These last few weeks have been "weird" for me... I think it has been a combination of non-stop obligations and needs, burn-out, and a touch of Seasonal Affective Disorder starting, mixed with an overload of Halloween candy (that needs to vacate our house immediately:)! No matter what it has been, today was amazing as we attended the funeral of Steve's former neighbor in Orem (Kathryn Robinson). (He did a beautiful job singing 2 songs on the program: "You Raise Me Up," and "I Believe"). She was only in her mid-fifties and died suddenly last week from a tear in her aorta! She had just retired LAST WEEK after working 23 years at the Midvale post-office. (Talk about NOT FAIR:)! As I sat and listened to her family recount all of the memories with her, it put my own life and trials in perspective very quickly about how brief this mortal existence really is and how each of us need to really live each day as if it were our last (as one of these days, it will be)! I thought of how I haven't wanted to do things this last week (like a midnight work shift or prepare a lesson) and then thought of her and what she would probably give to be back for a little more time here with her loved ones. Anywho, the afternoon was spent preparing/setting-up for our YW in Excellence program which was a spiritual high tonight (with the talks, music, & video presentation). Mikelle spoke on the value "Choice & Accountability" and even used one of Aunt Annissa's phrases in her talk about "we all make our choices:)." We have such WONDERFUL YW in our ward! It was a wonderful "re-grouping" day for me to strive to do better, try harder, and most of all...ENJOY TODAY!
We have so much posting to catch up on (as we have been sick) but had to hurry and show that it is possible for complete computer dummies to produce a book from a blog:). My sister Jennie is great to get us fired up to do it as she warned that the coupon for 20% off and free shipping expired on the certain date. Of course ours wasn't ready to submit until that date and it failed to completely transfer when trying to upload once (took about 2 hours to upload and had to start over). 
So anywho, we missed out on free shipping ($6.99) but they had another coupon offer of the 20% off in place. We were thrilled she gave us so many hints (like to do 12 x 12 size, an image wrap, where pictures are the covers of your book etc). It was so fun to see how all of the layouts printed. We will know more now and be able to be more "daring" on our 2009 book. It was 160 pages and costed about $90.00 with tax and shipping etc. Thanks Jen! Much easier than scrapbooking it all!
...but that's not all...as Steve and Mikelle were the first ones to read through the book, they got toward the end and saw that the last 20 pages were not us!:) How crazy is that--that another person's book was added on to the end of ours! The crazier thing is that we know the people! The mom works in our orthodontist's office and it looks like her son's mission was awesome!:)
Even though it is a bummer that we have to fix or have them reprint our book etc., it was great to see the different paper and layouts she used so we could spice up our next one! You have got to roll with the punches eh? Better luck with yours!
