How much is my time worth???

Have you ever made a decision thinking you were being smart, saving money and it turns around and backfires on you? Well, that’s been my day today. It actually started early last night…. I called the airlines to see if I could catch an earlier flight home and they said I could fly standby, but it would cost $25. So, being the money conscious person that I am, feeling that I had spent enough money this weekend, decided I should wait to fly out at 11:00am and go home via San Francisco and get home at 4:30 as planned. (the earlier flight was a direct flight at 8am and I would have been home by 10:30) Everything went smooth in Seattle… got through security fast, had enough time to grab a snack for the flight and got on the plane and landed in San Fran on time. I get off the plane to see that my flight that was supposed to leave at 2:50 is now leaving at 4:00…. I was a little upset, knowing that I have a camp meeting tonight at 6:00 that I was planning to go to and I would be pushing it. So I walk around a bit and did some people watching and got back to my gate to find out that it is now leaving at 4:30… hmmm now I am going to miss my camp meeting. Dang it. I really wanted to go to the first meeting to visit with all of our newly called level directors. But I know that they are in good hands with my camp director and I was really just going for moral support. Back to my story, the little man behind the counter asks if anyone wants to wait for the 5:29 flight and get a free United ticket for sacrificing an hour of their time. I decide that an hour of my time would be worth a free ticket…. The kids would survive one more hour without me? Right?? I call John (who left for Atlanta this morning) to tell him that I just got us a free ticket and thought he would be excited… (Especially since I just spent a lot of miles to go to the funeral in Seattle) then he reminded me it was Mutual tonight and what would Tanner do? Oops. I made a few calls and got something figured out for him. Thanks Abby! Then I got some dinner and ate it too fast and ate too much (nothing new), so now I have heartburn and feel like a whale. Once again I get back to my gate to find out that the 5:29 flight is now leaving at 7:10!!!! Ugh!!! I was so mad!! I went up to the counter and complained (the whole time thinking about the RS lesson in my sisters ward Sunday that was on controlling your anger, so needless to say, I was too nice and they did nothing for me) I would not have given up my seat for a free ticket to get home this late…… so now I am sitting here in the airport contemplating my day… I think 10+ hours of my time would have been worth the $25 dollars that I chose not to spend on the flight that left this morning. And I have now spent $5 for my snack in Seattle, $10 for dinner and $4 on candy and water, the car that John left at the airport when he left this morning is adding up by the hour, so it looks like I should have spent the $25 this morning and I could have been home hours ago and spent less money. But, trying to be positive I will look on the bright side and think about somewhere fun to go with my free ticket! I am now rambling,... (I do that when I am bored) I will post this when I get home, since I am too cheap to pay for the airports wireless internet : ) and hopefully I will have nothing more to add when I get home!

Edited at 7:38 Notice the time, my flight was supposed to leave at 7:10… I am on the plane and they just announced that there is a flat tire and they have to change it…. So another 45 minutes they say! I might get home tonight??

10:47pm…. Just climbed in bed… It took me 12 1/2 to get home today. I left my sisters house at 10:00am…. Long day… good night

Aunt Dorothy

I was waiting to write this post until I found a picture to go with it, but decided I better hurry and write it without it. One of my favorite Aunt's died on Wednesday... I am so sad. It was totally unexpected. My sweet Aunt Dorothy was serving on jury duty in downtown Seattle on Tuesday and she was on a break and took a walk outside and had what they call a "brain bleed".  She had been taking a lot of  asprin to thin her blood because of her arthritis, and I guess her blood was too thin. They say that the brain will bleed from time to time, but because her blood was so thin, it couldn't clot. So she collapsed and was rushed to the hospital and she was brain dead by the time they got there. She was 75. Technically she isn't my Aunt, but we always called her one. She is my dad's cousins wife. She was my mom's best friend and our families were very close. Her daughter Krisse was right between Julie and I in age and we were the best of "cousin" friends growing up. Slumber parties at their house and many many days swimming at their house. Dorothy was one of the kindest, sweetest people you could ever meet. She always made you feel so important and special. I have so many wonderful memories of her. She will be missed. The last time I saw her was about 2 1/2 years ago when I was in Seattle for my class reunion and I went to the temple while I was here and she was there! It was a great experience to sit by her at the temple that day. A memory I will cherish.

So, I flew to Seattle with Scott yesterday for the funeral on Monday. All of my sibling will be here for the funeral! So fun. It's been 4 years since all my brothers and sisters have been together. My parents were able to sneak away from their mission for a few days... sh... don't tell anyone! Mark gets here tonight and everyone else got here yesterday. We had so much fun together yesterday. We went to the boys favorite hamburger joint downtown called "Dicks" and had greasy hamburgers. Yum! Then we had great teriyaki for dinner and went to visit my Aunt Doreen. After we got back we played a killer game of Hearts! That's our family game.... it's a sad occasion, but so fun to see all my family. I love them!

Happy Easter! I feel so bad that I am away from my kids and husband today! I miss them! 

I will write more late.... got to go eat Easter dinner!

Spring Break!

I'm in Utah... The boys and I drove up to Utah on Friday afternoon. We are staying with my sister Cindy and we are having a great time. Saturday I got to go with Cindy to their Stake Relief Society conference. It was great. Then My parents came down from Salt Lake and we went to the dollar theatre. We saw Enchanted and the older boys saw I am Legend. Enchanted is such cute movie! We wish we had dollar theaters in Vegas!! Only in Utah...

Sunday morning we got up VERY early and drove up to Salt Lake to go to my parents ward. church starts at 7:30am... so we got up at 5:45 to leave at 6:30 and this is all Utah time, so it was an hour earlier for us! yuck... but worth it! They meet in the Joseph Smith Building with all the Temple Square missionaries. It was pretty amazing. There were about 200 sister missionaries from all over the world and 100 senior couples. It was an amazing sight and the spirit was very strong. I can see why my parents are loving their mission so much! It is always fun to hear them talk about all the sisters, they love them so much! All the asian sisters sang "I am a child of God", a verse in Korean, Japanese and Chinese then the first verse again in english. It was so sweet. After the meeting we walked over to the tabernacle and watched the "Spoken Word". It was great. The boys weren't real excited about it, but I enjoyed it.

Then last night Todd and his family came over and so did Katherine and the kids. It was fun to visit with the family! We are sad that John and Ashley couldn't make it with us! The kids had fun together.

We are off shopping today and then up to Heber to see Todd's family and play in the snow! Tanner is dyeing to play in the snow. happy spring break!

Best and Worst..

Every night at dinner we go around the table and tell each-other the "best" thing that happened that day and the "worst" thing that happened that day. So I thought I would share a few of those things with you all from time to time....

Here is my best and worst from yesterday...

Best: It's spring here in Vegas! Look at what I jogged through yesterday. I had to stop and look up and enjoy the beauty! It was breathtaking.

Worst: I looked down at my wedding ring and one of my little diamonds was gone! So sad... I love my ring! John picked it out all by himself 20 years ago on the 18th of this month. John proposed to me with this ring almost exactly 20 years ago! The "worst " for today is that it's going to cost $400 to get it fixed!

Spokane getaway!

John and I spent the weekend in Spokane, WA. A few weeks ago John won 2 round trip tickets on a radio station anywhere Southwest airlines flies. We thought about going to New York, Florida and many other cities.... but decided it would be a blast to go visit friends in Spokane. John hadn't been back since the summer after we moved. So, it was a big change for him. Our little city of Liberty Lake, Wa. has changed a lot in 4 years! We flew in on Thursday night and spent the night at our good friends the Julians. It was so fun to see Stacy & Geof and their cute kids. Stacy had just gotten back from Simple Scrapbook magazine meetings in SLC and they had taken personality tests (click on this link to take it)... so she had us take it and then we spent the evening evaluating what the answers meant! It was fun. Mine was right on, Johns was a little off, but pretty close.

Friday morning we went up to Mt. Spokane and went skiing. It was a Beautiful day! They've had a yucky winter, so we got lucky with a blue sky day and lots of snow. There was hardly anyone up there, so we got on every chair lift without waiting for one person! Some hills we went down, we didn't see a person! It was so peaceful and fun. I can't tell you how many times we said "it's so pretty". We miss the mountains and green. My digital camera ran out of batteries after 4 pictures and the little store didn't have any batteries, so we had to settle with a disposable camera!

We got home from skiing and spent some time at Stacy's and she made us some yummy salsa! Then we went to dinner with our good friends Dave and Sheryl Demars. It was fun to catch up with them.

Saturday I got up and went with Stacy and Donna Downey to a scrapbook class. For my non-scrapbook friends.... Donna and Stacy are huge celebrities in the scrapbook world! They both fly all over the world teaching classes. I remember when Stacy first called Donna to publish her work in Simple Scrapbooks... that was the beginning of a big career for Donna. It was a great class and I realized it was the first time I ever had to pay for a class.... I usually went as Stacy's assistant and got in free! It worth the money and I made a fun album.

Saturday afternoon we went to see Sheryl and Dave's new house out in the country. It was so pretty out there. They have deer and moose that roam their property! crazy...

We went to dinner with the Gummersall's Saturday night. We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant and had had delicious Carne Asada. No one makes it like them in Vegas... we miss it!

Then that night our friends the Guinns had a little party for us. It was so fun to catch up with so many of our old friends! Thanks Megan for hosting it!

I made a little video of our weekend... enjoy. I made it in iPhoto and the titles weren't so big there... now they are huge and you can barely see the pictures... I will try to redo it later...

It was so great to getaway with John and spend some quality time together! We love & miss our dear friends in Spokane, but as we flew into Vegas, we knew we were home! The kids survived us being gone... they even cleaned the house before we got home!

Good Company!

Two of John's sisters were able to come to visit this weekend. It was so fun to catch up with them and see our new nephew Caden. Cathi came up from Mesa to go to The Phantom of the Opera with our niece's Sam and Stephanie from Idaho. John's sister, Barbara's daughters. Since they were going to be in town for the show, John's sister Edie and Husband Luke came up from CA with their 2 boys, Carter and Caden. They just adopted cute little Caden a month ago. So it was our first time seeing him. What a cute little boy! We fought over who was going to hold him. Tanner begged all weekend for a little brother or sister. He kept telling me that we needed one more! I told him I am way too old!

We were happy that Sam and Stephanie were able to come over for a few hours to visit. They have another aunt on the other side of their family that they stayed with. We begged them to come over on their way out of town because some of us were at Youth Conference all weekend and didn't get to see them, when they all went our to dinner on Saturday night.

I love having family visit! Late nights playing games, catching up on what everyone is up too and lots of food and fun!

Wow...

Youth Conference is over.... I am feeling very overwhelmed today. I feel so full with happiness that it went so well. I just got home from testimony meeting and WOW. We are in good hands, the youth that will lead the church someday are amazing. They are so strong, they have such a strong understanding of the gospel at such a young age. It blows me away. I am so grateful that my kids have such strong friends and good examples in our stake. It is such a privilege to work with such amazing kids. I am lucky. Yes, it's a lot of work, but so worth it. Sometimes I feel guilty that I have this calling and others are missing out on so many wonderful experiences that I get to have. 

Friday night we had Brandon Doman speak to the kids. He is the quarter-back coach at BYU and a great speaker. He spoke about being Steadfast and Immovable in the gospel.  He told some great stories about his football career and how important it is be "good mormons" and to follow the real "sports stars". He pointed to the posters hanging of all the bishops and stake leaders and told them that they are the ones to follow, not the people who are usually on the sports illustrated covers.

It was great. Then we had a dance and the kids had a good time. I realized that I am getting old, the music was so loud!

Saturday morning things didn't go completely as planned and we had a little stress and drama, but it all worked out. We had invited over 4000 foster families to bring the foster kids to a "Field day" put on by our youth. We only had 2 families respond to our invitation. It was so sad. The committee was very disappointed. But it turned out to be ok. We still met at the school that had a big field and we spent the morning picking up trash around the school and making sack lunches. (we had planned on feeding all the little kids lunch, so we had bread, chips, water, and fruit to make them sandwiches.) So we used all the lunch makings and made lunches and sent a group of kids downtown to feed the homeless. They said it went well. It felt good to do some service. Then we split the kids into 4 groups and played all the field games that we had planned to play with the kids. It was a blast. Many of the kids brought friends, so it was a good missionary opportunity. We got all the leaders out to play with them and the kids enjoyed just playing with each other and their leaders. It was fun for the kids to see the stake president and his counselors out playing kickball with them. The kids got to see that they are fun, great men and they don't live in their suits. We actually had one foster family show up for the field day. The youth saw them walking up and quickly got name tags on the two boys and had them out playing games before the leaders could do anything!!! it was so cool. Then the leaders had a great conversation with the man that brought them, he stayed all day and he was so impressed with the youth. We said he would like to go to church today... i hope he does.

Then last night we had "stadium food" for dinner. Hot dogs, hamburgers, nachos, chips and cookies. It didn't sound real healthy to me, but it was sure easy to clean up and the kids planned it and loved it. After dinner we had a talent show and it was great. Some amazing talent in our stake. 

Overall, it was a great experience. I learned a lot from my leaders, both the youth and the adults.  My leaders have been teaching me that we need to let the youth do the leading and we are there to help and advise them. Not take over... that is a hard one. It's so hard to let go and see them make mistakes.  But that is how they learn and become great leaders. I guess that is how we all grow, by learning from our mistakes and learning from others. Sorry, I don't mean to be preaching today, just feeling the spirit and feel like I need to write down my thoughts.