Marvelous May

Oh, May. You passed by quickly, during which time I went to Disneyland, auditioned for and was cast in 1776, and saw Avengers: Age of Ultron three times.

It was a good month!

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Please tell me you've seen this movie. Funny, though not as clever as the first, darker and still entertaining. Loved all of the group scenes; you can tell they had a great time making this film. James Spader is a brilliant villain even when you only hear his voice (though they did a good job making the robots look like him, down to the way he moves his mouth). Everyone had time to shine, and Captain America is still my favorite, but it was Hawkeye's movie. So good. Can't wait to see where the franchise goes from here. It may be time to start purchasing the DVDs.

Kristin, Scott, and I went the night the movie opened. I even bought a Black Widow t-shirt for the occasion.

Larissa, Nichole, Jamie, Ann and I went the next night. We intended to see Cinderella,
but it was sold out, so Avengers was the next logical choice.

Family Home Evening bonfire

Stephanie joined me for a bonfire with my Relief Society and our Elders Quorum. I met a few new people, shored up some other friendships, set all of my marshmallows on fire (as usual), and got to hug Steph a lot. I call that a good night.

Birthday princesses

My nieces had a birthday. Golly, I love those girls. Breezy asked me for an Elsa costume, and Zonks asked for fuzzy slippers. Happy to oblige!

My matching purple dress was a happy accident

Grammy made an Elsa costume for Breezy's doll, and an Anna costume for Zonk's doll (not pictured)

Love this one of Zonks and Aaron

Love watching Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Adam with baby PJ

Daddy and daughters

I also gifted the girls with some metallic temporary tattoos. This was difficult to remove, and now I feel guilty for making it difficult for the girls' dear mom.

Mother's Day

I missed Mother's Day dinner because I was driving to Disneyland. Of course, I called Mom that morning to give her the travel update and tell her how much I love her. When I got home, I took a day off from work to paint clocks with her, her sisters, and some of my cousins. The project ended up not being quite as difficult as I feared (my skill level is low), but even after 7 hours I was only about a quarter -- maybe a third -- of the way finished. Guess I'll need to spend some more time with my mom while I get it done :)

Sweet tooth

I read a blog not long ago about the 10 best places in Utah to buy donuts, and made a note to visit them when in their area. Foolish? Maybe. Delicious? Definitely!

The Cinnabomb at Art City Donuts. Those warm suckers melted in my mouth. I planned to only eat half, but ate the whole darn plate -- it was too good to leave until the next day! 

A samoa and a peanut butter cup donut from Sweet Country Store. They partner with Dunford Donuts and make them to order, so I requested a chocolate donut for the samoa. It was delicious, but I think the chocolate overpowered the delicate coconut taste, so next time I'll try it on a glazed donut instead. The peanut butter cups on the chocolate donut were GLORIOUS!

My "Waffle Love" (nutella, raspberries, and cream) from Waffle Love was really good, but I think I prefer syrup on my waffles, paired with bacon. Nutella seems like a crepe thing to me. Eating this for dinner felt like I was eating dessert, and I somehow felt let down. I realize this is crazy talk, especially since I went back last week for Biscoff and strawberries. Next time I'll eat dinner first. 

I don't remember the last time I ate at Nielsen's Frozen Custard. This is ridiculous, because it's up the street from my house. It was worth the wait: smooth, creamy, and sweet. Better than regular ice cream. I even had sort of an adventure while there. I had washed my car next door, so when I pulled into the drive-through line, I dried my care with a towel until the cars ahead moved forward. I'd jump in the driver's seat to move forward, and then I'd jump out and dry again until it was done. Took three moves. I'd have been embarrassed except the people behind me seemed entertained. When I finally got to the window, I said a few sentences before I realized I hadn't rolled down my clean window. Whoops! The girl taking the order laughed pretty hard when I sheepishly rolled the window down to give her my order. Fortunately, the chocolate malted almond cone was delicious, and "one scoop" was actually three!

Odds and Ends

Once upon a time, I used to draw my costumes to dress my gorgeous Peck-Gandre paper dolls in. I even assigned different dolls to my friends so they could all be Phantom of the Opera ballerinas or the friends from Anne of Green Gables together. My character was always the Cinderella doll, of course. I think I need to start this hobby up again.

Hand-drawn costumes clockwise from top left: A Christmas Carol, The Egyptian Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Little House on the Prairie, and Tom Sawyer.

Found a cool tutorial for waterproofing canvas shoes with beeswax. It took forever, but works great!

I get an allergy shot every month, and this time I took a photo of what my arm looks like for two days afterwards. So sore! Allergies stink...and itch and hurt! Good thing the shots seem to be helping.

My dentist's office is less than a block from my house. It was a lovely, sunny afternoon, so I walked over and didn't even take an umbrella. About 5 minutes in to my appointment, the clouds unloaded a crazy, short storm. It mostly cleared up during my walk home -- I only got a little damp. Of course, the sun came out again as soon as I got inside my house. May weather: three solid weeks of rain followed immediately by 85-90 degree heat. Crazy!

Memorial Day weekend

A clean house is a beautiful thing

I invited Adam, his kids, and Aaron to see Tomorrowland with me. I didn't like the movie as much as I'd hoped, though I thought the female characters were terrific. I was glad my nieces saw Athena's kick-butt preteen character -- even kids can fight for what they believe in. We need more positive female role models like her.

My mom cooks a great holiday dinner. I need more of that corn bread STAT.

Blown tire

The month ended with a BANG (punny chuckle) when one of my tires blew on the freeway. It was inconvenient, obviously, and buying new tires ended up being more dramatic than it needed to be, but, frankly, I'm thrilled to be rid of those stupid snow tires. I'm still mad that they ordered snow tires when I said I wanted all-weather, and since I didn't know they were snow I threw away my non-snow tires, and since snow tires are ridiculously expensive I couldn't afford non-snow. Anyway, the snow tires are gone, I have all-weather, and with ANY LUCK AT ALL I won't have to buy new tires again for awhile. Don't let me down, Lady Luck!

That's kind of a downer way to end the post. Sorry.

It's June! Summer is here! Time for rehearsals to get serious, time at the pool, more delicious food, and quality time with the people I care about the most.

Hooray for summer!

The Lights at Temple Square

For FHE last week, my ward went to downtown Salt Lake and saw the lights at Temple Square. I love the lights at Temple Square! I think my favorites are the red and orange ones on the big, big trees around the temple itself. It is so impressive the way they coordinate all of the trees, and that they wrap the lights around practically every twig. I can't imagine how long it takes to plan and put up.

I especially love the nativity on the reflecting pool surrounded by floating lights, and the nativity by the Tabernacle where they have a narrator telling the nativity story and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Christmas songs. I even joined in during "The First Noel." Not loud enough to bother anyone, but I still sang. It's just so cool to have baby Jesus in the nativity right across from the north Visitors Center, where you can see the Christus statue in the window. It's a reminder of the birth and death of the Savior, and that He was born so that He could die for us. That is what I really want to celebrate during Christmastime!

We met in a room in the basement of the south Visitor's Center and watched a special showing of Mr. Kruger's Christmas. Yes, it made me emotional. The movie is cheesy as all get-out, but it's still touching at the end. I was distracted about halfway through when I realized the little girl's mom is none other than Tamara Adams, who performs in and directs at HCT all the time. Crazy! Then our group hung out and drank hot chocolate until closing when the Sister missionaries kindly kicked us out of the Visitor's Center.

It was about 10 degrees that night so I was pretty bundled up. Silly me to forget a hat on such a night! Thankfully, my scarf was long enough to wrap around my head.

above: Erin, Jana, and me
below: Erin and me

Erin and I carpooled to Temple Square, and since we didn't know each other very well but were inclined to be friends we talked and learned more about each other. She is darling! It was very nice to have a buddy to share the experience with. Fun to meet up with established friends and meet new ones. It was a good event. I will miss my ward when I finally start going to a new one next month. It's been a good situation for me as I transitioned from my parents' house into my new home and living alone again. I liked going to church and events where I spend time with single people my own age. This particular group is outstanding. I will miss them.

Pumpkin Seeds!

The Family Home Evening went really well. It helped that the morning of, one of the co-chairs called and said, "What would you think about adding pumpkin carving to the activity?" Then she volunteered to make pumpkin bars. Like I would say no to that! I sent an e-mail to the communications committee so they could tell everyone what was going on and to bring carving knives and patterns. The FHE committee was to provide the pumpkins.

I arrived about a half hour early to help set up tables and chairs, and hang out with the FHE co-chairs and other early comers, who are all awesome people. I decided I wasn't nervous about leading a discussion, even though I hadn't prepared anything. I had watched most of the talks, took notes, and prayed during the Conference, so if I couldn't at least keep up informed commentary or talk about the lessons I liked then it would be more than a little pathetic.

We set up a huge circle of chairs that ended up being too small (there were at least 60 people there by the end), but I walked around the outside and didn't say much. I told everyone that I didn't prepare any kind of lesson, because we'd listened to Conference talks for two days, and I didn't think we needed another one. I opened it up to the group to talk about the lessons they like, and when the silence between raised hands got uncomfortable, I'd say helpful things like, "Hey, there are a lot of us here, and half of us don't know each other, so if you say something goofy it's no big deal." (I really hope that to be true, because I have said some embarrassing things in Sunday School that I hope people don't remember.) The discussion went on about half and hour. I thought we reached a good stopping point when two people shared their testimonies, so I added my own and thanked everyone for coming and for their thoughts. I think it went well, and a couple of people even came up to me later to tell me they thought it had, too.

Then we dug into the pumpkins. Well, I didn't, but a lot of people did. It didn't take me long to realize that with at least 10 pumpkins being carved there would be a lot of seeds possibly going to waste. I asked four people if I could have their seeds and they said, "Have at it." So, I grabbed some large paper cups, stuck my hand in the goo, and "harvested" two 12 oz. cups full! Pretty much spent most of the evening doing that. I'd feel guilty or silly, but it's still easy to chat while doing it, so I still met and caught up with a lot of people.

About 9pm, I had been at the church 2 and-a-half hours and was ready to go home. Two people were still carving pumpkins and more were standing around and talking, so I couldn't clean up fully. I tried not to be annoyed. Fortunately, another member of the committee offered to stay to clean up so I could go home. I thought it was awfully nice of him.

When I arrived home, I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees, washed off the seeds in the first cup, spread them on a cookie sheet, daubed some oil and salt on them, and stuck them in the oven. I checked them every ten minutes for an hour, but they didn't seem to be cooking. Well... turns out I accidently turned off the oven at some point when I turned off the timer. I would be embarassed, but I don't use my oven often, and on my mom's oven the heat and the timer are turned off with the same button. My oven doesn't work the same way. Now I know. I turned the heat back on -- it had cooled to 169 -- and within 15 minutes the seeds were ready! The second pan of seeds took far less time :)

The best part? When I went to bed that night, my house still smelled like warm, roasted pumpkin seeds.

I took a jar to work today. Golly, they are tastey! They are one of my favorite Fall treats.

Autumn is officially here as far as I'm concerned, and I couldn't be more happy about it!

Another Happy Conference Weekend

Conference Weekend is pretty much the only LDS-only holiday there is, though, technically it isn't a holiday. And it isn't exclusive -- non-LDS people are encouraged to watch. Instead, it's an opportunity to hear the leaders of our church give us advice and counsel, and remind us of what we're already supposed to be doing. I love it! I'm one of those people who will sit in front of the t.v. for all four two-hour sessions on Saturday and Sunday. I'm not saying I stay awake the whole time, but I love to listen and take notes.

Yesterday I slept until noon, so I'm grateful for DVR. As of now, I still have a half-hour of the morning session to watch. Today, I watched both sessions at my parents' house while we ate french toast, quiche lorraine, chocolate-covered strawberries and other fruit, assorted juices, sausage, and bacon. Adam's family all came over, as well as Lindsey's parents, Bob and Sandy. It's nice to be together all day long. G-unit helped me color during President Monson's talk in the morning session. We only color in my Cinderella book during Conference, so we've been working on it for years. G is really nice about not coloring in it until I give him permission.

In between sessions, my parents taught us a card game they learned earlier in the week called "Boonda", which is a lot like "Scum." I like when we play games together and laugh and are silly. The best memories are made that way, don't you think?

As for Conference itself, the messages were great! The have all of the talks available online at lds.org (text copies will be available on Thursday), but I'm glad that I took notes when concepts and quotes jumped out at me. My favorite talk might have been Neil A. Anderson's "Come unto Him and be wrapped in His arms." He talked about how the Savior is eager and able to forgive our sings and that even if we continually mess up, as long we we're trying to overcome our sins and weakness we are repenting.
And repentance not only changes us, but blesses our family and those we love. My other favorite quote of his is, "We each need to feel the Savior's arms of mercy though the forgiveness of our sins."

I also appreciated Elder Russell T. Osguthorpe's talk, where he reminded us that we can accomplish more than we think we can, so we should "Aim high!" He told a story about how his first talk in Primary went badly, so when his teacher asked him to speak again he didn't want to. However, the teacher persisted. "She expressed so much confidence in me that her invitation was hard to refuse." How great is that? Just a reminder to be supportive of others, and help them to be the best they can be. I love it!

Tomorrow, I'm in charge of FHE in my Singles Ward. Since we didn't have church this week, we thought it would be a good idea to do something low-key just at the Ward building because everyone will probably drift that way tomorrow anyway. We decided to just get everyone together and talk about what we liked at Conference. I agreed to lead the discussion, but I don't really have any sort of direction for the discussion at the moment. I probably won't worry about it until 5pm tomorrow, at which case I'll really stress out... and yet, I'm sure it'll all work out in the end.

Whether you spent it watching Conference, or not, I hope you enjoyed your weekend. I know I did!

Thoughts on a Thursday

Just a few things I've had on my mind that I want to share with the interWeb:

1. I learned on Monday that being afraid that I won't know anyone at Family Home Evening is NOT a good reason not to go. I learned this because that was the main reason I considered staying home. I decided to go, and when I arrived at the church to carpool to the party I knew three of the five people already waiting around. I ended up being one of the last to leave because I had so many people to talk to.

I think this could apply to the rest of my life. I am too afraid of fear. I need to get over that and improve my quality of life! I am cute and fun -- even if I hadn't known anyone there, who wouldn't want to talk with me, right?!

2. Sometimes I get really morbid and start worrying about living by myself. If I died alone in my apartment, how long would it take for someone to find me? Would anyone at work check on me within three days? If I died on a Monday, would anyone in my family notice before Sunday, and even if they did would they come over to physically check if I didn't answer their calls?

This is NOT me begging for more time and attention from anyone. I KNOW this is a silly thing to worry about but still I sometimes wonder. I'm thinking like a little old lady already...except I don't want cats to keep my company...

3. I finally saw Hello Dolly! at HCT last night and it was phenomenal! It's probably one of my top 10 favorite plays I've seen there (and as a long-time season ticket holder I have seen quite a few of their shows). The dancing was great, the characters were great, the costumes were great. Dolly Levi is officially one of my new dream roles. The cast was wonderful, though sadly it turns out I know a lot more people in the other cast. Oh well.

Hi Lizzy! It was fun to see you last night! I'm excited to check our your blog today!

4. I have started watching the t.v. show Mad Men on Comcast's On Demand. They didn't have season 1, so I'll have to rent it later, but I'm five episodes into season 2 and it's awesome! I very much wish women still dressed the way they did then. I love, love, love pretty much everything Joan wears. I may not be as curvy as she, but I think I could rock those form-fitting dresses.


C'est tout!

Gratitude, Irony, and Ensign Peak

**Disclaimer: My digital camera died, and since I don't want to buy myself a new one I must wait until my birthday in September for a new one. Until then, I'll be making memories with a disposable camera, but unfortunately I probably won't post any of my own photos on my blog for awhile. I will try to find other images so my posts aren't too boring to read.

Today's photos are brought to you by ribizlifozelek on Flickr.com**


As as member of my Singles Ward's Family Home Evening (FHE) Committee which plans group activities for every Monday, I have/get to be in charge of the activities once every couple of months. Ironically, this go-around I ended up with a hiking activity. Have I ever mentioned that hiking is possibly my least favorite thing to do... except maybe wash dishes? No, actually, I would rather wash dishes than hike. Walking is fine. Walking up a steep hill... not something I like to do.

Anyway, since Pioneer Day is on Friday, the idea was to hike Ensign Peak, and then have some people talk about their pioneer ancestors and/or what Pioneer Day means to them. Cool idea, right? (I wish I could take credit, but I didn't come up with it.) This prompted me to have to talk to a bunch of people on Sunday to find some who planned to come to FHE and were willing to prepare something to talk about for 3-5 minutes. By the end, I had 3 maybes, and 2 solid "yes"-es (I only asked maybe 6 people total -- it wasn't like they were turning me down in droves). I figured even if it was just the two I'd be happy. Meanwhile, it was really fun talking to all those people. I talked to some I hadn't in awhile, and reintroduced myself to others. Plus, I had randomly decided to sleep with pincurls the night before and wear my hair in Shirley Temple ringlets, and I'm not kidding, people were coming out of the woodwork to comment on it, especially the boys. It was really cool. I already felt cute and flirty because of the hair, so the sociality was a bonus, a very welcome one. I stayed after church for the Root beer Float social and had a lot of fun. I'm starting to feel comfortable in my ward, finally!

I made rice crispy treats Sunday night and asked some members of the committee to bring non-meltable treats. I had forgotten how good rice crispy treats are and how sticky they are to make! I also bought some water bottles, in case people forgot to bring their own. We met at the church building at 7pm, and by 7:15 there were probably at least 40 people there! I welcomed everyone, gave driving directions to Ensign Peak (which I had pulled off the Internet on Saturday), passed out the water, and reminded everyone of the break-ins at the church parking lot and not to leave purses in the car. A girl volunteered to give the opening prayer, and we were off!

On the way to Ensign Peak, I really started to worry... it's what I do best seeing as I have a lot of practice. Would people find the trail based on my instructions? Would we die from the heat? Would the "lesson" part work or would people find it boring? Would we have room for all of us at the top? I only voiced the first concerns, and the other people in my car assured me it would be fine. I kind of panicked when we arrived and I saw how many non-ward people were there, but worrying wouldn't fix that either, so I just said "Let's go!"

I mentioned I loathe hiking, right? Yeah, um, this was a hard hike. Even people who are hikers said that Brother F's assurances "it's an easy hike for non-hikers" was misleading. It is very short, but it's pretty much straight up a fairly steep hill. The rice crispy treats I carried in my messenger bag were light and didn't really weigh me down -- my quivering legs and gasping breath would have slowed me down even without the added weight. I really, really just wanted to go home, but I couldn't -- I was in charge of the activity and had to rally everyone at the top! I lagged further and further behind. Then, nearing the top, I saw that some of the girls had waited for me. They recommended I drink from my water bottle, took my messenger bag from me, and offered a lot of encouragement as we approached the top. They made it more fun for me, and since some walked behind me, I wasn't the last to the summit. I am really grateful for them.

A view from the top

There was a big group of hikers from various places at the top. I still don't know a ton of the people in the ward, so gathering them all together seemed daunting. Fortunately, one of the guys in my car, Brad, knows pretty much everyone and isn't shy at all. He did most of the rallying, and the group found a spot on the hill to sit. We even had a few people join us who weren't originally part of the group. Again, I thanked everyone for coming, and said I had asked two people to say a few things. While they were talking, I passed around the cookies and rice crispy treats, which seemed to go over well.

First, Charlotte talked about the pioneers, their struggles, and what we can learn from their examples. My favorite of her quotes was "It didn't matter who got here first. The point is that they got here."

Then, my cousin Bryce told a story about our mutual great+ grandfather Simon Dalton, who I had never heard of before. Simon joined the church with his wife in New York, but when he wanted to move to Nauvoo, his wife chose to stay behind. So, Simon took his two oldest sons to Nauvoo. He was a knife-maker by trade and part of the "whistle and whittle brigade". Basically, a group of men would walk around and whistle while whittling, hence the name. Whenever someone nefarious came to town the brigade would surround them, whistle and whittle, and basically creep the nefarious character out until he left. In my opinion, that's pretty awesome. How had I never heard of this before?

It was a short but good presentation. I said a prayer to close the meeting, and then everybody just hanged out at the summit for awhile. I read a couple of the plaques, talked with a bunch of friends, and enjoyed the sunset. Since we had left the church so late in the evening, it was nice and cool at the top -- really a perfect night to make the hike. I felt really grateful that it had all worked out so well. A lot of people said it was a great activity and we had a lot of fun. I was glad I'd made it to the top, and for everyone who helped me throughout the evening. I'd prayed a lot for guidance, peace, help, and safety, and I know that Heavenly Father gave me everything I needed.

Hooray for a great evening!

Blink of an Eye

Monday night at Family Home Evening, my ward had a guest speaker. I had never heard of Brother W before that day, but he told us an incredible story:

Two years ago in February, he and his wife recieved a phone call at 1 a.m. It was the police telling Brother W that his son had been driving drunk, had hit a car, and killed a pregnant woman and two of her children. (Click here for more details). This family was in the teenager's stake, and the parents of the woman killed were in Brother W's ward at that time, so they'd known these people fairly well.

Can you imagine how devastated this father would be? He had to watch his son go through all of this, and he felt tremendous guilt toward the grieving family. It was amazing to hear him talk about the trial, his son's regret, and the surviving family members' forgiveness.

As Brother W described the events after the accident, what struck me most was how quickly and easily life changes. I can't take back my bad decisions. I can't change things that the people around me do. All I can do is my best and be supportive of those around me that are doing theirs, whether family, friends, or strangers. No one is perfect. We're living our lives in order to learn and figure things out. And even "bad" news can be kind of fantastic depending on the way you look at it.

I also thought of the Ceran family -- another who suffered through a similar horrible accident. I knew their family well and loved them. I heard about the accident on Christmas Eve and will never forget that phone call or visiting the survivors the next day. The thing they all said was that they were glad the three who died went together, because none of them could have born the deaths of the others. The three who lived felt very blessed they still had each other. They also forgave the other driver. I see them once in awhile and am always struck by how positive and happy they are. They miss their family and their life before, but they choose not to hold onto anger. Instead, they focus on their many blessings. And when it comes down to it, we never know what is coming. We can only hope for the best, accept the worst, and have faith it will all work out.

It was a really emotional meeting. I am glad the co-chairs put me in charge of the event, because if they hadn't I might not have been there. I had needed that message.

Brother W's son is now surving time in prison. His family loves him and is supporting them through the repentance process. I pray that whenever something unexpected comes to me and my loved ones that I'll be able to be as positive and loving as they have been.

Easter Festivities

You married folks or those who spend a lot of time around children may wonder: what might a single person do to celebrate Easter weekend? Well my friends, that's what this post is here to explore!

My manager Beth enlisted my help to do something fun for our teammates for Easter. Her idea was to put together a one-clue scavenger hunt and hide the treats somewhere different for each person. Since the team is so fond of chocolate, I bought mini-Cadbury cream eggs, regular-sized orange cream eggs, tiny hollow bunnies and chicks, and peanut butter eggs. What I forgot, however, was something to put all the chocolate in! I did have colored construction paper for the clues, so I ended up folding a page into a cone and drawing a rabbit face on it. Beth even found some rope we could use as whiskers. The resulting bunnies were a little scary, but pretty cute (if I do say so myself). Unfortunately, if we tried to lay the cone on its side all the candy spilled out. So, we grabbed styrofoam cups, drew pictures on them, and placed the construction-paper bunnies inside so that just the ears stuck out. Truely, we were working with what we had.

Beth and I were the lasts ones in the office Thursday night, so we were able to hide the bunnies without fear of being caught. Friday morning I miraculously arrived first anyway, so I got to hear how excited the others were when they discovered the clues and then the bunnies. It was fun! (And I get to eat the leftover candy. Thankfully, there isn't much...) Everyone ooh'd and aah'd over the bunnies. I may have missed my calling as a Kindergarten teacher; you don't grow up around my creative mom without learning a few skills!

On Sunday, I forgot it was Easter until just as I was leaving my apartment. I suppose I'm the only one who felt I looked conspicuous in my non-pastel, non-floral dress (I wore a black dress with red hearts on it), but I still felt disappointed. I had been late to church and didn't had time to change. For some reason, I had thought Easter was the next Sunday. I really couldn't tell you why!

During Relief Society, the teacher recounted the last week in Christ's life. I admit, I was distracted and endeared by the teacher's pronunciation of words, such as "crucification" instead of "crucifixion". I think she was just nervous, but she was darling! It reminded me of Galinda in the musical Wicked because she does the same thing with her words. However, I think Galinda does it because she's either that spacey or she just likes the way the words sound... who knows?

In Sacrament meeting there was a baby blessing...in my Singles' ward. Never fear, it was for the Bishopric 2nd Counselor's grandson (whose parents are married), but it was a little odd hearing the cooing during the meeting. Cute baby, though. His family was on my row so I glanced over at him. To my surprise, there was a slightly older infant nearby. I wanted so much to go over and squish their pudgy little legs -- my nieces can't come soon enough!

I hadn't seen my family in two weeks because of my trip, so I was excited to see them for dinner. I even dressed up, sort of. Turns out that was a good thing, because we had guests! My mom's mom, my sister-in-law's brother Russell, and his girlfriend Angela all joined the rest of us for dinner and frivolity. I played with Gunner for a bit and it turns out I'm a pretty neat Catwoman, and not nearly as good as he when it comes to hiding Easter eggs. Then Gunner and Peter and David all tried to get a really cool dragon kite in the air. I didn't watch so I'm not sure if they succeeded. It didn't seem to be a terribly windy day, but anything's possible.

At one point, all of the girls got together to talk about baby things. When Lindsey said she was excited to dress the girls in frilly things for Easter, my mom and I both cheered "Yay!" (I think our outburst scared everyone else in the group.) My mom used to sew my dresses and make headbands and clips for my hair --that's half the reason I am now so girly. Now we'll have not one but two little girls to play dress up with! Thank goodness Mom kept many of my costumes growing up...

Thanks again, Mom, for not making up Easter baskets this year. I snacked on the available candy quite enough; it was nice not to take any home.

You might think that my Easter fun ended with Sunday, wouldn't you? Ha! The FHE Committee decided that for the activity tonight we should do something having to do with the holiday. As I recall, I was the one who came up with the super-cool idea to play "Egg-cellent" games, i.e. games revolving around eggs. There was egg dying (and an opportunity to destroy), an egg hunt, and 7-11. I ended up playing 7-11 the whole time and winning big! Who knew I was so lucky at dice? By the end, there were three guys and three ladies at the table, and I rolled 7 and 11 enough to end up with the Twix at the end. It took forever, though. We came up with a rule that rolling snake eyes warranted Truth or Dare (well, just truth) but none of us was brave enough to actually answer. There was plenty of candy so everyone got something. When we finished, the six of us confessed our movie-star crushes in an effort to get to know each other a little better, which was pretty interesting. Seriously, good times.

One of my personal goals was reinforced this week. During Sunday School, the teacher managed to bring the discussion around to the Atonement (it was a lesson on family history). She asked us to take a minute to find our favorite scripture on the Atonement. It was then I realized I don't have a favorite scripture about the Atonement. But as I navigated through the Book of Mormon to 3 Nephi, a verse in chapter 9 caught my eye:

19 And ye shall offer up unto me no more the shedding of blood; yea, your sacrifices and your burnt offerings shall be done away, for I will accept none of your sacrifices and your burnt offerings.
20 And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not.

I was reminded that I need to be better than I am. In order for me to benefit from Jesus Christ's sacrifice, I need to give my whole heart. Most days I feel like I go through the motions instead of really grabbing the opportunities given me. I read the scriptures regularly, but I only go to FHE once every couple of months. I have a goal to go to Institute at least once a month, but I don't talk to anyone there unless I already know them. My Savior hoped for more than that from me, and wanted me to gain the blessings. He not only atoned for my sins, He taught how I can utilize the Atonement to become perfect and live with Him again. Eternal Salvation is very do-able, but it takes constant focus and effort. I must do better; I will do better. I am thankful for the Atonement. I am thankful that the Western world celebrates that magnificent event, and that I know what it means. I just wish it lasted longer.

Does anyone else find it interesting that we have two months of Christmas music, decorations, and service, but on Easter we only have the one day and three hymns? Just something to think about.

Anyway, that was my single-gal Easter weekend. Was it all you expected?

Human Foosball

Last night I got to magnify one of my callings in my Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Singles' Ward. I'm a member of the Family Home Evening Committee, and we all take turns taking charge of an activity each Monday night. Last night was my turn. Thankfully I had a lot of help.

Unfortunately, I lack the courage to ask for more help and delegate. And, of course I didn't plan for enough time to buy the food (something else I should have delegated) and locate the beach balls needed for the game. If it hadn't been for the two men on the committee who volunteered to put together the court and find the poles I would have been in a whole heep of trouble!

We played Human Foosball. Yep, it's pretty much exactly how it sounds! We held onto poles and kicked a ball around. There were so many people there we had two games going! I didn't get to play, but I helped referee, and keep score. It was a big hit! Everyone got really into it and it really looked like a foosball table, with people frantically kicking the ball away from people's legs, hitting players in the head, and the balls flying every which way out of the courts, though some got creative, using the poles to hit the ball. The funniest moment came when someone kicked the ball into a kid who was holding a cookie -- the cookie went flying, and we had to stop for a few minutes because we were laughing so hard.

I would highly recommend Human Foosball for family reunions and young men/young women activities. It was really awesome.

Me with cousin Bryce who I am so thrilled to say is now in my ward! Isn't he handsome?


The food I agonized over. I was tired of having cookies at every activity, so I bought carrots, celery, broccoli, cantaloupe, grapes, and... some other fruit. It thrilled me every time someone complimented the food! I was afraid there wouldn't be enough, but everyone ate a ton and there was still some for me to take home.


All went well, and it was a great activity. I am very grateful to the other members of my committee for all of their help in making it such a success. I needed their help! And hey -- I met a lot of fun people!

Etiquette

Main Entry: et·i·quette
Pronunciation: \ˈe-ti-kət, -ˌket\
Function: noun
Etymology: French étiquette, literally, ticket — more at ticket
Date: 1750
: the conduct or procedure required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be observed in social or official life
Merriam-Webster Online

It would have been nice if I hadn't sent out an email spelling this word "edicutt" to the people on my ward's Communications Committee this week. I kind of want to send an email assuring everyone that I do know how to spell it, even if I couldn't remember at the moment, but I had already mentioned in that email that they'd spelled my name wrong. Turnabout is fair play, I suppose. I deserve their mockery and pity (no, there has been no mockery or pity that I know of).

I just hope nobody puts it on the calendar that way!!