Finally!

This morning I got up and got ready and then took Autumn over to Mom & Dad’s so Nick could watch her. Nick spent the night at Mom & Dad’s b/c they were out of town in Austin for Dad to watch the state wrestling championship and Mom went w/ him to visit Lexie & Jon & Andrew. Nick watched Autumn while I went and did a session at the temple. I’m thankful I’ve been able to keep my goal (so far) of going to the temple twice a month this year. I know it’s only February, but 2 months is better than none.

I noticed that the tree in our neighbor’s yard is already blooming, and it made me so happy to see the pretty blossoms. It has been nice and warm the past few days, so I think Mother Nature is ready for Spring, and I’m not one to disagree with her. I feel bad for people that are dealing w/ snowstorms. All y’all are welcome to mosey on down to Texas to visit and enjoy the nice warm weather.

We cooked a pizza from WalMart for lunch and then ventured out to enjoy the gorgeous weather. Autumn wanted to go to the park, but I needed to stop and get some gas and didn’t want to pay $3.29 a gallon so we went up the road a little ways to a place that had gas for $3.17 a gallon, which is still ridiculous. Since we were up in the area, we stopped by the $1 Jewelry store and I only got 3 things, and 1 of them was earrings for Autumn. Autumn wanted to go to a park, so we stopped at this park that has a pond. They have paddle boats at this park and we’ve lived here for 13 years and I’ve always wanted to try them so today was the day…finally.

The little lady that runs the concession stand also manages the paddle boats. She had to clean out the seat for us w/ a mop b/c it was full of nasty dirty water. She was so old she couldn’t even bend down and unlock the boat from the dock, so she had me do it for her. I asked her to take a picture for us, and this is what we got. Oh, well. It’s better than nothing.

This is just a picture of what the swan looks like out on the pond since I didn’t get a good picture of it while we were in it.

I had a hard time getting into it, b/c I was afraid I was going to tip it over, so I just crawled into it from the dock instead of stepping into it. I also had a hard time getting the swan away from the dock, but eventually did. It was fun to go paddle around the pond, even though I was the only one that was paddling.

I know this picture is blurry, but it was the best one I could get of Autumn. If you notice in the background, there were some guys standing on the shore racing little sail boats. Autumn had fun being so close to the ducks b/c they would swim right up by our boat. If we do it again, we’ll make sure to take some old bread to feed them. It was $15 for 30 minutes, and we had a great time. One thing to cross off my bucket list.

After waiting almost 2 months, my book from Slovenija finally came in the mail today. I have been checking the mail every single day in hopes that it would come, and today was the day. It’s a soft cover book and the first 140 pages are in Slovene and then there are 8 pages (front and back) of color pictures. I had submitted a bunch of pictures from my mission b/c I took a TON of pictures while on my mission. None of them were in the book, but I was thrilled to see a picture of Jonesy, Brenner, Bahr, Bro. Majc and myself holding one of the first copies of the Book of Mormon in Slovene. Then the last 148 pages are the same as the first 140, just in English instead of Slovene. This book was $15 plus shipping and it was worth EVERY.SINGLE.PENNY b/c it has a great history of the church in Slovenija along w/ testimonies from some of the members and past missionaries. I was thumbing through it and noticed there was something in there that said it was written by me back in 2005 about the Word of Wisdom puppet show we used to do. I don’t remember writing that at all, but am happy they included something about the puppet show in the book.

I am excited to show this to my kids someday when they are older and getting ready to serve missions. Serving a mission is definitely one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life (after being Autumn’s Mom of course). I’m looking forward to taking time sit down and read each page and be strengthened once again by the faith and testimonies of the pioneer members of Slovenija that I love and care for so much.

We went over to Mom & Dad’s house to let Emma out to go potty since they were in Austin and Autumn wanted to watch Annie. I think Autumn looks a lot like the little girl that played Molly. What do y’all think?

After we relaxed for a while and watched Annie, we left to meet Liz & Liberty for dinner at Cheddar’s. There was a 25 minute wait, so we put our name on the list and took the little black thing they give you that lights up when it’s your turn. We walked over to a little park area while we were waiting that has a pond.

Autumn kept wanting to run and race everyone, so Liz raced her to a tree and back. I forgot I had my camera set on no flash, and this was the picture I got. I know it’s blurry, but I thought it was kind of cool.

It was finally our turn and it took a while to get our food b/c our waitress was so busy. Luckily we ordered the spinach dip appetizer which held us over until our food came. Anytime I try to get a picture of these 2 together, they are pulling funny faces.

So, Autumn and I decided to pull some funny faces of our own.

They decided to take a self portrait and got a good one. We thoroughly enjoyed our food, especially b/c it’s so cheap and they have such big portions. Autumn & I had so many leftovers we were able to bring them home and feed Nick till he was full, which is a huge feat. It’s always good food, and good fun with good friends when those 2 are around.

We came home and I ended up staying up late watching “Why Did I Get Married” on TBS. I wish I could be like the Sheila character and find a hot guy like Sheriff Troy. LOL. I called Mom & Dad to make sure they made it home safely and they had. Today was a good day and I’m glad I finally got to go out on a paddle boat and got my book from Slovenija.