Women's Conference

BYU Women's Conference is pretty much my favorite time of the year. This time it was awesome. Pam and I flew up together to Hotel H to be with our BFF Nicole. We have so much fun, staying up all night - relaxing on Black Beauty (her basement couch), giggling, crafting, watching movies, shopping, eating out and being silly that it almost eclipses the actual conference. But not really, the conference is always awesome. If I had blogged about it four months ago, I would have had much more to say I'm sure. But I will say that poor Nicole ended up getting really sick and having her gall bladder out right after we left. Every year - we must match. It is required. This year we got some hoodies at Old Navy. Every year we have a hard time leaving the Marriot Center after the last session. We never want it to end. This year Elder L. Tom Perry was the closing session speaker. Elder Nelson came along for moral support. We were so close to the stage - it was great being so close to two apostles like that.

The most amazing thing to me every year is just being in the general sessions and looking around at 20,000 other Mormon women who are all there for the same reason. We go because we want to be better people, better wives, better mothers, better leaders and better Followers of Christ.

Every year we end up running into someone we know. This year we saw Kelly B. from our ward there with her mom and sister. We also found my BFF from way back - Susie.

She and I have been friends for 25 years! We live in different states, we haven't lived near each other for many years but whenever we get a chance to be together it is like old times. We are not cruising Mill Avenue anymore but we are living the life!

Looking at these pictures is making me weep all over again that I didn't get a BYU brownie the whole time we were there. But, speaking of good food, in honor of my good friend Heather who recently took a job as a lunch lady - I will post a video for all to enjoy.

Going on Four Months

It is true that I haven't blogged in nearly four months. And I really hate posts about why someone hasn't blogged. It is my blog and I'll post when I want! I just can't decide if I want to go back to the end of April and try and catch up or start fresh with some filling in when needed. I'll probably do a little of both.





Today was Nicole's first day of 3rd grade. Devon, Courtney and Morgan all started on Monday. I will post some pictures as soon as Courtney gets time to load them on to the computer. That is totally her job - I'm not even sure I know how to do it - but she does.



In April I did participate in the Pat's Run. I ran with my good friend Shannon. Our goal was to make it in less than an hour and to walk and run an equal amount of time. We did both of those things. We crossed the finish line together with a time of 56 minutes. There were over 15,000 runners - we came in in the low 10 thousands but I like to remind myself that I came in 62nd place in my age division. It was one of the most remarkable things I have ever done in my life. Not because I ran an amazing race or anything (I'm pretty sure the only people behind me were the elderly and the handicapped) but because I did it. Because I loved the feeling of entering that stadium knowing I had done something new. Words can not express the swelling in my chest and the lump in my throat that I feel even now thinking about that day.

Closing In On 200 Posts

I guess I will finish this post that I started on April 20th. Then I will have to try and do some catch up with pictures.

Our two 8th graders were awarded medals at the Gilbert School District's Academic Awards night for students who have maintained a 3.8 or above all year. Courtney actually ended the year with a cumulative GPA of 4.4 and Devon with a 4.2 - seriously, I have no idea where these smart ones came from.

Easter weekend, my dear BFF - Nic came down from Utah to enjoy the sunshine and a Diamondbacks game (her husband is a superfan). Unfortunately it rained and the D-backs lost BUT we did some awesome shopping and got some of the girls together for lunch. It is always a hoot and a half to be with Nicole, I really want her to move back to AZ.

l to r - Pammie, me, Shannon, Nic and Juliet

Continuing with the randomness - one day my Nicole (the 7 year old) decided to build a podium so that she could play primary. My favorite is that she taped a conducting sheet from FHE and a pen to the hanger so she could mark things off as she went.
She invited all of the neighborhood kids in and before you knew it, they were giving talks, reading scriptures and singing primary songs right in the living room. It was pretty awesome.

Nicole the Primary President

Mileage

As I am approaching a big birthday I am thinking about the mileage. I wonder how many miles I have traversed on foot walking through grocery stores, before my marriage I walked through countless airports for my job and then through the streets of France during my mission. I walked to elementary school every single day, rain or shine. I walked to and from Jr. High almost everyday - it was a little over a mile away from our home. For the last 10 years I have woken up early almost every week day to walk 2 - 3 miles. My walking partners have changed but I have loved the walking.

I've never been a runner. I bet I haven't run 1/100th of the miles I have walked but this weekend I will participate in a 4.2 mile charity run. I don't think that I will be able to run the whole thing but I am going to run as much as I can. I did a trial run on Monday and I still can't walk well - I am very sore. But those 4.2 miles will be mileage I will add to my belt with pride.

I know I accrue a lot of mileage in the car. I make countless trips to schools, games, orthodontist/pediatrician/dentist/optometrist's offices, scouts, grocery stores each month. Miles, miles, miles. My suburban recently turned over an impressive number of miles and I took a picture

How are you racking up miles?

When Life Gives You Lemons...

Or more accurately, when your mature, well fertilized lemon tree gives you tons of lemons... You pick and pick and pick. And then you juice and juice and juice. Alan and I juiced 40 quarts of lemon juice. We gave away at least 100 lemons to our neighbors and family and made several pitchers of lemonade for the girls to sell on the street.Courtney and Morgan starting on the low branches. Nicole with one basket of lemons.
Morgan

CourtneyNicole and her friend Andrea made eight dollars in about 20 minutes. Then I got tired of making the lemonade and made them shut their stand down. But they were so cute selling it.

Got any really good lemon recipes?

Santa Rita Senoritas! Ole!

Relief Society Softball is the best! I could write an entire post about why ladies of a certain age should not be out there doing it but I won't. I could tell you about all of the injuries and how with even the biggest hits we could only get to 1st with our "Santa Rita Shuffle" but I won't. I could write about how the Stake Sports Specialist enforced the mercy ruling on last night's games because of how soundly our team trounced the two teams the week before but I won't. I will, however, tell you that I am having the best time ever playing with these ladies. I will tell you that we fill our bleachers with our own families and also families from our ward who just want to come cheer us on. I will also tell you that we bought the bright orange shirts at Walgreens for two dollars a piece - even if we weren't good, we would be intimidating!

UPDATE: go to Julies blog http://wrightmylifeaway.blogspot.com/ for her much more clever post about the team.

Love For Grandpa Mackay

I didn't post at all last week because just as we were getting our lives put back together after our Spring Break extravaganza in Utah, Alan and I got the call and flew back up for his Grandpa's funeral. The trip was fast and furious and freezing but I am so glad we made it. All of the grand kids were there except for one of Alan's young cousins who is on his mission. Alan had a very special relationship with his Grandpa - they shared the same birthday and Alan was the first grandson to go on a mission, to get married and have kids.

The day after Alan and I were engaged - my last grandparent, my Grandma Goodman, died unexpectedly in our home. It was weird for me to be grandparent-less. A few weeks later, Alan and I went to Salt Lake where his parents were throwing us an engagement party. That night, Grandma and Grandpa Mackay took me aside and told me that they had heard about my Grandma and that they were going to be my grandparents so I wouldn't be grandparent-less anymore. In the last 16 years, I can not think of a time that they did not treat me as one of their own.

The funeral was beautiful. Grandpa loved a male chorus and he loved the song Ye Elders of Israel so all of the grandsons and grandsons-in-law sang that. There were bagpipes at the cemetery as well as a military honor guard. We were all freezing but it was so beautiful with all of the trees dusted in snow. The morning of the funeral - Alan had to go out and scrape all of the ice and snow off of his mom's car that we were using. That is my favorite thing to say about living in Arizona - we never have to scrape the sunshine off of our windshields or shovel it off of our walk. It is hard to believe that this is the same backyard and trampoline that the kids were playing on just a week prior. I guess it is harder for us to believe that the weather was so nice the whole time we were there for Spring Break.

Thanks again to Jen and Mike for letting us crash in their basement. It feels like that bedroom down there is ours and we should consider leaving a toothbrush and other essentials down there.