Being with Alyson

A few days ago, Alyson Keenan Whatcott, my best friend from college, texted and asked if I would be interested in joining her for a performance of Verdi's Requiem which here sister was singing in. I love good music and I love even more being with Alyson who I only see rarely, so I quickly accepted her invitation.

I met Alyson at the point of the mountain, we had lunch, and then she, her sister, and I drove up to Salt Lake to Libby Gardner Hall for the performance. The music was fabulous, but the whole experience was made doubly fantastic by being with Alyson. She is such a dear friend. We have the kind of relationship where, even after years apart, you pick right up where you left off the moment you are reunited. We talked and talked and talked and talked and talked. I loved hearing about her family and the plans she and Jeff have for the near future. They are headed off on their second mission, having been called to Hong Kong. 

I was so glad Alyson invited me to join her for the requiem and for the wonderful time to be together. I'm so grateful for her friendship.

A Dance Concert

Brick and Cora had a dance concert today. I was delighted to be able to attend with Mikayla and Guy and to watch them dance. They both do hip hop and seem to thoroughly enjoy it. Several other children from my ward also danced in the concert, and it was fun to see them all. I love Brick and Cora!

Big Fish

Brandt and Isabella have both been heavily involved in the last production of the year, Big Fish. Brant has been doing all of the sound, and Isabella has been working hard backstage. She has been involved many more weeks than Brandt, and most days over the past six weeks she has been staying after school to help with rehearsals. We have heard lots of funny stories about the goings on backstage.

Performances have been this week and last, and Kent and I attended tonight. It was a fun show, with flying fish, a giant, thousands of flowers, and really touching scenes. The play made me cry. I love to see the children involved and enjoying their peers and their high school experience.

Here are some things Isabella had to say about Big Fish:

Everyone tried to teach me how to do the Alabama Stomp, but I could not pick it up for the life of me. It didn't make sense in my brain which is sad because it looks like a fun thing to do.

In addition to fish, there were lots and lots of flowers that we had to pick up during intermission. I still have nightmares about flower petals. (sobbing softly to herself) I can't look at daffodils now without trauma.  

I killed a ginormous spider, daddy long legs times 100, that dropped down from the ceiling behind Kaitlyn's head. I smacked it with my shoe and it made a very loud noise. We were certain everyone on stage and in the audience heard it. 

There was much dramatic recounting of all the things. Arms flailing, a bit of shrieking, some bodily convulsions. Isabella should be on the front of the stage, not in the back. 

Just off this bridge Isabella is standing on, to the right, Isabella and other backstage techies who were a part of the show, would lie on their backs and throw fish onto the stage at the end of the Alabama Stomp. 

It was Isabella's favorite part of the show.

Ruth and Isabella are picking up fish.

Brandt wearing his "fancy" shirt on the last day of the show.

Isabella standing by the box of Moutain Dew, and Brandt on the far right.

Yay for the techies!

Getting Mom Home

My mother was scheduled to finish her mission at the beginning of May. Mikayla and I had planned to fly down in two weeks and spend the weekend with her. We intended on spending all of Friday at the beach, most of Saturday visiting with people that she knew and packing her up, then driving home on Sunday, May 7th.

On Friday, my mother called Mikayla to tell her that she had broken her leg. She was washing her car and tripped on a parking block. The security team at the temple complex came to her rescue, and enlisted the help of some missionaries to take her to the hospital. The ER doctor confirmed her leg was broken, gave her a brace, and told her to get in to the orthopedist as soon as she could get home.

Mikayla changed our airline tickets, and we flew down yesterday (Sunday) to pick her up. Our fun weekend plans to see all the places where Mom had served and meeting people she has grown to love as well as playing at the beach were all foiled. A missionary couple Mom has been working with graciously came to pick us up at the airport. We found Mom in bed, leg propped on a pillow, sad and in pain.

Mikayla and I were able to quickly pack up Mom's little studio apartment. We cleaned out the refrigerator to disperse food to other people, cleaned the bathroom, and managed to find a spot for all of her things in the back of the car. Many of the couples that Mom has worked with came to bid her bon voyage and to express their condolences that her mission was finishing as it was. They were all very kind, considerate and concerned.

On our way out of town, we stopped at the home of a woman Mom helped teach. Her name is Norma, she is 92, and she loves Mom. She, too, was sad that Mom was broken and leaving her mission early, but was delighted to meet us, Mom's daughters. It was fun to meet her as well because we had heard so much about her conversion.

We drove from LA to St. George, where we got a hotel and stayed overnight. Mom was incredibly uncomfortable as I remember being when I broke my leg and as Mikayla remembers well considering all of her surgeries. We slept, and rose in the morning to continue our drive home.

We made good time, and although Mom was super uncomfortable, we did have a lovely visit on the road. Mom told us about her mission, the things that she liked, the ways she felt she contributed, and the wonderful people that she met. Her mission has been a good experience. She didn't really want to go to Los Angeles but came away at the end with a wonderful love of the whole experience.

When we got home, we got Mom into the house, and Mikayla and I unpacked everything. We put her clothes away, we unpacked food, and generally made sure that there weren't a lot of obstacles around. She was very unstable on her crutches, so I borrowed a walker from my friend Maureen. We will look to borrow a wheelchair too. 

I hope that my mother heals quickly, and that this break will not require surgery. Doctor later in the week. In the meantime, even though the summer will now look different than she had anticipated, we are so happy to have her home.

Prom

As the end of the school year has approached, I have encouraged Brandt to plan on attending prom with Ruth, his girlfriend. He has been reluctant. He has said Ruth didn't want to go, he didn't want to go, it was expensive, and school dances are stupid. I said," You are going to Prom." I was confident that Ruth would want to go, and also confident that no one else would ask her because she is Brandt's girlfriend. So I more than encouraged him to ask her.

Eventually, Brandt did ask Ruth, by saying, "Want to go to Prom?" She said yes. There was none of the fun Prom asking activity, no poster, no funny anything, but that's okay. Ruth had enough time to find a dress, and they made plans.

Made plans implies there was lots going on and they needed to arrange it all. That's not really the case. Both Brandt and Ruth are heavily involved in Big Fish, the last play of the year. They had a matinee performance today, so no day date. Teching for the show was their day date. I did tell Brandt they needed to go to dinner, so right after the show, they went down to spicy Thai for dinner.

After dinner, they returned to our house to get ready. I helped Ruth with her hair, pinning up the front and curling it down the back. They both looked terrific. We took some pictures in the front yard, and shortly before the dance started, they headed off to the library.

Timpview does a legitimate promenade, where couples are announced by name, come down the front steps of the library, and then walk past a large crowd of parents and friends who have come to watch. Kent and I were in the crowd, awaiting their appearance outside in the cold. Brant and Ruth were probably the fourth couple out the door. I took several pictures, had Kent take video on his phone, and cheered loudly as they came out. They returned to the dance, inside in the warm, but Kent and I stayed and visited with neighbors and cheered on other dance attendees who we know and love.

Brandt returned much earlier than I expected. He said the dance was lame and he and Ruth were both tired from having been involved in Big Fish. They were both fine to be done. Even if he wasn't, I'm glad Brandt went to Prom.

And now, Brandt will tell us what he thought of Prom, in his own words.

Prom was fun. I had a great time with Ruth, but school dances are kind of lame in my opinion because I work for a party company and those parties are always really fun. I am not a big romance person, I don't do really anything romantic.

Ruth's mom made the flowers for both of them.

 

Law Enforcement Druggie

Brandt has Law Enforcement this semester. One of the activities they do in class is to practice traffic stops. Brandt volunteered to be the person who is stopped. We joke all the time that his car looks like the sort of car a drug dealer would drive. He calls it his "druggie car."

Today he got to be arrested several times as his classmates practiced traffic stops. They peered into his car and found drug paraphernalia and a weapon. Looking at the pictures below, I would think he was a pretty sketchy character.

Brandt tried to change things up each time he got pulled over. Sometimes he wore shades, sometimes not. Although there was a gun on the passenger seat of the car, only one student, Brandt's friend Jewlyien, noticed it was there. Even though it was a fun activity, I hope Brandt doesn't think being arrested is cool. 

 

Warriors Pyro, A First!

Says Brandt:

It was fun to go to (meaning to a Warriors Rugby Match). Huge thanks to Ruth's mom's pyro company for letting me come work with them. What I did was run a fog machine. When the players ran out, they ran through the fog that Ruth and I created. I want to work for them when I turn 18 and Chuck, the owner, said he would help me get my pyro license. 

That's the pyro tour behind Brandt.

He was not running that.

The Tooth Fairy

Mikayla and I were having a conversation about what to do with lost teeth after the tooth fairy has come to take them away. I said I still have teeth from the children in Ziploc baggies in my underwear drawer. She thought that was weird. I asked her what she did with the baby teeth as her children lost them after the tooth fairy collected them and she said she just threw them away. That seemed kind of weird to me. I went home and sent her a picture of all of the baby teeth I still have in Ziploc baggies. Looking at them, I guess I am the weird one. 

The real question is, What does the Tooth Fairy do with all the teeth?

Easter

Jesus has risen, Jesus, our friend.

Joy fills our hearts; He lives again.

Praises we sing to him, this Easter-time,

Jesus has risen, Savior divine.

Jesus has risen, Savior divine!

On this beautiful Easter Sunday, we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We attended church, Kent and I sang with the choir, and we rejoiced with our fellow saints in the resurrection of our Savior. I was spiritually uplifted; my soul was fed.

This afternoon we gathered with the DeMartinis for dinner and an egg hunt. Isabella did not come to dinner, so this afternoon, after church, we had an egg hunt for her in our backyard. The DeMartini children had a marvelous time hunting eggs together. We even made the big kids do it. It was a treat to be together, and the food was delicious. Bryan set up a volleyball net in the front yard and we played a bit of ridiculous volleyball together, big and small people alike.

I am always especially grateful at Easter time for the promise of rebirth. I miss my loved ones who have died, my dad, my grandparents, and other dear friends and family members. I am grateful to know I will see them again. My father will embrace me in his strong arms, and we will laugh together again. That joyful future reunion is made possible by my older brother, my friend, my savior, Jesus Christ.

I'm not sure if Guy and Brandt are looking for eggs or something else.

I'm fairly confident no one hid an egg that high up.

The DeMartini children

Missing Isabella and Donovan

That's a serious volleyball stance.

I bought a "decorate your own cookies" kit from Justine Banks.

Isabella and I decorated cookies and then ate them.

Funny Freya

That Freya. 

She is pretty funny!

 

Sandbagging, Just in Case

It has begun to warm up and all the snow we got through the winter has begun to melt. We had record snowfall all winter, and all the people in the know, and even those not in the know, have predicted that we are going to have flooding. Turns out, even though we live on a downward slope from Rock Canyon headed towards the river, we live in a flood plain. If the Rock Canyon Bowl were to overflow, the water would rush down the hill and right through our house. 

While I think the likelihood of this happening is remote, and the flood plain map even says it would only happen in extraordinary circumstances, Kent and I felt it would be prudent to fill some sandbags to place around window wells at our home. The city offered free sandbags and sand for residents of the city, but you had to fill them yourself.  This morning early, Kent and I went down to the transfer station to fill sandbags. We had obtained extra sandbags for Saneh Echols, Rosemary Wilson, and Joan Hill so that we could help them too. Kent was thrilled to be able to take his truck and fill the back with full sacks of sand.

Post edit note: No sandbags were necessary. The runoff was exceptionally well managed by the city and no homes were ever in real danger.