The Walk

We live in a subdivision right off of a pretty busy street that is under construction. When we moved here, there were no sidewalks along that street. Our city has a Walk Score of 40 out of 100, which falls into the Car Dependent range. But we only have one car and I don't take Sam to work every day.

One day, we were bored and I didn't feel like walking around our neighborhood again. So we ventured out to the new sidewalk and went all the way to Wal-Mart! I hadn't planned to go that far so I didn't have my wallet. Instead, we played in the arcade and looked at the fish for sale. We have done this twice more since the first walk.

Alex loves seeing all of the tractors working along the road. Edison's face in this picture is hilarious. What is his problem?!

Handwriting

I don't write with a pen and paper very much anymore. I write meal plans, thank you notes, and quick things at church or meetings; that is nothing compared to the hours I used to spend taking notes each day. I remember when it used to be a big deal to have cute handwriting. Now cute fonts are important. Why do I keep catching myself saying things that make me sound so old like "I remember when..." Sheesh, I need to go do a hopscotch or something to liven up things. I think that just made me sound old again. I'm done.

Old Comps

One of Sam's old companions came into town. They live in Austin but they were leaving on a cruise from Galveston and stopped in Houston to go to the temple. Sam was really excited to see his companion and I was excited to meet him and his wife. They have the coolest story of how they met. In the upper corner on Facebook, it says Suggested Friends. He saw an itty-bitty picture of her, thought she was pretty, so he sent her a message. They had a few friends in common and it just went from there.

Some friends from our ward babysat for us and we went out to dinner to a Mediterranean restaurant. It was really fun and it was nice to get to know them. Steve is finishing up his Masters and Erica is a psychologist. After dinner, we picked up the boys from the sitters and then came home and put the boys to bed. They have only been married for a year so they don't have any kids yet.

We played Ticket to Ride, ate seven layer dip and fondue, and talked for hours. It was so nice and I was talking about how much fun I had for a week. I really wish they lived closer. We are going to plan a trip to see them in Austin soon!

Something I Hate To Do

Today was really busy. I got home from church, and went visiting teaching. I got home, started dinner, then our home teachers came over. I finished dinner, we ate, and then I ran out the door to a Youth Fireside. So the dishes are piled up. I really hate doing the dishes. I made dinner, can't the dishes just do me the courtesy of disappearing? They can take the messy floor with them.

Drink

Tonight was our Stake Women's Conference. The theme was President Uchtdorf's Forget Me Not talk. The three classes I chose to go to were Forget Not to be Happy Now, Forget Not to be Patient with Yourself, and Forget Not That the Lord Loves You.

This conference came at the perfect time for me and was exactly what I needed to hear. It wasn't even the topic of any of the classes, but I feel like I need to do more service. I am so concerned with the presentation of the service, and I need to be more concerned with the action. Having service rejected would feel better than finding out I didn't serve someone who needed it.

I mostly drink water now. So that doesn't make for a very exciting picture. But dinner and dessert were both delicious. Dinner was catered by Olive Garden and for dessert I had chocolate toffee cake. Amazing.

Also, Sam is amazing. A few days ago, we dragged this dresser home from someone's garbage pile. It was a little broken and I was worried that it would sit on our to-do list for weeks. Sam sent me this picture while I was at Women's Conference! He did it all himself! He went to Home Depot, bought the wood pieces to replace the broken ones, painted them black to match, and screwed everything together. None of our furniture in our room matches, but it was all free, so that's cool. I am really impressed by Sam!