Utah - Day 2

I forgot to mention a few things about Thursday...and I forgot to take pictures of it too!! I was able to go and see my former bishop on Thursday night. I just love popping in on people unexpectedly. It was a short visit (that's what happens when you make no plans) but it was so good to see them and to catch up with them and with all that is going on.

 

Afterwards I went to my aunts house. She and my uncle and I stayed up way too late talking and having a great time!! It was so much fun...man I miss them!

 

Friday morning, Audrey and I got up and went to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple! It was such an amazing experience and was so fun to be there with a friend!

 

After the temple and went and met up with a few former coworkers for lunch. It was fun to chat and catch up with them as well (again, no pictures...lame).

We went to the RG apartments in the afternoon to visit Emily. As we were walking down the stairs, we noticed that the hot tub had a sign on it stating that it was closed...STILL! That hot tub has been closed for YEARS!! Perhaps they should just close it permanently and make a new patio.

While we were in Provo we got to drive by the Provo Tabernacle Temple construction site. It is incredible. All that is left currently is the outer walls, "floating" on the air on stilts! It is amazing!

That night we met everyone at Thai Mango for dinner. There ended up being about two groups, the RG group and the Branbury group. The RG group left first and we ran out and got a picture with everyone (except for Elric and Archie - they were too quick in escaping!).

 

We finished dinner and then we all went for frozen yogurt (ah, delicious!). I was planning on getting a picture with everyone afterward, but alas my brain is shot and I forgot. I guess we'll have to leave that to memory (unless I forget that too!)

 

Thanks to everyone who was able to come!! It was so good to catch up with everyone and to be surrounded by GREAT friends!! Let's do that again soon!

Friends

The older I get, the more I realize just how lucky I am to have good friends. Growing up we moved several times. Each of those times I said good-bye to my friends and made promises to keep in touch. That lasted for about 3 days and then I decided that I wasn’t good at staying in contact with people. I don’t know what it is…I love all of the friends I’ve had and maintained over my life, I’m just not good at staying connected. Now, though, looking to the future of watching friends graduating, getting married, or just moving away, I understand what it is to have good friends. So, to all of the great people and many friends I’ve met over the period of my life, thank you for being there for me. Your warm smiles, the good laughs, accepting me for who I am and all of my quirkiness, for knowing when I needed a hug, for suggesting random outings and shopping excursions, for your great examples, for being willing to just sit and talk, for introducing me to new and wonderful activities, for suggesting that I was better than I imagined myself to be, for seeing the potential I had. I am who I am today because of your influence on me. Words will never fully explain how I feel or how grateful I am for you, but know that no matter where life takes us, I will always be grateful for the time I had with you.

The Power of Love - Part II

I had to include the follow up to this story. Who knew there would even be a follow up, but when you know amazing people, amazing things are bound to happen.

We go now to the following Monday. I had gone to one of my good friends apartments to talk about a presentation that I will be conducting at her school in October and to talk about some other stuff. We were in her room when there was a knock on her front door. I jokingly said, “Let me know if it’s for me.” Boy was I shocked when she called for me and said that someone was there to see me. I was surprised to find our choir director standing there. He had gone to my apartment looking for me and was told I was here instead. He came to apologize for the way things happened and for any hurt feelings. I was so incredibly touched by this. In all honesty, it wasn’t anybody’s fault… really…just the way things happened. And, as I previously explained, the tears weren’t from hurt feelings (ok, only a tiny bit, but again, no one was to blame for that, it’s just how it was.) I explained this to him and he said something profound…he said that those were still my feelings and shouldn’t be disregarded and that he was sorry for his part in any of it. What a great guy!!

If I hadn’t had such a good experience the day before in feeling my Savior’s love for me, this moment would have done it alone. As it was, it was a coupled experience that reaffirmed to me the truth and reality of our Savior’s love. Never underestimate the power of kind words. This person certainly had nothing to apologize for, but his kind words helped me value myself; I felt like I was “enough”. So, thank you Mr. Choir Director for being concerned about me, for helping me to come to these realizations.

Can you believe it??

Sam, Cherie, Lori, and I took a trip to an undisclosed location (yes, the same undisclosed location in which we released some fish) and you'll never guess what we saw!

Did you guess?

We saw one of their fish!! It's been about 3 weeks and at least one of them is happily adjusting to life in a new environment. We can't speak for the others because, well, we didn't see them, but this is great news!!

What did I learn from this little trip?? If  a poor little goldfish can adjust to big changes, I guess I can too!

Want to go fishing?

No, it didn’t involve a fishing pole, or bait. No, we didn’t bring fish home. It was more like catch and release…we (as in Sam) caught the fish from the tank and we released these beloved aquatic creatures into a more natural environment. The fish are now in the Witness Protection Program (as in an undisclosed location).  Their actual release was a little shocking to their poor little systems as they were thrown (literally) into a new environment. After a few short good-byes, the evening concluded with frozen yogurt and all was once again right with the world.

Thanks for the memories Sam and Cherie...and in case you're wondering, I'm still not okay with your moving to another state.

The End.

Do the math

What do you get with...
14 bags of marshmallows
3 jumbo Malt-o-meal bags of Rice Krispies
15 cake mixes
25 pounds of powdered sugar
5-10 pounds of butter
2+ dozen eggs

Give up??

Lots and lots of wedding cake!
We love you Sara and had such a great time being a small part of your special day!!

25 Pounds

Trust me, it's not what you think. Last weekend Sam, Cherie, and I went to the farmers market and bought all sorts of stuff, but we ended the trip (and by we, I mean they) bought 25 pounds of fruit; peaches, pears, and plums to be precise. We came home and decided to make pear sauce. Then we decided to do something with the apples, so we made apple pie filling. When we thought we were done, we had the hair brained scheme to make peach cobbler. And just for the record, I'm using we loosely as I'm not really sure who had what ideas. :)
We didn't document the endeavor while in the process, but we did get pics of the finished products.

It may not look like much here, but everything was amazing!

Sam and Cherie showing off their handywork. 

The 'Y'

If you live in Provo, you have to hike the Y at least once. Last Friday, Shelly and I did it. We decided at about 9:15 PM to start. It was nice because it was much cooler than during the day.

Here we are before we knew what we were really getting into.

Here's a lovely view of Provo at about 9:15 - still light out!!

Finally, after about 40 minutes, WE MADE IT!!! What an incredible feeling!

Sitting on the Y

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Last night for FHE we split into three teams and did a photo scavenger hunt. There was a list of between 20 and 30 items, locations, and/or actions to take pictures of. Just a few of my favorites were:

Someone riding in a shopping cart (this kid was a great sport!)

A couple kissing (The reason I love this one so much is that, technically, the assignment was a couple making out, but that was a bit too much to ask while they were ring shopping! Wouldn't you agree?)

A human pyramid. We were driving by the park and noticed one of the other groups from our ward, so we coerced them into doing this for us. What a great group of people! Thanks guys!!

Anyway, that's the latest from here.

Visitors

Tonight I got to see 4 of my favorite Massachusetts people. Steve, Elise, Franklin, and Lilly came came down to see Lori and I and took us out to dinner (thanks a bunch, guys!). We had a marvelous time catching up and it was wonderful to see them.
If you happen to be in Utah - come see us! We'd love to see you!

July

Every time I sit down to blog, one of two things happens. 1) Everything that I want to write about all of a sudden either doesn’t make sense or doesn’t seem worth sharing/recording, or 2) I totally forget what I had planned to write about. I also love how right before I moved from Boston I said that my blog was going to have more substance and be worth reading. Well, I have decided to truly try to tackle that. I have also decided that I will record whatever I feel like recording because, well, it’s my blog. (I also think I may have said that before, but it must be worth repeating if it keeps coming up. That or I’m trying to convince myself…)

Some fun things that we have been doing here lately…Lori and I went to Lagoon on July 5th because we were both off work due to the fourth of July holiday. We went with two friends and we had a blast. I went on almost every single roller coaster, which is crazy because I’m not usually an adrenaline junky. Some of my favorites were the Rocket, Wicked, Colussus, and the Spider. Lori even conquered her fears and tackled a few! Lagoon also offers this great deal called bounceback. You can return to the park within 10 days for only $10! You better believe we took full advantage of it. We went back the following Saturday with another friend. We didn’t do as many rides, but we picked a few of our favorites, hung out for a few hours, and then headed home.

I found out that I must not pay very close attention to detail. I got an email on July 7th informing me that my jury duty for July 8th had been cancelled. What?!?!? I knew that I was called for Jury duty back in March and I postponed it because we were moving. I also figured that when I received the next notice, I could just tell them that I no longer lived in the state. Well, there was no second notice and I could have been in some serious trouble (what is the punishment for missing jury duty??). I must say, though, that I would have loved to have had a reason to be in Boston, even if it was for Jury Duty.

I’ve become really quite social. I’m really figuring out a lot about me and I love it. I’m also trying a lot more things that I wouldn’t do normally. I recently found out that I’m not half bad at Ultimate Frisbee. I am by no means good at it, and the people I was playing with weren’t too competitive, but it was a lot of fun. Because of my back (and a dislike of sports in general), I don’t usually attempt things like this, but I found out that I really do like it! Another thing on the list of things I’ve recently tried is elk jerky. I couldn’t look at it for too long before I made myself sick at the thought of it, but it really wasn’t that bad!

I have also recently rediscovered my love for the game of Monopoly. Some friends and I have started playing the past few nights. We play for an hour or so and leave it set up on the floor so we can finish it later. We have restarted the game once or twice because we had people leave and/or join, but it has been an absolute blast. It does have a down side because everyone I play with loves to stay up late and I am not tolerating it very well. I just don’t do well without sleep. Oh well, that’s what the weekend is for, right?

You've had a birthday...

Shout HOORAY!!

Lori chose to have her birthday dinner at Cracker Barrel! Good food, good times, good friends!


Since Lori works with cake EVERYDAY, she requested ice cream. We made two batches - strawberry shortcake and tropical fruit! Excellent choices, Lori!!



A birthday wouldn't be complete without candles!


Lori has some INCREDIBLE friends!! Two of them broke into our apartment (so, it wasn't really breaking in because I knew they were coming and I left the door unlocked) and they came in and put cute notes to and about Lori on her bathroom mirror. Good job, ladies!!

Hope you had an awesome birthday, Lori!! Thanks for being you and allowing me to be me!