Playing Catch-Up

I know. It's been a while. A lot has happened...most of it not worth posting about, but I will include highlights of the past month and a half and try to stay on top of things from here on out. Here goes...

Looks can be deceiving:

We have been getting dumped on in Salt Lake. We are expecting 5 more storms in the next week and a half, I think? Something like that. Anyway, it's more snow than we've had in a long time. I love how everything looks when it snows, I just don't like driving in it or being cold in it. And while my backyard is a complete eye sore in the summer time, it is actually quite beautiful in the winter. Thus the pics. I'm thinkin it's probably time to take the hammock down. : /

So Long, Farewell:

My receptionist, Matt, went back to school in the beginning of January. We miss him. Even our maintenance guy and parking lot attendant talk about him like he's dead and look back on all the good memories. It's funny. So one day there were some glasses sitting on our counter. I asked Matt's whose they were. He tried to convince me that they were his for about 5 min. before giving in. I told him that I didn't think glasses were supposed to make you cross-eyed. He told me it was lazy eye correction. Yeah, right. Funny how you only have lazy eye when you put the glasses on. Loved him for trying, though. He's hilarious. Good luck with school, buddy.

Better Late than Never:

So my holiday season was a rough ride, but it was fine. I didn't get to go home for Christmas because the roads were so bad, but luckily I got up there a few days after-which was such a huge blessing. It was so nice to be with family. My sister, Annie (Angela), was giving to me this year and made me a money tree as my gift-literally...with money hanging from the branches. It was so cute, time consuming, and generous. Thanks Annie...(and Roy and the girls.) I'm also including pics of their two little girls. And I can't believe I didn't get one picture of their new little baby River. He's beautiful!!!

Boise State vs. BYU (basketball):

Jared and Becky got my parents tickets to this game as a gift for Christmas. They had two extra tickets, so Annie and I got to go, too. It was SO fun. I haven't been to a game with my family in the longest time....and this was a fun game to be at. The Cougs lost by 3 points. :( That part wasn't so fun, but the rest of it was. Part of the fun is watching my mom at those games. Now there's a coug fan for ya. It's one of many things I love about my mom-her cougar sports enthusiasm. Anyway, I really loved that night. It was so memorable. We were definitely the minority there, as far as fans go, but that just added to the fun of the evening. Thanks Jared and Becky. (Pics: Jonah after eating a blue Airhead...which would explain the smurf teeth. Seth....As you can tell by his face, this was a pretty intense game. Rachel...isn't she a beauty?!! My mom and I-Mom looks a little jaundice and I look sick/sleepy, so why I'm including this picture-I don't know. Jared, my brother, and his little boy Luke-it's blurry, but it's all I had. Becky is the only one from the "Jared and Becky family" unrepresented....sorry Becky. She is beautiful and I love her!)

Cade's Baptism:

It was lovely. I regret not getting a picture of Cade in his whites with my camera. Sad. It was a great day...and a great week. Cade is so curious about the gospel and thinks of questions I didn't even think about until I was a missionary. Either I was just a dumb kid or just very trusting. For the sake of my pride let's say it's the latter. ;) He is a special boy and I was so proud of him. We went out for pizza afterwards which is where these pics were taken. (just had to include this one of Reyna.)

While we're on the subject of food, I swear I ate more this week than I have in a year. Camille is incredibly talented in the kitchen and wanted to share all these meals with us that we'd never had before. We ate homeade caramels, lemondrop cookies, gingersnaps, the most incredible chicken salad, raspberry muffins...from scratch, almond and cheese crusted chicken, four cheese pasta, pork roast, cinnamon rolls, fresh and delicious fruit, eggs in many styles...which you know I love...and the list goes on. Seriously, I thought I was going to die of overly-expanded stomach. It was amazing, Camille. Thank you for all of your work and entertainment.

I went snowboarding with Sam and his brother, Ben, at Sierra in Tahoe. So fun! Thanks Sam. It was just like I like it...warm. Doesn't make for snow like Utah, but I didn't care. I've become less tolerant of the cold as I've gotten older. I can't stand being on the lift feeling like I'm going to lose my face or limbs to frostbite...just makes me ornery and miserable. It was perfect.

We went to Cade's B-ball game the next day where he made 3 baskets and had some good assists as well. He was awesome...and look how freaking tall he is-he's number 33 if you couldn't guess. With parents 6'0" and 6'5" the boy is bred to be a giant. ;)

These are the girls...Reyna and Regan. They wanted to come running with me one morning so I agreed to take them with me...knowing they'd run out of steam pretty quickly. Reyna did, but Regan was disappointed when I took them back home. She would've stayed right with me if I'd let her. They are so cute. These are their before and after pictures. They're beautiful girls. I miss being with them. Thanks for a great week.

Adrenaline:

My sisters and I have a tendency of cutting it real close when flights are involved. It's just the way we roll. I have only missed one flight in my many years of running through airports, which I think is pretty good considering the lack of time we allow ourselves. ;) So, I planned to fly to San Francisco on Jan. 16 at 4:40pm...with my last client ending at 3. This was my course....ended with my client at 3, ran to my car, drove to my cousin's house, parked my car there, re-packed my snowboarding bag, jumped in Maurine's car, zipped over to the airport (on construction filled freeways, rolled in at 4:05pm), checked in, ran to security where I waited for 30 min, began panicking right about now, SPRINTED to the very farthest gate in the airport crossing both moving sidewalks (where of course everyone is just standing so I couldn't take either one... come on people) and still had a hard time figuring out where gate E was, heard my name over the airport intercom... "Last call for passenger Sarah Hansen on flight....", and walked onto the plane with 5 min to spare. Ahhh, perfect. No killing time in stores like On the Fly-not bad at all. So I got to San Fran where I had to catch an air-train to the BART terminal (Cal light rail). Of course I only had about 25 min. to get my bags find the air train and catch the BART train I needed in order to meet Camille in Concord at the right time. This is a stressful task to accomplish in an unfamiliar place and under pressure. (maybe I should go on The Amazing Race....hmmmm...) I was directed to go to the escalator at the end of the hall and go to the top floor to catch the air train. I had my suitcase, a back pack and my snowboarding bag and I am just tearing through the halls in a very polite and dignified manner. Honestly at this point though, I wasn't above throwing some elbows-I just wanted to make my train. Just my luck...the escalator was broken. I picked up my bags and killed two flights of stairs continuing my jog to the train. I made it. So I got off the air train and the BART pulls up. Mind you I still have to pay for my BART ticket. First in line, but the little machine they have to get the ticket doesn't make any sense to me-I think partly because of the pressure of the 15 people behind me and the train sitting there with only moments before pulling away. This nice man started helping me...we had to go through the whole process twice because the guy wasn't a seasoned BART rider either and we kept messing up. I was taking the escalator down to the train, stuffing myself on one of the moving steps with all my bags when I ended up losing the grip on my suitcase and it starts rolling down the stairs. I reached my heel out in a desparate attempt to stop the bag....which I did-but you should've seen me. Total circus act. And the janitor at the bottom of the stairs just sat there and watched the whole thing. A little help here, buddy! After all that, I actually made my train. Can you believe it? Well I couldn't. I got to Concord thinking my stress was almost over, when my sister called and told me that she missed the exit and was accidentally just about to cross the bridge into San Francisco. Oops. She was totally in a panic because she took the bus lane thinking it was an exit, but she was really just passing the toll without paying. Big time fines for a stunt like that-but she didn't know. (See, this kind of stuff just runs in the family.) While totally concerned for my sister, I was a little concerned for myself as well. If any of you know anything about Concord, it's not the safest town. I served my mission in this area and actually lived in Concord for a while. When members of our ward asked us where we lived they were shocked to hear us say Concord. Not totally comforting to a missionary, but at least we had "extra protection". I survived and Camille miraculously made it back to me in only 15 min. Deep breath. So why didn't I just fly into Sacramento, you ask? It saved me about $100. I'm all about saving a buck...or 100 of them, as my funds are limited. If you think that was bad, our trip back to the airport was a nightmare. We left our shopping excursion allowing extra time for me to make the two trains, check-in, and make my flight. Everything was going swimmingly, until we hit bumper to bumper traffic. It took us 2 hours to go 5 1/2 miles. My flight was leaving at 3:35 and by the time I made it to the BART we watched the 2:20 train just pulling away. I caught the 2:35 train. Oh...did I mention the ride is an hour and a half? I called Delta and gratefully there was a delay...and then another. My flight was going to leave at 4:17. It was a stretch, but if I didn't catch this flight I wouldn't have been able to fly home until the next morning with $100 plus tacked onto my ticket. I was on the air train by 3:53 still needing to check in and go through security. I was praying for more delays or praying that I'd make this flight. It's amazing that Heavenly Father held the plane up for me. I'm just grateful for all those people that didn't pray for the flight to leave on time. Too bad people. Pays to pray. I made it to my gate by 4:07. My flight ended up not leaving until 4:50. I feel like that experience is almost typical of my travels. It makes it so exciting. ;)