"Just a teenage dirtbag"

It must be the combination of catching up on work and sleep that has made this week hard.

First, Lack of Sleep. Cause: driving 13 hours in the middle of the night to Utah. Staying up late with my family and getting up early from Thursday to Sunday, and driving 13 hours in the middle of the night back to Washington.

Then of course it was straight back to work. This week was deadline week for the newsletter. I was finishing the final touches to my new color newsletter. I worked so hard to research and network to get it approved to run color. I am so excited to see a more professional newsletter. I will have to post the link when it prints.

Also, I have been putting out all the fires with our projects. Fires that I don’t really want to detail here on a blog but fires that were making me heated nonetheless! Believe me I am usually a patient person, but this week I had my claws out. But after a million phone calls and coordination from a couple thousand miles away, things are looking better. I think Ben and I deal with things in our young age that most people never have to even think about. One thing I can say is I am learning and growing. I feel like a completely different person from when I got married and I owe it to Ben and all the life experiences he dreams up for us.

It was so nice to see my family. It has been almost a year since I have seen the family and I missed them so much. I can’t believe how big the baby girls are now. I met little Lia, Loren’s daughter, for the first time this weekend and I wanted to steal her. She is the sweetest thing.

I didn’t end up stealing the baby but I did steal a teenager. Well, maybe not steal. Mackay, my 16 year old nephew, is living with us for the summer (with full permission of course.) We got him set up to work side jobs for the neighbors and friends from the ward. He will be very busy and learn how much money he can make by working for himself if he works hard. It has been pretty good so far. We like having him here. I was telling my friends that I just went from no kids to the pseudo mom of a teenager. Talk about a lesson in parenting. Wish me luck!