New Beginnings 2018

I have been sleep deprived and stressed for about a week and a half leading up to New Beginnings.

Each year, the young women introduce the program to the girls who will be joining them in the coming year.  

The scripture theme for our program was Malachi 3:17 - "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels".  

As leaders, we try to let the girls plan, lead, and carry-out as much themselves as possible.  They decided, with the scripture, to introduce the young women values (Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue) as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the dwarfs' mine.  The program was not perfect but it was theirs and I was so proud of them.  

As a special music number, the girls sang "Ask in Faith" which is beautiful.  I wish I had a recording of them singing this song.

Here is a link to a sample of the song: https://youtu.be/giFepMCZh_A

How I love these beautiful daughters of God!

That's a lotta snow!

We had two snow storms this week and by Friday, I was going a little stir-crazy being stuck in the office.  When my coworker asked if I wanted to go out one of our un-plowed roads (un-plowed for financial reasons and so people can play with 4-wheel drive vehicles and snowmobiles) I said, 

"YES, PLEASE!"

It turns out he'd gotten some complaints about the road being plowed and snow play folks were upset that they couldn't slide and spin and have their fun in the snow.  He went to investigate and I tagged along.  Turns out someone had groomed sections of the road.  Who?  Why?  That is still an unknown.

It was a good excuse to get me out of the office and to enjoy some beautiful winter scenery.  Much as I don't like snow and try my hardest to avoid it, it sure is beautiful.

Quick Weekend Get-away

Sometimes I forget how close we are to the Bay Area.  The Oakland Temple will be closing for renovations for a year or more starting in February and we decided to trek out to visit the temple my parents were married in before it closes.

It was a lovely day, chilly, as is often the case in the Bay Area.  The temple was packed but always a wonderful and reflective time.  We wandered around the grounds and took pictures of San Francisco.  Kind of hazy but the Golden Gate is just visible in the background.

A wonderful quick weekend trip.

Impromptu Drive

Yesterday, Gil and I had a lazy morning.  We finally rallied and left the house to run a handful of errands.  Gil had borrowed The Hobbit audio book from the library and we started with chapter 1 when we started our errands.  We got back to the apartment and looked at each other and decided we couldn't spend the rest of a beautiful sunny day inside.  It was cold, though, so we decided on an impromptu afternoon drive.

We went south on HWY 49, then east on HWY 88 through the Amador District of the Eldorado National Forest.  I can see why one of my coworkers calls this district the garden.  It is beautiful.  We stopped at a lake that was frozen over.  It was quite lovely.

 If you look very closely, you can see a group of people playing hockey on the frozen surface.

 We enjoyed the view, made a few quick stops (it was cold!), and enjoyed listening to The Hobbit.   We went north towards Tahoe, then west and home on HWY 50.  For someone who does not at all do spur-of-the-moment, I survived and had a wonderful afternoon with my Mr.

New Year's Day Hike

Gil and I decided we needed to brave the cold weather, stop this hibernating nonsense, and enjoy a beautiful sunny New Year's Day.

Gil found a trail system in Cool, CA, near Auburn, and we headed up.  It was a massive maze of main trails, side trails, social trails, and old roads, many of them not on the map.  It was awful.  It was nice to get out but I did not enjoy the constant feeling of being lost and not knowing where I am.  (Is that redundant?)

We came home, snuggled, got warm, watched a movie, and ate our beans for good luck.

Bring on 2018!