Temple Memories Amid the Christmas Splendor

We've changed quite a bit since our last family picture in front of the temple located to the right. Can you spot all the differences between these two photos? Rachel cracks me up.  The UCSF bell choir was amazing!

Beautiful young women, beautiful back ground. Beautiful way to spend the Sabbath.

Word to the Wise #437

The new chocolate-mint marshmellows may be perfectly delicious on s'mores, but they are perfectly awful in rice crispy treats. Not only do they lose flavor, they turn a particularly distasteful shade of greyish brown. Stick to popping them in hot choco or roasting with your chestnuts.

Life is Just Like That

This was the setting as I drove home Saturday from helping can Marion berry jam at the Sacramento cannery. The strains of Christmas music filled the car and the joy of service and the anticipation of a evening with my family filled my heart as the car wound its way along the back roads skirting the river. Enjoying great food, excellent company, exciting activities like condemned-building demolition, playing hide and go seek with young family members, and enjoying the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional filled Sunday with joy.

Had some of the very best days Saturday and Sunday and one of the very worst yesterday.

Considering that Nathan and I have been to two funerals in the past two weeks, my bad day seems very mild and full of blessings. Definitely tender mercies to appreciate including the capstone of the evening--our reaction to the fact that as Steve and I were moving my oak dresser back in place after having to move it from its spot on a toilet-water drenched floor, we tipped it over partially ripping the back side off, ripping the entire top off (who knew that such things could even happen), and dumping the entire contents of my drawer of treasures (including such gems as Steve's first driver's license, my post-robbery jewelry collection, precious expressions of love created by my children) onto the floor. We were both overcome with laughter and literally collapsed on the bed and on the floor laughing harder than I've laughed in a long time. It was so beautiful that we had the same reaction at the same time.

Other tender mercies of the day included: Nathan mentioning to Mrs. Best in the morning that his mother was subbing at Sci-Tech that afternoon so that she realized early that she had been completely flaked upon and could secure for herself another sub for that same afternoon; Mrs. Best being able to secure Ms. Smith, her former student teacher, who did not require detailed lesson plan to sub in her place; Mrs. Martin picking her ill child up from the middle school at the same time that I was dropping off Rachel's lunch thus enabling me to give my sincere apology notes to her to take to Mrs. Best and Mrs. Huston (the amazing school secretary who had to do lots of calling to correct my major mistake) thus saving me a trip; stumbling innocently into a very disconcerting experience with a teenager so that I could genuinely proclaim my innocence as the resulting damage ensued; passable results despite me distractedly dumping all of the chicken seasoning into the stuffing of my main dish for the RS Christmas Dinner; the RS not really needing the extra table decorated as I arrived 30 minutes late to host a table after securing needed extra stemware from a neighbor.

Thank goodness that no matter how bad a day is, it eventually ends and every day holds within it something to appreciate.

What do these 3 things have to do with one another?

Well, there's always something to be grateful for. Earlier this month our little family of four went for an adventure to Scandia in Sacramento. We took our raceway driving a little too seriously. Yes, I did cut my daughter off, spinning both our cars, and requiring the assistance of the teenage attendant. Well, this reckless driving infected us and reared its adventurous head as we approached the I-5 exit off of I-80. Steve and I were both thinking that two lanes merged to the right when, in fact, only one actually did. Knowing that he would be verbally abused for missing an exit by his efficient-driving-Nazi-ish wife, goaded on by said wife screaming "Get over, get over!", race car fire surging in our blood, we went off roading. It did not go well. Bang! Hit the protruding beginning of a cement curb. However, our amazing Mazda seemed to zoom, zoom down the road without any trouble. On the way home we planned to stop at Costco for a tire estimate. (Long story, will spare you the details, but suffice it to say that after only 18 month from purchasing tires, it was time to do it again and never, ever buy tires from Les Schwab again.) Major bummer to get a quote of $555. (actually ended up spending more than $600 for tires.) Even major-er bummer to return to the parking lot and watch oil literally flow out from under our car. By the time the tow truck arrived, the lake of oil more than covered the entire area of a parking spot. Even more major-er bummer to discover the a ripped hole in a Mazda 5 oil pan will cost ya $800 to repair. Ouch. Thank goodness for the principles of provident living that save you from despair when faced with a $1400+ loss right before Christmas. It's definitely changing the face of our Christmas plans, but we're not faced with difficulty paying our bills. Much to be grateful for including a painful but needed lesson in putting the feelings of my husband over my outrageous desire to get places in the most efficient manner possible.

Black Friday Fiasco

Super excited to see Target's Black Friday ad. The perfect gift for Rachel--too big to get squished in the seat of the car and awesome enough to keep her from grabbing my camera when rain drops are lying perfectly on rose petals and less than $100. Get to Target at 11. Wait in the cold for an hour. Prep Rachel for grabbing all of the other items while I'm in the electronics line. Target changed the game plan on me. Previous years, all major electronics items (including cameras) were held at the electronics desk. I guess Target was trying to create a better system and not make people wait as long (last year I waited in the electronic line for over an hour), and this year put some things out on the floor. I walked right past the the Nikon spot on my way to the electronics line. By the time I discovered that I was in line for no reason and fought my way through the press to get to the end cap, they were all gone. What disappointment! All this late night craziness--all for naught. One of my friends from the ward happened upon me in my moment of bitterness and listened to my sad tale of woe. I met up with Rach and went to start our marathon wait in line. The check out line was winding in and out of the health and beauty aisles starting at A26. After waiting in line for quite a while, I broke down and told Rachel the disappointing news. She was excited and then dashed. Alas. Moments after I shared this info, my friend called me on the cellphone and announced that they just put out some more Nikon L105s. Sweet. I squeezed through the press while Rachel held our place in line and grabbed one! Yeah! Shortly thereafter we arrived at the check stands. Now it's about 1:30. Standing practically comatose as the checker beings ringing up our stuff, it occurs to me that I should be doing something--oh, yeah, getting out my credit card out. Oh, wait. No purse. What?! you ask. Seriously. Didn't even think about it till that moment. Hello, embarrassing. Thankfully, however, Keshia to the rescue. Called her and she came running over and paid for my stuff. In order to avoid any trouble with returns, I ran home grabbed my purse, ran back, returned the stuff, gave the receipts to Keshia who was still there, and then repurchased it on my card. Tried to adventure next store to Best Buy. Gave up when I found out the checkout line wait was over 2 hours. Finally got into bed around 3 am. Still recovering.

Yuckga

I HATE yoga. I must be the most inflexible person on the planet.

P90-Ouch!

Yes, I am a slacker.
Yes, I have only run once since completing my half-marathon in April.
Yes, my husband was threatening to sell my birthday gift on Ebay.
Yes, I knew it would be tough.
No, I had no idea that I would be this sore and that I even possessed muscles in places that are now hurting.
No, I did not even do regular P90X--my goal is not to be "ripped". My plan is to utilize P90XLean. It uses the P90X cd's, but not all of them. I began with Core Synergistics. Since I have no core muscles to speak of, you can imagine my pain. When the instructor says to be sure that your abs are taunt, are you kidding? I'm can't feel any muscles--taunt or not taunt. What I feel is flab which is why I'm putting myself through this torture.
Yes, I am sharing this with you to dissuade quitting. Please ask me how it's going. I'm hoping that the shame of having to tell you I quit, will propel me forward. Thank you for you encouragement!
p.s. Thank you Bob, Dave, and Jessica for your excellent examples. I would never have dreamed about taking this on without your paving the way.