Happy to be back on track

I ran at the Weber High School track this morning! It was the first time I've been up there since before Christmas due to deep snow and freezing temperatures. Actually there is still quite a bit of snow covering most of the track, but about 1/3 of it has the outer lane clear where the sun hits it all day. The other portion of the track still had about 7 inches of frozen snow which was difficult to walk on, but I walked around on top of the snow to the melted section and then ran until I was back to snow. But here's the bonus--the south-facing bleachers have the cement steps cleared so I could run the stairs. It was exhilarating. The downside of the whole story is that there is more snow in the forecast for tonight. But for one day in February, it was nice to be back at the track.

Winter Woes

I'm pretty tired of winter. Its the middle of February and I always feel this way, but this year the snow is especially tiresome and I'm longing for leaves on trees and green grass to mow. I miss working in my garden and growing flowers. Won't spring be sweet in 2009?

This past week I shoveled so much snow that my arms and shoulders are still sore. The weatherman says to expect more snow next week. I'm going to look like Popeye with weird, bulging muscles by time spring shows up. Perhaps that will enable me to mow faster and dig deeper when gardening season starts...

Post Relief Society Projects

My daughter, Dani, has been after me for awhile to have a blog. So today she helped me set this up and showed me how to follow the other blogs I've enjoyed checking on over the past several months. So now I can mark another 'to do' off my list.

Lately things have been fairly boring around our house. I was released from my calling as Relief Society President just over a month ago and have been working in primary for the past couple of weeks. After 3 and 1/2 years in Relief Society, I'm realizing things are a lot more subdued in primary. My phone hardly rings anymore and I'm out of the loop as to who is in the hospital, expecting a baby and moving in and out of the ward. Sometimes ignorance is bliss...

So these last few weeks, I've been working on some projects that I didn't have the time for before. I refinished a coffee table my Dad gave me just a couple of months before he passed away. The old table has been sitting in my craft room taunting me for over two years. I finally got it up on the sawhorses and stripped and sanded it, stained and varnished it and purchased new hardware to mount the legs and ceramic tiles to place in the frames which at one time held beveled glass. As with all my projects, this one took much more work, time and money than I anticipated having to spend on it. The beveled glass was thinner than the tiles, so we had to use a router and grind out additional wood to have the tiles sit flush with the table top. I thought that wouldn't be too complicated--wrong! Bryan and our kind neighbor, Jimmy Merrill, spent three hours kneeling on the driveway on a cold Saturday afternoon using his router, an extra long level as a strait edge and clamps to hold it in place. Well, after Bryan's great investment of time and effort, the finished project now sits in his "space" with the TV, video games, stereo and other equipment. It is a nice addition to our media room.

The next project I went to work on was redecorating Dani's bedroom. Yesterday (Friday Feb. 13) I finished that job and got her belongings back in. It also turned into a bigger expense of time and money than I anticipated (why am I surprised?) But after all the sanding, filling, sanding, painting, painting and painting. It is looking quite lovely. Three walls and the ceiling are Cappuccino and the fourth wall is Pacific Rim (these are color names). You'll have to come and check out the newest room in our house.

I've also had an on-going project of helping Mandy Hone with her newborn twins. For the past three weeks, I've gone to Mandy's house each Monday, Wednesday and Friday and spent a few hours helping her hold, bathe, change, feed and rock Michael and Thomas, her four-month old babies. The twins were born 14 weeks early on October 2, 2008 and finally got to come home from intensive care in the hospital the week of Christmas. Mandy's in-laws, and biggest helpers, went to Fiji for a few weeks, so I decided to take over some of their responsibilities. Helping out with the babies has been fun and rewarding and I've come to know, love and admire Mandy, the Mom.