Week in Review 5-1-16

I feel like all I do is talk about how busy I am!  Hopefully when I become a seasoned veteran nursing instructor I won't have to scramble so hard every day trying to pull together all the things that I have to do to make my classes worthwhile to the students!  I feel like I am continually brushing off my friends because I am never home and when I am home I am exhausted!  My poor visiting teachers never can seem to catch up with me.  Hopefully it won't always be this hard.  But, even though it is hard, I can't believe how much I enjoy it.

Monday we headed down to "the house" (Kim's term for his parents' home) to visit with the California Olsens (less Douglas).  Lori had a niece (or nephew) getting married, so the Olsen family was the recipient of a nice visit.  It was so good to see them all!  It is always a happy occasion when the California Olsens are here.  We still call them the California Olsens even though 3 of them are now living in Utah or Idaho going to school and fighting fires during the summer.  Alec recently got engaged to a very cute girl from Idaho named Lexi.  We were able to watch the actual proposal since Lori recorded it.  What a fun memory for them to have forever!  Doug joined the family on Tuesday but I wasn't able to catch up with him this visit.  Hopefully next time!

Joan, Alec, Jody, and Lori

Audrey, Kalel, Taylor

Abby, Alec, Lori, and Shandra

After cramming a week's worth of work into 2 1/2 days I was able to take off for the annual Women's Conference for a much needed spiritual boost.  I rode to work with Robin that day so I could leave my car at home and Marilyn picked me up on the way.  She insisted on taking pictures of me in my office  I LOVE my office, the pictures and knicknacks of tropical beaches feel so comforting when I'm dealing with stressful situations.

We headed to Provo and were able to do a session at the new Provo City Center Temple.  The temple is located where the Provo tabernacle once stood.  A few years ago the tabernacle caught fire and was destroyed. The new temple was built in the same style as the tabernacle with very high ceilings, adorned with wood trims, and with many, many stairs!  To get from the main floor chapel to the celestial rooms I counted 45 steps!  It very beautiful inside and out.

After the temple session we met up with Marilyn's sister, Lyn to celebrate Marilyn's birthday at the Brick Oven.  I got the ravioli and it was YUMMY!

Of course we had to have the restaurant staff sing to Marilyn!  The brought her a yummy chocolate mouse pie.

Women's Conference was awesome, awe-inspiring, outstanding, and wonderful  I had been in a funk for the last few weeks and I was able to pull myself right out of it while at the conference.  The speakers were all wonderful, and of course each one spoke directly to me (it seemed).  

We were able to help with a big service project on Thursday evening, together we ladies packaged over 350,000 meals!  Isn't that incredible?  They will be given to local food pantries.

We joined the instant choir again this year and sang beautiful arrangements of "As Sisters in Zion" and "Make Us One".  I love working with the talented musicians and directors as they pull together hundreds of women in only one short practice to perform in the opening session of the conference.  It is a wonderful opportunity that I really enjoy.

Just a pic showing the huge numbers of women attending the conference

As we were waiting in the Marriott Center for a session to start we decided to get out the selfie stick and take a picture.  The fun lady behind us photo bombed us!  I promised her that I would send the picture to her, but for some reason it would never send.  I feel bad.  Sorry Miss Photo Bomber!

Karen and Janet drove down for only one day on Thursday.  Marilyn caught up with them, but I missed them.  Darn!

I am going to do another post on the talks and speakers of the conference.

My phone has been giving me fits for the last couple of months.  The darn thing became so sensitive that if I even got close to my face while talking it would dial random numbers or mute the call.  It was extremely frustrating to continuously hear "hey, did you mute me again?"   And to make matters worse, Siri, the voice command center, totally wigged out.  I would say something like, Siri where is the nearest restaurant and it would randomly choose someone from my contact list (usually someone I haven't talked to for years) and call them.  So, it was time to get a new phone.  We have been an Iphone family for quite awhile, but Tasha has converted to Android.  There were some features that I like better on her phone so I decided to give Android a try.

It is quite an adjustment with a huge learning curve.  So far I like it, except that is bigger than the Iphone, but I think it will take me a long time to feel like I have mastered it.

Saturday afternoon we picked up Kim's brother David so that the two of them could give Craig a blessing.  Craig is back in the hospital.  His poor body is just giving out, it has been through so much.  He and his family have finally made the extremely hard decision to not pursue dialysis and to focus on palliative care only.  What a hard thing!  My heart goes out to that family!  I pray that they can have peace in their decision.

On the flip side, David is looking and doing so good!  I haven't seen him for several weeks.  He is no longer has a feeding tube and he is maneuvering stairs very well.  He mostly needs a walker just for balance.  He is still very weak and he is a little slow to respond, but he is responding appropriately - many times with a sarcastic comment.  It is fun to see him rebounding.

Saturday evening we had the great pleasure of going to dinner at Golden Spike Cafe with the Parrishes.  We love double dating with these guys!