4 Generations

As I mentioned awhile ago, while we were in North Carolina we had portraits taken of us with Ryan's grandma.  We are excited to have these four generation pictures!

One World One Dream

Wow, China knows how to throw a good party!  The Opening Ceremony was so amazing!  I know it's horrible to say, but I usually don't watch the Opening Ceremony all the way through.  There are always parts that are cool or interesting but there are usually also parts that are a bit boring.  Not so last night!  I watched and loved every minute!  FANTASTIC!!!

I found a few pics on-line from the show.  Unfortunately, I didn't see any pics of one of my favorite parts - the crashing waves on the huge screen around the top of the stadium.  With those waves and the dark blue lighting in the stadium and all of the floor show going on with their oars/ships, it totally looked and felt like you were out in the middle of the sea.  But there were other parts I loved as well, too.  I loved the painting and how it continued to play a role throughout the night, ended as each athlete walked across it adding their own "footprint" to the final picture.  I thought the synchronization of everything was amazing.  The blocks were very cool and became phenomenally cool when we saw they were done by people - not a machine!  The way they lit the torch was awesome.  The people on that sphere were incredible - particularly the ones upside-down and especially the ones that were sideways! 

If you missed it, I am so sorry!  It was just wonderful and beautiful and absolutely incredible!









Here's that painting, after being colored by the footsteps of all the athletes:






Let the games begin!

How can time "fly" and "drag" at the same time?

I don't know, but it is.

I cannot wait until Ryan and Acadia get home tomorrow!!! I have missed them so much!!!

But at the same time, I'm not ready for our camping trip yet! I still feel swamped with all the packing, even though I have gotten most of it done. I guess I'm like that. I feel stressed until it's DONE, even when I've got it totally under control. I worry so much about stressing out, that I stress out about not stressing out. lol I guess I see it this way: I'd rather stress now, getting everything in place, so that as soon as Ryan and Cadi are home, I can ENJOY our time together and not worry about what I still need to get done. So I'm trying to have it all (as much as possible) done before they get home tomorrow.

Uh, wish me luck with that. lol Thanks! ;)

I'm seeing Red, Blue... and Green!

Ryan and Acadia are in Massachusetts right now. I'm excited for their chance to have an extended vacation (even if it is still a business trip for Ryan) and to get to visit with family for these couple of weeks. I haven't even minded being here alone with Rori and getting ready for our camping trip all by myself so much.

HOWEVER...

I just talked with Ryan and our conversation has left me wanting to jump a plane and get out there for Thursday night. Why? Well, let me tell you...

The Pats are playing a pre-season home game Thursday night! Granted, I'd rather watch a normal season game, but I'd gladly take a pre-season game in the meantime! And Ryan is thinking the same thing. He's looking into getting tickets for him and Acadia. Acadia - the last-minute, jump-on-the-bandwagon, just-because-everyone-else-was-cheering-for-them, fan. Where is the justice??? I watched EVERY game last season, every blessed game! She didn't even watch one whole game, just bits and pieces of one or two of them.

I'm certainly not opposed to him taking her. I'm just jealous as a whole. Man, I hope they get to go because it's a rare opportunity for us to catch any game at all. But I SO WISH I could be there too!!! Thursday night is going to be torture!

Redemption

I sometimes take my car in to be "detailed". Not really, I just get the basic "full service", not the deluxe or supreme or whatever else they have. But still, they wash the exterior, vacuum the interior, wash the windows inside and out, and wipe down the consoles. I could do that all myself. But I'm lazy.

The last couple of times I did it though, it seemed like it was a sloppy job. The vacuuming wasn't as thorough and the console was hardly wiped down. I started to think I should look around for a new place to go to. Today I decided I really needed to vacuum the car in preparations for our trip next week. But the weatherman said it was going to be in the 90s. Did I mention I'm lazy? Yeah, so out of pure laziness, I decided to go get the car "detailed" again.

This time, since Rori can be hard to keep entertained in a plain, boring waiting room, we watched the cars get washed. When it was our car's turn, we followed it through the process and watched the boys working on wiping it down and washing the windows. When I got my car back, it was wonderful! It was probably the cleanest they've ever gotten it.

Now, who knows why the service was different. Could it be that I just went on bad days the last couple of times? Could this be a new work crew or management and there's a new focus on doing a thorough job? Could having an audience, particularly your customer and the owner of the vehicle you're working on, influence a worker to put in a little more effort? Maybe one or more of those things could be true. But I know two things: 1) I'll go back now. And 2) I'll watch them while they work on my car next time too. Just in case. ;)

It did get me to thinking though...

•I'm grateful for true redemption. That even when we fall short, our Savior has already done what is needed to redeem us, if we're willing to repent and follow Him.

•I'm glad that our Savior doesn't give up on us when we have less than stellar days. He always gives us another chance, He's always encouraging us to do our best and to try to be better.

•I'm grateful that we're given choices and also that we're held accountable for the choices we make. I'm grateful that we can take time at the end of each day to "check in" with our Heavenly Father and account for our actions that day. It helps me want to make the right choices throughout the day so I don't have a "bad report".

•And it helps to have others that we can be accountable to, too. It's good to have a workout buddy when you're trying to get in shape. It's good to have your spouse or child remind you that it's time for prayers and scripture study when you've made a goal to do those things together.

Who knew that getting your car washed could be such a spiritual experience! lol

There's no reasoning with a two year old.

Rori woke up from her nap in a bad mood today. I went in to get her and she said, "No!" I asked if she wanted me to get her out of her crib, she turned away and yelled, "no!"
Okay, so I turned around and walked out of her room. She turned back to me and called, "Hey!"

Well what do you want, kid?

She's still in there. Crying. But I've gone in three times to try to get her out and she just screams. Okay then.

Aren't we having a great day?

I'm back!

Friday night was torture for me! I wanted to go to one of the release parties for Breaking Dawn so bad! But, when your husband is on the other side of the country and all of the YW are at girls camp, there are just things you are gonna miss out on. And this was one of them. So my next plan was to take my shower Friday night and get some decent sleep so I could get up, grab the kid, and fly out the door first thing in the morning! lol

I called Walmart to see if they had it and at what price. Can you believe the lady who was "helping" me didn't even know what Breaking Dawn is? What planet does she live on? ;) She claims they didn't have it - I'm POSITIVE they did and that she just had no idea what she was talking about, but I didn't want to take chances so I decided to just go to B&N where I had my copy reserved. Got there right at 8am. They open at 9am. Great plan, Sariah. Fortunately, in the same parking lot is a Target that opens at 8am. I figured, either they'll be lame like Walmart, in which case I'll take Rori out to breakfast and be back at B&N at 9am, or they'll be AWESOME and have it. Guess what? Target was AWESOME and had it! Infact, I walked in just as they were wheeling out the cart stacked with boxes and boxes of copies of Breaking Dawn. I stood right next to them as they opened a box, pulled out the top copy, and handed it to ME! Woohoo, the first one out of the box! And the price was better than B&N, too. :D

I raced home, fed the kid, put on a movie for her, and read. Repeat steps 2 through 4 for the remainder of the day, adding in laying the kid down for a nap and an occasional diaper change. But yep, that was pretty much my entire day. And at 12:45am this morning, I finished it! Woohoo!

No worries, NO SPOILERS... yet! I will give others a chance to read before I *discuss*, but I will say that I am very satisfied with how it all ends! :D