Blessed

I found this un-posted draft sitting in my post column, and I have no idea why I didn't post it.  It's just as true today as it was 5 months ago when it was originally written.



I'm so grateful for my friends and neighbors, and the wonderful people I get to associate with on a regular basis.  Lately, I've been very aware of how fortunate I am to know the people I know, and have the friends that I have.  They definitely help fill the void of not having family close by.  They are definitely my second family and I'm so grateful to have them in my life!

*Update: now that I'm over 2000 miles away from these people who I miss so much, I'm grateful that I have another set of faces, old and new, that sustain me and can keep me going.

I can only hope that I can do as much for them as they do for me no matter where in the country they may be.

Hiatus

Wow... Have I been absent or what?! Life got busy, then it got overwhelming, then it got unreal. Let's just say that finding time to actually write about it wasn't even on my radar. There were times when I did sit down to write - and I have a slew of unfinished drafts to prove it - but now that I have some free time, I can't even remember the reasons for jotting down the few thoughts that made it on the screen, so they will probably remain unfinished drafts for the rest of their days.

I have new things to write about, though, and I'm anxious to be at it again. I hope I still have some readers and not everyone has given up on me!

(Erin... Thanks for the comment and the gentle nudge to get things going again.) :-)

Totally Made My Day...

Earlier today, as I was going around to the Primary classrooms to give them the 10-minute warning before class was over, I happened to run into a few of our ward's young men.  Just as I was turning the corner to open the door to one of the classrooms, I hear, "Hey, cutie."  It had come from one of the young men.  I didn't acknowledge the guys, because out of the corner of my eye, I could tell that as soon as the kid said it, he and his friends realized who I was and they quickly turned away and hit the kid that said it.  I just acted like I hadn't heard or seen anything in an effort to save him from even more embarrassment, but I really wanted to say thank you and bust out laughing.  It definitely made my crazy day a bit brighter.

Invention

As I was going through my photos from the past couple of months, I found a photo that I took while I was on a plane to Utah a couple of months ago.  It requires a little bit of a backstory...

When I was little - like, elementary-school aged - a friend and I came up with this brilliant idea for an invention.  It consisted of a camera at your front door so that when someone came to your house, it would take a picture of them.  We figured it would mostly be useful if you weren't home and wanted to know if someone stopped by, or if someone broke into your house and you wanted to snap a photo of them.  We were super serious about it, but never did anything but draw pictures of it.

Imagine my surprise when I was looking through the SkyMall catalogue on the airplane and found this:

If you can read the description, it is EXACTLY what we had envisioned.  Kinda weird, huh?

(Maeg, if you're reading this, do you remember when we came up with this?)

Gooey Caramel Popcorn

My husband and I decided to try a 30-day "no sugar" challenge. The night before we kicked the sugar habit, I made a big batch of Gooey Caramel Popcorn to get my last sugar fix. It definitely hit the spot, as it does every single time I make it. I reminds me of growing up in my parents' home and my sweet, next-door neighbor that would make this for us every Christmas. Once I got my hands on the recipe, though, there was no way I could wait until Christmastime to enjoy this gooey goodness. Now I make it every few months. Here is the recipe for you to enjoy as well!

(almonds didn't make it into this batch because I didn't have any on-hand. I do prefer to have the almonds in there, though.)

Soooo Behind

I am so behind in my blogs. I inadvertently took the summer off and now I'm having a tough time finding the motivation to play catch-up. My family blog is even worse off than this one! I keep telling myself that as soon as school starts for my 5-year-old, I will be able to really sit down and get back to business, but now that school has yet to determine an official start date, who knows when that day will be. I just wanted all y'all to know that I'm here. I miss writing, and I really want to get back into posting regularly. I have missed having this little outlet, even if no one reads it. I mostly miss having a place to post photos that I've taken recently. I have about 20 "draft" posts that I have yet to complete because I just started writing things before I had time to fine-tune them. If I end up posting them, things are going to be pretty random around here for a while!

As funny as it sounds, this little blog keeps me in touch with myself, and I feel like I've been too busy to do that lately. It will be nice when I can finally get back to remembering who I am.

(Why does it feel like I have written this same post over and over again, lately?)

Shots, round 3

Today was my third round of cortisone shots.

I wish I could say they were getting easier, but they're not.  Today, I even tried to be prepared by taking some good pain medication beforehand and having Brett there as moral support.  The medication didn't end up working (if it had even kicked in in the first place), and though it was so nice to have Brett there, I think it made it that much harder to hold back the tears.  Last time, I had no one there to comfort me, so what was the point in crying then?

As the shots were being administered today, I tried my hardest not to concentrate on them.  I was squeezing my nails into my palms in hopes that that pain would distract me from the pain up top, but unfortunately, my nails were too stubby to even make a dent.  About halfway through, I was trying to hold back tears and managed to hold all but one tear in.  I felt defeated by letting that one tear roll down the side of my nose.  I quickly wiped it away, hoping that no more would follow.