Life By Lindsey Rae

I got this picture in an email sent from my mom the other day. It makes me pretty happy. I think it's because I'm always out in the yard recently, learning about gardening and digging in the dirt myself, that makes me appreciate this picture.

I've been quite sick since Monday night. Maybe just a cold or a bit of the flu. I usually have the daily headaches and allergies all that, but now having a bad cough and sore throat and chill and those kind of flu aches and pains made me remember that I haven't been quite so sick like this in quite awhile.
When I was in school, was taking 18-21 hours of classes per semester and had 2 hours of driving back and forth to do daily, I would always get sick like this; at least once or twice every semester for a few weeks...I must have been worn down and probably made me more susceptible to these things.
Since I haven't been doing the school thing for awhile, I seem to have been able to avoid it more than in the past.
Anyway, my concern now is that we have our Primary presentation on Sunday. As I previously said, keeping my class nice and quiet takes about all the energy I normally have. And on top of that, I am supposed to sing two solos! Solos without a mic....which I usually have a big enough voice to do, but at this rate, I can't hardly even talk. How will I say, "Be quiet...stop talking....stop poking each other..." over and over, and then sing two songs?

Today at church, the little girl in my Sunbeam class said to me, "Teacher, thank you for loving me."

I guess it's when they say these nice things that it makes up for them driving me absolutely insane. We had a practice for the primary presentation we are doing during sacrament meeting next Sunday and they were soooo out of control (again) this week. I thought it couldn't get any worse than last week, but....a group of 4-year-olds have a particularly great talent for making a person crazy in a very short amount of time. With all the bouncing around and almost falling off benches multiple times, it's very surprising to me that someone didn't at least loose a tooth or something. It's also amazing how much better they suddenly hear you when you tell them something and add that, if they don't start behaving they are going to have to go see their dad next. Sometimes, it's otherwise like nothing was never said to them. But, they always hear that! I finally resorted to just sitting on the floor in front of them so I could try and keep them all within my reach. In the chapel, no less!

Our church must be the true church of Jesus Christ, or else we never be able to survive the wrath of the Sunbeam class. But, since it is, we sit on the floor in front of them and spend 2 hours asking them to be quiet and sit down and be reverent, hoping something worthwhile in the middle of all the craziness gets through. I guess it must, because many Sunbeams have probably grown up to be leaders in the church who eventually stopped jumping around and making their teacher crazy. Even I was once a Sunbeam. However, I don't think I really could have been that wild!

***I started writing this about 10 days ago and never got around to adding the pictures and posting it until today. So, it's kind of late, and about 2 weeks after the fact. But, here it is anyway.***

We just got back from our trip to Phoenix a couple of days ago. I haven't written much on here lately, because we were away and I didn't have as much of a chance to get online.

We go to Phoenix usually once, occasionally twice a year to visit Jerrod's family. However, this was the first time we ever drove there.

Jerrod had been wanting to do the trip all summer and we had originally planned to go in May. However, with his busy work schedule, it didn't work out for us to go until recently. I was not really that enthusiastic about the trip because I wasn't so keen on the driving part and also, because I would have preferred to go when it was colder here in Tennessee. I have just been doing so much yard work lately, I hated to stop and wanted to take advantage of all the warm weather. And, I hate winter, so it would have been nice to go somewhere warm when the weather wasn't so good here for a nice change.

But, it turned out to be OK. I actually enjoyed the drive more than I expected...probably because I didn't do any of it. (I never do with Jerrod, as he prefers his own driving.) So, I just spent 3400 miles (which is 48 hours driving time) reading books, beading, hand stitching some letters on cards and watching movies on my new ipod that Jerrod bought me for the trip. I realized that it was actually quite nice because I didn't have to worry about doing much of anything the whole time.

We drove through West Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Those are a lot of states...a lot of big states, distance wise to cover in the two and a half days.
When it's at these prices, it's a good thing the car is decent on gas.
(At least it was cheaper here...and more avaliable...than it was in the South at this time).



The first night we didn't leave until probably almost 8:00pm. That wasn't really the plan, but, being such experts on being late, (particularly myself) it just worked out that way. I think we had thought we would stop in Memphis that night, but ended up getting further. But, halfway between Memphis and Little Rock, it was getting pretty late and so we needed to stop and sleep for the night.

Stopping in Oklahoma: I get one of very few pictures on this trip. Not very exciting. Nice scenery, eh? haha.
Unfortunately, this puts a person somewhat in the middle of nowhere and options become limited. We got stuck at probably one of the worst places I have ever had the opportunity to stay in. It was just not good. You know when you first walk in and there is a gigantic killer-bug on the wall that is not a good sign. And then when you see more than one gigantic killer-bugs in your room, that is definitely not a good sign. However, for future reference I suppose we now know where NOT to stop.

The second day we made it to Amarillo, TX, and that was a bit better. At least that place was clean! And they had a good breakfast where I was able to make myself a waffle in the morning in a waffle maker the shape of Texas. Classic. Wish I would have got a picture of that. haha.

Then after Amarillo we drove onto Phoenix and arrived at a pretty decent time. We stayed at Jerrod's Aunt's house there for a week and like I said before, didn't do much of anything. Just visiting and hanging out mostly. Despite the fact that we had a pool and two hot tubs available to us at the Aunt's house, we didn't even end up using them this time! Kind of silly, I know. I even had two new bathing suits (that I got on clearance, super cheap right before we left) that I never got to use. It was over 100 degrees every day we were there I think I wasn't as motivated to go in, because they had the water at 85 degrees and that's a bit cold for me. Even though it was in the 100's, it didn't seem that hot, because it was so dry. We have been in the mid to upper 90's here in Tennessee all summer and it feels much hotter, because of the humidity.

We did go shopping a bit and got a couple of things we needed...and I myself got a couple of things on sale: Two Rose Bushes at a local nursery for $0.99 each! They are potted in half-gallon pots now. Pretty good deal! They're Christian Dior Hybrid Roses. Kind of a darker pink flower, I think. I would have got more if Jerrod would have let me, but he said we didn't have room.

On the way back we went to Albuquerque, New Mexico, the first night and then a place called Clarksville, Arkansas, the second. Over all, to me, the drive really didn't feel that long, for some reason. But, I guess it was, because it shows on my odometer now.

Stopping in New Mexico.
(I can't be expected to look completely wonderful in a picture after already spending 18 hours in a car.)

My poor Mazda3 only had 5100 miles on it when we left and now that has nearly doubled! I'm sad about it. I thought was doing so good by only having 5100 miles after 10 months of owning it. Then within two weeks, all my effort of trying to keep the miles off has gone to waste. It did get 35 miles to the gallon, which is pretty impressive. I really like my car.

Just back from a long trip to Phoenix. I will write more later when I am not falling asleep while typing.