It's official (in my professional opinion), I have sleep issues. I've always had trouble falling back to sleep if I'm awakened in the night, but lately I've been waking up for no apparent reason. You may remember my blog from a while back entitled "Up All Night Without A Baby."
Well, last night I woke up at 1 a.m. My mind was immediately going full speed and there was no hope for more sleep. I had an endless list of to-do's going through my head. As is usually the case recently, at the top of the list was doing some things for our 72-hour kits. There wasn't a lot I could do in the middle of the night, so I settled for writing in Brynne's journal. I wrote almost 10 pages before my hand gave out. I went back to bed, but didn't fall asleep for another 45 minutes.
I awoke bright and early, still driven with a desire to work on my 72-hour kits. After a quick breakfast, I went to work making copies of all our important documents (I love my new printer/copier/scanner!!). Then I went through and finalized a list of remaining items I need to complete the kits. By this time, I was really going strong. I kept up the momentum and managed to do laundry (including folding and putting away!), shovel all the snow out of our stairwell so our downstairs renters could get to their door, give the kids baths, work with the girls to clean every square inch of the house (including taking a toothbrush to the inside rims of the toilets), and a few other odds and ends.
After dinner I realized I hadn't spoken to Denise all day (a rarity), so I called her. Becca (her niece) answered and told me Denise and Paul had gone to the temple. In that moment my heart taught my brain an interesting lesson. Here I was working hard all day to get my house in order and to work on my 72-hour kits, which are all very important things. But then I find out Denise is at the temple, learning at the feet of the Lord. It was like a Mary and Martha moment. My things were very important, but when was I at the temple last?
I've now re-resolved to get to the temple regularly. It'll be great to have my emergency things in place if/when we need them, but I know I need to get my spiritual self prepared also. :)
And here is a picture of Lee and the girls on the temple grounds. Isn't the view amazing?! I took this picture moments before Brynne came running toward me and didn't want any more pictures. Later that day she came down with a fever of 105 degrees. She loved the temple, though, and talks all the time about when she'll be able to go inside a dedicated temple. Morgan, unfortunately, was rather bored and wanted the line to hurry up...
This is just a cute picture of Brynne that Morgan took. :)
Last night, Morgan earned her green belt in karate! I took a traditional karate pose picture (last one in this post), but then Morgan wanted to take a fun "in-action" kicking picture. I was really impressed at the shot I got. You can tell it wasn't a still pose because her hand is totally blurry from moving. Congratulations, Morgan!!!
The karate program we're involved in is switching to have belt promotions every two months instead of every three months, so now there will be more belts Morgan can get. We're pretty excited!
Tomorrow we leave for a two-week trip to Wyoming. We'll stay with Lee at my mom and dad's house for 1 1/2 weeks, and then the girls and I (Lee couldn't get off work) are going camping in cabins in the Tetons with my parents for three nights. There might not be another post for a few weeks. Hope you are all having a good summer! :)
After lunch, we drove down to the Draper temple to attend the open house. We went with Alyson's family and most of my friend Denise's family. It was especially nice for the girls to get to see the temple. Brynne has been looking forward to going all week. Every day she'd say, "How many days til we get to go to the temple?" She was most excited to see the beautiful chandelier in the Celestial Room along with the sealing room where marriages are performed.
Afterward we took a moment to snap some pictures in front of the temple. I don't know how much of this the girls will remember, but I'm hoping they can look at the pictures I took of each of them and remember that it was a special event and a special place.