Yesterday, All My Troubles Seemed So Far Away

Yesterday was a great day. Despite the fact that I was running on about 4 1/2 hours of sleep (thank you, my son), I didn't really start to get ornery until it was the girls' bedtime which is my normal ornery hour. So, considering all I packed into the day, I'd say it wasn't too bad!

I started off getting out of bed at 6:30. (Notice I said "get out of bed" not "woke up"--again, thank you, my son.) At 6:45, I hopped in the car to pick up my friend, Jen, who was taking me to my first produce co-op called Bountiful Baskets. Ironically, my sister Emily told me about it in an email the same day Jen told me about it, so I was intrigued at the thought of paying $15 for about $50 worth of fruits and veggies. It actually turned out to be more than $50 worth, as we got a head of lettuce, 5# of potatoes, broccoli, carrots, onions, apricots, nectarines, bananas, tomatoes and about 3 lbs. of Rainier cherries. The cherries alone would have cost about $10 in the store, so I'm thinking it was a pretty good deal! The only downside I see is that the prduce is all the same stuff you'd get in the grocery store, so it's not the quality of a real farmer's market. However, for only $15, I figure I can supplement with the good stuff from my garden. Thanks for the suggestion Jen & Em! I was pleasantly surprised.

After returning home I started to get myself and the kids ready for the drive to Lehi (Mike had to stay home to answer phones). Thanks to Facebook, I was able to get in contact with a lot of college friends and roommates from my days at King Henry, and we'd planned a reunion at one of their houses. Paul and Cindy Hancock have a gorgeous home and were so gracious for letting us invade them for the afternoon! The kids especially loved the pool & hot tub, and my fishies Maggie and Brooke couldn't go down the slide or off the diving board enough times to satisfy themselves!

Katie & Bridget spent most of their time in the "little pool."

Maggie & Brooke preferred the "big pool."

But the best part of the day, other than dinner being made by Arby's instead of me, was being able to see my friends again! I can't even tell you how great it was to see everyone after all these years! It was almost surreal to look around at all the faces of these people that had truly become my surrogate family during college. Some of us were a little plumper, others a little balder, but for the most part everyone looked the same and it was such a comfortable feeling. I wish we could've spent more time visiting, but it's difficult to try to keep four kids from drowning, take care of a newborn and have converastions with long lost friends all at the same time! I guess that means we'll have to plan for another get-together soon!

Heather Zahn Gardner, Jen Knips Hiser, Sue Troxel Allen w/Dixon, and yours truly.

Sue & Jen

Jen, Dixon & me

Paul Hancock (party host) and Troy Runnells

Even though I forgot about the free Slurpees for 7/11 and had to stay up late to finish typing the Sacrament Meeting program, I was grateful to have had such a great day with well-behaved kids and great friends. Maybe next time I'll not be multi-tasking so much that I don't take all the pictures I'd like, because days like this just don't come around very often.