Birthday and Family Get-Together

I turned 57 on Thursday. I also worked from 7:30 am until 8:30 pm. LOL.

Not the way I'd choose to spend my birthday morning, but I saw many friends, former students, etc. 

I helped with registration for FCCLA's Fall Leadership conference. I am on the state board for FCCLA, representing BYU. I helped at a fundraising table and helped a student find his group. They are cute little guys, trying to do great things. They are learning to be leaders.

I then went to the lab where we had SFLSA Lunch with Professors. I'm one of the faculty advisors for SFLSA and we have a monthly get-together for students to meet professors in a casual setting. They asked questions about graduate school, career goals, work/family balance, etc. We had a great turnout. The SFLSA presidency and board are working hard to create meaningful activities for the students. Dr. Loren Marks, Dr. Daye Son, and Dr. Nathan Leonhardt came, as did about 20 students. I got to bear my testimony of listening to promptings and tell how my mission led to graduate school and where I am at work now.  

Note from my work next door neighbor, Ashley LeBaron-Black

215 meets on Thursdays for lab, so I got to spend the afternoon with them. They made eclairs and muffins. They used a food scale to weigh ingredients and mostly made successful choux pastry. One kitchen's didn't work out. I'll try to find time for them to try again. I brought mini cupcakes for them and shared with them that I'm very easy to please...I love bakery cake and pizza. 

Melia, Kamiko, and Bekki took me to Joe Vera's for Mexican food for dinner. We had a great time. I got yummy beef and cheese enchiladas, which I enjoyed the next night for dinner. Kamiko had to remind me that I was complaining about work. He told me to talk about anything else. I'm going to work on that. After dinner, I came home to join a webinar for my calling as an education mentor. 

Mom and dad came over at 8:30 and brought me flowers and a card. Mom was able to write in the card. She usually can't write because of the hand tremor that she has. It's a special treat to have the card. 

So, it was a busy day that didn't allow for much fun me time. 

I made up for it by taking my car to the mechanic on Friday. They had my car all day, which meant that I couldn't go into work. Instead, I slept in, went on a walk with Danelle, read for work, went to lunch with Danelle, took a nap, answered emails and did more reading. After picking up my car, I went to the outlet mall to use some birthday coupons. I got a nice white shirt and some black pants that will be great for work. 

Saturday I got up and went on a run.

I cleaned some, did some weeding, called Cathy Voorhees and Maria (since we hadn't talked on my birthday), and took a short nap before showering and getting ready for a family event. 

Me, Derek, Kristen, Karen, Debbie, mom and dad

The whole gang, minus James who took the picture

Derek, Kristen and Doug, and Karen and Alan came to town to have a gathering at Debbie and Mark's house. We got bad news about a month ago that Mark has a rare pancreatic cancer. It's treatable, but not curable. He starts chemotherapy tomorrow. The prognosis isn't great, so Derek suggested we all get together. We met yesterday afternoon, got pizza, and visited. I made chocolate chip pound cake. We also had 7-layer Mexican dip and a cheese and cracker plate. Allison, James, Audrey, and Mac came, as did Haley, Todd, Luke, Hazel, and Davis. The kiddos had fun playing. Carolyn and Val were also in town. It's really sad to think that Mark won't be around for long, and that he'll be sick. I hope he's not in too much pain, but I'm not hopeful that it will be the case. I haven't heard anything good about cancer treatment. 

Debbie has a lot of support. We got them a care package of a cooler, ice packs, snacks, hard candies, and cash for takeout on hard days. All of their kids and grandkids (except Jentrie McGee who is on a mission in Louisiana) came for a reunion last week. 

Pre-birthday festivities included my annual dinner and movie with Jamie. We met in Vineyard and decided to split pizza and get ice cream then we saw "A Haunting in Venice." It's based on an Agatha Christie book. It was scary at first. We wondered if we'd be able to fall asleep that night. We had a great time. I gave her some chocolates and a scarf that I picked up in Edinburgh. She gave me the cutest haunted house quilted picture and a pumpkin candle that smells amazing. Jamie and I are lucky to have each other. She's been a great friend for many many years. 

Ashley, Emily, Mel and me

On Tuesday, Mel and I had tickets to a jazz concert on campus. It was an ensemble from Harlem that played numbers celebrating 100 years of Disney. It was soooo fun. Kamiko and Bekki were supposed to come, but Kamiko got stuck at work. So, I invited Emily Burdette and Ashley Berges, both study abroad participants and Disney girls, to join us. We had a great time.