and I feel MUCH better.

Fall Fun..........

It was a beautiful day today. It was sunny and warm.

I got up and went to church. Yay daylight savings time, one extra hour of sleep! It was my Sunday to play the organ, did pretty good considering I haven't really practiced on the organ for quite a while. It was also my Sunday to teach my Primary class. Halloween on a Saturday=kids on sugar highs in class on Sunday. Need I say more? No choir practice today.

When I got home Jamie was there with the boys. Then Leslie and her family came. Paul went downstairs like usual to watch football. Leslie and Jamie worked in my yard cleaning up leaves. They worked hard most of the afternoon. I do really appreciate all they do to help me.

The kids had a great time. They buried each other in the leaves. Had a leaf fight, with me as the target. Just played together in the leaves. We ate pizza for lunch. They helped Jamie and Leslie. Played basketball and some other games from school.

They got along sooooo well today. No fighting at all! The only casualty was when I was shaking leaves out of my hair and Trevon and I konked heads. I think it hurt me more then it did him.

On Halloween Gunner was Frankenstein. His costume had a hood that was the top of the Frankenstein head. It didn't cover his face but he refused to keep it up at all. Today Jax had his hockey mask from last night and Gunner would not take it off! Go figure.

I took a lot of pictures but there are too many to post on my blog and I couldn't decide on my favorites. But if you go to my Facebook I have them all posted there and I've put captions on them so you know who is who and what is what.