Table for Eight

I find it hilarious that just last week I was questioning the value of my daily blogging/posting. And then two days later, my URL hosting service tried to renew my URL registration ... only the credit card on file was not the same card I had a year ago (Thanks to Target's security breach, I was issued a new card in December.). So ... my site was deactivated.   Awesome-sauce! And when I tried to correct this by logging into my account and giving them the new card number, I realized I had no recollection of my user name and password. Which led me to about 55 minutes of investigative work. Which led me to nowhere. Literally. Even phoning the company was a little like talking in circles. And so today, I wait. And blog--literally--only for myself. (Until I can get the blog URL active again.) It's so funny to me--the timing of this mishap. It's like I get to really see how much this journal-ing is just for me. Ha! In the meantime, here are some photos from this

I have one major thought as we head into the weekend: How do you relax? (How often? What do you do? Why?) I ask because as I look over my life these past 4 decades, I realize I'm a person who has a difficult time relaxing. I always want to be doing something; I have this sense that I'm missing out if I am "relaxing." (Or that I'm being lazy.) And this really has been a "thing" my whole life.  I think back to when I was a kid, there were times I slept on top of my bed so as not to mess it up sleeping/wasting time. I never--never--sleep in. I have a hard time sitting down for a movie. And my parents and Dave will attest to this: I never like to take my shoes off. Ever. Like even if I fall asleep mid-TV show, I can't stand it if someone tries to make me more comfortable by taking off my shoes. Oh, and when I played Survivor (both times) I found it nearly impossible to relax. Granted, there's a million dollars on the line there, but I was

There's really been no time for me to blog this week; it's been so busy! And I'm cracking up because I went to a church meeting this week where someone said "blogging is outdated" and that threw me for an existential loop:  "Oh, no! I'm using antiquated technology?"  Anyway, my point! I really did begin the blog as a journal for myself (back in 2004), and that journal-ing has been a really good thing for me on the whole. (I've learned a lot about myself and we have really fun photos to look back on as a family.) So ... even if I'm the only one reading this, I'm gonna blog on, baby! And with that bit of psychosis, here are some snapshots of our week here in the Meehan fam (missionary photos, church meetings, sewing machine projects, and more). Elder Meehan is doing great on his mission. He has had a pretty bad cold/flu this week, but said they still go out in -7 degree weather to meet and teach. Pretty amazing when I think about it. W

It turns out yesterday was not the end to our Stolen Phone Story. At about 10am on Thursday, the owner of the $3 Car Wash (Which isn't $3, PS. No idea why?) phoned to tell me he had re-reviewed the security footage from night Dave's phone was stolen and had more information for us. For those of you following this wacky story, this would be our 4th day of interaction with the employees, managers, and owner of the car wash.  Every day they have tried a little harder to help us get Dave's phone back AND find the person who took it. To be honest, as I read the number on this inbound call I thought to myself, "How could there be more? We already know the footage doesn't show the license number of the car/car owner that took the phone?" But it turns out the car wash owner wasn't satisfied with just letting this go. He wanted to do all he could to help us--and give his business a positive reputation. So, my point! The car wash owner was able to

Yesterday turned out a lot better than we expected: --The repair shop was able to tow and fix our car SAME-DAY! So we are back to being a 2-car household (Which I know is lame to say out-loud, but it's really helpful for us to have two cars). --The car wash phoned late last night to say they had reviewed their security footage and were able to find the footage with Dave leaving his phone on top of the payment pillar. YAY! After leaving the phone, security footage shows customers going through the line for the next 30 minutes, finding the phone and setting it back down on top of the pillar ... and that's when an older model Nissan XTerra drove in the line, grabbed the phone from the pillar and backed out of the line without purchasing a car wash. Boooooooooo! For a second we really thought we were going to be able to use the footage to at least report/confirm the phone stolen, but unfortunately the license plate was/is not visible on the footage.  Waaaaaaaaaaa!

I know it's not personal. And I know everyone-- everyone --has hours, days, weeks, months, and sometimes years that are bummer-major. Yesterday was a bummer-major day for us. (And yes, I know these are all fixable problems, so they're not enough to complain about in The Big Pic., but they are problems that take time to repair. And with 6 kids and two jobs, our lives don't have a lot of bumper time to fit that in--so these situations do create some "stress." And I'm not a big fan of stress.) What kind of problems you ask? (I know you didn't. Ha!) Here is some of the fun we've had this week--and it's only Wednesday: 1) One of our cars broke down. And after 5 days of juggling 7 people and one car between seminary (church classes early morning for our teens), school, work, and appointments, we were super happy to get it back. Downside = the repair was the cost of one house payment. Awesome. 2) With both cars up and running, Dave a

Well it's not even 8am and I've already managed to break the diswasher, clog some pipes, and curse for about 20 solid minutes. I'd say today's going to be pretty awesome. And it's really all my own doing. You see, one of my New Year's goals was to meditate each morning for just 5 minutes (don't want to kill myself at the start--LOL) AND be more easy-going with household routines and chores (primarily with the kids' doing theirs). But I'm telling you, that is EASIER SAID THAN DONE (for me).  I have some kind of learned/DNA-backed obsession with people following through on jobs and keeping our household running smoothly. I know emptying trashes or washing dishes isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but for some reason it's the principle of it for me. I just want our kids to "do their part" to contribute to homelife AND learn life skills that will help them to be self-reliant peeps. But they're teenage a