Indulgences

Our marathon training starts next week. So guess what we did last night? You might think we'd be working out or something to get ready to start training, but no! We went to Red Robin and ate hamburgers and french fries. Hee hee! Gotta get it outta the system before training, right?

On a completely different topic...I have decided that I think that single people are generally more outgoing than married people. For example, I went to ward choir last week and the single people there came up and talked to me and introduced themselves, etc. while the married people mostly minded their own business. Also, on the bus, whenever I sit next to a single person, they usually try to start up a conversation with me. The married people just sit there and sleep or read or something. On campus, the single people will usually say hello while the married people hurry on their way. I just thought this was interesting. What do ya'll think?

Progress

I would just like to announce that I am making progress...I made it through Primary yesterday without crying! They were actually a little better this week. Oh please let it continue!

And I also made a homemade apple cranberry pie. From scratch. And it actually turned out ok...a little dry...but ok.

And I am learning how to do flip turns while swimming. And I got a lot less water up my nose on Saturday than I did last Wednesday.

And I had a wonderful weekend. Matt and I went to dinner and bowling on Friday night...it was alot of fun even if I got creamed at bowling. Then on Saturday I got to go to dinner and play games with some girlfriends. It was great!

Name them one by one

I am trying to be better about counting my many blessings. After all, it is Thanksgiving season. But really, I should be more grateful for all the wonderful blessings in my life all the time. So I'm starting a list...

1. I have a warm place to live and food to eat.
2. I have a knowledge of the restored gospel.
3. God loves me!
4. I have a wonderful husband who loves me and would do anything for me.
5. My husband does the dishes and the laundry.
6. I have been sealed to my husband and my family.
7. I have a great job and job stability.
8. I got accepted into my grad school program.
9. The beautiful fall leaves.
10. A healthy body and the ability to do so much with it.
11. A good family who loves me.
12. The scriptures.
13. The ability to communicate with God through prayer.
14. A living prophet who receives revelation and provides counsel for us.
15. Good friends.
16. Medicine.
17. A good mind and all the opportunities I have to use it.
18. The freedom to choose.
19. My creative abilities.
20. A car that works.
21. The opportunity I had to serve a mission. (I went into the MTC 5 years ago yesterday!)
22. A sense of smell.
23. Talents.
24. People who believe in me.
25. I have a hard-working husband who supports me.
26. The atonement of Jesus Christ that gives me the opportunity to repent and try again.
27. Chocolate covered cinnamon bears!
28. Christmas time.
29. Technology.
30. The most handsome husband ever.
31. The opportunity I've had to see a lot of the world.
32. The ability to learn.
33. Challenges that force me to grow.
34. People who listen.

...there are so many things I'm grateful for. I'm making a goal to really focus on the blessings in my life. Happy Thanksgiving month!

Weekend highlight and some venting

This weekend we went with Caron and Raymon to the Organ Loft. It is a theater that plays old silent movies with organ accompaniment. The theater was built around the organ, so the organ pipes are inside the walls surrounding the audience. The organ is bright sparkly purple and gold. Here we are with the organist. It really was pretty neat. All the sound effects (telephone, sirens, trains, etc.) are controlled by this organ. And the organist sits in front of the screen and watches the movie and just plays along with whatever is going on. Now that is talent. It was just really cool. And it was fun to go out with Caron and Raymon.

That was pretty much the highlight of the weekend. WARNING: VENTING AHEAD. On Sunday we had to speak in church. Normally I love speaking in church, but this one was just really bad. I was stumbling over my words right and left and nothing coherent was coming out of my mouth. It was awful! And to top it off, I told the Primary president that I needed help so she got someone to help me and the kids actually BEHAVED for the new teacher! What is wrong with me? Why can't I handle controlling the 5-year-olds when everyone else doesn't seem to have a problem with it?

I think I am having an identity crisis. I just want to be good at something. It seems everything I try lately I am just not good at. I used to be known as the adventurous one, or the party-thrower, or the traveler, or the good Relief Society teacher, or the good listener friend, or the triathlete motivator. But now I'm not those things anymore and I'm just struggling in everything. My students are so much smarter than me and really could probably do just fine without me, I am having a hard time keeping up in grad school, I am no good at teaching Primary, I can't seem to make friends in my new ward, I feel like I'm losing a lot of my old friends, and I don't have enough time to do anything....ugghhh!

OK, vent over. Back to your regularly scheduled blog. Here's a happy thought....only 45 days til Christmas!!!

Bliss on a stick

I love caramel apples! And I love the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory! They have 12 different varieties of apples! Mmmm....

Halloween

This was the best costume I saw all day. They were chasing each other around campus and only moving in straight lines and making turns at right angles. And they had the PacMan music playing from their costumes. Isn't that great?

For the first time EVER since I left my job at CK last March, I missed it on Halloween. Halloween was always so fun at that job. It just wasn't the same this year. My students had some fun things going on, but I wasn't really a part of it. They decorated their area cubicle, which turned out really fun. One of the kids even stayed up til midnight the night before writing causes of death on gravestones for each of the students. It was hilarious!

A few of the students dressed up as our student body president. They stole his clothes and dyed their hair black. And since Adam is from New Zealand, they spoke in accents. It was so funny! And the best part was that Adam didn't know they had stolen his clothes.

Nicki was so cute. She dressed up as the Morton salt girl.

Here I am with my team. I really do love working with them, they are so great. And I really do love my job so much more than my old one. Chad was Chad Johnson the football player, Garrett was a gangster, Nat was Where's Waldo, and Liz was a ninja. They are so awesome!

They had a party in the office that day for all the students and kept talking about all their fun plans they had for the evening. It made me really sad because this is the first year that I wasn't invited to any parties or anything. Usually I have a bunch of things to choose from to do on Halloween.

So I went home and carved a pumpkin at least.

I was just sad that I didn't have anywhere to go so I could dress up in my costume. I had to go to Target to get some supplies and there was no one even at Target.

I guess next year I will just have to make sure I have some festive plans. I love Halloween, but this year was just kind of disappointing.

A Medieval Murder

So the 5th annual murder mystery went pretty well. There were a few last-minute mishaps that I did not anticipate that kind of made me crazy for a bit, but we survived them and it went off great.

I transformed my parents' dining room into a "Royal Feasting Hall" since my original plan to have it at the King Arthur storage unit place didn't work out. (They have this really sweet conference room all decked out in medeival stuff that they were going to let me use. Until the day before.) So I had to scramble to find a new castle. Which, if you are ever wondering, there are about 3 castle-like structures in Salt Lake and Utah counties--all of which were booked for the night of my party.

So I had to make do with the dining room. But I did make some royal draperies and rope, a magic mirror, lots of candlesticks, some family crests, and a castle wall. I even found a giant sword in my brother's room that was perfect for a decoration.

The guests: Sir Prancealot, Bishop Sven, Maid Intaiwan, Lord MacIntosh, Sir William Writinghame, Lady Guinivere, Queen Adelaide of Camelot, the Pied Piper, Countess Catherine of Wykeham, Isabel the peasant girl, and Mystic Margarita.

They all did such a great job! I loved their costumes!

Here is my Queen costume and royal draperies. I wore a tutu underneath the dress to help it boof out more. It was quite itchy. I got my dress at the Hale Center Theater costume sale. It was a whopping $15! I was so excited! That is also where I got the tapestry fabric and royal rope.

Matt was the Pied Piper. We borrowed a kilt from my uncle and he made a Pi (you know...3.14) on his T-shirt and carried a pipe. It was great!

Sarah Ann was Mystic Margarita. She brought a snow globe as a crystal ball. It was hilarious! And this is the castle wall I constructed (ok, well Matt and Allen mostly constructed it) that we hung at the entrance to the Royal Feasting Hall.

Raymon was Sir Prancealot. His sheild even had his own family crest on it. Cool!

Tyler was Lord MacIntosh and Almarie was Isabel the peasant girl. Tyler even brought a real sword.

Caron was Countess Catherine of Wykeham. She made her own dress. How cool is that? And she provided the medieval soundtrack for the party.

Anne was Maid Intaiwan. Here she is looking into the magic mirror with her serving pitcher. Everyone kept making her get them drinks all night long.

Allen was Bishop Sven. He shaved his head like an old, bald monk for the party!! It was fabulous. He was the murderer's accomplice. He also drew the family crests displayed behind him. We got the family crests of everyone present at the party to put on those shields.

Garrett was Sir William Writingham. He wore tights! I was shocked! He also carried around a quill and a bottle of ink so he could write down everything that was said for inspiration. Hayley was Lady Guinivere. And she was the killer.

Here we are enjoying our royal feast and divulging clues. I sort of ran out of time this year, so I didn't have a chance to develop some of the characters as fully as I would have liked. And I didn't have time to write good alibis for everyone for the last round. Oh well. It was still ok.

I love doing this party every year though...it's so much fun! Let the tradition continue!