Randomalities again

I think that it's interesting that when I get too far behind on my blog, I feel like I have to catch everyone up on what we have been doing. Last week was a total loss as far as blogging went. But a lot has happened in the past few weeks despite my lack of blogging. So here we go!

• Catching up with friends. I was able to hook up in real life with my friend Lucy a few weeks ago. It was awesome to see her and her sweet boys. One of my favorite things about Lucy is we share the all-boy-family thing. This is a picture of me with Lucy and my good friend Melanie. I love having pictures with my friends.
  

• I also hooked up with my friend Janna through the internet. It's amazing to me that I can find people on the internet that I can't find in real life. I was so glad to hear from her and I hope I don't lose track of her again. I was remembering Janna just the other day when I was picking up lunch for a work party at a local sandwich shop. The shop used to be a coffee shop, and I think it was there that I first met Janna. Janna ended up being my roommate for a while when I lived with Cindy. She is integral in my memories of my life in Salt Lake before I went to Virginia. Here is a horrible, pre-digital picture of me and my group of friends from that time period, circa 1997.

(Top row: Janna, me, Rebecca. Bottom row: Cindy, Rebecca's son Darian, and Angie. We had just had a Christmas gift exchange and were all holding up our presents.)

• Over conference weekend, we had a dinner at my mom's house. It was the first gathering we have had there since Easter, and since my dad stopped living at home. It was a great time. After eating, we went through the closet in my old bedroom. I found a lot of my old dolls that I played with from the time I was in kindergarten on. There were also tons of old books that my sisters and I all read and wrote our names in. We divied them up and brought them home. My mom has plans to move eventually, so every trip home now, I feel like I have to document everything. Here is a picture I took of my mom's house. I think that the 5 on her house has been sideways since before I graduated from high school.
  
• We will be spending Thanksgiving with Shane's family again. We've never done a big family one with his grandparents and uncles and cousins before, so it will be fun. His grandparents are both in their 80's, and their health is declining, so it was a good year to spend time with them while they are still here. I love when my kids make memories with their great-grandparents; it's something I never had.
• Yesterday I went to stake conference (a general meeting of several local LDS congregations). It was the 2nd time in my life that I can remember going. It was a wonderful meeting; Elder Collister of the 70's spoke, as well as mission president and the temple president. I guess I picked a good one to attend. I ended up going by myself, so in some ways I really enjoyed myself (I could actually take notes! Who knew?), but I missed my sweet family a lot.
• Thomas started throwing up last night at 11pm. Then Ben threw up in my bed at 2am. Fun night was had by all. But, as recompence, I'm still in my jammies at noon, and my kids are starting to feel better. They must be - they are fighting upstairs. That's a sure sign of improving health, right?
• I am on week two of a hiatus from Dr. Pepper. Well, okay, so I had one on Thursday and one on Saturday night, but I've seriously cut down consumption in the past week. It had been almost 2 years since I'd gone a day at work without soda. That's pretty bad, huh?

Anyway, like I said, they are fighting. Gotta go!!