4th of July and some Data

I don't think I've included this creepy photo on the blog yet. Just my other social media sites like instagram and facebook. For my family that isn't into that... here I am in my surgery gear making some eyes for you. These eyes are an expression that I learned from my mother. I've noticed that we all get expressions and mannerisms from our families. I like to make big eyes. Sometimes this means I'm surprised or silly. My mom often made her eyes big. It was fun and funny as a child to see my mom do big eyes. I also like to roll my eyes. I fear that I do this almost subconsciously. It's probably not good to roll your eyes at doctors.

Today is the 4th of July. In our ward, the leadership cooks the ward a breakfast... because patriotic Americans like to eat. Kris is now first counselor and since we have changed bishops we lost the paragon of organization known as Beth. Beth was the former bishops wife. She could pretty much organize anything. Want to take 500 people to Provo and tour all the temples, do a session and hit the waterparks and temple square? No problem.... Beth organized it all flawlessly, without missing a beat. Transportation, housing and food.. seamlessly flowed together under Beth's capable hands. Ward breakfast? Done. Beth shopped and organized people and the rest of us just showed up. Beth never looked harried either. And she smiled. This year, Kris was 60% in charge. I got up early to help him and 5 trips from the church to the park later we were sort of going. The breakfast ended up cooked and I worked my little patooshie off. It wasn't exactly the most organized thing in the world but it was yummy. I think I only looked a little harried. I didn't smile very much... but then I drank a big Dr. Pepper and had a nap.

The kiddos all flocked to various events today, after their jobs and so Kris and I decided to go on a fishing trip post ward event. We packed the Expedition and drove up the Steens Mountain. We haven't been fishing in a while and so we were eagerly anticipating the evening on the water. We bought cookies and water and visited all the way up the gravel road to Fish Lake. Suddenly the car stopped. Just like that. We looked at eachother and then at the car. Kris attempted to start it 5 times. He opened the hood and stared at the engine and transmission. Then he got back in the car and we said a prayer. We weren't looking forward to trying to get someone to come and retrieve us from the mountain on a holiday. Right after the prayer we started the car and it miraculously stayed running. We turned right around and drove down the mountain. Again the car stopped working but we let it coast the rest of the way down... while we unrolled the windows and started to talk options. The momentum carried us down to the Page springs camp ground and we stopped for another few minutes, restarted the car and drove the rest of the way home shaking our heads and wondering what to do. Kris has to drive girls to basketball camp next week and we are hoping that the car will last for the trip. After speaking with a mechanic on the phone we are pretty certain that it was the stress of the mountain climb and the altitude, not the transmission.

We almost have 5 cars. They are almost paid off. Most of them are old and have lots of mileage. The odds are one of them is going to fatally break down. We are hoping to forestall this until we have some more things paid down. We don't really have a plan for the next phase of our vehicle purchasing plan. But I'm sure that will evolve .... We feel lucky to be able to drive so frequently, so far.


And now for some DATA. I love data. Turns out I'm a numbers girl. I think that putting things into percentages and figures takes a lot of the emotions out of things and helps with perspective. I've decided that if I can see data at work I can be focused to make positive change. I decided to collect some data from my journal. Here it is. I worked 575 hours from January to June. Since this was about 27 weeks that averages to 21 hours a week. Not too bad! Not too bad! It sounds like a lot but since the average full time worker puts in 40 hours a week.. I am a major slacker! Just kidding. I also drove 5620 miles in that same time period. That must be why the cars are all on the fritz.


Some other fun data is the taxes taken out of our checks. This is a new reality for some of our children. My favorite quote of the week from Hailey Mae was, "The government took $40 dollars away from me this week!"

That's right Hailey. God Bless America.