Weekend Satisfaction

It has been a great weekend!

It started a little hectic with LeRoy going to Teton, Erika to dance practice, Justin to baseball practice and Me at the center of all the coming and going. And that was all before 10am.

The kids quickly got their chores finished because they were all wanting to have friends over or go somewhere. Then they found that all of their in-town friends were already busy and the disappointment set in. Our new neighbors quickly remedied that! Five boys between the ages of 7-10 showed up at our door wanting Derek and Justin to join them for outdoor games: tennis, bikes, basketball, races, etc. Boy heaven!

Erika joined her best friend Allie, they joined the boys and suddenly there were 16 kids ages 7-15 going around the subdivision. I love the view from my office because I can see the whole subdivision from here and could pretty much spot my kids during the whole day. Our neighborhood does a big loop which is great for bike races and other games but also great for keeping an eye on things.

Then several of them ended up at our house. LeRoy has inherited (long story) a foosball table, shuffle board table and an air hockey table. Add that to the pool table that we already have and who needs video games. It was a little noisy for a while (with foosball and pool downstairs and air hockey, shuffle board in the garage) but it was fun to see all the kids gather here for a while and then move on to the next activity (which was setting things on the fence posts and seeing who had the best aim and could knock them off). I love seeing all of them play together and use their imaginations. As much outdoor active time that they have had, they should all sleep well tonight!

I was able to work in the office for a while and much to my satisfaction it is completely caught up. Quarterly taxes are finished, invoices caught up, problem invoices worked over and my desk cleaned off. I really do enjoy what I do once I get to it. It is just hard getting to it with 7 others pulling at my time (and leg and breast - quit giggling, I mean Nathan and Hyrum, not LeRoy!)

Saturday night LeRoy and I went to Idaho Falls. We stopped to look at a job which turned out to be a remodel on an extremely old farm house. It reminded me of Grandpa and Grandma Fullmer's old house (not the trailer) and kind of the Morey's house. Old out buildings, old house, old house smell - all of it in need of tons of work. It made me even more grateful for my own home and not needing to fix it up - just live in it.

Then we went to dinner at Garcia's. I ate probably twice as much as LeRoy did which made me feel a little like a pig but I was hungry and hadn't eaten very well throughout the day. He also claims that he is just getting old so doesn't eat as much.

Saturday night my mind began trying to get me out of going to church. We were having stake conference which was a broadcast from SLC and I knew that trying to keep Nathan quiet would be a chore, the time wasn't going to work well with Hyrum's schedule and really I just didn't have the mental energy for it.

We found out that there would be a re-broadcast of the conference so we split the family a little and I went to the 10:00 session with just Erika and we had a wonderful time. I wasn't overly inspired by the speakers though a couple of personal improvement thoughts popped into my head, but it was really great to have some time alone with Erika. We went to the 'old' stake center knowing that it would be the same broadcast and wanting to see some of the people that we love in the 'old' stake. It was so great to visit with some friends, not have LeRoy at the center of it all and not having babies in tow.

LeRoy and the boys all went to the re-broadcast at 1:00 which once again was great for me. I put both little boys down for naps, Erika went to read on the trampoline at Allie's house and I took a relaxing bath in my big tub.

During the afternoon I went on a walk with Derek and Nathan and realized even again that our neighborhood is so nice! Many people were out on bikes or walking and were friendly but without this feeling that I had to stop and really visit with anyone or that I was in their walking space. The little sinner side of me also enjoyed seeing a neighbor plow up his field (he just took the cows out to pasture for the summer) on Sunday. I felt like I live in a place that has a 'live and let live' motto rather than the subtle, judgemental neighborhood that I came from: everyone trying to outdo the other on the righteous scale. Our family just doesn't follow the same 'keep the sabbath day holy' rules that many Rexburg people appear to.

I have discovered some simple pleasures:

Convection oven . . . love it! I can bake 3 pans of cookies at once and be done in 10 minutes bake time. I never have liked making cookies because they take forever. This is the way to do it!

Sandwich maker . . . time saver! Derek is still in the omelet mood and we found that doing them in the sandwich maker saves so much time while also making very fluffy.

Jetted tub . . . previous to today, the only times that I had been in the new tub was when I was in terrible pain and crying. Today I got to take a bath just because I wanted a bath. I have been a little sore in my back but it isn't anything slowing me down or bringing me to tears. It was great to do something that I wanted to do: relax and read and get ready for another week.