Its the last week of August...

Let the matches begin!

I must get that from my mother

When I was a little girl, my mother was in the young women's. I swear she was in there for most of my mortal existence but probably more just a few years, if I'm realistic. I remember staying at grandma and grandpa's if she was at girls' camp or youth conference or going with her to activities. I remember all the girls who came to babysit for me and Meg. Leita, Connie, Lorretta, Rhonda- who can forget Rhonda? My dad supported her in her calling and it was part of our lives.

My mother had a friend, who I shall refer to as Fred, who seemed to always be in the thick of it with my mother. I don't know if Fred was in the YW or if she was just there for moral support. Regardless, my mother had a wild hair, I guess I should call it. If the young women wanted to go toilet papering, they came calling. If they wanted help pranking someone at youth conference, my mother was contacted. And, in fact, my mother instigated some of those things. For fear of remembering incorrectly, I won't repeat what I know, but I seem to recall one specific incident that involved marshmallows and showers. The girls loved my mom and would do things in return. One morning we woke to a barricade on our front porch. Me- being the morning person that I am, just KNEW it was the recently launched satellite and it had landed in our front yard. No- just a street barricade.

My mother would also do things like tie a pink hair net around her perfectly combed hair and blast Amy Grant's Sing Your Praise to the Lord, while driving around in our topless mustard yellow 1974 Chevy Blazer. Priceless. On 13th East, there used to be a small hill on the right side of the road, that when hit just right, would send you launched like a ride at Lagoon. Of course, my mother would fly over it every week coming home from piano lessons. Being that we drove a Cadillac the size of Rhode Island, there was plenty of safe flying room. Yes, my mother taught me a lot of useful skills during those days.

Now that I'm older and have nieces and nephews and some other variety of kids in my life, I get such a kick out of doing things like that with them. Meg and I blasted our favorite Faith Hill tune "If my heart had wings" while driving Molly and Nancy to a movie in Chicago. They'd never seen their mother like that and we just giggled, just like our mom used to do. I love to take kids sidewalk chalking and drive fast over small hills. I get such a kick out of having a good time as an adult acting like a kid.

Some of the women in our neighborhood disapproved of the Amy Grant and the toilet papering. I get some people disapproving of me, too. But its such a small thing and harms no one. If it makes those kids smile for a moment, its totally worth it. So yes, I must get that from my mother.

Temple Dedication

I've been home most of the day today. Church was cancelled so that we could attend the new temple dedication. I had procrastinated getting the ticket to go because my records were somewhere and I was caught between two wards. I had tried to call both my bishops, not receiving a response from either of them until the 9th hour. My sweet old (only because he's not in my new ward) bishop finally called late last night and told me to come up and he'd make sure I got in. Yay!
So that was church today- the temple dedication. And I have to share an experience with you from it that I've never really had before. The only other dedication I've participated in was the temple down the street from my house. I was young- I'm guessing around 8 or 9. I don't remember much about it except the white hankie. I had mine ready to go today. Anyway, it was a lovely meeting- some delightful speakers including Elder Bednar and President Uchdorft. Then it was President Monson's turn to offer the dedicatory prayer. While I won't go into the sacred details of what was said, but I can honestly say I don't remember hearing a prophet call upon the Lord with such respect and power. You could truly feel that he was calling upon the maker of the universe and that the maker of the universe was not only listening, but hearing and sending down His blessing and "stamp of approval", so to speak. The temples of this church are truly Houses of the Lord. It was such a great testimony to me of the realness of the power of God, the realness of Him speaking to and through our prophets and the truthfulness of the Gospel. A great day!

My Summer of Zen

ME NOTE: This is a longer than normal post... just be prepared. lol

Summer of Zen...this is what my friend, Dani (my BFFFL lol), calls my summer. And now that its coming to a rapid close I suppose now is as good a time as any to think about why. When summer started, I took off immediately and went to see my sister and her family. I think that was one of the best things I could have done. For one reason or another, I had become stressed and worried about things that were out of my control. I needed to step out of my life and be somewhere else for awhile. Now that you all know my love of drives and road trips, you can imagine what a perfect start to summer I had cruising across the USA with my sister and the kids. I saw beautiful things and was able to just let go of all the worries I felt awaited me back at my house. Not to mention, the time with my sister was invaluable. She is a wealth of untapped knowledge. :)

It was during that time that I really felt peace settle over me. I was able to let go of the worry and anger and stress. I was able to see Heavenly Father's hand not only in the beautiful places he had created but in my life in a variety of ways. I loved it and I was sad to pull into the driveway. Although I was at a home I knew, I was at a different place for myself and wanted to work to stay there. So that was my goal this summer. To live up to the wall hanging in my bedroom that states:
Peace: It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.

So I've tried all summer to be calm in my heart. In the midst of hard work, cancer, singleness, new wards, leaving old friends, my "kids" moving on and away, just feeling like something had to change...the list could go on...I've really tried to be calm. And let me tell you- it takes WORK! But its been worth it. I'm not perfect at it. I wish I was a Zen Master like cute South Africa man from the farmer's market on Saturdays, but I'm not. haha

As school starts and the stress and irritation levels go up simply by walking in the building, I crave the drive across the country feeling to be found in my classroom. I set the tone and I'm shooting for a Route 66 theme.

Clearing my head :)

When I was younger, my parents used to take us for drives. I've mentioned them before...the drives, not my parents, although I've mentioned them, as well. Sometimes we would go inbetween conference sessions. Sometimes on Sunday afternoons. Sometimes to look for chokecherries haha. I can remember that we would moan and groan and be somewhat bitter about having to be in the car until my parents decided to quit driving. Now that I think about it, I'm amazed we went for drives as often as we did considering the condition of the cars we had! Perhaps this was my parents form of inexpensive entertainment, I really don't know. We would just drive up the canyons most of the time. We would see the leaves changing or watch the water coming down the mountain in the spring. We'd watch for animals and flowers. Am I making too much of this memory? Did we really do all those things? We also road-tripped when I was little. Flying was too expensive for us so we'd pack up the caddy, make our beds in the back and sing along to Riders in the Sky, Paint Your Wagon and who knows what else.
Now that I'm somewhat older and for sure more wise (?), I find that I quite enjoy taking drives. I can hear my mother laughing right now but I really do! It gives me time to clear my head and let my mind hear what I otherwise can't hear surrounded by my life. I know that may sound odd to some of you, considering I don't have a husband or kids to clutter up my thoughts, but there are some days where you just have to take a drive and have some true solitude. There is nothing quite like getting in your car full of gas, grabbing a beverage, turning on some quiet driving tunes and going until you're ready to come home. Some days I crave it.

I know, I know. "What if you have car trouble?" "Its dark outside." "Isn't that lonely?" "Are you alright- do you want to talk about it?" "You just drive? You don't do anything else but just drive?" "Watch out for deer." Sorry, everyone, its just something I do. I love it. If you're lucky, I'll invite you next time but you have to promise not to talk unless I ask you a question. :0)

Looks like the composting helped...

Yep- that was picked this morning. ALL those tomatoes in one day. Its becoming quite funny. I usually harvest atleast 8-10 romas in the morning along with atleast one celebrity. I just cook a pound of bacon about once a week and dine in! Tasty! You can't see it, but there's another yellow squash propping up the mound of romas.

RSL meet the team night

I'm learning that as a season ticket holder for ReAL soccer there's a lot of perks. For example, lots of schwag- like tshirts and jackets and scarves. Or buying tickets to special events prior to being released to the public. Or meeting the team! Last night we got to do that. Granted, MLS isn't that big in the states so its not like meeting Larry Bird or Derek Jeter, however they're talented. We headed up to a local ski resort and had ourselves a grand old time! Or at least Rachael and I did... Maryanne joined in a little, as well. I think, being the newbies to the group, we just enjoyed it the most.
My favorite mid-fielder, captain and dread locked man- Kyle Beckerman. *sigh* I know, I know, I don't understand it either, Meg.

Our favorite keeper in the league- Nick Rimando. We have a lady who sits in front of us who freaked out on him a couple weeks ago- NICK! NICK! Remember me? From the airport??!!! haha

Yep- there we are- Mary, me, Aimee, Rachael (the floating head) and Tanya.

And me and Rach with Leo- the mascot. Good times lol

And we left with smiles on our faces and went home.

The End :)

8th International Art Competition

Every three years (I think that's what it is) the Church sponsors an international art competition. I wasn't aware of this until Meg told me about it a few years ago. Its one of my favorite things to see when its around. Last night some friends of mine and I went down to the conference center to see the entries that were chosen for display. As always, there were beautiful paintings, sculptures and pieces entered. They were all stunning in their own way, even when I interpret the piece completely different from what the artist says. :) I had three favorite paintings. You'll have to go down to see them, as you can't just copy them and paste a picture here. But two of the titles were "The Fruits of our Labors" and "Journey to Moriah." My most favorite piece- well- I forgot to write down the title, of course. But it was a painting of Mary and Joseph, kneeling over the Christ child. There have been many interpretations of this event, however, this one truly touched me because of how Mary was portrayed. She truly looked like a young 16 year old mother who was caring for the Lord. It was simply beautiful.

My friend, Kris, and I were also talking about the different interpretations of Christ- how interesting it was to see the many ways He is painted and sculpted and yet there is something so very similiar in all the work. Just another testament to the fact that He is the same everywhere.

Oh! I forgot another painting that I loved. Again, I forgot to write down the name of it but you'll know it when you see it. Pilate and Christ are standing together in the portrait. Pilate has a look of confusion, concern, indecision- something! Christ is standing next to him, with a crown of thorns on his head, blood streaming down his body, looking straight forward- not at Pilate, which I thought was an intersting choice. You can see the understanding, resignation? maybe, that He is going forward with what He promised to do. Very powerful.

I believe the competition is there until October so head on down!