Monday, January 06, 2014
Happy New Year!!
It has been a good one so far.
Last Tuesday night we had a New Year’s Eve party at the Wilcox’s house
that I mentioned in my last letter. It
was lots of fun. Practically the whole
ward was there. There were lots of
fireworks, several of which may or may not have been legal. J There were lots of sparklers for the kids
too. The whole neighborhood was under
smoke at one point. We didn’t stay for
the whole night, but came home and drank some sparkling cider, got the little
girls to bed, and watched a movie with the boys. We didn’t even really notice midnight or make
a big deal of it, but it was still a fun night anyway.
Wednesday, New Year’s Day, I finally felt like
taking all the Christmas decorations down and cleaning up the living room and
putting the house back to normal. Now
that all the decorations are gone the house kind of looks bare, like maybe we
should have left some of the decorations up the whole year so we could remember
Christ more. But if we did that, then
the Christmas season might not be so special.
I’ve made a goal to keep my heart decorated with the spirit of Christ
all year long.
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| While I was putting the Christmas decorations away on New Year's Day, I hung up the height board Kayla gave me for Christmas and we measured each of the kids. I plan on measuring them every New Year's Day to see how much they grow from year to year. |
Around 4:00 pm on New Year’s Day Hayley came to
our home to babysit our kids then Chad and I left for our little anniversary staycation
that Chad planned for us. (Thank you so
much Hayley!!) We checked in to a Courtyard Marriott in Mesa then we headed
over to the Thirsty Lion restaurant in Tempe.
It is a pub and they serve pretty good food. It was recommended to Chad by our friends the
Lantz’s in our ward. I think we’ll
probably go back to eat there again. Then
we went and watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It was a good movie, quite clean.
Late Thursday morning Chad drove me over to Falcon
Field Airport in Mesa where he had arranged a surprise helicopter ride for
me! It was so cool. I was a little worried about crashing before
I got on, but once I was in the air I felt safe. You can read about it and see pictures from
our flight HERE.
I’ve always wanted to go on a helicopter
ride. Chad is so wonderful. He consistently makes my dreams come true. After our flight we went out to eat at a
Bistro called D-Vine located on Power and McDowell in Mesa. It is the favorite restaurant of two couples
in our ward. It was SO, SO good. We will definitely go back. After lunch we headed back home. It was such a nice little get away for just
the two of us. I sure love Chad. In my patriarchal
blessing I was promised that I would be married to someone who would always
be true to me and to the church. Chad
sure lives up to those qualifications.
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| At D-Vine restaurant |
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| The food was so good I had to take a picture of it. I got Cajun Chicken Alfredo and Chad got a Grilled Cheese panini loaded will grilled vegetables and tomato soup. My mouth is watering just looking at these pictures. |
The rest of the week was pretty relaxing. Chad took Friday off work too; we played
games with the kids and enjoyed the rest of their vacation from school. I was sure glad that we’d already taken down
the Christmas decorations and cleaned up the house so we could just spend time
with each other without that chore nagging at me.
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| Marlee was organizing all the little dollies near the check out counter at Wal-mart while I was standing in line. So cute. |
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| That's some seriously static-y hair!! |
Saturday Chad and I went to the temple. We did sealings. As the session was coming to a close we were
the last couple and we mentioned that it was our anniversary week and one of
the couples there asked how many years we’d been married. We told them thirteen years. They were shocked. They said we looked like we are only about twenty
five years old. I’m getting to the age
where that was a nice compliment, but when we were in the parking lot Chad commented
that he always seem to look ten years younger than he really is. I don’t think it really bothers him that much;
it’s just kind of funny. I told him to
look on the bright side. When he’s 80 he’ll
only look 70. Ha ha.
Yesterday we fasted for my cousin’s teenage daughter
Alexa Rowley who has been having health problems for over a year. We hope that she will be blessed with either
a miraculous healing or that a miracle will happen so that her insurance will
cover the surgery she needs to be healed.
Today is my kid’s last day of Christmas
vacation. I’m so glad their last day was
on a Monday so we could kind of ease ourselves back into regular life. Tomorrow night will be my first night teaching the
music for the temple cultural celebration to the Young Men and Young Women in
my ward. I’ll have 45 minutes to
cover. I got some good ideas from
sugardoodle.com last night so I’m excited.
I hope it’ll be fun.
My quote today is from Elder Valenzuela’s conference talk Small
and Simple Things. “I testify that many of those who need our
help are there waiting for us. They are ready for their valiant brothers and
sisters to reach out to them and rescue them through small and simple means.” I know that the Lord can work with our small and
simple acts of service and that when we consistently and diligently do them for
others we will be happy because we will be becoming more like our Savior.
Love,
Mindy
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