L. O. V. E.

It is amazing to grow in love. Truly amazing :). But this is a side-note. Or a top-note :). So that you can have a reason for the song title post early on :).

And just like that, another weekend is gone. Personally, I find that lame ;). I had a pretty good weekend, myself. Friday was an early morning. A very early morning. Just because I woke up, though. Didn't have anywhere to be or anything to do. I just woke up ponderous. The kids were here and Brad had to work all night, so I was with them until he got home at 9:30. Which was perfect timing, because that's when I had to go to the church for Presidency Meeting. We had a good meeting, and the Christina and I stayed to work on cleaning out the closet. What a task! Ironically, it seems like I manage to make time to organize everything except my own personal life (meaning my own junk and paper). Hmmm... I seriously have a couple projects I need to be working on. One is the 3M cookbook (and since we are on hiatus, at least I am not getting further behind...). Plus a couple of birthday presents for up-coming birthdays. At this precise moment, I feel motivated to work on something. And yet I'm here blogging. Go figure ;).

Okay, so that was a tangent. So after the meeting on Friday (and closet-cleaning, with which we are not yet done), I headed to Target. Mostly because they have nachos -- and my plan to have nachos this past week was thwarted by whatever chemical reaction took place in that nacho cheese can in the fridge. See previous post if you don't know what I'm talking about ;). Here's how I rationalize my nachos: I get the jalapenos and eat them. Thus I am getting dairy (cheese -- I don't care if it's "fake" cheese ;)), carbs (the chips) and a veggie (the pepper!). Okay, okay. I know that's not really good for me. But I do love nachos :). And I did have to get a few things from the store. Like pens. And then I wandered around and looked at shoes (didn't find any I like in my size at a price I'm willing to pay, but I need to get another pair of black flats. Just to change it up a bit). I also went and looked at shirts. See, Thursday is my Friday at work, and we are allowed to dress casual. But not t-shirts. Well, my selection of hot-weather short-sleeve non-t-shirt casual tops is rather limited. To 2. Well, now 3. I got a light turquoise colored shirt that will suffice :). You will see the color of it shortly. It is soft :). After Target, I went to the bank and then came home. I spent the remainder of my afternoon reading my scriptures and working on some assignments for Primary. Meanwhile I got invited to Wendy's to watch a movie and hang out while she finished up some crafty stuff for Girls' Camp. So I got a shower and then headed over there (after talking to Jeremy for a bit :)). We watched Sherlock Holmes. Eh. Not really my kind of movie, really. It was okay. But way too long. What ever happened to the days of 1.5 hour movies? That's the length of most chick flicks and that seems to be perfect appropriate length for anything I want to spend my time on :). And then I came home and hit the hay. The kiddos were here again Friday night, but they were already all asleep by the time I got home.

Saturday morning, the kids woke up again at 6-something. I think that is an offense to nature, myself ;). I was able to go back to sleep and slept for 2 more hours. Then I had breakfast and then Saria and I went outside and gathered apples. Yep, it's that time of year again. The apples are dropping off the trees out back. So I am gathering them and cutting out the bad parts, coring, and peeling and freezing. Time consuming, but worth it, I think. Although I did learn that this is probably why I have an ugly thumb now. All this past year, I was noticing that my right thumb is uglier now. Dry and cracked. Well, I do believe it may be related to the way I cut the peel off these apples. I should probably use gloves. But then you lose tactile feelings. So perhaps I'll just have ugly thumb. I also watered my garden. It was a hot day, so no rain in sight. (Well, okay, so it rained today... But as of yesterday, there was no rain in sight.)

Jeremy arrived around 2:00 and we just laid out a blanket in the front yard to study scriptures and chill. Hot days are not meant for a whole lot of exertion. (And for my Alabama friends... Hot here has been in the 80s. I know, I know. I have no right to complain ;). Let's just say I've acclimated well to Washington weather, and I don't feel as grouchy in the summertime as I did in Alabama ;)). Yep, we just hung out talking and laughing and discussing until the sun was almost set. Because then it's nice and cool. And I convinced Jeremy to take some more pictures. Actually, he isn't hard to convince. We took about 10 of them, and some were hilarious. And so, as we looked back through them, he laughed and said, "Yep, can't wait to see which one of these ends up showing up." Well, now he won't have to be kept in suspense any longer ;). I picked the one where we both look equally decent. Or decent enough ;). Personally, I love the ones where he is laughing, but those are not flattering of me, so I vetoed those. And then there was one of me I really liked, but I cut off the top of Jeremy's head, so people might have thought he was bald ;). Plus he wasn't smiling so big in that picture -- and you know how I love his smile and his dimple (and a half!) ;). Although, that picture sure did show his blue eyes... Anyway, so I chose the one below. And you can still see his dimple :). So stinkin' cute!
Oh! But wait!!! I think I have a surprise in store! For you and for Jeremy! Because I actually put up two!!! Hilarious because he was playing around and didn't know I was shooting the picture when I did. Haha. I probably should have made a face too... It didn't occur to me at the time. I just snapped the picture and said, "I saw that." Laughter is fun :). So are wonderful memories.
So by about 7:00 it was cooler and plus we knew the crowd at one of the closer restaurants would be cleared out (when we went last Saturday, it was packed!). So when we got there, it was pretty quiet. Dinner was good (I got chopped sirloin smothered in sauteed onions, mushrooms, and brown gravy with mashed potatoes a salad and (unexpectedly, since it wasn't on the menu) corn. (I didn't eat all that food, I just want you to know that. Jeremy finished what I didn't). Jeremy got a South of the Border Burger and a chicken taco salad. Seriously, the man can eat. And I really don't know where he puts it all. Oh. The only unfortunate thing about our meals was that the burger and the chopped sirloin (which is also basically a burger) were still mooing a little. Hmmm. Dinner conversation mostly consisted of my random Panama stories. And the fact that I want to go on a cruise. It was about 9:00 by the time we were done with dinner, so we sat and let our food digest in the car while we talked. We talk of wonderful, beautiful things. And the time zooms by. And then the evening must end. So Jeremy brought me home and we said our good-byes. Always the least awesome part of the evening, but oh well. One day... One day we won't have to have that part ;). And to quote Winnie-the-Pooh (A.A. Milne) so that I can put a positive spin on the good-bye part: "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." Yes, I am lucky. Blessed. Because, though it's hard to say goodbye, it's only hard because it's so wonderful. He is so wonderful. And I'm so sappy ;). And I love him. Sigh... :).

Today was the popcorn party in Primary. The kids had earned their popcorn party through working hard to learn their songs for the upcoming Primary Program and they had also been very good at being reverent. They do get so excited about these special things. We had Desiree and Emily at church today. I hadn't seen them in a few weeks, so it was so nice to get to see those sweet girls. When we sing in Sacrament, Emily grabs a hymnal, usually has it upside down, and opens up to any page (including the green pages right inside the cover that have no writing at all...) and starts singing. I don't know what she's singing, but she's singing. And it is precious. She does it every time. It is amazing to watch them learn and grow. To see how they rise to the occasion, so to speak. They learn the routine and they usually accept it. What a blessing these kids are to me.

And actually, I've pondered that a lot lately. Because I am learning and growing in so many ways. Ways that are preparing me for my future. But that is a blog post for another time. For now it is time to say hasta la vista and go get a shower. Tomorrow is Monday, after all, and I do want to work on a few things, to include calling my dad.