I'm off to see the wizard, for real!

Yeah, the most exciting thing to happen to me in a long time, happened last night. Its name is called I got tickets to see the musical "Wicked". I can hardly believe it. I have been dying to go and see it ever since it opened last February. It is playing down in LA, which is just a short four hour drive away. Marion and I are going to celebrate our anniversary. Our actual anniversary is on August 8th, it will be 23 years. It works best in our schedule and we got the best seats, by going on August 14th. I know it is kind of crazy that I would be excited to drive anywhere again, but it will be worth it. So yeah for a fun celebration to come!

Family Reunion in Flagstaff

Family reunions are great, cause guess what, it is where you get to visit and catch up with family members that you don't often see. About two weeks ago we went to a fun reunion with all of my uncles and aunts from my dad's side of the family. It was at a ranch in Flagstaff Arizona. I mentioned the traveling part of the reunion, but now I have my pictures back so I can put those up.
Here is Diana riding a horse all by herself, for the first time. It was pretty cool, because my cousing arranged for a horse trainer to come and give the kids private lessons. After waiting for what seemed like forever to her, it was finally Diana's turn to mount a horse. She really got the hang of it and by the next day she was guiding the horse around like a pro.

Here is Trent ready to ride. Trent wasn't sure he wanted to come to this reunion, but he ended up having a blast riding this ATV and a dune buggy thing that one of my cousins had. He told me about all the jumps he was able to go off on. We could not get him off this machine, even to eat. He was covered from head to toe in dirt. What a fun thing.

This is me with two of my aunts. They are great friends to me and I have lots of great memories with both of them. I am lucky to have them as part of my life.

This is a picture of me with two of my cousins. They are the closest to me in age on that side of the family. We have great memories of time spent at my grandpa's farm in Idaho. One time when Adele and I were sleeping out in the front yard, Glen and my cousin Eric (not in the picture) put a frog in Adele's sleeping bag. We screamed and screamed. It was pretty funny looking back on it. I don't see these cousins very much and it was fun to remeber all the fun times we had growing up.

Here are my children, with the same faces they always give me for pictures. (see last year's christmas card). This was right before we left to go home. We had a lot of fun, but I have to admit that I did not take as many pictures as I would have liked to take. The whole first day I left my camera in the car. Hopefully others will take pity on me and share their pictures with me. A big THANK YOU to all those who helped make this reunion a big success.

Hairspray!

Diana and I just got home from seeing the new movie Hairspray. And guess what? I loved it. If you do not enjoy movies with lots of singing and dancing, then this is not the movie for you. But if you enjoy a great toe tapping story then this is a must see. I don't think I was very familiar with the music in this musical, which is rare for me. I want to get the sound track now and learn the words to the songs. There are some great characters in the movie as well. If anyone else has seen it, let me know what you thought.

There's no place like home!

As I drove home from Utah on Monday, a song playing on my radio had the words "There was never anything as beautiful, as a long journey's end". Amen to that. After traveling like a billion miles in the past six weeks, I am so relieved and happy to be home for good. Yeah me! I figure that since I left for girls camp, June 12th, I have only slept in my own bed about 15 nights, and I have been sleeping in other people's homes for about 25 nights. Diana and I flew from Houston to Phoenix on Friday July 6th, then we drove back to Vegas Sunday July 8th.
We were home for three days and then we drove back to flagstaff, Thursday July 12th and back home to Vegas Saturday July 14th. This was a fun two days with my uncles and aunts. It was fun to see people I don't get to see very much. We had lots of fun, but the trip home was marred by the fact that one of us in the car got food poisoning and threw up about 10 times. Thank goddness I had some zip lock bags to catch the mess and dispose of it.
Then we were home for three days before Jared, Diana, and I drove to Spanish Fork on Wednesday July 18th. Once again we had lots of fun visiting, but I feel pretty tired by all the activities that we had planned. The best part for me was that I got to see the musical Suzzical, put on by the community. I have the soundtrack of the broadway production and love the musical. It was most difficult not to sing along with the actors as I know the words to all the songs. Jared has gone to Seattle to visit my parents, and Diana and I drove home to Vegas Monday July 23rd. Sheesh!
I can't even believe that I went all those places and I was there so I should know. I am so tired of packing and unpacking, I can' even see straight. I feel completely detached from my normal life and friends. Diana keeps asking my what she can eat and I have no idea what kind of food we have because I haven't been to the grocery store for about 2 months. Hopefully now I can try to get back into my life again.
Perhaps it has been difficult coming home, because I have worked for the past two days, and when I wasn't working I was reading Harry Potter. Yeah I finished it tonight. I am so happy that I don't have to work tomorrow, so I can try to get my house put back together. Maybe I will even get to sleep in a little bit. I am glad that I got to go and visit all the people in all the different places. No one forced me to travel so much, it was just unfortunate that it all worked out to be so close together like it did. I am still not quite sure what is so exhausting about traveling. Even if I wasn't driving, but just sitting in the car I felt pretty worn out when we got wherever we were going. Let me just say that I have gained a new appreciation for my home and even Las Vegas. I just feel like I need a vacation from all the vacations I have taken. Diana gets baptized in two weeks and we have some family coming for that. Once that is over, then my summer vacation of nothingness can begin.

Toddler Follies

An elephant may never forget, but boy thank heavens mothers do. Living with two small children for the past two weeks had brought back a memory or two that I could have done without. If Mothers remembered for long some of the things their children put them trough, I am sure we would all have one child at the most. Let me just say that my two nieces are adorable, like most small children. This does not however mean that they do not engage in normal behavior for toddlers. My niece Allie who is almost two has more energy than me at this stage in my life. In the past week she has done a few things that my sister and I could have done without. But we do want to experience both the good and the bad that children have to offer, don't we? Here are just a few of the things she did this week that gave us pause to worry. On Sunday she ran away from us into the street, once coming too close for comfort to a moving car. She also did not get her normal nap due to church time being changed. This made for a child who had a very hard time going to sleep Sunday night. Monday we went to the mall because it was raining and they have a small play area there. My sister and cousin went to bath and body works to check out their sale. I watched Diana and Allie in the play area. Allie kept losing interest in the play stuff and kept darting out of the enclosed area. I would then have to chase her down. Finally we decided to try to find my sister. On our way there Diana found a store that she wanted to look in. This was not a wise choice because it was full of purses, hello kitty stuff, Dora stuff, and princess stuff. At one time Allie emptied a rack of the Dora purse things and was carrying them around the store. By the time we got out of there a necklace from the clearance rack had been pulled apart. I am not sure if Allie did it, or if it was already broken. The store did not make us pay for it because it was on the clearance rack. That night I took Diana and Allie up to take a bedtime bath. We opened the bathroom door and Allie ran right over and stuck both of her hands in the toilet. It was crazy how fast she manged to do that. I got her hands washed off and started the water for the bath. Diana helped by taking off her diaper, but I did not realize that it was a dirty diaper. Then I had to hold onto her hands while we tried to find some wipes. It seemed fairly crazy. Tuesday night Diana woke me up at 3:30 because her leg was hurting her. I had her lay next to me in bed while I tried to massage the cramps away. After about 20 mins she went back downstairs to the couch. Then she came back in at 4:30 saying that she couldn't sleep and needed help with the tv. I helped her. Then my sister woke me up at 6:30 or so to get Allie's milk from downstairs. I needed to do it so that Allie did not wake her up. Diana has been woken up early before and is quite cranky. So I got the milk. My sister and Allie stayed up stairs for an hour or so and then they went down to get breakfast. One of us had not closed the cabinet under the kitchen sink all the way so that the child latch fastened all the way. Allie beat my sister downstairs and went right over and sprayed Lysol in her mouth. So then my sister got to call poison control. Come to find out Lysol is one of the best poisons that your child can ingest. So be sure to keep that one in the front of the poisonous cleaning supply cupboard. After that was over Allie proceeded to come upstairs and get the door to my sister's room open. The door has a childproof guard on it, but it doesn't work if the door is not pulled closed really tight. Of course she went in and woke the baby up. Now it is 7:30 and I hear all of this commotion going on and so I decide I better get up and help. Next we decided it really couldn't be that bad to take all of us to Wal Mart, and so once every one was buckled in we headed out. This actually went better than I might have thought. The baby slept during all the shopping. The only bad incident was when we handed Allie a bottle of bubble bath to put in the cart. She proceeds to open it and dump half of the bottle on the ground. I waited for someone to say "Clean up on aisle 10, Herb" but there was a worker close by who just took care of it. What kind of crazy place does not have a foil seal on top of the bottle anyway? Today Allie was trying to follow Diana into her room when Diana was going to change. Diana closes the door and Allie's fingers got smashed. I suppose it is a bit of a wonder that this only happened once during the two week episode. All in all I can honestly say that I do not miss the days when all you think about is whether all the doors and cupboards in your house are closed tightly. I have had my turn and well I will leave that fun to people who have more energy than me. They really are darling girls and some day Allie will grow up to be a very sweet young lady.

Yesterday we had a very low key, relaxed Fourth of July. Here is a picture of all the little girls. We had our cousin over and she made marvelous dutch oven potatoes and dutch oven pineapple cobbler. We also had ribs. Later that evening we were entertained by the $5 worth of fire works that I had bought. It was just perfect for it to last for about 15 mins.



Here are all the girls. With Victor gone much of the time it was quite an estrogen party.

Time in Texas

Life in Houston is definitely interesting. I have not really experienced humidity before, other than the two weeks we spent in DC four years ago. I guess I can now better appreciate what people are talking about when they say that Vegas has dry heat. My sister says that the humidity is great for your skin, and I would have to say I have not needed much lotion or even chapstick since I have been here. That is a bit odd, not needing chapstick. I wonder if my body was lacking in moisture and has been taking in as much of it as possible. The temperature here is not as hot as Vegas and that is nice, but the humidity is not really fun either.
It has been so fun to hold and play with my sister's baby. The baby is seven weeks old. Diana is quite good at babysitting and has changed her first diaper. She still thinks changing diapers is fun and offers to help if she is anywhere around when the changing happens. Diana is also quite good at holding the baby and putting the pacifier back in. She has been loving the chance to be around such a tiny baby.
Diana has also been a big help with my other neice who is 2. Diana loves chasing her around and spinning her around by her arms. She is also a pro at putting her cousin into her car seat and buckling her up. My sister will miss that extra help when we are gone. But maybe my neice will enjoy it when life is a bit calmer.
We haven't done any thing too exciting. Life with two small children is a bit hectic. Yesterday got a bit crazy. We invited a girl over that Diana met at activity days. My cousin is moving to Texas and she arrived in town yesterday also. Our cousin is moving in just 5 mins away from my sister and so my sister was helping her yesterday afternoon. Just as this little girl came over to play, my sister was trying to call people to help our cousin unload. Fianally my sister left to go over to my cousin's new apartment for just a little while. This left me with 4 little girls. At one point Diana spotted a tiny poodle walking by the front door. Before I knew what had happened, the door was open and all the girls besides the baby that I was holding, were outside petting the dog. The lady walking the dog looked at all these girls and asked if they were all mine. She seemed to be saying "Oh my, don't you have your hands full." I smiled and replied that "No, just one of them was mine and that I was babysitting the rest of them." It seemed like the phone kept ringing at the same time as all the rest of the things were happening. It was very crazy trying to keep the older ones entertained, keep the two year old out of trouble, and keep the baby pacified until her mother/dinner returned. In fact it almost seemed like something out of the movie Mister Mom where everything in the house goes wrong at the same time. My sister's husband returned from a two day trip in the middle of all of this. I think he was a bit surprised at the pandamonium. Oh well we survived and I can say that I am glad that I do not have 4 girls, 9 and under.
We are not sure how long we will be staying. We may stay for a whole nother week and they fly right to Pheonix for my husband's family get together. The whole month of July is going to be completely crazy with a trip to somewhere different planned for each weekend. I hope I am ready for all the running around.

Leaving on a Jet Plane.

Well, Diana and I have come to Houston to help my sister out with her two young children. Her husband is a pilot and so we got to experience the joys of flying standby for the first time last Saturday. Things went pretty well. Trent was able to drive us to the airport on account of Marion and Jared were still at scout camp. We got to the airport about 7:30 for our 9:25am flight. I don't know what the deal is and why there have to be so many dang people at the Las Vegas Airport all the time. I am constantly amazed that no matter what time or day my flight is there are always about a billion other people trying to fly home. I guess I can't blame them for wanting to leave Las Vegas, but that is a post for another time. Anyway, we stand in a ridiculously long line and finally make it out to our gate. We did come plenty early and so we had time to enjoy a lovely breakfast that we had to pay an arm and a leg for. It did taste good and was large enough that we could split it and so that was good. We then finally made it over to our gate to wait and see if we would make it on the plane. Once again I was astounded by the large crowd. Doesn't anyone want to sleep in anymore? Diana was very disapointed that we did not join the others as they stood in line to board the plane. Turns out that this plane was very full and we learned a new airline term "weight restricted". This term means that there may be too much weight on the plane and they have to wait until the last minute to determine if any of the stand by people can go. Apparently this is done by some kind of averages because the airlines think people might take offense to actually being asked to step on a scale before boarding the plane. Although with everything else you go through, why not add another thing to the process. Bottom line when it was all said and done, they reached their weight limit and so we did not get on even if there were some empty seats. I realize that we are not paying customers and so we should not complain, it was just disapointing for Diana who was overly excited to get going.
The next flight was at 11:10. This was just an hour and a half away. We decided to walk around and do some window shopping to kill the time. I was surprised at how fast the time did go and Diana was excited to purchase a little artist kit at one of the nearby shops. I was excited that it was only $10. We went back to the gate and took turns sketching each other. Finally they started boarding the next flight. This time we hit the stand by lottery and we were given seats. It is almost as exciting as if Bob Barker said "Pat and Diana Hammond, come on down, your the next constestants on You've Got a Seat." We happily boarded the plane and were even able to trade seats with someone on the plane so that we could sit together. Finally we were in the air and I was reminded of how much I hate to fly. I am a member of the Mr. T. school of flying where I prefer to be sedated when flying on a plane. Just because I prefer this, does not make it so, but if I could choose I would not choose to be awake when I am off the ground. There was a lot of turbulance when we left until we got high enough up that things settled down. Did I mention that I don't like to fly? Yikes. The flight went well and we got to see the movie "Bridge to Teribithia", which neither Diana or I had seen. Finally we were getting close to Houston. I guess the weather was a bit bad and we hit some air pocket or something. It felt like the plane went over something like Splash Mountain. The guy sitting next to me said we must have fell 50 feet. I have never felt anything like it before and many of the passengers screamed all at once. I have to admit to being to scared to scream, which must be a first for me. Needless to say, I was very happy when we were back on the ground.
We are having a nice visit with my sister, although two children under two do require some attention. It is nice to be out of the heat as it is only in the 80's here. The humidity is quite interesting, but I am getting used to it.

I survived!

Well I survived girls camp. I suppose all together it was a success. No one broke their leg, like last year. We took 18 girls and brought the same 18 girls home. No one froze to death, in fact no one even got sick. The camp across the road from us had girls throwing up, so we counted our blessings that didn't happen to us. The girls all got along extremely well and that was wonderful. The tent assignments that I had spent about 40 hours worrying about all worked out well in the end. Gosh, why do we obsess about things that really are not that important in the end? I felt lucky that we were in the campsite closest to the stake. It really was nice to be so close to opening and closing flag. Last year we were in the campsite furthest away and at the top of a fairly steep hill.

Here's a picture of me singing at flag, did I mention it was rather cold the first day? I have earned the name of hypothermiac, because I am always cold and wore many layers to try and compensate. Those hand warmer things are my best friend. The first night I went to sleep with one of those warmers griped tightly in my hand and I woke up several times during the night with it still in my hand. My favorite part of camp is singing the songs. Whether it be the silly ones like Fried Ham, Noah, or Princess Pat, or singing church songs around the fire there is nothing better than music and nature. It is also really wonderful to get away from normal life of cell phones and busy schedules. Camp was nice this year because we had more free time where we could be together as a ward. We had about a million different crafting supplies, and the girls had a great time making all sorts of crafts.

The first afternoon we were there, our leaders were in charge of teaching certification to 30 third year girls. One of the requirements said to have the girls spend time observing nature and then share their thoughts through drawings, poetry or interpretive dance. I hoped for lots of interpretive dancing but no one choose that option. We made all the girls walk up a fairly large hill from our camp #6 to camp #13. We brought craft supplies with us like pipe cleaners and modeling clay. This activity went better than I had thought it would, most of the girls really got into it and made some pretty interesting things. We did however have about 4 girls who thought it would be fun to climb 20 feet up a tree to do their observing. For a while it looked imminent that we would have another injury just hours into camp. We did however manage to get everyone back to the ground safely. It was fun to see what the girls had made, although several of their creations involved worms being eaten by birds. Here is a picture of me with another leader and our beautiful pipe-cleaner creations. We were glad when our certification rotation was over and on the first day. That night at opening flag we had the assignment to present the theme of "Be Strong". We asked some of our crazy 4th years to do this. We had the idea to do a take off of "Hans and Frans" from Saturday Night Live. The girls had not ever seen this, but thanks to U-Tube they got the idea of it. They wrote a very funny skit that revolved around the idea that they were here to "pump you up, spiritually". It was very funny and went over very well, although the rest of the week the other wards all just read a scripture so I hope we were not being to irreverent.

Here is a picture of all our leaders. It was great to have so much help. Especially the two sisters who were in charge of the food. I can not even begin to say how nice it was to not worry about what we were eating and who was in charge of getting the girls to make it. And not digging through the coolers to find things was also nice. Our ward had these fun shirts just for the leaders. We all really liked the camo theme. I found hats like the pink one in this picture for just $2.50 and so we got them for all the girls. Each level had a different color.

Here's a picture of all 18 girls. We loved all of them and were pleasantly pleased with how well they all got along. Aren't their shirts cute? We were slightly sad that our picture was on the second day of camp, but I think we all still look presentable.

This is me relaxing while the girls are doing latrine duty. This is also a good shot of my fanny pack. This pack was lovingly named "My Mary Poppins bag". This of course due to the fact that almost any conceivable need could be met by my wonderful pack. But onto latrine duty...Our ward has a tradition of having sort of valet service during our latrine duty time. When you come to the latrine you are welcomed by 10 - 15 girls. Someone offers to hold your jacket or personal items, someone else opens the door to the latrine and sprays it down with air freshener, before you enter someone has folded the T-P into a nice triangle, after you come out someone turns on the water for you and gets it to just the right temperature, someone offers you sweet smelling soap, after you wash your hands someone offers you a real towel to dry your hands, after that someone offers you lotion, and finally someone offers you a mint. If by chance there is a line, someone will give you a back massage with a little massage tool. The girls really get into this and it is a lot of fun. Of course there was no question-we won the golden plunger award. See next picture.

Last year we tied with another ward and we won a crown as the Latrine Queens which is really just as good. Because really it is not about winning the award, rather about the fun we all have together serving the others in our camp.
Here is a picture of a group of our girls. Notice their cute Rainbow bags. Someone donated these great tote bags, but they had a rather obnoxious drug logo on the front and back. I decided to try to cover it up and found this great fabric. I thought about going with camo, but it seemed like the Rainbow ward girls needed something rainbowish. A friend helped me to apply this fabric with wonder under. We finished all 18 of them in about 2 hours. I was thrilled with how they turned out. The girls loved them and personalized them with sharpies and ribbon. The bags were great for the girls to haul their camp manual, scriptures, and even water around all week. Yeah, I love it when a plan comes together.

This is me as my life is flashing in front of my eyes. For those of you who don't know, I am extremely afraid of heights. I don't know how they got me to do this. The girls begged me to is one reason. I can only attribute it to a lack of sleep that impaired my judgement. Another factor would have to be one of my best friends running the zip line. She can talk anyone into anything. As I stood on the top of the platform, I admit to questioning my sanity. I was pretty scared, but I did it anyway. Yeah me. I did scream for most of it and kept my eyes closed. I did open them so I could watch my landing and not hit the platform. Unfortunately when I opened my eyes all I could see was a platform that seemed forever away. The bummer part was that because of my timid departure, I had stopped quite a distance from the other platform. This meant that I had to pull myself the rest of the way. The other reason I said I would do it, was because I was assured that it required no physical ability whatsoever. This would have been true if I had made it all the way. Unfortunately my lack of upper body strength was evident to all, most of all myself. Finally after what seemed like forever the priesthood reached out and pulled me back to the safety of the ground. I have to admit that it was pretty fun and so I tried it again. This time I made it further but still had to pull myself a bit.

This is a picture of the lovely makeover I receive at Friday's morning flag ceremony. Don't I look beautiful? I did however win the loudest applause from the audience when they were asked to vote on whose makeover was the best. And the makeup did not come out of my shirt when I washed it, Oh well.

This is me bagged up and ready to go home on Friday night. We had these darn green plastic bags for our trash. They had been stored for a year out in the scout closet and they were fused together. It took something akin to superhuman powers just to get them opened. After wrestling with the darn thing for a while I managed to get it open a little and so I stuck my leg into it to help open it the rest of the way. And once I had one leg in, well I just had to see if all of me could fit. Chalk it up to lots of sleep deprivation.

All in all, it was a great week with lots of fun and little sleep. I am still trying to recover and I have slept for about 10 hours every night. Jared is gone to scout camp this week and so things are a little bit quieter. Maybe I will be able to get my house put back together. Everyone here survived pretty well. Diana lucked out because a friend picked her up at noon last Tuesday and she did not come home until 2:00 pm on Saturday. Marion was pretty busy and she was having so much fun over there, she asked to stay again each night. With Trent at work each day, that just left Jared here to fend for himself.

Pat's Ponderings

As I had written before, Diana needs glasses. Yesterday at church, she was having a hard time reading the hymn numbers up on the wall. I let her look through my glasses, and she was amazed to actually be able to read the numbers. Through out the rest of the meeting, she asked to borrow my glasses several times. Once you have a taste of clear vision, it is hard to go back to things being blurry. She can't wait for her own pair of glasses to be done.
I wondered if this could be compared to our job of helping others gain a testimony. Perhaps as parents we can let our children use our testimony to see things more clearly. Of course eventually they will need to gain a testimony of their own, but can they catch the vision of the clarity the gospel can bring to life by looking through our testimony glasses. And once they have had a taste of clear vision, won't their desire to gain a testimony of their own be increased. And perhaps this can be used with others besides our children. Truly isn't anyone who has not received a testimony of the gospel struggling around in the dark, so to speak. And once they have seen how clear and sharp things can look, they will want a testimony of their own. I am grateful for my testimony and the way it can help me navigate my way through this dark and sometimes dreary world.

Seeing Things with Different Eyes!

Well yesterday Diana went for her first eye appointment and she needs glasses. I can't believe it. A few weeks ago was the first time she even complained to me about not being able to see things on the board. The eye doc said that she would not pass the eye exam at the DMV if she needed to take one. So her first pair of glasses is on order. She chose a cute pair from the Disney princess collection. They will not be ready until next week. I did not really believe that she needed them, thinking that she was just wanting as much attention as Jared has been getting for his glasses. I am excited for her to get her first glasses and experience the wonder of seeing that the trees actually have leaves. It is quite an amazing experience to see the world through clearer eye sight. I still remember the day I got my first pair of glasses when I was about 16 years old. Boy I may have to get a job to help pay for the eye care needs of our family. Lucky Trent is the only one of us without glasses.



Speaking of glasses, Jared got hit in the head last Saturday and his glasses broke AGAIN! AAARG!! The temple part on the right side went flying in the air, and we never even found the piece ever. Just to update those of you blissfully in the dark, Jared chose these new frames last December. He had worn his old frames for 2 years waiting for our insurance to cover new frames. So finally he was eligible to pick out new frames. After much deliberating he chose a rather nice looking pair. The optometrist informed me that this was a great choice as it was suppose to be next to indestructible. Apparently he had even had a client accidentally run over a similar pair and they were not completely destroyed. At the same time we decided to pay an extra $80 for a sun glass clip that would attach to the front of the frame magnetically. So the new glasses were obtained and we went home unaware of the trial these glasses would turn out to be. With in a few weeks, Trent knocked them askew one day. This made it too hard to Jared to see out of them and so he wore his old pair, with the old prescription. A few days later I managed to take him to get them adjusted. Of course they were bent on the weekend when the optometrist office was closed. Then a month after that Marion accidentally bumped them with the same result. So we went in for an adjustment for the the second time in as many months. Then one day at soccer practice, they were bumped out of alignment for the third time. We tried to bend them back and Jared wore them that night to Diana's choir concert at a high school. They were bothering him and he took them off several times. At one time he wanted me to hold them, but Marion told him he needed to hold them himself. The next morning he told me that he could not find his glasses anywhere. I ran Trent to school and came home and started looking. I tore my house apart. Not only could I not find his new glasses, I couldn't even find his old ones either. Nothing makes me crazier than looking for things and not finding them. I searched everywhere I could think off and finally he went to school without his glasses. I finally became convinced that he had lost them at the concert the night before. I drove over to the high school and proceeded to tell my sad story to anyone who would listen. Finally after repeating the story several times, I ended up at the custodian's office. He was kind enough to walk over to the theater and unlock it. He then watched as I crawled around on my hands and knees looking in the section where we had been sitting. Still nothing. After feeling that I had exhausted every possibility at the school, I returned to my house and continued searching for a few more hours. I felt that I had lost my mind and how could it be so hard to find something that we had the night before. Eventually I gave up. Jared came home from school that day and proceeded to find the glasses under his bed about 10 minutes after he got home. I could swear that I had looked there. I was very relieved that we did not have to go out and buy a new pair and of course it was a Friday so that would have made it difficult. After this the drama/trauma with the glasses took a break for about a month or two. It was probably about 3 weeks ago, that they again turned up missing one morning. This time they were miraculously found before school. And then it was just 2 weeks ago that we went and had them adjusted again. And that brings us to last week when they broke for what seemed like the last time. Once again Jared is wearing his old pair with the wrong prescription in it. I myself thought that maybe it was for the best, and that we could get new lenses in the old frames. These glasses have seemed to be possessed with some evil spirit designed to make my life miserable. Actually it would give me great pleasure to know that we didn't need those dang glasses and then I would love to run over them several times with my car and I don't mean accidentally. Sadly my optometrist tells me that the fact that we wanted to have the sunglass clip made the front of the frame be less flexible and could possibly be part of the problem. The temple that came off and was lost can be reordered and replaced. I am not sure how much it is going to cost, but it will definitely be less than a whole new pair of glasses. Darn, I didn't get to reek revenge on those glasses after all. Hey maybe I shouldn't let an inanimate object be the cause of so much grief in my life. So sorry to rant on and on about these glasses, but hopefully it will all be better soon. Also we plan to get contacts. I think we will get the disposable kind that you throw away day. That sounds like it could be ideal.

Latest News

Well I just thought I would update everyone on the state of our van. Saturday night we took the seats out and just as I had planned I took a hose to all of it. It didn't seem so bad to hose off the seat, but I have to admit it was a little bit surreal standing in the van just spraying it all down with water. Then I wondered what to do to squeeze the water out. I remembered that our house came with a giant squeegie thing, that I think I am suppose to use on my deck when it rains. I ran up and got it. Sure enough it did a great job ringing out the carpet. I pushed as much of the water out as I could, but it was still very wet. Next I sprayed fabreeze on the carpet, to try and keep any bad mildew smell from developing. We left the doors and windows open all night long, hoping it would dry. This would be one time I was glad about the fact that I live in Vegas where conditions mimic that of a dryer. The next morning, it still was not quite dry and there was a slight smell developing, that was less than lemon fresh. I next sprayed the whole carpet down with some kind of foam stuff. I had this carpet spray left over from last summer when I drove kids to do temple baptisms and one of the kids threw up in the van on the way home. This is spray that you leave on and it gets rid of any bacteria causing a bad odor. That seems to have done the trick, and Monday morning we put the seats back in the van just in time for my turn for the car pool this week.

So now I can turn my attentions from car washer to camp director. Yes just one week from today I will be sleeping/freezing up on MT Charleston. In fact on Saturday, we take everything up the mountain to set up. At this point I am looking forward to it all being over. I went shopping today with the 2 camp cooks and we bought 2 carts heaping full of food. It is going to take a fair amount of food to feed 30 people for 3 days. We don't have to do much on Tuesday because we are making the girls bring sack lunches and the stake is feeding us dinner. This should be so much better than last year. Last year we had planned to have taco salad for lunch, but the taco meat was frozen like a brick and our camp stove had problems. I had to go across to another camp and beg to borrow a stove. Of course while I was doing this, one of our first years climbed the rock wall unsupervised or harnessed and fell and broke her ankle. We figure things can't go any worse than that this year. Hopefully the rest of the preparations will go well. I don't have a lot left to do - prepare a devotional and my certification assignment. And a few other minor details. This morning as many ladies from camp as could went to the 6:00 am temple session. We were also all fasting for a good week at camp. I can't imagine a better way to start camp. At least we have finalized our number at 18 girls. Well like I said, it will all be over in a week.

Pat's Ponderings

I am hoping that this will be a regular, reoccurring feature on my blog in which I write about some of things that I have been thinking about recently.

Today's topic will be Forgiving those who have offended us. I have always thought that the ability to forgive is like a muscle and that we either use it or loose it. And so I have tried to tell myself that it is fortunate when I am offended as it gives me the opportunity to see how big my forgiveness muscle is. However, I do not feel happy while I am in the middle of the chance to forgive others. It is so easy to be bogged down with the feelings of injustice and the pain that comes with conflict with others.

Recently at Women's conference my sister and I walked from the dorms up to the Marriot center in the rain. Neither of us had an umbrella, but we did have coats on. My sister's coat was a waterproof raincoat, while mine was just a denim sort of thing lined with flannel. I noticed that the rain just rolled off her coat, while mine just soaked it up. The result of this was that my coat became quite heavy and wet for the rest of the day. Even though I stayed inside for the remainder of the day, my coat never did completely dry. Quite honestly it was a pain to lug around and made me cold if I ever touched it. My sister's coat on the other hand seemed no worse the wear and did not bother her at all. I wondered if this was a good parable for not being easily offended. We both walked in the same rain, but it was the way the coat dealt with the rain that made the difference. Could it be that two people could be exposed to the same offense, yet one take it in and absorb it while the other let it roll off her shoulders?

In studying my family history, I have read stories of ancestors who let offense be the reason that they left the church and all the blessings that it has to offer. This not only affected their life, but the lives of their children and grandchildren. I wonder if they could go back would they make a different choice? Recently, I felt very offended. I was extremely upset and it disrupted my sleeping, eating, and feelings for several weeks. I finally realized that I needed to forgive this person no matter what. I felt as though my ancestors were sitting next to me telling me not to follow in their footsteps. And so I was able through prayer and time to experience the miracle of forgiveness again. Not the miracle of my being forgiven, but the miracle of me forgiving another I felt had wronged me. And truly it is a miracle when we can forgive and forget.

It is a very simple plan that the Lord has given to us. We must forgive everyone, regardless of the circumstances. I don't need a forgiveness lawyer or accountant to help me figure out all the exclusions and exceptions. It is a very simple law to understand, just not as simple to follow. I know that I still have a long way to go in developing my forgiveness muscles, but hopefully I am on the right path.

Traveling Flood

I have heard the saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade", but what do you do when 4 gallons of lemonade spill in the back seat of your van? Unfortunately I found about this tonight. We had made the lemonade and put it into a 5 gallon jug to take to Jared's soccer party. Marion put it on the back bench of the car. As I got in, I half though to myself about the stability of said jug. And sure enough when we turned the second corner I heard it tip over sideways on the back seat. I was sitting right in front of it and tried to turn around to life it upright. But as if in horrifying slow motion, I turned around just in time to see the lid pop off and gallons of yellow liquid flooding the car. This was not just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible with raisins in it. We turned the van around and went home. Marion emptied all of the wet and sticky tools from the back of his van. I ran in the house and got every towel we own and tried to sop up as much of the mess as possible. I think tomorrow we will take the seats out of the van and hose them down. Then we will park on a hill and wash down the inside as well. I don't imagine it will ever all come out or be the same again. The good news is that we decided not the make the homemade root beer, which is twice as sticky. We stopped at the store and bought supplies to replace the drink and we were only 30 mins late to the party. It all seemed to go well and we are glad that it is over. Jared does have 2 games tomorrow as well as Diana having one. One more week after tomorrow, YEAH! Boy it is too hot to want to be outside as we have finally gone over the century mark in the temperature department.

High Five Jared!

At Jared's school today, the teachers gave out awards to their students. Each teacher could decide who to give their awards to. Jared came home with two awards. One from his Orchestra teacher and one from his math teacher. Good Job Jared! Keep up the good work at school.

Drama at the DMV

For those of you who did not know, Trent turned 16 on May 7th. This has been a much anticipated event because of the fact that you are eligible for a driver's license at this milestone in life. Of course we had gone through the trauma of visiting the DMV six months ago when he obtained the wonderful permit. This allowed him to drive a car with a licensed driver accompanying him. In fact not only did it allow this, it was required that he drive for 50 hours before he would be allowed to apply for an actual drivers license. I don't know about the rest of you but I try anything to avoid spending time in my car driving. And now we needed to log in what seemed like an insurmountable amount of time. Because of my wonderful 2 mile radius in which most things I regularly frequent exist, Trent was not able to get much driving time in by just going where we usually go. Hence most Saturday afternoons would find us out on the open road for at least an hour at a time. And if just the actual driving was not enough, we had to write a 500 volume narrative about our travels. The DMV required that each time we drive, we fill in a log sheet about the trip. We needed to include the starting and stopping time, was it day or night, was the weather dry or wet, did we drive on residential, arterial, or freeway type roads, was the traffic heavy, moderate or light. Sheesh this log had more details than my journal for the past six months. I tried to make myself useful during our time in the car. For instance sometimes I would read, another time I took my cleaning supplies including a toothbrush and did some deep cleaning. The only problem was that I could not really clean the driver's side as Trent was in the way. I was overjoyed when we finished up the 50 hours during spring break in April. Then we had only to wait for our appointment for the driving test.



Finally the scheduled day arrived, May 18th. Our appointment was at 8:00 am and we were early. There was a large group of people standing outside the door waiting for it to open. I was very happy when they opened the door and said that anyone with an appointment could come right in. We went in and showed our lovely 3 page log of driving time along with proof of drivers ed class, registration and insurance. We sat down and waited for a few moments and then they called his name and off he went. I tried to sit but was too anxious and so I strolled over to the very small window to see how it was going. I could see Trent in the car with the examiner behind the car checking to see that all the lights were working. Imagine my dismay when the guy walked back into the DMV. I ran to meet him and was told that one of the rear tail lights was out. He then told me that if we could get it fixed and be back in 20 mins, Trent could still take the test. I sprinted to the car and off we went in search of a car parts store. We decided to go west and sure enough a few blocks away we found an Auto Zone. We pulled into the parking lot and I ran inside to find the required light bulb. The store attendant seemed to take forever as he looked up the part number. I quickly explained that we had a limited amount of time to get this fixed. Once the part was purchased we had to borrow a tool to remove the cover plate to the tail light. Of course at first we had the wrong size and I had to go back in the store to get a different one. Then we struggled to remove the bolts or whatever you would call the things keeping the cover plate in place. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, the bulb was replaced and we were on our way back down the street to the DMV. We went in and miraculously we had made it in time.

So off Trent went again, this time with a different examiner. Now I paced up and down as my adrenaline levels were off the chart making it impossible for me to wait calmly. When they returned we were ushered into a small room. The examiner informed us that Trent had some very bad habits in his driving. The first problem was that he would put his hands in his lap at stop lights. I think the fact that my car is a manual makes it more likely that you would take your hands off the wheel. The next thing she talked about was the fact that when he turned, he did not always stay in the same lane. I feel badly about this, because that is the way I drive. The final nail in the coffin, was the fact that at a school crossing guard, he did not come to a complete stop, because the guard was about to step back onto the curb. This was an automatic fail situation. We were both pretty upset because Trent really is a good driver and I was sure he would pass. The examiner told us we could call to get an appointment but it would most likely be for July. I didn't doubt this, as I had called six weeks earlier to make this appointment. The next option was to do something called standby. This is where you show up without an appointment and wait for an undetermined time hoping that someone else with an appointment will not show up. We were told to wait at least a week before coming back and to practice the things that he did wrong.

So a week later found once again at the DMV. The doors opened at 8:00 and so I figured that if we got there at 7:00 we would be close to the front of the line. We were shocked to find out that when we got there we were number 9 in line. The person who was number 1 had been there since 3:30 in the morning. The number 2 person had gotten there at 5:00. She had been there the day before and they had only gotten to number 4. She had number 5 and she had literally sat there from 8 til 4 and never got a chance to take her test. I began to wonder about what we were in for. I did come prepared to wait with a good book to read. While were outside waiting for the doors to open, it was pretty hot. Finally at 7:40 they came out and passed out the numbers. And then they finally let us in at 8:00. We sat down and began to wait. As I sat there I pondered the nature of the DMV. Is it not a modern day torture chamber? I bet Hitler would be disappointed to know of the ways he missed out on torturing people because of the lack of cars people owned back then. And truly a job at the DMV seems to require a certain meanness and joy in being cruel to others not to mention doing your job at the speed of grass growing. I believe that the DMV has the ability to turn one to the dark side of disbelief. It is a drainer of hope and life source. But that is just the musings of a deranged mother. Now back to our tale: Things looked hopeful when the first two standby people were called up by 8:20. Then numbers 3 & 4 were called up at 9:00. Something happened to number 8 and so we moved up a spot. Then people with appointments started showing up. This put the standby line to a stop. It began to look like we could be there for the entire day. Those of us waiting together became friends, bonded together by the horrific experience of being so much at some else's mercy. We discussed how someone should start a business where people could pay someone else to wait for them at the DMV. One guy said he would gladly have paid someone $100 to have waited for him. I don't think anyone could pay me enough to be there when I didn't have to for my own needs. Finally at 11:20 after more than 4 hours of waiting, Trent's name was called.

This time he had yet another examiner. Off they went. I felt nauseous. I wanted to watch and yet I didn't want to see what would happened. Somehow the 20 minutes of the test went by, and we went again into the little room. This time the examiner wanted to know who had taught Trent to drive. Yikes, I resembled that remark! He proceeded to say that you can not drive with one hand on the stick shift and that you can not coast into a stop sign or light and leave the car in neutral. He also lost points for going to fast in a school zone. And so bottom line, he had failed again. I could not believe it. I asked the guy why the first examiner had not mentioned anything about being in neutral or the fact that you needed to keep both hands on the wheel as much as possible. He couldn't say. He finally went and got the first test and told Trent that he had fixed all the original problems, but that there had been different ones the second time. I asked the guy if he thought that it was possible to pass the test with a manual car. He said it might be better if we could use an automatic, but I didn't think Trent would do well in our van since he hardly ever drives it. The examiner stated that he didn't think it was a good idea to do the standby thing, because all that waiting is hard on ones nerves. I could whole heartedly agree with that statement. He told us we needed to get an appointment. We said we didn't want to wait all the way until July. He then took pity on us and looked in the appointment book and found a cancellation that was for the next Tuesday, just 4 days away. We went home glad to have an appointment for the next time we came back.

Once again we practiced. I personally had lost all hope of ever getting a license for Trent. I figured that sitting at the DMV would just become a regular part of my weekly routine. Finally Tuesday came. The appointment was for 1:00 so Trent went to school. I picked him up at 12:45 and off we went for the third try. We parked and went in. I felt the familiar feeling of nausea. We showed our paper work and after just 5 minutes of waiting they called Trent's name. Off he went with yet, the fourth examiner. There are only 6 people who do the driving test so we had met almost all of them. Luckily for me, a friend called me just as he was leaving. I think this kept me from having to go and throw up my lunch. Honestly I don't know when the last time was that I had felt such anxiety. And before I knew it, he was back and we went to the small room again. Trent sat down, and the guy said not to look so worried because he had passed. I don't think either of us believed him at first. I asked if there was anything he needed to work on, and the guy said "No, he got 100%". I was shocked. How did he go from failing twice to getting 100%. We were both so happy. Next we were off to get the picture taken and few minutes later Trent was the proud owner of a bad picture on his driver's license. It was a very happy day! Later that night he had his spring Orchestra concert and instead of me having to drive him to the school, he just took himself early and then we came later when the concert started. YEAH! I am very excited for him to be able to be in charge of taking himself where he needs to be. He will start a job in a week when school is out. Good job, Trent for hanging in there and not giving up!
We bought a third car from our next door neighbor for $100. Since then we have spent $1500 getting it to run. It is running but did not pass the smog. Once we get that cleared up it will be time to get it registered. I wonder how long I will sit at the DMV for that?

Biting the hand that feeds you.

For any of you who do not know about this, Jared has 2 corn snakes for pets. He bought them with his own money right after we moved to our new house. We had decided to get rid of all our cats, and a snake seemed like a lower maintenance animal. Of course we started with one snake, but soon that was not enough. I personally belong to the Harrison Ford school of "I hate snakes". In fact to say that I hate them is putting it mildly. I have loathed, feared and pretty much detested the slithering things from the time I was a small child. Most of my brothers and sisters loved catching Gardner snakes when we were children. Any sight of any snake sends me looking for higher ground, whether it be a table, tree, or the person standing next to me. When I see a snake, I need to be as high off the ground and far away from it as possible. This would account for my reluctance to getting a snake in the first place. But of course I am a softie and finally was persuaded that I would never have to actually touch the snake and that it would stay locked in its cage most of the time. This has been a happy arrangement for the past year and a half.

Jared has done a pretty good job of being in charge of all the snake care, ie feeding, holding, watering, and changing the paper shavings in the cage. For those of you fortunate enough to be in the dark about such things, snakes like to eat mice. And for those of us who need to feed our snakes they come in a handy frozen form. (Even snakes can eat frozen TV dinners.) Participating in the buying of frozen mice has been an experience I could do without. We first bought some with the snake from a pet store. To begin with you feed baby snakes, baby mice called "pinkies". The first time we bought some "pinkies" they came in a clear plastic baggie, that then had to be kept in my freezer next to the popsicles and ice cream. After those ran out, we went to PetSmart. After waiting for quite a while for someone to help us, one of the workers told us to just go over to the freezer and get the mice our selves. They have a freezer much like you would see at 7-11. In this freezer was a plastic storage bin containing several drawers. Each drawer had several white plastic bags with various sizes of mice and rats in them. I could not see how the bags were labeled, and so I began checking inside of the bags looking for the "pinkies". I opened several bags with disgusting rodents, but when I got to a bag containing a rat the size of a guinea pig, I had to draw the line. I went back to the worker and told him he would have to find the "pinkies" for me, as I did not want to visions of rats marching through my dreams for next few weeks. I do like the fact that that bags of mice from PetSmart are not clear, and so you can get the hamburger out of the freezer with out a close encounter with a small, frozen, pink mouse. Our snakes have now grown bigger and they have moved up from eating "pinkies" to "fuzzies". These are as appealing to look at, as you would imagine from the name of them.

OK, sorry for so much background information. This brings us to last Monday morning. For the past week, Jared has been complaining each night that he forgot to feed his snakes, and could I please remind him during the daytime, when he could do something about it. So on Monday morning I reminded him to feed his snakes. Marion was home and told Jared to take the snakes out of the freezer, let them defrost, and then Marion would do the feeding. Jared took the mice out to defrost. Marion had gotten up and gone to seminary to help our Bishop that morning, and decided to lay back down in Jared's room. When the timer went off, I took the mice up to the snake cage. I put a mouse in the bottom of two brown lunch sacks. I then made Marion reach up from where he was lying and lift each of the snakes into the bags. This all seemed to be going really well. Next I was adjusting the bags a bit so I could close the lid. As I tried to tip one of the bags on it side, I suddenly felt a small prick on my thumb. What happened next is a bit of a blur, but it involved lots of screaming and me flinging my hand in the air with the snake attached to my thumb. At some point the snake decided to let go of me and it landed on the floor on the other side of the room. I am now dancing around and yelling at Marion to get up and catch the snake. He is telling me that snakes do not bite, but I have two tiny red spots of blood on my thumb to prove otherwise. I run from the room still screaming and Marion tries to get up and get the snake. By now it is no where to be seen. I am less than thrilled by this, as my neighbor lost one of her kids corn snakes in her house for about 3 months. I think about begining to pack and go to a hotel for the next few months until the snake resurfaces because I know that I will not be able to live in my house if that snake is not locked safely in its cage. Diana is now wondering what all the screaming is about. Marion and I try to lift up all of the things on the floor of Jared's room, but do not find that snake anywhere. We finally narrow it down to being under the desk in the corner of Jared's room. In order to lift the desk, Marion had to move several things, including a fish tank on top of the desk. Finally he is able to lift the desk, and I look under it and spot the snake. Marion then moves the desk and picks up the escapee. Now he needs to put everything back together. He makes me hold the snake while he does this. Once again, I am not impressed, but it is better than having it get loose again. He is slowly adjusting everything, which includes cords to the several different things in Jared's room. I tell him that he needs to hurry before I pass out. Finally the snake is returned and I go off in search of some sort of sedation that can return my heart rate to normal. I was feeling a bit sleepy before this, but I have to admit to be much more awake after it was all said and done.

I've joined the poparazzi!

I just got my pictures back from Women's Conference and I am so excited about how they turned out. Hopefully you might enjoy seeing them as well. I feel a little like a kid that managed to get all the pictures of the princesses at Disneyland. I just hope I haven't been added to the most wanted list of stalkers that the General Authorites watch out for.


The picture to the left is of Sis. Susan Tanner, in the White suit. Sis. Dalton is in the red jacket with her back to us, and Sis. Cook is behind Sis Dalton in the pink top. They are the General Young Women's presidency. The class they taught was one of my favorites. Wendy Wilcox is wearing the white suit standing next to Sis. Tanner. She spoke with her father Brad, Thursday afternoon.





The picture to the right, is Sandra Rogers, who has been in charge of Women's Conference for the past several years. She is a remarkable woman.

The picture to the right is my sister Kris, me and my Aunt Shauna who happened to be attending the conference. We had lots of fun visiting with her between classes as she stayed in the Marriott Center most of the day also.

The picture to the right is one I shot of Elder Holland as he walked up to shake hands with us. I suppose it may have been a bit rude to have clicked his picture as I was shaking his hand, but I am kind of excited about how well it turned out. And by the way the other people around me with their digital cameras could not get a shot, so for once it is good that I am behind the times when it comes to technology.

Here's one with Elder Jeff Holland and his wife Pat. Just behind them are Brother and Sis Samuelson, the current president of BYU. And Sis Rogers is behind them.

The picture to the right has Sis Lant the General Primary President in the salmon pink. Sis Thompson, second counselor in the General Relief Society is in the black suit with the pink shirt. She was one of my favorite speakers. Touching her are is Sis. Tanner again in the light pink jacket. She is probably telling Sis. Thompson what a good job she did earlier when Sis. Thompson spoke. And just behind Sis. Tanner is Sis. Cook. Sis. Beck, the General Relief President was in England and so that is why I did not get a picture of her. This is a great picture because it has all the auxiliaries in one shot.

Bringing Home the Bacon

Well through some interesting turn of events, I have found myself joining the world of employment. This time I mean a job with pay, thanks, and time off for good behavior. My other job of mother has none of these perks, but does have the benefit of being assigned to me by heaven. My new job is working for a company called Global Views. They sell home accessories and small furniture. Here in Las Vegas they have a permanent showroom that displays much of their line. Twice a year there is a big trade show, where buyers come from all over. So this job is to help prepare the showroom for these big shows. I think that I will like it because it will only entail working for a couple of weeks a year. I worked this past week because there was a show in a different part of town and they opened their showroom just in case anyone wanted to see it also.

Monday I worked only 4 hours and helped get the showroom cleaned up by dusting the hundreds of vases and candlesticks they have displayed.

Tuesday I worked for 9 hours. In the morning I went to Sam's club and got some things to feed to the potential customers that might come. This included buying wine to serve. The lady that was here giving me a shopping list said to buy some cheap wine. I told her that the alcohol portion of my resume was mighty thin and she would need to spell it out for me. She wrote down the names of two different wines I might look for. Then I asked her how many bottles to buy, 3 or 4. And she said, No 20. Boy I really don't have a feel for that kind of thing. Anyway I delivered my wares, and then went over to the other small booth that was being set up at the other convention center.

Thankfully they let me have Wednesday off. I used this day to do a few minor things like laundry, grocery shopping and preparing for camp kick off that night. On Wednesday I did have to run down to the showroom and get a key from security. I also have an official badge to wear.

Thursday I was there by 8:15 and opened for any potential customers that might come. This proved to be a very long wait, as only 4 people came by for the whole day. Luckily I brought my camp notebook and I spent several hours organizing it and trying to figure out the tent assignments. After rewriting it several times, I figured out that I could cut yellow sticky notes into small pieces of paper. I wrote the name of each girl on each piece and then put them in tents. This way as people drop out and others decide to come I can just move the sticky notes around. Because the show was so slow, I asked to go home an hour early. This was very happy as I was able to stop at the store to get a few things for dinner. I made dinner with Marion, Jared, and Diana were at soccer. Then I went to my camp meeting that night.

Friday was a bit crazy because I received an e-mail late Thursday, telling me to ship an end table that is at the show room to Texas. I left my house at 8 and stopped at three different stores before I finally ended up at U-haul to buy a box big enough to ship the table. Unfortunately the box was about 2 inches to big to fit in my car. So I had to drive with my back door open just a few inches. This was fine as long as the door stayed close to the car, but at certain times I would turn and the door would swing open. I tried to go on back streets so it wouldn't bother anyone. There were still many many people who noticed that the door was open and pulled up next to me to let me know of the problem. You'd have thought that I had a stick of dynamite in the back or something. I would just smile at them and nod my head as if to say "I know that I am driving with my door open, I have no choice, and no I am not so stupid that I would not notice my back door flailing open." I finally made it there, only to be told that the box would not be big enough. I got the show room ready and Friday was a busier day. I had a nice slow stream of people coming in. It was kind of fun to visit with each different one and find out what they might need. It was a long day though as I did not get home until 7:00 that night. I was much more tired because of standing on my feet so much more.

All in all I guess it was OK. I did earn a little chunk of change that will help pay some bills. That is always good news. It was just bad timing, because I had been gone for four days the week before. I still have not gotten my house back to the way it was before I left. This job is rather like being a mother. I have to clean, shop, and make sure people have what they need.

I'm Back!

I returned safely home yesterday. I feel like I have had my batteries completely recharged. Women's Conference was completely wonderful in every way. As they say in Veggie Tales "I laughed, I cried, it moved me Bob!" It would be impossible to say which part was the best. One great time was when it was pouring buckets on Thursday I managed to score the last umbrella. The ones on the table were all gone, but as I was standing in line a guy behind the counter held up an umbrella and asked who wanted it. I jumped up and down and said ME, ME. You might say that like Ester I was the right person, in the right place, at the right time. The story of Ester was the theme for the whole conference. Sister Watson Nelson gave a glorious talk about making sure we are fulfilling our mission. Another highlight was hearing from the General Young Women's presidency and their daughters. It was a great class, try to see it rebroadcast if you can.

I also thoroughly enjoyed getting to hear from the new General Relief Society presidency. It was fun to get to know the two new counselors. Sis Allred is from South America and raised 8 children. She talked about turning our homes into mini MTC's. Sis Thompson is a doll that we will all love to hear from for the next few years. She talked about her call and how inadequate she felt. She said her first thoughts when her Bishop called to tell her to meet with Pres. Faust were 1. What am I going to wear? and 2. How can I lose 100 pounds before I am sustained in General Conference next week? She then related how she told Pres Faust about feeling inadequate. She shared his response"Sister Thompson we are all just ordinary people, trying to do the Lord's work. I will pray for you, if you will pray for me." I was touched by this story. And then Sis Beck gave a wonderful talk about how we can offer "relief" to today's world. She said that if ever there was a time when the whole world needs relief, it is today and we are the ones who can give it.

Friday afternoon Elder Holland and his wife Pat gave the closing address. I was sitting down next to the tunnel where they would come out. I had my camera in hand, in hopes of getting a shot of them and the other church leaders. The Hollands came out to do a sound check and I missed getting the picture because it was so early. After they checked the sound they walked back into the tunnel and Pres. Holland stopped along the way to shake just a few hands. I was one of just 10 or 15, who got to shake his hand. This was especially thrilling to me, since he was the president of BYU when I attended. He and his wife gave a very encouraging talk about not underestimating ourselves or giving up hope. At the end Elder Holland blessed all of us to be happy, peaceful, grateful, aware of our divine worth, to find a way through our trials, to find answers to prayers, and to know that there are good days before us. There was an amazing spirit present and I have never felt anything quite like it.

The drive home was also pretty uneventful. I stopped at the cheese factory in Beaver and bought some curds, much to the delight of my family. And I stopped in St. George and had some really yummy nachos.

All in all it could not have been better. All of you should start arranging your schedules and making plans to go next year. I will see you there because I am completely addicted and plan on going every year until I die.

I'm off to see the wizard!

And just like those folks in the Wizard of Oz, I am lacking something important. Perhaps I feel like I am looking for a brain, heart, and courage to come home. Well I am hoping to find these things and more at Women's Conference at BYU. I have been joking for weeks that I may not come back and I must admit that after this morning it seems more tempting to run away for good. Hopefully a few days off from the hectic life of motherhood will restore my strength and zest for life. Perhaps just like Dorothy, I will discover that I had all these things inside all along. See ya next week.