Gordon B. Hinckley

Beloved Prophet and President

This dear man has been the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints since March of 1995.

I loved him for so many reasons. His incredible sense of humor, his obvious love for all those around him, his incredible work ethic, his love of the gospel and his example of what being a "Man of God" really means.

I'm happy for him that he will now be with his sweet wife and that he faithfully endured to the end. But he will be missed by many and never forgotten.

Twinsies

Lexi and Syd

Today is my twinsies birthday. 20 years ago today they were born. I can remember that I was in the 5th grade and everyone in my class was so excited that my Mom was having twins. Because we knew that they were both girls and had named them both in advance there were fights in the 5th grade classroom. Each of my friends had picked a twin that was "theirs".

They have truly brought so much joy and fun to our family. They keep all of us on our toes constantly.

Sydnee has such a great wit. She is so funny and constantly keeps me laughing. I miss her being so far away in the wilds of New York.

Lex is equally delightful with her pleasing personality and way with hair ;) how could we do without getting Lexified!

I love you both and hope you have a very Happy Birthday!

Move Accomplished

Thanks to everyone who came out Saturday morning to help with the move. We had so much help and it made it go so quickly. We were in and out in just about an hour and a half.

Now comes the really hard part. Finding a place for all my junk. I have a feeling I'll need the loan of another truck to haul off my donation pile.

I thought it would be fun to show you some before and after pictures. Here is the before with all my junk everywhere.

Dining area is first thing on the left when you walk in.


Picture from front door. Kitchen is first then living area.

Kitchen

One of the Haunta Virus couches, the thing in the bottom left corner is the steam cleaner I rented, however I actually have decided to pay professionals to come just so I can sleep at night. They are coming this afternoon. This was the only bummer of the whole move. Everything else survived 3 years of storage in pristine condition.

I'm showing this picture of the up close damage because I have an amazing idea to fix it and will be showing after photos.

Master bedroom (just off the living area)

The Hallway leading to the guest area

Laundry Room (notice the gift of cows the previous owner left me)

Guest Bedroom

Guest Bathroom

Grace

As my final act in the singles ward I planned ward temple night. It was last night and I felt so rushed to get there and be in the chapel by 6:40. I got off work raced home, changed, raced out to my car, raced over to the temple, hurriedly changed and finally got into the chapel. As I greeted some of the other ward members who came (there were 6 of us, doubling my numbers from last month) I took some time to let the peace of the temple wash over me. It's amazing the peace that can be found there.

As I always do I prayed that while I was there for those few hours that I could learn something or know something that Heavenly Father had for me for that particular session. I felt bad that all during the session I found my mind wandering to all the things that needed to be done after we left the temple. Being in charge I had of course planned some treats for afterward. It was a sheer act of will to keep even semi focused on what was going on last night.

I can't remember the last time that it felt so hard to concentrate at the temple. I had just decided in my mind that because of my lack of focus I would probably miss out on whatever it was that Heavenly Father had to share with me while at the temple.

There came a moment right at the end, and literally it was only a few moments where I felt what it was Heavenly Father wanted to communicate to me in that particular session. I felt so much love and peace in that moment. I'm truly grateful for the Grace that allowed me even in my less than focused and frazzled state to have a sacred moment that was much needed.

Moving Plans

The big move is still on for Saturday. We will be starting at 10:00 a.m. HB informed me that we must be done in plenty of time for him to settle in for the game.

For any of you who might be available to help the plan is to either meet at Larry's and carpool down to the storage unit in Provo or to just head straight to the storage unit. For addresses for either location please email me.

I appreciate all of you for being willing to help me. All my dear family and friends are the absolute best!

Birthday in Review

Yesterday was quite a delightful day. It started at Midnight when my lovely Aunt Kathleen presented me with 2 of my favorite treats. A mini bag of Cadbury mini eggs and a whipped Reeses.

As a special birthday treat I got to teach Relief Society (ok so maybe it wasn't exactly a birthday treat). But turns out I do enjoy teaching and I loved talking about the First Vision.

After church I headed out to my Mom's where Canyon and I proceeded to take a nap together. She was so cuddly yesterday and it was most delightful. Then my mom made me some delicious Salisbury Steak with fresh mushroom for dinner. She paired it with all of my favorite things, asparagus and pineapple.

After spending a most enjoyable and relaxing afternoon with the fam I headed back home where Larry and Kath presented me with a fun decoration for my new place and a wallflower from Bath and Body.

Devry and I topped of the evening of fun by watching the Giants beat the Packers (Hooray for she and Quinn :) , sadness for the Staples fam :( )

Then we watched "Bring it On: In It To Win It" which was the perfect end to a great birthday. The B-day lives on today as I'm sure Condie will be providing some most delicious cake this afternoon and I get to lunch with Kristen. Here's to birthday fun spread out over multiple days! Hip Hip Hooray!

Paring Down

I've had a very unique set of opportunities given to me since I arrived back in the States in April. Opportunities that I have been truly humbled by and am so grateful for. I had a very clear vision for my life up until that point. My life was full of lots of things some important and quite a few things that were not so much.

As I came home I really felt blessed to have some room made in my life. I had precious time given to me to evaluate what are the important things to keep in my life. Deciding how to fill the empty space up has been a life changing experience.

Getting ready to move has really caused me to reflect. Using my material possessions as a reference point I've pondered on how most of my worldly "treasures" have been put in a storage unit for almost 2 years.

It's amazing to me that I really haven't missed them and in fact it has made me think a lot more about the things I buy. Why am I buying it? Does it have a purpose? Do I really need this? Does it have a place? Where will I keep it?

Even though I now have the opportunity to live with my things about me again, I hope that I will remember the lessons of the past 2 years. I want to only have around me both temporally and spiritually things that bring me actual joy. I hope that in the midst of moving on to this new phase of my life I can remember to ask myself, Will this bring me joy? Do I really need this? Does it have a place in my life?

What a difference a few months can make in a life. I believe mine has truly been enlarged and expanded. Here's to a New Year filled with joy and purpose.

It's really, really official

Loan approved, closing date the 18th of January. **GULP**

Looks like I'm really doing this. I'll be a homeowner one week from today. Who would have thought?

I'm excited to have pictures to post. I could use a few strong backs for the move. Anyone available Saturday the 26th?

Baby Signing Time

Every since Canyon discovered these videos she has been quite the signing prodigy. Turns out she is not just satisfied with having a proficiency herself. She has now taken to trying to teach her dolls sign. How cute would it be to see her teaching her "babies" to sign Grandpa and Grandma. I will endeavor to snap a photo of the cuteness at the first opportunity. Or maybe HB can be prevailed upon to get some video footage.

Where Have I Been?

Here , that's where. I got a second job at the B & N and I love, love, love it. Except that last week they scheduled me 4 shifts instead of the 2 I would normally work. I didn't get out of there most nights until 11:30. Couple that with my "real" full time job and you can imagine how exhausted I am.

But it will help smooth out the rough edges of home ownership. As of now I am scheduled to close on the Condo on January 21. So happy day after birthday to me!

This week I'm back on track and so hopefully you will all get a few more posts out of me.

Christmas Fun!

Canyon and Penelope get a magic carpet sleigh ride

Our not quite Kosher nativity scene.

Joseph upset that there is no room at the Inn. Or maybe it was that Kosher thing :)
Mallory the star of any show.

Peeps and Canyon make out like bandits on Christmas morning.

Meghan Get's Married!

It was such a wonderful day! Here is a view as we headed to the Salt Lake Temple for her sealing ceremony.
Sadly I don't have any pictures of the happy couple after the ceremony as it was so freezing cold and I was afraid my fingers would get frost bite if I took out a camera.

But I did snap a few of the reception. Here is one of the ladies hanging out and waiting for the bride to arrive.
Here is HB and Penee sharing a romantic moment as they wait for the bride and groom to appear.
The view from the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building is truly breathtaking. These pictures don't do it justice but here they are anyway.
Here are pictures from around the table that had the most fun in the whole room.

Twinsies and MalloryMal and CamLacy and Lindsay
And of course the ever smiling Peeps.

Home Ownership

Just heard from my realtor. I made an offer on a condo and it was accepted this morning. I can't believe I'm going to be a home owner. Scary/Excited/Nervous.

Pictures and more to come later of Christmas and all the festivities. We are heading off this afternoon to Miss Meghan's wedding. I'm so excited for all the festivities!

More later!

Happy Birthday

(Sorry for the photo but I don't have that many of you lady!)

To the greatest sister in the world. She's one in a million and I wish I could celebrate with her today.

As her birthday present I plan on introducing her to the Happy Sumo (she's never been) you are all most welcome to join in the festivities. Only 2 more days until the whole Mayberry clan arrives.

The Best Weekend Ever

This Saturday I woke up early and went running on the Provo River Parkway Trail. It was a beautiful day and I had a beautiful run. Here is a snapshot of how pretty it was.....even by the Riverwoods Mall.

After the fun run I met my good friend Julie at the Mainspring Day Spa
where we enjoyed a delicious massage. Afterwards we had lunch at the Olive Garden. We then did some shopping at Borders and then the University Mall. It was at the Mall that we lucked into a golden opportunity. It turns out that Sheri Dew was signing copies of her new book, God Wants A Powerful People You know how I love Ms. Dew and so Jules and I hopped in line. Since I had just come from a run and a massage I declined to have my picture taken with her. But I did snap a photo of her signing my book :)


To cap off this most delightful weekend. Sydnee came home from NY! Hooray! We had much sisterly bonding yesterday and followed that up with a most enjoyable soiree (Megs check my spelling but I think this is the French word for party) at Auntie Kathleens. We enjoyed some most delish soups and had a Christmas concert. I love a pre-Christmas Eve get together with the fam.

Am I actually a runner now?

http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/?l=mapit,10325393

The above link is a map of the route that Dana, Devry and myself undertook this past wintry and very snowy Saturday. Little did we know that the path we chose could also have been a nice training ground for Ninja Warrior.

As you can see from the above picture we started out fresh as a daisy and rarin' to go. However we encountered a few obstacles on our run. Mostly that it was blocked off by fences as apparently it is the property of the US Government and they would prefer not to have trespassers. But we pressed on.
After crawling through the fence we continued our run through the mud. You can catch a glimpse through the fence of how muddy it in fact was. As further proof I offer you a view of Devry's pant legs when we finished the run.


We ran unimpeded for about another mile. Well I should say that only Dana actually ran the full length of the course. Devry and I don't feel too bad about this fact as our course was almost 3.5 miles instead of the 3 we were supposed to run. Also the fact that Dana has been running for about a year longer than either Devry or I. Yet Dana must be praised because the conditions were treacherous and I almost slipped and fell in the mud on several occasions.

We came to our final obstacle just as we were about to flip around and run back. The problem was we didn't know it was our turning point. When we came to another fence we didn't want to have to climb it so, as there was an opening on the right side of the ravine we just crossed over.
Once we had ascertained that this was in fact our turning around point we were not looking forward to recrossing that ravine as it was a bit scary. Fortunately we discovered that we would not need to.


As the above picture illustrates, if only we would have looked left. Where I am standing on the left is an opening in the fence. Yes, that's right as silly as we are we crossed the ravine for no good reason as we could have just walked right on through. Let's just say we won't be making that mistake again.

After running back from this point we finally finished our route. What a sense of accomplishment. I figure if we can run in conditions such as these we might in fact turn out to be runners after all.

Here we are just happy to be done!
Good run ladies! Can't wait until our 4 mile next Saturday.

It Might Be An Early and Very Merry Christmas.......

Check out this new gadget that I just might be purchasing for myself.

http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/?sitesrc=uslanding

Canyon Discovers Bubble Gum

Miley bought some bubble gum last night. She offered me a piece and I started blowing bubbles much to Miss Canyon's delight. "Bubble?" she would say. She was mesmerized for a few bubble blows and then she decided she wanted a sample for herself. Take a look at her discovering the delights of Bubble Gum.

It's a Condie Christmas

Condie Construction has a really fun format for their Christmas party. They buy and wrap a ton of gifts. Then they give everyone 2000 dollars of funny money and they auction off the gifts. Everyone gets into it and it's a lot of fun. The best part, you end up with the most random Christmas gifts.

This year I received via auction some adorable mugs....24 of them to be exact. a 3 million candle power rechargeable spotlight, a cute apple baking dish with apple crumble dessert mix and a lawnmower racing mania 2007 game for PC. I still had 550 dollars when all was said and done but it was a auctioneering gift buying frenzy for a solid hour.

I've brought the racing game into work today so that all of corporate Condie may enjoy. We are thinking about putting it on the server. What a great start to the Holiday season!

Fine

I've been convinced (a moment of insanity clearly). To join with Lacy, Dana and Devry in training for a marathon. What the.......? I know but none the less. Yesterday I started with a 2 mile run. Let's just say that crawling to finish our 3 mile run on Saturday is not one bit of a stretch for me. So I'm posting a picture of my running shoes, shortly after finishing said run, as a reminder that I did in fact run for 25 minutes yesterday. My new motto......One foot in front of the other. Really what else can you ask for?