A Very Quiet Weekend

BOO! - A Halloween place mat!

The weather this weekend was very frightful! Brady left right after school on Friday to a Cross country team retreat. They went to Coach Rusty's family cabin located in the mountains by Cascade. I was worried about him going to the mountains when a winter storm was forecast. But, it looked like the snow wasn't suppose to hit the mountains in our area, they were suppose to only get rain and have cold temperatures. The central mountains in Idaho were forecasted to get 1 -3 feet of snow over the weekend. With the forecast in mind, I made Brady take a coat, hat, gloves, warm socks and long underwear. They were planning to run along the mountain trails during the retreat. Brady was mad at me for making him pack all of that stuff. . . I asked him what he learns in Boy Scouts -- Be prepared!! and made him take it all. The other thing I was worried about was the drive to Cascade. The high school kids were car pooling and some were riding with the coaches. It always worries me when I drive in a storm and the transportation there made me even more worried. The coaches are only in their 20's too - very young. Here I was letting my precious son go with others while they drive through the storm. OK... yes, when it comes to my children -- I am a total worry wart!.

At 5:15 PM Friday, Boise experienced snow and pretty much an ice storm here in the valley. The team left at 3:30 and I was hoping they had enough time on the road to miss the brunt of the storm. I tried really hard not freak out and enjoy the quiet weekend ahead. I deep cleaned my house - which always calms me. Then I sat back to enjoy reading a book. A friend of mine from my ward - Maralee - buys LDS books from thrift stores all the time and lets me borrow them. The last time I went to visit, I ended up taking a ton of books - Yeah! Here are all the books I have ready to read at zero cost - it doesn't get better then that!
Over the weekend, I read - "A Time for the Heart" by Nancy Campbell Allen and I finished a "Heart of the Rose" by Alene Roberts last night. When I have time to read my nose is in the book until it is finished. And with all of these great books from Maralee, I'll be reading through the winter. Which is great! I am watching less and less TV and listening to music and doing a craft, scrap booking or reading a book has been more calming to me then TV. Recently I down graded my digital TV to the bare minimum - the family package. It only has cartoon channels, Hallmark, DIY, HGTV, Food network, local channels and BYU channel. I have lots of DVD that don't have commercials and it is saving me $25 dollars a month - plus, I got rid of my long distance telephone package which I'll use my cell phone if I need to call anyone - and that saved me an additional $14 per month. I never call long distance very much as it is and hate spending money on things I don't use (I don't like to talk on the telephone). Brady and my cell phones are just tracfone - pay as you go - no contract. It is nice to only have to pay $20 every 3 months or so - since I hardly use them and have them for emergency only.

Brady's team was suppose to be home by 4PM on Saturday. I kept watching the clock - 5PM went by - then as 6PM came up - I decided I couldn't wait a minute longer and called his cell phone. They were at the high school and Coach Rusty (who lives by us) said he would drop Brady by our home. They were just waiting for all the parents to come for their children. I was glad to hear that Brady had made it home OK and was safe - total relief. Yes, I am a worrier..

When we unpacked his things - he still complained that he brought more then anyone else. Oh well - Be prepared!!!! They didn't have snow - but it was cold. They did lots of team building things and had a terrific time. This t-shirt below was a team building race. They had two teams and they had to decorate their t-shirts with their team logo. Brady's team was the koala team. The t-shirt is below.. Pretty cute! The teenage years are upon me - where you have to work really hard to have your teenager tell you anything about anything... You have to pull each word out of them... It gets frustrating to be interested in what they are doing and they won't tell you about it. Ahhh the teenage years... Some days are better then others..

"Come what may, and LOVE IT!