Dear Walmart Cashier, Here's What You Didn't Know . . .

Tonight when you checked me out, you gave me a box of chocolates for the price I said they were marked on sale for, not what they rang up as. Such a small thing, right? Wrong.

After a tough day, being able to take home a box of my favorite chocolates on sale meant a lot. After a moment of choking back a few silly tears, I told you, "It's been a really tough day, and having someone do this for me without making it a big deal is really appreciated." I mentioned my day involved a funeral. You gave me a motherly pat on my hand, the warmest smile, and kindly gave your apologies and wished me a happy New Year. Your sweetness and caring radiated from you. It's not something you typically see from a cashier who may think they're job doesn't matter. You see, what you don't know is how rough my day really was.

It started for me at 3 AM, when I woke up at my parent's home and realized it was Jossy I could hear crying in the distance. I didn't sleep much after that. I said goodbye to my brother and his family around 4:30 AM as they left for the airport to head back home to Georgia after a 2 week stay. That was when the flood gates first started to buckle. I hadn't seen them in 2.5 years, and 2 weeks just didn't feel like enough time to be with them. Poor Matty is going to miss his cousins like crazy after having them around so much the last couple weeks. I went back to bed trying hard not to cry too much but wasn't able to get much sleep.

Around 10 AM I left with my parents to attend a funeral. Their former bishop (released a year ago) passed away on Christmas Eve from injuries sustained in an accident while vacationing with his family. His wife was one of my all-time favorite young women's leaders I had the chance to learn from. They have 7 children, one of whom has just a few weeks left on his mission. I had cried over their loss off and on for the last week, but today was extremely difficult. To hear some of his children speak, then his strong, amazing wife was beyond touching. To hear their testimonies of the afterlife and the work their dad was busy with now was beautiful. To then hear Elder Hales and President Eyring speak about him and bear testimony was equally moving. I left feeling emotionally drained yet on a high. It was the most heart-wrenching and spiritual funeral I have ever been to. By this time, the flood gates no longer existed, and it was impossible to hold anything back.

After that, I had to deal with a phone line I just added onto my cell phone plan yesterday that wasn't working right. After a good amount of time on the phone with customer service and time in the store dealing with a crappy salesman and trying to get a different phone to work, we finally gave up and canceled the added line. It was an extremely frustrating disappointment for everyone.

I then drove with my husband and kids back to our home an hour away. After dropping them off, I got in the car to run errands and make a few returns. It was only after the 20 minute drive to the store that I realized I didn't have the receipts I needed to make my returns. I still did a bit of the shopping I needed to, but the busy crowds and horrible traffic didn't help me feel any better.

So you see, when I finally got to your check-out line at Walmart, my last stop before heading home to pack for yet another trip, I was emotionally spent. That's why your gentle pat and loving words meant so much. It was just a little thing, but you and your half-priced chocolates made my day just a little bit better. I'm sure you forgot about the downtrodden, overtired young mom by the time I made it out to my car, but I won't forget you. I might have cried the whole way home.

So thank you. I didn't get to tell you that tonight. You were caring when so many others with your job might've been more callous. I pray the Lord blesses you with the same kindness on a day when you feel down.


Sincerely,

The crybaby in your check-out line

Matty the Yoga Instructor

Tonight Matty did a yoga workout video with me. As if watching him do that wasn't completely entertaining enough, he attempted to postpone bedtime (as usual) by narrating his own "yoga" workout with all original poses. He even named some of them. HILARIOUS to see.

"the fan"

"Yoga stray-ca"

"Yoga straik"
Unnamed

I loved that he'd say after his poses, "And hold. . (15 seconds later). .you're doing good. . . . Now relax." SO FUNNY!

Bob Harper, you have some serious competition.

Freezing My Photographer Fingers Off!

I was the photographer along with my sister-in-law, Angela, at a wedding on Saturday. It was so cold, I don't know how in the world the bride handled taking pictures for so long in short sleeves! By the time we were done she finally admitted to being frozen and was turning into her "something blue."

I absolutely LOVED doing this with Angela. She has way more experience and knowledge than me. I was able to learn so much from her! She's only here a short time from Georgia so I'm taking in all I can.

Here are a few pictures we quickly edited (without my regular program, which killed me!) and printed out to display at the reception. These are all ones I took:

Don't you love her shoes? I think that one's my favorite.

I thought I had some of Angela's edited ones (which are great!) but I can't find them on the hard drive. Hopefully I'll get to show them off another time.

Now just to edit hundreds more . . .

Baby JT

A wonderful friend of mine recently had her first baby. I was lucky enough to get to spend an hour this morning with the little guy taking his pictures. He was so adorable I could seriously just eat him up!! Even my own crazy kids weren't enough to keep me from feeling baby hungry after dealing with this little angel! (Too bad they don't stay little angels!)


Do you not want to just smother him in kisses???

Family Christmas Pics

After church 2 weeks ago we set up a mini studio in the basement and took some dressed up family pictures, something we've never done before. I was happy we got some cute pictures, and everyone had fun doing them (except maybe Jossy who had just woken up from too short of a nap.)

(Click to enlarge)

My Little Models

What would I do if I didn't have my two little models to practice on? I guess without them you'd be seeing a whole lot more pictures of fruit and trees.

I was getting ready to do a newborn session this morning (pictures to come) and the kids came in to play. If they're going to come get in my way, I decided I might as well put them to work modeling!

Love love love this one of the 2 of them!

Matty the other day was kind enough to pose as I was trying to fix my flash. These poses were his idea.

This last one is a shot of the previous picture on my computer screen. For some reason, I really like it.

Like Deja Vu . . . Only Different

Tuesday we celebrated the 8th anniversary of our first date. Normally we take note of the day (easy to remember since it's his brother's birthday) but don't do anything. For some reason this year I decided to make it special, so I recreated the experience.

A little flashback:

8 years ago, Dan sent me an anonymous email with the lyrics to "Winter Wonderland" as a way of asking me to a collage dance. The letters of his name were capitalized throughout the e-mail. At the bottom was a note saying this was an invitation but didn't say what for. I had no clue what I was looking at and almost deleted it. (Good thing I didn't!) Suddenly the capped letters jumped out at me and I wrote them down, finding his name. I wasn't exactly sure it was the Dan I was thinking of and had to go back to my apartment just to look at the ward directory to make sure I knew who was asking me!

The day of the dance, Dan was late picking me up because he had to talk to his brother (for his birthday) on the phone at a specific time, causing him to run behind. We met up with everyone else just as they were leaving a field where they had played kickball in the snow and gone sledding. We all went to Fong's, a Chinese restaurant in Rexburg, then back home to get ready before the dance.
I had made Dan's boutonniere, the one and only time I've done that.
After a few mandatory pictures, he escorted me on his arm to the dance. At this point I thought "Man, this guy has some muscles!" Before then, I had been positive there was no way I would get a crush on him. After those muscles. . . I wasn't quite so confident.

Our first slow dance was to Bryan Adam's "Everything I do." I was surprised at how easy it was to talk to him and how much we had in common. We'd been acquaintances for years, but I never would've guessed how good of friends we could be. The night ended playing games in the dorm lounge with some other couples. I was definitely a little smitten by the end of the night, though it would be another month before he'd start to feel the same way.

So Tuesday night I had some fun trying to recreate that date with a few differences.

Same: An invitation for the date was given via e-mail using the lyrics to "Winter Wonderland."
Different: This time, I sent the e-mail. He had no idea what I had in store for the night, I kept everything a secret.

Same: Dan wore the same cologne he had on the night of our first date.
Different: He didn't have any of it, so I bought some and left it on the bathroom counter with a bow to surprise him. (You may wonder how I remember a little detail like what cologne he was wearing. Frankly, it's really the only cologne he's owned since I've known him so it's not hard to remember.)

Same: Sledding was in the plans.
Different: This time we actually got to go! We stole our kids' sled and found a nice hill nearby. So much fun!

Same: We ate at a restaurant only one of us had been to before. The meal ended with fortune cookies.
Different: We went to Zupa's last night (since Fong's in Rexburg was a little too far,) and this time I supplied the fortune cookies courtesy of Walmart.

Same: We went to a dance.
Different: This time the dance was in our basement. The kids helped me decorate with stars and Christmas lights.

Same: We slow danced to "Everything I do."
Different: It was a super crappy country version because that's all I had.

Same: Laughing, talking, friendship
Different: Kissing.

We didn't get to close out the night with a card game unfortunately since the kids needed picked up from my sister's place. Once they were home, we had to deal with Matty having an accident, his bold-faced lying about it, me having a splitting headache, and trying to calm down 2 kids who were SUPER hyper since they were overtired. Funny, I don't remember having to do all that 8 years ago . . .

Overall it was a really fun night. I'm a much more sentimental person than Dan is, so this kind of date was more up my ally than his, but as long as we get to go on a date he's thrilled. I love reminiscing!

Lights, Reindeer, and Cookies

Tonight we changed family home evening into a "family out evening." We surprised the kids by driving though the holiday lights display at Thanksgiving Point. Matty was really excited when he saw what we were doing. Jossy was loudly pointing out the lights in case we missed them, but quickly lost her steam and just stared instead. Nothing like enjoying the scenes of Christmas from the warmth of your car!

Next we went to see 2 of Santa's reindeer.

Jossy didn't want to get very close.

We spotted this ice sculpture nearby. It was leftover from a competition a few days ago. Pretty cool! (No pun intended.)

Finally we went inside to warm up for a minute and share some yummy cookies before heading home.

We saw the lights and reindeer last year, but I think ending the night with some cookies will be added on to the tradition. :)

Santa Shops Old Navy

We were recently given an exclusive invitation to see Santa today at our Old Navy store. (Our invite came in the form of a flier given at the checkout to everyone. . ."exclusive" just sounds better.)

So that's where we went this morning. I expected a cute backdrop or something, but since it was just for a few hours I guess they thought a little chair in front of the store was good enough for Santa. He must have recently visited kids in the South because he had a bit of a Southern accent today.
Matty had no trouble telling Santa what he wanted: a Hot Wheels car wash race track (that costs about $40.) I reminded Matty that he told me he wanted a scooter, to which he replied he had changed his mind and didn't want that any more. We then had a long discussion about how SANTA gets to choose what he brings for Matty and even if it's not EXACTLY what he wants, it will be okay because that's not the most important part of Christmas. We'll see Christmas day how he feels about that.

Jossy of course wanted nothing to do with the big red stranger. I forced her on his lap to quickly take a picture, but she was crying before she even got up there. So the store associate suggested I sit with her on my lap next to Santa. A candy cane also helped Jossy stop crying, but she still wasn't happy to be there.

Still on my lap, she sizes up Santa . . .

. . . and the tears come back.

What's childhood without a little emotional scarring from Santa, right???

At least she was still willing to wave goodbye to him as we left. That made him feel better.