I'm off to see the Wizard-

Or just off to see Vancouver. I'll be leaving Missouri Wednesday, aka my birthday, to fly to SLC Utah. Then I'll be driving a bus to Vancouver. I don't know my exact plans, but that's the general outline. I'm turning off my phone from Jan 15 to Mar 3. I'm parking my car at my brother's house, since my parents have more snow than is healthy for my little 2000 Saturn.

Today was a grand day. I gave my farewell talk about our Heavenly Father and His love for us. I cried a lot. Seems to be the current trend and will be for the rest of my life. Some things never change.

After church we ate lasagna at my parents house. My brother Neal and his family and Cookie and her family came over. Her husband Jim couldn't make it because he had to work. He fixes heating and air condition units, so he's been working a lot lately. We played Risk after eating lasagne and delicious chocolate cake made by Emily.

Tomorrow will be the first day my parents and brother have been back to school since the start of Christmas vacation. We had loads of snow and cold out here, so school was canceled and our entire driveway is currently covered by a 6 inch block of ice. We also shoveled the entire driveway at least twice this week after snow to keep the driveway block from getting any thicker. One byproduct of this driveway water stash was a sleepover Friday night.

A couple weeks ago I posted a poll blog called 18 vs. 25. I gladly received numerous comments on this blog and kept those comments in my heart. The boy I referenced in that post exists as the man child Dallin. He happens to be 19...and a half, as he often reminds me.

We've been talking on the phone, Facebook emailing and spending quality time together. He usually comes to my house, since he is wonderful and because I feel like a weirdo going over to his house. It may have something to do with his age. And when I went over to his house, his mother asked me how old I was these days and what I was doing with my life. I felt like a fogey. And, let's be honest, I'm a lazy old lady. So Dallin comes over to play games, watch movies, go sledding.

Thursday we went sledding and he kept pushing me into the snow. Every time we walked up the hill he would push me down. After significant contact with the snow, my gloves froze over and I wasn't sure what to do. I didn't want to go inside, but my hands were frozen. So I said my hands were frozen. Sweet Baby 18, SB, made me switch gloves with him. Very dashing of him, since his hands were then freezing cold. He put on my gloves, but promptly removed them since his hands were colder with my gloves on than off.

Besides pushing me into the snow every time we trekked uphill, Dallin also rode the sled downhill with me. Turns out you can fit two almost grown ups on a longish cheap plastic sled with minimal discomfort. In case you were wondering. I kept thinking he was going to kiss me because he would sidle up to me, but he's a baby, so why would that be my expectation?

After sledding we watched three movies in a row and played some games. The man child is good at winning. I'm not accomplished in this thing, so I have not taught him much with my considerable wisdom.

Friday he took me on a date. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for my birthday. I got a burrito supreme and enjoyed it immensely. He got orange chicken and threatened to flick a chunk of it on me. I think if he had I might have tackled him in the restaurant. The world will never know what would've happened, because I snatched up that chicken chunk and tossed it onto the napkin under our table. We also ate some Cheesecake. What a nice way to celebrate a birthday.

After dinner we headed off to my home where we played cards until midnight. While turning around in our driveway, SB got stuck and after 30 minutes of pushing. I steered, he pushed, the car had moved one foot and nothing else had happened. Him pushing, that was kind of hot.

He called his parents to let them know what had happened and then..I found him a toothbrush and some sweatpants. Then we sat in the living room reading our scriptures, my dad grunted and pointed to his watch, and I went up to bed.

The next day we watched another movie, because I'm a movie-a-holic and they're such an easy activity to plan, and my dad reprimanded me for sitting with my feet in SW's lap. He said something about keeping both my feet on the ground. AWKWARD. Oops. I guess I never realized how inappropriate that is. I mean, have you seen my legs and feet? They're definitely on the sexy list. Here's a picture of them when I fell out the back of that FedEx truck and was all banged up from all the unloading I was doing.

My brother in law saw this happenstance and also made a comment about it to my sister. If I had known about the scandal I would cause with my seductive actions I would never have dreamed to pull in an innocent baby right before my mission. We weren't kissing on the couch my friends, my feet were in his lap. Whelp, now I guess I have something to look forward to when I get married. And not before.

The kissing, the kissing is good. The boy is adorable. He will be missed while I'm in Vancouver. Although he loves torturing me, we have good times. He's as good a hand holder as can be gotten. He tells me how nice I look, how great I am, that he's mad at me for leaving. These are all good things to hear.