My Nobel Prize Awaits

Another hour and the year 2008 will be over.
Strange isn't it? How slowly the time drags by when we are children but races by faster and faster every year that we are adults. I've been pondering this for a while now and I think I may have the answer figured out. Imagine that........One of Life's Greatest Mysteries solved by little old me!!
I'm sure to get the Nobel Prize for this brilliant school of thought. All of you will need to spread the word for me of course after all I don't think you can nominate yourself, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility....I could win it could happen.
So here it is...wit and wisdom for the ages straight from the mind of me and my little brain to you dear reader.
It's simple really
The older we are, the more people we come into contact with. So the longer we live the more friends we make and when they are gone the more people we miss. God makes the time fly on purpose so the waiting to see them again isn't completely unbearable.
Did I mention it was 2 years today that the Frog left?

On the 7th Day of Christmas......

No swans were a swimming since they'd freeze their butts right off.

Just got back from the Taylors where we had dinner and listened to a lovely guitar concert by Aaron and his friend Char a Sister Missionary that served in Uraguay with him. She's only been playing for about 5 months she said but she sang us 4 songs that she wrote and they were so beautiful!!! Aaron sang a song too then they moved to the piano in the living room.

I have to say that the Drama that is my life continued right on thru the Holiday. But it was a really really wonderful holiday all the same.

I told Blane that it was the most fun since 1987 when the whole family came to Utah and Baby Sis stepped on Blane's head during the annual Santa Sneak. ( a time honoured tradition in the Nelson household)

The power went out on Christmas Day just as we sat down to open gifts. Thankfully, when it happened the turkey was cooked thru and waiting to be carved. We just went ahead and had fun anyway. The youngest was S, so she wore the shirt and played Santa, passing out all the gifts. She was so busy that she didn't even notice the unwrapped gift Santa left for her....a BAB named Holly Noel Bunnyrarebit! She took it everywhere with her from then on. LOL She may be 12 but she's still a little girl.

The snow from Christmas Eve just kept on coming down. Real blizzard conditions. Not hard at all to convince K & S to stick around a bit longer. We spent most of the morning Friday shoveling out T's van. Thank goodness for neighbours with snowblowers!

They left Saturday the 27th and made it to Surprise, AZ with no major problems except a short detour due to a closed road at Hoover Dam. She was meeting Rigo at the border and then the whole family was heading home to Santiago.

Part of the reason it was so much fun was that I had a bit of unexpected money. So not only did I have enough to buy food for the crowd, there was enough to pay all my current bills and a get a few gifts for everyone. But the best part was on Christmas Eve day. I gave Salina $40 to buy her own gifts for everyone and turned her loose in the store while I read in the car. She spent most of the evening wrapping presents and giggling to herself downstairs. She made cards for all of us, including Lucy to go with our presents. Everyone had little secrets and surprises. So Fun!

Blane was just laughing with glee when he opened his gift from Salina.......she gave him a huge package of SOCKS!!!! His idea of being rich is putting on a brand new pair every day. Julie gave him some too so he will be living like the rich folk do for at least a month.

I 've been thinking tonight about the Frog (Meredith gave me a beautiful FROG Pin) tommorrow it will be two years....... I was able to keep my date in the Celestial Room with him on Saturday. TK and I went and did a session in the Jordan River Temple. It was so special and so lovely.......I literally felt him there beside me as I was in the Prayer Circle with a young man who had just gotten his mission call. How I miss Steve!

All in all everyone had a lovely Christmas surrounded by LOVE, hugs, good food, a blanket or two and a ton of snow.

An Up Date

Well some of the Drama has died down K is home from the hospital without having to have major surgery. Yea! She came home with a drain and a lot of antibiotics. I'll take her in tommorrow to have that removed.
M flew home and made it there alive and just before the Spokane airport closed again because of the storm. They've got 14+ NEW inches on the ground and more coming everyday.
Lucy is having a lot of fun with all these people to play with and pay attention to her. She gives out kisses to one and all and will play fetch for hours. She is also sleeping around with everyone upstairs and trying hard to be fair and give everyone a chance at warm feet. J couldn't take her being so cuddly and jumping on him in the middle of the night cuz he moved off the couch and has slept downstairs the last few nights.
All in all I think we are ready for Christmas.

Drama, More Drama

Is it just me or does life tend to interupt your plans too?
Let me begin by explaining that I knew going in that this was going to be one of my more interesting weeks this year. Little did I know how interesting!!
Trees aren't decorated, presents are NOT even wrapped, let alone mailed....... though I do think thay are all purchased. At least they better be since I'm out of $$$$.
Sunday night my cousin K and her daughter S were coming thru on their way home to Mexico. They didn't get here til 2am because of the storm we got hit with but they made it. She had literally been driving almost 24 hrs straight in snow wind and sleet so I convinced her to hang around another day and rest a bit before trying to drive on to Arizona. We got hold of Blane and her nephew C and met up for dinner.
She collapsed and passed out at the restraunt before our food even got there and we had to rush her to the hospital!! K was screaming in pain in the front seat, S was crying and scared in the back seat, I'm white knuckle driving in the dark with a ton of traffic on I-15. I hate all those headlights! It should also be noted that I was most definitely breaking the speed limit.
Why is every ER hurry up and wait?
They finally checked her in with a temp of 105, vomiting, chills and an incredible amount of pain. An abcessed and infected ovarian cyst is what they are pretty sure caused all of this and after 3 days of full bore IV antibiotic's with no relief they are going to operate today.
In the meantime TK and her kids arrive tonite for the Holidays. My trees are not done being decorated, beds aren't made up again, laundry is not done, packages NEED to be mailed and groceries bought. Is it acceptable to just hit Wal-mart and BUY new sheets rather than take the time do the laundry?
I also had 2 dr appoinments with labs and a trip to the dentist yesterday. Miss Lucy Belle had shredded paper all over the place and even got into the YW gifts which I'd left in a bag on the bed. This was apparently much to much temptation because there was a lovely trail to her water bowl and back. I haven't returned Baby Sis's calls all week. I'm on day 2.6 of a killer migraine and my eyes are messed up so no cards mailed yet. It's snowing.
And the Cherry on Top (literally) Aunt C needs a cute verse to go with her neighbour gifts of ChokeCherry Syrup.
Stop the World I want to get off!!

My How He's Grown!

I had the wonderful opportunity of attending church in K & H's ward today to listen to their son J's report on his mission. What an amazing young man he has turned into! How blessed am I to have him as a member of my family. It was a bit of a coincidence that as I was driving over to the church this morning I was listening to the Sounds of the Sabbath on 106.5 and the song was "His Image". J truly has recieved His image in his countenance. The love that he has for the people of Guadalajara really just shines on his face as he speaks of them. I noticed afterward that a few of his former companions came to the church to hear his report. One introduced his new bride and asked about one of their families they had taught and another who had only been home a month was there too.
J is truly his father's son. Like H he is outgoing, charming, very personable and enjoys being in a crowd having fun. Now after this mission experience he just radiates light! How proud his Uncle Steve must be of him.
Over to the house a bit later, his uncle K was asking him to talk in Spanish. He finally said a few words about L. It was pretty funny. I miss the days when the whole family spoke and the missionary bore his testimony in the language of their mission. J thanked me for the pages I did for his album. I'm so glad he is home and I get to witness the wonderful man he is becoming.

Deal or No Deal, A New Name or How my mouth ran away with my commonsense.....

You all are going to have to help me come up with a new name. The Smurfmobile doesn't fit the FIT anymore. This FIT is Blackberry Pearl rather than Ocean Pearl Blue. Smurf-Mobile is being detailed at Stockton to Malone Honda and getting ready for a new relationship.





Why????


Funny you should ask.....





Ever done something just for the Hell of it? Maybe you are doing it for one of the following reasons while waiting for your current car to get it's oil change, tires rotated and a new tire mounted and balanced cuz you noticed a weird bulge that didn't look good on that one there......


a) you have an hour+ to kill so you took a look at the new model to see if they fixed all your peeves with the one you were driving


b) as fast as you read, the book you brought will be done in 20 minutes unless you actually read the book group discussions at the end


c) your Little Imp of Mischief was just daring you to yank someone's chain. So you made a bunch of crazy @$$ demands and conditions that no Credit Manager in their right mind would ever go for so you figured you were safe


d) you were thirsty, wanted a soda, had no change and knew agreeing to a test drive would get you one for free


e) all of the above





The correct answer dear readers is E) ALL of the above





For the record this was my list of requirements to the question of "Well what will it take for you to drive this baby home?"





1- Absolutely not one thin dime out of my pocket. (My current savings balance is about $25 and checking has just a bit more than $100)..... this was where I thought I'd be laughed out of the showroom and back to the Service Lounge


2- Payments on the new vehicle were the same amount as I was paying for the Smurfmobile.


3- Interest rate was below 6% and loan could not exceed 5 years


4- Dealer's Bumper to Bumper Extended Warranty on top of Honda's New Car 3yrs/36000 was included at NO ADDITONAL cost so I could drive the new one for 70,000 miles with no worries. After all I'd paid good money for something it turns out I didn't need since there was still 16800 miles left on the Manufacturer's warranty on Smurfy........ I thought sure this was going to be a deal breaker


5- Finally because I'd already paid for the new tire and the cabin filter at the Service Desk so I wanted a check cut back to me for that $234 if I was trading Smurfy in.....after all they would have done it anyway if they had just took him back "As Is" when I'd brought him in





Things went back and forth a bit, I just kept reading my storybook and sipping my Free Pepper Pop and kept saying "I told you what it would take" til the pagey thing announced Smurfy was all bathed and ready to go. Then I got up, gathered my stuff and headed for the door and said to my Salesman " Thanks for trying anyway" and then the Credit Manager guy came tearing out of the office and said "Wait!! Wait!! we can do this entire deal with this as a payment.....$10 more per month" with EVERY other freaky stupid dumbass demand of mine was met.



Or do you think it had something to do with the fact that there was NOBODY else even in the showroom and 5 salesmen were just standing about doing nothing the entire time?

So now I'm driving Miss Blackberry Pearl 2009 which sounds a bit more "growed up" but is still just as freaking fun to drive, has an armrest, better storage and is safer since the back headrests aren't blocking your view. OOooohh and it locks my doors automatically when you go over 10mph so Patty won't have to keep reminding me.


For other details of the differences between the 2 model years go to http://honda.com/

The Reason for the Season

http://www.onesolitarylifemovie.com/

This is so beautiful. My friend Vickie sent it to me. What a wonderful way to start out a Sunday morning. Makes me feel very tender hearted. In part because memories of the Frog have been very close to me all week. I've heard from a ton of people who have seen his Christmas tree this past week.
Old friends and past ward family members have called off and on all week. You just don't realize how many lives you touch while schleping and slogging thru your own.

An Un-FROG-getable Christmas

I spent all of Monday with the Firth family and friends at the Southtown Expo Center setting up a Christmas Tree dedicated to MY Frog, aka Stephen. It turned out wonderfully!! I'm so grateful for all the efforts of the ward that went into making it so beautiful.

For awhile my house looked like I was going thru one of the plagues of Egypt. There were frogs.....literally everywhere!
The Relief Society sisters made clay frogs that were hung on the tree. The YW coloured and crowned the wooden frogs, tried to make a garland and tied up an entire bolt of ribbon into bows. The Primary Activity Day girls made rock frogs on lily pads that we 'floated' on the pond. I did the letters you see under the tree, bought everything that Ikea had that was Frog Prince stuff and turned shower curtain hooks into ornaments. I found some lovely Frog Prince cookie molds online and I highlighted them with help from Jenny. They were going to be out of clay then painted but the clay wouldn't dry so the actual molds were used and we did them right there at the Festival. All in all it was fabulous fun!! I have felt very close to my Frog as I've been working on all this.

Then yesterday I got an email from Steve's old companion, Elder Patrick Cavener who served in the Tampa Florida Mission with him. He had come across a few old photos of Stephen and sent them along. It was a wonderful Frog Kiss straight from Heaven.
Steve and Elder Cavener

He looks terribly young doesn't he? These were taken in 1978.

This one is my favourite! This is just how he looked when I met him just a few months later.

Oh how I miss him.