So my son winning the Andau was a miracle in my life, and I also experienced another one. This is going to sound hard to believe, I know, but, I think I was recently the beneficiary of angels working in my life. I think they visited the very room I have been sleeping in. It sounds wild, but here’s the story.

So after all the excitement of my son winning the Andau, plus getting my lost camera back, plus having a birthday party for my third son, all while staying at my sis in law’s home en route to a family vacation in CA, I could not go to sleep. My body was wound up tighter than a corset. I lay there for a while, then I got up and wrote in my journal and then turned on General Conference on my iPod to put me back to sleep. Hey, it works all the time during the day during real time General Conference so why not at night? I feel asleep during my favorite sleep-inducing speaker. I will let you guess which one. I woke up briefly to tuck the iPod under my pillow. In the morning I took the iPod out from under my pillow and put it in the little zippered compartment on the inside wall of my purse. That is its place. 

We went to sacrament meeting because I am a firm believer in going to church wherever you are, even if you are on vacation. During the service I started feeling sick. Some of Sally’s (my sis in law’s) kids had been sick and now maybe I was catching it. I knew I needed to throw up. When we got back to Sally’s I asked if she had any peppermint essential oil. I know from doing it myself at home that if I lick just a little bit, it makes me throw up. Supposedly it is known for settling the stomach but not for me. Sure enough, within fifteen minutes I threw up and felt much better. But I still felt very cold. I was in sunny St. George where it gets 120 degrees but I felt freezing. I wondered if all the excitement from the day before was overworking my adrenals and thyroid. I decided to take a soak in the tub to warm me up. Whenever I get sick I love a soak in hot water.  Everybody was wanting to be on the way to CA but there was no way I was going to travel a road trip feeling lousy like this. I felt so grateful for my brother in law, working his tail off, driving truck, to provide this home for his family and for it be a way station for me and my family on our way to CA, especially for me when I was feeling ill.

After my soak in a hot tubful of water I felt 100% better. I also felt great knowing that God had helped me to know what to do for my body, without using drugs. So we finally got in the car to go and on the way out of St. George I discovered my iPod is missing. It is not in the pocket. I checked three times. It was not there. My oldest son checked as well and he can vouch for me, it was not there. Where could it be? We drove back to Sally’s and checked all around the bed where I slept and all through the sheets and the blanket. I went through all of my clothes in my suitcase and no luck.

I was very bummed. I was so looking forward to listetning to the “Our Island Story” chapters (a history of Great Britian for children) that I had downloaded at http://librivox.org We did have some boring hours. Nobody wanted to sing or play games and I discovered I should have packed more for my toddler. Through the miracle of technology though we did get to watch and listen to the video recording of my son’s oral exam for the Andau that was on my newly recovered camera, uploaded into his laptop and “auxed” to the car’s stereo system. I completely forgot about the three John Bytheway CDs that I had packed. I honestly feel sometimes that I am losing my mind with all these things I keep losing and forgetting. I am just so grateful that I haven’t yet left a child at a rest stop. 

Warning: never travel south on I-15 from Utah to CA on a Sunday afternoon or night. What was supposed to be a five hour trip turned out to be 9 hours! Everyone and their cat who live in so. CA must have been leaving Vegas to go back home. We had several traffic jams. There was also an accident and some other interesting scenes I won’t mention.

So we got here at 11 PM Sunday night. We were so grateful to devour the Polynesian chicken on rice, rolls, and salad, that my sister had fixed for the whole family. I did fix those granola bars like I blogged about and brought fruit but after nine hours we all wanted something that was a meal, not a snack. The next day I unpacked. We have this lovely apartment/villa that has a full kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a laundry. I wished for my iPod to help pass the time. I heard a voice in my head tell me to go check that inside pocket in my purse. I did and my iPod was right there! I swear it was not there on Sunday afternoon. I feel that there was some reason why our trip was supposed to be delayed by thirty minutes, maybe so we weren’t involved in that accident. So God had an angel take that iPod and then put the iPod back on Monday. I feel that we are barely conscious of all the ways God works in our lives to protect us.