Another Week

I forgot to post these two pictures from when we went to the Strawberry Days parade.

 

This week's exercise included yoga, two nights of racquetball in a row, and then swimming at Brittney's again. Probably one of my most favorites times there so far. A lot of her family came down too and we raced in the pool and I spent lots of time underwater and swimming with Chelsea, Brittney's down-syndrome sister. She swims like a dolphin and can hold her breath twice as long as me! Of course, we watched Veronica Mars afterward...

 

After racquetball on Thursday, and a thorough house-cleaning, I searched the closets to see if I could find Jon's scriptures and patriarchal blessing. I didn't have any success on that front, but I did score in finding some old pictures! I loved the age progression on some of these.

 

I'm guessing this is high school graduation.

In the mission field.

College graduation?

 

Grandpa and grandma Johnson...before she
became known as grandma Backlund. Grandma
told me that she gave grandpa a morphine shot, then
he got up out of his sick bed and they went down to
the Church where these pictures were being taken.
He died not long after this picture was captured.

Today, I sat with Jon during sacrament meeting. He met with the bishop after Church and then came to dinner. Lori cooked for all of us and it was delish as usual. He had to leave after dinner, but that didn't prevent Lori, Cody and I from playing a little Tetris. Then I headed over to the DeRoest's to play games with them. It was a good day!



Exercise Time!

I did pretty well this week exercising. I went with Amy on Wednesday to play racquetball again (that's twice in one week!) and then spent the night Thursday at Brittany's again for more swimming and Veronica Mars. I'm feeling toned. HA! Yeah right!

 

Stretching out in the pool after laps.

I got back to Pleasant Grove late Friday night after the latest VM showing. That combined with my crazy schedule since before the seminar meant I REALLY wanted to finally have one morning where I could sleep in! But, I got up early once again. I met Lori and co. down by the Allstate office for the Strawberry Days Parade. Jon brought Brittany and Beau down so we could all watch together. After, I ran home to catch up with my previously made plans. I went to the temple with Amy and Jen Felix then ran home to change so we could go to dinner and to see Man of Steel afterward. The Man of Steel wasn't so super afterall. :-(

 

Today there was a worldwide missionary broadcast from the mission president's seminar down in Provo. I got to see my old boss, Kent Arrington, on the screen as he sat with all the new mission presidents. Judy Bird Brineholt was also on the screen during one of the videos that was shown during Elder Andersen's talk. She was part of a sacrament congregation. Missionaries are now going to be allowed to use the internet to help in their proselyting efforts. I've been told here at Church headquarters that this will include iPads which will be sent out to missionaries for their use. Several missions have already been part of the pilot program to see how it helps in this age of social media. I invited Jon over to play Rook tonight but he couldn't make it. Lori, Cody, and I played a few rounds of Tetris instead.

Cute Texts

Have I mentioned before that my parents have joined the electronics bandwagon? My mom was texting me last week all in Spanish, and can blog, Facebook, etc. (or as grandma called it this week, Spacebook-I believe she called it that as all the pictures and comments are out there in space somewhere-but she really thought that was the name! =D). Anyway, this week my dad sent me some super cute texts. I wanted to document it so I don't lose them down the road sometime.

 

June 15, 2013 - 9:53 p.m.  I received your Father's Day card. It was very special what you said. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and for being such a wonderful daughter.

 

June 17, 2013 - 9:33 a.m.   At breakfast today I sat looking at your Father's Day card and a flood of sweet memories came back to me when I used to take you by the hand and take you for a walk or help you go somewhere. Thank you for being such a sweet daughter. Love you.

 

June 17, 2013 - 9:47 a.m.   It sure is a special card. I will always save it to remind me of you.

 

June 17, 2013 - 9:47 a.m.   I love you. It is like we are kindred spirits. It is like we have known each other forever. Oh, we have!

 

I received those last three texts while at work in my Division meeting. It was hard not to cry in front of everyone! But I managed to eek by. I sure love my parents and am proud of them for serving a mission!

Oh, and my friend Laralynn sent me this picture today. As it is completely me, I had to include it:

 

Celebrations All Around!

Kim is in town this week so she and Karen came up to have lunch with me on Friday. We went to City Creek to Johnny Rockets. Afterward I took them on a tour of the 4th floor so they could see where I work and with whom and then I took them to the 26th floor so they could look off the observation decks.

 

After work, I drove to Heber so I could be there to help Nathan out as he did the fundraiser garage sale for his Eagle Scout project. We scouted out the items, price tagged them, and pulled quite a few things out onto the driveway so we would have less to do in the morning when it started. I dreamed about it ALL night! I kept thinking people were coming by to steal stuff, or that I wouldn't wake up in time. It was all for naught as it turned out to be really successful. It was supposed to run from 8 to 11 a.m. I opened the garage doors at 6:45 a.m. to finish pulling out the remaining items for display, and someone stopped by right then. It pretty much went from then on until about 1 p.m. The majority of items sold for $0.25, $0.50, or $1, so it's incredible that he earned over $800! That was more than double his goal so it looks like he'll be able to buy more than just stuffed bears for Utah Valley Regional Medical Centers pediatric unit. I think they're going to get legos and other assorted toys too. After the sale was over, we convinced Brett to join all of us in the pool (a $50 yard sale item) that they have set up in their back yard. Then I played the boys a little Just Dance 4 before heading home in time to meet with Amy and Amanda Felix and Amy Sawaya. We went over more of our South Africa plans.

 

Nathan found some shirts at the yard sale
with the sleeves ripped out. He thought it
was cool to look 'hillbilly,' aka white-trash.

Jenny had to finally tell him to change out of this one
because the colors collision made her head hurt. Agreed!

Jenica Humphries asked that I substitute for her in nursery on Sunday. I didn't agree until I found out Deborah was going to be in there then felt like it would be okay. I better not be on her contact list now though for frequent substitutions!

 

I had reserved a racquetball court for tonight with Amy Felix but she had to cancel. I was able to get Melissa Morris Larsen out to play with me and it went well. I got in some game time with each arm so they're being exercised equally. She didn't like that I beat her left-handed and spotting her over 10 point. What does she expect though when she hasn't played much before though!

 

Mom and dad had some cool missionary experiences this past week were they found a family interested in learning more about the Church and gospel. The 18 year old son had been fasting for five days looking for 'guidance'. Looks like he found it! Some missionaries in their zone were praying on Saturday that they'd be able to help prepare an investigator for baptism on the following Saturday. They got the answer they were going to have a baptism that day and that they needed to fill the font. They went down and filled the font and then prayed to know who was ready to be baptized. There was a guy named Junior who'd been attending Church and had had the discussions and when they called him, he agreed to be baptized!

Scheduled Down-time?

Grandma commented again to me this week that is seems like I'm always busy. I could see how this week gives that impression. Racquetball Monday night, my Primary presidency meeting Tuesday night, eyelashes Wednesday night (followed by time upstairs w/Lori while Amy and Shay were there waiting so we could play Just Dance 4 which didn't work out), then my department Summer Social tonight at the Conference Center. I went to the tour ahead of time and since I'm friends with the Events Coordinator over there now due to the Recorder Seminar, I fell into old habits and helped him get the group of people from one location to another automatically. I got to see some space that I hadn't ever before because the doors just happened to be open when we walked down the GA hallway under the Conference Center. We got to see the small cafeteria/break room and the makeup room, then also the rest areas with couches, TVs, and small rooms with beds for the First Presidency and Twelve to use between sessions of Conference. After dinner, which was held in the Friberg Gallery (Book of Mormon Gallery), we moved to the Theatre and T.C. Christensen spoke to us about some of the films that he has created such as 17 Miracles and Ephraim's Rescue. Now I need to go see that movie! I managed to squeeze in some time at the Pacini's afterall and went up there for a little Veronica Mars after the Social got over at 8 p.m. I'm spending the night so I don't have a late commute. We're already scheduled again for next Thursday and Friday!

 

Centerpieces from the Summer Social

 

Back on Track

Well, I'm finally to the breathing point at work again where I'm almost caught up on my work that got behind during the seminar. Feels good not to be so worried about people waiting on me for their requests.

 

I got home very late Friday night from Brittany's house so I had a nice lie in on Saturday and then got up in time to meet Amy and Amanda Felix for lunch at Los Hermanos. We've finally decided on our international trip location for this year. We're looking at South Africa! Yay!

 

Jenny's family came down to connect a new trailer hitch to Dana's van which they will be borrowing for their trip to Nauvoo in July. I went over to chat with all of them during the process.  Lori and Cody set up the ping pong table in the garage that night and Tyler Humphries came over to play.

 

Lily was active and smiling at everyone, then
the next thing we knew, she conked out on Dana.

 

I made the loooooooong drive up to Clinton, Utah yesterday to see Kent and Michelle Arrington speak in Church before they leave for their mission in Concepcion. Edgardo and his wife, Pat, convinced me to go to the house with them afterward to eat and say goodbye again. I'm glad I did. Kent and Michelle both gave me big hugs goodbye. Maybe I'll visit Chile during the next three years? =D

 

Tonight I played some more racquetball with Amy Felix. I have to get my exercise in somehow this week as it's a busy schedule every night and I don't think I'm going to be able to swim at Brittany's.

Swim Season is Back

The swim season is back! The Pacini's pool has officially opened in Salt Lake for the summer. I drove myself to work yesterday instead of taking the van pool so that I could join Brittany for a dip in the pool. It felt good to finally swim laps again in my favorite pool (the length is perfect so I don't get tired and have to stop for a breather, I can swim straight the whole time). I didn't wear goggles because of my last pool experience with Amy Felix at the AF Pool when I got dizzy and sick. I got dizzy again yesterday, but it only lasted for two laps and then I was fine again and could swim like normal. After, we all watched a few episodes of Veronica Mars. We're going to watch all of the seasons in time for the new movie to come out which is in production. I spent the night afterward and will be going to their house again after work for more swimming and watching. We'll do this again next week too.

 

Funny experience while in the pool. I was putting my hair up into my swim cap and Brittany's friend Erin was also there with us. She exclaimed all of a sudden, 'You're armpits look AMAZING!' The way she said it was so startling and Britt and I just cracked up. Of course when someone says something like that, you immediate drop your arms. I still needed to put my hair up, but it was weird now knowing someone was checking out my underarms and admiring them... But as she said, they really are amazing. ;-)  Let's hear it for laser hair removal where I never have to shave anymore!

 

I do miss being in downtown SL all the time and the views there.

 

Evening Excursions

Kent Arrington my old boss had his farewell luncheon this week before he leaves to be mission president in Concepcion Chile. Loved when he and Bob Dunford, my other old boss who is now the recorder at the Salt Lake Temple, tried on each others coats! I miss these guys!




















When talking with Grandma earlier this week on Monday, she mentioned that it might be fun to go to the movies or out to eat sometime. I told her some of the plans I already had scheduled for the week and her response was that she didn't realize I was so busy and thought I just sat around watching television every night after work. Just for that I had to squeeze her in! Not Tuesday though because I already had scheduled to go play racquetball with Amy. We're working on being more active this summer. We each took a turn getting hit by the ball (not on purpose of course) and I won one game righthanded, two games lefthanded, then she won the third game against my lefthand when we only went to 7. I'd meant to go back to my right, but had hurt my right shoulder on a return serve so I stuck with the left. That right shoulder joint has been aching ever since!

 

Tonight I went with grandma to dinner. We got to use the remaining $6 from a gift card mom and dad had leftover at the Pizza Factory. It was a wild night out on the town...with us back in by 6:30. I could have double-booked myself if I'd known we'd be done so soon! It did allow me some time to have a text conversation back and forth with mom in Spanish. Glad she's practicing!

 

I started riding the van pool to work this week. It means I get up an extra 15 minutes earlier each day and I get home 15 minutes later. It's been nice to finally get some scripture study in on the drive each morning though.

 

Beauty Parlor

I took Lori on Thursday to the Royal Nails in Pleasant Grove for a birthday pedicure. I like that place as they massage your feet and legs as well as doing a parafin wax treatment and free flowers for your toenails. I went darker on the color than usual, but I think my feet are so pretty when paired with my new Alegria sandals. The cushion on these feel so good to walk on!

 

 

 

Friday night, Amy and I went for what was supposed to be a quick bite before she had to go to a wedding reception. That got canceled so after our Taco Amigo, we went back to my place for a movie. Love that Nottinghill!

 

I randomly decided today that since I needed to color my hair this weekend anyway, that I should have Melissa Morris Larson do it and a hair cut at the same time. I love that I can call her and she is always ready to do anything, anytime, anywhere. I drove out to her new home in Saratoga Springs and I have found my future home location. The housing development where she lives is on the other side of Utah Lake and has fabulous views of the lake up toward Mount Timpanogos. I loved it! I also loved the cut and color. We couldn't do just that of course and also ended up going to eat and to the movie-Jack the Giant Slayer.