Relief Society Broadcast

Last night was the General RS broadcast. We heard from each member of the new presidency, and they did a wonderful job! Then we heard from President Eyring - whose talk was music to my ears, and spirit! He spoke about the service the sisters perform, and about visiting teaching. I am so grateful that we are blessed to live in a time with a living Prophet and Apostles. I can hardly wait for General Conference this coming weekend! :)

The end is in sight!

Which really means, the beginning is in sight. We have been busily preparing things in our home for two things. 1) Amy and Craig and their families are coming to visit soon...YAY!!!! and 2) My mom is moving in with us! Yep! That is why we are getting things prepared around here. Once the kids go home  :(  we start really winding down in getting things together for my mom. There will be furniture moving, food storage moving, etc. Fortunately, like I said, an end is in sight. We have as much prepped as we can for now, and believe me, it's a great deal!

I have been thinking this morning about my mom moving in with us. I am grateful that we are able to give her a home that is comfortable, and has a happy atmosphere. I am grateful that she can come and feel love and accepted by us. My mom is a wonderful person. She has given SO much to our family, and I'm not talking about temporally, I am talking spiritually. She is the one that allowed the missionaries to come into our home when I was a baby, and convinced my dad that he had to listen to them. She accepted the gospel when it was first presented to her, and has embraced it ever since. She has loved our family unconditionally, and given our children one of the best gifts she could give them - a loving, warm, accepting grandma. While she was at it she also taught me how to be a pretty good grandma.

While I am really grateful that our work is almost complete, I am even more grateful for the opportunity we have of having my mom live with us. We both love her dearly.

Oh, the internet!

The internet...funny how one can have a love/hate relationship with it! There are so many good and wonderful things about it, and some that are not. I am grateful for the good things. For instance, on facebook today I saw that my old roommate posted a link to watch the first episode of season three's Downton Abbey. Once I saw her link I couldn't resist! It was so great to get caught up on the Crawley family and all the happenings in Downton Abbey! That is a good thing about the Internet; choosing a "healthy obsession"! ;)

Life

This morning I learned of a tragic accident. Our former sister-in-law, Kate, lost her mother to a bus accident. Apparently her mother was out for a walk, and a bus driver that was intoxicated, and had 15 children in the bus with her, hit and killed her. She was out on $50,000 bail a few hours later. (ridiculous)

Fortunately, for Kate's family, they had a wedding last weekend, and her mother was there. What a blessing to know that they were able to celebrate a joyous occasion together prior to this happening. Oh, the frailty of life. We never know from moment to moment what will occur, which is why we need to count our blessings daily, and hold those we love close, leaving no doubt of our love for them.

I am grateful for this life, the trials, the blessings, the love we have for family and friends, and finally that our families can be eternal.

Break

I've been cooking dinners for our family for 34+ years. Sure, we have eaten out from time to time, but over 99% of the time we eat at home. It's a great way to save money, and often it tastes just as good, if not better, than restaurant meals (plus, there's no tipping). As a result, I am tired of cooking...today. Since that is the case Pat and I are going out for dinner tonight. I am grateful that we can do this, I am happy that I don't have to plan or cook tonight, I truly am.

AAA

This morning turned out to be a bit more eventful than planned. Pat went out to start his Pathfinder only to hear the familiar click-click-click. It wouldn't start. He was running late so he nicely asked if he could take my car. Of course I let him! Whatever I needed to do could wait. 

After considering this for a few minutes it occurred to me that we have AAA, have had it for 28 years, and have seldom used it. I figured it was about time we took advantage of their services, seeing as how we pay for them and all. :)

Before calling AAA I called our auto mechanic to see if they could fit us in, if necessary, and to inquire as to whether or not I had to come with the tow truck. Since they know me well they said I did not have to come, and that if it were something simple they would work us in.

Then I called AAA and asked them to either come and jumpstart our car, or possibly tow it in. They said they would first try to jumpstart it, and then tow it, if needed. They also said it'd be 45 minutes before they would be here. They lied, 15 minutes later they were knocking at my door! Nice service!

After the guy pulled the car out of our garage, worked on it a bit, he came knocking at my door again. The battery was dead and needed to be replaced. Before I could even begin thinking about the process of getting the car into the shop he kindly said, 'Did you know we can replace batteries for you?' 

This little bit of information had come as a wonderful surprise to me. He told me that he could have someone else come in half an hour (15 minutes, he meant) and replace the battery, all for a nice little price. And I do mean nice, it was reasonable, in fact it was less than I had expected to pay. I was thrilled and pretty much told him how grateful I was that they offer that particular service! Yay!

Soon after he left I called our auto shop and let them know that it was all taken care of. They were sure sweet about it all.

While today wasn't fun, to deal with a dead battery, it was certainly wonderful and gave me pause to be grateful that AAA is a company that we do business with. Their service is worth every cent.

Saving pennies

When our kids were growing up my parents started a change jar for the boy's missions. We added to that as well. We actually saved quite a bit by doing that! We continue to have a change jar (we actually have a dollar jar as well, I don't like carrying one's around!). In following our recent organizing theme I decided it would be a good idea to go through our loose change. I willingly put quarters and dimes in paper sleeves to be deposited at our bank. I draw the line at nickels and pennies, coinstar will do that work for me! I am pretty sure we have quite a bit in nickels and pennies, we had well over $100 in quarters and dimes. I love saving our pennies and am grateful that we do.