The End of April and Beginning of May

It's time for another update at the end of a busy week. Honestly, last week at school was VERY stressful. With year-end standardized testing and increasingly crazy student behavior, I was beginning to wonder if I could actually make it to retirement! I needed some time away.  

Attending BYU Women's Conference was the perfect way to use some needed PTO.   I loved and learned so much from the keynote speaker sessions as well as individual classes.  I always enjoy being on the beautiful BYU Campus, which is actually only about ten minutes from our new home!

On Thursday, Josh happened to be on the BYU campus for another reason, and he texted me, so we met up for a few minutes during my lunch break from classes.  It's always good to see one of my children. 

While I was at BYU Women's Conference, our realtor was busy getting everything ready for the listing of our house to go live!  We now have the sign in front of our house, and we already had a showing within the first 24 hours it was listed.  We are hoping that this bodes well for a quick sale. 

We stayed in our new home all weekend, because it is so close to the BYU campus, where the conference was held.  Saturday, I enjoyed a morning walk to the post office to mail a Mother's Day card to my mom.

Later, Saturday, we met up with our grandson, who just turned 15-years-old, for his birthday lunch. He brought his dad, our awesome son-in-law, along. We had a great lunch at Dave's Hot Chicken, the restaurant our grandson chose for his birthday lunch. 

Our grandson told us that he just got his learner's permit, so he can learn to drive, now that he is 15.  He will be a sophomore in high school next year. I have no idea where the time goes. Here he is after lunch at our house with his birthday gift. 

In addition to everything else we did on Saturday, we also did some work in our new little backyard.  The backyard of our townhouse isn't big, but it has room for some gardening, and that's honestly all I need. We got some plants at Home Depot and then discovered this store, which is very near our new home, and had little fruit trees on sale for only $10!  Needless to say, we now have three small fruit trees that we will be planting in our yard.  I had never been in a Tractor Supply Store, but honestly, it was a fun place, and I'm sure we will be going back there often!

Sunday morning we were up and at church by 8:45 a.m..  This is another of the beautiful paintings in our church meeting house. 

Sunday dinner was deep-dish "Detroit Style" pizza from Papa Murphy's (take-n-bake), coleslaw,  macaroni salad, and fruit. 

After dinner, I went for a Sunday evening walk around the neighborhood.  

A lovely surprise I received this weekend, was this fun retirement gift box from my blogging friend Faith over at Gold in the Clouds.  I love everything in the box, especially the tote bag, which I took to BYU Women's Conference.  It was perfect for all the things I needed to have with me there.   Thank you so much Faith!  Blogging friends are just the best! 

Gratitude:

• Taking our grandson and son-in-law to lunch on Saturday.
• Attending BYU Women's Conference.
• Getting our current house on the market. 
• Having a showing within the first 24 hours. 
• Receiving a surprise retirement gift from my blogging friend Faith.

Praying For:

• Help in my last weeks of school as student behavior deteriorates. 
• A quick sale for our house. 
• My children and grandchildren. 
• Our nation.

Looking Forward To:

• Selling our home. 
• Getting through the last 19 days of school.
• Going to a plant sale with our daughter next week.
• Finishing the last 19 days of the school year and my career!

That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by.  

Have a great week!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"Hope is being able to see

that there is light

despite all the darkness." 

~anon.

First Week of August Gratitude

It's that time of week again, when I take some time to remember all the blessings of the past seven days.  To do this, I am joining again with Susanne and other grateful bloggers over at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Five.  

😊 As the summer winds down, I am grateful for the trips and adventures we have experienced this past summer.  Charly and I had three nice road trips, and enjoyed time together and with our children and grandchildren. 

😊 I'm also grateful for all the summer goals I was able to achieve including: renewing our passports, selling or donating unneeded clothing, books, and furniture, painting our shed, making time to worship at the temple more frequently, and walking with Charly at the mall five to six mornings a week. 

😊 This sweet granddaughter turned 11 this past week.   Time goes so quickly - I cannot believe she is going into 6th grade now.  I am so grateful for this granddaughter and all of my grandkids. 

😊 I'm grateful we could take our granddaughter to lunch for her birthday. She is such a sweet, smart, and kind young lady.  We love her and we are so proud of her (and all of our grandkids).

😊 Every day, I try to take a few minutes to walk out in my backyard garden. I enjoy watching the bees flying around in the garden, especially on the Zinnias. I am grateful for these beautiful flowers and bees in my garden. 

😊 For the first time, we have corn growing in our garden.  Charly wanted to give it a try so he planted the seeds, and now we have little corn cobs. You can see three little cobs in the center of the picture. I am grateful that the corn is doing well, and I am looking forward to enjoying garden-fresh corn in a few weeks.  

😊 I have been looking for a new sling bag to replace one I have had for a couple of years that is now wearing out.  This week, I found one that is the perfect size - not too big and not too small.  I use a sling bag because sling bags are recommended for keeping belongings safe when traveling, so I am grateful I found one of these sling bags that I use every day, not just when I travel. 

😊 When Charly and I went grocery shopping this week, we were met with the lovely smell of roses as soon as we walked in the store.  Apparently, for some reason, the store had a lot of bouquets of roses, and many were marked way down. I got this beautiful, big bouquet of fresh red roses for only $4.50.  These flowers are now on my dining room table. I am always grateful to have gorgeous flowers gracing my home.  

These are just some of my favorite blessings from this week. Thanks for stopping by to share the good.  Now, have a good weekend.  

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"Happiness comes when we stop

complaining about the troubles we have

and offer thanks for all the 

blessings we have."

~anon.