A Little Peace

This world. It sometimes overwhelms me and I start feeling frazzled and panicked by things. There is one place though where I literally forget all that chaos and have the opportunity to feel perfectly quiet and at peace. 

Right Here

Dillon and I headed down to this lovely little temple today. I'm completely confident that I am at the shallow end of the eternal knowledge pool. For now, that's okay. I am content with the way attending the temple brings my focus back to the big picture and allows my brain to relax for a little while. 

I love the temple. I love temple work and the blessings that it offers to so many. I love that I have the best temple going companion who makes these trips that much better.

And now, I should get back to doing the laundry in the wee hours of this morning so that we are ready for our trip tomorrow. **The price you sometimes pay for going to the temple during the day and so procrastinate clean clothes. TOTALLY worth it**

Days Like Today

Days like today, they are what make my job fun. People often ask me about my job and I usually tell them that it's hard (middle schoolers- need I say more?), which is not really what they want to hear (what do you do?).

Sometimes though, amidst the cramming of curriculum, we do really fun activities. Activities that allow the students to do things that they normally would be in trouble for. Roller coaster building is one of those activities.

Climb all over the counters? Why, sure!

Move the ceiling tiles around so you can start your roller coaster? Go for it.

Put tape all over the glass cabinets? Heck yes.

Really though, I think lessons like this are my favorite with these kids. They forget how badly they want to be "grown-up" for a few minutes and just have fun. They laugh and play and get so excited when their marble makes it all the way through their roller coaster. It makes me happy. And the fact that they learn a little about potential energy, kinetic energy, and gravity while they're at it doesn't hurt one bit.

What's Your Flavor?

Have you tried the new Lays chip flavors? There are three finalists- cheesy garlic bread, chicken & waffles, and sriracha (gesundheit, right?). 

Dillon has decided that he is all about the chicken & waffles

I say bring on the cheesy garlic bread.

The only downer of the situation is that one, and one only, can win. Meaning after this competition of flavors, one of us is going to be craving chips that are not going to be obtainable. Rude. 

Go try them. Let me know what you think. Seriously, you should do it. 

Rock That Thong

This past week Dillon's mom had to undergo surgery (all went well). Dillon and I went up to help her out for a couple of days. While we were there we went to the grocery store to pick up a few things and saw this in the parking lot.

In case you are wondering, that is in fact a hot pink thong hanging from the review mirror. Classy. The possible implications of that review-hanging thong are endless and all disturbing. Is that the car driver's used thong? Ew. Is that the car driver's not used but actually brand-new thong? In which case we can only assume that they wanted as all to know that they own some cheek-floss. Is that the car driver's girlfriend's thong? Again, classy.

Now, I'm not knocking thong-wearers. By all means, wear that thong, rock that thong-I just don't want to see that thong. Mmmk?

S is for Spoiled

I turned the big 2-4 last week. It seems that typically as you get older, birthdays are less fun. But not this one! Dillon definitely spoiled me. He's such a keeper.

Poor Dillon had to work a grave shift the night before my birthday so we turned it into a two day celebration due to the fact that he would be sleeping through a good chunk of the actual day. Friday night I convinced him to give me my presents early (He is always frustrated by the fact that I talk him into doing this every year. I've tried explaining that if he wouldn't tell me that he had them I wouldn't pester him. He hasn't learned yet. :) ).

He ordered the Beautiful Creatures book series for me. I was intrigued when I saw the movie trailer and he stored that little tidbit of information. Good work, I say. (This series is a fun, easy read. It is a teenage love drama with supernatural business but it's different enough that I've enjoyed it and it hasn't made me roll my eyes). He also ordered a new game for us to play together. I love, love playing games and my family never wanted to play them with me. I'm making up for all of the lost game-playing time by asking Dillon to play games with me- probably a bit excessively. He always obliges though. The new game is called Mr. Jack. We haven't played it yet but basically one side plays the role of the detective and one side plays the role of Jack (I'm thinking for Jack the Ripper?? Yes-Weird). A little morbid? Perhaps. But I bet it's fu-uun!

*Update on the game, it's totally innocent and fun. It's kind of like Clue. Still..kind of inappropriately named am I right?*

After presents we headed to Maurices because I feel like I'm in dire want need of dresses/skirts. 3 new dresses and 1 skirt later we were out the door (like I said, spoiled). 

For the last event of Day 1 celebrations, I dragged Dillon to the local drill team review at the high school. I ate it up and he paid enough attention to make comments like, "Why is that girl ALWAYS in the front? She doesn't even commit!" So funny.

Dillon headed to work, I went to bed. The next morning I had to try my hardest to let him sleep and not wake him up playing my version of Name That Tune. **Some weekend mornings I get impatient and start patting Dillon's arm to the rhythm of a certain song and exclaim, "Name that tune!". (You know, because I'm a bad wife). He groans in exasperation while I giggle like I'm the funniest person ever.**

When he woke up we headed down to St. George for some lunch and mall-trolling.

Sleepy face

Later that night Dillon made my favorite cake- rainbow chip. Delectable! I sat and ate it while admiring my new dishes that friends and family got me.

This post turned into a travelogue. Sorry! But as you can see, it was one fabulous birthday.

Shout Out

Shout out to one of the best little men I know. It was my nephew's birthday on the 22nd of February. He turned EIGHT.YEARS.OLD. Whoa team, whoa. He also chose to be baptized the following week. He is growing up into an awesome person. Dillon and I always joke that we can't compare other kids to Braden. He's not the standard. He's not a fit-thrower, he likes to help out, he totally has an above-his-age-level wit. And I know everyone wants to say this about kids in their family BUT he seriously is unbelievably athletic. As in, there is not a sport I've seen him try that he did not excel at.

Happy Birthday to a great kid!