Saturday, September 12, 2009

Thoughts from the Weekend

I have so many thoughts running through my mind right now. Such a busy weekend. So much to be grateful for. So much to pray about. I think I'll save the heavy stuff for another post. Maybe tomorrow I'll have the gusto to blog about my dear Bishop Uncle Jim. I have cried so many times over the last couple of days as I've talked with so many friends in our ward who have asked for the update. We are fasting for him tomorrow and praying daily that he'll do great with his chemo. What a battle he has ahead.

On a lighter note, the last couple of days have been jam packed - but good, productive, fun, and worth while. Yesterday morning I got a bunch of much needed painting projects done around the house. I finally covered the stripes on our outside stucco pillar with Mesa Tan. Our trellis that held a wall climbing plant fell down several months ago, exposing several stripes of the "old" much lighter paint color where the trellis support beams had once been. So every time I've pulled into my driveway or jogged by the house, those stripes have just stared me down. Well no more. Stripes be gone! Then I was on to covering the two drywall patches above our home office french doors with Norman Brown and the wall above it with Cottage White. We took the old drapes and hardware down and had our guy patch it up, so that project is now done as well. Finally, I wrapped up the last project - painting the wall patches in the family room above the Arcadia door with Dune. Courtesy of my #3, who was either doing a Tarzan swing from the drapes or just pulled with her super human strength and brought the drapes (and rod and brackets to the floor), we had a jynormous hole that needed to be filled. Again, drywall wizard to the rescue. Now that I've repainted, I just need to get the second half of the drapes hung back up so we can stop living in a fishbowl. I hate having that huge glass door open to view, even if it's just to the backyard. Feels a little creepy.

Anyway, the rest of Friday was packed with fixing computers at the RMB office and my grandpa's house, grocery shopping, making reminder calls for the ward potluck dinner we had tonight, shuttling kids to primary activity day, and quilting. I made the most stinkin adorable quilt for my girlfriend, Andrea. I'll post the pics tomorrow. I love Andrea. She is such a doll and so much fun. She's 36 and this is her first and likely only baby, so it's a pretty awesome deal. Today was her baby shower over at my friend Nettie's house. So much fun by the way - just visiting with all my dear neighborhood friends and celebrating the soon to be arrival of Andrea's baby girl, Lauren Annabelle. Love that name too.

Date night with Ryan was terrific last night. We cruised down to Mill Avenue and ate at Z Tejas. We hadn't been there in forever and were itching to go somewhere out of the ordinary. We seem to migrate to our 5 favorites pretty often, so we were trying to bust out of the norm. Good choice. Dinner was excellent - we split a salad and appetizer, tried the special and loved it. Then we walked off dinner a bit, cruising up and down Mill Avenue, taking in all things eclectic and strange in our environment. Mill reminds me so much of Santa Monica Blvd, with all the street performers, free souls acting out their individualism in odd ways, walks of life from all over. People watching at it's finest. Truth be told, I felt a little out of my element there. Definitely the college age crowd, feeding from ASU. But it brought back memories of my college days at ASU and early dating days with Ryan. We both lived in Tempe during the year we dated, then stayed there another 4 years after we were married, so we have many good times logged in that part of town. Our first date, in fact, was at Balboa Cafe (no longer there) on Mill, followed by an outdoor concert in the amphatheatre area there. A band called Congo Shock. We reminisced about that last night too.

Then today was a whirlwind. Ryan was gone at scout training all day (7-4). Thank goodness for Barrett. She was an angel. She had to babysit 4 different times today. I would have been lost without her! And a humungous GRACIAS to my madre too. She worked so hard today helping get her driveway cleaned and ready for the ward party tonight, picking up tables and chairs from Jim's next door, and helping with the set up and take down. She is such a God-send every single day. This was our first ward party since getting my new calling as Ward Activities Director. And although it was just a simple adult dinner, it turned out great. Nice ambiance with the lanterns, table decor and music. The 70 degree weather and breeze I ordered didn't arrive as hoped, but we Arizonians are used to it. We had a nice turnout - 60 or so - so I'd say it was a success. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, visiting, and social interaction. But before the potluck party tonight, the day was full. I ran, baked cookies for the shower, finished the quilt, went to the shower, did housework, made some spicy delicious chili for the potluck, and set up for the potluck. Post party: cleaned up, had an orientation meeting with the prior ward activities director, got the peeps in bed, worked on my lesson for Rowan's primary class that I'm subbing tomorrow, now finally taking a breather to write. It seems like I've been on my feet all day. I can't wait to go hit the hay.

Tomorrow will bring a new day: one filled with worship, rest, and family. I love Sunday.

3 comments:

  1. Just catching up from the week. I am sorry about your Uncle Jim. Sounds bad, whatever it is. I just heard about Steve Thomas who Dan used to work for and Ryan knows. He is bad with some kind of cancer-type illness. I was sad to hear it.

    I am glad the running is going well. Jenny had a hysterectomy on Thursday. They had to re-stitch her yesterday because her incision wasn't holding. Russ says she is pretty miserable.

    I felt like running the other day. I admit, it was dumb...4 miles at 2pm. I only ran maybe 1 and walked the rest. Thankfully, Dan came to get me before I collapsed. Apparently, I have to be more careful about my body temp and heart rate. I had hard contractions for 12 hours. I decided to see Dr. L the next day just so he could tell me his usual cure for all ailments (drink more water). He said my cervix was hanging way too low for 30 weeks....so he put it back up in there. We all laughed about his tactics. But atleast it buys me more time. So I won't run in the heat anymore, and I might quit the weighted squats (that I wouldn't admit I am still doing).

    Glad to hear things are going okay. Life sure feels crazy-busy some weeks. I am really looking forward to sitting on the beach in a few weeks. What site are you on?

    Talk to you soon.
    Beth

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  2. First of all...what the heck are you doing Beth!! You are 7 months prego! Kelli, I am sorry to hear about your Uncle. We will pray for him as well. I felt like you yesterday too. I was so, so busy at work and then came home and made a cake that took me 3 hours. My feet and my back hurt so bad. But then I got a nice date out with my hubby...thanks to Jessie and Morgan for watching the kiddos. Seriously, if we weren't so busy all the time...I don't know what we would do with ourselves! Thank heavens for the beach coming up in a few short weeks!!

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  3. Thanks for the comments, girls. I am going to post shortly about my Uncle Jim. And Beth - no more running! Just some good short power walks at reasonable temp hours (like 5:30 am). It was so stinkin hot yesterday. At least 109 at our place. Anyway,,,we are on spot 196 beach week. I am super excited too! It's great that so many friends and cousins will be there. Should be good times all around.

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