The Rest of the April....

Well the rest of April kind of came and went. The weather has been so random. A day after the amazing snow storm, it looked like summer. I was eating in my car because the breakroom smelled like popcorn and was making me nauseous. (In case you wondered).

Kennan had a track meet in Smithfield, so I went and spent the day with my parents watching Kennan run. It was a beautiful day and I got quite sunburned. It was fun to be able to watch Kennan run, and jump. None of the rest of us Thompson's had any abilities other than not dying while running long distance. I don't know that we were necessarily amazing at running, but we sure tried and were part of only a few who could do it.

I had to drop Greg off at the jail for the first time. His High Council position is over the jail branch. I dropped him off bright and early, went home, tried to read the lesson for that day, but decided to take a 20 minute nap. An hour later (10 minutes before church), I woke up. I made it before the opening hymn was even started!

Sometimes I'm surprised that my co-workers just don't kick me out. Well, I guess they do throw me under the bus anytime someone from corporate comes up. Somehow it always comes out that I'm the one who does the pranks. Funny story, yesterday our CFO came up and was talking to us, and at the end he said something like, "Have any of you ever choked any of your co-workers out?" Two of my co-workers pointed at me and said, "Yes!" So I responded with "twice." There's only 32% accuracy on that. It's more of an inside joke. But then Steve also told him that if there were any pranks, I was behind it. Our CFO said, "Really? That surprises me. I took you as more of the quiet, innocent type." I tried to argue that I was, but my co-workers told him the truth. They do it all the time. So, I have to get them back some how!

With Caleb leaving us, I had to make him a going away present that he would always remember us by...

So, every now and then we get the pleasure of helping some of the USU football players that come into the credit union. I just helped this good looking kid that came in and had some questions. After he left, Caleb asked me if I knew who that was. I didn't, so he told me he was a football player. That of course led to a good discussion with the rest of my co-workers. Said football player was going to be coming back the next day, so we were all ready for him to come in. Donna and Kim hadn't seen him the day before, so when he walked in, I looked at both of the girls and nodded his way. They checked him out, and we all got all sorts of giddy like little Jr. High Girls. He isn't the first one that we've all had crushes on. We have some really great "tight-end" jokes. We are pathetic.

Switching gears. I have been slowly trying to de-junk our house. Especially our kitchen, which has food from about 10 years ago. I was going through one of our drawers, and when I pulled it out and started taking out the napkins and crap that was in there, I saw this....

I literally thought it was some gremlin. I don't know why. It scared me, then I busted up laughing when I saw what it was.

As mentioned in a previous post, I celebrated my 5 year work anniversary. When I cam to work the Monday after, I got this....The poster is still hanging by my station.

And lastly, I got my hair done again. I was going for a Rose-Gold look. Sometimes I see it, sometimes I don't. I felt bad because I kind of rushed my sweet friend Tami because I was going to dinner with some friends that evening, but I love it. It's different, and has been a very long time since I have been this light. I wish I could afford to have my hair done at least once a month!

As I mentioned, I went to dinner with some of my closest friends to say goodbye to one of our beloved. We had a great time laughing and reminiscing, and none of us wanted it to end. It got awkward at the end, because really, none of us wanted to say goodbye. But, we did. It's sad to see him go, but he's still "with us" in a way. I'm happy for him and the chance that he had to move up and on. He'll be great where he is, and hopefully he'll find him a wife! ;)

Also, this is the end result of Caleb's gift. I liked how it turned out.

September Ramblings

September has also just flown by. I've been meaning to blog at least once a week so you don't get bombarded with random pictures and my nonsense thoughts, but that obviously hasn't happened. I feel like I really haven't done a whole lot this month. It's just the same things day after day.

I didn't have work on September 1. We slept in, then ate breakfast, went to Greg's room at the middle school to drop some stuff off, went to Hastings, then we had shrimp tacos for dinner (my new fave!), then we went for a little drive from our house to 10th west, to Arctic Circle where we got huckleberry shakes for the second time this year. So delicious! I love days off!

Of course, we had to go back to work the next day. Back to the daily grind and being an adult.

I am in charge of creating the monthly Relief Society newsletter, which is fine with me since I really enjoy doing stuff like that. I started out creating the regular boring newsletters, but it wasn't doing it for me, so I decided to open photoshop, pinterest, and create something awesome. It took me all dang day, but it turned out super cute.

September 8th was a wonderful day. I woke up to read that One Direction is releasing another album soon, and they were offering one of their songs for free that day only! Of course I had to get it, and I absolutely loved it, I think it's definitely one of my favorite. Take a listen here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L2AaRJrV0E

Since creating that newsletter, my creative juices have started flowing again. I have been meaning to download a trial version of Adobe Illustrator for a while now, so I finally decided to do it. Holy cow, I had no idea what I was doing. I took a class about 7 years ago, but I remember very little of it. I have been slowly learning and teaching myself how to use it and I've had a lot of fun with it. I'm excited to get back into designing, and hope to be able to open an Etsy shop soon.

(By the way, I'm more than willing to create a few free Christmas cards for anyone interested. I'll design it to your liking, and send you the digital file.)

For our September Relief Society Activity, we had a service auction. We got the idea {here}, and it turned out really great. We had a lot of awesome donations, and had a great time bidding against each other and having a good ol' time. This calling can be quite challenging because we never know what to expect when we plan activities. We never know how many will show up, or if they'll even have fun. My board leader is amazing though, and always comes up with the funnest ideas. Please support your RS leaders in the activities. I know that it can seem like just one more thing to do, but the activities board puts a lot of effort into planning and carrying out these activities. Plus, it's a whole lot more fun when more people show up.

My mom and dad were in town Saturday the 13th, and texted me to go to lunch with them. It's always good to see them, and they surprised me with this Samsung Neo 2 watch. Greg and I had talked about getting something like that after my {latest incident}, but figured we would wait until Christmas or until we upgraded our phones, so this was a fun surprise. I can call people and text, plus it tracks my steps, heart rate, and sleeping. It's pretty sweet. It makes me feel better about being alone, just in case I happen to leave my phone in a place I can't reach. Thanks parents!

Last Sunday the Relief Society Presidency were asked to speak on the Relief Society. We were asked the Thursday before, so we really didn't have much time to prepare, but I think it went okay. I wasn't really nervous, though I was sweating something awful. But no one fell asleep during my talk (that I could see), so that's always great. I haven't spoken in church for over 10 years, so it was a fun experience.

I did get to go on a fun trip this last week, which I will post about real soon. I think this is enough for one post!

Inspiration | 2.10.14

This quote comes from {this talk} by President Uchtdorf. I can totally relate to many of the things he said. Especially as of late. I have noticed that my health is not where it should be (more so than normal), and it makes me super tired after work which then makes me 'too tired' to do my Visiting Teaching or other church related things. I also just want to sit around instead of do things with my husband. I had a talk with my boss and he told me, "I don't want you to get so worn out here at work that you can't enjoy the rest of the day." It really got me thinking about what it important, and what matters most. Because of that I made the decision to not work quite as much. It's only an hour less each day, but I feel like I'm more able to do things that I previously neglected (scripture study, housework, etc.) I also have more energy after work to do other things as well. and enjoy time with my husband.

Sometimes it's hard to give up what you're used to, or even what you enjoy doing, but if it's causing problems or stress in other areas of your life, it really is time to re-evaluate on what matter most.

Inspiration | 01.27.14

Like last week, I found this wonderful quote while searching through various General Conference talks. This one comes from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk called, "The Infinite Power of Hope"

Before I first started letting people in my ward know about the scleroderma diagnosis (or really that anything was wrong) I had a man and his wife who were sitting behind Greg and I in church mention that I didn't seem like myself. At this time I was super emotional, so I started crying as SI told them about the diagnosis. The sister came over and crouched down in front of me, and held my hand as I told them what was going on. This sister also happens to suffer from an auto-immune disease. They both told me they would pray for me. A few days later I received this gift from this wonderful couple.

The little balloon says hope. As I've been trying to come up with topics for my lesson on Sunday, hope keeps coming to mind. I love how President Uchtdorf phrases this. We need hope to get us through trials, and to have that little glimmer of hope that better things are to come. Read the talk. It's fantastic.

What are your thoughts on this quote? What does hope mean to you? How does having hope help you through your tough times?