McBlog

In case you missed it like I did… Southgate Shopping center was announced on the 15th of Nov. and will be bringing some classy retail boxes closer to home. Check out the full details which will require a few holes at Eastbay to be redesigned.

“Southgate will include 59 acres along the east frontage of I-15–the western most portion of the Reserve at East Bay Golf Course. The center will include 459,000 square feet of new retail space and 225,000 square feet of office space. As a comparison, the Provo Towne Centre Mall has 800,000 square feet of leasable space.

Southgate will be developed by the Boyer Company. Boyer has letters of intent from several national retailers including Sports Authority, Petsmart, Circuit City and Target, which will be the anchor tenant of the center.”

If this title intrigues you, read on! Well, this morning I panicked because I couldn’t seem to find my wedding rings anywhere! (Yes there are two of them that I wear together.) See, I know I should just wear them at all times, but I don’t like to wash my face, shower, apply lotion, etc. with them on because they just scratch me and get "stuff" in them. So anyway, I searched all the usual places, but no luck. Despite my panic, I tried to think of where they could be. I remembered  last removing them in the bathroom and placing them in the corner of the bathroom counter. I also recalled getting ready for the day this morning with my constant companion Chase playing happily in the sink while I did so, running the water and tinkering with things on the counter… Uh-oh.

Instantly, an Ensign article I read I long time ago came to my mind, in which a woman accidentally flushed her wedding ring down the toilet. She soon realized that it was gone forever, and decided that she would just have to be humble and replace her wedding ring with a plain silver band. This story affected me at that time because I decided that I never wanted to have any such experience.

I realized now that I really didn’t feel like having that same humbling experience at this point in time (or ever)! I continued to think for a minute, and remembered that Chase had been playing with the bottle of lotion (taste-testing it and such). I listened as I shook the bottle, and sure enough, the rings were in there! I dumped out most of the lotion to get to the rings. There they were, safe and sound. That’s my busy boy!!! I usually do a decent job of keeping things out of Chase’s reach, but this was one of the times that I failed… and almost had to pay a big price for it! Here’s a photo to illustrate the crime scene.

These are magical words here in Utah, because any female in this state is capable of spending hundreds of dollars in one trip to either of these places. Well, such was not really the case for Becky and me today, but it was a fun day nonetheless. First of all, the company for this outing was great, because I love Becky and her two (almost 3) daughters! Those girls are entertainment personified. Chase was entertaining today, too, but for a different reason… He kept wanting to run away from me and jump into the water where the ducks were swimming at Gardner Village (in Sandy). He was incredibly antsy and active today, not that that’s unusual. I think it was extra challenging because of the semi-long car ride to get to our destinations. So at Gardner Village, we managed to browse through ONE charming little store, out of like 30, before we decided that it wasn’t worth the wrestling of the children (namely CHASE). We vowed to go back sometime– WITHOUT the squirmy ones! We DID visit the ridiculously delicious bakery to have lunch and a treat, although Chase made a game of constantly running around the place and out the doors. We then called it quits, sort of… Once we got back in the car, we decided to take our chances at one more stop, also in Sandy, called Tai Pan Trading. I hadn’t ever been to this place, but I had heard enough to know I wanted to check it out. It turned out to be a huge warehouse of home decor; bigger than I could have imagined! Home decor heaven. I told myself I would not purchase anything ("I will resist. I will resist!"), but boy was there lots of temptation! I managed to end the day having only spent a few dollars for lunch and 2 mugs that were $1 each. So I am conquerer!!! I justified that mug purchase because they were a "need", not just a "want"– we didn’t have any microwave-safe mugs for hot chocolate, okay?!?  OKAY! 🙂

Yes, Halloween was SUCH a long time ago, but we have had computer issues lately, so here I am finally posting about Halloween. Basically it was pretty fun, and I’ll admit I was as into it– if not more into it– than Chase was. First, we got to go to Daddy’s work to trick-or-treat around the offices. I wasn’t sure how this would all pan out. I was surprised at how easy it was to convince Chase to wear the tiger costume (courtesy of the TGrandparents) and to get his face drawn on with my eyeliner. And then when we got there, he caught on to the idea of getting candy pretty easily. However, he would rarely say trick-or-treat or thank you, which irked us because he knows how to talk and everything now! He’s just too modest about his talents… 😉 Everyone said he was sooo cute. So then Rachel came over in her hot little cat costume– I just sported the simple cowgirl look. We took Chase around while Pace stayed home to watch Star Trek and hand out candy. It was a lot of fun because we know most of the people in this area, seeing as how it’s our ward. We probably made it to about 35 houses! It was awesome. Chase would only occasionally say trick or treat ("tee tee teet!"). But apparently that was acceptable because he got plenty of candy out of it! I kept trying to convince him to grab the chocolate candies out of the bowls, but to no avail… he kept taking the suckers because those are his sticky favorite for some reason– just ask Rachel about the texture of her hair by the end of the evening! Anywho. It was a great time for all!  

Paul McCulloch passed away this morning at the Clear Creek Care Center. He will be missed, and his example will be remembered. I wanted to take this time to talk about Paul and about the plan of God. Paul was mentally handicapped for most of his life, suffering from crippling physical deformities and blocked by slow to no mental development. When doctors told my mom this would alter his growth and life they estimated he would not live past the age of 12. Well, eat it doctors, he doubled that and then some! I learned a great deal from my twin brother. He taught me how to be patient, and serve selflessly. As kids we always knew that dinner wasn’t served until Paul had eaten. You see mom would make the food, then take some and blend it up for Paul and feed him, even though sometimes he didn’t want it. Then after she felt he was full she served the rest of us dinner at the table. I will never forget that precious sight and hard work of my mom as she provided care and nourishment for her family day after day.

Paul wasn’t able to recognize many things in this world. But he always knew when mom was around. The only times I remember Paul smiling was when Mom was talking to him. I used to sit and watch Paul and wonder what he was thinking, or if. I believe he knew more than we thought, I know he learned to recognize his mother, and who knows what else.

It is important we come to learn of our parents, earthly and heavenly, learn what they want from us. Our Heavenly Father has prepared a plan for us. That plan included leaving His presence, receiving a body, learning to make decisions with our agency based on eternal law, learning to act on faith, and leaving this mortal body to await the resurrection. I know that Paul’s spirit will be reunited with his physical body, but it will be a perfected body. And together we will rejoice in the atonement that Jesus Christ made for us. I know that Christ was resurrected and because He was, we all will. I am grateful to God for His plan and for Jesus Christ. I know that Paul is now in His service and more comfortable than he ever was while on earth. Love ya Paul, and I’ll miss ya till we meet again.