President Hinckley's Funeral and Christina Returns

I had a wonderful night's sleep, thank you very much :). And my roommate, who is much more productive than I am, cooked pancakes for breakfast, so I even had a yummy breakfast when I awoke (at 9:30 this morning). I felt so rested. Actually, I woke up at first at 8:08 and felt completely rested. But, I talked myself into drifting back into blissful sleep because I could ;).

I went to President Hinckley's funeral services, which were broadcast from Utah. What an uplifting service. He was an amazing man, a wonderful prophet, and a kind human being. He will be greatly missed. Just right at 10 years ago, he travelled to Panama (I was still living there). In fact, it was on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I remember, because we were out of school. My mom, Brad, and I rode down there with Salina, Trampas, and Sister Rogers. I will never forget the number of people lined up outside of the Atlapa Center to be able to see him and hear him speak to the saints in Panama. The place was almost full. I will never forget as we all stood and sang "We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet." And I'll never forget the way that felt. He was a man who went about doing good. He always had a smile and he spoke so highly of my generation. He called us "The Greatest Generation." He was just a good man. As they showed the video montage of him during the final song at the service, I could not help myself. I cried. I am so happy for him to be reunited with his wife, whom I know he missed terribly over the past 4 years. And I know that another prophet will be ordained and that the work will move forward, as it always has. I also know that I will miss seeing Pres. Hinckley at General Conference, hearing him speak, feeling love emanate from him, and laughing at his sense of humor.

Well, my sister Christina has re-joined the blogging world. Yay! She has a great story about Desiree posted up there. That little girl is a mess and a half. She is way too smart for her own good. You'll have to go check it out :). I sure do love talking to her. She gets more and more clear every time she talks to me. Which is to be expected, since she is getting older and older :). She's almost 3!!! A neat fact (that I don't think Christina posted on her blog) is that Christina and Desiree share the same birthday. I think that's super-neat. So Desiree will be 3 in less than 2 weeks. I just can't believe it. Today she told me she was watching "Po Bear", which, when 'translated' by Christina is "Pooh Bear". Pathetic aunt Hila thought she was saying "polar bear". What do I know?

And guess what everyone? It's tax-time again! Yippee! I was starting to figure my state tax today, but I haven't figured my federal tax yet. Well, without doing the federal, it was looking like I was going to have to pay 100 bucks to the state. I was not a happy camper. In fact, my comment to Christina (one of my conceited tongue-in-cheek ones) was, "I shouldn't have to pay the state! They should be paying me for living here! I improve it!" Haha! Good thing it turns out that I really will benefit by filing my federal before doing my state, as that should mean that I don't owe any money :). I'm all about a refund, but as long as I don't have to pay, I'm happy as a clam.