A Dream Come True

Saturday was Spencer's birthday, so his parents invited our entire family to dinner on Sunday.  Josh brought Ty with him to our house, where they visited with us for a few minutes before we all got into our separate cars to go to Grandpa and Grandma's.

Josh and Ash got Ty into his carseat, and Ty said, "Where's Papa and Damma?"  Thinking he was talking about Josh's parents, they said, "They are at home."  He said, "No, Papa Hill!"

And THERE is the first time I've been called Grandma.  Or Damma.  Whichever.  It all works for me.

And a Story

Mom loves sesame seeds.  Daddy loves Mom.  So when we were kids and we got to have sesame seed buns with our hamburgers, Mom got to have all the seeds that were left in the bag at the end.

I told this story to my sweetheart when we were first married, and he has let me have the sesame seed bag ever since.  I'm the luckiest wife in the world.

P.S.  Yes, I know you can buy sesame seeds.  And I do!  :)

Peace

Several months ago I applied for a job, and I felt completely overwhelmed and nervous.  And then I didn't.  I just felt calm and peaceful, knowing that whatever happened would be just fine.

I learned then that several of my friends had put my name on the prayer roll at the temple.

I don't know if they have continued to do that, but I have been incredibly blessed throughout 2014 with this gift of calm.  It's beautiful.

When I tell people that we have two weddings this summer, their eyes get big, and they say, "Oh, my goodness!  How are you DOING?" and I can honestly say that I'm OK.  Landon has fought terrible depression and anxiety since the beginning of the year, and somehow everything is fine in my mind and heart.

All of this is not to say that I don't have my anxious moments.  But all I have to do is remember the sweet gift that is mine for the taking, and I think, "All I have to do is the stuff that needs to be done TODAY."  So each day is full and busy, but each day I check something off the list, and we calmly move forward.

Of course, it helps that I have family and friends who are doing all they can to help out in a million ways.  It would not be the same without them.

But since "calm" is not usually my M.O., it's nice to have it and enjoy every moment while it lasts.

Seriously.

God created pink tulips just for me, did you know?  It's true.  

In other good news, people in the past got to enjoy them because He was practicing.  And people in the future will get to enjoy what's left over.

My friend sent me this picture last night, with the following note:  Seriously. Nobody has ever loved anybody more than God loves you.

I think she's right!

I Heart Field Trips

Field trips are wasted on children.  So a group of us tries to regularly go on field trips during our lunch breaks.  Today we had a tour of the McCune Mansion.  It was really beautiful and we had a great time.

Mrs. (Sister) McCune had a group of 5 girlfriends who were friends throughout their lives.  She would kick her hubby out of the house for one weekend a year, have matching gowns made, and have her girlfriends over for a long weekend of fun.  We all lamented that we couldn't afford to have matching dresses made.  Instead we'll all get matching earrings--maybe we'll buy all of our friends matching earrings for Christmas!

There are no limits to our genius.

I Acted Like A Manager Today (in a good way)

When I interviewed for this job, one of the questions they asked me was, "If you were given this job, what changes would you make?"  I had been thinking about the answer, and I didn't think I had a good answer.  I responded, "Well, just having me here would be a big change, because I am not Karleen.  But I think I would like to look at the duties of each individual and determine ways that the people can learn and grow.  So maybe some cross-training opportunities.  That kind of thing."

As it turned out, they gave me a job that was much more people-intensive than my predecessor, and I've been excited about the opportunity to see what kind of meaningful and good changes might need to be made.  During some conversations a couple of weeks ago I had a clear picture in my mind of what needed to happen in order to fix x, y, and z.

My direct supervisor and I put together recommendations, which were approved.  We then discussed everything with the section manager over the managers who would be affected AND the section manager over the admins.  They approved the changes.  THEN I discussed the changes with all of the group managers and got their buy-in.  And today was the day we told the admins (my employees) about the changes.

It was very managerial.

It also went well, and I'm grateful for the wonderful people I work with.  Next step is to implement changes (beginning on Monday) and pray that things run smoothly.

What My Lunch Looked Like Today

I never get tired of my view.

Who's Counting?

Today is May 1.  That means that our Tay has just 3 months to go on his mission.

Just sayin'.