A Gathering Place

One of the best parts about living in Utah is that it seems like we are living at a crossroads for lots of our friends and family.   People are always coming and going from here to attend weddings, drop kids off at college, and visit family.  Most of the time, people are busy when they come here and have a million other people to visit, but on those times when people do have time for a visit, we LOVE it!   We also love that we have the accommodations to host people  more comfortably now, so when they do visit, we can set them up well!  

Having said all that though....this post is not about any long-lost friends coming to visit...it's about living 5 minutes away from my Mom and the family we get to see more frequently as a result of that proximity!  

In early October,  Nate came to stay with Mom for a couple weeks while Heather was out of town.  Nate is only 13-months younger than me, so we have a lot of shared history in the family and it was fun to be able to spend some time with him.   He lives in Tennessee and we do not see him as often as we'd like and I loved the conversations we were able to have!   Note:  You can also see that my darn eye issue (still ongoing) was in full swing back then!

Then Kristina and family came to visit from California during that same time.  

We always love having K's family around and I extra loved that this trip Jesus seemed like he was craving some one-on-one time, so he'd stay here with us while everyone else left for Mom's house.  We read lots of books together and he doted on Denali as much as possible.  It was absolutely delightful and  it felt a little sad when they left for home. 

My niece, Madeline, had some friends over one night and, as per usual, lots and lots of Legos and cars were played with while the K boys were here! 

One night while everyone was still here, Emma, Adam, McKenzie (my niece who is a BYU freshman), and Eva (McKenzie's roommate and one of my Thailand peeps) came over for dinner and a rousing game of Super Edited Family Version of Cards Against Humanity.   I might need to do a whole post on that game sometime.  lol

It was quite fun and I think it's so fun that Eva and McKenzie are now friends!  Eva is from Kentucky and this was the first time Ellie and I had seen her since Thailand.  

So, in summary, and to remind myself about why living in Utah is good: 

1.  We live close to our college kids (and my college age nieces) and get to see them regularly
2.  We get to spend lots of  time with my Mom and sister 
3.  We get to enjoy the relatives who come to visit my Mom
4.  We get to (sometimes) see long-lost friends that make their way through here
5.   We have this view out our back window. 

My Social Life

On an introversion - extroversion scale, I find myself right in the middle leaning a little towards the introverted side.   I definitely like attending social events, as long as I don't have to plan them (and as long as they're not too big)!   The problem with not enjoying planning, though, is that it puts me at the mercy of my friends, who are also mostly introverted and don't love planning things.   And it doesn't help matters that I married someone with even lower social needs than my own, which means I often have inertia working against me as well.   In other words, I like being social and usually am quick to accept when invited to one, but most of the time my social life is a little less active than I'd prefer.   My ideal social life would involve a mix of small group social events with the occasional large one...all planned by other people, of course!  

Do I think you all really care that much about my social life?  Probably not.   But I do want to capture a few social events I've recently been a part of and make sure I don't forget them!  
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Postcrossing meet-up:  You all likely know that I am a complete postcard geek!  I love hunting for them,  collecting them,  and sending them.  I generally send 10-15 per week and that's when I'm at home.  When I'm traveling, it's even more.   Mostly I find that this hobby is viewed as a little "out-there" by most people, but I AM NOT ALONE!    Back in September, a bunch of us Utah based postcard aficionados met at a library in Salt Lake City and talked postcards for two hours!   It was fun to be surrounded others who share the same interest and I very much enjoyed the chance to just gather with some like-minded people.  

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Lunch with postcard friends:  In addition to the Postcrossing meet-up in September, I also recently had lunch with a couple other local postcard loving friends I've met through the community.   Kelly and Alison both live within about 20 minutes of me and are about as geeky as I am.  We even have an ongoing "ugly alphabet" postcard exchange between us, where we take turns sending ugly postcards to each other in alphabetical order.   I have no pictures from the actual lunch, but here's a shot of the most   recent postcard I sent out in our ugly alphabet exchange.  We are on our second round through and I got the letter D this time.  💩

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Virginia Gatherings:  There are times when I feel like I'll never really have good deep friends here in Utah like I did in Virginia, but I sure am grateful for my friends from Virginia.   We've had a few gatherings recently that have meant the world to me.  A few of us (Linda N., Heather P., Karen H) met for breakfast a few weeks ago.  I also loved that the Palmers recently moving here meant that some get-togethers happened amongst Vienna Warders that might not have happened otherwise.  We met at the park a couple times and just enjoyed catching up with old friends.   Since we had a pit-stop in Pennsylvania between Vienna and Utah, I think some people forgot that this is where we landed, so it's good to have some Virginia friends close-by to add a little pull!   I also met with a friend (Christina) recently who was here babysitting her grandkids.  I enjoyed catching up with her and getting to know the cuties that are the kids of one of Spence's best friends. 

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Book group:  It's been a while since I mentioned my book group, but this is my one exception I have about not planning things.  I LOVE my book group discussions and people so much, that it's worth it for me to overcome my dislike of planning social things, and just making it happen!  I wish I took more pictures of these awesome ladies, but book group is something that keeps me sane.  I host every month AND make the refreshments every month, since that's what made it more likely for people to come.  Tonight we will discuss,"The Last Days of Night" by Graham Moore and I am making Lona's famous popcorn from my PA book group.  I made it last time and generated some excitement with it, so I'm sticking with what works!   

Other upcoming reads include:
Jan:  "Becoming Beatrix:  The Life of Beatrix Potter and the World of Peter Rabbit " by Amy O'Quinn
Feb:  "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" by Rachel Joyce
Mar:  "The Personal Librarian" by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
Apr:  "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck
May: "Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution" by Michelle Moran

Have I mentioned how much book group means to me?   I love it.  

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I can't do a post about being social and not  mention the Relief Society activities, which I've been planning for the last 2-1/2 years, but rarely post about. They've been taking up a lot of my social bandwidth and I'm hoping to stretch myself more in my personal life now that I have a new calling.  We shall see! 
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So there you have it--proof that I have friends and I like being social.   😇

Give me a call next time you come to town!  

Fall Traditions: Hiking and Fishing

Fall is my favorite season.   There's just something about the mild weather and the vibrant colors that makes me incredibly happy.  I love Spring too, but sometimes it gets too wrapped up in the winter for my taste and, given the choice, I'd choose the fall anytime!  My idea of a perfect autumn day is a long hike on a lovely day, followed by some great food.  The other Saturday, Glen was busy, the weather was gorgeous, and I decided to pack a bag with food and water and just walk along the Murdock Trail without a distance in mind.   I made it 10 miles and loved every minute of it!   Then I went home, ate some good food, worked on the program, and I decided that it  was *almost* a perfect day.  The only thing that would have made it better is if Glen had been able to come along too.   :)

So, that's MY idea of a perfect autumn day, and now here's a glimpse of what Glen's ideal day would be.    For the past six autumns, Glen has taken a Saturday away from home and rented a boat to embark on a day long fishing excursion on Strawberry Reservoir.   No, your math isn't off...this tradition actually began before we even lived in Utah, but was embraced with even more enthusiasm once we did!    Usually Adam and/or Spence join the adventure, along with his brother, Alex, and a couple of his boys, but this year, after several turned down invitations, it ended up only being Glen and Adam.    One of the downfalls of only having the two of them there, meant that it was sometimes difficult to manage the boat and fishing at the same, but together they still managed   to catch about 20 fish.   It was a beautiful day and they both came home feeling like it had been a successful day on the water. 

They brought home a few fish to eat and later that evening, Glen cleaned them up before storing them until we were ready to cook them.    As you probably know, cleaning a fish is not a pretty sight.  It involves chopping off the head and tail, splitting the fish in half, and cleaning out the guts.   I don't even like watching, but my little 6-year-old nephew, Jesus, was FASCINATED.  At first, I tried to keep him away, so as not to disturb him, but after a while I realized that he was very much viewing the whole process like a little scientist and I opted to just let him observe and ask all the questions he wanted.  It was very cute to see how inquisitive (and very much not disturbed) he was. 

In a few more years, Glen may even have a new fishing buddy to join him on his autumn excursions! 
 
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Ellie the Nanny

We have entered the stage of life when our home seems to be an ever evolving door of kids coming and going. It's a good thing, but sometimes it's challenging  transitioning back to an empty house after the goings have happened.    Shortly after our family reunion in Idaho and us getting back from our semi-spontaneous trek to California, we sent Ellie along with Cam and kids back to Alabama, so that Ellie could help watch the kids while Cami transitioned to a new work schedule.  With Emma and Adam back to school, our house seemed VERY empty after everyone left! 

Despite feeling a little lonely, though, I was happy that Ellie got that time with the B family before heading out on her mission and also happy that Cami got a sweet built-in babysitter who loves her kids fiercely! 

It seemed that Ellie very much enjoyed her month in Alabama and I enjoyed hearing about their escapades together.

Her and Lucie became quite attached to each other and Lucie still requests that Ellie be added to drawings of her family.  

And there's nothing quite like Oliver snuggles.  He's about as sweet as sweet comes  and looking at these pictures makes me miss them tremendously.  

I'm glad they had the time together, but I'm a bit jealous about having to watch the fun from afar.   Ellie is home now, Cami back to arranging childcare on her own again,   and I am shopping for airplane tickets.  💗

Relief Society Paint Night Activity

I've had a lot of callings in my life and I would say that the 2-1/2 years I've spent as Relief Society Activity Coordinator have not been my easiest. My early days in the calling were filled with misunderstandings, made worse by high stress in my life and some poor communication on someone else's part.  Dynamics with the new RS presidency (called about 1/2 way through me getting this calling and now)  have been MUCH more smooth and I'm happy to report, completely drama free.    Having said that though....I'm tired!   Planning activities for adults has stretched me waaaaaaaaaay  outside my comfort zone and, after doing it for a couple years,  the activities have been getting much harder for me to come up with and implement lately.  I just barely got released this past Sunday, so this post is all about the last activity I planned.   

This latest activity was one I'd had on my list to do almost since when I first got called back in the summer of 2022.   Every time we discussed it as a committee though, it seemed too complicated to implement.  We worried about the cost of materials, finding an expert willing to teach it, etc.   It just kept getting pushed back again and again.     Finally...I realized that, due to my own poor planning (thanks to laziness and  a whole lot of exciting things happening in my family in August/September), that I was essentially going to be on my own for planning and making the October activity happen.   So, why not do the activity that had been on my brain since the beginning?   That's how we (I) decided to have a Watercolor Paint Night!  

Invitation was designed with a template on Canva. 

All the  hurdles we kept worrying about turned out to be a nonissue.  We borrowed paints and brushes and the only cost was buying a few packs of watercolor paper (fairly cheap at Walmart), getting some styrofoam plates and cups for the paint/water, and getting some black and white copies made (also very inexpensive when providing my own paper).  Apparently you can print them at home too, but my printer is pretty wimpy with thick paper and I didn't want to fight it.  The inkjet ink can also bleed, which was another issue prevented with getting them professionally printed.  For 5 cents a copy, it was well worth it!   Also,  I decided to forego finding a painting expert and just give a quick non-expert's tutorial on using watercolor paints and let people channel their inner Bob Ross and just have at it.

  To decrease the intimidation level that some people might have felt with a blank canvas, I decided to copy simple outlines directly onto the watercolor paper, so they'd have a good place to start with their art.   I got the outlines from here (Christ)  and here (flowers & berries) and here (Mt. Timp temple).  I also cut up some 4x6 blank sheets of watercolor paper for people to test their colors on and to give them the opportunity to create their own design from scratch if desired. 

The biggest issue, by a mile, was the fact that I decided so late in the game what we were doing (and the fact that it was just after General Conference weekend)  that we ended up not having a Sunday to get it announced and advertised.     I emailed, texted, and delivered fliers to people's doors, but we still ended up with only about a dozen people in attendance or so, which is 1/3 to 1/4 of what we usually have.    Despite the disappointing turnout, however,  I think it was a fun activity for the dozen people that did come.  

It was the perfect kind of activity to be productive and social  at the same time, and I loved watching the conversations happening around the room throughout the night!

  Despite the poor attendance (which I view as my fault for planning it late), I consider the night a great success and I'd highly recommend it for anyone planning an evening for adult or teen girls!  

General Conference Weekend with the College Kids!

One of my favorite parts about living in Utah is that we are close to our college kids, which not only means seeing them far more often than if we lived across the country still, but also that we get to meet their friends!    It's been a while since we'd hosted anyone other than family and I was excited when Adam asked if he and some friends could come chill here for General Conference weekend (October 5-6).   

I weirdly didn't actually take a lot of photos while they were here, but here was the planning note Adam sent me to help me with logistics: 

 

 

And here is the menu I came up with...

 

 We tried to keep the menu pretty simple using mixes and store bought when possible, but I'll be honest, Glen and I spent most of the weekend watching/listening to Conference while working in the kitchen.  This was a glimpse of our Sunday morning breakfast...the only food photo I took the whole weekend.    Emma showed up Sunday morning and was the one who made the cinnamon rolls. 

Speaking of photos, this one with terrible lighting was literally the only picture I took of Adam's friends while they were here and it did not even include everyone.   The boys are Adam's roommates (minus the one who had left and plus the honorary roomie that actually attends BYU-Idaho, but comes to visit regularly).  The girls are in an apartment in their ward.  Emma was also there, but didn't join the picture. 

(from left to right:  Conner J, Adam, Zach C, Garet C, Garrett L., Ty L., Marcy, Savannah, and Renee)

 

 

All in all, it was a great weekend with lots of good food, great company, and being inspired  by the words of modern-day prophets!  

PS.  One random cool thing: One of the speakers in GC,  Karl Hirst,  was actually Glen's mission companion in the England London South Mission back in the day (approximately 32 years ago)!  You can read his talk here! 

 

 

 

Beauty in the Sky

 On the night of October 10th, I was hosting book group at our house.  We were discussing, "Nothing to Envy:  Ordinary Lives in North Korea" by Barbara Demick.     Guests started trickling in around 8:00pm, then about 10 minutes later one of my friends arrived and announced that the Northern Lights were visible right then.   We all immediately traipsed out onto our back deck and were greeted with this sight, which was quite lovely, but there was that darn tree in our line of vision...

We were entranced enough that we wanted to see more, so we walked across the street together to see the view without the tree.   We all sat there ooohing and ahhing for about 10 minutes before it started to fade away.   Then we headed back in to discuss the book. 

After our  interesting discussion wrapped up a couple hours later, Glen and I decided to see if we could get away from the lights a bit and get another view.    These couple of  pictures were taken at Lambert Park-just a few minutes from our house.  

The streaks were just breathtaking!  

After that, we decided to try to get a little further from the lights for one more view and drove up to the Three Falls area, also not far from our home.   We found an overlook there with a good view looking north and were treated to this spectacular sight! 

The colors were vibrant and amazing (more so through the camera lens than with our eyes which only could sense a faint glow of reddish color in the sky) ...

and then the colors started to quickly fade, which was just as well, because it was past my bedtime by then and I was eager to get to bed!     😴

 

FAST FORWARD just a few days later to October 15th and we were treated to another glorious heavenly display when the Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS made its appearance on its once every 80,000 year rotation near earth!  

A neighbor had given us the head's up that the view from the top of Cemetery Hill was perfect for viewing it in the western sky, so that night we walked to the top, where we my Mom and Heather met us in their car...

It was a beautiful clear night and it delighted us all to be able to witness this comet with our naked eye!

Overall a great week for enjoying the stunning beauty  that God has created! 

Back to Reality

Alas, after all the excitement of August and early September ended, real life hit hot and heavy!    Here are a few of the lowlights (along with corresponding photos)...

1.  After less than two weeks at home with us, it was time for BYU to begin and for  Adam to get  settled into his apartment. That itself wasn't bad, but his time at home was just too short and  included forking out boatloads of money to buy a computer, phone, new shoes, and all the other stuff he didn't have or need for the last two years.  Plus tuition, rent, and all that kind of good stuff.  Yes, we are feeling a little cash poor now. 

2.  A bad haircut for Denali.  We let her get matted once again (bringing her to Idaho contributed pretty significantly to that) and the groomer had to shave her. I daresay she was mad at us afterward and kept giving us the side-eye!    Curly haired dogs that don't shed are not for the lazy! 

3. Adam getting a kidney stone (yes, really) the first week of school.  We think it had to do with the fact that he was on a bike the last transfer of his mission, which meant he was chronically a bit under-hydrated.  Add to that that he ran a half-marathon and climbed Mount Timp within 2 weeks of being home and we think he just overtaxed his body.  It was a ROUGH first week and half of school until he finally passed it.   Poor kid!  You are definitely not supposed to get kidney stones when you're not even 22 yet!    (the picture is of me holding up the strainer I got from Dollar Tree to help catch the stone)

4.  Glen spent a week in Colorado to help his Mom, who was in rehab recovering from a fall she'd recently had,  and he ALSO got a kidney stone.  Totally not kidding.  It had probably been 15ish years since his last one, so this was completely unexpected and somewhat ironic timing getting it so close to Adam's.  He was MISERABLE and yes, that would be two ER trips in 2 weeks' time...how exciting.   Thankfully we have better insurance with  his new job, so that's good at least. 

5. A weird eye thing for me--going on two weeks now.  I can't wear any make-up or moisturizer without irritating it more, so it's getting annoying and a little embarrassing.  I *think* it may be caused by using a vitamin C serum I got on clearance at Costco, but it hasn't gone away yet after not using it (or any products) for several days, so who knows?!   

Don't worry...more updates coming soon....

Family Pictures 2024

 As you may or may not know...I am slightly obsessed with Christmas cards, which by default means that I am 100% committed to making sure we get family pictures taken whenever we're all together, especially now that our time being all together is fleetingly rare.  These days I have to try extra hard to make sure it happens and this togetherness time was an exceeding CHALLENGE!    Not only did Spence not end up being able to come to Idaho with us (or I would have arranged for a photographer up in Idaho), but our window of time once we got home to Alpine was all of 20ish hours before Garrett had to head back to Birmingham.  Throw in some B family commitments Garrett had already planned in that 20 hours and we were literally left with a window of  10pm Saturday - 8am Sunday that we could do it.  😅

So..we all rolled out of bed earlier than we wanted on Sunday morning and trekked over to Lambert Park around 7:15am!  

The lighting wasn't ideal and we were all a bit tired after a week of not sleeping in our own beds, but my sister, Heather, was able to capture some decent shots before we had to throw on different clothes and run to the stake center (which luckily was approximately 200 yards from the park) for Adam to report his mission to the High Council at 8am!    Whew! 

I haven't had time to edit them yet, but here are a few of our favorites:   

Our Lucie Goosie Girl and Sweet Oliver...

The girls...

The boys...

Our Gigi and Papa part of the photo shoot got cut short and we did not get a shot that I liked, but here you go anyway....

I am pretty obsessed with this sweet guy...

And I think the pics of the B family turned out as cute as can be...

And this may well be THE ONE!   It's my favorite at least...

But there was controversy over my rust dress being too "out there", so we may end up with this more muted one instead.  

We shall see!