Family, Food and Fun

Andrea came to visit last week so I took a few days off work and played with my little sister.

She got in late (LATE) Wednesday night and once we got home we both went straight to bed. Thursday we got up, had a little breakfast and headed out to unleash our crazy on the unsuspecting world. We drove down to Orem, washed my car (crazy girls!), got mani-pedis then we started our real outing - we drove to our old stomping ground, Nephi. Holy crap that place is small-town U.S.A. It hasn't changed much in the last 23 years. Sure, they got a new hospital, and a few more housing developments, but the place is a hole. Seriously. We went to our first home which has not been well maintained at all. We drove by the 2nd home which is a lot smaller than I remember, but at least they're taking care of it. The Christensen's old truck is still outside that house, we drove across (and then got out to look at) the 'crick' (creek for normal people), and saw our incredibly depressing elementary and middle schools. They don't have windows. To finish the trip, we went to Vards, masquerading as some place called Glenns or Garys or something, and got ice cream! We told the girl about the little plastic animals they used to put on top of the cones and she looked at us like she was crazy. Whatever, WE remember. Heading home we stopped at a fun shop in Spanish Fork and made friends with one of the workers, then drove home. Busy day.

 Friday we went to the Animal Inside Out exhibit at The Leonardo. I find that stuff fascinating, at least when I look at it online. In person, my body had a very different reaction - fascinating was not it. Nausea was the overwhelming feeling I got. It was weird. My mind was totally into it, my stomach - not so much. Afterwards (and after my tummy had calmed down) we talked Jeremiah into taking us to Siegfried's for lunch. We got take out sausage plates and picked up sandwich stuff for - dum dum dum....THE ZOO! Another family tradition we wanted to re-created. Finished the day out with a movie, Godzilla!. It was good, though maybe not worth watching ever again.

We were supposed to go to the zoo on Saturday but my dear J was tired and slept through the day, so we just laid around the house and relaxed. We went to the zoo on Sunday. We got there in time to have a decent parking spot (by that, I mean we got a spot in the first lot, not on the street or the back-up lots...it was still at the end of the lot though) and went to see us some animals. We saw the lions sleeping, the tiger sleeping, the monkeys sleeping...not a lot was going on. We did catch a little show from the grizzlies - they have 3 teenage bears who were chasing each other around their area. They seemed to be having fun at least. The elephants were also fairly active. We saw the oldest elephant in the US (maybe North America?) kick the little 5-year old elephant for no good reason. Good times. We had our sandwiches from Siegfried's, though I'm not sure I bought the right meats, and then went home - but not before J bought me a stuffed polar bear. Without me even asking for one. I think that boy likes me.

Sunday evening Linda came for dinner and we enjoyed roasted chicken thighs with cherry/thyme compote, sweet potato casserole (I had a lot of sweet potatoes I needed to use up), and spinach/kale/strawberry salad - yum! After dinner we played a came that Jud and Angela gave us for Christmas called Dixit, then enjoyed strawberry shortcake for dessert. A lovely evening filled with laughter.

On Monday Andrea and I went to the Living Planet Aquarium with Cathy, Rosalie and Emmett. It was pretty cool except for fall the field-trip kids running around like monsters. The penguins were especially cute, as was the river otter. The shark tunnel needed cleaning so we couldn't see a whole lot in there, but it looked like it would have been interesting had we been able to see through the haze. Then Andrea and I went to IKEA where she purchased 20 kitchen towels. She liked the ones I had and just had to have some of her own. I myself picked up a nice wooden cutting board, and we both got old-school popsicle molds.

Tuesday I drove Andrea back to the airport and we said our sad goodbyes, though we didn't cry like teenage girls having their hearts crushed for the first time like we did last year when she visited. After visits like that, it's hard to remember that there was a time in our lives that we really didn't like each other very much. That's a good thing - such feelings shouldn't be remembered when you can make new memories filled with laughter, sarcasm and just enjoying each others company.

Lazy Days

I'm a lazy person by nature. If I could get away with it, I would wear pajamas all day and not do a dang thing productive. Unfortunately you can't actually have a life that way, and you certainly can't afford a life that way. This is why I live for the weekends - I dedicate five days a week to sustaining life so that I can have two perfect days of nothingness each week. My two perfect days of nothingness are rarely empty of things to do which defeats the whole concept, but I'll take what I can get.

Sleeping in - The older I get, the harder it is to sleep the day away without pharmaceuticals. I remember in college (because we never slept past 8 when I lived at home) I'd sleep until 11 or noon or 2 without even trying. Now I'm lucky if I can make it to 8 am. This morning for example, I woke several times during the night, and then finally called it quits on sleep around 7:15. That is about an hour longer than I get to sleep on the weekdays, so I'll take it.

Laundry - I was blessed with a husband who loves to play video games all night long. How is this a blessing? He does laundry while he's playing. He sorts, washes and dries. All I have to do is hang up, fold, and put away. Not a bad deal.

Yard work - Again, blessed with a husband who doesn't quite love yard work, but he does it all so that I don't have to, thus protecting me from injuring myself in some 'walking down the driveway' freak accident. It's happened before, it will happen again. All I have to do is look after the plants in the two planters out front. Sometimes we have flowers in them...sometimes dead plants.

House work - Another benefit of J playing games all night is eventually he gets so frustrated that he puts down the controller and has to clean something. Score! It is rare that I wake on a Saturday and the floors aren't freshly vacuumed and/or mopped, the furniture shined and dusted, and the kitchen counters don't sparkle. There are usually dishes in the sink though. That's the one thing he doesn't do - dishes. I could have it worse, right?

Puppy care - Weekends are used to take the girls in to have their nails ground and Cadie to be groomed. They hate it. I'm not a fan either, but it's got to be done. Nimbus is the dog who gets all the other dogs at the salon riled up. Daysie sweats in panicked silence, and Cadie's whole hairy body shakes with fear and she hyperventilates. It's just as stressful on us as it is on them. We counter all that with tons of play time and puppy treats. Now that the weather is getting better we can do walks again too!

All in all though, that's a pretty easy weekend for me. I am blessed.

Why you should live in South Jordan

A poem for no one in particular. Especially not geared towards one beloved cousin/friend who is moving back to the beautiful state of Utah.

South Jordan is a whimsical suburb
With clean air and lovely homes
A place to raise your family
No one has yet dug up any bones (see that article on KSL?)

Beautiful views of both west and east ranges
Two Temples of which to partake
Close enough to all friends and family
Oh please do not us forsake! (PLEASE!!!!)

Ample shopping for food and clothing
Costco's coming, Walmart's already here
Not like that ghetto one in Connecticut
The District has all, never fear!

So come, come live in South Jordan
My dearest Cheryl, bring the whole fam!
Oh shoot, I made it specific
I meant this to be generic, for any man

In other news, did you know you can learn a ton of fun stuff going on in South Jordan at the following site?

http://www.southjordancity.org

How can you not want to live in a city that has an annual easter-egg hunt, it's own 10K, and a Spring Clean-up event?

Ranked #18 of the best places to live in 2012, SJ is one of the fastest growing cities in Utah. CNN Money says it's true. Don't read the 2013 list. It's wrong.

Um, what else, what else. Oh yeah. I live here. And I'm never wrong. Well, not usually. Certainly not about this.

Why you shouldn't live north of SLC though - it's the armpit of Utah. Ogden specifically, but you don't want to live in Syracuse or Roy, Layton or any of those other towns up there. Don't be swayed by cost of living or cleaner air - I'm sure you'll regret it if you are looking for long-term living. I'd also steer you away from other SL Valley towns like Taylorsville, Kearns or West Valley.

You are South Jordan type people and South Jordan WANTS you. Oh look, they're building houses right behind my house...interesting...

A Little Behind the Times

Frozen. I JUST saw this movie last night. I know, I know... In my defense, I don't have kids and I'm 34 years old. 

You know there was a whole hoopla about this movie, right? I read a blog that my sister-in-law told me about where the 'Well Behaved Mormon Woman' tore Frozen to pieces, saying that it was nothing but pro-homosexual propaganda. After reading a few more posts from her blog, it was clear that she was very anti-gay and wanted to push her views on as many people as she could. For me, the proof is in her blog title 'Well Behaved Mormon Woman' - there's a self-righteousness in it that turns my stomach. To be clearly vague though, my disgust isn't with this blogger, but with the term and how it has affected my life. I don't plan on using this blog as a forum to discuss my thoughts on homosexuality, same sex marriage, and the other issues being exploited in the media these days. I will state for the record, I believe that everyone has the right to love the person(s) of their choosing. If you want to dedicate your live to one person, who am I to say no? What right do I have to dictate someone else's happiness?

Back on topic - I hadn't seen the movie yet so I reserved judgement. Now that I have seen it, I have to say the following: You can see whatever you want in anything you want but that doesn't mean it's actually there. I saw no evidence of this whatsoever. If I dug in a little, I can see how the song 'Let It Go' could be construed towards that topic, but it could just as easily be about ugliness, bullying, feeling like an outsider, or really anything else. In fact, I feel that it's really an anthem that belongs to anyone who feels like an outsider, despite the reasons behind those feelings. 

Perception.

Let's all try to see things in context: It's Disney folks! Why do we have to search for hidden meaning in everything? Why can't we just take it at face-value? For me, the movie had a couple of clear themes. 1 - Accept yourself for who you are and let others see you. Be PROUD of who you are and what you can do. You are capable of great things if only you try. 2 - Women are capable of saving themselves, they don't need a man to do it. True love exists in many forms! The bonds of sisterhood (or brotherhood, or siblinghood or parenthood) are just as strong. 

Now I'm not an idiot - I realize that my previous paragraph can sound like I too might be thinking the movie is a big advertisement as the WBMW says in her blog, but - would it it read that way if I hadn't previously mentioned it? I don't think it would. Not if you didn't already have that floating around in the back of your mind.

Think about this: 

• Cinderella was a simpering girl who snuck out of the house to go and meet a boy.
• Snow White was an obstinate child who did the exact opposite of everything her adult supervisors told her not to do.
• Mulan was a run-away cross-dresser.
• Jasmine, while beautiful, was slutty and knew how to work a room.
• Ariel sold her soul to the devil because she lusted after a guy she saw from a distance.

See what I'm saying? It's all in how you want to view something - positive attitude or finding hidden meaning.

My absolute favorite example of perception: 

Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first woman she meets and then teams up with three complete strangers to kill again.

Wizard of Oz folks. Come on.

The Winter Soldier

Comic books are for nerds. That's what I thought all growing up and into my 20s. I liked some of the movies (X-Men primarily), but I knew nothing of the characters and their backgrounds. Why? Because I'm not a comic book nerd. I'm a Star Trek nerd. More on that another time.

Well, I married a comic book nerd. Who has comic book nerd brothers. So I started getting dragged to Iron Man and The Hulk and Thor and Captain America. I liked some, I didn't like others. Mostly I didn't like Captain America. It was nerdy and not easy for me to follow. When Avengers came to theaters I did my little dance of 'You go without me, I don't have any desire to see it', but of course I got dragged along. We ended up seeing it 4 times. In the theater. And at least 2 of those times were because of me. It was that good. It made me reevaluate all of the other movies. Suddenly I really liked the two Iron Man films, and was excited to see the 3rd Iron Man when it came out. Thor 2 was another one I was looking forward to, but J went and saw that with his brother while I was at work. When it came out on Blu-Ray though, I was the one who bought it.

Captain America - The Avengers did little to improve Captain America for me. He was just so much...less. Less awesome. Less everything. As J says, he's weak-sauce. I had no desire. Less than no desire to see Captain America - The Winter Soldier. I had a headache when I left work and considered showing up for the movie and then leaving because I just couldn't handle the noise. I found some Tylenol in my purse and sucked it up. It was important to J and his brother, and my little niece Annabelle was there too. That was adorable - a daddy-daughter date and she was so excited.

I want to see it again. It was so good! Captain A was awesome, the character development was so much better than the first film, and I was drawn into the Marvel Universe and did something I've never done before - I asked QUESTIONS. Who is that character? Why is this significant? OMG does this guy DIE??? It was insane! well, maybe not insane, but I may be becoming a comic nerd after all.

MIA

I haven't posted since last week for one really good (to me) reason. I made a quilt face!

Not the most difficult (in fact, easily the easiest ever) to make, but it still took a full 5 days (well, one full day and a bunch of evenings after work) to complete. I have a purple fabric for the back, so once it gets quilted it'll go on our guest bed in the basement. I think it may be too big for me to quilt myself which is sad, because it's going to cost about 4 times as much as it's worth to have someone else quilt it. Especially because I'm not emotionally invested in this one like I have been in my previous quilts. I literally woke up Saturday morning, decided to make a quilt, and by Monday night I had all the squares sewn into throw-blanket size. I spent Tuesday washing the old sheets and Wednesday night sewing the red to my spare squares.

It is the postage stamp design, then I added the red to make it a queen-size quilt. I wish I'd had another jellyroll that matched, but alas I did not. I'm not really a big fan of the red fabric I used but I'll let you in on a secret - it's an old sheet and I didn't feel like spending a lot of money on muslin for a quilt that I'm not really ever going to see. The purple backing is also an old sheet. Look at me being all thrifty.

I was thinking earlier this week of the story I posted about my Grandma and Grandpa Hale. I think I'm going to start writing down more memories of loved ones. Memories tend to fade after time and I'd be a shame to forget how Amanda use to follow me around the house and wouldn't let me leave without telling her where I was going and when I'd be back, or about how Andrea absolutely could not be interrupted or she'd throw her hands in the air and exclaim 'Now I have to start ALL OVER'. What's life without memories?

It's Friday, Friday!

Thank goodness it's Friday. I've been looking forward to Friday after 4:00 all week long. It's been a rough one. I've had worse weeks. Nothing really happened to make it a rough one, it just was. I blame the weather. Do you know we hit 80 degrees and it snowed this week? That's not normal. It's throwing me off I tell you. My back doesn't seem to know how to handle it either. My flowers are still alive though, so all is well enough.

I have the itch to quilt again. It's a terrible itch that I know I will scratch, the question is just how long it takes me to crack. I do have to quilt again. I promised to make a quilt for the Literacy Action Center's auction that they have each year. That's not until September, but it's good to think about this stuff ahead of time. I know exactly what I'm going to do too. It's called a Postage Stamp quilt. It comes down to a quilt of 2x2 squares all over. Every other square is a solid color. It's a fairly simple quilt, but I love how they look. I'll do one of those for them and one for me. I'm thinking that I'll also do one for each of my sister Elizabeth's family too, seeing as how we have them for Christmas this year. Dalyn, Elizabeth's daughter, asked me to make her one last year and I just haven't gotten around to it. I think it would be nice to give her one for Christmas. Then I'd do one for Elizabeth, Matt, Rya, Brantley and Laney too. All lap quilts of course, but they are perfectly sized to snuggle up in front of the TV or with a cup of hot cocoa and a good book. They'd even look nice on a twin-sized bed, though slightly too small to count as the actual blanket. Anywho, I plan on doing all 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 quilts all at once - I think it will be easier that way. The faces should sew up quickly, and the quilting I can do on my machine for all but the one I'm doing for J and I, so each will take about a day to do that too. It's the binding I'm not looking forward to. I hate the binding part. Hurts my fingers. I really should start now so I can get them all done in time.

It's an expensive hobby though, quilting. I like using quality fabric and that stuff is not cheap. Maybe I can find a sale. J really encouraged me to quilt in the beginning, until he saw exactly how much it all cost. A simple lap quilt will run upwards of $100-$150 depending on the backing fabric I chose. That's just the materials. Then to quilt myself doesn't cost me more than power and thread, but if I have someone else quilt it, that's going to cost another $200. It's totally worth it though. I love the look of a quilt. The two king-sized ones I've made are beautiful. So beautiful that we almost never even use them. Dad gave me a quilt rack for Christmas so we do display them, but I love the way the look on the bed too. I need to make one that we're both comfortable sleeping with, letting the dogs play on, that sort of stuff. It's so hard though. So much work, energy and love goes into a quilt. It's hard to offer it up to fate and three girls who in times of anger are willing to pee on it just to get back at you for something.