Blood donation

I donated blood this week. I was the very last donor of the evening. I have a very specific routine I do while I'm there. It involves reading a book, drinking a small fruit punch, and then leaving with a small snack of Lorne Doone cookies. I love doing it! 

I've donated 5 times this year, and hope to sneak in one more donation before the end of 2026. It feels good knowing I'm helping someone out, even if it requires a little bit of inconvenience and a tiny bit of pain. Thankfully, it's rare that bruise at the insertion point. 

Library lunch

The annual lunch at the library went so well! We had Ream's Grocery store cater all the food and they did a terrific job! They even were willing to deliver all the food. We were so extremely grateful. This is the 3rd year Friends of the Library has provided the lunch and it was the best meal thus far. We are getting better.

Peter's 18th

He turned 18! It's painful for momma, but he is enjoying it tons. We had a nice dinner with Papa and then present opening. He had a ton of self control to wait for presents until after dinner. I'm so grateful for Peter! He is hilarious, smart, and a great cook. I also love that he still enjoys getting Legos. Between Legos, snacks, and clothing - he was spoiled rotten. 

Halloween

We had a nice Halloween lunch at work. It's always so much fun to see that the different departments decide to wear. Most of them pick a theme. This year we were football players. It makes it easy when the football coach is part of your department. I also got this fun picture of me and my neighbor. We only had 40 kids come to the house which was kinda sad. I think our neighborhood is getting old and that's why. I'm glad I was able to pass out candy to those that did come. Having the financial ability to do that is never a guarantee for anyone. 

Funny stories

The old building I worked in last year is being used to by random district departments. I'm not sure exactly which ones, but when I went there for a meeting last week they still have our teacher names over the doors. I miss this place so much! Someone saw me wandering around up there and asked if I needed directions. I said I was just taking a walk down memory lane. It was funny. 

This is a hilarious story. When we first moved into the new school, and the year began, everything was fine with the counseling office restroom - until it wasn't. It was discovered that the pipes were blocked and therefore the waste was blocking up. So, during fall break the contractors came in and jack hammered the floor and got it all fixed. Before they had a chance to lay down the fancy linoleum stuff some students came and decorated the cement. So funny! I feel bad for all the counselors that had to use a restroom other than the one that was right by their offices. 

Orange walk

I challenged myself to go on a little walk at work and see how many things I could find that were orange. It was actually really fun to do. 

Best month ever!

This has been such a busy month, and I've been so thankful for most of the moments I've had this month. The most epic thing happened this past week - my parent came for a visit! This was a huge sacrifice as they drove their car out to see Amy and me. It was wonderful to spend every nanosecond possible with them. Even just sitting and looking at them was absolute magic. 

Exciting days

This week was such a busy one - most of it was my own fault. I decided to jam pack every single night. On Monday I picked up a friend after work and we had some adventures. A walk outside (Provo bicentennial park), window shopping at our local antique mall, and then dinner at Olive Garden. It was a nice day out and we laughed lots and lots. Here are some of the cutest salt and pepper shakers we saw. My friend collects them, so she had a wonderful time looking at them all. 

Tuesday night I spent an hour or so at the Civic Center. Springville City offers a PAR (Parks and Recreation) Grant to non-profit organizations. The library hinted that they would like board of Friends of the Library to attend. It was interesting, but I don't think I'll be the one writing the grant. 

Wednesday was such a fun night! We had our recap dinner for the fair. All of my best friends where there. It was nice to have lovely chats with everyone, and also delicious food to eat. They had lots of food leftover, so I brought some of it home. My favorite were the butter/salted fancy potatoes. Look at the amazing color!

Thursday was supposed to be my relax night, but Peter's lightsabers arrived this afternoon. So, I dropped everything and I drove the lightsabers up to him. It was so much fun to sit for a little while and watch him assemble them. They are high quality lightsabers, and they are the most expensive purchase Peter has made up to this point in his life. 

Friday was s fun day - I went with the unified sports team to Maple Mountain High School to participate in a soccer tournament. It was such a beautiful day, and it was amazing to see how these special kids worked hard at doing something athletic. I was so glad I was invited/able to go. 

Right before we started loading the bus, I got a phone call from Peter. It's very, very unusual for him to call, so I answered it. He started by saying that I needed to transfer $53.60 from his checking to my savings because he just bought Dad a new crock pot. He went on to explain that he was getting the meat ready to put in the crock pot for dinner and it slipped out of his hands and shattered all over the floor. So, he needed to buy Dad a new one. I was blown away by how responsible and grown up Peter sounded. I told him I would get on that right away and I asked him if he knew how to clean it up. Thankfully, the meat wasn't inside when it slipped, so it was easy just to use a broom. 

I got a message later saying in his flustered state he forgot to change the shipping address and it was coming to me - would I be able to bring it up when it arrived in a few hours? So, I made another trip up to Brandon's to take the crock pot. Bonus of going up was seeing the fully assembled light sabers. Here is the crock pot Peter picked out. It's amazing how expensive these things are. 

Saturday morning I was up bring and early. I had signed up to attend the "Wings and Wheels" event as a volunteer a few weeks ago. It was bitter sweet because this was an event that Larry and I attended together. I wasn't sure how I would feel emotionally, but it actually turned out to be just fine. I wasn't sad at all. I was a ticket scanner for 3.5 hours. It went by so fast! There were thousands and thousands of people in attendance. They expected 20,000 people to attend, but I'm not sure the exact number of people that I helped. I rediscovered something about myself - I really like to be around people. It makes me full of energy and excitement. I need to find a job where I get paid to help lots and lots of people without hoops to jump through. I only saw two people that I knew - weird as I anticipated seeing lots more. 

Yummy snacks that needed a resting spot between handfuls. At one time, I had the code to this gate memorized. The airport had grown significantly since the last time I was there, but parts are still the same. Volunteers could have stayed to walk around, but emotionally I knew that wasn't smart. So I came home and did Saturday chores.