Almost December?!

Ending November and beginning December makes me a little frantic.  No, a LOT frantic.  I'm the ultimate procrastinator.  Well, perhaps that's a bit harsh.  I just procrastinate some, not all, the time and all the stuff.

But wait!  What happened to Thanksgiving?

We had a lovely Thanksgiving at our house.  I only made half the dinner for that day and Gail made the other half.  Mike's Mom brought the cranberries and we had pleeeennnty of yummy food.  We spent time playing games and enjoying one another's company afterwards, and some of us even watched a movie ("Brave") later on.  Since I only had done half the meal, I actually did some baking on Wednesday, PURCHASED rolls instead of making them, AND I had time for an itty bitty cat nap before everyone arrived on Thursday afternoon!  I would call that pretty successful.

But my thoughts did turn to what I was thankful for.  Lots of times during the week.  I wanted to produce a lovely photo essay about the things I am thankful for.  But I had another one of those "FAIL" moments with my camera.  It was put on hold (the essay).  Then Mike took me camera shopping on Black Friday.  I'm still learning about the new camera.  Electronics carry a huge learning curve with old folks.  Plus, Blogger is incredibly slow and driving me crazy!!  And, you know me and photos on the blog.....hard, HARD, HARD for me to do

But here goes on what I am thankful for this season:

1.  My family.  Beginning in the front room, here is my lovely living room mantle decorations with  a plaque, flowers and photos of my children.  I am so grateful for our wonderful, forever family!

2. Then I move to the kitchen and there is a photo of the Savior. . .well, a print of a painting* of Jesus.  Next to that is the temple.  Big blessings in my life that I'm forever grateful.  Every day.  Strength comes, tender mercies are felt, faith increases. 

3.  My work keys and a book from my work place.  I do love my job and I'm so grateful for it.  I enjoy the folks I work with.  I enjoy the good surroundings.  I enjoy my paycheck and feeling appreciated most days. I do look forward to retirement someday, but that's quite a ways off.  In the mean time, I'll continue to be grateful to have a career that allows me to take care of bills and do some travelling and learn LOTS of stuff!  Always, lots of stuff right at my fingertips and students who keep me on my toes and kind of in the loop with what is going on the rest of the world.

4.  My bike helmet.  Thankful for health and strength.

5.  My overflowing refrigerator the day after Thanksgiving, full of leftovers.  Only now all the leftovers are about gone (oink, oink).  The bounty we enjoy is just INCREDIBLE and I always want to be aware and grateful for everything we have and take nothing for granted.  Here's a photo of some extra stuff gathered in at the Thanksgiving turkey sales.  Mmmm, Turkey!

Hmmm.  Looks like it is time to defrost the freezer.

6.  A full basement/pantry shelf  of home-bottled/dried.  I am thankful for the resources we have to preserve our bounty.  It doesn't go to waste.  While living in Hawaii those 9 years, the seasons were so constant that there was produce most of the year round of one kind or another, so food preservation and storage wasn't done the same.  And things didn't preserve as well.  Here, we have the means and know-how and habit of doing this in our family and for that I am grateful.

7.  The (practically) perfect pecan pies I made ...and they have ALL been eaten and I have thoroughly enjoyed every single supersweet and nutty bite!!  EVERY bite--and I had a lot of bites!!!  Thank you to Mom and Dad who grew and shared the pecans, and THANK YOU to Mike who shelled them for me to make those yummy pies for Thanksgiving and last Sunday.  Yes, we ate three pies in 5 days.  Three pecan pies, 3/4 of one huge apple pie, and TWO [rather small-ish] pumpkin pies.  OINK, OINK!!

8.  Eggnog.  I just really enjoy eggnog.  I found someone else who likes it more than I do, however. ;-)  Student worker, Emily, was chugging some down on her way into work one morning.  Good thing it's usually just seasonal in the stores or we two would be a whole lot bigger!  

9.  My Dishwasher.  I just love it that someone (or something) can make my dishes all clean and sanitized with such little effort on my part.  No boiling the water, no dishpan hands.  It's great.

10.  Our love of word games.  Here's a few.  And I'm grateful that so many of our family members love to play them WITH us!

This scrabble score sheet hangs with honor on our fridge.  Eric beat me
and MIKE!!

11.  I am thankful for music.  I seldom listen to music EXCEPT at Christmas time.  But Eric has changed that a little.  He's always singing, he plays the piano and sings and practices.  He brings music into our home on MORE than just Christmas. 

I'm thankful to be able to enjoy Eric's music.  I should take voice lessons from him before he moves out.


12.  I'm thankful for my automatic clothes washing and drying machines. Kind of like the dishwasher, because I've been without these little babies, too.  But, thankfully, I didnt' have to boil water (very often), etc.  MOST modern inventions I really enjoy.  Immensely.

*  That print of the Resurrected Lord has been hanging on our kitchen wall for many a year.  I ordered the print via mail about 23 years ago from Deseret Book. Not "e-mail," but MAIL.   That was before you could order things online!! ha.

Well, the temple picture and the picture of Jesus arrived in the mail one day and the kids excitedly stood around, watching me open up the packages. When I showed the picture of Jesus, three-year-old Nick said, "Ooooh, who took DAT picture?!"  We've always adored that story.

Renewed

Besides attending the temple on Wednesday morning, which is always a spiritually renewing experience, I ALSO renewed my expired drivers license that day when I got home.  I think the only other time I let my license expire was when I was in college, didn't have a car and didn't drive. Much. I think that lapsed about a year before I got my Utah one. It was my original Texas license that'd expired that time.

So, now I'm all current and up to date [and spiritually fed].  At the Cedar City DMV, even with people milling around and waiting (only about 5-8 in the chairs) I was in and out within 15 minutes.  Not bad, eh?


This is not me. I just felt the need to illustrate a blog post for a change. ;-)

Have you voted yet?

I love my town.  Mike and I have had this silly tradition of voting on election days first thing in the morning right when the polls open at 7:00 a.m.  We are about the first in line, if ever there IS a line.  Most elections, there is not.  The voting judges are usually just settling in, and we know them, they know us; it's kind of fun.  Plus, it is VERY quick.

Mike broke our tradition!  He voted early this election.  He yielded to peer pressure.  He just happened to be in the city offices one day, ran into an acquaintance who said, "Whatcha doin'?  Come vote!" So he did.

This morning I wanted to attend my "Sunrise Yoga" class.  Actually, I think it's called "Wake Up Yoga."  We discussed how early one would have to get up in the summer to teach an actual "sunrise" class.   Pretty dang early!! ha.  Anyway, it started at 7 and I really wanted to attend.  So I did and opted to vote later in the day.

I knew there would be lines.  It's a pretty hot election year!  I showed up at the polling place during the noon hour.  I was not alone.  But, I had an interesting thought cross my mind on the bicycle ride there.  I think I let my driver's license expire on Saturday!  Yikes.  Seems that we must show ID and that was what I was planning on using.  The sign specifically stated a "Valid" Driver's license.  Oops.  So I dug around in my planner and wallet and came up with two other options.

But about this town.  The line (which I waited in for 30 minutes) was full of co- workers from the college, friends and neighbors from my ward, neighbors in my ward who work at the college--just a good group.  I was visiting, etc. and having a nice, time.  I stepped out out line once with a request to the stranger behind me to, "Save my place, please, while I go chat briefly with my friend and neighbor just ahead of us in line?"  She agreed.  Then I came back, chatted with her a bit about my lack of license dilemma.  Then I saw another gal I needed to talk to and made the same request of her to "Save my spot! I'll be right back!" and ran to the exit door to have a very important and brief conversation with the girl I needed to talk to who was leaving.  Well, THAT time, I'd left my backpack sitting on the floor because I'd been digging out one more form of ID and I'd missed the gal finish voting and that's why I had to chase her to the door!

When I came back, my backpack was gone!  Yikes!  I had a brief heart attack. Was it stolen?  No way! Not with all these people around.  Did someone in security come and take it because it was a suspicious, abandoned bag?  Hardly.  There was no security around, for starters.  And all the people in line knew it wasn't abandoned.  I was only gone about 30 seconds.  Maybe 45 to 60.  Then I hear a voice from back in the line.  "You lost your place.  You have to go to the back of the line."

Really?  I was so stunned.  I saw my backpack sitting on the floor at the end of the line.  All alone.  Then I saw whose voice it was--my co-worker, Paula!! She's such a hoot.  And it WAS funny, once I realized it was a practical joke.  Later, at work, I told Paula how I'd had a brief heart attack thinking it was missing/stolen (It contained my planner/brain, AND a bunch of money for a change ).  I just didn't think it could have been taken so quickly.  And Paula confirmed my suspicions.  When she went up there to the front to get my pack, the people around me in the line said, "Oh, you can't do that!"  And Paula said, "It's OK--we know her! It'll be fine."

"No, really!  You shouldn't move it.  You can't do that!"  But she was persistent (and fast!) and pulled off a great joke on me!!

Happy Election Day.

Wardrobe Malfunction

Not what you might think it is.

Friday of last week, I went to the free yoga class for Faculty/Staff on campus.  It's part of our T-Fit thing and I really LOVE having a private yoga lesson! It's only "private" because no body else was there this time.  Just me and Kenzie.  I'd rushed really quickly to get over there and get changed.  She had given up on anyone coming and was almost ready to leave.  But we ended up having an abbreviated class, and that was nice since we both had other places we needed to be.

Proof that I dressed rather hastily was evident when I bent down into my rather awkward Forward Fold (honesty, in my brain, I look so limber and lithe and slender and GRACEful!!) and found that my knit pants were on inside-out.  So, I started giggling.  Such and old-lady thing to do, right?

Yes, I'm getting more old and feeble every day.  The next morning when I was dressing for just hanging around at home, I noticed my t-shirt felt a little odd.   Yep.  It was on backwards.

Wardrobe malfunctionS.  Silly, silly me.  What next?  I shudder to think.  I did manage to get to work today will aspects of my outfit intact.  And, I managed to get to weights, change, and get back and complete the day fully and carefully dressed.  Whew!