Getting to know you circa 2007

I found another little gem in my emails from March 2007.

1. What time did you wake up this morning? 6 AM (It was a freak accident!) 

 2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds

 3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Pursuit of Happiness 

4. What is your favorite TV show? currently... Gray's Anatomy 

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? cereal

 6. What is your middle name? Catherine

8. What food do you dislike? Mushrooms, onions, anything fishy

9. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Dianna Krall (From this moment on) Everyone should listen!!! http://www.dianakrall.com/music.aspx

 10. What kind of car do you drive? Toyota Sienna

11. Favorite sandwich? Anything that has avocado on it

12. What characteristic do you despise? People who lie 

13. Favorite item of clothing? cute shoes

14. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Australia or Ireland

15. What color is your bathroom? Green

16. Favorite brand of clothing? It depends on who has the best sales!

17. Where would you retire to? Anywhere near family

18. What was your most recent memorable birthday? #27...I can't remember any others..sad.

19. Favorite sport to watch? soccer

20. farthest  place you are sending this? Iowa and Oklahoma

21.  Who do you least expect to send this back to you? I really don't know

22.  Person you expect to send it back first? ?

23. Favorite saying?  And we lived after the manner of happiness

24.  When is your birthday? Dec. 9, 1979 

25. Are you a morning person or a night person? Night--that's why I surprised this morning to discover that there was even such a thing as a 6 AM :)

26. What is your shoe size? 5 -5 1/2

27. Pets? One fish

28. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? Karaia got her hearing aid AND Kevin only has 8 more wks until he graduates!!!

29. What did you want to be when you were little? I was having too much fun as a kid to think that far ahead

30.  How are you today? Great

31. What is your favorite candy? Today? Hmm anything with coconut

32. What is your favorite flower? Calla lilies

33. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Fist week in May (Graduation!)

34. What church do you attend? LDS

35. What is your full name? Emilie Catherine Daly

36. What are you listening to right now? Silence

37. What was the last thing you ate? M & M's

38. Do you wish on stars? yes

39. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Brown

 40. How is the weather right now? cold

41.  Last person you spoke to on the phone? Candace 

42.  Do you like the person who sent this to you? Of course!!

43. Favorite soft drink? I like water

44. Favorite restaurant? depends on my mood

44. Hair color? Dk brown

45. Siblings?   2 sisters, 3 step-sisters, 5 step-brothers

46. Favorite day of the year? Thanksgiving 

47.  What was your favorite toy as a child? My bike or my roller skates 

48. Summer or winter? SUMMER

49. Hugs or kisses? both

50. Chocolate or Vanilla? strawberry

51. Do you want your friends to email you back? Sure

52. When was the last time you cried? Are you kidding? I'm pregnant. It a daily occurrence :)  

53. What is under your bed? Kevin's firearm, sheets, clothes, and a jumper for a baby and....yup I think that covers it.

54. Who is the friend you have had the longest? my mom

55 What did you do last night? Mutual. Played human Foosball

56 Favorite smell? Cinnamon

57 What are you afraid of? Not teaching my children the gospel well enough 

58 Plain, buttered, or salted Popcorn? plain

59 How many keys on your key ring? 2

60. How many years at your current job? 4

61. Favorite day of the week? It's easier to say I don't like Monday, Tues, or Wednesday

62. How many towns have you lived in? 9

63. Do you make friends easily? yes

64. What are you most looking forward to? When I can go to Disneyland again...sad I know :)

The spy that never was

The morning started out with mild panic.

I was supposed to teach the Beehives and I had not read through the lesson. I also taught last Sunday and try to only prepare one lesson at a time which meant I had 6 days to get this one ready. I tried. I opened up the lesson multiples times during the week, every time I had a free second. The problem with a second is it is a very, very short frame of time.  Each time I'd think, "Whew, let's get this lesson going," and pull it up something or someone would demand my attention.

Sigh.

We have 9:00 church and after the expo this weekend and prep for it the beginning of the week, my body was overly tired and I am just lucky I woke up in time to even be only 10 minutes late. No time to read the lesson.

I prayed. Man did I ever pray. As I sat in front of those sweet girls, I had never read the lesson. It was on the atonement so I felt confident about the subject...but still.

So we started off OK. Then we opened the scriptures. Mathew 26:3 -10 We read about all the spiritual and political powerful men meeting to figure out a way to kill Jesus subtly so as not to make him a martyr. I think three verses after that it talks about a women pouring ointment on Jesus' head. The verse right after that one tells of his disciples catching her in the act and becoming indignant and calling her out on it.  I should have kept reading. Also, I should have read that last verse more carefully.

Instead I hopped up out of my seat in effort to really bring these scriptures to life for the girls. We talked about the men meeting. And because that was such a secret, evil meeting, that's where my mind went. Next thing you know I'm acting out how this women subtly walks past Jesus and without him knowing puts ointment on his head...I thinking that maybe it was poison the powerful men had planned to use to kill Jesus with. ( Yes, I had never heard of that story either, but at the time the verses seemed to point that way. I've never claimed to be a scriptorian) After I had acted the whole sneaky thing out I went back to the scriptures and read the next  two verses.

Turns out she wasn't some spy trying to kill him and Jesus praised her for her actions.

What the....

"Oh. Um, actually, girls, she wasn't an evil spy. Um....yeah. Just forget I even said that story. She was doing a good thing.  Jesus had been trying to tell his disciples that he was going to die and they were having a hard time believing it 'cause they'd seen him do miracles and stuff. He was trying, yet again, to let them know he was serious by praises the women for understanding what would be happening in the next few days. Anyway.....so, um, right. No evil spy. Well, Judas was evil, for a second...and a spy...but not the women...she was good...and in no way a spy."

Are you kidding me? It was hilarious!

Luckily, the rest of the lesson actually went very well. How could it not? Anything is good after that fiasco. 

Expo

Today was a set up for expo day. It's a long, fun process.

Here's the booth as we left it tonight. We still have a few tweaks tomorrow. But it's a really good start.

I am so grateful for my mom and Meghan and Alex for helping with the kids today!  Mom even went on the weather walk with Sanders at preschool which saved at least one psychology bill in the future. Thank you!

Annie and I rewarded our hard work with sushi tonight at the Mikado. Have I told you how much I love sushi? 'Cause I do.

Pause to readjust

Today was wonderful. I was early to every appointment. The T.V. segment went well. I didn't get to say everything I wanted, BUT I didn't say anything I wish I hadn't ;)

Then I came home and volunteered in Beckham's class and dropped the two little boys off at my awesome friend, Nicki's, house. That was SUCH a blessing.

I spent my kid free time preparing to teach the Young Men and Young Women an Etiquette dinner. I was even on time for that! Amazing!

The etiquette dinner went really well. The kids had great questions and did a good job trying to correct some of their habits they didn't know they shouldn't have ;)

Now, I am gearing up for tomorrow. PYP is part of the Scrapbook USA expo this weekend. I'm in charge of organizing and helping with the booth set up and then doing some expo shifts on Friday on Saturday. It will be really cute.

I would look forward to resting on Sunday, but I teach the lesson in YWs. ;)

Back to my roots

Close enough anyway. After being a semi blond for close to 2 years I decided I wanted to go back to being a brunette.

I went about a shade and a half darker than my natural color, but in the picture it looks more black than it really is.

Here are a few without the flash on. It shows the depth of the color better. Even if I took some of them at weird angles ;) Also, I took the non-flash pictures hours after the first picture AND after I'd fallen asleep on the couch for a half an hour :)

When I went blond it was such a gradual process that there was never a big deal made. I haven't cut more than an 11/2 inches off my hair at one time for years either. I was feeling like I needed a big change.

This will do ;)

I feel like Snow White. In fact, when my Young Women girls saw me that's what they said I looked her like too.

Have I've ever told you that I've always wanted to play Snow White at Disneyland? It's true. While that will most likely never happen, at least I can kind of look like her ;)

Busy!

Work has exploded! I have so much to do and just a short time to do it. I really like what I do, I'm the Marketing Manager. It's very fulfilling and uses my creativity in a new way every day.

I also emailed the manufacturing company I am waiting to hear from to see if they had made a decision.

Fingers, hair, toes and anything else I can cross....is crossed!

Choices

You know, something that I've always know, but have really been focusing on this last week is the fact that while I may not have total control over what I am feeling, it comes down to my personal choice as to how I act with that feeling. MY choice.

I can choose joy amidst anger or sorrow or disappointment. I am in control.

I find that very empowering.

32

My cute husband has planned for the kids to stay and Grandma and Grandpa's  while we stay at a hotel tonight.

He's wonderful and I am a lucky, lucky girl!

Decorating the tree and a Surprise!

On December 4 we did something we had not ever done before as a family. We brought home a real, previously alive, Christmas tree! The smell was amazing.

It was the perfect Christmas tree for are home. Tall enough to reach the ceiling (Karaia's request) but not too wide as to crowd the already fought for living space (My request).

Let the decorating begin!

At least they are all looking in this one.

Sanders loved the little book advent calendar

By the end it was heavily decorate on the bottom and in the middle. It wasn't anything fancy, but we'd done it as a family and we loved it.

Later that day, Kevin had said he was going to take me out to dinner for my 31st birthday (my birthday is on the 9th but there was a TON going on that day so this was going to be the only we had). He said his mom was able to squeeze us in but she didn't have much time. She would be here at 5 pm and but she needed to leave at 6:30.

"You only set aside an hour and a half to celebrate my birthday?"

"It will be OK."

"But only an hour and a half?"

"Emilie.....it will be OK."

The knowing way he said it made me stop in my tracks. It was my first glimmer that there may be more. But I wasn't going to jump to conclusions. I was already a little bummed that we only had a short amount of time to spend for my birthday and I wasn't about to get my hopes up only to set myself up for disappointment.

Besides, the day had gone really smoothly. Kevin didn't seem extra stressed. He wasn't doing any extra cleaning. We were just having a really low key, decorate the tree and the house for Christmas day. Other than that, it was pretty normal.

I was trying to get in the mood to make the most of the time we did have. About 20 minutes before Candace showed up my suspicions were peaked again when Kevin pointed to something on the island, sadly known for always being a bit cluttered with my stuff, and asked if I was going to put the one lone thing on it away. This way only curious because he NEVER asks if I am going to put anything away. He knows I work hard with the kids and he knows if it hasn't been put away yet, there is a reason. AND only ONE thing on the island is fantastic for me. So for him to notice let alone say anything made me rethink, but not totally commit, to the idea that there was more than I knew about going on.

We went to dinner at Lonestar. We had not been in years and now we remember why. It didn't really help my mood that I was trying to create. Not only did I have a limited amount of time to enjoy with Kev but now I pick a restaurant that was not worth the money.

The one good thing was we were out of there fast so we had some time to window shop. Many of you may not now this, but Kevin is not a shopper. However, he will shop with me and is very pleasant company. He never rushes me and feigns honest interest in what we  are looking at.

As we were in Pier One Kevin's phone started ringing, and ringing, and ringing. Which is in of itself not super unusual. What is unusual is that he would walk away from me every time it rang.

Hmmmm.....

Finally, the appointed time to return arrived. I told myself not to expect anything. I told myself all the curiosities could be explained. I told myself not to ruin this for Kev.

As it turns out, I have a pretty amazing husband. And all thought I was not totally surprised, I was totally overwhelmed.

A surprise Birthday Party for me! My first one ever. Of course I cried. That's what I do.
Thank you to everyone who helped out or where able to come!! I felt very loved and very special. I know Kevin had been planning this for weeks and most of that time I had no idea. (plus, I've always been very good at solving a mystery)  It was a wonderful way to start celebrating my 31 st birthday. THANK YOU KEVIN!!!!

And as my dad pointed out, 31 candles makes a lot of light. That means I'll only get brighter as the years come and go. I don't see that as a bad thing when I have all these people to share it with.