Pickleball Sunset

What a sunset as we played pickleball this evening. It's been nice to be able to play outside again.

Chris and Corene, Brian and Briahna on the court

What a sunset!

Waiting our turn on court

Pictures from a Sunday

 

Brandt after church, reading his scriptures, 

enjoying the sun, having a slight swing.

Izzy begging me to purchase the fourth book in her favorite series.

She calls it the "murder Mafia stickball book." 

Should I be buying something like that?

"Yes," whispers Izzy in my ear. "Yes, you should."

Izzy swinging on the lame-o swing because 

she can't swing on her regular swing set.

After months of the swing set coming out of the ground every time Izzy did swinging, Kent cemented the thing into the ground. 

She couldn't be on it while the concrete dried.

We got Moo Moo a new bed because the original one we got had holes

and we beginning to leak stuffing. 

I got a new and bigger one from Costco.

It took Moo Moo a minute to warm up to it, 

and Izzy was helping her feel comfortable.

A girl and her loaf.

The Stakeout

All of us, in the company of my mom, went to see The Stakeout tonight. The show is part of BYU's Bravo! Series and sounded like it would be really funny. The description said, "The Stakeout is a comedy drama about two men on a stake out of two men who may be on a stakeout of them. It's a head trip about fathers, sons, and one's sense of self." 

It is a two-man show. For one of the characters, it is his first day on the job and for the other, it is his last day. They spend most of the show sitting on two chairs in the middle of the stage talking. Their conversation turns to fathers leaving families (the younger man's father left and other older man is a father who left), working through those hard emotions, and connecting. Several lines were very funny, and I wrote them down because I wanted to remember. 

"Exile your heart to the dungeon in your foot."

"Lesson #1: No emotion. They bumped it up to the top."

"What matters is the plunging to your doom."

        "Seen any good vistas?"

        "Do you know cry?" "Yes, I am aware of cry."

While it was funny, it was also very touching and made me cry at the end. I think we all liked it. We also saw Gary and Gail Johnsen who were sitting right next to us in the same row. They took our picture and we took theirs.

BYU Young Company's The Tempest

It has been my practice too take our children to BYU's Young Company productions. The kids have gotten older, however, and aged out of target audience. So what to do? Take Mikayla's children!

Today I took them all to see The Tempest. Mikayla and my mom were both supposed to come too, but Mikayla had to attend a Johnsen Family bridal shower and my mom had to take Mila and Vika to a soccer game. Brandt wanted to come to the play, so he came to help me wrangle children.

The play was really well done. Young Company productions travel to schools all over Utah, so they are geared to people all the Johnsens ages and always include lots of audience participation. Brick was asked to come help. He was costumed in a purple shawl, given a crown, and made to sit on stage through most of the show. He cried, was magically frozen, and laughed evilly. We were asked not to take pictures, but I did anyway.

All of the children liked the play. At the end, the dramaturg came on for a Q&A and asked what was everyone's favorite part. Freya, who had sat on the floor to be closer to the action, said that Calaban, the monster, was her favorite part, especially when he said, "This was my island. You took it from me." She said it in a a deep snarly voice, just like the monster.

It really was a treat for me to be with Brandt and all the Johnsens.

Brick is laughing wickedly.

The other "king" said, "I'm hungry!" 

Brick fake cried.

Off of these people were magicked into statues and couldn't move.

That's a great frozen expression on Brick's face.

The king finds his son who he thought had drowned.

With the whole cast, all four of them.

The guy in black was a techie.

Climbing trees after the show.

Production Pictures

Prospero and Miranda

Calaban the monster

Ariel

First Shaved Ice of the Season

It's warming up. A sure sign that summer is right around the corner is the appearance of the Hokulia. On our way to get a treat after The Tempest, we saw that it was open and stopped to have our first shaved ice of the season. There was only one guy working, taking orders, shaving ice, pouring syrup, and distributing cups. They needed three people working and we waited a long time for our shaved ice. I suggested to Brandt that he apply to work there. Izzy too. He didn't seem very interested. When we finally got them, the shaved ice was delicious!

Lunch in the Park

Mikayla and I talked about having lunch together today. She was going to get Brick out of the school early because he finished reading a book he had been struggling through, and then suggested we have lunch together, with Mom, at a park where the adults could talk and the kids could play. 

Sounded perfect to me! Mom picked up lunch from Molly's (yum-o) then picked up me from work and we all went to North Park for lunch and a run around. The kids are hilarious and like each other, so the run around part was a good time. I joined in for part of that, pushing kids on swings and going down the slide with Freya and Thea. I shot off the bottom of the slide onto my bottom of my body. It was really a nice way to spend my lunch hour.

University Strings & University Orchestra & Niece Brianne & Family

Niece/cousin Brianne has been in BYU 's University Orchestra this semester and they had an end of year concert. Anna Leesa came up for the performance and invited me and Kent to join her, Sister Stanley, and Brent and Brenda. 

It was a really nice concert, with Brianne's group playing several pieces including Benjamin Britten's Matinées musicales and concluding with Finlandia by Jean Sibelius. We were sitting on the third row of the concert hall so I could only see Brianne's feet while she was on stage. We were delighted that we could support her and enjoy beautiful music at the same time. 

Best Friends Forever

At Izzy's prodding and insistence, we got together with Tom and Suzan Nelson and Heidi, Darren, and Simon Tanner, plus Simon's fiancé Allison, for dinner at our favorite Chinese restuarant. It has been fifteen years since the Tanners moved to Provo, and we've been friends with Tom and Suzan since before we got married. They are dear to us. We missed Jack who is in Brazil on his mission, but we talked of him, so he was part of our time together. It is wonderful to have people you have history with, who understand you and yours, and who love you. We laughed and teased and stayed long after we had finished our food. Heidi texted the next day and said how much she loved us all, which is exactly the way I felt as we were together. We have good people in our lives, and the Nelsons and Tanners are some of the best.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

 

It's spring break and we haven't gone anywhere or really done anything. Izzy had expressed interest in seeing the new Ghostbusters movie, and so I asked the kids if they wanted to go see it sometime this week. Brandt wasn't interested, but Izzy totally was. She invited her friend Alec to join us, and we went this event. The movie was fairly silly, light on storyline, but funny in parts. All the original Ghostbusters were in it, except for Igon who has died, plus the new characters from the second-generation movie. Izzy and Alec both liked it, so it was win!

Kent Goes to the ER

Every first Monday of the month, Kent volunteers at the Food and Care Coalition with some other members of the ward. Brandt almost always goes too. Today he returned early. Upon inquiring why, he told me had gotten very light-headed and nearly passed out. Fran Jensen had him sit down and took his pulse. She said, "Your heart is missing a beat every third beat. You should have that looked at." 

Kent came home and lay down on the couch and after a bit felt fine. Fran texted to see how he was and after some questions and answers, she said, if it was her, she would go to the ER and be checked out. So, Kent and I went to the ER. When it comes to one's heart, you can't be too careful.

Because Kent was having heart issues, they got us right in, immediately hooked him up to several monitors, and began numerous tests. They took blood, they did an EKG, they did an x-ray, and they monitored his heart rate for some time. His heart rate was not the steady up and down you see on television medical dramas as the patient of the show is hooked up to monitors. It was wacky. That's the technical term. The doctor was great in giving us a timeline, telling us we were likely to be there an hour and a half before they had some answers. 

Eighty minutes later, the doctor said they didn't really see much wrong except that he was missing a heartbeat on the down beat. Missing a beat generated by the top part of the heart is scary, but when you miss one generated from the bottom part of the heart, it is less serious. He had spoken with a cardiologist who had reviewed all the test results and said we could go home. We are to make an appointment with the cardiologist and get in as soon as possible--we shouldn't wait three months. 

We came home with no real answers but without the immediate stress that Kent could be having a heart attack. We will make an appointment and have things checked out. In the meantime, Kent asked if his life insurance policy was up to date. Not funny!

The ER doc's diagram of the heart and where Kent's is not beating correctly.

American Ballet Theatre Studio Company

Bravo! for dance! Kent and I attended a wonderful performance of the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company. The dancers are young, 17-21, preparing for careers in leading ballet companies. They are incredibly talented and put on a terrific show. There did a couple of contemporary numbers that I especially liked.