Happy Meal Madness

***Text in this color authored by Shena***

Work & Play
After the boys and I returned from our errand (see "Llano Upate"), I decided to get some more trees cut up and moved. The weather report was calling for party cloudy and windy. It was for part of the day, but about 2:00 we got some hail, then a little while later it started raining. Long story short, I got about 1/2 as much done as I would have liked. The chain came off my saw just as it started raining, so I took that as a sign it was time to quit. I only worked about 3 hours out there. The next couple of days should be nice, and with daylight savings kicking in tomorrow, I should be able to get quite a bit done the first part of next week. Dad and I talked about buying a chipper to take care of the branches. He agreed with me that it would be a better idea to buy one and re-sell it when I'm done than try to rent one. We looked at Home Depot and Sears. I think we've decided on a 10 hp one from Home Depot for $624. it will chip branches up to 3", but I have a feeling we might be able to stretch that a little bit. We'll see.

Just as I was finishing up, the electrician sub-contractor showed up again to keep working on the room. He is about the ony sub-contractor who has shown up when he said he would. The roofers have flaked out (as was previously reported) and the HVAC guy was supposed to show on Friday, but we never saw him. I should have expected all of this. I have yet to hear of anybody who finished a project like this as fast as they wanted to. At least I'm fairly confident (hope I don't jinx myself here) that we will have the room done before the next baby gets here.

I watched a bit of the second session of General Conference, but not too much. Shena had been fighting with the boys during the first session while I was outside. They were just being noisy and wouldn't leave her alone. So I distracted them for an hour or so during the second session so she could watch some of it.

Our ward in the past has had pizza before the Priesthood session of conference as a bit of encouragement for people to show up. I'm not sure who decided how many pizzas to order this year, but they WAY over estimated. We had 22 LARGE pizzas from Papa John's. I would guess about 15-20 people were actually there to eat them. I didn't eat much during the day because I knew they would have pizza and I wanted to be hungry, but there was no way I could eat more than 4 pieces. I was stuffed after that. President Hinkley's talk was good. He spoke about gambling. Never had much of a problem with it myself, but it is something that could easily slip by as "no big deal." There is always an office pool at the building I work in during March Madness. It's just a $5 contribution to the pot. No big deal. I'm glad now that I said "no thanks" when they asked me to go in. It still makes me mad when I think about states setting up lotteries. The negatives so completely outweigh the positives it is amazing that people vote in favor of it. But everybody who votes for it thinks they will be "the one" who wins. "Something for nothing" is the danger that lies in it. Everyday people think they can get "something for nothing" and that isn't how life works. You have to work for things to have them mean something to you. (mini-soap box descended)

After conference, I rushed home to watch the rest of the UNC vs. Mich State game. I was the official score tracker for some of the guys there in the priesthood session. I checked the scores three times while I was there at the church. Once just before we went in, once during the intermediate song and then once right after Pres. Hinkley finished speaking. It was enough to let everybody know how things were going. Glad to see UNC win. Hopefully they can beat Illinois on Monday and return the ACC to champions of the land.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Shena went with Teresa Slack to some kind of scrap book show at the coliseum this morning. The boys and I decided to go to Home Depot for Kids while she was gone. I called dad up and he met us over there. I helped Cade with his, and dad built Kelson's while he climbed all over stuff and hit pieces of wood with a hammer. It was a good time because nobody poked their eye out. Cade is pretty patient when we work on the projects. He used to get mad when I started the nails for him, but now he wants me to so that he can finish pouding them in. Their project was an "Art Caddy," but Cade kept calling it his "Little Building."

After Shena got home and I went outside to cut trees, she took the boys to McDonald's for Happy Meals. The toy right now is a Pixar character toy, and the boys have been bugging to get one. She called around to find out which McDonald's had what toy. The McDonald's on Battleground had Monsters, Inc. characters, but when she went through the drive thru they gave all three meals (Shena ordered a meal for her too) "Mikes". Shena asked if they would swap one of them for a different one, and they told her "no." She was pretty hot. She and Cade talked me into going in between conference sessions to the McDonald's at Friendly Center to exchange one of the Mikes for a Sully. I hadn't eaten yet, so I had her get me a Happy Meal too, so that she could get another toy. If Friendly Center weren't so far away, we would visit that one more often since they were so nice to us. The things we do to make our kids happy.

Arellano Update
As I was headed out the door to Priesthood Session, mom stopped by. She wound up staying for dinner with the rest of the family. They had some frozen bagel bites. More power too them. I'm just glad I didn't have to eat any of them.

Christensen Update
None to report that I know of.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 11:00 - 6:30 - 7:00 - 8:00 - Didn't sleep very well at all. I didn't think much about it until Shena said she was sorry if she kept me up last night because she didn't sleep very well. Because I am such a light sleeper, any moving she does wakes me up, and I'm sure that her moving around didn't let me sleep very well.

TODAY:
Breakfast: 1 bowl of frosted flakes

Lunch: McDonald's Happy Meal - cheeseburger no onions, fries, orange drink

Dinner: Papa John's Pizza - two pieces of chicken alfredo, two pieces of beef, A&W