Whoa.

Another year come and gone, and me, well, I still feel 29. Once in a while I have an, "Oh yeah, I guess I am older than you" moment, but usually I just do my thing and all is well.

I had a very special birthday this year--I was able to spend it with my family. This doesn't happen very often, since I live on the East Coast and (now) they're all out West. I got presents and a cake and everything! Pictures... well, they're on my camera and by now you know how that goes. I'll get a round tuit some day.

I was out west to see my lovely niece (yes, they're all lovely, so that's not really a good description) who just returned from her mission a couple weeks ago. She was giving a talk in church on Sunday and I wanted to be there. So I was. I flew out on Friday, had lunch with my Dad, his wife, and my niece (Danja and I had huveros? corn tortillas, beans, meat (we went with chicken), lettuce, pico de gallo, sour cream, and mexican cheese. delicious!), then went to Dad's house to see a cute email he wanted to show us but was unable to print. So we did that for him :) Then we went to Danja's house, and chilled. Not easy to do, it was over 100 degrees outside. I got to meet the newest member of the family, a little terrier mix named Lucy. By far my favorite dog that they've had. So cute. And 6 months old. So yeah, lots of energy. But she's small, so it's not intimidating when she jumps up on you. So Danja and everyone else had to leave that evening except for oldest nephe David. We watched tv and had Farmer Boys for dinner--fried zuchini. You may think I'm crazy, but I love fried zuchini dipped in ranch sauce. It was yummy.

Saturday it was again really hot so we opted to stay home and play with the little kids, my nephew Daryl's kids. Daryl had a football game (he plays for RCC in California) and his lovely wife Kristen and David went to support him. On my wonderful SIL's advice I stayed home (I do burn quite easily). (yes, I did get the acronym from Kristen). I got presents and a cake--did I mention that already? my youngest (in that family) niece took me to In-N-Out for dinner, which was just as yummy as I'd remembered. Can you imagine a fast food place that has proper portion sizes, few selections (hambergers, fries, soft drinks and shakes) and yet is one of the best, most popular fast food places in the west? It was so yummy. We had my cake when we got back. It was really yummy too (do I need a new word? I'll think about that). Then at one point I was tired so I went to take a nap, thinking I'd wake up by 7:00pm PDT. Nope. It was midnight when I finally woke up, so I got ready for bed and went back to sleep. I suppose I get so relaxed around family that I just can't stay awake? anyway, it was a very good day. I even got to talk to some people on the phone, my nieces and ex-SIL that live in AL and my good friend Tammy from my FOHI days. That was great. I'm going to have to be more forthcoming the next time I go to CA, so I can meet up with my old friends there :)

Sunday was great too. Got up, hung out, went to church where Danja gave a great talk. First quote: "Bishops are here to comfort the afflicted; missionaries are here to afflict the comfortable" Love it. It was a great talk, a couple of missionary experiences, lots of quotes, and she tied them all together beautifully. After church the whole family--well, ok, those that were in the area--got together for dinner, mexican themed. I had three servings of the enchiladas. I forgot how much I love enchiladas. I'm going to have to make them at home now. They're amazingly easy.

So I get home last night and my cat-in-hiding was still in hiding. My other cat decided she had to bite me. I'm thinking I still smelled too much like dog for her to be happy. Hopefully she'll get over that today, or I might have to limit her access to me, particularly at night.

nomash

Yes, another word verification. So what does nomash mean?

nomash--a nomad from the Sahara desert?
no-mash--what a kid says to older sibling trying to sqeeze them
noma-sh--what you tell noma to be quiet.

Any other suggetions?

As for me, last weekend I went to Kirtland OH for a Single Adult Conference. I love visiting Kirtland. It's my very favorite church history site. (those who are not LDS can skip this next part). We may not be able to get to Jerusalem or Galilee very easily, but Kirtland is the place where the Father and the Son walked and talked with the leaders of the church as they were preparing the way and endowing them with power from on high. The Father showed up five times in this dispensation, four of which are in Kirtland. We don't even have documented all the times Christ came to visit the saints in Kirtland, but it was a lot. So if you haven't been to Kirtland, put it on your list! :D I'll try to get pictures up sometime this weekend.

I even really appreciate the Community of Christ church for taking such good care of the Kirtland Temple. It's so odd that our history is the same for so long, so you can talk to them about our church history and it's the same. It's not until after Joseph Smith was martyered that all the splinter groups started going their separate ways.

Other than the trip I've spend most of last week and this week trying to put in extra hours at work--I'm out of vacation time. This means that every time I take a day off I need to work extra in order to not have to borrow from next year. So basically I'm exhausted. Looking forward to the weekend and my Sunday nap. Saturday I'm going to the cat show with my friend, hoping to find some smelly treats for my reclusive kitty, and some more stuffed toys for him and maybe a cat tree/scratching post. My not-so-reclusive Kitty already has everything she needs, but I may get her some new toys as well. I just heard about this mouse toy that acts like it's caught under a blanket and moves randomly for the cat to chase. I'll have to see if they have any. And if it's afordable.