So a quick post... An opportunity arose to sign with a choir/orchestra in Handel's Messiah which would be performed in the American Fork Tabernacle. It sounded fun so I decided to to it with two other girls in my ward. We went to the rehearsals and everything. It was so fun and such a neat thing to be a part of. They had some amazing soloists that came and performed and I have always loved listening to orchestras. I have always wished I played in one, but singing along with them is pretty neat as well. PS the music is somewhat tricky to learn especially because we only had 4 practices or so and one piece they added to the program the night before.
We performed last Friday night and everything went pretty smoothly. My big news I wanted to share was that I ran into the General Relief Society President, Julie B. Beck in the women's restroom before the show! I was like, "hey I know that lady....". So here is the story. She was talking with a lady in line (there is always a line in the ladies restroom) and then the lady was next up so it was just Sister Beck and then me behind her. I was thinking "I need to say something to her, I can't just sit here and pass up the opportunity" so thinking on my feet I said, "Do you come to this every year?" and she responded "Yes, every year but last year" and I was like "that is great". Then someone left the stall so that was the end of our conversation, but hey, at least I got to talk with her face to face, right? :) She is an amazingly strong woman and a great leader. I love her boldness of speech. She does not fear what man thinks, and I really admire that about her.
So here are some pictures I took from my first photography shoot last Saturday. This is a girl from my work and she wanted some pictures for her Christmas cards and I wanted some practice taking pictures, so we made a deal. I told her not to get her hopes up in case none turned out, and she agreed. Nothing beats free, right? So here I was experimenting with them. Chloe is the cutest little girl. She couldn't stay still for the life of her, but she sure knew how to say 'cheese'. It was freezing cold, but was so fun for me.
Jennifer is expecting her 2nd baby in December so we tried to take a couple of just her.
This picture has nothing to do with the MTC, but I thought I would put it up anyways. These were students at the school/orphange where I helped teach for a day. These students were not orphans but went to school there. I was able to teach this specific class for an afternoon. We did these exercises where they read the sentence and they had one word that was missing and were given two options. They had to pick the word that fit better in the sentence. There were a few words they had never heard of and I had to try to explain them. Two that I can remember were: recipe and bathtub. Interesting eh? There is a little flashback for you of my trip to Ghana.
So there are some of you out there that can reminisce with me about the MTC for a moment and actually might care about the new changes they've made to the MTC process... My brother has been in there for about 5 weeks now learning Russian. He talks about the Tuesday night devotionals, the not-so-great food, eating Marshmellow Mateys for every meal, wanting to learn the language faster, rowdy districts, wanting to get out to the field, the awesome spirit that you feel there, but there is at least one new improvement from the time I was there....THEY HAVE EMAIL!! So instead of spending your P-day trying to write to everyone, you can be more efficient and send an email to your family. I know they have a time limit which makes sense, but I thought that was a nice addition. Also, when you first go there, there is no such thing as taking your missionary inside the MTC, watching the heart-wrenching movie, and then having to say good-bye and part through different doors. Way too dramatic! So they have simplified the process, now you drive in and your missionary hops out of the car and wah-la you are done and you drive away. I don't think you can even get out. So you say all your goodbyes before hand, elsewhere. Pretty smart I guess, I don't know how I feel about it. Less dramatic for sure.
Also, I haven't been able to confirm, but I think that the missionaries also 'online chat' with people who want to talk about the gospel. You know like on mormon.org or something where people can ask questions online. That was the impression that I got from my brother's letter, but I am not sure. Does anyone else know? I tried to confirm that with my brother, but I think he gets a lot of questions and forgets to answer them all. Anyways, that is totally different from calling people on the phone. They still do that too, but I think they also do this other. Anyways, he is doing well. Learning Russian seems very difficult. And I thought Spanish was hard?!?
I finally got Seth out to take pictures and then I couldn't figure out how to do the timer function on our new camera. I thought it would be simple to figure out but I was wrong. So we didn't get to take any of us together, we just ended up just taking pictures of each other.
P.S. Seth and pictures are usually not friends. He really doesn't like taking them and usually doesn't like the result, so we were happy we got some of his real smile. I have learned a new strategy.
So for the last 8 years since I last lived at home, I have never really had easy access to a piano. There were pianos on campus which I would use sometimes while in school, but they were only available late at night after classes were done, so it was hard to use those very often. But finding a piano and a time that would work for me was always more difficult to do rather than walking 5 steps from the kitchen to our piano at home. I have gone through debate over debate in my head when I should get a piano. I don't really want to spend a lot of money buying a piano if we are renting and and just going to have to sell it, but I often just have the desire to sit down and play. And it makes me sad I cannot enjoy playing like I used to. Anyways, when we first got married, I looked on ksl.com all the time for the used pianos people were selling, but never very seriously considered it, mainly just dreaming. I didn't know if it would fit in our little apartment very well without feeling too crowded. So I am sure you know where I am going with this, right? Well we decided we would just find a cheap older piano and make room for it and just sell it or whatever when we leave, so I started looking again on ksl.com. After about a month of looking and calling around, I found one in Orem. Long story short, we have a piano!! I am one happy girl.
We got rid of a desk and rearranged some bookshelves, moved out 2 filing cabinets that belonged to our landlords and wa-la....our piano has a home. It it amazing how different the room looks with a piano. I am very happy and we have really been enjoying it. It is fun to hear Seth play a little. It makes our apartment feel even more like a home. The piano has seen better days, but it plays fine. It could probably use a tuning and some love, but we are happy with it. The people we bought it from got it from BYU 15 years ago when they were getting rid of their old pianos, but they haven't really played it much since then. But I am sure it has had a lot of hours put on it with all the students practicing on it. But we couldn't be more pleased with our piano!
We got to go to Megan's soccer game on Saturday in Mapleton, so of course I took the camera to get some photos of the kids. I think my favorite subject to take pictures of are children. They are full of life, energy, smiles, and they are so innocent. I know they can be stinkers at times, but you can't help but love them.
This one can be a stinker too, but I can't help but love him either! :)
So we just got a call on Thursday night from one of the counselors in our ward asking us if we would chaperon the Multi-Stake Single Adult Dance on Friday night. After we said yes and hung up the phone, we couldn't help but wonder what that would be like, chaperoning people that could be our parents.
Well let me just tell you it was quite an interesting night to say the least. We helped set up, take money, keep the refreshment table stocked, and checked the parking lot. It was quite the assortment of people there, of all ages. I think my biggest shock was how many people in their 60's and 70's there were. In my mind, I had an image of it being a group of people mostly in their 30's, but the older generation were very well represented! Also, I must admit, these people know how to dance. It was amazing how many good dancers there were, not just moving around, but couples dancing across and around the dance floor. I was jealous they could dance so well!
There was one guy, probably in his 60's that was Seth's favorite. He was a 'baller' as Seth put it. You would have never thought because he was a little husky, standing in the corner, had a little hunch-back and looked to be pretty shy and the nervous-type. Seth kept wishing he would go and ask someone to dance and was quite worried about him. So finally, in the last 40 minutes of the dance, an older lady went and asked him to dance, and he was phenomenal. Knocked our socks off. He was so good at leading the lady, and he knew what he was doing. He was so happy! It seriously made me get teary-eyed watching the whole thing transpire.
The two awkward events: I was sitting in the corner by myself while Seth was making his rounds in the parking lot, and all the sudden a guy comes up to me and asks me to dance. We had tags that were big and yellow that said "Host" on them to indicate we were just there to help out, but I guess he hadn't seen it or something. Anyways....totally awkward. I was like "ummmm.....I am married. I am so sorry." And he said something like he better not dance with a married woman. Anyways, I knew he felt totally stupid. And after that, I did not see him anywhere. He must have left the whole dance because there weren't too many people that I couldn't spot him. I felt totally bad. The awkward moment for Seth was a high-five from one of the ladies after the dance ended. She was like "thanks for helping out" and then stuck up her hand and so Seth went along with it.
Lastly, there was quite a bit of sadness that you could sense some of these people had suffered hard trials in their life. Lots of them previously married, perhaps divorced, or widowed, or whatever the case may be. One lady I spoke with was on the committee and she was very nice and friendly. I noticed she was wearing a wedding ring so I asked if she was engaged, and she said, "Oh no, I am not engaged" and so I stupidly said "Oh you just wear it to scare off the boys?" and she responded, "no I was once engaged, but he passed away." Ah man, I am an idiot. So later we started talking again and here I was thinking she had been married and then he passed away so I asked her if she had any kids and she said she didn't and that she had never been married. So after some deduction, I realized that she had just gotten engaged and then apparently during their engagement, he passed away. I don't know details, but it was very sad. It just broke my heart, especially since they were probably both older and had waited awhile to find each other. It was super sad for me. It was quite the night. It was good for me to get a glimpse into the life of being a single-adult in Utah Valley. I think it is quite different than being one in California or back East.
Anyways, that is the update on us. Everything else is going well. Josh went into the MTC this week. I will have more on that later.
Do you know anyone in St. George that has kids of preschool age that want to go to an affordable, rockin' preschool?
Well I have the answer! My sister Melissa Kesterson is doing a preschool this year, she has her degree in elementary education and has helped my other older sister write her preschool curriculum. (I know, I am the odd ball out). It is very educational and VERY CHEAP! Only $50 a month, and the school goes from September to May. The preschool is located in her house so downtown St. George near the Sunbowl.
She needs some more students, so please spread the word! It starts the Tuesday after Labor Day. If you are interested, her phone number is 435-313-4108.
1st kickoff of the Young Men Tuesday night football game, Seth went to catch the kid that caught the ball and he rolled his ankle. He kept playing on it and when he got home, he had a huge swollen foot which later turned into bruises. The next week, he played football on it again. The next day after that (so 8 days after he rolled it) he said it still hurt and there was still a little bump on his foot. He went to the doctor and the doctor thought he had broken his foot for sure. But after the X-rays, it turned out to be some torn ligaments. The reason for the bump on his foot was because all the ligaments had broken and bunched together. Fun huh? So they put him in this sweet boot to immobilize his ankle until it heals. He did it just in time for our trip to the mountains to do some hiking.
We went to the Uintah mountains over the weekend and stayed in a little cabin up there. It was so beautiful up there. I think I want to go up there more often! On our way up, all these cars were pulled over looking at something. Turns out it was a moose. So we stopped to take a picture. There was also a sweet bull moose, but by the time I got my camera out, he was sitting under some shade from a tree and I couldn't get a good shot of him. Kylee loves moose so this picture is for her! :)
This is a picture from one of the hikes we did called Ruth Lake. This wasn't actually the lake, but one we saw along the way. Seth was a great trooper hiking with his boot on.
This was another shot along the hike.
This is me in a field of flowers.
We got up early on Saturday to ride some 4-wheelers. The day previous, we were trying to find this lake (Lily Lake) but ended up somewhere completely different. So we finally found it. In the meantime, the weather got bad quick and we were rained on, hailed on, and eventually it started snowing. Some gloves would have been nice to have because my hands were burning cold.
And yes....it really came down. Below is a picture of the drive home. We decided to forego the hiking that day :( We couldn't help but think of Christmas, so we talked about plans for Christmas and what we wanted to get for each other.
It wasn't how we planned for the day to go, but it was memorable to see all the snow in August. I can't say I have seen it before.
Eliza eating her oatmeal! Spoon? Who needs a spoon?
Tavish and his cute smile!
Eliza's sweet hair after she woke up. I love the little belly.
Tavish giving me the 'stop with the pictures already' look.
I laugh every time I look at this picture. Seth was making a face at her and she was copying him. She did a pretty good job at it.
I love her little smiles in this one.
This is a picture of us and our garden. Those are our giant squash/zucchini plants.
So the quote behind this picture is: "I am the crazy pickle mustache man, who are you...one of those freaks?" But upon further research on Google, apparently I was combining two different quotes from two different movies/shows:
"I'm the bearded lady, who are you, one of those freaks?" "I am crazy pickle mustache, I've got a pickle for a mustache. Gimme some candy!"
Points go to those who can name the movie/show off the top of their heads. I mostly know quotes from people just saying them because I don't remember ever seeing the show the second one is on. These quotes would be appreciated by Kat, but too bad she doesn't really check blogs...
So my crazy pickle mustache got grated up and put into some Zucchini bread.
This is a picture of the turnout. I actually found a recipe that had a crumble topping, it was pretty good, compared to my other first attempts at recipes.
The picture above is of Scot and Seth skipping rocks at Deer Creek Reservoir. That is how we celebrated our 24th of July.
Our neighbors, Roger and Stephanie Chappel had 2 extra tickets to the Spanish Fork Rodeo and Seth had never been to a rodeo, so we had to go to give him the whole experience. He didn't know what to think about it! :)
Stephanie and Me at the Rodeo
These are the first fruits of our labors in our first-ever attempt at a garden. We have lots of other things planted, and so far, so good. These radishes are pretty hot. I don't really eat radishes that much so if anyone has good ideas on ways to eat them, feel free to let me know! We are excited for our other crops to produce. We started pretty late, so hopefully our garden will have time to grow everything before it is winter! :)
Seth and I were Leaders for our Stake Youth Conference. It was held at Camp Williams, an Army Training Base Camp up in Lehi/Riverton. There were these activities which involved lots of teamwork where you had an objective and had certain resources and you had to complete the difficult task following certain rules. Some were very complicated, but our kids did very well. They also had a rappelling wall which I got to go down. I enjoyed that.
This is a sunrise at my favorite place: Lake Powell
This is Kylee and Amy out on the paddle boat.
This is all the girls jumping off the rock: Melissa, Amy, Mariah, Megan (Amy's Oldest), Kylee
We went to some 4th of July festivities on Center Street in Provo and this was a lady making lace, it looks WAY too complicated and confusing to me.
There was a hot air balloon show that we went to over the 4th Of July weekend. It was fun to see them all. The only problem with hot air balloons is that only 70% of the time do the balloons make it back to where they are supposed to go. On our way home we saw one landing in the middle of the road. That could be dangerous in a big city.
Smokey's nose was still being blown up that is why it looks a little saggy.
Who needs to go to Africa when there is a zoo?! This is a picture of Seth's trip to the Hogle Zoo. I wasn't able to go because I had to work, but Seth was able to go with his brother Scot and some of his cousins.
