HAPPY 25TH BIRTHDAY TO SARAH

A quarter of a century!!! What a momentous occasion. I just think it’s so awesome that Sarah turns a quarter of a century right after her mom turns half a century. How cool is that?!



I flew up on Friday to celebrate the 25th anniversary of my eldest daughter’s birth, and we had a glorious weekend together. Sarah picked me up at the airport and we headed right into SLC to view an art show where one of her fellow WSU classmates was exhibiting his photography. Remarkable artistry. Unique compositions – every one. Then we met Josh at the Desert Star Theater where we were delightfully entertained by the silly show: “Home School Musical” as we gobbled enormous bowls of Farr’s ice cream.



Sarah and Josh have been taking snowboarding lessons at WSU this semester and were eager to display their prowess at the sport. They are AWESOME snowboarders!!! Ed was unable to join us Friday evening, due to a previous announcing commitment, but he flew up to spend a glorious day on the slopes with us.

Sarah and Josh showing off their adorable funky ski hats.

The Birthday Girl all ready for a day on the slopes of Powder Mountain.

This is Josh disguised as a Snow Walrus!

It had been years since either Ed or I had been skiing, but it only took a couple of runs to be right back in the groove. The fluffy clouds had dumped several feet of snow on Northern Utah just a few days before our arrival, and the slopes were perfect! The day was sunny and warmish, there was a light skiff of powder on the hard-packed surface, and I realized how very much I have missed skiing these last 15 years since moving to St. George.

Thank you, Sarah, for inviting us to your fabulous birthday weekend. Happy Birthday, my wonderful daughter!

Happiness is skiing with your best friend!

JURASSIC PARK

I was visiting Sarah a few weeks ago for her birthday. One evening, while she was busy with a project (she’s the editor for a WSU annual arts publication and the deadline was fast approaching), I decided to take a walk along an enticing trail just a block from her home. It was late afternoon, the air was crisp and wintery and snow blanketed the Ogden world with it’s stark, sparkling beauty. The trail wound through a park, then along the Ogden river right up to the mouth of Ogden canyon. The banks of the river were dotted with trees stretching their bare limbs towards the baby-blue sky. It was such a beautiful day for a stroll and I was soaking in the splendor of being healthy, happy, and loving the wonderful earth that Heavenly Father has created for us, when suddenly I saw TEETH coming at me from the side of the trail. AHHH! Dino-breath! And right in the neck of Ogden Canyon. Who would have expected that?! Thankfully, the predator didn’t appear to have seen me, so I quietly journeyed on. A few meters later, though, there was another dinosaur – and yet another one! Apparently I had stumbled upon some prehistoric stomping ground. And since I had reached the end of the path, and the sun was quickly setting, and I was now miles from Sarah’s home, I turned myself about and rushed hurriedly back the way that I had come. As I approached the turnoff to Sarah’s place, I saw that the trail stretched for potentially miles in the opposite direction that I had journeyed that day. Hmmm. I wonder what I might find in that direction? I shall simply have to pay my daughter another visit and find out. But next time – I’m NOT going alone!!!

Flame On!

There’s one aspect of my personality that frightens me. It’s a closely guarded secret, but I have a terrible, instant temper. I think of myself as a volcano – all that blisteringly hot, smoldering lava lying just beneath the surface. The pressure builds gradually, slowly, almost imperceptibly until suddenly – KABOOM! - it erupts and spews rock chunks, scalding steam, and molten lava all over anything and everything near it. Like the volcano, it takes a lot to provoke me to spew. Usually years and years of frustrating events that slowly build the pressure inside me until one final event triggers the eruption and KABOOM! I’m throwing off piercingly dark looks and spewing angry words at a poor unsuspecting subject. This was me and Eddie yesterday at the airport kiosk. Me, the erupting volcano and he, the unsuspecting subject.

He asked me about it today. I confessed that it was “the eye.” He gives me “the eye” when I say something incredibly stupid, which I do from time to time – more frequently, in fact, than I care to admit. So, I was stupid yet again yesterday and I knew, I just knew that when I looked at him he’d be giving me “the eye” of incredulity. I glanced his way and THERE IT WAS! AAAAAAGH! I just couldn’t take it, and I blew and spewed - covering him with my vile anger. And, of course, after the angry episode comes the dreaded silence. I mean, what can you say to a seething volcano? And I, for my part, need time to cool down before I can speak rationally. So we walked side by side in icy silence through airport security and on to our gate in terminal “E” – then, he quietly asked if I wanted a Strawberry Frappacino. That helped cool me down a LOT. But it wasn’t one hour later (I had barely finished the Frappacino) that I said a stupid thing yet AGAIN! That time, however, I simply refused to look at him. Sigh.

So, we were talking about it tonight (it really was quite an astonishing episode – the first in our three years together) and I told him that if he just wouldn’t give me “the eye,” I wouldn’t be so tempted to spew. But he couldn’t promise not to give me “the eye” when I said stupid things, so I told him I couldn’t promise not to “Flame On” when he does. And that’s where we stand today. Gosh, I love this man. What a glorious time we have together, experiencing all the wonderful emotions bestowed upon mankind. And I love the “Flame On” thing. That was Ed’s term for it. It suits.

A Visit with Mom and Duane

Mom and Duane have a timeshare condo in Mesquite, and we love getting together with them when they're in the neighborhood. In September 2008 they came down for a week, and Ed and I treated them to a couple of nights at the theater. We saw Les Miserables and Big River at Tuacahn and had the most fabulous time!

On Sunday we held a feast at the Rogers abode in their honor. Nikki and Paul joined us as well as Austin and Jason. We ate lasagna and breadsticks and salad and played “chicken foot” dominoes. It was so much fun being together. My Mom is looking so fragile lately. Neither she nor Duane can get around very easily. Ed was patience personified during their visit. He is so kind, thoughtful and chivalrous. I’m glad I married such a good man. How blessed I’ve been to have my mother with me so long in this life, and to have such a marvelous man as my husband.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Out with the old! Ring in the New!

What a fabulous New Years Eve party at the Rogers' abode. There was munchin' and hot tubbin' and puzzlin' and gamin' to be had.

Stacie and Kody had given us a marvelous little (emphasis on the "little") puzzle for Christmas. The pieces were no bigger than the size of a dime and there were 1,000 of the itty bitty things! We gathered around the kitchen table and spent the first couple of hours putting it together. What a splendid gift.

Here's a few pictures of it. Note, if you will, the size of the piece displayed on Cheryl’s hand, and the size of the finished puzzle in comparison to a regular playing card. This truly must be the world’s smallest puzzle!

And speaking of playing cards –Stacie, Lyndy, LeAnn and Cheryl had a few rowdy, rambunctious, roof-raising rounds of Nertz. We barely finished in time to grab our honey-bunches and smooch in the New Year. Fireworks burst over St. George and could be viewed from the kitchen window if you held your head just so . . . All in all, a glorious evening spent with a few of those we love best in the whole world. A perfect way to greet the New Year. May our kind and loving Heavenly Father shower peace, love, health and prosperity on one and all throughout 2009 is our fervent prayer.

Body Worlds Exhibit

December 29, 2008

I had the privilege of attending a most spectacular exhibition of real human bodies – bodies of deceased individuals that had undergone a process called “plastination”.

My brother, James, along with his wife and two of his daughters, picked me up at the airport Monday morning. We spent over 3 hours in the exhibit viewing every part of the body imaginable in intricate detail: the organs; the muscles; and the skeletal system. We saw healthy organs side by side enlarged, deformed and diseased ones, broken bones that had healed after being poorly set, the intricate network of arteries, blood vessels and capillaries that network our bodies, the array of nerves that extend from the spine and branch out to our extremities. It was simply amazing. The focus of this particular exhibit was on the heart, but truly every part of the body was displayed, dissected and discussed in detail. Even though I already had a deep respect and admiration for the complex, intricate design and mechanics of the human body, the exhibit provided even further evidence that out bodies are splendid creations of a brilliant Heavenly Father who loves us dearly. How wonderfully made each of us is. How priceless this gift – our earthly bodies.

A very poignant display was that of lungs ravaged by the effects of smoking. There was even a leg that had been amputated just below the knee because smoking had created a clot in the blood vessel that fed the leg, causing the leg to turn black and die.

The part of the exhibit that touched me most deeply was that of the embryos and developing fetuses. At only eight weeks gestation all the features of the body – right down to the individual fingers - could be seen in the tiny (and I mean, oh so tiny! – like 1.5 inches tiny) little developing baby. There were fetuses from nearly each week of gestation. Each little baby so perfect, so beautiful. It’s heart-wrenching that they did not get to experience the joy of living in this beautiful world, even for a short while.

Sadly, Ed could not join us because he had two DSC basketball games to announce tonight and there was not a flight with enough availability to assure us that he would make it home in time for the games. After hearing a few details about the exhibit, he assures me that it was best he did not attend after all. Filleted bodies make him a bit queasy, I believe. But, thankfully, they did not dull our appetites. After 3 or more hours of intense studying, we were starved! We headed out for Greek Gyros that were divine, then spent some time in a bookstore (I LOVE bookstores!) and paid a visit to a store called 10 Thousand Villages that had the most wonderful nativities and other goods available for purchase from Peru. My favorite were the fat little ceramic rams. All in all, a spectacular day.

Strawberries and Crème Frappacino

One of the most divine concoctions known to mankind is Starbuck’s Strawberries and Crème Frappacino. Now, I wouldn’t actually drive to Starbucks to purchase this tasty shake-type dessert. If I were to drive somewhere for ice cream I would either get a Cherry-Almond Concrete at Neilson’s, or a Chocolate-Marshmallow Blizzard at Dairy Queen or a pint of Godiva’s White Chocolate-Raspberry ice cream at the local supermarket. Any of these 3 creamy, delectable and quite decadent desserts rate far above the little frappacino. However, when I’m sitting in an airport lounge with a couple of hours to kill before the Customer Service Agent (hopefully) calls my name for a flight, a Strawberries and Crème Frappacino is a refreshing way to wile away the time. With a frappacino in one hand and a good book in the other, the waiting is of no consequence.