A MONKEY ALMOST OFF MY BACK

I started this blog thing to try and keep up and keep track of what I was doing in my life! Now it is just one more thing I never get to! I always thought I had it all together, but alas, I was only fooling myself! You know how they used to have those Franklin Covey Day Planners and you made lists to organize yourself and whatever you didn't finish, you moved to the next day...Well, I've been moving mine from year to year! I am writing this so that I can hopefully assign myself some accountability! I have determined that I am not a "finisher". I used to love to sew and I would make a beautiful dress or skirt or pair of pants or whatever, with zippers and buttonholes and facings, etc. Then when it came to the hem...I never finished it. I have Relief Society projects a decade old in my closet, just waiting to be finished. That is why I always take my name off the Super Saturday list.
So...I have been writing a book for the past several years....Actually it was pretty close to finished about 3 years ago. But I didn't quite know what to do next...I had an idea, but it was hard to take it to the next step. Last month, I took the plunge and contacted an editor. Last week I went to LA to meet with her. She read and assessed the book and gave me her feedback. She liked it! Yea!!!! All that putting it off for nothing! OK...nothing but a major fear of rejection stemming from my childhood! Anway...I have some more work to do on it, but it is no longer in the drawer destined to be an unfinished project for my kids to find when I die like the afghan in the closet. I will get this monkey off my back!

Mamma Mia! What a fun time!

If any of you have read Sara Stoddard's blog, you know that last Saturday while we were shopping in IKEA, we came across the perfect opportunity to make fools of ourselves and...get something free! The desire to get something free overrode the fear of making fools of ourselves! So...we karaoked ABBA'S "Dancing Queen" in front of the whole store...checking over our shoulders to make sure we didn't see anybody we knew....Anyway...We got FREE tickets to the Thursday night movie premiere of "Mamma Mia"! Nope...no red carpet or stars or TV cameras or anything like that...Just a lot of Ikea shoppers, ABBA fans ( one lady had her original ABBA songbook) and rock-star wannabe's (me and Sara). Brian was out of town so Sara took Chris and I took Bob! I thought we laughed our butts off...but no, I looked and mine was still there! I looked over at Bob a couple of times and he was just sitting there with a silly grin on his face, so I was thinking... Oh great...he thinks this is stupid! but afterwards he was totally raving about it and how hilarious it was! Very entertaining! (and we got free Ikea stuff, like a pen and a measuring tape!) Anyway, Sara, Chris, Bob and I give it a "two thumbs up!" Check it out!

SOMEBODY....PLEASE HELP ME!

Okay...so sometimes I think I am Superwoman...and I can do it all... like karaoke at Ikea, ..but I can't for the life of me figure out how to make this blog thing look cute! Please help me...anyone!

My Vacation with Briella

I just had the most amazing two weeks! Our granddaughter, Briella, came to visit. She started flying by herself when she was 5 to spend a week with us in the summer. This year she decided to spend two weeks. I decided to just have fun while she was here and not spend too much time working. We went to California, just the two of us for a week. (It was just for girls!) While we were there, we went to Disneyland! What a blast! We went on all the rides that she wanted to! We spent the whole day and most of the night, but then at about 10:30 she said she was getting tired and I knew I couldn't carry her out of Disneyland if she fell asleep, so we went home to Grandma and Grandpa DeLancy's. The next few days, we went to the beach where some of my friends were staying and then went swimming at Eileen and Curt's with the cousins. We came back to Arizona where it has been hot! hot! and more hot! The swimming pool is feeling like a bathtub! Briella had to go back home yesterday...and now I have to start working again! But it was wonderful to experience her sweetness for two whole weeks! She will be getting baptized next month and it is hard to believe that almost eight years have gone by since her birth! This little time that I had with her makes me remember not to take life so seriously because time does fly!