Meres Flares

Happy New Year!

2012-01-08T18:53:00.001-08:00

New Years Eve was a blast. The most random, fun, and slightly reckless night that I have had in a while and I spent it with some high school besties, Tish, Amber and Dave. Our friend Jenna was doing a comedy set up at Wiseguys in SLC that was sold out, but we went up anyway and attempted to sweet talk our way in. Dave eventually walked in while we were battling it out with the manager and we couldn't walk in then because he was guarding the door. So mad we didn't get in-I would have paid a double ticket, but whatever. We got to see Jenna before her set though and give her a hug and tell her we did our best.
So we ended up going to Whole Foods for dinner on Dave's recommendation, "you feel so hip when you're in there." Okay! SO yummy, they have a big fresh salad bar and another bar with pasta dishes and different salads-all organic too! So healthy and SO hip!
Tish and Amber got these fruity drinks and after drinking 1/3 of it, Tish asked if there was alcohol in it, that she could taste it...What?! We looked and the fine print on the label said, "may contain hints of alcohol and nuts"...yikes. Well, I guess we had our alcohol for New Years! eek. :)
After a yummy organic dinner, we went over to Temple Square to see the lights. I haven't seen them yet this year, and they are still as amazing as ever. We saw couples getting their New Years kisses in early all over the place. :)
Love these girls!
At one point Dave linked his arms in ours as we were walking and just soaked up being out with 3 hot chicks for the evening. So funny! Dave is a hoot!
So gorgeous! We stuck our head in to the tabernacle and heard Thurl Bailey, Marvin Goldstein, and 2 other singers for a minute. We walked in while Thurl was singing "Cat's in the Cradle" Love it. Marvin played a super fun medley of "Fiddler on the Roof" tunes and the girl sang "Rain on my Parade" which was SO great! I loved it, but my friends were done before we started. So we took off after a couple of songs and walked around.
We decided to go south and find a party in Provo, but first we stopped in Cottonwood Heights at my friend Graden and his friends' party. Totally different kind of fun going on, they were playing a game together. So we jumped in and played for a little bit. I ended up sitting next to this super fun guy Andrew and laughing my way through the game and practicing my flirt. ;) He texted me later and I was very happy about it.
But my friends were done, so we took off and Dave said "I think there's a party at NOAHs", so we ended up at NOAHs at the...Chilean Association of Utah party. HA HA!
Of course we stayed...most random thing, but SO fun. Counted down en espanol and ripped up the dance floor with the Chileans. So funny!
In other news...I had a date this week with a guy named Tyler. We had a great Thai dinner at Simply Thai and just chatted. Naali-the owner of Simply Thai does catering for my work, so she came and chatted with us and gave us complimentary dessert-coconut ice cream and a mango rice thing that was SO divine.
It was fun, very intimate restaurant, Naali went around and talked with everyone and was a gracious hostess.
The date was great, good conversation, fun to get to know him. As we were walking out he said he had something for me in his car and he pulled out these...
WHAT?! Flowers for a first date? Who does that anymore? I loved it. My room smells SO good, and today they looked like this. SO gorge!

Phase 4: Christmas in Ohio...with all of the folks at home.

2012-01-02T17:15:00.000-08:00

I lost my camera on my flight from Ohio to SLC, and all my Ohio pictures with it. Luckily, I have some from Ren's camera, but it's not the same. Ren definitely doesn't take pictures like I do...of every move...;) But I have a few to remember my trip.
I arrived on Friday morning and spent the afternoon and evening catching up with everyone, hearing their piano skills, seeing their latest artwork and lego buildings. It was so good to catch up and see where everyone is at.
Friday night we went to Kirtland to the Creche exhibit where they have on display hundreds of creche, or nativity scenes from around the world. It was incredible. Nativity scenes made from banana leaves in Africa, to olive wood in Jerusalem, to crystal, ceramic, and wood.

Christmas Eve we had Ren's award-winning clam chowde' (really tasty, I even liked it) and did the nativity reading the script that Cathleen had prepared years ago and they pull out every year with the costumes. I was the angel thinking that I would have a lot of down time to take pictures and ooh and aww over the kids, but the angel in this script is pretty active.

Jaron was the best King Herod I've ever seen, complete with a fantastic death scene. Mairi was the sweetest Mary with her 'baby Ian' as the Christ child. Rowan was the donkey, Dallin was the stylish wise man and Ian was...the shepherd with his sheep (Fiona was the sheep). So fun!

Christmas morning was a blast! The kids scheme all year about what they give to each other, the result: creative gifts that everyone loves. They also take the time to open each gift, ooh and aww over it, try it on, talk about it and then move on. They hug each other for thanks and their eyes light up when their sibling tells them the cool features of their gift that is perfect for them. Lots of love in this home and it was a treat to be a part of!

Mairi's gift, a ruby necklace from Dallin. Ruby is her birthstone.

One of the best gifts...ninja costumes for Ian and Jaron, complete with split toe socks-for climbing walls...and wearing with flip flops?...:)

Leather gauntlets from Jaron to Rowan-to go with his medievil pants from Ian and cloak that he made years ago. Found them at a falconry shop online.

They surprised me with a laptop!

And a preying mantis shirt and "for love of insects" book for Ian. he also got specimens of scorpions in his Christmas jacket. He was SO happy. So fun to watch!

The Poons...

Rowan-16, just got his driving license and very elligible dating material. Not really in to dancing though, not even with me. Dallin-15...totally charming, considerate, thoughful and a real gentleman. Still rocks the piano and is in to running and eating healthy.

Ian-is still the bug man. Is brilliant with legos and knows just about everything about anything. And tucks his jeans in to his socks for extra style. Love it.

Jaron-is always doing something with his hands, he is brilliant at building things and cooking-who knew. He can whip up cookie batter like no big deal.

Mairi was my best girl friend...so fun to pal around with her painting nails and doing crafts. her brothers love and watch out for her. She is just a doll.

This trip was SO good. Great to catch up with everyone and see how well they are growing up and get some quality time with Ren. We had some great conversations, he straightened me out (j/k, I am always straight), we talked about dating and life, work and church.

On our way to the airport on Monday we stopped to see the Cleveland Clinic cause I wanted to see it. So he took me around, we saw the ICU, conference center, cancer wing, his office (yeah, he's legit!) and the pulmonology center/unit/wing. He was excited and I loved it! Way cool!

New York City...Thursday

2012-01-02T14:19:00.000-08:00

Thursday morning Bonnie and I hit the 6:30 am session. Hello and Good Morning! The temple is beautiful and absolute peace and quiet right when you walk in. It's amazing!
That's right! We're legit! you have no idea how happy I was to find this! This is one of the theaters that is part of the Juillard school. No big deal. Rose and I always knew we were meant for the theater! ;) Then I had to wait a few hours to text it to Rose because she was soaking up the sun on the west coast in Sunny San Diego. So fun to keep in touch via text pictures about our holiday trips on opposite coasts. I love technology!

Breakfast as La Bergamote, a french patisserie that was out of this world. So good! We'll start with some Hot Chocho...

Then we'll move on to eggs benedict with salmon and caviar...what? Who eats caviar for breakfast?

Then...Chinatown! With our very own escorts, Eric and Barbara. Naarah sat by Eric on the plane ride over and told her to call him if we go to Chinatown. Well, we took hom up on his offer and had a great time. After we walked through the fresh fish market and exchanged smiles with the lobsters and crabs...yeah, they smiled back...we stopped for some Dim Sum, Chinese tea time. Eric and Barbara ordered for us. People expect them to be fluent in Chinese, but they have been totally americanized and werent interested in Chinese when they were younger, so they get by, but just laugh about it.

and we tried chicken feet. Must be an acquired taste. Bonnie swallowed a toenail at one point...not the best.

Tradition is to do something creative with your tip. A fun tradition I think I will carry on... so fun!

After Dim Sum, we got some bubble tea and hot cakes! Bubble tea has little jelly balls in a fruity drink, mmm. And hot cakes are creme filled pastries, bite sized. Eric said they were determined to keep hot cakes $1, so with inflation they went from 20/$1 to 16/$1 to 8/$1...yummy.

I liked the bubble tea. Definitely asian sweet flavor. Not Naarah's favorite.

Rockefeller center. See that tiny skating rink? yeah, that's it! Ha ha. But so traditional. we ended up deciding that $40 for a half hour on the rink after 2 hours of waiting...not going to happen this trip. But we saw it and took a picture.

Bloomingdales...beautiful lights and fun perusing. The clothing is incredible...through the roof in both cost and style. :) So fun to walk through.

Dinner at Forty Carrots, ont he 7th floor of Bloomingdales. Fun little cafe. Naarah's quesadilla won and the carrot cake was pretty great!

and a little Mamma Mia to wrap up my New York trip...nothing like a litte ABBA to celebrate! We let the other cast perform that night, pretty sure! ;)

Love Broadway...I always knew I was a 'Dancing Queen'...

Good Bye New York...until next time.

New York City...Wednesday

2012-01-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

Wednesday started off with Starbucks and Central Park. Perfect. So fun to walk around, see the statues and hear a group singing under the tunnel by the water fountain. They were singing some Josh Groban style holiday songs...so great!
On the white bridge with the gorgeous skyline in the back.

Wednesday afternoon was WICKED! SO excited. I think all of our first time. Phenomenal show!

Cried three times in the first act. Normal behavior, right?

After Wicked, we went to the 911 memorial, which was one of my favorite highlights from the whole trip! The memorial is stunning! I was blown away with the design and layout of the whole thing. And it still feels tenderhearted on that ground. That we are still rebuilding and recovering as Americans. Very special place.

The names of people killed as well as rescuers are etched around the borders of both fountains. People can find the names of their loved ones and some had flowers tucked in their name. Very sweet and tender being there.

Afterwards, Bonnie had surprised me and Naarah with lobster tails and cannolis from Little Italy. OH MY, heaven on earth. The lobster tails were amazing, holy cream!

Window display at Macy's...by far the best, most creative ones. So cool!

And NY style pizza. Gotta do this at some point, we are in Manhattan.

Naarah and I finished up our night at the Empire State Building. Loved the trees and window displays in the lobby. Thought of Sleepless in Seattle multiple times.

At the top looking out on the city lights!

SO windy at the top. Naarah was holding on to her hat the whole time and at one point, my lips were blowing in the wind.

The fun window displays in the lobby.

New York City...Tuesday

2012-01-02T12:52:00.000-08:00

Narrah, our good friend flew in Monday night to spend the week with me and Bonnie, so Tuesday morning, we headed out to Fifth Ave to see how the other half lives...
Of course Tiffany's was the first place we stopped.
It was all decorated inside and just beautiful. We looked around at all the sparkly things...is it just me, or do the things at Tiffany's sparkle a lot more than at other places? I of course wandered over to the yellow diamond section and tried on a couple of engagement rings...$120k and $20K, which according to the sales lady was "a little more doable"...oh totally ;). yeah, right!

Bonnie got her souvenir, a lock and key silver necklace. Her first Tiffany's purchase, and probably not her last...;)

The window displays for Tiffany's were so fun, actually the window displays everywhere were great. So fun to be in NY during Christmas with all the decorations and holiday spirit.

I wore my red coat to not get lost and heaven knows I stuck out like a sore thumb amidst all the grey, blacks, and navy blues...particularly posing like this on the sidewalk. Hello NYC!

Bonnie and I met up Tania for lunch at Dos Caminos, a fantastic Mexican place. Butternut squash enchiladas with chicken, very good! So good to catch up with Tania and hear about her experience working and raising her family in NYC. Superwoman for sure!

She is so great!

After lunch with Tania, I met up with my friend Arly Crawford from my YW days. She is living in Manhattan with her husband Samuel. SO good to catch up with her. She is the same wonderful Arly!

Tuesday night was our girls night out on the town. New York City Ballet's The Nutcracker at the Lincoln Center. SO excited!!

Lincoln center at night. GOREGEOUS! It's a whole campus...in the most beautiful part of the city, close to the temple and Julliard school. Just so fun to be here and see it!

Inside the theater after the ballet, which was phenomenal, of course...cried multiple times. It was slightly different than the western versions, it being George Balanchine's version, which was WAY fun for me to see. I have studied about him, but seeing it on stage and recognizing his influence and style was so awesome!

and a fabulous Italian dinner at Tony's to wrap up the evening. Note: remember to make dinner reservations in NY, because even at 9 pm, there is an hour wait. Oh yeah, welcome to NY.

Best Caprese salad I've ever had. Ate it before I could take a picture of it. whoops.

Our entrees: pasta of the day with sausage and greens. And ravioli with LOTS of cheese. all six of our thumbs way way up.

Chocolate mousse for dessert. beautiful and delicious!

The aftermath...we basically licked our plate clean. SO good.

Yes. I heart NY.

Phase 3 of East Coast: New York City!...Monday

2012-01-02T12:18:00.000-08:00

Monday morning, bright and early at 5 am, Wendi dropped us off to catch our bus to NYC!

We both admitted that we could have packed a little lighter...;)

Egg mcmuffins and Hot Chocho and we were on our way to the Big Apple. I have not so much McDonalds in my life as I have these past couple of weeks. It was my go to meal for quick, easy, and cheap.

Our first taxi cab! Welcome to New York City! Like two little school girls.

The view from our 33rd floor apt in Midtown west.

The apt where we stayed. A bachelor's pad, but very comfortable, convenient, and great price! He was gone to Nashville for the week, so he rented out his apt to us. Found it online.

Is that really lettuce or cabbage growing on the streets of NYC?

My first appointment was at NYU to meet with some program directors there. So nervous, but both meetings turned out fabulous. I was surprised at how both directors were encouraging, open, gracious, and a lot of fun to talk with. I got a good feel for the programs and how I would fit there...for future reference. :)

My professional attire for my appointments at NYU and trapsing around New York City.

I met up with Maury Jackman and his son Asher for dinner. brother Jackman was in my singles ward bishopric with uncle Alan and I got to be good friends with him and his wife. His wife had a work meeting that she couldnt get out of at the last minute. But it was so good to catch up with Brother Jackman and their miraculous and divine transition from Orem to Manhattan.

12 Course Tasting at Casa Nonnas in DC

2012-01-02T10:07:00.001-08:00

One of the highlights in Washington DC was the 12 course tasting meal Bonnie and I had at Casa Nonna's. Bonnie's friend Jen is friends with Mark who is in the restaurant business in DC and hooked us up with this tasting as there was a cancellation. Perfect! We had no idea what we were getting ourselves in to. Wow. Ate things I never even knew were edible...come with me, I will show you. :)

We sat at the bar and watched the cook (lady in the blue apron) make everything in front of us. Just like we were on the front lines of "Chopped"...Bonnie's dream come true, she is a food network junkie.

First 4 courses (I was a little late, so had some catching up to do when I arrived)...

1. Tartar Di Tonno-Ahi Tuna Tartar, Red Beet, Crispy Beets (in the martini looking glass), basically raw tuna with lemon juice on it, the acid slightly cooks the fish. SO yummy.

2. Carpaccio "Testa"-Pig's Feet Carpaccio, Red Onion, Cornichon, Citrus (plate to right of tartar)

Not my favorite, but not bad

3. Polpo Alla Pignata-Baby Octopus in Terracotta, Potato Confit, Chile (far right)

Actually really good, I liked this one.

4. Midollo Al Forno-Roasted Bone Marrow, Parsley Salad (far left)

Not bad once I got over the idea of eating bone marrow (what?!), kind of a bland jelly spread on croutons, totally classy. The salad was really good.

Bonnie and me with our virgin drinks: Canteloupe Mint and Pomegranate Peach. Divine. The whole tasting was about the food, but also about the wine pairing, they brought out specific wines to go with each course and each with their own glass. Bonnie and I stuck with our sparkling water and finally after asking us all night, Adam our host asked about bringing us these fruity virgin drinks. For the first time, I really felt like the oddball not drinking the wine. Interesting.

5. Zuppa Alla Toscana-Cannellini Bean Soup, Rosemary Oil, Cracked Pepper (Not pictured)

6. Tagliolini Al Ricci Di Mare-Fine Egg Yok Pasta, Sea Urchin, Anchovy, served in the sea urchin shell (below). Good, needed a little salt for this one.

7. Casonsei-Crescent Shaped pasta of Spinach, Potato and Sausage...basically glorified ravioli. SUPER yummy, this was one of my favorites.

8. Risotto Della Chef-Risotto with Ubriacho Cheese. Really good, the cheese adds a strong flavor.

9. Merluzzo Al Forno-Wood Roasted Maine Cod, Roasted Cauliflower, Anchovy Sauce. REALLY yummy, this was also one of my favorites. The cauliflower, anchovy sauce was delish!

10. D'Anatra E Sedano Rapa-Cured Duck Breast, Crunchy tow of Celery (celery paste with potato chips. mmm.), Orange Duck Jus. My most favorite course. OH my, this was amazing. The duck was divine, so tender and flavorful combined with the potato chips and celery paste. Mmm.

11. Panna Cotta-Gorgonzola Dolce, Fig Vin Cotto, Fleur du Sel. A course of gorgonzola cheese...I smiled about this one. That's about as much gorgonzola cheese for one sitting as I can take. But very good.

12. Semifreddo Di Giandujia-Hazlenut Chocolate Semifreddo, Bacio Blanco Gelato. Um, this could have been A LOT bigger. Absolutely delish!

Mark, Jen, Adam (our host), Bonnie and Me after the meal. So Fun! A unique and memorable experience for sure!

Phase 2 of the East...Wendi and DC

2012-01-01T21:19:00.001-08:00

After teaching for a week, I went up to DC to see Wendi Maney and her family. Wendi and my sister Margaret were roommates in Ogden during their single days and have stayed good friends and consequently have become great family friends, so I was SO excited to visit her and play with her kids. They were so excited when I got there and had to tell me everything and I just soaked it all in. They are darling! Jordan, Spencer, and landon.

They had just gotten Butterscotch, their hampster, from Santa as an early Christmas via Scottie the Elf's report that they were being good. Scottie watches and reports to Santa on a daily basis.

Saturday we went to the national theater and saw a shortened version of The Nutcracker by a local company. Fun and Christmasy...the spirit is starting to catch on.

After the performance we went and saw the National Tree and all the state trees around. This is the Utah Tree, ornaments made by some local arts school in Utah. Fun national tradition.The White House. Next time I go, a tour is on the non-negotiable to do list.

Wendi, me and the kids. So fun to hang out with them. Landon is hilarious and no fear, not pictured here because he was running around somewhere.

National Tree with trains around it. So fun.

The new "King" memorial. The side of the momument has a quote about "out of the mountain shall come..." so he is slices out of the mountain in the background. Other quotes of his are etched in the semi-circle of stone in the back as well. Pretty cool and inspiring.

Saturday night Wendi and I had a ladies night out. We went to a free concert at the Kennedy center, a teeny-bopper rock and roll band, but they were actually pretty good and it was fun. Pretty funny juxtaposition of this rock and roll band playing in this grandiose classy building.

The inside of the Kennedy Center. Absolutely gorgeous! My first time and thoroughly impressed.

After the concert, we went over to National Harbor where...the PEEPS store is! All things PEEPS and more, Hot Tamales, Mike and Ike's...so fun! Totally thought of my sister Lisa who loves PEEPS.

Dinner at Elevate Burger...all organic and healthy...so no calories right? :) Very yummy!

Tree at National Harbor. The lights dance to music and change colors. Really beautiful place.

After church on Sunday at the 31-older singles ward (not quite my demographic yet), I walked around downtown DC and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. Here is the Capitol Bldg tree, imported from California. Washington DC and their trees...all these special trees from around the country. The ornaments were made from household items by kids in California including Shriners hospital to show how California 'shines', which was the theme of the tree this year. Kinda fun.

Sunday night I went to the temple to see Jenny Oaks Baker perform. SO great! And out walks Joyce Bennet with the rest of the group backing up Jenny. One song on the program was "What Child is This?" which is a duet with Jenny and an Indian Flutist. She found this guy through one of the museums specifically for this performance.

Her three daughters playing their version of "It's a Small World". INCREDIBLE. Ages 10, 8, 6...it was a medley with flavors of all the famous composers: Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, etc. Absolutely phenomenal and SO fun, they are incredible talented. The cellist (youngest) was pulling faces and being funny during the performance. So funny.

So great to see Joyce. She was fabulous.

Me and Bonn in DC! With the hint of the Capitol building in the back.

After dinner at Casa Nonnas (it's own separate post because it was so incredible), we went to this whiskey bar...first bar experience, whiskey 101 lesson included. I think I thought it would be more fun. All you do is sit around and talk about not so cool things and drink. Clubbing might be more of my scene, at least there is dancing there. ;)

Temple session with Bonnie. Gorgeous temple, inside is even better!

Bonnie wanted a diner meal on this trip, so we stopped at the first one we passed and had and amzing corn beef sandwich. Holy cow, it was yummy!

After lunch, the Holocaust museum. Wow! Special propaganda display with a tour guide and the rest of the museum, awesome. I got more of the full story and context of this event and filled in some gaps in my own perception of what happened. The sculpture of the crematory is still vivid in my mind, wow. Really cool. Thought of Curt and Riss multiple times. And Curt called me while I was in there. Totally on the same wavelength. I love it when that happens.

Washington Monument. my stable landmark while navigating DC.

Bonnie met up her friend David and I went to Georgetown for the evening. Just walked along the shops and enjoyed the town.

Found this fantastic hat at one of the boutiques. GREAT piece, but couldn't justify $150...shoot.

National Gallery of Art. Inside Art Gallery. Great works and fun to peruse...haven't been to an art gallery for a while.

A high school choir was performing in the rotunda, got me in the Christmas spirit, so fun to gather and sing along with them on some of the songs.

Pennsylvania Avenue. Where the Star Spangled Banner was first sung in public. Put my hand over my patriotic heart and smiled.

Met up with Sherwitt, Bonnie's friend from High School in Italy, and her friend Michelle. Fantastic girls, fun conversation!

Hello Lexington!

2012-01-01T18:58:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a trip to the east coast...Virginia, DC, New York, and Ohio. First stop: Lexington, VA to teach ballet for two weeks for my friend Chanel who was doing an internship in Europe working with some dancers and artists in Germany.
She called me this summer and asked, so I worked it out with my day job and before I knew it, I was on a plane to Dulles airport to meet Nancy Saylor, Lexington, and the students at Halestone Dance Studio.
I taught most of the ballet classes, ages ranged from 3rd grade to 18 and it was fantastic! The students, working with Nancy Saylor, and just being there was an experience I will always remember.
Picture above is the "dancer house" where Chanel lives and where I stayed. A woman in town donated this for Nancy's use for visiting artists, dancers, etc.

Brix is the tapas restaurant Nancy took me to when we arrived in town. We walk in and Nancy knows the chef and waitress...everybody knows everyone, gotta love the small town. :)

My luggage didn't arrive with me in Dulles because I had a short transfer. And to spare some hassle, I checked my carry-on, so I arrived with nothing but my ballet music and laptop. Nop problem, this is why we dancers take classes in improvisation, for situations like this.

The next day was Sunday, not prepared for fast sunday, so I stopped at McDonalds on my way to church in my jeans. Good thing it's not about what we wear...:)The picture above is the Halestone "Loft" where I taught all my classes. The studio is right through those double green doors and up the stairs.
Picture below is my feet from my ballet shoes after teaching for a few hours, wow, I actually miss my feet looking like this.

Nancy Saylor, director and owner of Halestone Dance, and female extraordinaire! This woman oozes grace, talent, and wonderfulness. So fun to work with her, observe her teaching, and see what she is creating with dance in the Lexington community.

The studios.

Nancy teaching the Ballet 1 class about alignment with a model of a spine. These girls are in 3rd grade and totally understand alignment and keeping their spine healthy-something I didn't learn til later in my dancing career. Nancy is a master teacher, it was phenomenal to observe her.

The main drag in town. One way streets and "No (right) turn on Red" signs everywhere. Charming town.

The Halestone "cottage" where Halestone Dance was started, now houses yoga and other dance conditioning classes.

The Loft is on Nelson and the Cottage is on Randolph. So this was my home base for two weeks.

Treated myself to the fine dining in town at the Red Hen. Butternut squash soup and the fish entree with gnocchi and radishes. Amazing and such a fun place.

On one of my last days in Lexington I got a reflexology session at the local reflexologist. Fantastic. The session was a glorified deep tissue massage on the feet, but it also came with a toe reading and a little bit of energy work. So cool. Never done reflexology before.

On fridays Nancy is involved with the "Moving Arts Initiative", which is a program she created to bring dance in to the public school. She works with the 6th graders at Lylburn Downing Middle School for 3 hours on Fridays doing movement and dance that is tied in with their language arts curriculum. Nancy teaches dance theory, puts together 20 minute productions, and involves them in journaling about the experience. It is incredible to watch her do this. This is all stuff we talk about in my classes, but seeing it is inspiring. Nancy donates her time and energy in to this for the sake of giving these kids the experience and building the reputation for dance in schools.

Imaginary tug o' war game, learning how to give the visual to the audience without an actual rope and work as a team. They also did DNA spiraling, lifting, dancing, and bunch of other creative stuff.

One of the valuable things for me on this trip was watching my growth as a teacher, with the small classes, I was pushed to focus on the individual students more and this was so good for me. Instead of overlaying a generic ballet class, I zeroed in on the students, focused on a couple of key principles for the two weeks, and taught them as individuals, connecting with them more one on one. I found it more satisfying for me and the students, and not as exhausting.

Ballet-ing :) I loved it.

2011-10-23T20:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, the day after Halloween, Bonnie and I took some dudes (Rich and Brett from work) to Ballet West's Dracula. Both of their first ballet experience and they did really well. :) The second act introduced the lead dancer and they put him in purple tights to stand out from the villagers who wore brown. The best line from the night...when the lead came on stage, Rich subtly comments, "Oh boy."And Brett just looked seriously concerned. Bonnie and I were in stitches trying to cover up our laughs during the performance.

Then at intermission when the guy gets the girl, Brett turns to us..."I think she chose him because of his pants. The other guys didn't stand a chance."

"But Brett, you looked so concerned when he came out."

"Well...did he know that he forgot his pants?"

Needless to say, the entertainment on and off the stage was phenomenal. Thanks for being such good sports about the Ballet guys! :)

p.s. the Ballet was GREAT...loved the costumes, the dancing, choreography, sets, loved it all. Of course...my first true love is Classical Ballet...I am kind of a sucker for it!
This is how much we loved the show! :)
And what Rich thought about it. :)
One of our spontaneous celebratory events at work this week was our "1st Year Anniversary of being in this building" party. We moved from American Fork to Lehi 1 year ago and we LOVE our new building...and we love to celebrate. So Heidi and I put a little something together, including an orange wedding cake...that had a little accident on the way from the bakery to the office. A little traffic and some brakeage...and shoot. the cake went into the seat.

We salvaged it, and it was yummy. No big deal. It added to the party. :)

Friday was my roomie Leah's birthday...26!! We decorated and greeted her with happy birthdays in the morning, then we went out on the town with a couple of her mission companions for the evening. Mama Chus for dinner...she got toquitos, her favorite.
And here is the groupie for dinner...mmm, it was yummy.
Then after dropping off her cute friend who was feeling sick...aka vomiting out the car door at every stop light from Provo to Orem. She got out of the car and we all agreed that this story will be great when we're all best friends. Ha ha.

Anyway, Coldstone for dessert...mmm. Bonnie and I shared Pumpkin Cheesecake ice cream with graham cracker crust and caramel. MMM.
And they loved their ice cream despite the eek faces...they weren't sure how they felt about the picture taking.
Saturday night I volunteered at the Ballet West GALA at The Grand America Hotel...LOVE that building. Oh my. I simply directed traffic and smiled at the guests. And then guided them to their tables in the ballroom. The event was AMAZING, and so fun!

And you can't see my earrings, but they were FANTASTIC...and my earlobes were down to my sides by the end of the night. But I looked great! :)

Catching up with High School friends and Momma

2011-10-09T17:18:00.001-07:00

This week was good, caught up with some significant people and worked a lot. Tuesday night I went to the temple and there were about 6 people receiving their endowment for the first time, so the session was a little extra tender and made me think of my first time...

After the session I felt like I needed to go visit my parents and indeed I did. My dad cooked us up some midnight scrambled eggs with zucchini, then went to bed and mom and I stayed up til 1:30 am just chatting and catching up. I learned some things that I never knew about my mom. She told me the story of when she was in 1st grade and she and her sisters were singing on television at 3:30 pm and school got out at 3:20 pm. Her sister Annette came to pick her up from her class to hurry off to sing, but even though my mom's row was sitting with their arms folded and quiet, they were not being excused by the teacher. My mom was anxious and needed to go, but was not being excused and did not want to disobey. Well, it came down to the wire and she just had to go...she was singing on television...so she finally got up and left without the teacher's permission. The next day she was kept in from recess and punished for it...such an injustice.

Anyway, fun stories like that came out of the woodwork and we caught up on everyone and everything inbetween. Love my momma.

I was of course dead at work the next day and ate my way through the work day with chocolate...not friendly to the waistline.

Then Wednesday night I met up with my best friend from High School, Tishna Campbell. We met up at Magleby's and had a great dinner and caught up for 3 hours. It was SO good and SO fun. I was pleasantly surprised at how real our conversation was. It was so refreshing. We have been doing our own things for the past couple of years with just a facebook message or birthday wish here and there, so it was fantastic to get in and see how she is really doing and she is doing fantastic! Here we are after a night of yummy food and conversation. Love this girl!

Thursday night I stayed late at work supervising the installation of a wall graphic for a "Core Value" that we were launching at work on Friday. I went to the gym to unravel and read another chapter in "Leading Through Conflict". I love what I do at work so much that sometimes I just want to keep working, but taking a break is really good in those moments. This was one of those. Anyway, I felt really good about the Core Value launch on Friday, I was in charge of setting everything up and I was pleased with how it went. I am getting better at the details!

Friday night I met up with Wayne, my high school crush, for dinner before we met up with Tish and other friends for hot chocolate. It was great to catch up with Wayne, his life and his family and the latest from the past 2 years. Then we met up with Tish, Dave and Allison for hot chocolate at Denny's rather than frozen yogurt because it was freezing out side. Did winter come overnight...pretty sure it did.

Anyway, Wayne and I got the last 2 hot chocolates they had. So I came in cold and left cold. But the conversation and get together made up for it. It was fun to catch up with everyone, but on the whole I wish we were a bit more real with each other. We brushed off and joked about our single station in life and I am the only one graduated out of the group, so they laughed about their still being in school. But...who cares. I am interested in knowing what's going on in their life, but I couldn't get past the jokes. I am much better one on one, but a little disappointed that i couldn't steer the conversation to be more meaningful.

I crave deep conversation...have you met me?...but my family and roommate are always telling me to just chill and go with the flow. Sigh. I know it doesn't have to be deep and intimate every second, but come on, just a little bit? It's been forever. I obviously have to work harder at surface conversation...still not my forte, but I am working on it. :)

On the whole it was fantastic to see these people. Still the same great individuals. I think it was only yesterday that we were going on Marching Band tours and giving high fives in the halls.

I think Dave was attempting the Thunderbird hand motion...no idea. We had to remind him what to do in pictures.

Here it is...The Thunderbird in all it's glory. :)

Dave was sporting the crocheted beanie...ha ha. His style choices sometimes crack me up because he is so not stylishly stuffy, he's just Dave.

He was practicing his romantic moves the whole night...of course all of them were accompanied by this kind of face or roaring laughter. He kept the whole evening light.

Then Tish and I crashed at my place with The Proposal and laughed like old times. We of course analyzed the dinner and talked through our thoughts. So fun.

Saturday I didn't get up til 11:30...so nice. Then I stayed in bed most of the day preparing my sunday school lesson, journaling, planning, pondering, and just being creative. Ah, I love those moments. I had all the time in the world to do what I love most and it was absolutely juicy.

I finally got up and hit the gym and then ran some errands.

I found some dynamite shoes for Rosey's wedding. Magenta/purple peep toe booties! Slightly more purple than magenta, but I think they will work fabulously. All I have left is deciding on accessories...you know, earrings, necklace, hair pin...I must decide what to wear. :)

Today I taught Sunday school for the first time as part of my calling and it went well. I procrastinated a little long, so I didn't get into knowing the scriptures as much as I would have liked. It was on Paul's epistle to the Hebrews and I got kind of jumbled when I was reading it. Anyway, the gist was that Paul was moving the church members from practicing the Law of Moses...to...the new and higher law of Faith on Jesus Christ. Part of my lesson was outlining the story of our faith...since Jesus is the "author and finisher of our faith". How our faith goes from belief....to...testing, hoping, trusting...to...knowing. Anyway, I could have involved more discussion, but I was so focused on setting the stage. Always learning about how to teach better.

And now I am looking forward to relaxing for the rest of the Sunday and reading more in this fantastic Leading Through Conflict book....I am really loving it!

Catching Up...

2011-10-02T18:19:00.001-07:00

Wow, it's been a while. I have just been so busy dating that my blogging has taken a back seat. ;) That's right. Dating. Who knew I would actually enjoy this and bump it up on the priority scale. :)

Anyway, a brief update on what's been going on...

Work: Still love my job at One on One. I feel that I am moving and growing to the next level, I have been zeroing in on my relationship with my boss, adding in a little more personal touch to the business talk so that it is enjoyable for both of us. I know, weird that I would struggle with bringing warmth and personality to a relationship, but I am hypersensitive to making efficient use of his time and our conversations...almost too much as I see, so I am coming back into better balance. I am currently planning our Christmas Party, preparing presentations and meeting agendas, and leading out on most of our giving back initiatives, we just finished a 7 day food drive and gathered 5086 lbs. of food, so great! Anyway, needless to say, I am learning a lot and growing tons which is my number one that is nonnegotiable in my work.

Love: My dating/social life has exploded and it's actually really fun. I have had a few girly get togethers with sisters in my ward and it has made the biggest difference in feeling that I am part of a ward family. My singles ward lacks a cohesion that I am so used to and it has been a big disappointment to be part of...and yet a blaring opportunity for me to create some, I know that's why I am in this ward and am working on stepping up to the plate in that regard.

I just got called to Sunday School Teaching (Hooray!) and released from VT supervisor, so I am excited to create some unity through that vein as well as continue my VT efforts, attend activities, and create some of my own to bring people together. I am a people person and Heavenly Father knows that. Shoot. It's time to step up. :)

Okay, so the juice on the dating scene. I have been working the online dating scene (eHarmony and Match.com) and thanks to my brilliant roommate Bonnie, who is a PRO at online dating, I have had a lot of success with meeting and going out with lots of different guys. It feels very much like kissing frogs at times, but on the whole, it has been a lot of fun. And I learn ALOT about who I am and who I am looking for. It's GREAT practice and it feels very much like a 'Dating Lab"...haven't found the ideal partner, but plenty that are willing to do a little experimenting ;)...to be continued...

Home Life: Still love my roommate Bonnie and we got another roommate, Leah, from Tennessee with no accent because as a vocal performance major, she worked with a diction coach to change it. She does still say "Y'all", so we can believe her that she is indeed from the South.

But life is good. Bonnie is the best roommate I could have ever asked for, one of the greatest blessings for me in my life right now. Not only has she shown me the ropes for online dating ;), but she is a great confidant and coach on professional performance, wardrobe, and other critical questions...:) Love this girl.

Church: I know I touched on my callings, but I just wanted to include an interesting experience. I finally found (well, her dad called our Bishop with her correct contact information) a sister that has been on my VT list since January. I stopped by and finally after a few months caught the current residents home with their dogs and they had no idea who I was looking for. It was like having a lost lamb and not knowing the first place to go look. It was frustrating and very cool at the same time to feel the stewardship and connection to this sister. I admit that I semi gave up until further notice. Then this past month I was handed my VT assignment and an updated phone and address was next to her name. Unbelievable joy and excitement rushed over me. I saw her that night and learned her story...and alls well that ends well. She is coming back to church after 3 years and expressed that "it's like Christmas!" Wow! Going to Sacrament Meeting is definitely not like Christmas for me every week...but talking with her freshened up my perspective for sure.

And that same day that I saw this sister coming back, I met with another sister who is leaving. No hard feelings, just pursuing another path with God right now. Super interesting to talk with her...and a great experience for me. Thank you Heavenly Father.

I am looking forward to Rosey's wedding at the end of this month to celebrate with everyone. Weddings are one of my favorite things in the world because it means time with the fam, and dancing the night away...what else is there? Honestly.

My Beard?

2011-09-14T12:19:00.000-07:00

In the middle of a conversation...I don't even remember what we were talking about...Bonnie tells me...

"Meredith, don't play with your beard while you're talking to me." I was touching (okay maybe pulling at) the peach fuzz on my neck. (see picture for reference)

Bah HA HA!! Tears from laughing so hard. It was one of those moments.

My response through the bursts of laughter...

"I think that's the most disgusting thing you've ever said to me"

P.S. Bonnie eventually apologized after we both recovered. She originally came in to tell me great job on the fabulous Burger Supreme lunch today...she really is a nice roommate. I promise.

Ezra's blessing and the start of Togetherness!

2011-07-10T19:58:00.001-07:00

Sunday was Ezra Carlton Clark's blessing and kind of the kick off event for our family togetherness for the 4th of July. Rose and I drove down from the cabin to make a 9 am sacrament meeting...so tired. Up til 2 am 2 nights in a row is not my typical schedule.

We walked in and sat down during the opening hymn and it was probably the most distracting/distracted hour...we were all so excited to be together that we are waving and making faces at each other through the whole meeting. Whoops. So happy to see everyone, couldn't help it.

Afterwards we met for pictures, then lunch at the Clarks.

Which way is the camera? Who knows, they are all looking in different directions.

Regardless...darling family, congratulations on #4 Jules and Carl!

Happy Mommy! Very proud aunties! He loves us!
BABIES!! All of...well most of the babies born in the last year. It was the year of the boys.

Our Curty. Love him.A noogie, really?

The Fab Five.

Crazy Cabining

2011-07-10T19:04:00.001-07:00

Rose and bunch of her friends, and friends of the friends, all went up to a cabin for the weekend and I went with her. It was a pretty hilarious weekend. After dinner on Friday, we played telephone pictionary. This one below won. hands down. The evolution...

Oh No! I have been buried alive...

Death on Turtle Mountain...

Pirates use turtles to climb the mountain...

I lost my eye while riding my pet turtle to top of Everest!

And this is was our weekend entertainment...BH!

We played Mumble Murder, a type of telephone charade game that is out of this world. To play, the group sends 3 people out of the room and picks a

person

place

method of death

then players act out each one and invite others to act out what they acted out and it just gets funnier as it is passed on.

The best one's though were Rachel's suggested place...

Sleeping Beauty's EYE... that's right, her eye.
And BH's suggested person...

VELOCORAPTOR TRAINER....

What? Hysterical.

So of course he was the one to act it out...he totally had this up his sleeve, rehearsed and all.

HA! Many weepy faces during his performance, we laughed so hard!

Here he is giving a demo of how to do the Velocoraptor snort...oh my.

Saturday morning we went on a hike behind the cabin. SO beautiful...and straight uphill. burning calves.

This is Andy Fitzell, one of the coolest guys there. His dad? Totally on West Side Story and a Broadway hit! What? Rose and I about died.

His dad was totally the model for Cinderella's prince, and that is what Andy looks like as well.

We each did our best GQ on the mountain.

Totally Gorge.
"...The hills are alive..."

All the ladies

Tai Chi on the mountain...what?

"I'm Assistant Buyer!..."

That night after our hike, we went in to Park City and rode the Alpine Slide.

No bar on the ski lift, I could have died...except being on the lift with 4 guys was not too shabby.

A little nervous, but excited to finally check this off my list...I have been wanting to ride the Alpine Slide for a while.

My friend Blake in my ward randomly showed up with his roommate on Saturday...a fun surprise!

Nothing was better than hanging out with my Rose.

Our group at dinner.

BBQ Pork and Steak for dinner at Bandit's...and entertainment with our straws while we waited!

Fun. Fun weekend.

Camille Neilsen is FINALLY expecting a baby!

2011-07-10T18:59:00.000-07:00

My friend Camille, who I danced with at UVU, is finally expecting baby #1, baby boy Canon. She has been wanting a baby for years and has tried everything under the sun. So happy for her!

Entrepreneur of the Year and Bonnie's 29th!

2011-07-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

Our boss was a finalist at Ernst and Young's Entrepreneuer of the Year 2011 and the awards ceremony is a black tie gala at the Salt Palace, aka a fantastic fancy event...needless to say, all of us girls going could talk of nothing else for that whole week...

What are you going to wear? What does your dress look like? How are you going to wear your hair?...You know, the typical girl talk around events like these. So fun!

Thank goodness for the multiple bathrooms at work, we slipped out a bit early, went upstairs and started the primping fest!

Yes Bonnie is putting on fake eyelashes, no big deal...that's what we do.

So much fun.. And we are ready. Watch out SLC...here we come!
Yes Bonnie is painting her toenails in the car on the way to the Salt Palace. She was wearing open toed shoes and her nails have got to look their best! :) "Just tell me when you start to put on the gas" she says.

Some of our team... Ow ow..

Super classy...best part about it...the dress got returned the following day. :)

More of our team and the table settings. They ddecorated with white calla lilies...super classy!

awww...we're so great.

The stage with 2 HUGE pots full of the white calla lilies on either side...love.

The ladies of the night

and we're HAPPY to be here!

I love how they got all the lilies to all bend perfectly towards center aisle.

...the party's over...it's time to call it a night....except...Bonnie's birthday was the day after next and she was going to be out of town, so I secretly had Rose and her friend Mel decorate our condo to surprise Bonnie when we arrived home...SURPRISE, Happy Birthday Bonnie! 29 great ones!

29 Reasons I love Bonnie...#25: She has a personal relationship with every cooking and food show on this planet.

#29: She is the perfect blend of everything WONDERFUL in this world and the Best Roommate EVER!

We celebrated in style with Cherry Cheesecake (Bonnie's Favorite), Martinelli's, and of course a Princess Pin! :)

29, Wow! 2 Questions...

Best of last year:

1. Became myself again

2. I found the best roommate EVER! (aww...she had to say that:))

3. LOTS of Growth

Looking forward to this year:
1. Running first marathon (October in DC...you go girl, I will be cheering at the finish line!)
2. Growing up

3. Learning to trust

Happy Birthday my dear Bonnie! You really are the best thing that has happened to me this year! Love you SO much!
And of course, the biggest thanks to Rose and Mel for blowing up balloons and hanging streamers at 10 pm at night...you are the best!

So happy to see my Rose...I get her for this whole week with the 4th of July and all the celebratory hoopla that comes with it...so excited!

Friday morning we treated Bonnie to Kneaders French Toast...mmm.

Actually Swathi treated both of us for breakfast. We love carpooling with Swathi. We actually just love Swathi all together.

This is Bonnie last night...an accurate reflection on how things are going with Adam

2011-06-23T11:09:00.001-07:00

This is called... high relationship drama....
welcome.

The winner is...

2011-06-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

2011-06-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

So after dress shopping Bonnie had a lengthy conversation with Adam and I answered some emails. Then we got back to gether to look at earring possibilites for Thursday's Gala.
We may or may not have been crying with laughter as we pulled out some of my great aunt's clip-on spanglies...
They looked great on Bonnie, so I clipped them on my ears...but... one kept slipping off due to the lack of spring in the clip.
So we naturally proceeded to imagine the conversations at the gala in the event that the earring starts to slip and fall off...
One thing led to another and pretty soon I ended up like this...

Dress Shopping for the GALA!

2011-06-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

This hair thing...

2011-06-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

So this fantastic girl that I work with, Heidi, only washes her hair every 2 weeks. And there is a group of women in her home town that only wash their hair once a month.
What?! How is this possible?
They actually train their hair to not produce oil...it's obviously a process, but they did it, so they don't need to wash their hair and it keeps their hairs healthy.
When their hair starts to get oily, they comb it a million times with a bristle brush, put it in a sumo bun on top of their hair with the ends tucked in, and in the morning their hair is not oily anymore. The oils somehow recirculate and...don't really know, but kind of cool.
SO I decided to try it.
I went almost a whole week without washing it and for a few days, I woke up and my hair was significantly less oily than the night before when brushing... pretty cool.
More to come on this.

Bonnie got Lasered!

2011-06-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

Bonnie got lasered on Wednesday! Skin lasered because she said she had some acne scarring on her forehead that she is not so happy about...don't really believe her, she looks great. But she did get a rockin deal on the laser treatment, so whatever...
She got it done Wednesday morning and I told her she HAD to come to powerstand for lunch because we were having a hoe down and launching our second core value.
She showed up with her red face...AND gave an announcement in front of the whole company, what a trooper. The CEO laughed when he saw her, but other than that it was great!

Core Value #2: Keep the Cattle Moving... everything turned out great!

random thoughts...

2011-06-19T20:20:00.001-07:00

Coming back from laying on the beach was definitely like jumping into a cold pool after being in the jacuzzi-a nice refreshing slap in the face to every cell in the bod.
Wednesday was powerstand and I decided to mix things up and serve cold cereal. It was a total smash hit! Everyone loved it, we had tons, and it came in under the budge. Brilliant. Eventually this table of guys just carried bags of cereal and a gallon of milk to their table to cut down on time going back to the serving area multiple times. You know, we are efficient at One on One.

In addition to shopping for cold cereal at Costco Tuesday night, I was thinking about what I would share if I was ever asked to share what "Throw Your Hat Over the Wall" meant to me. This was the first Core Value that we launch as a company a few weeks ago and I got to be part of the process and watch it come to fruition.

My favorite part of the "Throw Your Hat Over the Wall" story is the end when it says (after the one traveler had thrown his hat over the wall) "and they had no choice but to continue". An experience in my life when I threw my hat over the wall was when I went to China. I bought my $2200 Opening Ceremonies ticket for the Beijing Olympics, essentially throwing my hat over the wall, I had no choice but to continue and successfully get to China. Everything fell in to place and I made it China only to discover that my ticket was fake. I was devastated, I wanted my hat back. However, I learned that the process of getting over the wall was more important than getting my hat back.

Also this week, we had a competition for most creative title, mine was Meredith "Ashton Blvd, as in driving down the" Because our office borders Ashton Blvd so I get questions all the time about if that street was named after me, to which I affirm that it most definitely was.

Sunday was baby Jonathan's blessing. It was so fun to go to church with all my family-I mean we stayed for the whole block, so Sunday School and Relief Society with everyone was such a treat. Then we all gathered at Christina and Sean's for potato bar and yummy other stuff.

After the gathering, Pete and I headed down for our "YSA Stake Reorganization". No changes for me in my ward, but we are a YSA stake now! We had a All-Star line-up...Jule Beck ( I went up and met her), Jay Jensen, Von Keetch (previous stake pres-love him), Steven Snow...wow, they really do care about the YSA of the church. I mean I knew that, but they sent their best to handle this stake conference and I was impressed.

Who Wore it Best?

2011-06-19T20:09:00.001-07:00

Great minds think alike...2nd day Bryn and I have sported our violet Shade dresses on the same day

Seussical Thank You and a Dread Party...what?!

2011-06-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

Friday night before I went over for Pete's ordination, Joe Pa and his girls Rebecca and Amanda came by to thank me for the tickets to "Suessical the Musical" at the Hale Center Theater that I gave to them, they had gone to see it the night before. Oh my, these girls are the most darling things ever! They brought me the greatest thank you notes, complete with pictures expressing their love for "Dr. Suce".

Dear Meredith,

Sucdicul the masicl was awesome.

They sang a bunch of songs.

I loved it. (picture of Cat in the Hat's hat)

Love, Rebecca

(Other side in all different colors)
Thanks

Thanks

Thanks
I Love Dr. Suce!

p.s. Did you get the program?

Dear Meredith

I Love Dr. Seuss

Thank you for inviting me to the play. (Big Heart)

(other side)

Picture of Horton sitting on Mazy's egg and holding the bud with the Who's on it in the storm.

Love it so much! Thanks Joe Pa and Shauntell for raising such brilliant girls!

After the visit and thank you hugs, I went over for Peter's ordination to the Melchizedek Priesthood in preparation for his mission to Bangalore, India-so excited!! It was awesome! Pete shared his testimony, Dad shared his thoughts on ordaining and giving the blessing, Stu piped in about some mission experiences when he used the priesthood, and Mom and I chimed in with our 2 cents. The main thought that was brought up was that the priesthood is used for service, we cannot lay our hands on our own head, they are to be used to bless others.

Afterward I took Pete and Stu out to Kneaders, undivided attention and time with my brothers over good good food, doesn't get better than that. It is one of Stu's favorite places, so I really had to talk him arm into coming, spending time with me was the biggest draw. :)

After a yummy dinner, I went to my friend Eve's "Dread Party", she is putting dreads in her hair. I know, right? I put in 5 or 6 dreads during the hour that I was there. Super involved process and not as unsanitary or repulsive as I imagined.

This is what visiting teaching is all about right? responding to whatever needs they have, even back combing small groups of hair for an hour on Friday evening. Definitely a "Dear Diary" or as in this case, on the blog.
I did these 6 dreads...in the hour that I was there.

Don't really know what's going on back there...

She is committed for a whole year of dreads.

The things money can and cannot buy...

2011-06-12T11:59:00.001-07:00

This week I felt the pendulum swing baaaaack and foooooooorrrrrth

Monday I felt like my life was falling apart, like I didn't have anything together, then by Wednesday and after this weekend, I feel like I put most of it back together. Weird.

My goals this week were to complete at least these 3 things after work each day:

Read Scriptures

Exercise

Going to bed early

I was 2 for 3 every day, some combination of the above.

Monday night I surprised Andrea Rose for her birthday, I took her a balloon and some cake bites that I made. Her kids LOVED the balloon and she loved the cake bites.

It was SO good to see her. She just moved back from Madison, WI and started back at UVU to finish her dance degree. She is one of the dearest persons on this planet-totally one of my kindred spirits.

Tuesday I had lunch with Brother Bartholomew, finally. We have both cancelled on each other before, but we made it happen. It was great to catch up with him, fill him in on my life, and get his perspective on online dating... he is totally a fan. So by the end of the conversation I was open to giving it a go. More to come on that for sure.

Wednesday I scheduled a life coach session with Joe Pa (his dream is to be a part time life coach), he is a fantastic communicator, great friend, and knows me really well. We had a good chat and I am currently working on outlining everything on my plate-doing and not doing-and then will prioritize and start to build a routine to make sure I am doing the things I need to do to take care of myself, which is what has been missing recently (hence the meltdown on Monday).

Friday I surprised Mom and snatched her away for some 1on1 time. We met up at Ellis Rasmussen's funeral viewing, (wow, what a legacy) and we went to a few of the Parade of Homes and ooh and ahhed about everything. On our way home we saw that the Orem Summerfest festivities were still going on, so we stopped for a gourmet quesadilla at Paco's, JC's booth at the fair! So fun to see him in action, meet the 5-6 ft grill and see the whole show. Fantastic quesadilla's, good job JC!

Saturday I committed to 7 miles in training for the half-marathon and I made it... with lots of walking inbetween.

After that I spent the rest of the day cleaning, doing laundry, and catching up. It was SO nice! Some serious Mere time and it was great!

Saturday night I went with Mom to Lisa Flanagan's wedding. I know! She is old enough to get married...We watched her grow up around the corner and she has turned out beautiful and great. Her wedding was totally vintage style with the decor, her ruffly dress and bird cage veil... it was at Somewhere Inn Time, totally great.

Then Mom and I sped up to catch the Bath and Body Works sale and caught another Parade of Homes home on the way back. $1,000,000,000 and totally Cape Cod, east coast, vintage style. Old fashioned bathtub, mosaic tiling, dusty 40's colors and furniture and a fantastic sewing room. Very cool. Mom loved it.

The things money can buy...

Let's get DIRTY!

2011-06-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday I ran the Dirty Dash with some coworkers... hilarious 5K race in mud with obstacles.
Our team (before)... "The Team Formerly Known as Prince" (we have the Prince symbol on our wife beaters)

Best Roommate EVER!
The girls...Rachel, Krista, Bonnie, Mere...totally ready for this...we are clean.
The final hill with huge sprinklers and a giant water slide!

After crossing the finish line...so dirty. It's pretty impossible not to look like this after finishing the race.

After the race, people can chuck their muddy shoes onto the pile for donation. 2 HUGE piles of crazy dirty shoes. Total roommate bonding moment!

the COLD showers. Pretty sure I got frostbite all over my body in 10 seconds under this stream. I barely could stay in long enough to get all the dirt out. Bare minimum cleanliness here.

Bonnie's resourceful plastic bag shower cap to protect her helmet on the ride.

So cute.

After the race at Soldier Hollow, we stopped at Granny's for lunch. Best raspberry shakes on the planet! And yummy burgers too!

Our poor washing machine. We washed our clothes 3 times to get the dirt out.

I washed clothes the following week and there were still hints of dirt on some loads....note to self: DO NOT WASH...Throw the dirty dash clothes away! Monday evening I surprised my friend Andrea Rose with a visit for her birthday.

Her darling girl Eva Joy!

Andrea and Eva. Eva loved the balloon I brought

By bestie Andrea!! Love this one.

She just moved back from Wisconsin and recently started back to school to finish her dance degree. We picked up where we left off and all is well, she is back in Utah. Hooray!

San Diego or Bust!

2011-06-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

This whole week I was counting down the days to my San Diego trip to see Rose, meet Mickey, and remind the beach how much she loves me. Bonnie and are spending our Memorial Day weekend out there and I couldn't be happier!

This week at work we had some visitors in from one of our sister companies in Michigan, Tony and team. Oh my, these 4 guys were like angels... they were incredible! They are the directors of training and development, so they came to visit One on One and give us some leadership strategies and insight. They were the most gracious, easy going, down to earth, real guys with every intention to assist us be better people...I was so impressed.

Anyway, so my head was swimming with all this information from them and it took me a while to set it on the shelf and presence myself in San Diego because I had all these ideas about my own personal growth and if you know me at all, you know that I could sit and digest information and think about my personal growth and development til the cows come home. So it was really good for me to totally switch gears, let the information mull over in my subconscious, and revisit it later with fresh eyes.

So I said my good-byes to them and headed off to catch our evening flight, so happy! Bonnie and I stopped at Zupas for dinner and then headed to the airport with plenty of time, yes I am traveling with Bonnie, we had plenty of time. :)

I am so happy to get to spend a whole weekend with her. She started dating Adam shortly after I moved in, so I miss my Bonnie and Mere time, not that I don't get any anymore, we do plenty of late night chatting... There is just more sharing going on here with Adam in the mix.

Which... I am happy to say that I like Adam. ALOT. It wouldn't work if I didn't...

Okay, so we arrive in San Diego and I see palm trees...ah... (sigh)... hooray, I am on vacation

PALM TREES=VACATION

We got settled quickly on Thursday in preparation for Friday....

DISNEYLAND!

My first time...well, I went years ago with Bobby's special needs class and I was a chaperone. We flew through the night, half the rides were closed, we wore these mustard yellow t-shirts and it was a horrendous experience... SO... with a fresh new start and no expectations we drove to the Happiest Place on Earth!! Best thing ever!

AND I went with the Disneyland Expert, aka: Rose. (she had everything planned out to a T. We didn't miss ANYTHING)

Brief recap...

1st (and last) ride: Matterhorn (love)
Soarin' (LOVE)
Space Mountain (fav)
Splash Mountain (Front of the boat for sure! Rose and I reminisced about orange peels for bookmarks and elbowing Dad to stay awake while he read us Brer Rabbit stories...ah. the best days)
Small World (almost cried...actually did a little)
Indiana Jones (WOW-amazing work)
Talking time with Crush-love love... we sent birthday wishes to Stu from us and Crush
Animated Studios: I am most like Nala
Tower of Terror (with Bonnie...most hysterical ride ever with her, because she doesn't scream, she laughs. Oh my, funnest thing ever!
of course all the other rides...Mr. Toad, Peter Pan, etc...

And of course we had pineapple whip and a churro along the way and great sandwiches that Rose had so thoughtfully packed (she was the best hostess in the world-the best thing that has ever happened to me) AND saw all the shows...(Rose had these all timed and calculated so we could see everything-totally great!)

Billy Hill and the Hillbillies...hysterical!
Fantasmic-Mickey is my hero!
Fireworks behind the castle-Tinkerbell and Dumbo both fly over triumphantly, Yay!!
World of Color...WOW! AMAZING! totally awesome!

Dear Disneyland,

It was great to meet you, I am glad I now have an accurate impression of you after our first meeting when you were a bit out of commission. You are the best thing ever! Mickey is my hero and Walt is at the top of my list.

Thank you for making me the happiest today and for taking care of my sister Rose for this past year and a half, you were there for her when she needed a good friend she could count on!

I promise that I will come back and see you soon. I really want to come see you for Christmas when you are all decorated.

Love, Mere

Saturday we went to the temple, ran 6 miles down the boardwalk, drank in the salty sea air for a moment before we were off to clean up, dress up, and go out on the town!

We put on our skinnies and spanglies and stepped out as the three sexiest ladies in San Diego. We went to Buon Appetito for dinner. I got the pesto smothered Salmon... oh my! yum.

We walked around Little Italy, took some pics...okay, lots of pics. (which, I lost on my way home...technical difficulties on the download, so sad)

We stopped off at Extraordinary desserts, of course, before we were on our way home to do masks and manis/pedis and watch Ever After...total girl night. love it.

We devoured our desserts. My favorites were the neopolitan that Rose got, the chocolate mousse layered divine whatever it was, and the white chocolate mousse layered cake thing that I got.

MMM.

Sunday we went to church with Rose. She is doing amazing things in her calling right now. Many girls have come back to church, they trust her, she is their friend, their faith is getting stronger...she is incredible and it was even more amazing to see her in action.

Mom asked me what the best part of my trip was and I responded, "seeing Rose in such a great place in her life in all areas." She seriously is rockin' it in everything right now and it was so great to see. She is doing great things!

We finally got to chat about our lives and have a little sister bonding time on a little ride down to the beach and back on her cruisers. Second favorite part of the trip.

When we got back, we were on a mission to convert Bonnie to old movies, so we showed her Singin' in the Rain and she said that she liked it. A little. Hooray! It's a work in progress :)

Monday we did a 3 mile run before we packed up and went to the beach for the most glorious sunny day! We stopped at Broken Yolk Cafe for breakfast on the way. Oh my! I had the eggs benedict california style (with turkey and avocado)....my mouth is watering just thinking about them... best thing ever! I dreamt about that meal all day. First time having eggs benedict and it was fantastic!

We laid around on the beach for the rest of the day...heard that it was snowing in Utah. Life is rough when you're on the beach to get the news...

I read "The Millionaire Next Door", in preparation for the mighty wealth that is coming my way, I decided that I am going to be a wealthy philanthropist. But it says I have to budget and be frugal to get there. Shoot.

Our last thing was a stop at Yogurtland, a must for the visit. Red Velvet yogurt, hello! So good to meet you.

I bought a Cali hat on our way out...50% off! And Rose found a GREAT formal tea party hat. Yes, we are bringing back the Sunday hat.

We headed to the airport and said our good-byes and I wished I could just somehow miss my flight.

It was a dreamy weekend, everything was perfect! But the best thing was time with two of my favorite people in the whole world!

weekend of fun!

2011-05-22T20:00:00.001-07:00

Best part of the evening...
My parents are in Washington for my niece Kate's baptism yesterday, so I took all the kids to Peter's seminary graduation tonight. We sat down at 5:50 and I wrestled with Joy for the next hour and 10 minutes til it was over. However, I looked over during the closing song and Kim is sitting holding the hymn book right in front of her face with one hand and just singing along joyfully. Cracks me up because Kim is blind, but she has a very keen sense (sometimes) of appropriate things that typical people do. I started laughing under my breath and she immediately looked over and in a loud whisper,
"What's so funny? What are you laughing at?"
How could she hear me? I was just smiling really big and laughing softly...
She is just right with it sometimes, and when she is, it's hilarious.

It made the crazy church day with the fam all worth it.

Ah, this week was a good one. A roller coaster kind of week with some lows and highs.
Monday was kind of a downer day at work. I had not followed through with booking some flights and I realized Monday morning that I had missed my window of opportunity-the flights had trippled the cost. Yikes. I was upset, my boss was upset and it just dampered my whole day.

Well, last weekend, we had a life mastery training up at the Impact Training Center and it was all about DNA. We had this fantastic guy come and share his research about DNA. He studied at Johns Hopkins and became a critical care specialist and pulmonologist-Ren, just like you- and then was interested in the spiritual implications of his research, so he gave a great perspective on the relationship between the physical and spiritual aspects of DNA and it was fascinating!

I missed blogging last week and now I know why I blog every week, because I can't remember what I did more than a week ago.

Anyway, back to this week. I made my half marathon training plan with Joe, so I ran 3.5 miles on Tues and then 5 miles on Saturday.

It rained all day everyday this week pretty much, so our plans to go play kickball with Lehi Elementary on Friday got cancelled-I was so relieved, because I haven't quite put all the details together. We will go this week on Thursday. Dear Weather, be good to us.
Friday was a funny day. First thing in the morning I was putting all the Costco things away around the office and Bonnie walks past me and urgently tells me
"I need to meet with you. Right now. In the Spring Training Room."
"umm...can I come see you when I am done putting this away? What am I going to do with this cart full of stuff?"
I followed her in to the Spring Training Room and she turns around...
"I wripped my pants!"
"Ah (gasp) HA HA HA!"
Straight across from the very top of her inseam/crotch area to halfway under the pocket, sure enough, the biggest wrip I have ever seen. HA!
"How in the world did you do that?"
B: "I was getting down to do push ups because I broke a rule." (overeaters club rules-she ate dessert and didn't work out)
"What am I going to do?"
"Well, your flowy cardigan that you're wearing mostly covers it up, I think you'll be okay."
Consequently, my daily task whenever I saw Bonnie was to make sure that everything was okay on the backside.

Friday we hosted a networking event for the Womens Tech Council and I was the hostess and contact. It was geared towards women in the work place and part of the panel discussion was about how women show up in the corporate world and what expectations accompany them. Super interesting. Anyway, it was really fun and I found out that I knew the co-founder, I danced with her younger sister at Rocky Mtn Ballet years ago. Small world.
I was really pleased with how the event turned out and I felt like it got me back on track. Since Monday I felt a little off with work, just not put together and on the ball like usual, but I reclaimed my on-top-of-it-ness with this event and am ready to go again.

Friday night Bonnie and I hosted a dinner party with Joe Pa, his wife Shauntell and baby Jaden, Adam, and my friend Terrell came. It was a blast! I met Terrell through Graden on Conference weekend. He is this big, tall, hilarious, teddy bear-type black guy. We saw each other at JCWs a few weeks ago and he texted Graden,
"I just saw Meredith at JCWs, she is pretty attractive"
yes, this made my day and I anticipated that he would call, but never did. So I facebooked him and invited over for this dinner party. He brought up the text message and expressed how embarassed he was that Graden forwarded it on to me. He thought I would be repulsed by it, so he didn't do anything. But I assured him that it made my day and that any girl would love to hear that. Anyway, we had tacos and then went over to Yogurt Bliss for some YUMMY Fro Yo. Mmmmm...Fun time.
It was interesting being on a quazi-date. It was a little uncomfortable, I think for a couple reasons, 1-I haven't been on a date for a while, so just out of practice, and 2-A couple weeks ago, I kind of gave men the boot when I was fed up with them and I realize now that I closed a door in my heart. I go back and forth: Career, Marriage & Family, Career, Marriage & Family... Ideally I want it all and I know I will in due time. But for now, it is a balancing act of progressing on both paths.
So all weekend, I have been praying for a soft heart and courage to open the door to dating and marriage and move forward with faith, trust, and willingness to turn up the flirt.

Saturday I spent the morning at our old building programming key cards-to no avail. That security system is the bain of my existence, sigh, 2.5 hours with no success even though everything was programmed correctly.
Anyway, I quickly forgot the frustration as I headed out to play golf-for the first time of my life! I met up with JC and Taylor from work and Taylor's 9 yr old son (first time too).
Super Fun! Loved the game, we only played 9 holes, which was perfect, it was a gorgeous day... and I was with a pretty cute boy. It all made for a great afternoon, afterwards, I met up with JC and his parents and sister at JCWs for a bite, which was fun.
It was such a gorgeous day, that I didn't want to go inside, so I just crashed for an hour in my car. Took a nap that is, no auto accident...
Then I did my 5 mile run. The last 2 miles were the easiest. I put my ipod on shuffle and just started running. All of a sudden, I was running to
"If you choose the very first step on the road, you'll also choose the last..."
Yes, it is my turn on earth. Ha!

Saturday night I went and hung out with the fam, put the kids to bed and just crashed-so tired from all the sun.
Mmm... but I am ready for summer.

This was my Tuesday...

2011-05-10T20:37:00.000-07:00

Mostly rested from a good night's sleep I awoke with anticipation to slip into my fantastic white blazer with my black skinnies and pumps and straighten my hair in the "can't go wrong" style, and head to work on time and on the ball.

All of the above happened as planned except for I almost went to work with 2 different shoes on. I tried on my black pumps and taupe pumps to compare and ask for feedback and in an effort to get out the door I forgot to change my shoe. After I put myself completely together and Bonnie left with a short " I'll see ya there." I walked confidently out to my car.

eh.

wait.

OH SHOOT. Really?

I parked in the handicap stall last night as I occasionally have before and as everyone else does and was the result of the random tow patrol.

Oh shoot.

ringing Bonnie.

Mere: "Hiiiii. Can you come pick me up?"

Bonnie: "Why?" kind of pet-peeved.

Mere: "Because my car's not where I parked it. "

Bonnie: "Well, are you sure it's not where you parked it, do you know where you parked it?"

Mere: "Yeah. I parked in the handicap stall."

Bonnie: "Oh. Okay, well you're car's not there because it got TOWED because you parked in the handicap stall. "

Mere: "Yeah."

Bonnie: "Well, I just picked up Swathi, so I will come pick you up. "

Mere: "okay, thanks."

Mere starts hiking to the entrance, in matching shoes of course, as Bonnie pulls in and stops.

She was sympathetic at this point. Or trying to be.

Bonnie: "shoot, sorry about your car" (inside she is thinking: Mere, not the smartest decision in the world. She was definitely pet-peeved at this point, but trying to hide it, and doing a good job.)

Mere: "Thanks for coming to pick me up."

Bonnie: "You know the tow truck's going to be over $100, right?!"

Don't worry, she's not heartless.

Mere: "Yeah, I know. Do you know who I can call about this?"

Bonnie: "I don't know. I don't have the HOA number in my phone. It's on my bill at home, but by the time we go home to get it, the HOA will probably not be answering their phones. Let's google it when we get to work. "

Mere: "hmm... would Naarah have it?"

Bonnie: "yeah. do you have her number?"

Mere: "Yeah. I'll text her. "

So, business as usual. Bonnie doesn't stop by like she usually does, which means meetings, meetings, and more meetings, which equals stress, over-extraversion, which equals grumpy assertiveness and orneryness, which she does a good job at hiding.

Five O-Clock rolls around.

**Bonnie's Disclaimer: "I had an extremely intense day. And it's five o-clock."

Walking down the corridor...

Bonnie: "so where's your car at?"

Mere: "oh, it's in South Provo, East Bay"

Bonnie looks at Mere with a 'you have GOT to be kidding me' and rolls her eyes.

Mere: "I know."

Bonnie: "Well! My run is totally shot today, and I 'm feeling fat, and I am muffin-topping in these pants, and tell me how much you love me and maybe I'll drive you down to South Provo."

Mere: "Wait. Aren't you supposed to tell me how much you love me and that you will drive me down to Provo?"

Bonnie ignores the question

Mere: "well, maybe I could get someone from my family to drive me down."

Bonnie: "No, I'll just drive you down, but we have leave RIGHT NOW, I have an appt at 6:30 and in order to make it to that, 20 minutes down, 20 minutes up, we got leave to leave right now because then I have the dinner with Naarah at seven, and I really hope they're on time with this interview thing."

Mere: "Okay, well I guess I'll go pickup my car and drive back here to finish my work for the day"

Bonnie: "okay, well what do you have to do?"

Mere: "I have to deposit these checks, the rest can wait for tomorrow"

Bonnie: "okay, well, how long is it going to take?"

Mere: "it usually takes me 6 minutes."

Bonnie: "Okay well, just do it now. I can wait 6 minutes" Bonnie calmly walks away (as she usually does when she is done with a conversation-she's an ISTJ)

Mere: "okay, i'll come get you when I'm done" (Meredith longingly and lovingly calls down the hall. She's an ENFP)

Mere. Shows up at Bonnie's desk in 6 minutes. She is finishing an impromptu meeting with Brett Beers, which she HATES impromptu meetings (because she's an ISTJ), and is laser point focused on her screen.

Bonnie: "Okay, I just got to send this email. "

Mere: sigh. relaxes in the chair and lets her legs fall open totally unladylike. But only for a moment until she hops up to finish one thing for her boss before Bonnie is ready to go.

We drive down to the tow shop. I hop out and walk across the gravel in my pumps and blazer to meet two 16 yr olds in their tow truck with their cigarettes waiting to collect my money. Borderline humiliating and totally merciless.

2011-05-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

This week was a really good week. I cam back refreshed and ready to go from the weekend and grateful to be back at work. I rocked my outfit on Monday and walked cpnfidently through the office having let go of any expectations of boys paying attention and just got down to business. The result: the cute boys were extra friendly and flirtatious. What?! The less energy I put in to impressing them and drawing them in, the more they come around. What is this?
I am learning to balance putting my pharemones out there while simultaneously moving on with living my life.
Monday out of the blue, my buddy Mark sticks his head in my office and asks,
"When we went to Zuckerberg, you said you were thinking about grad school, are you still thinking about it?"
"eh...uh...(I am in the middle of a phone call and hotel negotiation-they are on hold)...uh, can I talk to you later?"
"It's a simple yes or no question"
"eh...uh... can I come talk to you later and give you the update?"
"Well, what's the update?"
Totally flustered a this point because my boss is listening to the whole conversation.
Mark smiles, laughs, and finally leaves.

Through the wall, my boss comments
"Wow, it's hard when you are asked tough questions in front of your boss."
Wow is right. Holy Cow. Totally caught off guard. The cat was let out of the bag and my hands were totally tied-well, my tongue was totally tied. I have only been thinking about grad school, so I haven't brought it up to my boss at all at this point. Well... thanks for blowing that out of the water.

Monday I signed up for the Hobble Creek Half-Marathon with Bonnie, Adam, and Joe! Wahoo! This was one of my New Year's goals, to run a half-marathon. This week I am making a training schedule. Can't wait. Okay, I can.
Monday after work, Bonnie and I went for a run along the canal. Beautiful run, except the most uncomfortable run of my life. About 3/4 mile in, I suddenly need to go to the bathroom, the kind that I would NEED toilet paper for. It was urgent and uncomfortable, talk about pelvic floor strengthening. Oh boy, it was funny to laugh about with Bonnie, but only for 5 seconds, then it just hurt and all I could do was keep running. We made it back to the car and after driving for a couple minutes, the sensation subsided and I was just fine.

Anyway...a little TMI, but I will want to look back at my blog and remember priceless moments like this.

Monday night I went to a late night Yoga class that absolutely burned my muscles off my bones. When I got home I went and started chatting with Bonnie on her bed in a dark room, we recapped the day and just kept chatting. She graciously instructed me on sex 101-505. It was more comfortable in the dark so she couldn't see how often I blushed. Thank you Bonnie.
Afterwards, we were both hungry for a snack. mmmm... crackers with cottage cheese. Whent he cottage cheese was gone, we ate almost a whole block of cream cheese (with crackers and salsa)...oopsy. It was delish, especially at 12:30 am.

Tuesday evening after work I went to the Mexican Market and bought some Horchata mix in preparation for our "Quatro de Mayo" powerstand at workie the next day. Then I met up with my dear friend Raven Alard at Magleby's for dinner. We had their steak smothered in mushroom sauce and their chicken pesto pasta, mmm... and their breadsticks....mmm...
We waddled out of there and drove around to continue our fantastic conversation. She is a girl after my own heart, very confident, doing amazing things with her life, and loving all of it. Except she has an extra spicy bite to her that I just love! It's the edge of confidence in the face of not knowing what to do that I am working on acquiring and that I admire so much in my friends that already have it-like Raven. What a gem! It was a great evening, and she translated the Horchata instructions for me since I don't ablo espanol.

Wednesday I pulled out my yellow dress and prepared eagerly for our Powerstand meeting. I mixed up the Horchata and set out the Jarritos and Chipotle did the rest. It was a fantastic Fiesta! My boss also presented the vision and mission of the company which was awesome. I love where I work and who I work with. It is a tremendous blessing to love going to work each day.

I work with people like Shan, the kind with style just oozing out of their ears. This is me channeling Shan... we showed up and found we both got the memo for white blazers and black skinnies. I just need some rockin' red pumps to finish it off.

Cinco de Mayo, I pulled out my black Spanish scarf with fringe and wore it over my black skinnies with my red lacey pumps, it was rockin! I got a "Whoa!" and then all the heads turned. Thursday, the Operations Team was born, so they threw a baby shower in honor of the birth. Here is the Operations Team-the coolest team ever!

See what I mean?! This is them at their best.

Bonnie.

They even had someone bring them a gift from their registry. We had nerf gun wars the rest of the day. Pretty great.

Also on Thursday, Dave Litchford came and gave his "Attitude Determines Altitude" presentation during lunch. Oh My! I forgot how hilarious he is. He was a total smash hit!

Friday was the most glorious day at work. Wow, I found a fantastic groove and was incredibly productive. MMM...Yeah!

Friday night, Body Logic performed at the Riverwoods in the gazebo. We found out the night before that it was cobblestone that we were dancing on, so we picked some other dances and revised them to accommodate. Wea re putting in our time dancing on 'crappy' stages. The whole experience was... an experience, fun because of the spontaneity aspect and great to dance outside. Kari Jo was sick for the last run of the concert (we did it 3 times), so I did my solo, impromptu. Thank you for muscle memory because my brain was in serious freak out mode. I got through it confidently and gracefully and it was fun besides.

We celebrated afterwards at Happy Sumo! Talked about our next show and made plans.

Friday night, KaLee (Bonnie's bestie in Idaho) and her friend Tiffany were in town, so we chatted and hung out with them til way past my bedtime, I was fightin' to stay awake.

Saturday we went to Kneaders for breakfast, cinnamon french toast, can't beat it.

After we said our good-byes I headed to Tunex, my home away from home it feels like. I have been here more Saturdays than not in the last few months and each time it costs me $150-$250. Not happy. This time it was going to be $600 repair-the last piece to fix on the exhaust system. Thank goodness it was not urgent, so I can prepare for this. I left in frustration and drove straight to the Subaru dealership to see about trading in my car. I drove a brand new Subaru Forrester and then an Outback.

Surprisingly, as I sat in the seat in the middle of luxury-it didn't even matter. It doesn't matter what kind of car I drive, and it's certainly not worth being tied to the amount of debt I would acquire owning this piece of fancy metal and parts.

I left and called my voice of reason, Carlton, my personal financial advisor. He calmed me down and pointed out that $600 now that will buy me a couple more years in my current car is much better than thousands of debt.

Yes. I agreed.

After I cooled off and realized that I was okay, I headed over to choreograph a 3rd grade dance festival piece to "The Monkees" theme song with Allie in my ward.

Funnest time ever and if Blogger would let me upload it, I would be so happy.

Sunday I went and checked out another singles ward. First time ever 'ward hopping', still not a fan. But for the sake of increasing the amount of people to meet, it worked. I ran in to Braun Edwards, an elementary--jr high--high school mate. Fun to see him and that he has turned out really well-no romantic interest. Thank you.

Sunday afternoon I crashed for a much needed nap, then went to wish my mother the best on her Mother's Day.

My sister Christina was there with her baby Jonathan Charles-first Mother's Day as a mother-so precsh. And baby JC is so cute-looks just like his daddy.

He loves his Aunt Mere.

Maiden, Mother, and Matriarch

And this is Bob, finishing up the potatoes on Sunday evening. The best thing in the world, makes me smile everytime.

2011-05-01T11:29:00.000-07:00

Hello all. anyone and everyone who reads this. Thank you for reading my blog. The purpose of this is mainly a journal for my own records since my memory is not one of my super fortes. I am reminded of this every time I go to compose a new post for the week and I can't even remember what happened that week. So it's good to take a moment and recount for the last week or two of my life, to see, evaluate, and account for the personal growth and learning.

Last Monday morning I cut my finger open. I was cutting an apple for my breakfast ready to walk out the door and my finger was under the apple when I was cutting it. When it stopped bleeding, the flesh was curdling out of the opening, it was a deep cut and kind of gross and cool at the same time. Bonnie looked at it and suggested stitches. What!? I grew up with the hospital and stitches being reserved for when your brain was sticking out of your head, we just didn't get stitches-ever! I called my mom and as typical "just put some gauze and a band-aid on it and let it heal". So that's what I did. It was a little embarrassing to text my boss that morning to let him know I will be in late to work due to the fact that I just cut my finger open. When I got to work my coworker Joe showed me his scar on his left pinky finger in the same spot where I cut mine. "Ah (gasp), we are going to have matching scars!" he exclaimed. Yes, Joe and I became blood siblings in that moment. Our conversation eased the pain from a slightly humiliating morning and a big ouchie. Who knew it would hurt so bad to cut your finger open? I didn't. So I had a big white gauze bandage on my finger for the week and now it is healing great.

Last weekend (Easter weekend) on Friday night we had a multi-ward talent show. I did my dance solo that I did for our Body Logic concert and it was really fun. The most stress-free performance I think I have ever had. The whole evening was fun. I ended up sitting by this super funny guy, so we were going back and forth commenting on the talents. I practiced my flirting skills, so it made the night fun. One of the Emcees was wearing a red flannel shirt with rainbow suspenders and boots, so at one point he commented that he only had 1 talent and the guy next to me leans over and whispers, "that flannel shirt".

"Yeah, that flannel shirt gets me every time" I whispered back through my laugh. It was hysterical and a lot of fun.

One act though, I even took pics of this one and will steal it for our next family reunion-so sisters take note..

3 girls and 1 guy (the guy I was sitting by) did a 'Grecian Urns' act that was out of this world hilarious. The guy posed in a 'Grecian Urn' pose and each of the 3 ladies had a pitcher of water. Periodically through out their skit, they drank water and spewed it-in different patterns according to the choreography. Too funny!

Afterwards, a group of us went and got frozen yogurt and watched the Star Trek movie, much to my resistance. I liked it more than I thought, but on a scale of 1-10, it was a 3.6. Not a fan of Star Trek.

Saturday morning I went and ran a 5K with my ward-first time running 3 miles outside in a long time. It was kind of the kick start to running outside, so I was determined to run the whole way and I made it! I got my iPod all synced up before and ran to Journey's Greatest Hits blasting in my ears "...Don't Stop. Believin"...

Saturday afternoon I went up to Ogden to hang out with Mags for her birthday. I took her some red tulips and cupcakes. She wanted to go the tulip festival for her birthday, so I brought the tulip festival to her. And these cupcakes. So Bonnie told me about this Vintage Cupcake Company in Ogden who make gourmet fantastic cupcakes, so I picked some up and we enjoyed them the whole weekend. So Yummy! Cookies and Cream, Coconut cake with coconut icing, Red Velvet, Double Chocolate, Carrot, etc. SO Yummy!

Sunday I went to church with Mags and to Bird and Nee's for Easter Dinner with Bonnie's family. Her whole family was there and it was a lot of fun! We visited, had yummy yummy food, and played Dance Dance on the Wii. Super fun. Then I took the Myers-Briggs Personality test. Bonnie's Dad, Russ, is certified in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, so he can administer the personality test and give results and the whole deal. So I took the test before I left and he was going to score it and give it back to me on Thursday when he was coming to do a presentation for One on One about personality type.

This last week, I was motivated and ran 3 miles on Monday and Wednesday. Outside. I found a loop route right by my condo that I like-well, first one. I am still getting used to running outside, but running under the sun is the best. Being outside is invigorating and after a stressful work day on Wednesday, it was a great release and unraveling time to just run under the sun. Thank you for the sun and my body that can run.

Wednesday we had some VIP visitors were here for the quarterly board meeting that day. I thought I was prepared, but it ended up being a stressful, borderline frazzled day. There was just last minute copies to be made and stapled, wi-fi passwords to figure out, spoon for the fruit to run and get, gift bags to pack, etc. Then just being on the edge of my seat to take care of anything anyone might need-like printing and faxing a t-shirt request form for one of the visitors or calling a cab at the last minute, you know, things like that.

I was exhausted, but everything went well.

Then Thursday I somehow planned another stressful day where again I thought I was prepared, but it ended up not being as smooth as I planned. We had a new catering company for lunch that was doing a salad bar and bread. I imagined this great salad bar with lots of vegetables, boiled eggs, chicken, a variety of dressings, and some beautiful bread platters with a variety of breads, etc. Right? That's what I asked for. Well, they showed up late with loads of lettuce and spinach-good and healthy-but we ran out of all the toppings 2/3 way through everyone and the bread ended up being cheap-o rolls from Wal-mart that were carelessly dumped into platter toppers. So I am evaluating and digesting this while planning for Russ's presentation at noon as well. The food being late pushed back the presentation, so it created some confusion, waiting, and me running back and forth putting out the lunch fire while calmly setting up for the lunch presentation. It all turned out okay and I am cooling off this weekend before I call the caterer on Monday and tell him how it went. He called me during the presentation with a light-hearted "so how did it go?"

"um, we are in the middle of a presentation, can I call you back?" I was fuming.

Russ's presentation went really well and our team members liked it. Afterwards he gave me my test, according to Myers-Briggs I am an ENFJ(P) I think I am more P than J on most occasions.

Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging, (Perceiving)

ENFJs are interpersonally focused, understanding, tolerant, appreciative, and facilitators of good communication. They enjoy working with others on a variety of tasks focused on the development of people.

ENFPs are enthusiastic, insightful, innovative, versatile, and tireless in pursuit of new possibilities. They enjoy working on teams to bring about change related to making things better for people.

My family will laugh, listen to the "potential pitfalls" and "suggestions for development"

May move on to new ideas or projects without completing those already started (hello AP english book list)
May overextend and try to do too much (I am the queen of double booking engagements)
May sweep problems under the rug when in conflict (yes. I am getting better at not doing this though)
May need to set priorities and then follow through
May need to learn to screen tasks and say "no" rather than do what is initially appealing
May need to apply project and time management skills to meet goals (hello time management :))

Enter Bonnie Bennion, an ISTJ, the perfect complement to me, Ha! We have had many good laughs about this. But that is why living with her is a dream, she is great at everything I am not naturally good at. However, the good news is that we are rubbing off on each other and both balancing out.

So my dear family, I am doing my best to manage my time well and speak up in conflict, but you got to know that I just wan't wired that way. :)

Thursday afternoon after blowing some steam off at lunch with Nee and Bird and Bonnie at JCW's, Ernst and Young came to film my boss, he is up for Entrepreneur of the Year, kind of a big deal. The corporate communications gal handled all of this, so I was actually relieved to answer some emails and take care of some projects. I knew the lady from last year, so we chatted on a tour of the office and I got to sit in on my boss's interview, which he totally rocked. It was fun, and really good to get more insight on the company and my boss as a person. As we just read about, I am all about that-people.

I really want my boss to take the Myers-Briggs test, I have a feeling that we are really similar and it is advantageous and disadvantageous. I will work on it.

Thursday evening I met my mom at Costco and shopped for Pete's Prom dinner that she was making. I got some pizza for dinner and we got to chat for a little bit. My mom's undivided attention, always a treat. As we caught up, I realized that I am learning how to balance pursuing dating and marriage as an overarching goal of mine at the same time that I live my life fully and move forward. I am getting better, but I would feel stuck whenever I spent my energy trying to date and be successful-something just wasn't working. So then I would go back to getting really involved with my job and someone would remind me to always be looking for my man. It would go back and forth like a pendulum, so now I am creating balance with that. Hooray! It's about time.

That conversation was so timely and I had a follow-up breakthrough on Friday talking to my friend Ingrid at the Inner Woman training that we were staffing this weekend up at the Impact Training center. I have been having this feeling that I will find my husband when I am in full bloom in my life and I am not there yet. She listened and affirmed me, then she looked me in the eyes and said "you don't know what you want yet". Bingo. It's true, I am still clarifying exactly what I want and I don't know yet. All these guys that I go out with are awesome and kind of fit, but it's like a slightly misfit puzzle piece-it just doesn't work. I was so relieved. Because I know I am still blooming and now I feel full permission to bloom naturally and carry on with my beautiful life. Perfect.

This was my first staffing experience at Impact and it was great! The womens training was amazing, I went through it in 2007, so I had forgotten a lot of the details and it was fantastic to review. It was all about celebrating womanhood in every sense of the word, so naturally it brought up a lot of tender feelings for my mother, sisters, and gratitude to be a woman!

Friday night I worked on my Visiting Teaching report and tied myself up in knots because it was so last minute. I didn't visit my sisters this month, I did call and chat for a few minutes and dropped off some M&Ms and a note. Bare minimum, and it bugged me, enough that I evaluated my commitment and decided to be a 100% visiting teacher going forward.

Saturday morning I woke up and ran the Thanksgiving Point 5K-first official organized race! Katie, another girl ont he staff trained for the half-marathon, but there wasn't time to run it before the training, so she ran the 5K and I ran it with her. Except she took off at the beginning with a 9 minute mile and steadied a 10.5 minute mile, finishing in about 35 minutes. It was really cool and a beautiful route.

I quickly showered and changed then headed up for the second day of Inner Woman and it was Incredible! I staffed with my sister Margaret and it was so fun to be there with her celebrating being a woman and our sisterhood! I love my sisters so much.

Just Livin' the Dream

2011-04-17T16:46:00.000-07:00

This week was a pretty typical week, low key which I appreciated to recover from the performance the weekend before. My boss was out of town, so I made some good headway on big projects I am involved in, particularly the company history project.

Okay, I am so excited about this project, I am working on writing (well coordinating) the One on One's company history! This kind of stuff lights my fire and gets my creativity flowing, however, this is big undertaking and I have no idea what I am doing. Good thing I am related to Curtis... my brother who knows everything and is a folklore specialist, so this sort of thing is like no big deal for him and he can give me some great direction. Perfect.

So I met with a guy down at BYU this week and got some good ideas on where to start, to look at other corporate history examples and start gathering One on One historical data to compile and include in the history. Love it. Can't wait.

On Thursday we kicked off our Jimmy Kick's Design contest at One on One, so Wednesday night I was shopping at Macey's for 20 boxes of Kix and Wheaties for breakfast for the company. I got some pretty great comments walking through the store. One was from my bishopric member and his wife.

"wow, what's all this", "oh and while I have you here, will you teach sunday school on Sunday?"

"I am already speaking in Sacrament Meeting, but I sure, I would be happy to. "

Then someone else asked me "are these on sale?" Because if they are, would that change if you were going or purchase some or not?

"no, no special sale, just a corporate breakfast..."

So Thursday we were in our design teams and had a lunch time challenge to guess pictures of feet that were taken of our coworkers. My feet were among them and Bonnie told me later that in her group someone asked, "who's beat up feet are those?"

Bonnie: "Oh, I know exactly who'e beat up feet those are."

Ha!

Thursday night was the ABD: the Aaron and Brittany Dinner, where the Ashton family would officially meet Aaron's fiance Brittany. I was the self-appointed event coordinator and took my job very seriously :). I even set a dinner time-unheard of for our family. We had a turkey dinner with all the fixings, heard the engagement story, and just enjoyed the night chatting and catching up. Brittany is a total 10 and a 17 for Aaron-perfect fit. She is awesome, and the real deal. She thought he was cute when he spoke in sacrament meeting, and cuter when a giraffe slobbered all over him, and even cuter when he announced that he had 18 siblings, WHAT!? is this girl for real? Yes, she is. A dream come true. To say the least.

Great event, everyone had fun and it was great to get together. We don't get together very much anymore, so I savor these times. Bonnie came too and enjoyed the time with my family, that meant a lot to me, because a lot of people may get weirded out-there is plenty that is out of the ordinary. It was great!

Friday night, Bonnie and I went over and chatted with her good friend Mimi and her husband Mike. They live in the next building over and just great people. We came home and I took a candlelit luxurious bubble bath and we started "You've Got Mail" the movie, but I quickly fell asleep.

Saturday morning I went to breakfast at Magleby's Fresh for all you can eat pancakes and french toast (their syrup, mmmm...). I went with Bonnie, Adam, Sarah and Kevin (Bonnie's sis and bro in law). I went so I could meet Quinn, Adam's 5 yr old daughter, I have been so excited to meet her. And she was everything and more of what I anticipated, immediate affinity. She is darling and so much fun! It made me realize that I would be open to marrying someone who had children already. oop, did I say that out loud? Hmmm, just a thought. Anyway, breakfast was fun and I went to the temple after that, it was really good to go, I haven't been for a while. I came home to prepare my talk and lesson. As soon as I sat down my eyes started to close and I realized that this was not going to be a productive prep time, so I laid down for an hour powernap and got up 3.5 hours later. Sigh. That felt SO good, it's what I needed. Saturday night I babysat Ellis and Hugh, so darling and so much fun! They had a checklist for me for the evening !:) Love them!

And today, Sunday, the lesson was....underprepared. I was 2/3 of the way through my lesson when I looked at the clock and saw 20 minutes left, Yikes! The end felt a little drawn out and people were not in to commenting today. Oh well, I did my best. It tuned out alright.

And my talk, I was worried about filling the time because I actually was left with a lot of time as the last speaker. I was writing my talk during the sacrament, well just beefing it up not knowing the time I would have. I ended up cutting out some stuff and spoke for about 15 min. It went great, I really like speaking in church. I talked about simplifying :), in connection with Elder Scott's talk about faith and character from October's conference. The essence: the most important thing I can be doing with my time and energy is building my relationship with Christ, everything else, and I mean EVERYTHING else is secondary to that. Wow, studying quotes that back up that statement was pretty powerful and reminded me to stay on track with getting out of debt and preparing financially for the future, in addition to building my lifestyle to be prepared for home and family. Hooray, I am on track and it feels good. Sigh, so no pedicure for Mere even though it was payday. :) Good job Mere.

April Happenings-Fool's Day, Performing, and just life.

2011-04-10T20:35:00.000-07:00

The morning of April 1st, Bonnie and I got a text from Joe Partridge (our coworker and good friend) exclaiming that his baby came that morning, and no april fools. Honest.

My reply: Do you swear on everything that is holy that this is for real? (because he would totally pull that on us)

Joe Pa: I swear on the love I have for my wife. Room number 1008, visitor key code is...

AAAAHHHHH!!!! Baby Jaden Partridge is here!!

So Bonnie and I went during lunch to meet Baby Jaden and introduce ourselves as his favorite surrogate aunties. :) He is so cute.

He loves us.

Joe Pa, Shauntell, and Baby Jaden (Jay Pa)

Bonnie and I had an April Fool's of our own. I suggested that she wear her old wedding ring to work and announce her engagement to this Adam guy that she has been dating.

She is in the perfect set up, people know she has been dating a guy and it could logically happen.

It was hilarious, we got some people, most people were skeptical, and some saw right through it.

It was General Conference weekend, so lots of gathering at the folks house with all the kiddos. Lucy was loving holding baby Jonathan

And Annabel is growing up so fast. I tried to convince Stu and Lisa to enter her in to a baby modeling contest. Hello, have you seen her face?

She gets so much love from her siblings, they just pick her up and pack her to wherever they are playing and wrestle with her, no big deal. She is a good sport.

And Buddy gets cuter the more I see him. Priceless smile, right here.

My neice Kate, in Washington, is getting baptized in May, actually there are 3 nieces getting baptized in May, July, and August, so my mom pulled out 'the baptism dress'. This dress has been in the family for years, all us sisters, cousins, nieces, etc have worn it, so lots of sentimental value.

My mom has been collecting dolls, well she has been collecting dolls all her life, but she has been seriously working on her collection these last few weeks. We pulled them out and the kids had a ball with them.

oooohhhh, baby Jonathan. He loves me. He looks totally like Sean. And this is me after my final rehearsal for the Body Logic Show-this upcoming week is concert week!

We celebrated Bob's birthday on Saturday night after the priesthood session.

I love my Bobby!

He is the greatest! :)

Sunday morning I went to General Conference with Graden and Bonnie and Adam. The Music and the Spoken Word was fantastic and the session was incredible, of course. The theme of that session was blaringly about welfare and preparing to live the law of consecration so we can take care of each other. It reaffirmed to me the most important thing I am doing right now is getting out of debt and preparing financially to be in a position to give back and consecrate my life to the building of the Kingdom. Perfect, I am on track.

I hung out at Graden's house for the second session of general conference on Sunday and it was SO interesting. Lots of different feelings. It was great to get to know his family, meet his friend Tyrell, and see his brother Jamen again. Jamen, Graden, and I were all in the BYU 56th ward Fall 2010. Graden was my Home Teacher and has remained my home teacher for life. He will call and check in every once in a while. He's great!

Max.

My mom in her 'natural habitat'. :)

She has always said that her place in the kingdom is in the nursery.

She loves children and always has, she has devoted her life to her children and it is inspiring.

Sunday night, my aunt Laneth (mom's sister, can you tell :)) and uncle Jim stopped by for a visit, they were in town for General Conference.

Okay, my aunt Laneth is hilarious and I know that, but this visit was the funnest conversation I have ever had with her. She was telling us about her calling as ward music chair and pianist-she has no real musical talents, but participates in choir as a faithful member of the ward. So she accepts the calling and the musical numbers she arranged went off, but underneath she is just laughing to herself. It is way better when she tells it because she embellishes it just at the right moments to to get us rolling. Holy Cow!

The dolls.

Okay, so this week I took care of my car with the utmost TLC. The check engine light was on and I responded immediately (good job Mere) to find that it desperately needed new spark plugs, but the O2 sensor was okay....who knew there was an O2 sensor. I am learning more about cars every day. But everything else looked good. Hooray, I am not driving a lemon!

So after I got it looked at I scheduled a detailing appointment for the upcoming week.

Side note: my friend Jordan from work drove me to pick up my car after work one day (Bonnie was headed up to hang out with Adam :)) and he showed me his sweatshirt for his quesadilla business, "Paco's". Super great guy with this quesadilla business, it is brilliant, and it cracks me up when I think about it....anyway...

So here is my car, spic and span. One thing I love in this world is fancy car wash places. They shampooed the carpets, washed all the vinyl, waxed the outside, cleaned the tires, the whole works! It was beautiful, I hardly wanted to drive it. And it was raining that day, so I ended up parking it in the parking garage at work for the night so it could totally dry.

Before I got in to drive it out of the garage, I indoctrinated it with the O's... Go One on One!!

It's official.

You can see the vacuum lines and my happy smiling face :).

I love clean cars! The splurge was worth it.

The next day I had the vinyl doctor come and do a couple repairs on the inside vinyl. It looked great when he was done, can't even tell there was a big burn hole on the back door handle and a huge rip on the dashboard. And who knew there was a vinyl doctor-pretty specific niche, he was great!

So my car is as good as new and loves me, a lot!!

This week was my concert!! Body Logic Dance premiered their first show!! We performed up at the Sugar Space in Salt Lake on APril 8th and 9th, 2011. So every night this week I was either polishing up my solo with Laura, shopping for my costume, or teching and lighting our dances, or performing. It was really fun, and very empowering to say "We did it!!" This is what professional dance is all about. It was really good to see that and ask myself "do I really love this? Does this really interest me?" Hmmm... always introspective, some good thinking about my life this week.

Mom, Dad, Jules, Mags, Nate, Bonnie and Adam came to support on Friday night. Nate graciously videoed and took pictures of our show as our official camera man.

Very intimate performing space, Margaret said the audience could easily hear us breathing and see the sweat flying off our faces. Kind of gross, I know.

But it all went really well, it was nostalgic to perform again and like I said, kind of empowering. I also realized that I don't think I would be totally satisfied as a full-time dancer, but I know that I love the field of dance and see myself continually connected to it throughout my life, after all, I am a professional dancer! It feels really good to say that and at the same time, it's really not as glamorous as I dreamed, it's full of hard work. Ha ha, just like every other worthwhile thing. Good job Mere. :)

So after the concert on Friday, I went and hung out with Mag and Nate at Jules' house. I just slept in my clothes I was so tired. Then Saturday, I just hung out at Jules' house with Simon, Joanna, and Tabi. It was different to not have a commitment on Saturday morning-so nice. For the past 6 months, we have been rehearsing for this concert on Saturday mornings from 8-1. So it was a treat. My alarm still went off at 6 am and scared Jules in the middle of the night. I didn't hear it, of course.

We watched 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, ate pizza, took naps, and played-it was a GREAT day!

It was really great to bond with the kiddos, over the past while, I have felt an extra draw to spend time with my family, just hinging out and spending time with them and their kids. I think I am in a place where I am not so consumed in my own life to be able to reach out and give and that feels good. And I am feeling good about continually connecting with my family members and strengthening those relationships. What? I am strengthening Home and Family? Perfect. The bonus is that it is really fun. I really like my family members and I am falling in love with my nieces and nephews more each time we hang out.

And eat graham crackers together, as the case may be with me and Tabi...

UV50 Gala

2011-04-01T07:23:00.000-07:00

One on One was named 4th in top revenue and 2nd in fastest growing companies in Utah Valley by Utah Valley Business, here are pics from the UV50 Gala. I pulled out my black and gold for the event, I am a total girlie girl when it comes to events like this, they make me smile really big.

CARS: All's well that ends well...

2011-03-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

This week was car mania...the season finale if this was a soap opera.

Last weekend Dad, Curt and I attempted to track down the title for the white Subaru, who knew there was all this title, bill of sale, taxes, etc involved in selling a car... well now I do.

Anyway, thankfully Curt had a duplicate title, so I went over Tuesday night and got it all filled out, then Wednesday I did the deed. I sold my car, just like that, we exchanged the title and Tunex cut me a check for $1000 and that was it. Now for the emotional part, I went and cleaned out my car and said one last good-bye to Georgie. Or Faith as Curt informed me was her original name... I was kind of sad to say good-bye. Lots of good memories in that car and some ownership, rite-of-passage type of attachment...But as Bonnie advised, "you can't get too emotionally attached..." I know, but still, that was my car...

I loved my Georgie car.

So sad to say good-bye.

So the car saga continues... along with selling my car this week , I also...

got a speeding ticket (first one in about 2 years, I was on a really good streak. Dang-it!)
scratched my boss's car...yikes. I took it out to clean it and on my way back in to the parking garage, I turned a bit too sharply and scraped and dented the side of it. Shoot. I will post a pic tomorrow. He was good about it, but I felt really bad... as you can imagine.
looked at alternative transportation options... I got pretty creative thinking of possibilities involving a bus, bike, jog-11miles to work-mmmm probably not, borrowing a car as needed. Could i get by without a car? Or even just wing it? I mean, I could get a bike. Bonnie's question with that one was "what happens when it's raining or snowing out and you have to go to work?" Good point. Shoot. The conclusion I came to after all this brainstorming was that I really just need a car. My lifestyle is way too independent to go without a car. Shoot. I am going to have to bite the bullet and buy a car. Which I really didn't want to do as I am committed to paying off my student loans this year and just really want to put all my extra cash toward that.

I am sure Mom and Dad were laughing every time I called them up with a new solution. Well, I went over on Saturday to talk with them about cars. The agreement was that we were going to talk cars at the end of this week and they were going to tell me what they decided to do.

As I talked through the options and expressed my "at my wit's end" scenario, I told them I finally went to the bank to see about taking out a loan to buy a car and ended with a big sigh.

They smiled and looked at me somewhat excited.

What? I asked.

"We have a way better deal for you..." Mom said.

Dad did the honors of offering me the option of purchasing their other Subaru-the green seafoam one.

Wow. Really?

What a relief!

So I will be able to keep up my car payments with them, pay off my student loans, and pay off this car within the year.

Sigh.

Thank you so much!

So this is the new set of wheels...no name yet.

After that, I was off to the ballet with Mei Mei. An M&M date if you will. :) We went and saw Utah Regional Ballet's production of Peter Pan at the Covey Center in Provo. Very Well done, a really fun ballet with flying, a crocodile, hilarious pirates, great choreography, and fantastic dancing.

We ran in to Brenda and Becca Winegar-kind of legendary people in the disabilities community in Utah Valley. It was great to connect with her, that is the first time I have personally met or spoken with either of them, even though I have grown up knowing who they are and the tremendous influence for good they are in this community. And all that I have heard about them did not compare to my experience talking with them. They are truly amazing individuals. I was so impressed with how highly Brenda (mom) talked about Becca (daughter with Downs Syndrome), she praised her with the utmost respect and awe, like she was a good friend and inspiration-which she is that to her, but people don't often talk about their kids like that. It was definitely a lesson for me about how I will speak about my kids to other people. It felt like more of an equal partnership/relationship rather than a domestic hierarchy. Sounds weird to say but I see that some parent/kid relationships are about who is right/wrong and others are about the partnership of helping each other learn and grow in positive ways. Hmm... a tidbit to put in my back pocket until further notice... :)

So here is Mei Mei and I at Peter Pan. We had a grand time!

Love my Mei Mei

Other things that happened this week...

We had a "Salsabration" FHE on Monday with a cluster of wards. I saw Blake there, the guy in our ward that I was interested in and he liked Bonnie and it was really awkward for a time... Yeah him. Anyway, it's been a while since we've seen each other and the steam from the awkward get togethers has blown over, so it was so nice to talk with him and feel like all of that stuff just melted away... thank you. Ah, peace at last. I don't like to have icky stuff in my relationships-the kind of unresolved stuff that lingers and festers. So it was really good to clear the air and mend my relationship with him.

Also, Monday after work I ran outside... this monumental. I can run for miles on a tredmill, but I am apprehensive and flat out resistant to running outside. I have a mental block about running outside. Bonnie and I ran about 2 miles, just down PG Blvd and back to our condo. And it felt good! I mean I survived and it wasn't that bad...

Half-marathon here I come. That is one of my 2011 goals-run a half marathon. I am shooting for August.

This week I worked on my solo with Laura up at the UofU a couple of days. Afterwards I stopped by to visit my sister Jules. It was fun to reconnect with her, it has been a while. She is amazing, getting ready for baby #4.

Anyway with the solo rehearsals, Laura and I got a lot done and I showed it at our rehearsal on Saturday. Angie, one of our dance professors came to our rehearsal and gave feedback. We talked about my solo and our chat reminded me why I love dance so much and engaging in the creative process. All the steps are there for my dance, but it is missing the magical performance quality. Discovering the missing element and what I am saying through this piece propelled me in to a bit of self-discovery to find the answers. That is what I love most about dance and the creative process-it's a journey of the self that refines and builds character like nothing else.

Here is what I learned on this particular journey with this specific piece, and it is exactly in line what I have been thinking about recently...

Angie remarked that this piece is about me being a 'good dancer' and showcasing my technical abilities, I don't really say anything significant, the audience is only 4 minutes older after seeing the piece-not really any different, moved or inspired by a unique message.

Shoot. I want it to be so much more. But I am concerned about being a "good dancer", it goes back to me wanting to keep up a "perfect image" of myself and especially as a dancer. I do want people to see and affirm that I am a good dancer.

But I also want to communicate something inspiring through my solo, I want to make my statement... but I don't know exactly what I am saying...

Angie's advice "you have to be vulnerable. Trust that your technique is there and go for it. If you don't quite make the balance, but you went for it-that is human. That is what we relate to as an audience. That is the magic."

So the challenge for me is letting go of that perfection image and dance who I am at this moment, the authentic, real me. Wow, I have been thinking about that lately and finding myself wanting to be something I am not. But it doesn't work to be anything but me.

Sometimes I wonder if I have the "fire" to be a successful dance artist and I get anxious about it, and I feel that anxiety is reflected in my solo.

Angie's response to this was, "then dance who you are right now and what it is. If you are anxious and nervous about it, then dance that. Be honest about where you are. You gotta dance who you are and what it is right now."

I held back the tears, but if I would have let them, I would have been wet all day. This breakthrough and insight is what I have been looking for and I love how dance facilitates these small self-discoveries. I feel closer to my goal of going Home. And interestingly enough, the title of my piece is "coming home". Remembering who I am and being honest about that as I dance. That is the challenge, but I am up for it.

After rehearsal I raced down to UVU for the Ballroom Dance Concert with my friend Mariah who got married in November. I asked her about married life and she confessed that it was one of the hardest experiences of her life. Just a lot to adjust and get used to. Good stuff, but nonetheless challenging.

After the ballroom concert I crashed for a nap before going to the ballet with Mei. On my way to go pick up Mei, Aaron called. I missed it, so when I called him back he put it on speaker phone so both he and Brittany could talk to me.

I casually asked "so, what's up?"

"Have you seen Pa's cows?" Brittany asked.

WHAT!?! Mouth wide open...............................

Really? Aaron engaged?

Wow, congratulations! I am so happy for both of them. And Brittany sounds like a super fantastic girl. Can't wait to meet her when they come out in a couple of weeks.

I waited for the "my younger brother is getting married" blues to settle in, but they never came. No anxiety about it, just happiness.

I do have to tell you though. Mom had a dream on Friday night about me and I was with the cutest, most darling boy with dark curly hair. We were so happy together and it was so easy to be around him. And he was tall. Anyway, I know the timing for me will happen at the perfect time. Not worried.

However, this was at the end of the week. Ask me about men on Wednesday and I would have thrown my hands up in the air with utter disgust. I had lunch with a guy on Wednesday-so not impressed. Just talked about superficial things the whole time and I saw a lot of his insecurities come out. I left the conversation sick to my stomach and wanting to take a shower to wash off all the slime.

It's good, I know more of what I DON'T want.

I just want a male version of Bonnie, that would be perfect!

Friday I went to hear Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, speak at an information technology forum at BYU.

It was interesting and some personal notes I had on it were...

Find what you are passionate about

The more connections we create, the stronger we are, in business and personal life

It was really good, he was very candid and open, it was fun to hear him speak. Orrin Hatch-the one delivering the questions-however, was not. He was kind of a drag.

Anyway, fun event. It was snowing when we got out and I wore some ballet flats, so no traction and I was honestly worried about slipping. I carpooled with 2 guys from work, how convenient. I took one of the guy's arms and he graciously escorted me to the car. Both of them opened my door for me on the whole excursion and I was so impressed. I haven't been treated like that for a long time, it was nice to feel like a lady and be treated like one.

I was seriously so impressed, especially because it was a work event. One of the guys was married and one was single. But the fact that I was a lady, trumped the situation, no romantic nonsense, just good old-fashioned chivalry. Love it.

So it all ended well and I am happily sitting here blogging on a leisurely Sunday evening after teaching Sunday School today about Priesthood Keys. The lesson went way better than I anticipated, I did not feel super prepared. Thank you to the spirit and angels that were routing for me. I learned a lot, as always.

The experience teaching boosted my confidence and it felt really good. I love teaching, I volunteered for today and for permanent "if you need someone to teach, call me" status.

It made me think about grad school, well career in general, I know I will end up teaching in whatever I do.

A high end classical Ballet teacher in New York City? Possibly. That would be a dream.

Kind of a Stressful Week

2011-03-20T20:20:00.000-07:00

This week was STRESSFUL.

My boss was out of town, so I had plans to work an archiving project for him, but my days were somehow filled to the max with day to day operational stuff.

I also had other big projects on my plate, such as...

-writing Ernst and Young Award Application...due Friday

-Annual March Madness party for One on One...also Friday

-car is in the shop, needs a new engine, got to decide what to do...by Friday

-driving Mom and Dad's 15 passenger van and ran out of gas on the freeway

-got a speeding ticket

-finishing my solo for our concert in April, driving to SLC 3 days this week

I was kind of a basket case-hello emotional eating... yikes!

I have been having my green smoothies in the morning and oatmeal with raw pumpkin and sunflower seeds in it. But I snacked a lot... on chocolate and jelly bellys, shoot.

So, the story with my car.

I blew the head gasket and when they tore it apart, they found some scarring on the engine.

My options:

-fix the head gasket for $1800

-get a new engine for $4000

-fix the head gasket and sell it, probably get $1000

-fix it sell it, buy a cheap-o car

-sell it as is, get....?

-see how much Tunex (the shop fixing my car) would offer me

It was a wild ride with this and I was really frustrated on Monday that I am in this pickle feeling unprepared and like a total victim of circumstance.

Needless to say, I had a good cry and a long chat with my journal after calling my Dad and Rose.

My conclusion: this could be an awful experience, or it could be a great one.

Okay, okay. I can see a positive side to this.

Anyway, I finally negotiated to sell my car to Tunex for $1750. I owe them $750 in labor costs already, so they will cut me a check for $1000.

And i am done. finished. moving on. hooray.

Sad to lose Georgie, he is a great car, but ready to move on, get out of debt, etc.

I will get the title from Curt and Dad and do the deed this week.

Also, it didn't help that the couple of guys that I am interested in were totally withdrawn and dumb this week. I was in my stuff, a little more whiny and needy than usual, so the guy situation just added the cherry on top. I am a little frustrated about that.

Now that I feel ready to date, there are no guys to date.

Anyway, enough about that. I decided to cut the drama, I could feel myself building up a lot of drama over these male interests and it was kind of tying me in knots.

Stop it!

Yes, thank you.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I went up to Salt Lake to work on my solo with Laura (my dance friend who choreographed my solo). It went really well. It is the piece I did for my OSU audition last year, so we remembered a lot of it and shaped some new stuff in it as well.

I am happy how it turned out. Can't wait for our show April 8th and 9th. Actually I can, there is so much to do before then. And I will be grateful when it is over. It's kind of a milestone. First performance since graduating and this show officially makes me a professional dancer...

Well, Friday came and March Madness was going to happen ready or not. And it was going to be a total flop or a smash hit success and I was prepared for it to go either way.

Every year for March Madness, One on One does a March Madness Party at NOAHs where we take the first Friday of March Madness off and just play, all afternoon.

Ping Pong, Raquetball, Wallyball, Pool, Games, and this year we had Rockband and Just Dance on some wii consoles.

I was nervous about how it would turn out

BUT IT WAS GREAT!

Thank you Thank you Thank you is all I can say. Everyone had fun, the caterers came through, there was something for everyone, and it was relatively easy set up and clean up for me. (I simplified :))

Anyway, I was so relieved when it was over. But typical schedule for Mere, I was done at NOAHs at 5 and went to rehearsal at 5:30 til 9 pm. It was brutal for the last hour.

Then Saturday morning I worked on my solo with Laura up in SLC and THEN I was free for the weekend.

I ran my errands, unloaded from March Madness, visited with Mom and Dad, etc. Then Bonnie and I had a roommate date.

We went to Bajio for dinner, cleaned up our condo, did manis/pedis, talked, laughed, and unwound. This is us on Saturday night soaking our feet.

Finished product. mmmm.... love pedicures. And the budge was happy that it was self served :)

Note my poor wounded feet. I acquired a big blister on the bottom of each of my big toes, a large split under my second to last toe, and some floor burns on the tops of my feet.

...the things we do for the sake of our art.

And my gorgeous manicure. A light pearl polish. Yes, thank you I know I am very professional :)

Oh boy. Nothing beats natural beauty.

Sunday I went Visiting Teaching in the morning. First time in 3 months, since moving and getting in the system. After church I was asked to deliver some of the VT assignments and also drop by to visit a few of the inactive ward members. Bonnie and I went together and had about 2% success. It was super deflating.

I didn't know that gathering sheep was hard. It's not a cake walk.

But as Bonnie and I talked about, the goal is not to 'fix' them and make them come back to church. It is simply to extend the invitation and let them know that I am here for them. Anytime. Just as Christ is. He doesn't make the sheep follow him. He seeks them out, loves them, and they choose to follow Him.

Wow. I am working on living and being as Christ is and today I saw the next level of embodying that.

That experience really made me think.

BABIES!

2011-03-20T18:11:00.000-07:00

So here are the pics of baby Sid, Deepthi and Chola's baby. I work with Deepthi at One on One, and she is an only child, so I naturally stepped up as Sid's favorite aunt-someone's got to do it. :)

He is so cute!

So much hair!!

a little screaming Sid

Swathi and baby Sid. I work with Swathi-she's great.

Auntie Mere and baby Sid. Deepthi (the mommy) on the side.

Bonnie and baby Sid.

Did I ever post this picture? I don't think so. This is from a "Red Carpet" event that we did at work for Powerstand one week. Bonnie was announcing the new website, so she got a red carpet, balloons and ours d' ouvres (donuts). As we announced people involved with the project, they walked the red carpet. It was super fun! Bonnie and I both rocked our outfits that day, so we walked the red carpet and took a pic. So glad she convinced me to pull out my white blazer.

Totallly Brill!

Thursday I went to pick up Kim for her birthday date with me and I met Max-the newest addition to our family. Yes, number 20. And he is cute. Very energetic, like a typical 8 yr old, and very sweet. I pulled out my camera and asked him to come take a picture with me and he ran away-teasingly. So I followed him all over the house and he finally agreed, like a typical brother reluctant to snuggle up with his sister in front of the camera, it was pretty funny.

I got season tickets to the Hale this year and Hairspray was playing. It is my sister Kim's all-time favorite show, so I decided to take her for her birthday. We went to Zupas for dinner. Everyone was staring at us, I forgot what that felt like, but I was okay with it. I remember being really embarrassed when I was younger, but I am grateful for a broader perspective that makes it easy to allow people to stare without me getting uncomfortable or impatient to leave.

So here we are enjoying Hairspray-the show was FANTASTIC!!

Okay, note the cute boy behind me. HA. Funny story. I noticed him waiting in his car before the doors were open and we were waiting as well. He was chauffeuring 2 older ladies, he wasn't wearing a wedding ring, and he was cute. Hmm...

We go in and I forget about it because I probably won't see him again.

Oh wait.

His seat is right behind ours.

Hmmm... how am I going to start up a conversation with him to find out if he is available or not?

At the end of intermission based on my keen stalking abilities, I gathered that he was from out of town, here to see his girlfriend perform in the play and that he was here with her mother and fan club.

Okay, but I still got to know. What am I going to say?

Got it.

Mere: "Hey excuse me, what's your name?"

Cute boy: "Cory"

Mere: "Oh. You look like someone I know."

Cute boy: "Who? Brad Pitt?"

Oh, he's funny too.

Mere: "umm... yeah, actually yes. So do you know someone in the play?"

Mother: "yes, my daughter Tami."

Mere: "ohhhhhh. Well tell her she did a great job tonight!"

shoot. he's taken. Oh well. It was fun to put it out there.

So Friday morning I got a text message saying that Jonathan Charles Little has arrived that morning at 7:58 am.

I gasped and almost fell off my ball.

Hooray! My sister Christina's first baby! She's a mother!

My boss was out Friday afternoon, so I took a long lunch and headed up to see baby JC! and the mother of course :)

He is cute.

Friday night I had a time management issue. I planned to tend Ellis and Hugh while Curt and Mand went out. We decided that I would be there at 6 pm. I was running late from finishing up work and then I stopped for a sandwich and didn't get there til 6:20. Bad news. Curt and Mand were good about it, but time management is one of my weaknesses, so when it flares up, it irritates me. Shoot. I am working on it. Thankfully I live with Bonnie, who is an expert on time management and coaches me. Very often. And encourages me to simplify :).

So anyway, I hung out with Ellis and Hugh on Friday night and it was SO fun. Some good quality time with those two CRAZY hoodlums. They actually weren't TOO crazy, mostly just hilarious!

I wanted to get a picture with Elle and her two front teeth missing, here are the attempts to get the pic. :)

My Hugh-be-doo.

Doesn't get much better than this.

We read scriptures and Fantastic Mr. Fox, it was so fun. While we were reading scriptures, Ellis would interject bits of her testimony. Here are a few insights from Elle :)

"And everything is about Christ. Whether you like it or not. Or can see it or not."

(Talking about sharing talents) "It's like if I had an egg, Amanda had a frying pan, and Hugh had some milk. They aren't useful by themselves, but when they get together, they make....

Scrambled Eggs!..."

Yes. That's exactly it Elle! Love her.

Saturday was Christina's baby shower...minus Christina. She was still in the hospital. Obviously Jonathan didn't get the memo to wait 1 more day. Totally fine.

It was good. Good to see friends and family.

Best thing... So my brother David was there and totally waltzed across the room and started up a conversation with 2 random people, like extended family on Sean's side. He is maturing in his social skills and it is so fun to see.

After the shower, I transferred the texture boards from One on One to Margaret and then we went to Chipotle for dinner.

I forgot how good Chipotle is! We had them catering some of our corporate lunches and then they "changed their rates", so we haven't had them back since then and my team members are begging them to come back.

Pretty sure I called them Monday and they are coming next week...

Not only was the food great, but I love hanging out with Marg and Nate, and Maya, and Dave.

Maya was totally in to drinking her milk with this straw, so cute.

And here is me and Dave.

Oh hello tired Mere....

Saturday night, first night without the Halls. Weird.

So I stopped at whole foods for some Agave Nectar and some Kale (I am starting my raw eating adventure with green smoothies in the morning and I just need a little more sweet.)

Then I lit a bunch of candles and had a long luxurious bubble bath. mmm... pretty sure I fell asleep in the tub. So nice.

kind of a monumental week

2011-03-06T20:27:00.000-08:00

I put my room together this week! So nice to have closure. Here is my fabulous bed with my headboard and bedskirt put on-first bedskirt of my life-so happy! And I put my bed on the diagonal in my room. Oh yes, and those are my fabulous curtains in the back. And my hope chest at the foot of my bed since my mattress doesn't quite line up with my box-love my gel-ly bed.

Bonnie hung these fabulous shelves

I rearranged my cubicles shelves to be 'aesthetically pleasing' as well as functional. AND I found white totes! Happiness. I found 1 at Wal-mart a while back and went to 10 other Wal-marts to find additional ones with no luck. I called around, looked online, but all they had were beige, blue and purple. I was about to give up and settle for the beige ones, I went in to exchange my 1 precious white tote when a fabulous customer service guy searched and found 5 white totes at the Sandy Wal-Mart. I was SO happy.

These photos don't do it justice, you will just have to come see it in person.

Oh yeah, and that's my fabulous berry wall in the background.

Tuesday night I went to the temple and afterwards I went over and talked with Heather and Jeremy and told them it was time to be done babysitting. After 6 years of tending on Saturday nights, occasional weekends, and extended trips, it was time to be done. Heather and Jeremy were great about it, so it was easy to talk with them. It was a sweet conversation, very appreciative on both sides and I felt really good about it. We decided Saturday as the last day.

Wednesday for powerstand I did a whole green spread for St. Pat's Day. I was a bit nervous about how it was going to turn out, but it rocked. Here is what I did:

Green bread: Great Harvest

mini tarts, key lime and cream with kiwis: Kneaders

green grapes and green apples

activia yogurt (green packaging) and granola: Costco

limeade and Odwalla green drink

Saturday was regular dance rehearsal, we were at a freezing cold studio in Payson-the things we do to dance. Then I went to Halls for the last time. It was just Taylor and me, so we vegged with a movie, relaxed in the hot tub, cleaned up and had enchiladas for dinner. Great last night with the Halls. I have so appreciated being their babysitter for so long. 6 years.

After finishing at the Halls, I went to get a case for my new phone-an iphone. It's fun, but how do I use the dang thing? Still getting used to it. But I do love it and thanks to my boss who gave it to me. While I was at the counter I get a call from... my date that stood my up on Friday...

Okay so, I was stood up for a date on Friday. We were going to go the Flash game and he ended up going skiing all day with some guys from Google. Got back late, couldn't get my number and thought that it was more of a group hangout rather than a date. I called and left a message, but didn't hear from him at all Friday.

Saturday he calls and apologizes profusely. I decided to stand my ground and accept the apology but let him know that it was not okay that he stood me up. It was weird, I am usually don't do that, but he knew that it was not okay and I agreed.

But I was kind of bugged afterwards and called him back to let him know I appreciated the call and realize he did his best and I didn't communicate or plan the date very well. I just left another message.

Then I put it out of my mind and moved on to planning for Sunday with the fam since my parents are in Baltimore this weekend picking up a new brother. I get home and pack up my stuff and I am just exhausted. The kind of exhaustion that just paralyzes me and I couldn't even think of what I needed to do or get motivated to move.

After the paralyzation subsided, I looked at my phone on my way out the door and saw 2 missed calls from him. What? His message said to call him back. I did and he was on his way to see me. He thought I lived in Cambria, a complex close to mine. Anyway, I directed him to my place as I am rushing to put on some makeup to look somewhat presentable and he shows up with these...

Are you kidding me? I know, totally gorge. This completely makes up for the confusion the night before.

The flowers were accompanied with a note on the back of a picture of Fesenko-it was the only paper he had, Ha! So cute.

He stayed and we chatted for a while. He is pretty great.

After he left, I went over and slept at the folks'. I went with my family to stake conference since my parents were in Baltimore this weekend and it was great. We had a pancake breakfast and got there 20 minutes early-I know! And everyone behaved relatively well. Bobby only hit me once, but Joy did bite me. :)

After stake conference I went to my ward where I was sustained as a VT supervisor. New ward and it was good. Totally exhausted, so I was surviving today.

Bonnie and I had Sunday dinner together after breaking our fasts and it felt really good to just chill out and decompress. I feel really drained, wrung out completely. It's time to recharge.

This week was great

2011-02-27T20:56:00.000-08:00

Don't really know what to title this post...just the happenings of this week.

2nd week at the Halls this week. Everything went well, smooth, to routine, etc. Except Taylor didn't poop for a couple of days and I was a little worried. Ha! Last week it wouldn't stop and this week it won't come. Sigh, the grass is always greener on the other side. :) Monday night for FHE, 5 minutes before start time, Spencer informed me that I was in charge of the lesson and treats, (filling in for Mom and Dad)and since Allison wasn't feeling well, the songs. What is this, the 1 man FHE-the 1 Mere FHE? Luckily, Spencer suggested we talk about temples from Ward Conference and there was hot chocolate and 'dunkers' in the cupboard.

Phew! FHE on the fly. Perfect.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were regular days. The only exciting thing that happened was that Rocky ran away again. Then came back the next day. Thank Goodness. I am never in the mood to chase a big black lab around the neighborhood at 9:30 pm on a cold winter evening. I'm just not.

Oh. My parents came over Wednesday night to catch up, deliver mail, AND hot tub. It felt SO good. I love hot tubbing in winter. We chatted and caught up, mostly on my life, kind of a luxury to have both my parents' undivided attention for a couple hours. It was great.

Oh, the one funny thing this week. We ran out of milk on Tuesday and I had a window of time to stop at the grocery store on Thursday, so we went a day or so without milk and had juice instead. There was a 3rd of a pitcher left of pineapple, strawberry, banana juice and in preparation for the next day, I added a second can of juice to it. The second kind was pineapple orange, strawberry-close right? The combination is not a big deal. My dad mixes juice flavors all the time, so I thought nothing of it. Until the next morning when it totally threw the kids for a loop. They were super hesitant to taste it. Kind of hilarious at 7:30 am when they are running out of time to get ready and all they are focused on is this juice. Taylor loved it, Allison finally tried it and exclaimed, "wow, this is good!", Robyn followed Allison-almost exactly and Spencer mumbled something under his breath before he drank a big glass of it. So we got through it :) Then I was off to work, smiling to myself.

Thursday night I dropped Allison off at dance and went grocery shopping with Robyn, we had a few minutes before Allison was done, so we tried out the Yogurt Bliss place next door. Here we are at the shoppe. Robyn thought it was pretty cool, especially since it was much healthier than real ice cream :). She is so cute, I love hanging out with Robyn!

When I got home, I think I finally felt the wear of being a working single mom. I was tired and not in the mood to do showers and beyond the minimum, it was Friday the next day, and my last day, so I sucked it up and showered Taylor with all the TLC in the world and put him to bed. This experience is really good for me. I feel it purging the selfishness right out of me, but it's a bit uncomfortable.

Friday morning we woke up to a lot of snow on the ground, so we prayed that morning that Heather and Jeremy would be safe traveling and would make all their flights.

Friday at noon, Bonnie and I threw a baby shower for our good friend and coworker Deepthi. Baby Sid is due March 1 and we told him he had to stay in til after the shower. He agreed. So at noon, all the girls in the office brought their salads and goodies to the large conference room and we celebrated. We played the poop game and did a cash jar. Deepthi loved it. Swathi took pics, so I will post them when she sends them over.

Friday night we were out of pizzas for pizza and movie night at the Halls, so we had nachos instead, at this point I was so lenient on portion sizes, combinations, the amount of cheese Spencer insisted on having, etc. Sure, whatever you want.

Let's celebrate a successful 2 weeks together!

While the kids watched a movie, I cleaned up a bit, did some laundry, etc., getting ready for Heather and Jeremy to come home. They made all their flights and arrived home very tired and very appreciative. It was funny to see Heather after being up for 26 hours. She does better with sleep. :)

Saturday was, on a scale of 1-10, a 4. One of the worst days I have had in a long time. I was driving to rehearsal and my car overheated on the freeway just over the point of the mountain. There was an accident a little ways up, so I was rolling at about 20 mph. My car has been having overheating issues, but this time felt urgent-I needed to get it to the car doctor ASAP. After clearing the accident, I got off on 12300 S and went to Tunex Car Care. Diagnosis-probably a head gasket issue and possibly a crack in the engine. "Oh, what does that mean?"

"If there's a crack, the only option is a new engine."

Oh. Great. I don't know a lot about cars, but I do know that replacing an engine is expensive.

Shoot. I am not in the mood for this. I am tired, exhausted, I've got to get to rehearsal, and I have a date this afternoon that I need to not be grouchy for.

So they kept it in the shop to look at it, did an oil change, yada yada... who knows what they really do. And I shot the breeze at the shops down there. Total waste of time. Not happy about it. No rehearsal for me.

Anyway, they ran a test with the cooling system and if it overheats in the next 600 miles, then I need to replace the head gasket. Okay, great.

I get home with about 15 minutes to change, spruce up, eat lunch, and get ready for this snowshoeing date.

I went out with Benj. He is a good friend of Scott and Stefanie Hathaway (I work with Scott at One on One).

It was really fun, we went snowshoeing up AF canyon for a couple hours. Benj is super nice-a total gentleman. This guy doesn't have a mean bone in his body. I was very impressed with how chivalrous and gentlemanly he was. He opened all my doors for me, grabbed my bag to carry it as we were leaving (hello impressive, I am not used to guys stepping up like that), and did up my snowshoes for me. Just little things. Put his arm around me when we took pictures, it was so nice to be treated so well, and just taken care of. Here are some pics of the date. Scott fell down about 18 times-pretty funny.

Lacing up my snowshoes and putting on my ankle protectors-he worked hard on those to fit them over my big fuzzy boots. He was a champ!

Stef was getting super cold, so Scott took care of that...

Great smile. Great eyes.

The snowshoes belong to Scott, that was the ending of his attempt running down the mountain. HA!

Snow Angels! with snowshoes.

We are snowshoers!

Saturday night Mags talked me in to coming up to visit, so I went up to Ogden for the evening and Sunday. It was great to catch up with Mags and Nate and David was up there too.

Sunday I went to dinner at Bonnie's parents'. So fun. They were a little more laid back and joking around, totally fun. We looked at scrapbooks and just chatted. I took Sarah (Bonnie's sister) and her husband Kevin home with me so that Bonnie could call her new interest Adam...:)

one week down

2011-02-20T19:29:00.000-08:00

One week down, one more to go, not really counting because it was a great week, just cheering for the success! As I mentioned in my last post, I am babysitting the Halls kids while they are cruising over in Europe for 2 weeks. Our prayers this week, I told the kids on the first morning to include in every prayer protection and health & strength. As long as we all stay safe and healthy, we will be just fine. As a result, I have felt a nuclear bubble of protection around the Hall house this week, a literal sustaining watchful care holding the energy of protection and power. Thank you.
I was surprised at how relatively easy this week was, it was actually a lot of fun. Heather had everything organized, right down to Valentine's and 'ask the kids to take notes at ward conference today'-I don't know how she does it. That is why I babysit these kids, it's actually to watch how Heather and Jeremy run their home and raise their family. They are incredible.
The week was pretty regular, I was extra tired, so when the kids went to bed, so did I. It was actually really nice to go to bed at 9:30 and get up at 6. I function SO much better with good sleep. Hmmm, weird.
Anyway, a little more about this week. Taylor pooped everyday this week. Like full to the max diaper and beyond, I have never seen him poop that much and I don't know how that kid had that much poop in him. However, he ate REALLY well this week, was very regular, and was very happy, AND hardly any seizures which is always a plus. No complaints changing poopy diapers if this results in a happy Taylor.
Valentine's day was great. Heather had left full length mirrors with inspirational messages on them for Spencer, Allison, and Robyn and for Taylor and me she had left some divine balls of chocolate somethings...I think they were those cheesecake balls, anyway, WOW. They were my guilty pleasure throughout the week. :) And here is Taylor enjoying his... he LOVED them. I think its great that somehow, even though most of his food simply goes in and glides down the throat, Taylor always knows when it is chocolate or something yummy and perks right up. Happy Valentine's Day Taylor!

Yes, even a bit up the nose. :)

On Thursday it was a full moon, so Allison and I (Robyn had already gone to bed) did the 'moon dance' and on Friday all 3 of us did the moon dance even though Spencer announced that it was only 99% full. (sigh) gotta love that boy. The background on this is, one weekend my sister and I were goofing around and dancing outside under the full moon and we found this great 'moon dance music' so whenever there is a full moon we do the "moon dance" and play this music while we dance under the full moon. Well, there was a full moon one weekend that I was at the Halls, so I went out with Allison and Robyn and introduced them to the 'moon dance'. This was a couple of years ago, but it is one thing they still remember and remind me of. Allison actually choreographed a little dance with Robyn and performed it for me. Too dark to video, but here are some pics.

Friday night crisis-couldn't find the TV remote! This is serious for the Halls on the weekends, especially pizza and movie night. So they watched it on the computer and settled for that. Phew! If the technology breaks in this house while I am here, good luck. I am of no assistance in this department. So this is the other thing I pray for-it's right up there with no medical emergencies.
Saturday I went to my dance rehearsal and Kelly, Heather and Jeremy's sister-in-law, covered for me. Saturday afternoon I made my list of errands-drop off t-shirts, pick up at Wal-Mart, groceries, fill prescription, etc. So the kids were really good as we went around town crossing these off my list because one of the stopping points was my office. We stopped there to play games. Spencer and I played ping-pong, we got pretty good at rallying after a while. We played some air hockey with Allison and Robyn and Taylor loved the giant love sac that he hung out on. Something for everyone for an hour or so. Then I took them to see my desk and raid the candy jar and jelly belly bowl. They just had to test every flavor... shoot. I was right along with them on this. Then we went to Denny's for dinner-kids eat free on Saturday nights. Perfect. Since Taylor was technically the adult over the designated child age, but eats like a child, Spencer got to pick his adult meal. Spencer was VERY happy about this. And go for it he did with a ginormous cheeseburger and fries. I got their hickory chicken sandwich that was not so good, so they swapped it for a burger. Allison and Robyn had their grand slam-breakfast for dinner, and Taylor had mashed potatoes and chicken nuggets (super clean and easy foods to feed him since I totally forgot his wheelchair). Everyone had a good time.
Sunday I made pancakes for breakfast, I learned my lesson last week after hungry and grouchy kids after church, they need substantial breakfasts on Sunday morning. It was ward conference and it was really really good. Centered on Temples, so the Stake President and Bishop spoke about going to the temple more frequently and maximizing our attendance. The sunday school lesson was AWESOME! It was given by the stake sunday school...counselor (I think). Anyway, he had been preparing for months, so the discussion we had was very rich and mature. They are making an effort to point primary children and youth in the direction of the temple and basically having everything we do lead and point to the temple. Wow, that seems young to me, but it is very wise being that that is the broader goal even to baptism, church attendance. It reminded me of the principle I have been thinking about recently and that I spoke about in church a few weeks back about 'all going home together'. AND connecting to the Tribal Leadership book I read, we are all on Heavenly Father's team (tribe :)) and we are all going home together. The goal is to go home together-not alone, that is why we are in families and grouped in wards and stakes-to strengthen each other to all go Home. This principle also bleeds into many arenas and I was thinking about it in the context of parenting and families. Kids deserve to know that their parents are on their team (routing for them, committed to their success, etc.) and when we are all on the same team, then we support each other, we route for each other, and we create a family network that is extremely powerful.
I have been thinking about mission statements recently and thought this would be a great mission statement:
"We're all on the same team!"
Some food for thought.

This is the fort that Spencer and Allison built on Sunday...for reading and for the sake of building a fort-the best thing to do on Sunday of course. Speaking of reading, so Spencer is having a reading competition at school, so he is reading any chance he gets, LITERALLY. He asked me to sign off on his reading hours for each day this past week. 10.5 hours on 2 days and 9 hours on the other 2 days, WHAT?! That isn't humanly possible, he is not even awake and able to read that much in one day. He is so funny, he recorded that he was waking up between 1-4 am to read and then going back to sleep, that's how he got all those hours in. I didn't believe him, he would be WAY more grouchy if he was doing that. So I didn't feel good about signing off on it. Shoot. Spencer was not happy. We finally agreed that he would lower his hours even though 'I was making him a liar'-don't worry Heather, it was okay, I would be frustrated too if I was him. And that he would tell me when he was reading along the way to verify his hours. We also worked it out that he would not get up in the middle of the night, but go to bed early and wake up early to read. It was the most compromise-able I have ever seen him, Good Job Spence!

What is the world coming to?

2011-02-16T09:14:00.000-08:00

So last night at dinner, Robyn (who is 5) asked me if I knew the 'Single Ladies' song because she did. Then she proceeded to sing it for me and I had her repeat it for the camera.
Hilarious, but oh my, 5 years old singing "if you like, then you should of put a ring on it..."

Best Valentine EVER!

2011-02-16T08:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!
It was a regular morning with the Halls with Apple Cinnamon Rolls, not waffles (much to Spencer's dismay-it's okay, waffles were for dinner) and then I was off to work with not much planned. I thought about doing company wide valentine's, but decided to simplify and forego it because with the Halls and working it would have been too much and I didn't plan enough in advance to do it before. Sigh. the consequence of simplifying, BUT it encourages me to plan ahead in order to do fun things like this rather than burnout trying to scramble at the end.
However, I did stop at Wal-Mart before work this morning and picked up some conversation hearts and chocolate kisses to put on the lunch tables. Lunch today was Nonna Lucia's Italian Bistro. The food was GREAT, but the service and presentation (specifically the sanitation side of things) was NOT... I got word on Tuesday that over half of our company team members were up in the night sick with the runs. YIKES!
I also picked up Bonnie's valentine: stuff for PB&J. This girl could live on PB&J sandwiches, its one of her favorite snacks, meals, appetizers, etc. anytime is the right time for PB&J for Bonnie. I put them on her desk with a note while she was in a meeting. Hehe... I love things like this.
It was getting close to lunchtime, so I went upstairs to set up the candy on the tables and get things in order for the caterers. I came back to my desk as Bonnie was hopping around the suite. She came out of the glass doors by my desk and thanked me for her valentine. We shared a little Valentine dance (Bonnie actually danced for me) in the hall and I went back to my desk, to this...The BEST Valentine EVER!!
10 things I love about Mere...hello full love tank :)
1...how you are so considerate & thoughful (your little notes and presents)
2...how you are motivated to organize & simplify your life.
3...your organized closet (I'm kinda jealous)
4...your insight on life...I love your wisdom (eg trees and roots)
5...your positive and bubbly personality...I love being around you!
6...your spirituality and sensitivity to the spirit and your willingness to follow His will.
7...your willingness to serve others (at church, the Halls, your family, ME!)
8...how genuine you are when you talk with people...your excitement meeting new people.
9...your desire to learn more about yourself (I think it's rubbing off!)
10...the fact that you're the BEST ROOMMATE EVER! (it's true)
11...shoooot! I couldn't just have 10!!!
-your beauty inside and out
-how you can tell when you are 'pet-peeving' me
-your humor
-JUST LOVE YOU!

I have the best roommate ever.
Happy Valentine's Day!

preparing for motherhood

2011-02-13T19:50:00.000-08:00

The first part of this week was tying up loose ends around the condo, making DI runs, returning stuff, etc before Friday when I will be tending the Halls for 2 weeks. Heather and Jeremy are going on a 2 week European Cruise and I am tending their kids, I know, so fun for me! I actually am very excited, but it means that I have a window of time this week to get things done.
Monday my goal was to find a headboard because I want to put my bed on a diagonal and I love reading or journaling in bed and would rather not use my core to sit up straight-I need a head board. I went to DI, Target, Wal-Mart, Bed Bath and Beyond with no luck. Finally Bonnie suggested that I just search online-simplify, Brill! I really didn't want to pay $100 for a head board, 1 because I just don't and 2 because I just had a chat about the budge with Carl and feel slightly accountable to him for being wise with my money :) Thanks Carl. Within 10 minutes I found a black faux suede headboard for $45. Done. I love it. And I love that my goal for Monday was accomplished. To celebrate, Bonnie and I went out for a 'Never on Sundae' treat at Pizza Factory, it was REALLY good (we had the oatmeal cookie on the bottom) and I love hanging out with Bonnie, she is a smash hit!
Tuesday
Wednesday during lunch Bonnie and I went to DSW to find some classic black pumps for me because mine are DEAD! My black wedges from Victoria's Secret, my all time favorite shoes are officially done. So sad. So we went to DSW to find some for me to wear on Thursday because an interviewee that I have a slight crush on was starting working at One on One (its on the shelf because of work, but I still intended to look hott). We were successful-I should have posted a pic. I will later. I found some classic black pumps with a mostly rounded toe AND I found a great set of black pumps with a leather bow accent with pointed toes-totally great. However, I found the clearance room right as we are leaving. This is the difference between me and Bonnie. As we are leaving I comment "Bonnie, I never pay full price for anything, I always shop clearance. Bonnie: "I never shop clearance" YIKES! Well, I will post pics because the shoes are totally great. Borderline Brill if only the price was right-not so much. Wednesday night Bonnie and I did condo stuff. She painted her bathroom-fuschia! It turned out great- you all will have to come see. Housewarming party, you're invited!
Thursday I wore my black skinnies with my fuschia top and black blazer with the black pumps with the bow and my hair down and straightened-very metropolitan and totally great! Rose, you would have loved it. And I did talk with the guy that day, and shoot, he is a lot cuter than I remember from when he interviewed. On the shelf.
Thursday night I was super productive, I dropped off Rosey's valentine and t-shirts with mom and unloaded boxes for Riss, I did a DI run to return the head board I got that was actually a full size not a twin, returned my curtains at JC Penney and switched them for the cinch kind instead of grommets, and cleaned out my car-go Mere. I grabbed a quick grilled chkn sandwich from Wendy's and arrived at Beth's place totally on time! Bonnie, I am getting much better at time management-thank you SO much! Beth and I went to see Cinderella at BYU-the ballet. I guess before the performance, they did a 'meet the princess' party, so there were so many little girls all dressed up like princesses, so excited to meet the dancers 'fairies' and Cinderella and the Prince. A dream come true for the little girls and for the ballet program, hello smart marketing! I heard that all the shows were sold out, way to go BYU dance! By this time, my feet were dying (new shoes) but the performance was really well done. Live orchestra, great soloists, the prince-not so much, but the step sisters were hysterical-very well done and not over the top. Shoot. I kept imagining me and Rose in those roles-that would be a dream-oh wait, we act like that anyway stage or no stage.
Friday-another great outfit. brown corduroy pencil skirt, white shirt, Bonnie's red blazer/jacket and her 'versatile' scarf (this scarf is incredible, it goes with everything!). I had a meeting with my boss and just wanted to wear the outfit, so... and I might see the crush... shoot.
Anyway, Friday morning, Thanks to Heavenly Father who woke me up at 5:30 for enough time to finish packing and get over to Halls by 6:30. I got home so late Thursday that I threw some clothes together and other toiletries and just hoped I would wake up Friday with enough time to finish. He is watching out for me.
I got over to Halls and did the morning routine until I left for work at 7:30. Heather is all prepared with 2 binders of information-1 for medical emergencies and 1 with each day of instructions written out. This woman is incredible, she remembered everything, so I am set to go.
Friday at lunch Bonnie, Swathi, Deepthi and I went to pick out paint swatches for baby Sid's room. Deepthi is having a baby boy (Sid) at the end of Feb and asked us girls (mostly Bonnie because she is the pro) to paint the baby room. Yes, of course. So she brought her bed set and we went to Home Depot and got some different paint swatches of color combinations to mull over. This project will be so fun, can't wait!
Friday night was pizza and movie night-the regular routine with the Halls. I was so tired that night, I looked at the pile of dishes and said good night to them. The best part about tending the Halls is that I get on their 'early to bed, early to rise' schedule, wow, this really is a good schedule for sleeping.
Saturday morning we went to my dance rehearsal. Our show is coming up in April and we only have Saturdays, so our time together is very precious-hence carting 4 kids to a 3.5 hour rehearsal, I know it was brutal for them. But they were GREAT!! Holy cow, I was ready to take them to Disneyland for the day after that. Instead we decided to go see Voyage of the Dawn Treader and go to Costa Vida afterwards for dinner. It was a fun evening and they let Taylor and myself in free for the movie! I was a bit worried that it was going to be too much for Robyn, but she happened to bring a 'Littlest Pet Shop' mask that she made at a birthday party earlier that day and anytime a scary part came, she just put up her mask. It was pretty funny!
Great movie! AND it has the part with the dragon and Aslan scratching away the scales and transforming Eustus back into a boy. That is my favorite analogy for repentance-ever! I had heard that part of the story and it stuck with me, but I never connected it to C.S. Lewis or the Chronicles of Narnia. I am inspired to read that book now.
Sunday-today, was just a chill day. It was great to go to the Halls ward because I know the neighbors and enough people to feel very comfortable. During the Sacrament I asked Robyn what her favorite story of Jesus was. "When Jesus comes alive!" was her response, me: "why do you like that one?" Robyn: "I just like when Jesus comes alive, that's all!" me: "okay. end of discussion." Love that girl.
Sunday afternoon Spencer and I had a power struggle with the nerf gun, but we recovered. The kids made their valentine's, this was so funny. Spencer waited around for people to help him because 'he had the most to make', Allison made hers quickly and then assisted Robyn and everyone else-including me with Taylor's. It was great.
Sunday dinner and then we played Ticket to Ride-my favorite game these days. I gave it to the Halls for Christmas and I looked forward to playing it with them. It was a lot of fun and kind of smoothed over the grumpy Spencer which we were all glad about.
Here we go for week number 1 with the Halls. My prayer for these next few weeks is protection and health. My goal is to maintain the regular routine and everyone stays healthy, happy, and safe. Perfect.

Sickie Week

2011-02-06T21:14:00.000-08:00

I was a sickie this week, so this will be short and sweet so I can take my Chloraseptic and Coricidin and go to bed. Bonnie was sick on Monday and then I felt a bug on Tuesday that just kept growing. Friday, I managed to shuffle across the hall to the bathroom and realize that going to work was not going to happen. Shoot. So I called my good friend Ashley to run the 1on1 Chili Cook-off and let my boss know that I was down and out and went back to sleep.
I don't remember the last time I was this sick. Maybe during my Youth Artists days-jr.high years when I couldn't go to my teacher's reception because I couldn't get out of bed... wow, it's been a while.
However, getting sick is kind of a game for me because it causes me to ask "why am I sick?" most of the time there is some other emotional or mental issue festering inside that I just need to work out. This time I was at a loss.
Blake? Okay, update on the guy scene-briefly. Blake, guy in our ward in terested in Bonnie. She was not, and we both thought that Blake and I were a better fit. He came over on Thursday for dinner and Groundhog Day and we just ended up chatting. A little anxious about it because of expectations, but conclusion is that we are all better off as good friends. Perfect!
Anyway, I couldn't figure out why I was so sick, so I consulted Louise. Louise Hay wrote 'You Can Heal Your Life', my all time favorite book on... how to heal your life. It's based on the belief that the physical is a manifestation of the emotional and mental, so it provides questions and avenues to answer questions such as 'why am I sick?' Love it.
So I looked up the throat and respiratory ailments. The throat is all about change.
BINGO!
Oh, thank you Louise. My life is just changing and my body is catching up. Okay, I have a little more patience to let it run its course.

The other thing I was involved with this week, other than simplifying and sick-ing :), was reading "Tribal Leadership", a fantastic book. Highly recommend it for anyone who works in any sort of business or organization. It is based on research about how organizations operate in one of 5 stages and how to move the organization to stage 5 where the most productivity and efficiency and happiness exists. Super interesting. The 5 stages are (these are the pervading mentality of the group):
Stage 1: "Life Sucks"
Stage 2: "My Life Sucks"
Stage 3: "I'm Great! (and you're not)"
Stage 4: "We're Great!"
Stage 5: "Life is Great!"

The goal is to operate individually and collectively at Stage 5.
Hmm...I found some striking Stage 3 mentality in my work and personal life that was alarming, so I am purging that right now. The rest I am still digesting and putting it in to the context of my life, but super fascinating especially in a family context or in dance.

Shifting to Creator Mode and little bit about my week

2011-01-23T21:46:00.000-08:00

What to blog about this week...

How did I simplify this week?

I had some monumental chats with my boss this week about this topic of simplifying... in order to facilitate accomplishing what's most important. Even in a business context, or maybe especially in a business context, it is imperative to simplify and organize in order to move forward in the chosen direction for success. Especially right now, businesses can't afford to take detours that may or may not work out.

Same thing in my life.

A deeply passionate feeling to beeline the path and not take fluffy detours has rooted so strongly in me this year. That's because it is the year of the 4. A 'nose to the grindstone' year. The energy of this year supports organization, expasion of resources, and is a foundational year that will determine furture years to come.

No wonder organization has resonated for me this year!

Ha! I am just in tune. :)

So, back to these monumental conversations with my boss. Wow. He gave me an article to read that was essentially about deciding what's most important, preserving it and moving forward with the intention of accomplishing it. aka Organize, Prioritize, and SIMPLIFY.

It was so cool to talk with him about it and share my thoughts and ideas about organizing and simplifying. Bonnie and I were talking about this today. The time I have spent at 1on1 so far has been an inflow of information and experience, I have been a sponge soaking up all this new information. And this year I feel that I will shift into more of an outflow, where I offer my insights about the situation of how to plan something or how to organize a project. I am still learning and taking in, but I feel it will be more balanced with the giving and outflow. This is exciting to me because I feel that I will be more confident in sharing my wisdom and insight and actually 'doing my job' to assist my boss to lead and grow the company.

The other thing I was thinking about this week in terms of organizing and simplifying is how important it is to set systems of organization in place in order to free up time, energy and resources to spend CREATING. Having systems in place that work allow me to shift into creator mode where life is not just happening to me, but I am creating it.

It's a much better way to live and it's where I prefer to live.

I am creating this transition at work as I am setting up systems to handle things. Things like travel, birthdays, insurance/benefits, email, calendaring, etc. It is so cool to have a clear email inbox and know where to go to reference an email when I need it. Thank you Outlook!

Anyway, I have noticed that as I have set up my systems, it has freed up a bunch of time to be able to respond to important requests from my boss. Again, it feels good to be doing my job and feel organized about it.

Okay, this post has gone on long enough. I talked with my beautiful Rose tonight, who was sitting in 80 degree weather in gorgeous San Diego (sigh). wish I was there. Anyway, we talked a little about travel plans... Hawaii in Oct... for Rose's b-day...hmmm... The point is, things like this get me so excited, but I do get to check in with my simplifying goal and see if it works with that or not. Traveling with Rose...doing anything with Rose is a weak point of mine, because if I had it my way, I would travel and hang out with her all the time at the expense of other things. Obviously I am still learning about simplifying, but at least I am conscious what I am still working on.

That's enough philosophy from Mere tonight. More wisdom and insight to come.

I just want to say how grateful I am for my life and what I am learning right now. It's a dream.

Oh! I got to share about my date this week. I went out with Joe who was in my last ward. I haven't made my blog private yet, so I pray that he doesn't stumble across it on accident. Fingers crossed.

We went to Olive Garden and had a nice dinner for our date. I asked him and I told him I had a gift card for Olive Garden that I needed to use. Shoot. His response: "Olive Garden is the best place on this planet."

Perfect. Pick you up at 6:45?

Yes.

Great.

I was chided at work that I was picking him up, so I called him last minute and told him that Bonnie and I had just picked up our table and chairs, so my car was out of commission for tonight. (2 passengers could still fit because the stuff was in the back, but he didn't need to know that :))

Sure, he would pick me up.

Perfect, thanks!

The date was fun and I would love to include some of our conversation. To simplify :) I will just list some of the questions we asked throughout the date:

If you found a genie today, what would your 2nd wish be?

What childhood item, if any, would you still like to have today? (his answer: a fort, a legit fort)

All expenses paid, where would you travel to?

What would you write a book about?

Fun, easy, great conversation.

Here is what I learned from this date about the man I am looking for.

Again to simplify, I will give you the bottom line. I am looking for someone who thinks big. Big in terms of ideas, ambitions, money :), traveling, living around the globe, serving, creativity, etc.

Interesting. Another piece of the puzzle. The picture of my eternal man.:)

Pointe Shoes are the hardest thing to throw away

2011-01-16T21:18:00.001-08:00

I am determined to make my goal of getting to bed by 10:30 tonight, so this post is going to be brief.... oops uploading pictures took til almost 11. Well, I will summarize.

After my last post, I was really bugged at the the randomness of it , that I decided I want to be more focused in my blog posts. Focused on how I am simplifying my life since that is what my 2011 is about. So, here is a summary of how I simplified this week.

First off, Bonnie and I went to dinner and the Jazz game on Friday with her parents: Bird and Nee. Bonnie's family does nicknames. You will have to ask her how her parents ended up with 'Bird' and 'Nee'.

Okay, simplifying. I took apart my vision board. This has been my vision board since summer of 2009. As you can see it is a long term vision board, my children, home, PhD, etc are on there.

I decided to simplify and make a yearly vision board for 2011, so it includes what I am actively working on right now. I feel it will assist me in being more focused... and simplified.

I am working on my 2011 vision board.
Wednesday night after Bonnie and I received our new callings: FHE committee :), we vegged out with "Despicable Me" and I went through my t-shirt bin. I sorted out t-shirts from jr. high, high school, college, China, girls camp, leadership trainings, marching band, conferences, races, concerts, ballet workshops, etc. I have saved all these shirts to eventually go in a t-shirt quilt. We invited our friend Blake over for the movie that night and apparently t-shirt quilts are a... Utah thing, or maybe just an Ashton thing. Don't know, but the idea of a t-shirt quilt was totally foreign to Bonnie and Blake. In any event, I have been so excited about someday making a t-shirt quilt (or have one of my sewing goddess sisters make one for me :)) So I went through all my t-shirts, threw away a bunch, and cut the logos out of the rest. Simplify. I went from an overflowing bin to this stack. Good job Mere!
This is the bag of scraps from the t-shirts. Shoot. Don't tell Mom that I didn't keep them and use them for rags. Yikes!

I also took an equally sized bag of t-shirts to DI. Simplify, I love it!
Pointe shoes was the next item on my list of things to go through. Wow, this was the most emotional throw away process. Here are the pairs of shoes I kept, it's not all of them!
This was my garbage can with all the throw away shoes piled in it. I kept 6 significant pair, including the pair that has a blood stain on the pinky toe. That was a monumental day when I actually bled through the satin on my pointe shoe. It was the day I arrived at being a hard core ballerina!
I put all my shoes in this purple bag in preparation to go to the dumpster. The bag was by my front door for a couple of days and every time I walked past it, I questioned if I was really ready to let them go. This is me not really sure.
We marched out to the dumpster on a 'garbage run' and I almost felt like I was walking the plank, ready to throw part of my life away.

I tossed them in and they sprawled out of the bag. I stood there for a moment looking at the pink satin shoes at the bottom of the dumpster and just started to cry. It was more than just satin and plaster I was throwing away. I was tossing out the ideal I had identified with myself for so long. I am stripping away everything that is not genuinely me, but this one was tough. All the memories in those shoes, all the sweat, tears, and blood (literally). These were symbols of a big part of my life that is changing.

Other ways I simplified this week:

-decided to pick up coffee AND breakfast pastries for the VIPs at Starbucks instead of running around to 2-3 different places. Thank you Bonnie. I felt so metropolitan picking up coffee before work in my great black skinnies and cream lacy shirt.

-said no to teaching a dance class after work on Wednesday

-didn't run this week so I could put more of my room together. shoot. not so great on this one. Physical Health is on the top of my goal list for 2011....

-took it easy after rehearsal on Saturday to let the bod recover from some crazy floor stuff.

Oh news!

We started rehearsals for Body Logic last week. Body Logic Dance is the performing dance company that me and my friends started. Our first show is April 9th. Go us! I know, we are rehearsing on Saturdays and I am responsible for all the non-profit stuff, you know, registering the business, obtaining 501c3 status, etc. Working on that this coming week.

Anyway, it feels so good to dance, it is just enough right now. I love where dance is in my life right now. It's in balance with where I am at. It's perfect.

Sunday after I cooked chicken broccoli casserole, which turned out great-Mom, I am turning domestic- Bonnie and I went to do dessert and games with the Partridges. Joe Partridge is one of our most favorite coworkers. He is one of the best guys on this planet and we have a blast when we are together. Joe and Bonnie are both on the project management side for the IT dept at 1on1 and it is a good thing that I don't sit by them because I would not get anything done. Anyway, he is a treat and so is his wife Shauntell and girls, Rebecca, Amanda and Camilla.
Shauntell made this fabulous oreo, ice cream, caramel... delight which I may or may not have had more than 2 servings. shoot. I saved up for it.

We played with the girls and did family scripture and prayers with them before bed. Then the adults played up and down (or wizard as Joe called it). And I totally won!! Joe hates gloaters, so I will just blog my gloating, since I ROCKED it! Here is the score card from the game. Winner=Mere!

And I am happy to report that my consistent work on becoming a Jelly Belly expert paid off on Saturday night! I was at the Halls on Saturday night and Spencer was doing a science experiment. with Jelly Bellys, yeah right. His hypothesis was that you cannot taste and identify individual jelly belly flavors with your nose plugged. So, as his subject, I sampled 10 different Jelly Bellys, blindfolded with my nose plugged. My accuracy: 30%. This was actually kind of hard. I hate breathing out of my mouth, gave me a little bit of anxiety. Then I sampled the same 10 Jelly Bellys with my blind fold still on and my nose unplugged. My Accuracy 100%. I ROCKED it! Spencer said I 'proved his hypothesis the very best'. Go Mere! All that sampling, tasting, chatting, and discussing over Jelly Bellys with fellow coworkers has paid off. Yes! My job is useful for something :) Just kidding. But I was pretty proud.

All in all, I am moving forward in simplifying my life and I am so happy where I am at. I am in a great place and my thanks to God for waking every morning excited to BE and LIVE my life.

pretty normal week, except what's normal?

2011-01-09T15:37:00.000-08:00

The best part of moving out is...GAIN laundry detergent, hands down. Thanks to my sister in law Rachel for introducing us.

I was reflecting on what I was going to include in my blog for this week that seemed pretty uneventful, but as I looked closer, this week was actually full of good and exciting stuff. And I simplified. :) I am on track.

The first part of my week was focused on preparing for the presentation of our Give Back project for 1on1. Each of us was given $100 for Christmas to spend on someone else and the instructions were 'be creative' and report back.

Oh my, I got to read through all the reports and here is a synopsis of some of the most inspiring stories and experiences:

-Recordable storybooks for terminally ill children at UofU hospital

-Toys, books, games and spending a day at mental hospital with teens who couldn't leave for Christmas

-Filling up gas tanks for strangers on Christmas Eve

-Purchasing a wheelchair for the greeter with Cerebral Palsy at Home Depot

-Sending calling cards to hospital for severely wounded soldiers in Germany

-Christmas for women and children shelter, private showing of Tangled, magician, beauticians

-LOTS of anonymous assistance for ward and family members

The list goes on... it was amazing!

So for our January Powerstand (all employee meeting) we had people share 1 min summaries and had a drawing for gift cards and ipads.

Then we had breakfast burritos

(I found someone to do eggs in bulk! way to come through Magleby's Fresh)

Raspberry bread pudding from Kneaders

(you were right Stu, that IS one of the BEST things they serve),

and muffins from Provo Bakery

(yummiest bran muffins on the planet!)

That was the big whee for the week, and if felt extra big since I was sick. I woke up Tuesday and did my hair, when I was done, I was ready to go back to bed. It just about took everything out of me... just 2 days of feeling yucky, then I was on the mend.

Tuesday night the RS presidency came to meet us-great group of girls!

Wednesday night we went to meet with the Bishopric members, a 1on1 get to know you. I am scheduled to meet with a counselor this Wednesday again, Bonnie asked "whats your calling going to be?"...we'll see

and Thursday night I went to the first Tour de Donut meeting for 2011's event. It makes me laugh everytime still. 21 mile bike race done in 3 laps, eating donuts between each lap. I know. Anyway, I am part of the representation from 1on1 since we are sponsoring it again this year. It is always interesting to me to observe group dynamics and this one is particularly fascinating.

I put more of my room together this week, purged some more... and found a beautiful white print duvee cover for my bed. I am going white with colored pillows and throw. Still working on the bedskirt and curtains.

Oh my, Friday night I started going through my 3 boxes (shoebox size) of notes, cards, compliments, congrats letters, letters from Nola, high school notes from Wayne (ha!), etc.... It was heartwarming and unbelievable at the same time. I have some good memories to bring up at our next high school reunion. :) I found my itinerary and plane ticket from my marching band Hawaii trip in 2001. Yikes!! What am I supposed to do with all this stuff?

Bonnie's response: "Just keep what's most important and throw the rest away."

"But it's all important?"

No Mere. make some decisions. simplify.

ok.

I just have to thank my wonderful sisters. I went through all the notes I have received from them throughout the years from birthday cards, pillow notes, paper drawn floral bouquets from performances, good luck on auditions, congrats on pageants, christmas poems, etc. Wow!

a. I am loved

b. I have the best sisters in the world

I just felt grateful for the loving relationships we share that have continued across all the happenings in our lives-I love you!!

This is a long post, I know...and not any picures. Almost done.

Saturday I went to Impact's all grad training and it was about prosperity, money and wealth this year. Lots of great stuff and ideas about how to increase the ease of inflow/outflow. I am still processing through all of it, but one of the thngs i came away with was my own vision of what I want to do in my life relative to a career. I love the non-profit work and organizing funds and resources to support community and creative projects. So there is one more piece of the puzzle.

Sunday, my dear home teacher Graden called me. Home Teacher for life, I love it!

Life is Good!

Hello 2011!!

2011-01-02T19:01:00.000-08:00

HELLO 2011!

This is very much a NEW YEAR for me.

New Room, New Roommate, New Ward, New Resolves, New Organization Skills, New Me!

I Just moved to a condo in Pleasant Grove 343 S 1000 W #104,

so this year for New Year's,

I learned how to paint a room.

(with the master painter: my new roommate, Bonnie).

And I learned that painting is not rocket science! :)

It was actually really fun!

The colors: Mushroom Bisque with a Mixed Berry Jam wall-it turned out Gorgeous!

Here is before, well, after priming edges and taping:

A damp washcloth was my best friend for the edges. Shoot, good thing I don't do this for a living.
I forgot to take an after picture of the paint job, but my room isn't put together,
so I will post more pics later.
Bonnie and I painted all day New Year's Eve, so at midnight, we crashed on the couch, watched the NY Times Square ball drop and wished each other a "Happy New Year... I'm Tired!" Starting off the New Year with freshly painted walls, mmm feels good!

So New Year's Day I moved in to my new room! And, HELLO need to ORGANIZE!
Organization has been something I have been feeling passionate about lately, out of necessity with my job at One on One because of the massive amounts of information to keep track of and lack of a system to manage it all.
They didn't teach me how to organize office supplies, take care of fire extinguisher inspections, remodel a commercial building or find out who cooks eggs in bulk for 150, in college. But they did teach me how to creatively solve problems and ask masters who have figured it out.
So, my quest for 2011 is to ORGANIZE and SIMPLIFY my life.
And I happen to be rooming with the Master of Organization (she asked for a filing cabinet for Christmas when she was 12). Needless to say, I am and gleaning fabulous and effective ways to organize and store my stuff for easy reference/use.
Here is our handy work. This is my closet...now

I feel good about it.

I am still putting the rest of my room together, more pictures to come.

Now for my New Year's Resolutions...
A couple years ago I decided to do away with unreachable goals and unreasonable expectations and decided to pick 1 word to focus on, amplify, embody, and learn about. This has been great for me because it is 1 thing to remember instead of 40, AND I find new connections and different ways that this word shows up in my life-it's super fascinating and makes for a memorable year.

So the 2011 word(s)
ORGANIZED SIMPLICITY
or
SIMPLIFY

Everything this year will be focused on simplifying, paring down, getting rid of the extras. Here is my meaningful objective for 2011 (I know, I read it in a book and decided to try it)

In 2011, I am committed to Organized Simplicity to facilitate:
Physical Health and Wellness
Spiritual Growth
Balance
Financial Stability
Career Development
and Miracles on a daily basis
To accomplish this, I am committed to paring down my life to include only the essentials needed for my journey Home to God.

Onward and Upward, this is going to be a FANTASTIC year!
Hello 2011!

Update

2010-03-07T19:48:00.001-08:00

Below is a letter I just emailed out to friends and family. A brief update on what I am currently flaring about...

Hello dear family and friends,
This update is highly overdue and I have been thinking about each of you lately and remembering how much I love and appreciate you in my life, so thank you! And here is a brief update (we'll see how brief, I am very much a woman... once I get going, I just want to share it all)
The latest news is that I applied to 3 graduate schools this year: Ohio State(Dance), Indiana University(Arts Administration), and Southern Utah University (Arts Administration). I heard back from Ohio State, they said no... my top choice, so a bit disappointing. However a week before I got my letter I felt like it was going to be a no and that the timing just doesn't work right now. I loved the audition experience and feel like that department would be a great fit for me when the time is right.
I am still waiting to hear back from Indiana and SUU, so I will keep you posted. I love where I am at right now with my job, so I am okay whichever way it goes with graduate school for this fall.
Now, to describe where I am currently at... the best corporate company in the history of this universe, One on One Marketing. It is the BOMB.com and I love it! I am the executive administrative assistant working directly with the owner and HR director, so the tasks on my plate range from handling insurance, scheduling interviews, and arranging conference accomodations to event planning, birthday card making, and taking my boss' truck to the fancy schmancy car wash. I am currently planning our "March Madness" event. We have a basketball court in our building (a mini one) and a ping-pong table in our breakroom, so every year we do a Ping-Pong and PIG tournament with all employees complete with brackets and all. Then, on the first friday of March Madness we rent out the whole first floor of Noah's event building and play raquetball, wallyball, basketball, ping-pong and billiards all afternoon with fabulous food and oodles of snacks. I have never experienced this, but I am planning a fantastic afternoon. I have fallen in love with event planning through this job and feel grateful to contribute my feminine touch to each event such as making sure all the balloons, tablecloths, and decorations coordinate with the theme whether it be 'Fiesta', 'PI', Halloween, or March Madness. So fun. I really hit the jack pot on this job.
So I love my job! Our staff meetings are called "Powerstands" and I actually performed my graduate school dance solo at our meeting right before I flew out to Ohio. Scared out of my pants. My audition performance felt like a breeze compared to performing for the One on Oners, but so glad I did it. I shared a little bit about my piece and related a principle of movement to business. Its very interesting for me to find the connections between the dance world and the corporate world, and the fun challenge for me was presenting the connection that I found between movement and business in such a way that made sense to my corporate audience. It was so fun, I love being a dancer! :)
We also had an employee do his version of Chris Farley's "Matt Foley, motivational speaker". Hilarious!! Anyway, it's the best place for me right now! I am refining administrative and random skills that will serve me for the rest of my life!
Besides working full time at One on One in American Fork, I am teaching ballet classes at a dance studio on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. I learning ALOT!! Holy Cow, lots about teaching, lots about my philosophy on teaching/dance (which is very different from the philosophy of this competition jazz dance studio) and so forth. It is challenging, rewarding, and taxing, but invaluable experience.
I am still loving my BYU 56th ward, the same ward I was in during my college years. Uncle Alan is my bishop-in cas you didnt know- and it is an absolute treat being under his and Aunt Karen's direction and leadership. Everytime Aunt Karen opens her mouth, my mind explodes and my heart just melts, she is so wise and beautiful! I love when they come to my sunday school class, intimidating sometimes, but so great to hear their insights and experience. I am still serving as the Visiting teaching coordinator, and sunday school teacher and I love it!
So between all of that I just sit at home and dream up my wedding plans and wait for my knight in shining armor to ride up and take me with him. Mom says I am MIA, what is she talking about?
Anyway, the only thing I would add to my life right would be a bit more dancing. Sitting all day just doesn't cut it forever, so I am working on that. A group of local dancers that I danced with at UVU started a group "Body Logic Dance" and we get together a few times a week and put together choreography and teach classes. We are planning a concert for the end of May or beginning of June... inbetween Christina's wedding of course. But I miss dancing everyday, and so does my body.

So there is a brief update. If you made it to this point, thank you. and congratulations, I love you!!!

All my love!
Mere