New Pink Glider

Look at these fun little critters!! I am so excited. Now THIS is a scrapbooking tool. What a fun color. For each tape glider that 3M sells, they are donating $1.20 to the "Susan G. Komen Search for the Cure Foundation" for breast cancer research. This glider is essentially the same as the ATG 714 (the red one) and uses the same 1/4 " tape. 2 free rolls of acid free ATG 908 gold are included in every box. Great price too at $29.95. Get yours today!!

Back to School

Here is a picture of Lisa and Rory home for the weekend....it just happened to be Lisa's birthday weekend. School starts for them both in St. George at Dixie State on August 23rd.

All of the other kids are all officially back to school as of yesterday, August 25th. This little cutie (granddaughter Marisa) starts into kindergarten this year! Fun times!!

Another One Leaves the Nest

This is our beautiful daughter Lisa who left for greener pastures this past Saturday. She has moved to St. George where she will work for the summer and start college in the fall. I had a hard time saying good-bye to her. I am excited for her to begin this new phase of life, but feeling very melancholy about the whole situation. Maybe because she was my baby for so long....maybe because after having 4 older siblings preceed her in moving out, I realize what it really means when a child moves away from home (and how it is never the same again)...and maybe just because in the past few months especially, we have become very close and I am going to miss my little buddy. Good luck Lisa...we all miss you terribly! Love you!

Grandkids are the Greatest

Look at these darling babies!! Oh, being a grandma is the greatest thing ever! Dylan, Marisa and Cambria.

Sisters' Weekend and 2nd 5K Race

I have the most adorable husband in the world! He just kept the kids for me for 3 whole days, while I went off to play with some of my favorite people...my little sisters. We have been holing up in a hotel room (not too far away from home!) for the past couple of days. We attended our church's "Women's Conference" at BYU where we went to classes on how to be less critical, how to evaluate our lives and re-set our priorities, how to have more meaningful prayers, improve our marriages and be better parents. I have been going every spring for the past 5 years and I come home re-charged and motivated to improve my life! Wish me luck!! I could use some improvement!

Wednesday was my sister Nancy's birthday and so we celebrated with dinner and a movie. Thursday night we attended a concert, Friday we ate out again (seems to be a favorite past time) and hung out in the hot tub. We also ATE and ATE and ATE....stuff like BYU's famous mint brownies with walnuts, and chocolate covered cinnamon bears (my favorite!).

This morning, however, there was no junk food in sight! We got up at 6:30 AM to get ready to run in the Provo City Half Marathon and 5K. It was so cold! About 41 degrees...and part way (I'm guessing about 3/4 of a mile into the 5K) it began to rain/snow/hail on us. When we got to the finish line we were soaking wet and pretty chilly. Magelby's had a french toast breakfast that they provided for all the runners and as we stood in the park, in the rain and the cold, waiting for the results to be announced....it started to snow/rain a little bit harder.

This was a first race for 2 of my sisters and 1 in particular was excited to find out her time and to see if she may have placed in her age group. Some of us (ok, mostly me) didn't really care to hang out in the rain to find out how I had done (there were hundreds of people who ran the 5K and what are the odds???)...and just wanted to head back to the hotel and that delicious hot tub. Since she wasn't ready to leave for the hotel without knowing the results...we decided to wait it out in the car where at least we could get out of the rain/snow and turn a heater on. About half an hour later, she came back to the car with a big smile and a medal around her neck!! She won 3rd place in her age group. Wahoo!

End of story? NO! She had a medal in her pocket for me! I also placed 3rd in my age group! I guess I don't deserve the medal, for not sticking it out in the rain to claim it...but it made being cold ALMOST worth it. And ultimately after about an hour in the hot tub, our body temperatures returned to normal and we feel like real people again! Maybe next time we ought to try a 10K!

THEY HAVE BEEN SHIPPED!!

Got an email from 3M today.....they have finally shipped our order! ATG 714's will be here on Friday! If you have placed an order, you will be served first come, first served! Should be a busy weekend!!! Thanks for your patience.

Julie

Earthquake in Chile and Missionaries

This is a picture of my neice Alyssa who is serving a mission in Bruin, Chile which is close to Santiago. This is her description of what they experienced that morning:

"The earthquake hit pretty hard, but we didn't have nearly as much damage as surrounding cities... The morning it happened (about 3 am our time) we ran out of the house (if you can call if running, it was almost impossible) to the open ground in front and huddled together until the earthquake passed. Luckily nothing happened. We didn't have water or electricity for a while, but the sisters we live with took care of us and gave us candles, and we have a large reserve of water (mission rules). We had a hard time going back to sleep. We keep having tremors and we wake up every time a car passes by because it sounds like another tremor coming.

In areas where the earthquake hit the hardest, people are robbing the stores, and because of that the police are guarding ours pretty heavily. It took us an hour to get out of the lines."

After the earthquake there last week, they were told to "store as much" as they could. When their mission president came by to check on them and they showed him their supply he laughed at them and took a picture for them to send home with their weekly letters. Very obedient girls!

They still have water and electricity and things are beginning to get back to normal there. Although, they have had several tremors throughout the week and she said that they are being told to stay inside, only going out with permission and to appointments that were previously set. They are also to dress in "preparation day" clothes (which means pants and tennis shoes instead of the normal dresses). They are going to be taking supplies and food to nearby places where there is more loss and damage.

Because of the magnitude of the earthquake, the earth's axis has actually shifted....making the days shorter. Interesting food for thought.

3M Backorder Update

3M is saying that applicators should ship out 3/10. Keep your fingers crossed. George (our buddy at 3M) said they are having trouble getting one of the components of the "guns" --thus the nationwide backorder! Will keep you posted.

Julie

3M Backorder

I am so frustrated I could scream!! I went to place our regular monthly order from 3M only to find out that 2 of our 3 top selling items are back-ordered. We pulled some strings and called in some favors and got 30 of the 714 applicators shipped to us. They arrived today....I have coincidentally 30 orders to get out by tomorrow morning.

Then it looks like it may be like pulling teeth to get the rest of our order before March! We are bugging everyone we know how to bug to see if it will help and have several 3M employees working on our behalf to try to find some for us....helps to have connections, I guess. We'll keep you posted. Keep your fingers crossed. ;)

My First 5K-November 21, 2009

At a service project a couple of months ago, a friend and I started talking about running. She told me how she had run a couple of 5k's and was thinking about training for a half marathon. I expressed a little interest in doing a race myself (5k) and she asked if I wanted to join her that very weekend in a high school swim team fund raiser 1m/5k race. I told her to let me know details and I would decide. That was on Wednesday.

On Friday evening, I still had not heard from her and the race was Saturday morning, so I assumed she had decided not to race. I got up on Saturday morning and did my normal routine which consisted of strength training for about 45 minutes, followed by running on the treadmill for about 15 minutes.

I had just come upstairs from working out when the phone rang. It was her. She said she had tried to reach me a day or two previous, then had seen the weather report and figured it would be too yucky to want to participate. So she gave up on the idea. When she woke up on Saturday morning, the weather looked ok and she decided to go for it.

I told her about my just finishing working out...to which she replied that it was great to follow strength training with some cardio and it would be good for me!!!! So, like a fool, I consented!

It was interesting. I finished in 33:17 minutes (which I didn't think was horrible, especially considering my workout an hour before!), and came in 5th in my age group and only 1 minute (almost exactly) behind my friend. I wonder how I would do without exhausting myself first!

Trip to Disney World and Cruise to W. Carribean

This December was my parents 50th wedding anniversary! So we talked them into taking a two week vacation with us and my sister Sue and her hubby. We stayed in a condo in Florida and did the whole Disney World thing for a week, then left for a week long cruise to the Western Carribean. It was sooooooo much fun! I love cruising. I am ready to go again!