I have not done any scrapbooking of over a week now, since I got to Francie's and since I barely bought anything when i went to 2 scrapbook shops this week I think I must have done as much scrapbook shopping as I can manage too ( I know!! is that even possible??) I am really looking forward to getting home to use the stuff I have bought!

But actually I am more looking forward to seeing the kids. For that odd few of you readers who are not friends or family - I am a single mum of 4 children. I have been raising them on my own for nearly 10 years now, and am finally at a point where I miss them when I go away! For so many years time off being the mum, and having a break was so sought after that i did not think about them when I was away if I could help it and I never missed them or longed to get back home. So I am pleased that I enjoy my kids and my home enough now to look forward to going home again.

and of course I look forward to my own bed (even though it is an ancient lumpy mattress that I inherited from Jenni and Matthew and have been trying to reply for at least 7 years) and my own kitchen (even thought I have very much enjoyed all the cherry flavoured things I could find here in the US) and my own ward.

Life is good.

but i am already planning my next trip!!

its half over!!

I am resisting the urge to fall into old patterns and start regretting that the holiday is half over! I still have conference to enjoy and nearly 2 weeks of rest to continue having so i want to just enjoy it!

We had an incredible adventure to Nauvoo - Sharon and I drove 2000 miles - over 3000 Km across several states and we saw and heard amazing stuff about Church history including being in the very room that the prophet Joseph Smith was killed in. I am almost speechless about that.

I scrapped a couple more pages at Sharon's. That was so fun. Like scrapbooking in a scrapbook shop with every possible need at my fingertips. and I found tools on my last day that I didn't even know she had.

I have also bought obscene amounts of scrapbook supplies and my bags are already very very heavy - not yet overweight, but very heavy! and i am probably not finished with the scrapbooking stuff!! and I still have some other things I need to get here in Utah including quads for the girls, a suit for CJ and some last minute requests from Dad and Shel. And i am almost ashamed to admit how very few items I have bought for the kids. (not a good motherly type am I?!?!)

I have started looking at jobs available back in NZ - at least the ones i can find online... have found a few possibilities, but nothing that really grabs me. What is going on with that?

I bought a new camera that i am really enjoying using... can't remember the brand and model right now, but it fits comfortably in the new handbag that Sharon gave me for my birthday and so it is right there most of the time - exactly what I wanted!! It has 7megapixels and 6X optical zoom - one of my wants - so that i can get in nice and close - but the big plus over my kodak is some sort of image stabilisation, so there are way fewer blurry shots. it also has an easy exposure adjustment that i have used several times already and lost of features that I haven't played with yet!

Yes, you did read correctly - I am 40 now! and it isn't really a big deal to me. Actually I actually think of it in a positive light rather than a negative. I am a cool and up to date, energetic and interesting 40 year old woman and at the risk of sounding cliche - i know much more about myself and feel so much more confident in my own skin than I did 10 or 20 years ago, that I would rather be 40 than anything else!! I love that my family are at where we are at - that my kids are almost all teenagers and in fact three of them are so close to Independence that I better spend time with them while I still can!

I love my life!!