We survived - finals week is over and I now have my kitchen table back. During finals week it becomes "study central" - covered with the computer, piles of books, notebooks and notecards as well as "to do" lists.
Since Jim was out of town most of the week we did our dining at the kitchen island (although to be perfectly honest that wasn't much "dining" going on!) Jim is arriving home this evening about 9:30 p.m. or so. He was in Spokane for several days this week where it was 10 degrees, home for one night (long enough to take out the garbage thank goodness) and then flew out to Alabama to attend a Mardi Gras Parade and the "Senior Bowl" in Mobile with his company and advisers he works with.
I was the presenter at book club this week. We read the book "Moloka'i" which I highly recommend. It is about the leper colonies on the Hawaiian Island of the same name. I love historical fiction and found the book fascinating. It is a tragic story but one of courage, strength and fortitude! I also loved learning more about the history of leprosy etc. One of my beach babe friend's daughter worked in a leper colony this summer in India where there are dozens and dozens of leper colonies still in existence today. People still live in the leper colony in Hawaii today and I also found an interesting video on You Tube about two women who still live on the island. Click on the link and watch it - you'll also notice the only two members of the LDS branch there.
Thursday Grandpa Best went into the hospital for his knee replacement surgery so Jim and I hung out with Grandma at the hospital while he was in surgery. He did well. It looks like he will come home tomorrow - Monday. He has been up walking around on it and the pain seems to be under control. Saturday they ended up giving him some units of blood as his blood pressure dropped real low but he looked nice and pink today. Tessa made cupcakes after church and the girls and I went up for a visit and took him a plate of cupcakes. He needs his other knee done too so they will see how this recovery goes first. So now he and Grandma are both special card carriers and get to be scanned by hand when they go to the airport! (Grandma for her pacemaker)
Friday we celebrated Cali's acceptance to BYU by going to a "chick flick" - 27 Dresses. A cute story about a girl who is a bridesmaid 27 times! The girls then drove out to the Expo Center with me to help me set up for our big Scrapbooking Expo on Saturday and then I hurried home to get ready to go to the Gala for American Mother's downtown. This is a dinner and program where they announce the new "Mother and Young Mother of the Year". I am on the board so needed to make an appearance but I snuck out early as I had a big day on Saturday at the Expo Center.
Saturday was our yearly "Celebrate Portland" which I host (I hire an event planner to do most of the work!) We had 1,700 people in attendance this year which was our biggest year ever. It was a long day - 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. with a little freezing rain in the beginning to make things exciting but it was a good day.
This morning,Sunday, started out exciting when the phone rang at 9 a.m. (we all slept in) to let me know the girl who was to teach our Young Women's lesson had been up all night throwing up so I got up to "throw" a lesson together.
Cali got up about an hour before Sacrament and said "Hey Tessa weren't you suppose to give a talk in Sacrament meeting today." - Yep - she was and we had totally forgotten! So I got on the phone to let the bishopric member know we are total flakes and had forgotten - fortunately the names hadn't made it into the program this week so the whole ward didn't have to know we'd forgotten!
Boy Update:
Work, School, date, work school, date, repeat. So their life goes.
On Monday, Martin Luther King Day Logan and Shayla went with a group snow shoeing up on Y Mountain and had a good time - lots of snow!
This weekend Clark and Brooke went to one of her brother's basketball games and on Saturday they went with a group to Salt Lake to go ice skating and then out to the Melting Pot for dessert.
Clark sent me a group picture from their date and I promised I would post it on the blog for cousin Eric because he wanted to "make the blog"! Logan and Shayla spent Saturday night going out to dinner and then to the Evolution of Dance show at BYU (I guess that was the trade off for being willing to go snowshoeing on Monday!)
