Wow, two weeks in a row!
This week was a beautiful recuperation week from the reunion hoopla. Sad to say goodbye to family members, but great to reacquaint with my bed, work, and ward. Last Sunday I spent the day with Rosey up in Salt Lake and visited my Grandpa Conway who was in the hospital. We had a great chat with him and I was amazed to see how sharp his mind still is. He had a "to do" list for Rose to take care of his garden and other odds and ends. We read Elder Ballard's talk from this last conference to Grandpa and had a great laugh over the initial story Elder ballard told of the Edsel car. We asked Grandpa what an Edsel was before we read the next line of the talk "if you don't know what an Edsel is, ask your Grandpa." Roger and Melanie came by and we had a great chat with them. As we were leaving and discussing Grandpa's move to a rehab place, Roger mentioned that Uncle Alan was put in as a Bishop that day, so we wouldn't be able to come up until Monday. Oh great! He will be a great bishop, were my thoughts.
Sunday night I called my Relief Society President about visiting teaching stuff and she told me about the change in our Bishopric that day, then she said " I think it's your uncle" WHAT!!! Sure enough, Uncle Alan was my new singles ward Bishop! I was so excited, but also very sad to have missed the meeting and the chance to thank and say farewell to my previous bishopric whom I loved very much!
Monday morning I took Ren and his family to the airport with a hopeful thought of seeing them in January for the OSU MFA audition. Monday afternoon I had lunch at Guru's with Angie, one of my dance professors from UVU and my very dear friend. The bit about our conversation that stood out to me was about relationships and the temple covenants we make as latter-day saints. I felt like I was able to shed truthful light on the importance of those covenants within the broad plan to be like God.
Tuesday I spent the day with Taylor Hall wile his family was at Lagoon for the company party. We met my family at the zoo for the afternoon and I got in free for pushing Taylor in his wheelchair! It was so fun to be there with all the kiddos and extend the family time a bit longer!
Wednesday was my serious recuperation day with Yoga in the morning followed by a 3 hour nap, mmmm yummy! That night I helped Kim and David make their collages from the reunion. I was mostly willing, but we had a great time! It was so fun to go through magazines and explain the pictures and words for them and let them decide what to include. They got a repetitive kick out of the words created when we would cut out a letter to use it for the collage. Words like "ideo" and "reative"
Thursday I went to the afternoon water aerobics class at the Provo Rec Center. I am in to swimming laps and water aerobics these days as a fantastic means of gentle exercise to keep my body in shape in the off dancing season, I have reconnected to the fish within! After water aerobics I took Joe and Stu's kids to the Bean Museum. We ran into Matt and April in the play room area, so fun! It was so fun to watch the kids get excited about the animals and have an outing with them. The reunion was great, but it is outings such as these when I really get to bond with the kids. I also appreciated this outing as another drop of oil in my motherhood lamp! I will love and enjoy motherhood more than I think I will.
Friday I spent the day with the Halls. I took Taylor swimming at the AF pool and just had a ball with him. He noticeably perks up when he gets in the water. It was so fun! I also ran into my friend Kari Jo from school and it was really refreshing to see her and reconnect to that part of my life again. Friday night I went up to the Tabernacle Choir Pioneer Celebration Concert with my Aunt Annette and Uncle Gordon, cousin Beth and brother Aaron. It was fantastic!! It was celebrating 80 years of the Music and Spoken Word broadcast, so it was filled with the history of the broadcast, pioneer stories, and permeated with personal testimonies and experiences of how this boradcast has made a difference in the lives of many. My favorite part was the video footage of children playing while the choir sang "I feel my Savior's Love". It reaffirmed my testimony of how central the Family is to the plan of Happiness.
Saturday I spent the morning visiting with Jessy and Kyle who were in my ward a couple of years ago. Jessy and I were roommates and tehy are headed off to medical school tomorrow. It was really great to visit and catch up before saying goodbye. We visited for longer than I anticipated and I could have stayed there all day, but I was off to a bridal shower for Alyssa Merrell. Alyssa and I were in the same ward during our YW years. It is amazing how time flies by, but occasionally stops to let you take in the view. I saw people I haven't seen for years, now with babies, boyfriends, and big bucks. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever catch up, until I remember that I am very happy where I am at and know that I am in my perfect journey. Saturday night I tended Robyn and Taylor while the rest went to West Side Story. I love hanging out with Robyn, I felt like I followed her around like a little sister excited to play whatever games she picked out.
I got home last night excited to take a luxurious shower and prepare my lesson when Rose called about 12:15 to tell me about her great dating weekend. Nothing is better than midnight chats with sisters, especially when it involves boys:)
Today at Church I got to hug my aunt and uncle and officially meet my new bishopric. They all carry the mantle and seem perfect for their callings.
Today was my day to teach Sunday School and I learn something new everytime I teach. Today it was: capturing the essence of the lesson and focusing on one main principle is more effective than covering miles of ground.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Ruby Reunion 2009!
Wow! You know that idea about blogging more often? Well...
This past week my immediate family gathered for a family reunion in honor of my parents 40th Wedding anniversary on July 11th and of course the 4th that connotes a plethera of family traditions for us. The traditional gift that goes with 40 years of marriage is the ruby stone, so this event was affectionately known as the "Ruby Reunion!" Our goals to Reconnect, Unify, Be together, and Yak alot summarize our purposes for gathering for the first time in 5 years. Everyone was there, all 51 of us!!
We stayed at my uncle's cabin up above Sundance. It was a great location away from civilization, but close enough to Macey's. Dialogue for this event has been flooding my inbox since January and everything turned out great! Here is a brief synopsis of what we did.
Monday (July 6, my birthday)
-Birthday Dogpile
My wakeup call was a customized dogpile with added members and many birthday wished!
-Orientation from the parents
-Games in "the meadow"
-Pirate Ship
The spatious back deck was designated as the Pirate Ship, complete with a fantastic sail made out of a fitted sheet slipped on to a wooden cross and tied with rope to the banister. My nephew Rowan has been planning this and came prepared with a treasure chest, knives, canons, bandannas, and flag... it was wicked awesome!!
-worked on collages*
*This is our family history, everyone makes a collage of magazine cutout words and pictures about them.
-Italian dinner night
My family sang to me and my mom presented her gift. I asked for an iPod for my birthday and I got one... made out of marzipan!
-FHE: Ashton Family Jeopardy!
So fun! We brainstormed about Phil's fettishes, family ancestors, sang 1776 quotations, and filled out the birthdays for everyone in teams.
Tuesday 7
-Hike up to Stewart Falls, we paused periodically to read and discuss pioneer stories. We even crossed the Sweet Water river on the backs of our "rescuers" across the designated patch of trail.
-Tortilla demo: how to make spinach tortillas
I was frantically running around preparing for the talent show
-Talent Show Part I (Rose and I were the MCs with bejeweled outfits and flowers)
Lots of piano solos and some really great skits and songs
-Latino Dinner
-Talent Show Part II
Rose and I did the comedy piece from my last concert which was a Q&A... in fully hooded purple tye-dye unitards. Deep and cosmic questions were answered with Modern Dance, Rose was the announcer and I was the dancer. My feet got colder and colder as our turn approached and I finally whispered to Rosey "I can't do it". I was so hesitant to perform not knowing how my family would respond to this piece. But she urged until I said I would do it without the costumes. So we stood up to go and my brother who knew about the costumes saw we weren't in them and shouted that we MUST use the costumes. I finally consented and we rushed to put them on.
I was so relieved to hear the laughter fill the room as Rose went out, then me and we went through the whole piece.
Throughout the week many referred back to some of my responses, so I know that their cosmic questions were in fact answered in that Q&A session! :) The best was my nephew Dallin (12) "your performance actually GAVE me questions... like, who likes to watch this kind of dancing anyway..." yes I love being a Modern Dancer!
I also played the part of Kathy in "The sign on Rosie's Door" reading, was a backup singer to Simon's solo "One Last Kiss" from Bye Bye Birdie, and the marshmallow girl for Ren's "Chubby Bunny" contest only the words were "Ruby Reunion". My brother Joe won with 10 big marshmallows stuffed in his mouth and a clear vocalized "Ruby Reunion".
-Bedtime
The only downer for this location is the limited bedrooms and oodles of couples with kids. So I slept up in the master bedroom with Jules and Joe and their families (9), Riss, Rose, & Brinn on the floor and marg and Nate on the bed, a total of 14 people. The whole floor was bedding for bodies.
Wednesday 8
-Family Pictures!
Nate is a photographer and patiently took pictures all morning of individual families and groups of sisters and kids. When my parents arrived we walked to our spot and set up. While Nate setup, Rose and I distracted the kids. We sang all the songs we knew with giant actions and animated faces. It worked!! we had happy children for the group shot!
-Star Wars Birthday Bash (I cochaired this event with Doug)
We had 2 groups rotating through "I had a little Jawa", musical chairs for seating ont he Millenial Falcon, relay races to test their ability to use The Force, and the Jedi Training Camp (an obstacle course outside complete with dueling Darth Vador). Doug rented a Darth and Obi costume for him and Carl. The kids were a bit freaked when he first came out, but once he took off his mask they thought it was pretty cool. At the end we smashed a Darth Vador pinata that my mom has been making all month and went inside to decorate Yoda cupcakes and sing!
-Phew!! All my official responsibilities were complete: talent show, Latino dinner, and birthday bash... so I just sat on the couch and chatted for a couple of hours.
-Family Pictures in Ruby Red shirts
We quickly went out for good light and took family pics in our Ruby Red t-shirts that Rose and I ironed on logos for on Sunday
-Russian Dinner night
I anticipated this night to be disgusting, but it turned out to be almost my favorite and totally delish!
-Family Council
In the past this has been the dreaded bucket of worms that we discuss the elephants in the room. But my parents planned it with the kids in mind and simply officiated our family mission statement "KFB" (Keep the Faith Brother/Babies) and talked about when it started with my oldest brother Ren on his mission. Each family got a glass brick with vinyl letters "KFB" and ribbon to tie around it to display at home.
-Walk
A few of us went on a walk that night and Sean called Christina so we walked up ahead of her on the way back. Love special phone calls... hmmm
Thursday 9
-Princess Pamper Party
All the little nieces have been waiting for this all week and were good sports during the Star Wars stuff because they knew this was coming.
We (all the girls) dressed up, painted nails, read Princess and the Pea, decorated crowns, went on a princess scavenger hunt for bracelets, barrettes, and hugs and kisses from the king (Grandpa), and were escorted to the ball by their handsome princes (dads and brothers in Burger King crowns) They were even announced by a royal trumpeter (Rowan) with a ding-a-ling and their royal names (Cathleen). They all danced at the ball and had a glorious time!
-Water Play
We played with water balloons, a kiddie pool, a big blow-up slide with water, water guns, and a slip'n slide. The kids enjoyed it fast before the real water war began between the team on the deck and everyone else. It turned into pots, pans and bowls of water launched across the banister. No one left dry, unless you were holding a baby or a camera on the side.
-Group bathtime
6 little girls in the jetted tub upstairs, doesn't get more fun than that. Then the boys turn, I wasn't invited to that party.
-Chinese Dinner night
-Family Treasure Hunt and game night
What family gets excited about doing a treasure hunt together? We did these all the time growing up. "Pirates are always going around looking for buried treasure, but they didn't realize the treasure was the happy memories they were making along the way." (something like that)
-Game Night
Played Barnyard Rummy and caught everyone on the final hand. I was the only one down with one card left. Half-way around the circle, Brinn discarded a Rummy and I called it!
-Worked more on my collage
Friday 10
-Temple trip to Provo Temple
Early morning session with baptisms afterward. We took a group of 85 family names to baptize and confirm. This was my first time doing family names and it was a special event to be there with my older brothers and participate in the ordinances with them.
-Family Fair
The long windy garage tunnel was filled with games: shooting out a candle w/ a water gun, shaving a balloon without popping it, guessing how many raisins in a jar, knocking down milk jugs with a tennis ball, balloon animals, putting the bean in the cup on your head with chopsticks, and hoola hooping. Then we went upstairs for doughnuts on a string and parachute play. Some of the kids climbed into the parachute to be tossed up in the air,and some had to hold someone else's hand in the parachute to feel okay, it was so cute!
-Family Movie Night
We watched "The Muppet Musicians of Bremen" a family favorite for the kids. I hadn't seen it for years, so it was fun to finally connect the beloved lines my brothers frequently quote in conversations to the scenes in the film. Like: "What the clunge is this?"
Then we watched "The Court Jester" with Danny Kaye, another beloved Ashton must see film if you ever want to belong to this family. However, most of us worked on our quilt blocks. Our gift to our parents this year for their anniversary is a quilt block from everyone sewn into some sort of pillowcase or wall hanging. We each drew something significant about us on our square with fabric markers.
Saturday 11
-Closing Devotional
Each of the kids got a "kinder-egg" from Europe. These eggs have a chocolate shell with a little toy inside connecting back to our theme of treasure, rubies, pirates, etc.
-Cleaned up
-Adult Dinner
All adults 18 and up went to the iBuffet by Movies 8 and then to Stu and Lisa's for an evaluation of the Ruby Reunion. Joe told "Goldirocks" story (his 3 Bears story in an Asian accent) it is hysterical!!
The overall word was that it was a great success and can't wait for the next one in 3-4 years! All our goals were met, the cousins know each other, our testimonies are renewed, and everyone enjoyed the time together.
This past week my immediate family gathered for a family reunion in honor of my parents 40th Wedding anniversary on July 11th and of course the 4th that connotes a plethera of family traditions for us. The traditional gift that goes with 40 years of marriage is the ruby stone, so this event was affectionately known as the "Ruby Reunion!" Our goals to Reconnect, Unify, Be together, and Yak alot summarize our purposes for gathering for the first time in 5 years. Everyone was there, all 51 of us!!
We stayed at my uncle's cabin up above Sundance. It was a great location away from civilization, but close enough to Macey's. Dialogue for this event has been flooding my inbox since January and everything turned out great! Here is a brief synopsis of what we did.
Monday (July 6, my birthday)
-Birthday Dogpile
My wakeup call was a customized dogpile with added members and many birthday wished!
-Orientation from the parents
-Games in "the meadow"
-Pirate Ship
The spatious back deck was designated as the Pirate Ship, complete with a fantastic sail made out of a fitted sheet slipped on to a wooden cross and tied with rope to the banister. My nephew Rowan has been planning this and came prepared with a treasure chest, knives, canons, bandannas, and flag... it was wicked awesome!!
-worked on collages*
*This is our family history, everyone makes a collage of magazine cutout words and pictures about them.
-Italian dinner night
My family sang to me and my mom presented her gift. I asked for an iPod for my birthday and I got one... made out of marzipan!
-FHE: Ashton Family Jeopardy!
So fun! We brainstormed about Phil's fettishes, family ancestors, sang 1776 quotations, and filled out the birthdays for everyone in teams.
Tuesday 7
-Hike up to Stewart Falls, we paused periodically to read and discuss pioneer stories. We even crossed the Sweet Water river on the backs of our "rescuers" across the designated patch of trail.
-Tortilla demo: how to make spinach tortillas
I was frantically running around preparing for the talent show
-Talent Show Part I (Rose and I were the MCs with bejeweled outfits and flowers)
Lots of piano solos and some really great skits and songs
-Latino Dinner
-Talent Show Part II
Rose and I did the comedy piece from my last concert which was a Q&A... in fully hooded purple tye-dye unitards. Deep and cosmic questions were answered with Modern Dance, Rose was the announcer and I was the dancer. My feet got colder and colder as our turn approached and I finally whispered to Rosey "I can't do it". I was so hesitant to perform not knowing how my family would respond to this piece. But she urged until I said I would do it without the costumes. So we stood up to go and my brother who knew about the costumes saw we weren't in them and shouted that we MUST use the costumes. I finally consented and we rushed to put them on.
I was so relieved to hear the laughter fill the room as Rose went out, then me and we went through the whole piece.
Throughout the week many referred back to some of my responses, so I know that their cosmic questions were in fact answered in that Q&A session! :) The best was my nephew Dallin (12) "your performance actually GAVE me questions... like, who likes to watch this kind of dancing anyway..." yes I love being a Modern Dancer!
I also played the part of Kathy in "The sign on Rosie's Door" reading, was a backup singer to Simon's solo "One Last Kiss" from Bye Bye Birdie, and the marshmallow girl for Ren's "Chubby Bunny" contest only the words were "Ruby Reunion". My brother Joe won with 10 big marshmallows stuffed in his mouth and a clear vocalized "Ruby Reunion".
-Bedtime
The only downer for this location is the limited bedrooms and oodles of couples with kids. So I slept up in the master bedroom with Jules and Joe and their families (9), Riss, Rose, & Brinn on the floor and marg and Nate on the bed, a total of 14 people. The whole floor was bedding for bodies.
Wednesday 8
-Family Pictures!
Nate is a photographer and patiently took pictures all morning of individual families and groups of sisters and kids. When my parents arrived we walked to our spot and set up. While Nate setup, Rose and I distracted the kids. We sang all the songs we knew with giant actions and animated faces. It worked!! we had happy children for the group shot!
-Star Wars Birthday Bash (I cochaired this event with Doug)
We had 2 groups rotating through "I had a little Jawa", musical chairs for seating ont he Millenial Falcon, relay races to test their ability to use The Force, and the Jedi Training Camp (an obstacle course outside complete with dueling Darth Vador). Doug rented a Darth and Obi costume for him and Carl. The kids were a bit freaked when he first came out, but once he took off his mask they thought it was pretty cool. At the end we smashed a Darth Vador pinata that my mom has been making all month and went inside to decorate Yoda cupcakes and sing!
-Phew!! All my official responsibilities were complete: talent show, Latino dinner, and birthday bash... so I just sat on the couch and chatted for a couple of hours.
-Family Pictures in Ruby Red shirts
We quickly went out for good light and took family pics in our Ruby Red t-shirts that Rose and I ironed on logos for on Sunday
-Russian Dinner night
I anticipated this night to be disgusting, but it turned out to be almost my favorite and totally delish!
-Family Council
In the past this has been the dreaded bucket of worms that we discuss the elephants in the room. But my parents planned it with the kids in mind and simply officiated our family mission statement "KFB" (Keep the Faith Brother/Babies) and talked about when it started with my oldest brother Ren on his mission. Each family got a glass brick with vinyl letters "KFB" and ribbon to tie around it to display at home.
-Walk
A few of us went on a walk that night and Sean called Christina so we walked up ahead of her on the way back. Love special phone calls... hmmm
Thursday 9
-Princess Pamper Party
All the little nieces have been waiting for this all week and were good sports during the Star Wars stuff because they knew this was coming.
We (all the girls) dressed up, painted nails, read Princess and the Pea, decorated crowns, went on a princess scavenger hunt for bracelets, barrettes, and hugs and kisses from the king (Grandpa), and were escorted to the ball by their handsome princes (dads and brothers in Burger King crowns) They were even announced by a royal trumpeter (Rowan) with a ding-a-ling and their royal names (Cathleen). They all danced at the ball and had a glorious time!
-Water Play
We played with water balloons, a kiddie pool, a big blow-up slide with water, water guns, and a slip'n slide. The kids enjoyed it fast before the real water war began between the team on the deck and everyone else. It turned into pots, pans and bowls of water launched across the banister. No one left dry, unless you were holding a baby or a camera on the side.
-Group bathtime
6 little girls in the jetted tub upstairs, doesn't get more fun than that. Then the boys turn, I wasn't invited to that party.
-Chinese Dinner night
-Family Treasure Hunt and game night
What family gets excited about doing a treasure hunt together? We did these all the time growing up. "Pirates are always going around looking for buried treasure, but they didn't realize the treasure was the happy memories they were making along the way." (something like that)
-Game Night
Played Barnyard Rummy and caught everyone on the final hand. I was the only one down with one card left. Half-way around the circle, Brinn discarded a Rummy and I called it!
-Worked more on my collage
Friday 10
-Temple trip to Provo Temple
Early morning session with baptisms afterward. We took a group of 85 family names to baptize and confirm. This was my first time doing family names and it was a special event to be there with my older brothers and participate in the ordinances with them.
-Family Fair
The long windy garage tunnel was filled with games: shooting out a candle w/ a water gun, shaving a balloon without popping it, guessing how many raisins in a jar, knocking down milk jugs with a tennis ball, balloon animals, putting the bean in the cup on your head with chopsticks, and hoola hooping. Then we went upstairs for doughnuts on a string and parachute play. Some of the kids climbed into the parachute to be tossed up in the air,and some had to hold someone else's hand in the parachute to feel okay, it was so cute!
-Family Movie Night
We watched "The Muppet Musicians of Bremen" a family favorite for the kids. I hadn't seen it for years, so it was fun to finally connect the beloved lines my brothers frequently quote in conversations to the scenes in the film. Like: "What the clunge is this?"
Then we watched "The Court Jester" with Danny Kaye, another beloved Ashton must see film if you ever want to belong to this family. However, most of us worked on our quilt blocks. Our gift to our parents this year for their anniversary is a quilt block from everyone sewn into some sort of pillowcase or wall hanging. We each drew something significant about us on our square with fabric markers.
Saturday 11
-Closing Devotional
Each of the kids got a "kinder-egg" from Europe. These eggs have a chocolate shell with a little toy inside connecting back to our theme of treasure, rubies, pirates, etc.
-Cleaned up
-Adult Dinner
All adults 18 and up went to the iBuffet by Movies 8 and then to Stu and Lisa's for an evaluation of the Ruby Reunion. Joe told "Goldirocks" story (his 3 Bears story in an Asian accent) it is hysterical!!
The overall word was that it was a great success and can't wait for the next one in 3-4 years! All our goals were met, the cousins know each other, our testimonies are renewed, and everyone enjoyed the time together.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Today in Relief Society we talked about family history. Its sneaky presentation distracted me from zoning out and when my teacher explained that blogging is part of "what we can do now with family history" I was engaged and committed to blog a bit today eventhough the ups and downs of my week seem rather ordinary. But I have to remember that you are not living everyday of my life and it was actually a wonderful eventful week.
Monday I sacrificed my tredmill date to meet with Drew Williams, a supervisor over my new grant proposal internship I am starting. His office is in the advancement bldg at the top of campus, so while I was in the neighborhood I stopped to see Bill Bridges since his office is now up there too. He reminded me how much he loves and adores me and my family and as usual I left feeling warm and fuzzy from the shower of compliments that usually accompanies visits with him. I hurried down to class because we had a guest teacher, Tito who is here setting Alwin Nikolais' "Crystal and the Sphere" on the Ririe Woodbury company in SLC. His class spent 45 minutes on the floor doing Nikolais based technique which was a combination of coordination, strength and flexibility building. Tito demonstrated with my friend Shauni how to grab the foot with the opposite hand stretching the leg behind the head and pulling the shoulder and chest through the window between leg and arm. Needless to say I felt strange sensations in odd places throughout my body for the remainder of the day, but unlike any of my friends woke up feeling light in my joints and relatively ironed out in my body.
Tuesday my afternoon rehearsal was cancelled so I called up my friend Kendra and went in for a happy haircut and new do. I tossed my cares and curls away and the vivacious emerged. I left prepared to take on my life in a much more styish way.
Thursday I ran into my old institute teacher Brother Bartholomew who I haven't seen for over a year since he took a full-time position at BYU and left UVU. I was in his class for most of my college experience and consequently feel very grateful and connected to him for what I learned from him. We chatted about what's going on in my life including the current dating scene. He paused and asked me more about that. I made the comment that I am looking for someone who can run along side me through my life because if he can't keep up then it won't work. Brother B looked at me and stated "you don't get it." In my mind (of course I don't get it, if I did I would have it figured out by now) After he shook his head, he kindly painted an image for me that changed my perspective on what the marriage relationship is all about. He held up his hands and measured about 12 inches in the air before he said "this is how much you can do, you and God together" then he widened his hands quite a bit and stated "this is how much you can do with a husband and God". He continued "I could not have done half of the things I did without my wife, marriage is not inhibiting, it's empowering." I had never thought about marriage like that. I was under the impression that if a low maintenance male someone wants to hop on board with me and go where I want to go and put up with my family, then it could work, but I am not dragging anyone through life and certainly not waiting for anyone to figure it out and sweep me off my feet. However what I figured out about marriage that day was so different. I finally caught a glimpse of the truth of this teacher's statement and the magnitude of the plan Heavenly Father has laid out for us. I imagined my future marriage as a fluid give and take relationship with someone just as excited about my life goals as I am about his and I was overwhelmed that anything could be that sweet. I guess I never thought it possible to find someone that I could share all my deep desires and life goals with and have him absolutely love me for it and be my number one cheerleader. What I learned that day is that it is possible and I will have it at the perfect time. I felt a huge wall around my heart had just melted away.
Thursday night I hing out with my cousin Beth Ann Wells. She treated me to Cafe Rio and the movie of "Le Corsaire" (a pirate flavored ballet)afterwhich we went to BYU to see BYU's Theatre Ballet perform with the Royal Ballet School of London, which was fabulous! I bumped in Dave and Natalie Fullmer at intermission and I was able to tell them that Hilary was bautiful in the opening number of the "Sleeping Beauty" variations. And the Royal Ballet School was of course fabulous! Their performance of the Don Quixote pas de deux was exhilarating, the most exciting I have seen yet!
Friday I went to my friend Anita's reception and realized an urgency to do something about my awkwardness on the social dance floor. I can pirouette and split my legs, but when it comes to schmoosing on the dance floor with a guy, I could not be more stiff,uncoordinated, and ungamely. Sheesh! I came home and watched "How to Lose a Guy in 10 days" and wished my sisters were there to laugh with me.
Saturday I went to my friend Jessy's shower and chatted with my dear friend Amber. When I got home Biddy Thomas came over to visit and it was so good to see her. We chatted about the reality of "what to do after graduation" and some of the wonderful implications that come with that upcoming phase for me. It was great to get her thoughts about finances vs. experience. I hurried to rehearsal with Maeva and then on to work at Halls before I picked up my friend's mac hard drive to transfer my China footage from the Halls to school. I am finally getting a move on this project, hooray!
Work was great, I love my job! I can't believe I get paid for playing mom. When I came home I watched "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" with Spencer Tracy, the old black and white film... super good acting and super creepy. But still applicable to today.
Today was a fun day at church with all my favorite people oohing and awing over my hair. One boy in my ward that hasn't really spoken to me in a while came up to me after sacrament mtg and harrassed me for chatting with my friend and not already being at Sunday school then proceded to come with me to sunday school which breaks his record of about a year of absent attendance at sunday school. Hmm,saving souls one haircut at a time. :)
Monday I sacrificed my tredmill date to meet with Drew Williams, a supervisor over my new grant proposal internship I am starting. His office is in the advancement bldg at the top of campus, so while I was in the neighborhood I stopped to see Bill Bridges since his office is now up there too. He reminded me how much he loves and adores me and my family and as usual I left feeling warm and fuzzy from the shower of compliments that usually accompanies visits with him. I hurried down to class because we had a guest teacher, Tito who is here setting Alwin Nikolais' "Crystal and the Sphere" on the Ririe Woodbury company in SLC. His class spent 45 minutes on the floor doing Nikolais based technique which was a combination of coordination, strength and flexibility building. Tito demonstrated with my friend Shauni how to grab the foot with the opposite hand stretching the leg behind the head and pulling the shoulder and chest through the window between leg and arm. Needless to say I felt strange sensations in odd places throughout my body for the remainder of the day, but unlike any of my friends woke up feeling light in my joints and relatively ironed out in my body.
Tuesday my afternoon rehearsal was cancelled so I called up my friend Kendra and went in for a happy haircut and new do. I tossed my cares and curls away and the vivacious emerged. I left prepared to take on my life in a much more styish way.
Thursday I ran into my old institute teacher Brother Bartholomew who I haven't seen for over a year since he took a full-time position at BYU and left UVU. I was in his class for most of my college experience and consequently feel very grateful and connected to him for what I learned from him. We chatted about what's going on in my life including the current dating scene. He paused and asked me more about that. I made the comment that I am looking for someone who can run along side me through my life because if he can't keep up then it won't work. Brother B looked at me and stated "you don't get it." In my mind (of course I don't get it, if I did I would have it figured out by now) After he shook his head, he kindly painted an image for me that changed my perspective on what the marriage relationship is all about. He held up his hands and measured about 12 inches in the air before he said "this is how much you can do, you and God together" then he widened his hands quite a bit and stated "this is how much you can do with a husband and God". He continued "I could not have done half of the things I did without my wife, marriage is not inhibiting, it's empowering." I had never thought about marriage like that. I was under the impression that if a low maintenance male someone wants to hop on board with me and go where I want to go and put up with my family, then it could work, but I am not dragging anyone through life and certainly not waiting for anyone to figure it out and sweep me off my feet. However what I figured out about marriage that day was so different. I finally caught a glimpse of the truth of this teacher's statement and the magnitude of the plan Heavenly Father has laid out for us. I imagined my future marriage as a fluid give and take relationship with someone just as excited about my life goals as I am about his and I was overwhelmed that anything could be that sweet. I guess I never thought it possible to find someone that I could share all my deep desires and life goals with and have him absolutely love me for it and be my number one cheerleader. What I learned that day is that it is possible and I will have it at the perfect time. I felt a huge wall around my heart had just melted away.
Thursday night I hing out with my cousin Beth Ann Wells. She treated me to Cafe Rio and the movie of "Le Corsaire" (a pirate flavored ballet)afterwhich we went to BYU to see BYU's Theatre Ballet perform with the Royal Ballet School of London, which was fabulous! I bumped in Dave and Natalie Fullmer at intermission and I was able to tell them that Hilary was bautiful in the opening number of the "Sleeping Beauty" variations. And the Royal Ballet School was of course fabulous! Their performance of the Don Quixote pas de deux was exhilarating, the most exciting I have seen yet!
Friday I went to my friend Anita's reception and realized an urgency to do something about my awkwardness on the social dance floor. I can pirouette and split my legs, but when it comes to schmoosing on the dance floor with a guy, I could not be more stiff,uncoordinated, and ungamely. Sheesh! I came home and watched "How to Lose a Guy in 10 days" and wished my sisters were there to laugh with me.
Saturday I went to my friend Jessy's shower and chatted with my dear friend Amber. When I got home Biddy Thomas came over to visit and it was so good to see her. We chatted about the reality of "what to do after graduation" and some of the wonderful implications that come with that upcoming phase for me. It was great to get her thoughts about finances vs. experience. I hurried to rehearsal with Maeva and then on to work at Halls before I picked up my friend's mac hard drive to transfer my China footage from the Halls to school. I am finally getting a move on this project, hooray!
Work was great, I love my job! I can't believe I get paid for playing mom. When I came home I watched "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" with Spencer Tracy, the old black and white film... super good acting and super creepy. But still applicable to today.
Today was a fun day at church with all my favorite people oohing and awing over my hair. One boy in my ward that hasn't really spoken to me in a while came up to me after sacrament mtg and harrassed me for chatting with my friend and not already being at Sunday school then proceded to come with me to sunday school which breaks his record of about a year of absent attendance at sunday school. Hmm,saving souls one haircut at a time. :)
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Swimming with two Downs
I got to tell you about my swimming trip with Bob and Mei. We went to the Provo Rec Center on Saturday for an outing while the parents were away. (Didn't even think of using this time to do homework) So off we go.
We get in the water and I find that Mei is too small for the deep and Bob is too big for the shallow and there is only one of me. Se we entertained Mei in the shallow part for a while and I went into the barely safe enough to jump and let Bob jump in a couple of times, giving Mei the thumbs up with eye contact in between each jump. Then Mei came on my back and we went to the deep part and let Bob swim around. He swam almost the whole length of the pool dogpaddling just out of reach of my hands for support. When he finally coughed on some water signaling that he was done I lifted him up and held him the rest of the way. I could feel the burning eyes of the life guard wondering what I was trying to do with this kid. So we ventured back to the shallow end and sat down in a circle. Bob immediately stood up with crossed legs and pointed directly at his groin. Well, Thank you for the signal!! So we hopped out and Mei kept playing in an 'i'm not listening' manner before I chased her down and pulled her out of the pool all the while praying that Bob can hold it til we make it to the toilet.
Bob and I rush in and find a stall where I wait for a little bit and anxiously tell him to hurry up! I go quickly to look for Mei and she is standing close to the door, FREEZING, but waiting so patiently. Oh thank you. So I go back and encourage Bob and carefully handling his swimsuit so it doesn't lose the string that I cut short the last time we went swimming.
I run back to thank Mei for waiting so patiently and she is gone! I go around the corner to peep into the pool and see her eye me directly and give me a thumbs up. Okay, she is safe for a moment. (Heavenly Father please keep her safe). Back to Bob. I finally decide that it is too cold to wait any longer and encourage him to put his suit back on. As I go to tie it, the strings are both gone! Well, that is probably the end of our trip... lets go get Mei. I scanned the shallow end and panicked when I didn't see her. She was inching her way along the side of the deep deep end, the end where the diving board is. Yeah, Thank You Heavenly Father for keeping her safe!
He is so good to us!
We get in the water and I find that Mei is too small for the deep and Bob is too big for the shallow and there is only one of me. Se we entertained Mei in the shallow part for a while and I went into the barely safe enough to jump and let Bob jump in a couple of times, giving Mei the thumbs up with eye contact in between each jump. Then Mei came on my back and we went to the deep part and let Bob swim around. He swam almost the whole length of the pool dogpaddling just out of reach of my hands for support. When he finally coughed on some water signaling that he was done I lifted him up and held him the rest of the way. I could feel the burning eyes of the life guard wondering what I was trying to do with this kid. So we ventured back to the shallow end and sat down in a circle. Bob immediately stood up with crossed legs and pointed directly at his groin. Well, Thank you for the signal!! So we hopped out and Mei kept playing in an 'i'm not listening' manner before I chased her down and pulled her out of the pool all the while praying that Bob can hold it til we make it to the toilet.
Bob and I rush in and find a stall where I wait for a little bit and anxiously tell him to hurry up! I go quickly to look for Mei and she is standing close to the door, FREEZING, but waiting so patiently. Oh thank you. So I go back and encourage Bob and carefully handling his swimsuit so it doesn't lose the string that I cut short the last time we went swimming.
I run back to thank Mei for waiting so patiently and she is gone! I go around the corner to peep into the pool and see her eye me directly and give me a thumbs up. Okay, she is safe for a moment. (Heavenly Father please keep her safe). Back to Bob. I finally decide that it is too cold to wait any longer and encourage him to put his suit back on. As I go to tie it, the strings are both gone! Well, that is probably the end of our trip... lets go get Mei. I scanned the shallow end and panicked when I didn't see her. She was inching her way along the side of the deep deep end, the end where the diving board is. Yeah, Thank You Heavenly Father for keeping her safe!
He is so good to us!
Holding down the Homefront
Last weekend my Mom and Dad went to Washington for my nephew James' baptism and birthday, so I held down the homefront while they were gone for 4 days. As they suggested the idea my response was "no problem, sure thing...only 4 days?" My feelings were slightly different on Sunday night waiting for their return. Wow, my stamina isn't what it used to be.
A few highlights from the weekend. I want to record the first one for my own journaling purposes because we left this part out of the report, and I think I am safe because Mom and Dad rarely read my blog.
So Thursday night, first night without the parents, I am fixing chicken broccoli casserole (mega sized) and doing my best to handle all the nerve firings in my brain about each person, thing, time, medication, that needs to happen that evening, and picking up the phone to hear about Rosey's date last night, when Doug is coming to cover, what is the recipe from Jules, and my friend Beth borrowing my Kinesiology book. All the while baking cookies with Mei. We finish the cookies and Mei and Bob follow me downstairs to stick them in the oven. I look at the clock on my phone and decide that I will remember to come down in 5 minutes to pull out the cookies from the ambiguous oven. So I race upstairs to finish the casserole. A couple of minutes later I go downstairs and Mei informs me "Bobby gone". What!!!! Where did he go? "Idn know" as she shrugs her shoulders. I frantically look in every room downstairs calling his name. The only trace I have of him is Peter's curtain that is moved 6 inches to the right uncovering a bit of the window. I recruited Peter to go out and look while I finish the casserole. I begin working on the casserole again and went downstairs for something. AH! The Cookies?? I rush to oven to pull out probably the best cookies I have ever made... don't ak me how it all worked out, thank you Heavenly Father.
So Pete comes back in unsuccessful. In his teenage tone "somebody will call and let us know where he is"
"Pete!! We can't just wait for that?"
"Well, what do you want me to do?"
In my mind I know that Pete is right from his vast experience of this same predicament, but I can't just give up. Somehow my neurotic reaction makes me feel that we are getting somewhere.
So I finish the casserole and stick it in the oven and head out to walk around the block. Pete calls to give me the address of where Bob is. I hop in my car and head out to the next block and halfway down the street. I pass a cop car on the way and knock on the door of the house.
The friendly older gentleman who almost died of a heart attack from Bob's intrusion was really sweet about letting Bob explore his house and handing him over to the police when they came. His granddaughter recognized him and called him "Bobby". The gentleman took Bobby to his daughters house up the driveway from him and his daughter Brenda recognized him from church. She supposed that he was in the 6th ward and called the Jensen's in our ward who confirmed that Bobby belonged to us. So they told the policeman and he responded "yep, we've identified him" (yeah, sure you have) and Bobby was excorted home. I arrived home and asked Pete what the guy said when he dropped Bob off.
"Nothin'"
"What? No, what did he say?"
"Nothing"
"Pete, what words did he speak when he came to the door?"
"He just asked if this was his house and dropped him off"
Oh Gosh!
Everyone home safe and sound!
We just like to keep our guardian angels busy around here!
A few highlights from the weekend. I want to record the first one for my own journaling purposes because we left this part out of the report, and I think I am safe because Mom and Dad rarely read my blog.
So Thursday night, first night without the parents, I am fixing chicken broccoli casserole (mega sized) and doing my best to handle all the nerve firings in my brain about each person, thing, time, medication, that needs to happen that evening, and picking up the phone to hear about Rosey's date last night, when Doug is coming to cover, what is the recipe from Jules, and my friend Beth borrowing my Kinesiology book. All the while baking cookies with Mei. We finish the cookies and Mei and Bob follow me downstairs to stick them in the oven. I look at the clock on my phone and decide that I will remember to come down in 5 minutes to pull out the cookies from the ambiguous oven. So I race upstairs to finish the casserole. A couple of minutes later I go downstairs and Mei informs me "Bobby gone". What!!!! Where did he go? "Idn know" as she shrugs her shoulders. I frantically look in every room downstairs calling his name. The only trace I have of him is Peter's curtain that is moved 6 inches to the right uncovering a bit of the window. I recruited Peter to go out and look while I finish the casserole. I begin working on the casserole again and went downstairs for something. AH! The Cookies?? I rush to oven to pull out probably the best cookies I have ever made... don't ak me how it all worked out, thank you Heavenly Father.
So Pete comes back in unsuccessful. In his teenage tone "somebody will call and let us know where he is"
"Pete!! We can't just wait for that?"
"Well, what do you want me to do?"
In my mind I know that Pete is right from his vast experience of this same predicament, but I can't just give up. Somehow my neurotic reaction makes me feel that we are getting somewhere.
So I finish the casserole and stick it in the oven and head out to walk around the block. Pete calls to give me the address of where Bob is. I hop in my car and head out to the next block and halfway down the street. I pass a cop car on the way and knock on the door of the house.
The friendly older gentleman who almost died of a heart attack from Bob's intrusion was really sweet about letting Bob explore his house and handing him over to the police when they came. His granddaughter recognized him and called him "Bobby". The gentleman took Bobby to his daughters house up the driveway from him and his daughter Brenda recognized him from church. She supposed that he was in the 6th ward and called the Jensen's in our ward who confirmed that Bobby belonged to us. So they told the policeman and he responded "yep, we've identified him" (yeah, sure you have) and Bobby was excorted home. I arrived home and asked Pete what the guy said when he dropped Bob off.
"Nothin'"
"What? No, what did he say?"
"Nothing"
"Pete, what words did he speak when he came to the door?"
"He just asked if this was his house and dropped him off"
Oh Gosh!
Everyone home safe and sound!
We just like to keep our guardian angels busy around here!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy New Year!! Welcome 2009!!
Happy New Year!! And it was the happiest New Years Eve I can remember. Well, at least the most dazzlingly celebrated. I spent New Years Eve with Rose. We began our night dining on pork salads from Cafe Rio and engaging in fantastic conversation about the men in our lives and how grateful we are to be together this night without them!
We went downtown to First Night at the Gallivan Center and flitted from stage to stage and tent to tent tasting each event sufficiently for exciting fun. We made bee pencils and wrote our New Years Resolutions on honeycombs to be hung in a giant beehive (for the beehive state). It is a TH year for us, Rosey is creating Trust, Healing, and Travel while I am creating THanksgiving and Healing. We also partook of the breakdancing, Latino band, sensual circus fire dancers, local music artists, and party vendors where we found our fabulous "Happy New Year" tiaras that you see modeled in almost every picture of us in the same pose with a different background. :)
After seeing all there was to see, we hopped on trax and headed to Temple Square. On the way we found two young girls out with their grandfather waiting to cross the road. They admired our "princess hats", we enthusiastically thanked them and offered them our green light sticks wrapped around our necks. They joyfully accepted and smiled as we connected them around their necks before dashing down South Temple to the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg where inside we would find one of the most sparkling highlights of the night. We stopped first in the Empire Room where they had 12 singers performing popular memories and music from the 1940s. We sang along until we were gently shushed by a cute asian woman beside us... then we just lip synched through the rest of the songs as mutely as we could. They sang songs like "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", the Coca Cola theme, Moonlight Serenade, and that one song that Michael Buble sings... "It's You". We sang along with the darling old folks nodding in their chairs with huge grins on their faces as these memories are dusted off and dancing through their minds.
When the 40s show was over we looked at the schedule of events and raced to the foyer to find a Big Band set playing all the old favorites in our repertoire. We found a cozy spot by one of the pillars and enjoyed almost a whole hour of rich Big Band and muffled dancing. This is where we would have waved our magic wands to have our dad and brothers there to dance with us. And it was confirmed that since we are on the planning committee for the Ruby Reunion, a dance party is definitely on the schedule. While we jived in the corner I noticed many heads turned our way vicariously enjoying the life of our bodies moving and enjoyed many sparkling moments when our eyes met.
Rose and I got a kick out of the darling gentleman guarding the alternate exit from the building wearing a "Happy New Year" hat. He suavely pointed and winked at everyone passing by while wishing them a "Happy New Year". We eagerly asked to take a picture with him. "Sure!" he said excitedly as he manually placed his arm around Rosey on one side before taking my hand in his on the other.
About 11:40 we finally connected with Rosey's friend Ryan and decided to meet his party at the U of U Institute for the count down. Yikes! We had a small window of time to meet up with them before 2009. So we hopped on and off Trax, ran 4 blocks to the car (Passing a hobo bumming off some bucks from passersby...eek, keep running) and raced... drove safely across town to the Institute where we met our party at 11:57 pm. They had a ball to drop with a pen of balloons to let go at 12:00. We screamed and cheered the new year in with a shower of streamers and confetti, pictures of 2009 with our hands and eyes, and new year kisses. After Rose got hers, we brainstormed some approaches I could use to eenie minie mo a chosen candidate for the job. We laughed it off and that was the end of that, maybe next year. :)
After the hulabaloo dwindled and the mini Martinelli's was gone, we monkey walked in a line to our cars and headed to Ryan Beck's house for a dance party, sparklers, and good clean chillin' out. The dance party was the most refreshing grooving I have done in a long time--less stress I guess, and jivin' with Rose. I won the name writing with sparklers this year and got to massage Rosey's "dead" feet while we cooled down on the couch. Best New Year's Ever!
New Year's day Rose and I got off early at 10:15 to make her hair appointment in Ogden. We enjoyed Souper Salad for lunch and headed home to make dinner for Grandpa. A whole 24 hours with Rose filled with laughs, memories, moments of truth, raucous singing, dancing, and questions I have always wondered but never dared ask anyone else... What a treat, I love you Rose!
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