Put it in your calender

I found an interesting missionary tool!

I have a HUGE white board on the wall of my office at work. Some time ago, I put a calender on one side so that I could keep track of holidays and other time sensitive projects. I also put personal appointments and events so that I know if/when I have to leave early or take time off to prepare or attend. I like to draw pictures to represent the importance of the date. Sometimes they're funny, sometimes just something to give the calender a little life. There are people at work that make a point of checking the calender to see what I've got up there. This month I've got Cinco de Mayo, Friday the 13th (just 'cause I like to draw little black kitties), Mothers' Day, Memorial Day... but what's this on Saturday?

This Saturday Tim and I are joining other members of our Stake in the Solemn Assembly room of the Washington D.C. temple. I can't wait to go! I've never been above the third floor, but this time I get to go all the way up. So, I drew a little picture of the temple on May 7th.
My friend and coworker, Randy, stopped a day or two ago and asked about it. He first called it the Tabernacle and remembered seeing it as he was driving around the I-495 beltway; he also wanted to know if there were buildings inside the high marble walls and wished he could see inside. I was able to correct a few of the details and explained about recommends, open houses, dedications, the font, and the annex. We even talked about the temple grounds and the visitors center where I offered to give him a tour. :) Yeah, I'm so subtle. He was genuinely interested in it, and I was so happy to be able to talk to him about it.

My blonde moment

I was driving to work a couple mornings ago. From behind me and to my right, I heard road noise as if the window was open so I used the controls located on my door to roll up the windows, only nothing moved when pressed all four buttons to check the windows. Oh, so the door must be ajar because the doors didn't automatically lock; that must be it. At the next stop sign, I opened and closed the rear passenger door. Driving off, I still heard the noise. I must not have closed the door hard enough (I'd leaned across the car to do it and didn't really get a good grip), and the noise was starting to irritate me. Whatever. I'll leave it until I get to work and check it then. I pulled into my parking space and turned off the car, got out and walked around the car, only to find that the door was closed correctly. What was going on?

After work I got in the car to go home and went to roll down the front windows. The passenger window didn't budge, so I unlocked the windows and it went down fine. Then I started driving, but the wind was too much so I rolled up the front windows, still hearing the road noise. Ten minutes down the road it dawned on me. I tried the rear passenger window again, AND THIS TIME IT CLOSED!!! Boy oh boy am I glad it was a nice day or the back seat might have been a little wet. The rest of the ride home was nice and quiet except for my chuckling. Lesson learned here? Always check the window lock before checking to see if the windows are up.

Four Hours?

For Christmas last year Tim got me Star Wars: the Force Unleashed. I was able to play it for a little bit, but then set it down and hadn't touched it in months.

Last night after the kiddos went to bed and while Tim changed the oil in the Trailblazer, I sat down and got to play. Shhhh!!! Don't tell anyone. They'll revoke my mommy privileges! I was able to play through two levels before I realized that I'd been playing for four hours. The last "boss" fight took me a few tries because I had to employ a slightly more sophisticated form of button mashing to finish the fight, and I'll admit I got a little frustrated... but I beat it! I don't know how much of the game is left, but I'm looking forward to playing it again soon.

I will say this, however, that I'm glad I invested the upgrades that I've earned during game play into the different combat moves available. It's funny how many you actually use when you employ my strategy of random button mashing during the game. :)

Over the weekend

With family in town, things were busy!

Friday night Sarah and Mom came up to visit for a while. We got to sit and talk while the kiddos were getting ready for bed. It was nice to catch up, and definitely nice to see Sarah. I haven't seen her since Tim and I got married.

Tim and I also got the wood for our bed Friday afternoon. We've been having trouble with our backs during the day that seemed to be stemming from the bed at night. We could both lie on our backs on our respective sides of the bed and roll towards each other by the end of the night. It caused a few "arguments" about who was the greater bed hog! It didn't just curve from side to side, but also top to bottom which curved our backs in a crazy way because we are both stomach sleepers. So, we made a quick frame that would make Dad proud to replace the dilapidated box springs that only cost us $37 for a few 2x6 boards and some OSB. It was put together in under an hour, and OH MY it feels wonderful! I've slept so much better since we put it in two nights ago!

Saturday was non-stop, too. Tim wend to the DMV to renew the tags on the Nissan; I got to play Star Wars: Force Unleashed while he was gone. :) We went to Peyton's baptism at 3pm where I got to play the first song, and then we went to a dual adult baptism at 5pm where I led the music and sang a solo for the special musical number. I was SO nervous. I keep hoping that I'll get over it, but I never seem to. Both baptisms were awesome, and I'm so happy that the three of them made their choice to join the church.

We went to China City Buffet after the baptisms and met my parents there for an early mother's day/ way early father's day dinner. Mmmm, tasty Chinese food! We didn't know it because no one called my phone, but Tim's family had called his phone (left at home) to invite us to the Olive Garden for dinner at the same time. It's OK, we'll have dinner down there sometime later, but I think it would have been nice to spend that time with his family as well. We ended up getting the kiddos in bed when we got home and spent the next hour putting the new bed frame together. We also watched The Tourist until the wee hours of the morning (awesome movie BTW, it had me guessing until the end!).

We got to sleep in a little on Sunday morning, but not much. I got up and straightened my hair before we left for baby Matthew's blessing at Steve and Hannah's ward. He was so cute dressed in a little white suit! Squee!!! I was so proud to see Tim go up there to participate in Matthew's blessing. He's come so far since I met him almost five years ago. Tim and I were chuckling to ourselves as we tried to sing the hymns during sacrament. They... Were... So... Slow... I couldn't keep up. Just wow. But I was impressed with the members doing ASL. I don't know how they do it, but kudos for the effort!

I had my first taste of Thai food at their house for the luncheon afterwards. It was pretty tasty and toasty, but I've decided that curry doesn't agree with me at all. I paid for it later. I did get to hold Matthew and ogle and coo over him for a while. It makes me happy. It also worries Tim a little. Every time I get to hold a wee one, it rehashes our conversation about having one of our own. It would cost a lot of money, however, if we were to try, and then we'd have to worry about having more than just one. For now, I'm happy with our three. We got to talk to Chris and Lori for a while towards the end as well. If we can get the clearance anytime soon, maybe we can get everyone back out this way for our sealing when it happens.

Sunday evening we had home-made pizza rolls for dinner at our house with Tim's parents while we watched TRON: Legacy. I liked the movie, but I loved the music. :) The pizza rolls were made with a double batch of pizza dough cut into 16 parts and rolled, filled with 9 slices of pepperoni and a little mozzarella cheese, then rolled up and baked for 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven. We used spaghetti sauce to dip them in. Tasty!

Finally before I close, an update on the cross stitch project... because the branches are a full cross stitch and not a half like the moon colors are, they take a little longer, AND I haven't had time in the last two days to do much on it, but here is the progress pic. I'm on the last color of the branches and doing the outline on them as I go.

BEFOREAFTER