Snow College Cadence 2008 Reunion

What happens when you get a group of people together that haven't been together in four years and all those people met originally in a choir class???

Well. I will tell you.

1. You get funny-face pictures.

2. You sit in a big group surrounding all the new babies and catch up on the latest in life.

3. You take semi-awkward pictures of people in semi-awkward positions because you were sitting down and they weren't and you suddenly said, "Quick! Smile!" and they thought they had to duck for you.

4. You sing songs you sang that year you all met in choir.

5. And then you sing more songs that were songs you sang that year you met in choir.

6. Then you stop singing long enough to take a picture with your long-lost-siblings.

And then the funny one in the middle says after, "I just took a picture with two married ladies."

7. Then you watch the babies get tired and need some mom-lovin' while doing more singing.

8. And then you keep singing cuz it hasn't felt this good in a long long time.

(and Dr. Meredith hasn't called out 'YOU SUCK' yet, so it feels double good)

9. And you hear the wonderful talents of two of the most wonderful people in the world on the piano.

10.  And then you take a big group picture with your favorite people because, well, you love them.

And you can't wait to see them again... in four years. :)

Weekend in Manti & Ephraim

This weekend was a beautiful smorgasbord of happenings and people and just all-around awesome-ness.

It started out bright and early with a trip to the Manti temple. We haven't been back since we were married and OH how I have missed it. The events of the morning leading up to going through the temple reminded me so much of our wedding day and all the things that happened. It was wonderful and we both decided that if we could, we would do it again {get married, I mean}. Which is probably a good thing to agree on.

When we finished our session at the temple, we went to Ephraim for a party of the best kind - with friends that I haven't seen in about 4 years. It was reunion of my choir from my freshman year at Snow College. Not everyone was there, of course, but for me - the best people were. (Shh. Don't tell the others.)

After the party, we met up with Kendra, my ex-roommate, for dinner and a very long but excellent conversation. We had a lot to talk about and I am so so grateful that we took the time to do it. Besides, Roy's still is my favorite pizza in the entire world, so it was a delicious dinner as well.

We made the drive home late enough to see this sunset just as we were driving into Provo:

Something about those colors and the very distinctive ways they are outlined just melted my heart.

It also might have something to do with the fact that I just reread Anne of Green Gables, but I'm pretty imaginative and romantic on my own anyway.

All-in-all, it was beautiful and perfect and a wonderful weekend.

Museum with Morgan

On Wednesday, Morgan and I went to BYU's Museum of Paleontology. It was actually pretty cool. Not exactly what I expected, but lots of fun. There were cool things to look at and touch and you could watch people working in the Lab. Ooh. It was great fun. Among other things, we saw:

A giant fish skull

a note from a class that made me want to bring my 2nd graders someday

an allosaurus skeleton

a giant sloth (possibly the scariest in my mind) 

and Dinosaur Jim.

Overall it was a most dandy time and we had a blast. It was great to hang out and chat with Morgan since I haven't seen her in a long while. Hopefully we will be able to get together again soon. :)

Happy weekend!

To You

my brother in Japan,

I miss you lots. You have six months left. Holy torpedos.

Also, I love you. But don't let it go to your head, ok?

the a/c in my house:

please start working. it makes life miserable when you have been

blowing and blowing all day and yet you still tell us it's 81 degrees

inside our house. definitely not cool. {especially with intended pun}

you icky, creepy-crawly things -

GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! you're icky.

my 11-year old sister,

I love getting your emails. Keep sending me words of advice

and wisdom. I forgot how awesome it was to be 11. You are

the absolute greatest. Don't forget it. And don't change.

my 18-year old sister,

Someday when you are all grown-up, I want you to remember that

you have never been just a child's plaything. ;)

my classroom:

I love you. If only I could love writing lesson plans as much

as I loved making you look beautiful then the next few weeks

would be much more enjoyable. *sigh*

my body, that I love and treasure deeply,

You are in for a very rude awakening, my friend. In four weeks,

school starts and little kids will be there demanding your focus

and energy. It's time to get back into the swing of things. No more

snoozing the alarm without my permission and no more laying back

down for only a 'few more minutes'. The alarm is going off earlier and

we are getting up right away. We might even try to throw in some

exercises to keep fit. Don't fight me on this - I promise, it will be

better to start now than wait til August 21st. We will start....

maybe tomorrow...

my dearest husband,

our anniversary is in a little more than one week.

I can't wait.

Love, me.

Pioneer Day -- WHO Sr.

Last week and this week, I am working on my great-great-grandpa's journal. His name is William Hans Oblad (WHO), Senior. Pretty cool, right?

This guy tells some pretty great stories about growing up in pioneer days. It is incredible to read about all the things that he did. For example, he and his friends used to catch stray chickens, kill them, cover them with clay from the ground, cook them in a backyard stove, and when they were done, he says "the clay would come off and take all the feathers with it" so they didn't have to pluck it. ...what?!?! Then they would eat it, of course.

WHO also got shot at a couple of times - by the same kid. The first time the kid just missed, the other time, he killed one of WHO's best friends. This is when they were children - between the ages of 9 and 12. I can't even imagine something like that. Most especially since they were so young. Wow.

One of my favorite stories was when WHO went on a trip as a young man. I'm not really sure of the age, but it was well before he got married, so I'm guessing he was in his late teens. He had three notable experiences that he shared.

One: WHO and his friends went out for a walk and found a woman sleeping under a tree. Well, there was also a rattlesnake on her chest. So, one of his friends took aim, and shot and killed the rattlesnake. The lady was fine. Scared, but fine.

Two: It's better in his own words: "Afterwords, we struck an open place with a hole in the center filled with leaves. Some of the boys poked into this hole with their bayonets and disturbed a bed of rattle snakes. They came crawling out and hissing and striking at everything. We boys backed away and circled the opening and all shot and shot again into this mass of snakes. It was lucky that none of us hit from bouncing bullets. When the smoke cleared away, there was a bunch of dead snakes (some 18 or 20 snakes). I got 7 sets of rattles ranging from 5 to 13 rattles."

Three: Later that night, they didn't like the music playing in the dance hall, so they found a piano and two of the guys brought out a guitar and a mandolin, and they started playing more up-to-date music that they enjoyed. After they had been playing for a while, the entire crowd from the dance hall came over and danced to their music instead.

Basically... I have loved going through this journal. I am typing it up so that we can have a digital copy as well as make copies for everyone in the family. It is a fascinating work. However, I realized yesterday that it is not all fun and games. He talks for a lot about polygamy in the early days of the LDS Church and his feelings towards it. He talks about needing money for an operation for his wife and not being able to get it. Things like that that are so hard to read, and type up for others to read. I want to skip those pages and move on to the fun. But then, it wouldn't be a real record of William H. Oblad's life.

I guess it just goes to show that sometimes there are wonderful experiences in our lives - things that make for great and unbelievable stories to share around the campfire. But there are always going to be hard things in life, too. You can't have one without the other and to pretend that a person didn't have struggles that made them stronger. To do so is to make a person half of what he was. I am so so grateful for my great-great-grandpa and for his honesty in his journal-keeping. It is such a treasure to have and I can't wait to read the last two-thirds of it. He has an incredible mind for detail and remembering things that I wouldn't have even thought important. But those things are there for a reason. I'm sure of it. I can't wait to learn more.

Happy Pioneer Day!!

today

loving: husband. family. relax-time. busy-time. being done with teacher trainings for two weeks.

summer rain storms. my camera. my classroom. my teacher mentors who talk to me for hours. husband.

reading: just read 'The 13th Reality'. definitely a kids book. definitely liked it.

planning to read Agatha Christie's 'The Man in the Brown Suit' before school starts. it's tradition. sorta.

watching: The Abbott & Costello Show. On Hulu. It's brilliant.

anticipating: a double-date tonight w/ husband and our very good friends the Ashtons.

We can't even remember the last time we did a double, so... this will be awesome.

listening to: The Piano Guys. I cannot get enough. Ever.

working on: my great-great-grandpa's journal - I'm typing it up for my grandma.

also, some more aprons. hoping to sell a few soon. if you're interested - let me know.

wishing: i had a new car that was perfect for us minus the searching and searching and failing and searching.

what about you?

p.s. if you do this on your blog, link it to me in the comments below :)

(inspiration from abbi) 

Something I never realized

In our craft room, we have a space on the wall dedicated to temples. We want to go to a lot of temples together, so when we were dating/engaged we would take pictures of us at the temple. After we got married, we created this little wall to help us keep track, too. It has the date of the first time we went, and someday we will print out the pictures that we've taken at each spot and put them on the wall, too.

obviously, this was before we painted, and we also have recently added three other temples:

Salt Lake, Draper, and Mount Timpanogos

 

When my little sisters were here, they gave themselves a tour of our house because neither had been here since before we moved in last year. They were excited to see all the pictures and things, and apparently they were excited to see our temple wall, too. As we were getting ready to paint that room, they told me how much they liked that we had recorded our temple trips there. I just said, "Thanks, I like it, too" and then kept on doing whatever I was doing.

Looking back, I am a little sad that I didn't take the opportunity to share with them what the temple means to me and why I put the effort into making that little spot and look forward to adding to it. This thought has been even more present in my mind since over the last few weeks in church, we have been talking about missionary work and sharing the Gospel with everyone we come in contact with. Including, of course, our families. I never realized how easy it could be to share the Gospel with someone just because we have a 'temple wall' or a picture of Christ or the Family Proclamation hanging on the wall and someone asks us about it.

I wish so badly that I had taken just a couple of minutes to share with the girls how much I love the temple and the promises that are made there. I want to tell them of my love for them and for my husband and how grateful I am that we can all be together for eternity. I want them to know that I know that the Gospel is true and that Jesus Christ lives and directs His church on the earth today.

I guess I'll just have to have them come over again so that I can tell them.
Or I could call, but I'd rather have them come visit.

Let the Trainings Begin!

For three days this week, I am participating in some major trainings for the school year. Yesterday and today are eight hour days talking about the new Math Common Core that is having its first year in the Nebo School District (and probably all of Utah) this year. Believe me when I say, those eight hours are really really long. Tomorrow, I am having a meeting with a small group of us - just the interns and other 2nd grade teachers. It will be much shorter and hopefully a little more fun. I will be going back into my classroom for the first time since I finished it in June. I am very excited. I hope I still like it. I will also be grabbing my books and manuals so that I can finish/start lesson plans for the first two weeks and beyond.

After this three-day training week, I have a meeting next week, then one last week of freedom before my New Teacher Training marathon begins (four nine-hour days). School is just around the corner! I can't believe it! Half of me is thrilled and the other half of me is extremely nervous. But mostly I'm just excited to begin this new adventure. Woot!

Date Night :: bowling & j dawgs

As students at BYU, we get one free game of bowling at the Wilk Student Center. We figured that we had better get that done before my id card expires, and so we got a free date night activity! Lucky us.

 Good thing I took a pic of the scoreboard before we started because we did not do very good at all. In fact, I won't tell you how bad we did because it's plain ol' embarrassing.

Then we went and got our dinner at JDawgs. It was yummy deliciousness.

 

Husband likes his dawgs with everything on them. Crazy. 

What's your favorite thing to do on date night?



Mountain Beauty

all pictures taken at Aspen Grove

Last night...

I hiked up a mountain, slept there in the cold and on the rocks, wrestled with a deer,
ran away from a stampeding herd of mountain goats, slid down a mountain carrying my 5 year-old cousin,
ran away from a forest fire, and got beat up by a 16 year-old boy (after I started swinging at him first).

I swam in the ocean, got married to Patrick Dempsey at the same time my best friend, Kate Hudson, got married to Ryan Gosling.
Got attacked by a crazy woman right before saying "I do", so jumped out of a 15-story window, and caught myself on a window two floors down,
caught Kate as she followed me out the window, but was scared and so missed the first one.
Let myself fall two more stories, caught myself, and then climbed through the window, found Patrick Dempsey
and realized I was actually Cameron Diaz.
Beat up the crazy lady that ruined our weddings, and escaped running down a lot of stairs toward the exit.

I worked at a daycare, got a bunch of slivers in my feet walking across a playground w/ wood chips in it,
picked up and held a little girl who was born from an egg and whose parents didn't want her,
watched my mom buy my little brother candy and refuse to get me any,
had a very spiritual moment realizing the importance of the little girl I was holding, and then gave her to her mom who named her 'Maya'.

I hosted a party at my house with all the members of the Alumni Council from Snow College, shared the spiritual moment I had had with the little girl,
sang a few rowdy songs, and desperately tried to put my house back together without the Council's help because they were too busy having fun and making messes.


This morning...
I woke up ... ... ... exhausted.

outfitted for fun

I don't think of myself as very 'fashionable'. I like to be comfy and I like to look nice and that's about the end of it. However, every once and a while I'll wear something that will get 'the eyes' from husband. This is extra-special because then I know that I've done something extra-right. Not that he doesn't like the way I look normally, but he extra-likes it. Lately, these outfits have been a little more exploratory than anything as I play with stuff I've worn before, but in different ways and styles. It's lots of fun. Don't worry - I'm not becoming a fashion blogger (though I do love reading them). This is just because I had these pictures on my camera and I decided it was time to be brave and share.

Husband calls this: Island Princess

(no outside pics of this one because it was right before school one morning)


Husband calls this one: Marsha Brady

(more for the hair than the outfit, but that's ok, too)

 

What do you prefer?
Style or comfort? Or both??

Our 'New' House - Dining Room Edition

So I didn't take any pictures of the before. Oops. Oh well. Just know that it was all-white.

And now it isn't. :)



The Making Of :: Our 'New' House

I thought it would be fun to post all the other pictures I took during our four-day painting extravanganza. Yes, it only took four days. Many thanks are due in a large part to my sisters, my aunt & cousins, and my grandparents. Most especially to my husband for dealing with the after-effects and not realizing he married a perfectionist as I walk around the house with a little brush fixing miniscule things. But that's for another day. Here is the rest of the story:

Thanks again for all those who helped us out and made this possible!

To see the finished product, click here.