Weekly Home Routine

     Now that I have set some goals for 2014, how do I plan to accomplish them?  I want to start with my home.  I have followed (or maybe I should say 'observed' instead) flylady.net for years.  I have set up elaborate routines and schedules.  I have set up a wonderful control journal.  I have even purchased some of her products.  I have gone back through those routines and simplified them.  I have gone through them again and broken them down to make them even less detailed in order to reduce some stress and feelings of failure for me.  I'd love to have a clean, uncluttered, organized home.  That has never been a super priority for me.  I would think, "It is just me so it is not so important.  I'll clean when I have company."  Maybe there are some self esteem issues I should take a look at--maybe later.
     When I was working full time I seemed to only be able to be organized one place at a time, work or home.  Guess which one won out there.  Now I have moved from a 2600 square foot, four bedroom, three bathroom home to an 850 square foot, one bedroom, one bathroom old farm house.  I have had to downsize.  I would have thought it would be easier to keep a smaller house clean but you still have to clean.  Floors still need vacuumed (there are just not as big of an area).  Toilets still need scrubbed (not there is only one instead of three).  Kitchen still needs cleaned, laundry still needs done, and the bed still needs made. My problem is that I just do not make myself do it regularly and only do the bare minimum until I can't stand it any more.  Then I do something.

Daily Household Schedule

Sunday                                 The Lord’s Day
Monday                               Bedroom Focus
                                              Laundry-Bedding
                                              Vacuum                                         
Tuesday                               Bathroom Focus
                                              Laundry-Towels
                                              Sweep& Scrub Floors
Wednesday                         Kitchen Focus
                                              Laundry-Colors
                                              Water Plants
Thursday                             Living room Focus
                                             Laundry-Whites
                                             Dust      
Friday                                  Office Focus
                                             Laundry-Extras
                                             Update Bookwork
                                             Entry/Laundry Room Focus
Saturday                             Family Time


I also have set some daily basic (should be no-brainer) routines for different times of the day.

Morning Routine	Afternoon Routine	Evening Routine	Before Bed Routine		Zones--
Make Bed	Eat Lunch	Eat Dinner	Make a to do list		1 - Entrance, Front Porch, Laundry Room
Shower & Dress	Lay out for Supper	Clean up Kitchen	Run Dishwasher		2 - Kitchen
Personal Care	Quick Pickup	Check Calendar	Lay out clothes		3 - Bathroom,Sewing Room, Office
Empty Dishwasher	Exercise	Scripture Study	Personal Care		4 - Bedroom
Eat Breakfast	Check mail	Quick Pickup	Take Meds		5 - Living Room

    
     New year, new start.  I want to begin to follow those routines I have set up or rework them to work better for me.  So here is my Weekly Home Routines.
      Now let me tell you I am not OCD about any of this.  I can go with the flow of life and let these things be pushed into the background--so far back that I completely ignore them.  I'd rather do other things-like sewing, quilting, and helping around the farm-than work on cleaning house.  I want to focus more on this in 2014 without becoming OCD and without stressing about it.  I want to enjoy the process of becoming better.


Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God. 
          (D&C 109:8)


Rose 

2014 goals

Now it is 2014.  I hope to do better with keeping up with this blog.  I hope that this can make me more accountable in how I spend my time.  Goals:


--Unfinished Quilting & Sewing Projects--
1.  Quilt Off-Set Blocks quilt
2.  Frame Welcome Embroidery piece (Done)
3.  Finish tiny wall hangings (Done)
4.  Quilt Storm at Sea quilt
5.  Quilt Double Irish Chain quilt (Done)
6.  Quilt Garden quilt
7.  Quilt Garden quilt wall hanging
8.  Finish Embroidered Baskets wall hanging
9.  Finish Embroidered Baby Sun Bonnet Sue baby quilt (Done)

--New Quilting and Sewing Projects--
1.  Embroidered Flowers Quilt
2.  Island Sunset Paper Pieced Quilt
3.  Camping Appliqué wall hanging
4.  Harvest Moon wall hanging
5.  Baby Broeckelman Quilt x 2 (New project added)  (Done)

 --Household--
1.  Clean and organize storage in basement
2.  Clean and organize bedroom & closet  (Bedroom Done)
3.  Clean and organize laundry room (Done)
4.  Clean and organize mud room
5.  Clean and organize kitchen cabinets  (Done)
6.  Clean and organize sewing room/office
7.  Clean and caulk bathtub  (Note 10-14-14: Shower surround is cracking and the entire thing needs replaced)
8.  Seal bathroom window
9.  Vacuum or wash curtains (Done)
10.  Wash windows inside and outside
11.  Install rain gutter down spouts (Done)

 --Spiritual--
1.  Read scriptures daily (Note: I have not missed a day in 2 years now)
2.  Pray daily
3.  Old Testament Seminary Study
4.  Attend church services and meetings weekly
5.  Attend temple 2 times (if not more)  (Done-attended 3 times)
6.  Journal in a jar topics
7.  Work of family history
8.  Family search indexing


OK.  I know.  This is a long list of goals.  At the pace I go, maybe this should be my 5 year plan instead of 2014 goals.  I am not unrealistic to think that I will get everything done.  I doubt I get half of it done.  I think this is mainly a listing of the things that I'd like to work on.  If I will organize my time better, set up some routines and follow those routines, apply myself more and stay focused; I could get all this accomplished.  Maybe I will set a new 2014 goal--try to work on this list and mark off at least one thing in each category before the end of the year. 

Rose

New Year

As you can tell I did not blog last year.  Where did it go?  I babysat with Macie & Layne 3 days a week after pre-school.  We had so much fun together.  When school was out I thought I'd have more time.  Evidently not.  The twins are in kindergarten now and are so busy that I hardly see them even though they live across the road from me.  Right now I can't even tell you what I did.

I bought a new car in March.  In September I went on a little road trip for the first time in the new car.  It took me 6 months to go more than 30 miles from home. 


In June my mother and her sisters had a "Sisters Quilt Week" here at the farm.  The sewing was set up at my house and Aunt Sis taught us how to do a paper piecing project.  They included me in their activities.  It was so fun and I love the quilted wall hanging.  I have purchased a pattern and fabric to make another paper pieced project. 
I am on the library board and work a few shifts at the library per month.  I also get the rotation books ready for pickup and then get the new rotation books logged in and shelved.  I also helped with the Summer Reading Program at the library in June.  Our theme was 'Dig into Reading'.  Our big event with the older children was a trip to the Fick Fossil Museum in Oakley then to Monument Rocks south of Oakley to look for our own fossils.  It was a very hot day but a nice trip with the kids. 
I went to a Family History Expo in Kearney, NE then drove through Iowa to Nauvoo, IL to visit church history sites.  The middle of September and the temperature was  99 - 103 degrees the whole time I was there.  HOT!  I did enjoy my 3 days there and loved the Nauvoo Temple.   I then went to the Carthage jail.  I tried to make short travel days to try to prevent growing anxiety and would stop early and sleep late in the mornings. On the way home I went to Hannibal, MO with the plan to take a river boat trip.  There was so much road construction that I could not figure out how to get to the place.  I got lost in the construction and then got frustrated.  It was time to go home.  I was gone a week and was glad to be home. 
We made two trips to Loveland to take Dad to the cardiologist.  All is going well.  The medications are doing their job and his heart functions have greatly improved.


I made three trips to Denver with my mother and aunts.  None of them want to drive in Denver any more so I am the driver. I enjoy it.  Aunt Dorothy broke her leg and was put in an Alzheimer rehab unit.  Her leg healed but her condition deteriorated greatly.  I am blessed to be able to spend time with my mother and with my aunts. 
I have never been to Colorado so many times and not at least drive into the mountains for a day trip let alone go camping.  Maybe this year I will get to camp in the mountains again.  That is something I love.


The end of October I went with Mom & Dad to Arkansas to see my brother, Allen.  We were gone 2 weeks.  That was enough time away from home for Dad.  It was so nice to see Allen's home and all the work he is doing on it.  It was even nicer to spend time with him and to catch up again.  He has finished his RN schooling and is working in a phych hospital and loves his work.  We were able to spend a weekend on our way home with Karen and Ron in Wichita.  It did not work out for me to go down and spend a week with Karen this summer like I usually do. 
I have worked on several small quilting and sewing projects through out the year.  Besides the paper pieced project in June, I designed a 6" block with a square offset center in a square.  I made over 325 blocks then made a king sized quilt top.  I want to get that quilted this year.  I also helped piece together blocks that my sister, Cathy, hand pieced over the years as she listened to her kids read 15 minutes a night for school.  She has 8 kids so that is a lot of listening and hand sewing time.  Since she hand pieced the blocks, I also hand pieced them together with background blocks.  I have done a couple embroidery projects that need finished as well as a couple little wall hangings to quilt and bind. 


Then came the holidays and now 2013 is over and 2014 has begun. 
2014 goals to come.


Rose

Favorite Nature Pictures

I have loved these two pictures for years.  I first found these on Webshots.  They were a one day free download to be used in their own screen saver program.  I had not found them that I could download them to my computer to be used as I wished until this evening.  This site, Hiren & Pankaj, has many, many pictures that I have really liked for a very long time and states that they are public domain.

 

Quaking Aspens,Mount Moran, Grand Tetons, Wyoming

 

Wildflowers, Grand Tetons, Wyoming

Finally - My first time!

People say you never forget your first time - first time for anything.  Well, I had my first time for a special event this morning.  I must admit that I am a little disappointed.  I thought it would be a much more grand event when it finally happened.  It was wet and slick.  I debated about doing it and decided to go for it.  After doing it, I feel a little foolish.  I did it - or should I say I did not do it.  I did not make it to town for church because I got stuck in the mud for my very first time.  I have lived on the farm for 5 years now.  Usually I just stay home but have decided this past year that I just need to do it in order to learn.  I will only try to drive the mud roads when I know Dad is home to rescue me if I need the help.

It has been a very hot and dry summer so far.  Finally, we got an inch of rain during the night.  I have driven before when we got that much but it must have come more slowly this time.  Because it was so dry and the rain came so nicely and it was still raining, the road was very slick.  I got out of the driveway and into the road and past the corner just fine.  Then I came to the corn field.  The road there was very slick and I began to slide around and came close to the north edge of the road but kept the van in the road and kept going.  I thought of turning around but was afraid to even try it so I kept going.  I made it to the hill and past the pasture gate by the Rogers' house.  OK so far.  But just past their house the road became even slicker and there was a little more of the hill and the van just stopped moving forward.  I could not go any more.  I backed up and tried again to go forward with little progress.  I kept trying until I made it far enough to turn into the driveway on the north side of the road into my cousin's old trailer house where nobody lives at this time.  I got the van turned sideways towards the driveway and got as far as the edge of the road where the grader leaves a bit of a ditch for water to run down the hill.  I could not get past that.  I tried and tried but was not going anywhere.  Seven minutes had elapsed since I left home and I was only 1/2 mile from home.  Stuck.  Time to call in reinforcements.

I planned ahead and took jeans and tennis shoes with me just in case I needed them.  I was wearing a white dress with sweater and heeled sandals.  I called Dad for help and began changing my clothes.  I pulled off my sandals, sweater then the dress.  I pulled on jeans and the sweater again hoping that nobody would come down the road while I was standing up and bent over with my rear sticking up by the window.  As I was putting on my socks and shoes, my cousin came down the road.  He tried to go around my but that put him at the edge of the south ditch and he got stuck.  He has 4-wheel drive and backed up and finally got around me and stopped.  I told him that Dad was on his way to help me.  Rescue arrived on the Polaris Ranger wearing shorts, slippers and a coat. Dad was going to pull the van off the road and further into the drive but decided to try to drive it himself first.  After a few attempts he got it out of the rut and into the driveway.  As he was doing this he kicked mud from the tires and splattered me with mud.  I gathered my purse and mug and we headed for home.  What a morning!  All this was before 9:30 a.m.  I put my sweater in the washer as soon as I got home and I am still rubbing dried mud specks from my scalp.

Later this afternoon, we went back and got the van.  The roads are dry and dust flew behind the van as Dad drove it home. 

I will try again to drive the mud roads.  I have to learn to do it or just stay home when it is muddy.  I need to learn when more rain faster means less muddy roads.  I need to learn when the road conditions prior to the rain makes the roads more muddy.  I need to learn to drive faster so the vehicle will not just stop because of slow speed as today.  Maybe driving faster will give me a more impressive experience getting stuck in the mud.  Maybe I will just stay home when it is muddy.

I am so grateful for the rain and the cooler day today.

Rose

Great Babies

My sisters have 13 grand children.  Cathy has 10 grandchildren plus 3 new babies on the way by the end of the year.  Karen has 3.  Since I am single and have no children of my own, I have always claimed my 19 nieces and nephews as my special babies.  Now they are all grown-ages 32-17.  8 of them are married.  Since I will never have grandchildren of my own, I claim my nieces and nephews children as my Great Babies since I am the great aunt.  I am fortunate to be able to take care of another one for the first year of his life and now to live across the road from two of these special kids. I wish I was able to live close to all of them and to spend more time with them.  Thank you my brothers & sisters for sharing your children with me and to Cathy and Karen for sharing your grand children with me as well.  I love you all!

Aunt Rose

(Back)Isaiah, Andrea, Gabrial, Andrea, Jeremiah, Ernie

(Front) Janessa, Joe, Kayden, Emelyn

Braedan, Macie and Layne

Megan, Alisha, and Valerie are expecting babies before the end of the year.  They are holding their 3 babies that were born in February 2011.

Murphy Quilt

Last August my sister's sister-in-law contacted me asking if I'd make a quilt for her.  She had 24 beautiful hand embroidered rose blocks that she had done and did not know what to do with them from there.  We agreed on price and terms.  She left it entirely up to me to design the quilt top, purchase fabric and supplies, machine quilt, and finish a queen size quilt from her blocks.  I have slowly worked on it and finally got it finished last week.  I ended up spending 8 hours sewing the quilt top, 3 hours making 2 throw pillows from the extra blocks and 2 pillow cases, 7 1/2 hours quilting, and 8 hours hand sewing the binding.  Over all, I really like how it all turned out.  I have called Mrs. M to let her know her quilt is completed.  I hope she will like it.  This is the first quilt I have been hired to make and am a little nervous about her reaction.

 

Rose



Leap Year

Happy Leap Year!  The day was more than half over when I realized what today was.  I had a computer crash almost two weeks ago and have been really working to get the computer restored.  I have completely formatted the hard drive, reinstalled the Windows 7 operating system, restored data files, pictures, accounting and some programs.  I now have a computer that works for the most part.  I'm still struggling with a few issues but it is so much better than I had originally thought it would be at this time.  I do not have all the games downloaded now that I had before the crash but that is a blessing in disguise.  I had been wasting a lot of mindless time there and now am sewing on a new quilt top.  I am still not getting the house cleaned but the desk is cleaned off and all that stuff is stuffed in a laundry basket for now.  Next-clean out the basket.  Thanks, Mom, for the cleaning tips.

Rose

Snow Day

This past weekend I had planned to take Mom and two of her sisters to Denver to see another Aunt of mine.  Mid week the weather forecast changed to a winter storm watch and we were expecting 8-14" of snow with 50 mph wind gusts.  We cancelled the trip in anticipation of the big storm.  Friday as we were to get the snow, we got this instead. Nothing. Just some drizzly rain. That's o.k. I have two days unexpectedly at home. So what is a girl to do? Clean house should have been at the top of the list but it was not.

Spending time at the sewing machine was my choice. But what to make? I went through my UFO (unfinished objects) tub and looked through patterns and my fabric stash. I had started a small quilt or wall hanging many years ago using two colors of green and making pinwheels. I had the half square blocks sewn so decided to put them together into a quilt top. I think I'll keep it and use it for a baby gift.

Then on Saturday we did get a couple inches of snow.  I wanted to sew some more.  I chose a pattern I wanted to try and decided to make one sample block to see how I really liked it.  The results-I made 21 of these blocks from my scraps.  I will need to make around 400 blocks to make a king sized quilt but I think this will be a good project to work on in between times of other projects.  A girl can't have too many projects going at one time, can she?  It would get boring if she only had one project at a time and finished it completely before starting another. At least that is my humble opinion. Here is a picture of the experiment results. 

I think I am beginning to like snow days or should I say I love "Sew Days". 

      Rose     

Piping

I have never used piping around a pillow or cushion before let alone make my own piping.  I did so tonight.  I am working on the Murphy quilt and made two throw pillows from the left over embroidered blocks.  I wanted to add some of the green that is used in the quilt in these pillows.  I bought the cording and cut my fabric strips.  I used the wonderful directions from Sew, Mama, Sew Blog.  It turned out nice.  I have a tendency to sew everything very tight and did that here also.  I would suggest next time that I give myself a little more room when sewing the piping and also sewing the piping onto the front of the pillow.  This would make sewing the pillow back on and getting a smoother look a little easier.  Over all I like the way they turned out.

Week with my brother

I have always loved camping in the mountains, especially in the fall.  It is a place of peace and renewal for me.  I feel closer to nature and all the blessings from God.  My brother, Kevin, has always loved camping at a lake in the hottest part of the year.  His family does not like to camp but Alex does do the Boy Scout camping thing.  This year Kevin decided to try camping in the mountains in the fall and asked me if I'd like to go with him.  I jumped at the chance to go camping in the mountains in September and to spend some one-on-one time with my brother. 

We went to Colorado Springs and then out west to the mountains.  We crossed over some mountain pass that had a paved road to the top but a rough dirt road down the other side. This is what we saw at the top.   We took that and ended up at Taylor Lake north of Gunnison, CO. 

Kevin enjoys hiking but I am not to keen on that.  We went to Helen Hunt Falls where Kevin took the hiking path up to the falls and I stayed at the bottom and took pictures of the fall foliage and flowers.

Kevin also went on a hike up a mountain around our campground.  I relaxed at the camp site listening to the sounds of the running water in the creek and watching the birds and critters.  We watched the wind blow across the campground.  It was calm where we were but could see and hear the wind in the trees to the west of us.  We watched it move to the east, moving calm trees as it went.  It came over us and our calm became winds while it was still calm on the other side of us.  We watched it continued on it's path changing calm to windy.  I've never seen wind move like that.  It was like watching a wave in the ocean coming over the tree tops.

I love fall (autumn). It is my favorite time of year. I love all the colors in the trees as well as the warm days and cool nights. This is just one example of the colors in the under brush of the aspen trees in the mountains in September. 

I enjoyed the one-on-one time with my brother. We have not shared time like this since he got married nearly 23 years ago. We did not even fight as siblings have a tendency to do at times. Thank you, Kevin, for a great time together.

Church Quilts

Our church stake was given a lot of fabric and it was divided up to each branch and ward.  The Relief Society was asked to make quilts for charity from this fabric.  We were to make the quilt tops then come together at the stake for a day of learning quilting techniques and to finish our quilts.  I served on the committee and was asked to work at the binding table. 
I made up four designs for our RS branch to choose from that would work together from the fabric amounts we had.  They chose a Begger Block pattern and a Triple Windmill pattern.  We gathered at the church three times to work on the quilt tops and I machine quilted them on Mother's long arm machine.  They were ready to be bound at the Stake Quilting Day.  I chose two different techniques to do and to teach. 
We made two twin bed sized quilts and then I made a baby quilt from the scraps of the Triple Windmill Quilt.

Begger Block                                                  Pieced back for Begger Block

            Triple Windmill

I had so much fun at the Stake Quilting Day.  There were so many beautiful quilts on display.  I helped several women bind their quilts, helped others plan their binding, demonstrated and finally did get one of our quilts bound that day.  I did the binding on the second one at home later because we ran out of time that day.  

The Colby Branch now has three quilts ready to give to someone in need in our community.  There was a house fire in Colby shortly after the quilts were finished and one was given to that local family.

Shocker

Even though I just own one cow, Molly, while Dad has a few and my nephew, Derrick, owns the bulk of the herd, I love to work with the cattle and especially the baby calves.  Tonight I went to the pasture with Dad to check cattle.  We have been having baby calves for the last couple weeks and have at least 20 with a set of twins also.  We ear tagged 5 new baby calves.  The new hook he made to catch the little critters works well.  I tighten up my seat belt on the Ranger and lean out as far as I can as Dad drives (chases) them around the pasture and I hook their little hind legs.  Usually when I go out with Dad, he will open the gates and have me drive but not tonight since I wanted to catch.  As we were coming back home, I got off the Ranger to hook up the electric fence.  The wire would not reach all the way across for some reason.  I knew that while the fence was not hooked it would not shock me.  I had hold of the plastic handle but grabbed the wire on the other side that I hook it into.  DUMB!    OUCH!!  I got shocked from the fingers on my left hand, up my left arm, across my body and ended with tingles down my right arm to the hand holding the handle of the gate wire.  After laughing at me, Dad explained that the gate wire is not hot when unhooked but the remainder of the fence wire is!  That line is hot and runs the electricity to the entire pasture with a 100 mile fence charger.  O.K. I'll have to remember that.  Now, 4 hours later, my left hand and under side of my forearm still hurt.  I do not know how Dad can grab any of the electric wires and just feel a little tingle at best to tell if the fence is working. 
No wonder I do not like to work with electricity even to change out a switch or outlet, let alone replace a light or ceiling fan.  I will change a light bulb, though.

Summer vacation

Last week I decided to tale a little vacation.  I just wanted some relaxing time away for a few days and also wanted to go to the temple before it closed for renovations.  I love camping in the mountains but just could not get things to work out as I had hoped.  Instead I booked a hotel in Denver for 4 nights.  I left on Tuesday afternoon, checked into the hotel and found something for supper that night.

Wednesday I decided to drive in the mountains for the day since I was unable to camp over the weekend.  I have driven through Idaho Springs to Echo Lake before then on through Evergreen and Morrison back into Denver.  It is a beautiful mountain drive without taking all day.  One thing I have never done is once arriving at Echo Lake, is to take the 14 mile drive to the 14,264 feet summit of Mount Evans.  This road is the highest paved road in North America.  This time I am doing it!  I paid the $10 for passage up the road and away I went.  The climb began immediately.  Up, up, curve, up and curve again.  The further I went the steeper the drive became, the tighter the curves were, the narrower the road became and the less there was on the side of the road.  In fact, you could see the depth of the blacktop of the road...then...nothing.  There might be a rock or two beside the road but other than that it was a sheer drop off into the valley (or road if you are lucky) below.  As I drive, I am a gawker.  I love to look around.  As the traffic was light that day I was able to drive in the middle of the road on some straight stretches of road and really look.  The mountains were beautiful, so many colors in them and the sky and clouds looked so fresh.  As I looked around and over (even from the middle of the road) I got butterflies in my tummy.  Oh, my goodness!  I can't believe I'm doing this and know Dad would absolutely hate the drive and view although he is where I got my love for this.

This is what I actually saw as I was approaching a very tight curve on the very steep road that had no guard rails.  I had the camera in my hand on the steering wheel so I could show what it was really like.  I am as high as the clouds with nothing between me and a beautiful free fall should I not make the curve.  I stopped once about 9 miles up the mountain at a little lake that had a rest area.  I just sat for about 10 minutes to catch my breath and relax my tense muscles before going on up.

As I finally get almost to the top I am stopped by wildlife. There is a family of sheep crossing the road in front of me. I know it is a little hard to see. but there were 6 of them-a couple were babies.


At the top it looks like God used a huge dump truck to make the top of the 14,264 foot high peak and people were climbing it.  The road is 14,120 feet high and you can see for miles as the sign says.  I felt like I was on the top of the world but had the little butterflies in the tummy and the swirl in the head as I looked all around me.  Can you believe people ride mountain bikes up this road?  I would not want to be on the edge of the road there there is nothing but drop off and have cars coming from both directions at once on this very narrow road.

The drive back down the mountain was as intense as the drive up.  I think I was on the drop off side of the road more.  Every curve would bring forth a prayer.  I saw more wildlife also.  There was a little red fox walking along the edge of the road.  Then there was a deer standing on the edge of the road on the side of the mountain so close that a passenger in the car could have reached out and touched it as it stood so still.  There was too much traffic at that time to get a picture of the deer. 

Once I got back down to Echo Lake I could have gone on the drive through Evergreen but at that time I was to the point of "Just get me out of the mountain and back to the Interstate" state of mind. But on the way there was this meadow and pond with moose playing in the water.  There were probably 20-25 critters there.  I know the picture shows the meadow much better than it does the moose.  I finally got to the Interstate and back into Denver.  This was a beautiful drive, although a very tense drive, and I am so glad I finally did it.  It was a nice day in the mountains that brought me a lot of joy and peace.

When I returned to Denver I went to visit a friend.  An ice cream truck came down the street.  I have not seen an ice cream truck since I was little and we were in New York visiting my uncle and aunt.  I did not know they were still even in existence.  I flagged him down and bought a $3.50 drumstick ice cream cone and visited with the driver a bit.  That was like being a kid again and was fun.  I later went out to supper at Rosie's Diner.  It was a cute place with the old diner counter as well as booths and tables.  The booths had the old jukeCristo sandwich.  I have not had one of those for at least 15-20 years.  This was a day to remember.

Thursday I did a little shopping, took a nap and visited my aunt and uncle.  I took them some items for a garage sale his family is having to raise money for his daughter that needs surgery.  After a nice visit I went to the Outback Steak House and had one of the best sandwiches I've had in a long time (not counting the great sandwich I had the night before).  It was a steak fillet cooked then sliced thin and placed on some kind of special herbed bread served with au jus and sweet potato fries.  Yum, Yum!

I went to the temple on Friday from 9:00 - 3:00.  It was great to be able to do some family history work and be reminded of all the covenants made and blessings promised in the Holy Temple, The House of the Lord.  Later I got together with my niece, Liz, that lives in Denver for college.  She has the cutest house that she shares with 3 house mates.  Liz has done a lot of work in the yard planting grass and flowers to make the place really look like a home and not just a rented house.  We went out to a Mexican restaurant in a trendy part of town off Colfax Ave.  It was a place and in an area that I never would have found or gone to on my own.  The food was good and the company was great.  We had a wonderful visit and I'm so glad she was able to share some time with her old aunt.

Saturday was the day to return home.  I got ready to check out and the main elevator was out of order.  At least there was a back service elevator to use.  I would not want to haul all the stuff I had down the stairs by hand.  It would have taken 4 trips.  I went shopping for a bra and got frustrated and just headed on home.  Dana called me to ask me to babysit that evening.  I was about an hour from home at the time.  I got home, unloaded the car and went to babysit my great niece and great nephew.  I love spending time with the kiddos while my nephew takes his wife out on a date.  They got home very late and I set my alarm to get up for church but fell back asleep and did not wake up until 1:20 p.m.  Oops, I missed church.  I guess I was totally exhausted from a great week of 'relaxing' vacation.