Monday, May 17, 2010

Such a lazy person!

I haven't updated the blog in a long time. It is not because nothing happens in my life - although it is actually pretty boring! It is because I am too lazy to take the time to write. So to fill in a few thoughts and events from the recent past.......

Lisa and Ashby spent last week with us. I know they only live 20 minutes away, but David and 3 of his cousins were gutting the kitchen, plus various other remodeling jobs, so it seemed smarter for them to just move out. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed coming home from work each day to have them here. Ashby gets cuter every day and I can't get enough cuddling!!! The guys got a lot done and their house is now livable again, so they have gone home. There is still a lot of finishing to do, but everything is installed and working. We had such a good time having them here. We had to go to the grocery store several times, which Ashby loves! She thinks the carts that look like cars are way cool. She says, "Vroom! Vroom!" One day we went over to a park near here and she played on the playground. It is a really nice park and she was busy for a long time - much longer than I thought she would last. She also kept asking about cookies, so one day we made some more chocolate chip cookies. She just loves licking the beaters and the mixing spoon. She is also into some videos I have - she loves the dancing and singing and dances and sings right along with the children in the videos. It so reminds me of Lisa!!

Today I went out to lunch with the Lunch Bunch. This is the group that used to carpool to the temple. Unfortunately, Jerry called to say she was too sick. She had been to the doctor and he had put her on antibiotics and she was on her way to bed. Since Bill was home and able to go today, we went ahead and ate at Del Rio, a new Mexican place near us. Lisa and Ashby came over, too, so it was a lot of fun. Brother and Sister Rowberry and Becky Bentley rounded out the group.

This past weekend was my temple weekend. Once a month, I drive up on a Friday to Columbia, South Carolina, and work at the temple on Friday evening and Saturday morning. It is a 3 1/2 hour trip each way, so I am pretty exhausted when I get back late Saturday afternoon, but it is so worth it.

Saturday evening, we met Susan Allen and some of her family at the conference center at Stone Mountain for dinner. Susan is a friend of Bill's going back to high school and we have all become friends over the years. She lives in Colorado, so it was a treat to get to see her and meet her daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters.

Sunday I had to travel down to Covington to speak at church. This is the 4th time I have given this talk about public affairs. The high counselor asked me to go as his companion speaker. Covington is about an hour away. I live almost as far north as you can go in the stake and Covington is just about as far south as you can go. I think it went well. At least the bishop came up and asked me some good questions afterwards. He is a brand new bishop and it would be nice to have him understand public affairs right from the beginning.

Things have been going better at work for the last month or so. The workload had gotten so big that I was working until 2:00 or later most days. That doesn't seem like part time to me, so when I mentioned it, my boss told me some changes were coming and it should go back to being what I wanted. She was right. One of our big clients switched from paper bills to scanned. Now everything is done online and I don't have to print any of their EOB's. We also made a little change in the way we are doing the printing and it has made a huge difference in the amount of time it is taking me. Now I am usually out of there by 12:00, sometimes earlier. Today it was just after 11:00. I am much happier now!

I also had to speak at church on Mother's Day. That was a hard one for me. I have a hard time at church on Mother's Day and to have to speak made it even more difficult. So, I just spoke honestly, and I think it was well received. I got a lot of comments afterwards that make me believe I touched a lot of people - hopefully in the right way! We didn't do anything on Mother's Day, though, since David and his cousins were working on the house. We made a potato salad and got some deli meat and all the trimmings for hoagies, plus some watermelon, and took it over to them. We figure we will ask for our Mother's Day dinner out when things calm down a little.

Bill was called as the 1st counselor in the bishopric a couple of weeks ago, so his Sunday schedule is now pretty full. It will be interesting to see if he ever makes it home in time to have dinner with us. He really likes the bishop and the other counselor, but it is still taking a little adjustment. He commented that he thought he was too old to do this again, but I think he is enjoying it a lot already.

So - that is a little of what is happening in the Cantrell corner of the world. I will probably be just as lazy before the next post. But, whatever!!