Ready for 2012

Well, here it is New Year's eve.  I'm ready for the new beginning of a new year.  This year has been wonderful and full.  This  next year already promises wonderful things to come.  Our youngest son is engaged and we will be having a wedding in March.  And not to be too materialistic, but this week my sweet husband is going on an adventure with me.  For a couple of years now I've been wanting a new vehicle.  I would go online and research different SUV's and read about them.  Well we found one online this past week in Pennsylvania.  So we will be flying out there on Thursday night and then having a road-trip home hoping to make it home Saturday before my youngest daughter leaves for the Senior Hop (The Senior Prom).  So if the rest of the year is anything like the beginning - look out because we're in for some fun!!

Happy New Year's to Everyone!!

Christmas blessings

Christmas is a wonderful time of year.  I love how you see the caring, giving, loving, kind side of people.  As the Relief Society President in our ward I'm blessed to be a part of the giving and sharing that people do.  I often get calls asking me to deliver gifts to families that are struggling from those who wish to remain anonymous.  It really touches my life.  It is incredible to see the love given and the gratitude from those that receive.  This is truly one of the blessings of my calling and for that I am so grateful. 

I hope you all are blessed with a very blessed Christmas!!

Failed at Being Superwoman

Here it is 3 days before Christmas and I feel like the biggest failure.  This is the time of year when you're supposed to be happy and cheerful and I just can't do it today.  I had to tell my son's that I couldn't be their secretary anymore.  I just can't do a 40-hour a week job with the other jobs that I have.  I feel like I've totally let them down.  They were so gracious about it, but as a mom I guess I feel like I should be able to do it all and I just can't.  I've failed at being superwoman!  I can no longer stake a claim to that name.  I guess I'm getting old or something!!

Mindy Gledhill and my Sweetheart an evening to remember!

So all this last week my husband has been planning and scheming.  He wouldn't tell me what we were doing or where we were going.  He just told me that Thursday night was our date night and to be prepared to leave at 4:00 p.m.  Well, I was set and ready to go when he got here from work.

We headed north up into Idaho, (which isn't really very far from our home), but I was totally shocked because we usually head to Salt Lake or Ogden.  So he told me that we were headed to Pocatello.  That's only an hour from where we live and I've really never been there and so my adventure began.

Sam took me to dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  That's one place I can eat gluten-free and that my sweetheart enjoys.  It was fun and gave us time to wind down and talk.  After dinner, he told me that we needed to go to Idaho State University.  The campus is located in South Pocatello.  I could not for the life of me guess where we were going.  I had made several guesses, but they were all wrong.  So when we walked into the Jensen Proformance Hall on campus, (which by the way is beautiful) I saw the sign pointing to the Mindy Gledhill concert with the Teton Orchestra and I was elated!!  I can't tell you how excited I was.  And then to top it all off, Sam had gotten tickets for 3rd row seats right in the middle.  I felt like I could have reached out and touched Mindy!  I've loved her music for a long time and couldn't wait for the concert to begin!!

Mindy came out in her famous red dress that was refurbished and you can read about that here.  I couldn't believe it.  I'd read about her dress and was so excited to see it in real life.  Sometimes it seems like the things we read about online are just that online and not real.  But here she was in real life.  And she looked so cute! 

She sang several of her new Chrismas songs off her new album Wintermoon.  I love that CD.  I've listened to it over and over.  I don't tell my husband how often I listen to her music, because her already thinks I'm crazy. 

I love that she talked about the songs she sang and the people behind them.  She told how she'd been writing "It's all about your heart" when she heard about Stephanie Nielson of the Nienie dialogs and her accident.  Being friends with Stephanie made it easy for Mindy to finish this song.  When she started to sing it, I got teary eyed. 

Mindy sings a song that one of my dear friends played while her son was in the hospital battling cancer and when she sang it - again I got tears in my eyes.  Her songs touch a cord with me.  They hold a place in my heart because I listen to them so often that I relate them to times in my life that have special meaning.  I know this sounds stupid but I felt like one of those screaming, crying teenagers you see in videos when the beatles used to come out of a building!  I didn't cry or scream, but I don't usually get emotional when I see someone I like perform and it was a strange sensation.  It was a fun, enjoyable night! 

The Teton orchestra did an amazing job playing for Mindy.  They sounded beautiful and added to the great sounds of the evening.  Her band members were cute too.  They had all dressed in retro outfits and they were good at what they did. 

Some things I found out at the concert  - Mindy is married and has 3 little boys.  I didn't know this and had always secretly harbored the fantasy that she would someday meet my son that is single and marry him! (Well that dream is dashed for two reasons - (1) Mindy is married and (2) my son just got engaged to a beautiful girl from Arizona)  I couldn't be happier on both accounts!  Life always seems to workout how it should.  I also found out that Mindy is older than I always supposed she was.  I thought she was this young teenage girl - thus the above fantasy.  However, I think she's in her late 20's, but to her credit she is so vivacious that she still seems young and carefree!!

Now to end this post, because I think it's the longest one I've ever written, I must state that I was with the most amazing companion on earth!!  I am so grateful for a loving husband that would make secret plans to do something that I would so totally love doing, even though it wasn't his thing.  Though he did enjoy it too, he was willing to do that for me!  I fell even further in love (if that's even possible) with him for his thoughtfulness and caring!  I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful husband!!  I Love him dearly!!  It was a beautiful and thoughtful early Christmas present for me!!

My Life Gone Crazy

This past week, my life has taken a crazy turn.  A couple of weeks ago here in Utah we had a horrible wind storm.  It wreaked havoc for many people, damaging their homes.  

My son owns a roofing company called Cornaby Brothers Roofing.  His brother lived in Arizona and was thinking about doing some work for his brother down there.  Well, when this storm hit our son moved back from Arizona to help his brother here.  After a week I got a call asking if I would help them out and do their scheduling and answering phones as they were both extremely busy and couldn't keep up.  So I told them I'd love to be a part of their world. 

Not only am I now processing loans for a mortgage company (Summit Lending Associates), I am doing secretarial work for Cornaby Brothers Roofing.  So I have gone from a very part-time job to doing a job and a half.  The processing work has been picking up also and soon I expect I'll be working more like two pretty busy jobs.  Needless to say I really need to get my act together and get very organized.  And one of my goals doing this job is to answer the phone with a smile so that people know that we really care and are here to help.

The first day I took phone calls for my son; I'd be on a call and I'd get 2 while I was on that one.  There are so many people who's lives have been touched by this.  Granted there are many people out there scamming and trying to take advantage of people and that makes my heart ache.  But then there are great people like my son's out doing whatever it takes to get roofs back over the heads of people at a minimal cost.  I'm proud to be a part of my son's team.  It will be a challenge for awhile, but it will be so worth the effort. I'm glad we can make a difference in the lives of people.  That is what this season is all about!!

Wonderful Weekends

This weekend has been so enjoyable.  Although it seems to be passing way to quick.  Saturday began with my helping out at my daughter's school.  Our school's Madrigal group does a Christmas program each year where they do a renaissance dinner.  They do so much work  putting so much  effort into the acting and singing and they have a lot of fun doing it.  So I was able to help in the kitchen and enjoy the spirit of the day. 

Then I went to the baptism of my sweet niece Kennan.  She is such a sweet girl.  I talked on the gift of the Holy Ghost that we receive after our baptism.  We then had a family dinner and had time to talk and enjoy each other.  I love family.  There is nothing like the support that we have and I totally enjoy being with my family.  We got to hold and snuggle our grand baby there.  I am so totally besotted by that little cherub.  She has taken my heart and wrapped it about her little fist.

Today we will go to church and enjoy the sweet spirit of our Savior there.  Then later this evening we will enjoy the message that our Prophet has to give us about this wonderful time of year.  I love weekends like this.  I love that I am so blessed and am able to enjoy these times!