Answered Prayers

I've had a few happy things happen lately that I thought I could smash into one post. Let's start with last night's big event. If you can bring your memory all the way back from 6 months ago you'll recall it was time to go see Keith. Urban, that is. Of course, I was very excited for the big day, but as it got closer I started to worry about getting a babysitter -- once I realized it was on a school night. I couldn't imagine many parents letting their child hang out at my place till almost midnight on a school night. But one day last week a little girl came to my door. She was soliciting babysitting services. She even had a resume and business cards with a magnet. She's only about 10, so not even considering her a real possibility, I jokingly asked her how late she can stay out. She didn't know. But about 20 minutes later she came back and told me her parents said she could stay out as late as necessary, as long as they were at home. Now I felt embarrassed, because I hadn't even mentioned to her I needed someone on a school night and how late she would be out. So after explaining that to her, Brandon offers her our phone to call her parents (we didn't want to make her run home and back again). You should have seen the shock on her face when her dad said it was fine. She was giddy to have her first babysitting job, and I was giddy to have a sitter for my concert.

Should I stop here to mention how the concert was? The opening act (Little Big Town) was not my cup '0 tea. I was really hoping the concert would improve after they left. And it did! We had seats on the first row of the upper balcony, and really close to the stage, so not bad at all. But it was a little scary thinking how easily we could fall over. Then during the concert Keith was walking through the aisle to a different stage, and these people on the lower level were reaching over the railing to touch him. Their railing was not as sturdy as ours, and they tumbled. Luckily it was only about a 3 feet fall for them. Brandon had a good time, and that's what was important to me.

Another great thing (I think) is that I found a walking partner. I had quit walking for about 2 weeks near the end of summer break (just got too busy I guess), and I think my neighbor noticed because she called me on it. I didn't have a very good excuse, so she invited me to walk with her. I was excited to have a partner, but she gets up really early, and walks about twice as far as I was used to. I was pretty sore the first few days, but I'm now used to it and other than being tired every day I think it's really good for me.

Brandon also found a buddy -- for carpooling. A new guy just started at work, and he lives only about 6 houses away from us! There's a lot of complications when it comes to carpooling, but Brandon's willing to give it a shot. The first day he noticed a big difference just due to the fact that he can use the carpool lane. He was excited about that. And then today he talked to his boss and got it approved to work from home one day a week, so that should help out his commute a little.

My other happy experience is that I got to go on a girl's weekend. The two times I was up in Star Valley this summer I got to go visit an old friend (Erin) whom I'm using as my inspiration to build us a house (but that's a whole other story). Well, the last time I was there she invited me to go to this craft fair (aka Swiss Days) over Labor Day weekend. It was down in Midway, just over an hour from my house. Her aunt and cousin from Idaho actually stopped and picked me up on Friday morning, and I spent the afternoon with them down at the Gateway and went out to lunch with them before heading over to Midway. There we met Erin, her mom and sister. These people were shoppers. I am not. So, they bought lots of fun things and I looked at lots of fun things. It was a fun time to get away and do something a little different. We saw President Uchtdorf there (apparently he lives down there). I thought after his talk on creating things he must be having a ball at a craft fair. We stayed at the Zermatt Resort (pretty fancy), but Erin has connections and got us a killer deal on a two bedroom suite. The second day there was pretty crazy. Apparently Midway is the place to be for Labor Day weekend. I had no clue. The town was packed. The bakery at our hotel was completly out of food (except for one lonely muffin which we did not all want to split), so we had to find breakfast elsewhere. The line to get on the shuttle bus was insane, but luckily it was overcast all day so we weren't standing out in the heat. It even drizzled on us a bit later in the afternoon, but it was kind of nice. We stopped and had dinner in Park City before heading out. Then I came home to find my house had been destroyed. And that was the end of my relaxing weekend.

You can't really tell in this picture, but this was taken just as it started to rain. I thought I better get a shot of us together while I could. I didn't take any pictures of Keith at the concert. I have yet to see any good concert shots, so I didn't bother hauling my camera along, and I left my phone for the sitter so I didn't even have my camera phone. We'll be ok. If anybody needs to see a picture of Keith, look back at my post 6 months ago.