Crossing things off the list & Early gifts

I got a box from my dad and stepmother today with a really kind note, NEW SILVERWARE to add to my meager supply and this:


Which I think is meant as a bit of a joke :) I do not buy Jell-O and my husband was practically apoplectic with excitement at the thought of making Jigglers!

Yeah me! Today I finished and mailed a project I started before Baby Bear was born. My grandma wanted to create a family history book for her sisters and children that detailed the descendants of her parents. I got so sick while being pregnant that it was all put on hold the end of 2006. I did some work on it the end of last year and then again last month when I was visiting her, and I really wanted to get it to her. We had an understanding that this would be a work in progress--a workbook of sorts for each person to make changes to and update.

Gram turns 79 on Tuesday and as I was getting her birthday presents ready to send I decided that it was time to finish the books up and send them off to her. So, this morning I printed close to 1500 pages of family group sheets and personalized card stock dividers, packed them carefully and took them to the post office. Any prayers you can spare that they arrive intact would be most appreciated! Of course there is the updating and filling out of additional details and frills like photos and copies of documents that needs to happen, but the basics are finished and I am breathing a sigh of relief!

Also today my Visiting Teacher dropped by this:

Isn't that beyond sweet? I know there are those who sniff and scoff at "treats" being part of the program, but personally, I love goodies and flowers and poems and stuff. I love that someone took a moment to think of me, I love them dropping it by and surprising me, and I love having something bright and happy and sweet on my table, reminding me that someone cares enough to take the trouble.

Today we have nothing on the schedule! No where to go, no one to see . . . refreshing to say the least. We do have a lot we can get done around the house, including mounds of laundry. Three sets of our bedding as a result of 2 baby barfs on our sheets and Princess getting a midnight nosebleed on Thursday. Yuck. I was once able to get all our laundry done on Tuesdays and Fridays, and I hope one day to return to that lovely state of laundry bliss. This constant always-having-a-load-to-deal-with thing makes me nuts.

Tuesday my husband and I finish up our final Family History Center directorship duties, by assisting the new directors at their first quarterly meeting. I am feeling sad about this calling coming to an end. We've been serving in the FHC for more than ten years, one or both of us, in one position or another. It has been about 5 years that we have worked together as the directors of the center. It will certainly give us more time to do our own genealogy research, which will be fun, but we will miss assisting in the direction that the FHC takes and the camaraderie we've felt with those we've worked with. As of yet, we have no official new callings, so that feels a little odd too. Not that I am complaining--everyone can use a break now and then!

My husband finished my quote database today and it is even more awesome than I anticipated! Hurray! I am so grateful for my computer tech husband and the time he spends on my less-than-technical behalf. Every time I add a quote, I'll think happy thoughts of him:

When eating a fruit, think of the person who planted the tree.

-Vietnamese saying

He also installed my new recipe software, so we'll see how it works this coming week. I tried a bunch of freeware ones and they were worse than useless, so I finally shelled out the dough to get one that is supposed to work! I wanted something that would let me search on an ingredient and give me a list of the recipes I have that will use that ingredient, and I am so excited to try this out!