weekly highlights: new niece, Utah Theatre trip, our 22nd anniversary, and "old" niece

NEW NIECE:

Tessa Marie, Brandon and Calista's first baby (and our grand-niece), was born on Wednesday! To go to Brandon and Calista's post on their blog click here and to see photos click here. She is adorable. Congratulations Brandon and Calista. We are so happy for you.

UTAH THEATRE TRIP:

A few hours after Tessa was born (at 2 am to be precise), Glen and I boarded a school bus with some of his drama students (including Hannah) and some of their mothers for our annual trip to the Utah Theatre Association's Conference for Junior High and High School students (20 students all together, though 3 traveled in a car, and 6 mothers). In the middle of the night we were on highway 375 (it's nicknamed the extra-Terrestrial highway). Don't know if I'm happy or sad to report there were no sightings. The fact that most of us were trying to sleep may have had something to do with the lack of UFO sightings. Well, at least I was warm--which doesn't always happen on the school bus in the middle of the night, if not totally comfortable, and got a bit of sleep in.

This year's conference theme: "Make a Scene!" Glen, Hannah, and I all have lovely t-shirts to prove it. This year the conference was in St. George at Dixie State College (which has recently been bought by U of U so things'll be changing for them). Next year the conference will be back at BYU and we'll get to see Andrew there!

I only went to one workshop this weekend and it I took it that first afternoon. Juggling. I've always wanted to know how to juggle. You  know, sometimes having "juggling" written on the skills section of your resume may make the difference in getting an acting job or not.

The class was taught by Paul Draper, a magician and mind reader at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. Click on his name to go to his website. (Deni, have you heard of him?). I couldn't take photos of me trying to juggle, of course, but here are a few I took during class (I only got Paul's back...he's the one in purple):

First thing in the classroom, after having us look at a ball (it's like a fat hackysack) on the ground 10' or so in front of us, he had us close our eyes, walk up to where the ball was, bend over and pick up the ball. I missed all three tries (75% got it at least once), but my hand was within a palm width of the ball, so I was "close enough." This was to prove you don't need to be looking at the ball to find it.

Then we moved outside. First we took one ball and tossed it up to eyebrow height and went back and forth between right and left hands. Then we took one ball in each hand and tossed with our right then our left and caught with our left then with our right. Then repeated it in reverse: tossed with our left then our right, caught with our left then our right. There's a pattern to it 1-2-pause-2-1-pause-1-2-pause-2-1-pause...

We sat in the grass so we wouldn't have to bend over and retrieve our balls all the time. Then we added the third ball...I'm still on the 2 ball step trying not to drop them. The most I've gotten up to was 3 1/2 sets without dropping. But with three balls, you toss right hand, toss left hand, catch left hand and toss right hand then catch right hand, repeat. Yeah, right. OK. I later bought 3 squishable balls from JoAnn Fabric's (they're supposed to relieve hand stress if you've been sewing for a long time) to use for practice. I wonder if I'll ever be able to do it.

That first night the musical that we attended was The 25th Annual Putman County Spelling Bee performed by students from Westminster College. According to its blurb it's about "Six young people in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learn that winning isn't everything and the losing doesn't necessarily  make you a loser." Just before it started we were "reminded" that it was rated PG-13. Hmm. Yep, it deserved that rating. Yikes. On the whole it was a very funny play and the casting was absolutely perfect. Too bad the boy scout with hormone problems had to be a character.

One interesting thing about the play is that they call 4 audience members up to be in the spelling bee. Two from our group were called up: Jordyn (who was our Cinderella last November) and Melanie, our dental hygienist and  the mom of one of Glen's students (who was our Anne Shirley in December). It wasn't a total surprise that they were called up. If I understand it correctly, during the day they had talked to some people from the show and were told their names might be called and if they were they were just to be themselves and not act. What a riot! Jordyn kept spelling the words correctly so they finally had to call her up twice in a row and give her a ridiculously hard word to get her off the stage. Way to go Jordyn.

OUR ANNIVERSARY:

Marsha, the bus driver, dropped Glen and me off at the St. George temple on her way bringing the kids and other chaperons to that morning's activities. We had been married there just after 9 am on January 21st, 22 years ago...and at 9 we were in the temple performing sealings for some of my dead distant relatives. Very cool. Afterwards we walked the 3/4 mile back to our hotel, changed out of our dress clothes.

While walking another 3/4 mile up to campus we stopped for a few minutes at the cemetery and saw the tombstone of one of Glen's ancestors: Samuel L. Adams.

We made it on campus in time for the teacher's luncheon. We then separated. I walked 3/4 mile back to the Family History Center and looked at some census records while Glen went to class. (Don't ask me why everything turned out to be 3/4 mile distance...the temple, college, and hotel formed a nice triangle for walking). When I was done at the FHC, I went back to the hotel to await the arrival of Melissa.

"OLD" NIECE:

Since Melissa is almost 20, she doesn't really qualify at being old, but compared to newborn Tessa, she is. Anyway, Melissa is currently attending the Paul Mitchell Cosmetology School just outside of St. George. She came and visited for a bit. After a while, Hannah and Glen showed up and we all got to chat. Here is a picture of the cousins:

Friday night I stayed at the hotel with a girl who wasn't feeling well and the others went to see The Miracle Worker performed by Dixie High School.

Saturday I took the bus and went shopping (got a shirt, a book--thanks Deni for my Deseret Book gift card!,--and my juggling balls). I read and worked on some things for Primary until it was time to board the school bus again and head for home. We left about 6 pm Nevada time and got in at 2:45 am, I think.

So, thanks to Kathy, Gary, Jackie, and David for watching the kids we didn't take with us. It was a nice trip, but as always, it's good to be home.

some of Andrew's photos

For the most part, I do not know who anyone is, where the photos were taken, or even how long ago (some of the date stamps said 2007 so I know they are wrong), but I have enjoyed looking at the photos Andrew had on his camera chip.

sweet deals

We have a niece who likes to post on her blog the "sweet" deals she's made, so when I went to my favorite thrift store Savers and found some great stuff, I immediately thought of Calista.

So, what did I get that I'm so excited about? Well, I had 2 main items on my Christmas wish list: a pressure cooker and an electric crepe maker. I got the cooker, but of course the crepe maker couldn't be found in town. I was expecting that and thought that I'd eventually look online for one. Now I don't have to. I bought one for $8...just wish it had been a half-price tag, but I guess I am content with $8 instead of $4.

I also bought a pair of jeans for $3.50. I usually only have one nice pair at a time and I misplaced mine several weeks ago. I've been wearing holey ones hoping to come across my "real" ones. I now have a nice pair that fits me better than the other pair, but the mystery remains: what on earth happened to my other jeans???

What else did I get? Over $35 worth of brand new Creative Memories products for $2! It was a tape runner, refill blades for my cutting system, a corner rounder, and a mini-stapler. Very exciting.

Now to see the crepe maker in action. You pour the batter into a shallow plate, heat up the maker, turn it upside down and dip it into the batter, turn it back over, wait a few seconds, then peel off the crepe. We made dessert crepes using cherry pie filling and reddi-whip, which were really good. But the favorite seemed to be the nutella and banana crepes. Fabulous.

Hannah in action--dipping the maker into the batter

a cherry crepe

Now, totally unrelated, we had some pogonip the other morning. It was much more impressive in town than it was here, but here is some frosted milkweed.

Coming soon: photos from Andrew's mission!

Yes, after being out for 18 months, he has finally sent a memory chip home...with over 600 photos on it. I have yet to download it and see all the goodies, but that should happen soon.

This and That but Mainly the Holidays

First off, our nephew Jacob got engaged yesterday. Congratulations Jacob and Susan! We are excited for you and hope you will be very happy.

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OK...had a great dream the other night. Eric kept coming into a room where I was and I noticed that each time he came, even though it was only minutes apart, he had on different clothes and looked different. I tried to question Eric about it, but he just kept giving me his famous mysterious Eric smile and didn't say a word.

I was trying to figure out what was going on and then 2 Eric's came in at the same time and then a short time later a younger Eric came in. It dawned on me that he had invented a time machine! The thing that made the dream so great was the level of happiness I felt because I knew the level of happiness that Eric must be feeling...I was just so happy for him. And I really felt that happiness. It was great.

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Now on to the holidays and some pictures:

One project that I had Hannah take charge of was making snowmen out of nutterbutter cookies by dipping them in melted chocolate. For those of you who watched the "Psych" Christmas special, that's our Gus in the middle.









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 My parents stayed with us for a few nights while they on their way to spend Christmas with my sister. While they were here we had the annual "pajama party" with my in-laws. It included dinner and the kids opening the pjs and clothes that my in-laws got for the kids.

Eric, Alex, Hannah, and Ryan in their new sleepwear (and daywear since they...especially Alex...seem to think it's great to stay in your pjs all day).











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On Dec 21st there was a lunar eclipse. We thought it would be too cloudy to see, but the clouds cleared up. Everyone went to bed but Eric, who watched the whole thing and took this picture (along with others). I believe Glen climbed out of bed once to go look and I did the same a little later...about 1:30 and saw with my own eyes the wonder of it all. Fun stuff.






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Every year (for at least the past 20) the family goes Christmas caroling. This year we went on December 22nd...and our success rate of finding our neighbors in was not too high. But, the college kids were with us and we had a great time...and it wasn't even too cold.

This is Ben, Jacob, Maddie, Eric, Alex, Ryan, Kathy, and Alicia in mid-song.

It's kind of like reverse trick-or-treating...we play a "trick" on them by singing (this year one little boy even covered his ears while we were singing "Silent Night"), but then we leave a plate full of goodies for them to make up for the fact that they had to listen to us. I think we have actually improved over the years and occasionally sounded quite good. It's hot chocolate and doughnuts afterwards at Grandma and Grandpa's.

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On Christmas Eve we worked on our gingerbread houses. Hannah's (on the far left) had a great pretzel fence that doesn't show up so well in this photo since it was one of the first things to get eaten. Next is my barn...I made a silo but had so much trouble getting it to stay up that I gave up on it. I made great hay bale stacks using frosted mini-wheats that don't really show up here. Then comes Ryan's house. He's always a minimalist... as is Eric. Notice the little stack of wood made of pretzels to the left of Eric's house. Alex's has a nice fruity pebbles roof. Good time had by all.
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Christmas Morning:
The kids are hunting for the hidden pickle ornament that Eric made in school many years ago. Whoever finds the pickle chooses the first present under the tree to open and starts the gift opening process. Ryan found the pickle this year...even though in this picture Eric (in green) is probably just inches away from where it was hidden. It took them about 10 minutes of hunting to find it this year as the tree was really thick and hid it well.

 Hannah is wearing the Santa hat...meaning it was her turn to open a gift. Once the gift is open, the person wearing the Santa hat picks a present out from under a tree for another person, gives them the present and the hat and it's his/her turn to open a gift. We do that until all the gifts are opened. To the left, Ryan is showing his complete Calvin and Hobbes comic collection.

 Alex is opening his gift while Eric is looking at a book of poems he received (it looks like Marvin the Martian is also reading Eric's book, doesn't it?).

Ryan is showing off a new DS game.














Later in the day we got to talk to Andrew. He is doing great and we look forward to next Christmas when he will be with us again.

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I'm a "Charlie's Angel"

For Christmas I opened a gift from my parents and it was a beautiful necklace. Later when I was talking to my mom she explained that my Dad (Charlie) had bought the gift for me...and one for my sister and one for my mom. So the three of us are Charlie's Angels. Now to figure out who is Kate Jackson, who is Farrah Fawcett, who is Jaclyn Smith or Cheryl Ladd or even Shelly Hack or Tanya Roberts...

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LIEBRARY--it's a game Eric got several years ago for Christmas and we played it several times. It is such a riot, that I decided to post about it. It probably deserves it's own post, but here it goes. You take turns being the librarian. A die is rolled to choose the category (fiction/nonfiction or mystery/horror/suspense or romance or children's or classic) and then the librarian reads the plot of the book. Everyone then tries to write down a plausible first line for the book. The real first line in on the card the librarian has and he/she writes down the real first line. After everyone is down, the librarian reads all the made up lines and the real one and the players vote on which one they think is the right first line. You get one point if someone guesses the sentence you made up, two points if you guess the correct first line, and three points if you are the librarian and nobody guessed the correct answer. Next time we play I will have to post some of our sentences.

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Glen and I went for a walk on New Year's Day. We didn't have a white Christmas this year like we did last year, but it started snowing on January 1st. I love walking in the quiet of gently falling snow. By the afternoon the sun had come out and much of the snow had melted. Gorgeous.
















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How my new pressure cooker saved our luck for the New Year.

We burn a bayberry candle all the way out on Christmas Eve (it's lit at sunset at 4:36) because it's a tradition in my family. It's supposed to bring luck in the New Year.

We also eat ham and black-eyed peas on New Year's Day with a dime placed under our plates for good luck. Now, do I really believe I'll have a bad year if I don't do these things? No. But I have to do these things because it's tradition...

So, on Christmas Eve, we burned the candle without a hitch.

On New Year's day, I went to get one of the 2 cans of black-eyed peas I would have sworn were in my pantry and couldn't find any. (Is it possible Hannah hid them because she hates black-eyed peas??? Maybe she'll like them now more that I've informed her another name for black-eyed peas is cow peas? Doubt it, even though she loves cows.) "Luckily" I remembered my big gift for Christmas this year was an 8 quart pressure cooker. Black-eyed peas don't even need soaking and only 11 minutes under pressure. Even though the jar the peas were vacuum sealed in was labeled "older than 1998" (and therefore at least 13 years old), the beans cooked up just fine and my luck for the New Year is not endangered. Phew. Disaster averted.


Happy New Year everyone!