FINDING A REASON TO SMILE

After a week of the stomach flu and the tragic news of my friend Lisa (who I am still reeling over) I needed to focus on the good, even though sometimes that is really,really hard to do...but that's what we're supposed to do, right?  So I scooped up my youngest (the rest of the gang went to shoot some hoops together) and we danced.  How I love this boy.  

And my sister.  She crocheted an elephant for Brady.  An early adoption gift.  It came in a used saltine box.  That alone made me smile.  But my heart smiled BIG when I saw that it was an elephant.  A little reminder of Ben...I loved that.

And Brady LOVES it.  

He gave it the taste test and approved.

Then I snagged Steve for an impromptu trip to the temple.  It's been awhile since we went together and having children old enough to babysit made it a little easier to drop everything and run.

I spent a lot of time thinking about my friend Lisa...and Ben of course.  At one point I leaned over to Steve and said, "I wish I could see Ben" to which Steve replied as if he really knew, "I don't think we'll see him today."  I looked at him and said "Why not?!?" to which he leaned over really close and whispered..."Because I think he's a little busy helping Noah show Aaron the ropes."  That made me smile.  If that were the case, then I was okay with that.  I could wait another day for a visit from Ben. 

After the temple we went to my favorite grocery store, Trader Joe's.  They don't have one near us so any chance I get I go.  We were 3/4 of the way through our shopping when the lights go out.  Not only does OUR store lights go out, but the WHOLE complex of stores went black.  (like over 50 stores including a LARGE movie theater) It was quite eerie.  The store people ushered us to the front with our food because they only had 15 minutes of battery life in the registers.  It was so dark in the store that I couldn't find Steve with our cart full of food, I stayed behind to try and find one last item.  The price of the food didn't ring up either so each item she rang up we had to guess.  I'm hoping we walked out a little under price rather than over...but I'm not sure we did and won't ever know since there was no receipt printed out either.  We walked out to a completely dark parking lot...this picture below is exactly what it looked like.  There was just a few car lights and random small lights here and there.  We made it out just in time.

From there we hit Panera Bread...Steve had another place in mind but it was prime time eats and most restaurants had an hour plus waiting period.  

I'm a fan of Panera but it's not exactly the most 'manly' place to eat...soup, sandwiches and salads.  I quite enjoyed my greek salad with a side of bread! :)

As a consolation we hopped next door to 'Cold Stone'.  Ever been there?  If not, you must!  They scoop your ice cream, throw it on a cold stone...and chop in your choice of toppings right there in front of you.  I'm sure you can probably guess whose is who?

Steve picked cheesecake with graham crackers mixed in, I chose my all-time favorite chocolate with peanut butter cups and peanut butter.  It was a great way to end the night...