After months away from the greens, I finally hit up the golf course again on Monday. I was a bit nervous to go, since I haven't swung a club since my shoulder surgery.
I eased into it, and went to the driving range first. Then, after hitting a big bucket of balls, my friend Meg called and wanted to play a round. It was a gorgeous day, and who could turn down nine holes?
Now, I'm a novice. I judge my game whether I get one par in the whole day. And I did, the first hole! It was a nice start. I actually had a decent round for me.
But now I'm paying for all that new activity with lots of soreness in the shoulder. I guess it comes with the territory. I think the more I golf the better it will get.
Normally I wouldn't say that. I love the place. To me, it really is the happiest place on earth. But the trick started off EXTREMELY rocky when I came down with a terrible stomach bug. I spent a miserable five hours at the airport Monday morning waiting for the family to fly in. I didn't want to be a party pooper, so I went along to Disneyland with them that night. I was careful and didn't go on any rides. I waited outside while they went on quite a few of them. But I couldn't keep away from the Matterhorn.
Bad move. The ride made me miserable. Betsy said I was green after. I was shivering and feverish. Oh joy. Mom and Dad took me back to the hotel, and the Batman fam stayed behind.
We ditched the chillins' on Wednesday night. Well, my parents took them, and me, Betsy and Andrew stayed behind and went on a few adult rides. We stayed at California Adventure and went on the crazy rides there. We loved California Screamin' and the Hollywood Tower of Terror.
Going to Disneyland with kids made going to the park a completely different experience for me. I normally just walk straight to rides, or shop around and such. But this time, we made sure to stop and visit every character. We met the Fairy Godmother, Donald Duck, Captain Hook, Goofy, Gepeto, Minne Mouse and Mickey Mouse just to name a few. I felt like a little kid. I loved watching Pluto try to sign the kids' autograph books. He put the book up on his nose and signed with his paw. Very cute.
Peter Pan was probably the weirdest encounter with a character. He made us chase him around the park. All of a sudden, he's like "Follow me," so the kids race off with him. Then I followed. He would be still for a few seconds, then take off again. Finally, after he signed all the kids books, I asked if he could sit still long enough for a picture. I can't believe he did it.
Yes, it's happened again. My basement is under water. Well, now it's under towels, but you get the point.
(look for the water line on the carpet)
I was up late last night dealing with the mess of my basement. Kelly got home and noticed a big puddle in the laundry/furnace room. We frantically mopped it up and thought everything was over and done with. I went to bed and kept hearing water noises. Not sure how to describe said noises, but they were water noises nonetheless. So I roll out of bed and check on the laundry/furnace room. Yep, you guess it. It's covered with water.
Since it was well after midnight at this point, I decide my landlord won't be calling back soon so I should do something about the problem. I trekked out in the cold backyard, and found that the automatic sprinklers were still running. I then found the control box and shut them off. After mopping up the second mess, I went to bed. Luckily I woke up the next morning and there was no new water.
Our maintenance guy should be here soon to try and figure out how to fix everything.
UPDATE: I was right, those darn sprinklers were flooding the house. Apparently the pipe underneath the front porch was totally busted. Todd the Maintenance Man should be back later this week to fix it.
Luckily we still had those carpet fans on hand since our last aquatic adventure.
So I thought I booked my flight to Disneyland months ago. Apparently not.
For some reason I had the feeling to get online and check my flight info for the trip next week. I thought I booked a flight that perfectly matched my family's flights, and we were to meet up in Ontario about the same time. As I started looking, I couldn't find any reservations. NONE.
Then I started to panic. I checked my mom's email, then Betsy's (change your passwords if this bothers you) but didn't find a thing about my flights there. I called both Southwest and Delta to see if they had my flight info. But they said I didn't have a flight booked. Awesome.
Luckily I found a pretty good deal online, so I'm still going to California next week.
Watch me bumble through my words asking a dumb question to new General Young Women's President Elaine S. Dalton. It's a little more than halfway through, and I'm the first question in the Q & A segment.
In other conference related news, I got to meet the new apostle, Elder D. Todd Christofferson. I wrote the story about his call and spent much of the day Saturday doing research on him. Just after a press conference Saturday afternoon, he came out and shook hands with everyone in the audience. I was lucky enough to meet him. The next day, I also met Sister Dalton and her first counselor, Sister Cook.
Meeting general authorities is one of the reasons I volunteer to cover conference for the paper. I don't know how I would ever get to meet these folks without working.
We played a rousing game of Family Feud with the Warnings last night. Everyone is in town for general conference (including my parents) and it was fun to all get together at my new place for a family game night.
The kids teamed up to take on the parents. One question asked us to name five boats without motors.
We had all the basics. Canoe, kayak, row boat, paddle boat. Then we took a twist and put gravy boat. I thought Bryce was pretty smart on that one. We thought we were going to sweep the board.
Then we find out the number one answer is one we didn't even think of: sailboat. Yeah we all felt like idiots.
Never fear, however. The young team (black, black, black) creamed the old folks in a grudge match. We won two out of the three games. Take that!
I highly recommend the Family Feud DVD game. A good time was had by all.
Yes, even if the Lord doesn't me call me to be a stake relief society president, I'm ready. My mom got into town last night to go to a stake relief society training meeting with the General Relief Society Presidency. Now, Mom didn't want to be alone, so she guilted me into getting into a dress and tagging along.
It was a two-hour training session in the Tabernacle, and I actually enjoyed myself. Yes, none of the information applied to me nor will apply to me any time in the near future, but I still enjoyed it. I even took notes (since Mom claims she is a horrible note taker, although we all know she has her fancy little shorthand system as witnessed by her nervous tick).
So for all your stake relief society presidents who missed the training, give me a call. I can now train you to train ward relief society presidents.
Oh and for all of you who think the presidency is full of nice, quiet women who do what they are told, these ladies are nothing of the sort. Sister Beck, the president, was very impressive and definitely CEO material. Sister Allred seemed like the sweet one of the bunch. My favorite was Sister Thompson. She knew how to crack a good joke, and even asked if her mic pack made her look fat.
