She is getting so big

Lunch with Haven

Remember when I went to California with my friend Amanda to pick up that tiny baby she was adopting? This is that cute baby Haven and she isn't a baby anymore. We got to go to lunch the other day and luckily I had a sucker in my purse. It made her lunch so much better. I just love this little girl.

Sabbatical

So the other night Amanda and I taught the evening Relief Society class on photo stuff and saving pictures to your computers.  It was kind of a funny fluke that we were even asked, because we are both pretty sure there are many more “qualified” people to teach that class.  Afterward, I was dropping her off at home and she asked me, “are you really interested in going to New York this summer”?  Rewind several months to a conversation we had and what led up to this conversation.
As many of you know my company has a Sabbatical program.  If you work for the company for 10 years you get a sabbatical that year and then every 5 years thereafter.  How this works is I have to use 80 hours of my own paid time off and then the company matches that with another 80 hours, giving me a month off of work.  When this first started, I said when I have worked at Alliance Title for 20 years I want to go New York at some point during my sabbatical.  As of August 2015 I have worked at Alliance for 20 years and I just scheduled my sabbatical for July 11 through August 5th.  I had talked to a few friends about the going to New York with me and some said that it would be fun, but nothing really concrete.  Well, when Ray had to quit trucking in October, I thought there is no possible way for me to even imagine going to New York.  But, I think in the back of my mind I was holding out a little hope.  However, with the recent serious lull in car sales and income I had decided there is no possible way I could go, until my conversation with Amanda the other night.  See, Amanda’s parents live in Virginia, which isn’t super far from New York.  Her plan is to fly into Virginia and have her parents pick us up at the airport.  We will stay with them for a few days and visit all of the Washington, D.C. stuff and then head into New York.  We will most likely be gone for 7 days in order to fit everything in and did I mention we are taking Jerika and Justice with us?  I am pretty excited, with intermittent bouts of anxiety.
I have actually written this post off and on during the last week.  And last night we BOOKED OUR FLIGHTS.  I am now actually counting down the days.

Superbowl Party

Worst selfie takers ever

Good day

Yesterday was a better day, at least that is what I am going to say today.  I was a little negative on my post the other day and decided I was going to try to find something positive to say about yesterday.  I got to go to lunch yesterday for Merrill’s birthday with mom, dad, Jerika, Blake, Merrill and Linda.  It was a really nice lunch and of course I didn’t take pictures, I feel like I am slacking a little bit in that area.  It was Ray’s day off yesterday but he had another appointment so he wasn’t able to go to lunch with us.  After lunch he called and said that one of his customers was going into meet him to pick up the car he wanted to buy.  So RAY SOLD A CAR yesterday, YEAH!!  After work I wasn’t feeling super great so I went home and laid down for a little bit and then I was able to go to Young Women’s with Kinlee since one of her leaders was gone.  We took her friend Vanessa with us, she just moved in with her grandparents and we have been taking her to school every day.  She isn’t a member and we are hoping that we can get her baptized one of these days.  When I got home Ray was back and starting to make me dinner.  What a guy.  He really is so thoughtful and would do anything for any of us, he is such a blessing to all of us.  And it has been nice having him home every night too.

Silly girl 2

Silly girl 1

Liam"s Birthday

Sister Missionaries

Ray was recently called to be the ward mission leader in our ward which has given us the opportunity to have these sisters in our home. We are thankful for Sister Stein and Sister McIntosh and the spirit they bring into our home. We are also thankful for their families for sharing them with the world.

Even the stop lights are against me

Even the stoplights are against me.  This week I have really felt like the universe is against my whole family.  Even this morning on my way to work it was like icing on the cake.  I come the back way to work and the stoplight I come into town on didn’t even turn green for 2 whole cycles.  Everyone else around me got to go while I sat and waited.  That is not a good way to start a Monday morning.  Ray’s job is still making me a little crazy.  He isn’t making much money, which we knew would be the case for January, but some of the so called men he works with are so mean and creepy.  Jerika is struggling with one of her friends and I think it might be best to not even go into detail on that one, but I really hate to watch people kick my child after they push her down and this isn’t the first time.  That kid and her forgiving nature.  She did however get a job at the nursing home in St. Anthony part time as a nurse’s assistant and she is pretty excited about that.  Also, while struggling to make ends meet at this point in our lives, I have noticed that people are posting pictures on facebook about travelling the world and they are on government assistance.  I think Kinlee is doing pretty good right now other than the fact that she went to her friends the other night and I told her should only go if her room was clean.  She took a strategic picture of her room that kind of left out the mess and sent it to me via text because I was busy downstairs.  It looked clean enough for me to let her go and then I actually went upstairs after she left and is was a disaster.  Needless to say she isn’t going anywhere fun for a while.  Which is good because I got a text from her at school today and she is fighting with one of her friends.  I don’t know what it is with my kids and their friends, maybe I need to pick their friends for them.  I am not saying they are perfect and easy to get along with, but it just seems like enough already.  Toxic friendships, that is what it seems like lately, Jerika’s so call friend unfriended all of us from facebook today.  Wow, I think I am more hurt than anything, we treated that girl like one of our own and now she is just signing all of us off because of jealousy.  So sad.  I know I am kind of being a debby downer and I know life could be worse, but right not this is what it is and I don’t know how to get out of my depressed funk.  I don’t know if making enough money to actually pay the bills is going to make me feel better, I know it will help, but I need to do something to snap out of this. On a positive note, things seem to be picking up at work so hopefully we won’t have our hours cut this year.  And keeping busy at work helps keep my mind off some of the other crazy things.  I guess there is some kind of lesson in this trial and I don’t know what I am supposed to learn from it, but I don’t like it and I am ready for some sort or normal again in my life.

Enough snow already

Happy Birthday Grandma Sharp

New project

So my back has been out a lot lately and I decided one Saturday that I would jus watch Hallmark movies and crochet all day while sitting on a heating pad. That turned out okay until I decided the rest of the week I would crochet each night for about an hour. Now my shoulder hurts worse than my back. But I can't stop now so a few more trips to Jalayn will definitely be happening. I am not really a fan of getting old.

Good days

I  do have good days.  I think sometimes when blogging I tend to blog about things that are less happy and more sad and stressful.  I guess that is better than those people who send out their Christmas cards about all the amazing things that happened all year and say nothing about their trials, maybe they don’t have trials?  I think that the picture posts are my happy posts, but I just don’t post as much verbiage with those as I should, the pictures pretty much tell the story for me.  Yesterday was a good day.  We got to feed the missionaries and I was able to do some service during the day as well, and that always makes me feel better.  I was thinking this morning that there have been some people that I associate with that I know have been strategically placed in my life to help me.  As most of you who ready my blog know I have worked at Alliance Title for 20 years.  Some days are great at work and some days not so much.  Sometimes I think after all these year I am “just a receptionist” but I do realize I was placed in that position for a reason as well.  That being said it seems like there is always at least one person that I work with that actually gets me through each and every day.  There have been too many to name them all individually, but Melissa and Becky were two of my biggest helpers and I truly miss them every day still.  Since moving to the front it is really quiet and lonely compared to the back, but I do get visitors every now and then.  Recently I have been blessed with the 2 most amazing people and they aren’t just amazing they are a breath of fresh air.  They are young and just starting out in the world and I can’t believe Alliance Title is lucky enough to have them.  One actually won’t be around for long since she realized a few weeks after working here that her skills could be better used in the legal field, so she is starting law school in August.  The other one will be here a little longer, but I think she may also spread her wings too, since right now she is going to college, working, being a mom and a wife.  That is exhausting just thinking about it.  But, they have made work so much more fun and they have helped me have a better attitude and appreciate so many things in my life as well.  Thanks ladies for all you do, you make existing in my world much easier.  Bonnie and Jennie are their names by the way.

Kinlee's owie

When I sent Kinlee off to her first debate tournament I never imagined she would come home with a jammed finger and a broken blood vessel. I guess during their down time they were playing a game similar to spoons and she reached for something the same time as someone else. And she lost. Poor girl.

Happy birthday Molly

Who knew paper plates were so much fun

He's precious

Shelby came up for Taylor's baptism and he just loves it when I take his picture so I thought what the heck. Isn't he just special. The other 3 look like they are having some kind of serious game.