My To-Do Lists

For Will (aka, the "honey-do" list)

-Finish taking apart my kitchen, including removal of the kitchen sink.
-purchase Costco-size bag of disposable dishes so I don't end up doing my dishes in the bathtub
-Replace missing sink with NEW sink in NEW location
-Move existing plumbing (via basement ceiling) to NEW sink location
-buy NEW sink that will be put IN new location
-get the electrician to actually SHOW UP one of these days
-ensure that there is no mess to clean up!
-continue to love me in the seriously best way I've ever been loved, put up with me more than anyone ever has, and make me think that, 5 pounds heavier or lighter, I'm still absolutely beautiful.

-take out the garbage. It's Tuesday tomorrow and I ALWAYS forget :)



For Em (the teenager)
-clean your room. As in, use some sort of disinfectant... ie: bleach? Peroxide? How about Fire?
- remove all my contents from your room before starting said 'disinfecting fire'.
- apply same procedure to downstairs bathroom.
-reapply same procedure to downstairs bathroom... let's be serious... it's pretty bad in there!
- put your laundry away
-practice your piano
- teach me how to be wayyyy cooler than I know I am. (*note to self, how was I so much awesome-r BEFORE I had a teenager?!)
-attend singing lessons, as you're a GREAT singer.
- stop slacking in school. Your mother's gonna think I don't care about your grades!
- call those two boys who gave you their phone numbers this weekend! Esp. the one I have the "cougar-crush" on!
- be absolutely gorgeous, as you always are.

-*ahem* lose the 18-year old boyfriend.... it seriously stresses your 4 parents out!



For Myself (aka: the lists of the lists list I'll never finish!)
-finish the LIST for the insurance chick who needs EVERY. SINGLE. PIECE. OF. THE THOUSAND. STOLEN. THINGS. from the van written down with distinct and very deliberate recollection of its origins, colour, price, sexual orientation, race...blah blah blah
-finish the list for the Burnaby Police station where the vehicle went missing from of said things above.
-finish the list for the Coquitlam Police station where the vehicle was FOUND of said things above because, well, quite frankly, the two don't communicate and I'm getting the run-around of who's in charge of what files and who's registered for dealing with the insurance adjuster and who's on first.
-finish the laundry. (hahahahahahahahahah. Oh, I funny)
-help Will finish the renovations. (hahahahahahah! I even funnier!)
-pick out the granite for the countertops.
-Travel to Calgary to see samples of said granite.
-pay for said granite.
-sell right breast, and possibly left ventricle of heart in order to PAY for said countertops.
-be thrilled for losing 5 pounds of breast tissue. Hey, if that's the ONLY way to lose weight lately, I'll take it.
-go for a run. Seriously. Until Thursday. Non-stop.
-stop eating like a cow.
-attend play practice for "The Sound Of Music" where I play a nun. yah. laugh it up, guys. *I* play a nun!!!
- look into getting into school/ a full-time job
-look into restarting a dayhome, as I am currently already watching kids 3 days a week.
- buy a new computer so I can blog MUCH more often and feel like I'm not completely cut off from the world.
-sell left breast to pay for said computer, as money is unlikely to crawl out my butt anytime soon.
-Submit taxes to accountant to be filed for 2009.
- rejoice in tax season totally screwing Will and I up this year and making it LOOK like we have a LOT more money than we really will this year.
-learn how to eat mice.
-call gramma, who probably has the recipe. And for those of you who think I'm kidding-- you don't know my gramma!
-jump up and down with joy over Chris' new job...with less child-support.
-remember there are hidden blessings in so many things.
-look into selling my spleen so I can celebrate Will's *40th* birthday in a few weeks!!!!!
-look into taking a trip in September with the kids to be sealed in a temple? (Salt Lake? San Diego? Vancouver? Guatemala?)
-love more. Pray more. Read more. Teach more. Exercise more. Clean more. Work more. Save more. Play more. Listen more.
-argue less. eat less. sleep less. criticize less. judge less.

Some things are Irreplaceable!

You know, spending this much time in Vancouver really makes you aware of some important life lessons.

Like:

The lady on the skytrain who's sitting in the 'disabled' seat. Sure, she may not SEEM disabled just by first glance, but when she looks up at you with her blackened eyes and tells your mother to "F*** off, B****," it sure makes you appreciate good health. It was entertaining sad to watch her verbally attack my mother who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and, as the crack-addict explained, the "wrong gender". She really likes men, and wasn't upset in the least that my father stood close to her. Because he wasn't female. Waking up with a cold that morning sure seemed like NOTHING compared to what it would have been like to wake up being her!!

Another, valuable life-lesson--

Volunteering at the Olympics is, to quote my father, "like eating chocolate". It's really great for a while, but there HONESTLY is something called 'olympic'd out'. Yesterday, all of us worked double-shifts at the hockey games... equalling over 16 hours on our feet. It is tiring work, and we are talking for the entire day to people, so my voice gets tired, my back get's tired, and my feet hurt like a mother! It is a totally different experience to watch the 'behind the scenes' at the olympics, but totally fun too, as we get to meet lots of important and interesting people. Yesterday was filled with NHL hockey players, Wayne Gretzky's father Walter, and parents of Olympians.

The biggest lesson in life that I've become VERY aware of:

Vancouver and Mo-town are VERY different. And we're not talking size, or Mormon percentage of residents. We're not talking terrain and weather and vegitation. We're not even really referring to culture or diversity of nations.
Monday night, Will and I decided to be tourists, as we had the evening off of working. So we drove to the local mall and took the public transit train, The SKYTRAIN. You're not supposed to park in the mall and then board the train, but it's really the only place to park. We were considerate of the shoppers, and parked far away from the entrance so as not to take prime parking spots, and also so as not to raise awareness that our car was parked there while we were OBVIOUSLY not shopping.
Arriving back to the mall at 10:30 at night, we started to walk to where I parked my van.

Hrm. Maybe I forgot where I parked it.
....

...
nope. I remember parking it here. OH POOP-- they've totally towed us. So I called my brother-in-law to come and get us, and then we called the towing company. Guess what? They haven't picked up ANY vehicles from that mall!!!

????
It was then determined that our van was stolen.

After talking to security guards who said they're not ticketing or towing ANYONE throughout the Olympics, and calling the police, we realized just what this meant.

There, in that van, were two iPods. There was my wallet-- complete with ID for me and my children. There was hundreds in plain-ol' cash. There was a cell phone. There was thousands of dollars of stuff we were using, including equpitment for Will's work (he was going to be drywalling and painting while he was here at my sister's house). There were shoes--- GLORIOUS shoes! Oh the shoes!! :(

A full tank of gas. A brand new oil change. A fully-loaded Van with new tires..

this van was awesome. And I don't think that whomever stole it is going to disagree for a long time-- not with all that stuff in it! When I said I wanted to GIVE MORE and be more charitable, this isn't what I had in mind! That day, Charity sucked! ;P

:(

Life lessons sometimes really suck. But let this be YOUR lesson-- for reals, do not leave ANYTHING in your vehicle. DO NOT park far away. :( Oh yah, and don't do drugs. That poor, addicted lady's skin on the train was reallllly wrinkled and green. And green like that is NOT this season's colour!

The Word Of The Day

For the past year, I focused on the phrase "Make The Change". And, as you watched and read, I believe I truly did. Make the change became such a pivotal part of my life, and almost foreshadowed what the year would progress like. I remembered that making changes was usually scary, but, as time proved to me, many "NEED TO MAKE" changes bring about much happiness. I can't begin to think of what changes and happiness wouldn't have occurred had I not had the courage to change certain situations.

Like Cate, and Nikki, and a few other friends, at the beginning of the year, I try to find another word or phrase to focus my attention on. I may not make New Year's Resolutions, but I believe that goal-setting is a productive action we should all aquire often. So, this is as close to a resolution as I get.

After thinking of what I need in my life, and what I want to achieve by December 2010, I have decided that for the year, I will choose a word based on a scripture well-known to many.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Charity never faileth:

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Charity.

Not only in the way that it is mentioned above, but also charity to my fellow-beings through more service. I plan to give to a charity this year. I plan to support various charities in deeds. In short, I plan to serve.

When I've been upset with Will, and I pray to figure out how to fix it, the answer always comes back the same: Serve Him. I will do something, ANYTHING, that makes me feel like I'm serving him-- EVEN if I feel like I'm the one who's been wronged-- and in serving him, I have found ways to humble myself that I would otherwise have missed.

I pray that this year, I will become a more charitable person in every way.

What's your word? your goal? Your mantra?