Brave Homecoming

Homecoming week has been awesome for Laila. Awesome means- extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear! All of these either happened because of her or to her. She got very little sleep but she fulfilled her Officer responsibilities. Getting the homecoming movie put together, rehearsing and working both assemblies, attending all of the sports games, painting the field, the tailgate party, lighting the B, doing meme day, movie night, twin day and game day lunch time activities. She was gone by 6 am and we didn’t see her again til around midnight all week! All of this plus a math test and keeping up on homework. It was Awesome!

 Homecoming half time included the student body changing from red shirts to black shirts in the blink of an eye.  Wayne and I are around selling concessions, grilling hot dogs and hamburgers and selling Brave shirts.  It's great to be involved1

 Laila went to the Homecoming dance with Parker Gold.  This was after she spent all morning decorating for the dance so the gym would look great!  She is a real worker.  I was happy that Laila found her own homecoming dress from another girl-- and only paid $25.00 for it.  That's talent.  Let's hope she keeps this up for all of the dances.

Tuacahn with my GURLZ

 I was able to run away with Jan Smith and Maurie Tarbox down to St. George for sun, pickleball, sun, hiking, shows , shopping, lots of good food and a near death experience. 

 We loved Cinderella and liked Matilda at Tuacahn.  We are all very opinionated when it comes to shows. We stole Sterling Hanks away from is home to be with us.  He is an actor/costumer friend.  (He made Laila's Moana costume.)

 Maurie wanted us to experience Little Jamaica, which is a fresh water spring under an over pass off the Desert Springs exit in Nevada... about 20 minutes outside of Las Vegas.  It was an experience with a capital "E".  We parked in a sketch place and I just hoped my car would be there upon returning.  We started walking on this trashy dirt trail, then came upon greenery and an oasis that sits under a highway. 

 It's like this was built and put together maybe in the 1950's..then when the interstate came in and bypasssed it, it was forgotten. 

 It's a bit crazy to be sitting in this warm natural spring pool with a gorgeous waterfall right under the highway .....but it was an adventure. 

 I love spending time with my theatre gurlz...

New Happenings at our home.....

 I got this note from one of my old Young Women.... she is married now with 4 girls of her own and just finished serving at her Stake Girls camp and couldn't believe how much work and sacrifice it was.  She sent me the nicest note out of the blue.  I was really touched. 
"After all these years, I simply want to THNAK YOU for the sacrifices you made for me as a Young Woman.  I had the opportunity this summer to be the chef at girl's camp.  Let me tell you, as a Young woman, I had no idea how much you leaders sacrificed for us.  Now that I Know-- Thanks You. "

 Monson and Lexi moved out of our basement (once again)  and into a town home in Saratoga Springs.  What a relief... I mean blessing for all of us.  The basement is a disaster--but it will get clean eventually.  Their new home is new - which is sooo nice- and lovely.  They are in a new development with blocks and blocks multi family housing.    It's 50 minutes away from us on the west side of Utah Lake, but it's only 10-15 minutes from Monson's works, depending on if you hit the lights green or not.    They are happy once again to be independent.  We will miss Tay and Lady though.  It's always great having the grands around.

  While the family  was hauling truck loads of stuff Alex was tending Lady and Tay tay and I was painting Tayla’s new room pink and a  master bedroom wall blue.  It looks great.  In the move we only dinged one wall...so that’s good.   I can’t wait to see what a beautiful home these two make and to have Lady and Tay tay in their own bedrooms instead of all sleeping on top of each other in the basement.  It will be great to see their basement get finished as well.  

 We love our Belnap friends... this is a squinty pic, but we were happy to be together.  Eric is being released from bishop of our ward after his 5 year stint.   Laura is busy trying to be re elected to State school board. 

 Fall is just around the corner.  The nights are getting colder and pumpkins and patches are popping up everywhere! 

6th annual Fairytale Festival

The Fairy tale Festival is over..or should I say blown over after the constant 20- 30 mile an hour wind that plagued us on Saturday, blowing over tents and supplies…. We just called it our own Wizard of Oz experience and moved forward, although being out in the wind all day long was exhausting.  We worked for days before setting up this fun experience and doing our best to make it magical for all who attended...and when we opened on Friday it was awesome weather and filled with people and children who loved our characters, a balloon guy, crafts, vendors, tea parties and daddy daughter balls.  We got a HUGE tent this year, that was actually staked into the parking lot...which helped when the wind came...atleast the big tent was sound.  We had more people that ever attend on Friday..and it was difficult to count for Saturday...a steady flow all day.   With the wind and tents blowing over and hurting people...we closed up an hour earlier than usual.  

   Addison set up a vendor booth to sell his art work and did really well.    It’s exhausting after 2 days of this...but really so fun!!!   It was my 5th one -- I only haven’t helped the year Mom died--.  I was also grateful for other family members who had the time to volunteer for different booths. 

This year  Kathleen Newman and I were in charge of finding volunteers to get things set up and then man different craft booths and play stations.  It took an army.  I had some lovely ward members, Jill Allsop, Jana Uryan, Chris Briggs and Angie Smith help out...along with sweet DIL Lexi. 

The Balloon guy was amazing. He created a 3 pigs with sticks and brick houses for the kids to play in and a wolf blowing it down.  He also made a balloon cinderella dress.

Tayla did all of the things including getting her hair done at the Rapunzel hair station, painting a castle with Sophia, making a wand and a mask, decorating a card, going to the participlay, and getting a cinderella balloon...and the next day an ariel.

I got dressed up as Mother Gothel for Saturday... My friend Holly Reid and Shelley Davies are in charge of all of this crazy good time.  Holly made her costume..her collar is book pages.

Savannah helped a the hair station, Laila and Mulan wandering about.

Laila plays an amazing Moana.  All the littles flock to her. 

Laila with her friend Dusty as Anna from Frozen

I was happy to be Mother Gothel on Saturday, scare the children and sing my Mother Knows Best song in the big tent…. and have my grand kids, Sophia as Wonder woman, Andrew as the white rabbit, Tayla as Anna from Frozen,  Baby Lady, Alfie as a ninja turtle,  and Poppy all attend. 

I got to sing Mother Knows Best from Tangled and went around threatening Rapunzel all day.

Alfie is not much for dressups.  He will be a blueninja turtle...just not the mask.  When asked what he wants to be for Halloween he says...Just Alfie.

My side kick... number 1 helper is Kathleen.  We coordinated the volunteers, vendors and food trucks.  She is the Blue fairy!!!

U of U Football

 We love U of U football, especially going to the Rice Eccles stadium and cheering with all of the wild Utah  fans.  Jan and Neal Smith are so good to include us with seats a few games a year.  We sit up on the north east corner off the end zone.  We love the pageantry with the fire works, the jets flying over head, the band playing, dancers and cheerleaders.  We love seeing Swoop the Eagle lead the team as they come on the field on his harley-davidson motorcycle.  We love all of the chanting, cheering, the big screen replays and even the booing of the officials.

 Saturday night was a black out game...which is hard for me to find black to wear, since I don't even own any black.   I used Wayne's bike shirt.     We park in neighborhoods to the North and walk in for about 15 minutes...but it's always a good time. 

What is she doing here?

I have walked on the boulevard for decades.  It's my thing.  I look forward to it.  My day starts the very best when I get a good walk in.  There are so many people walking with me in their own little worlds. 
I see old, young, happy, solemn, headphones in, talking to self, smiling,  in groups or solo.
I see an older couple hand in hand walking in  skirt and trousers, alongside a runner in lululemon spandex. 
I see mostly white faces, sometimes  beautiful brown but today I saw a woman with a toddler in a stroller with a smiling black face. 
I was kind of jarred.
Why?
I am not a racist.  I pride my self on being open minded and compassionate. I am the champion of the marginalized and underdog!
YET
Here I was with crazy, random thoughts...of what's she doing here?
I had to stop and check my thoughts.

Wow...  I would never articulate what's going on inside my head, but these thoughts were real for me. I was stunned.

I needed to stop, say a prayer and ask forgiveness and move on to better thoughts. 

She is a child of God, just like me.   She is a momma, just like me.  She likes to be outside and walk, just like me.  She lives in Bountiful, just like me.... and that's what she's doing here.

I have seen her a couple of more times on my boulevard walk, and  I smile and say, " Hi"...and continue to replace my original thoughts with healthier, more loving ones.     Everyone's a little bit Racist is a song from the musical Avenue Q.  It is a social commentary on racism and parodies how wrong it it  but how prevalent it is.   It ends with this line...
"Everyone does it, you probably do it, so be forgiving and understanding."

..... so we need to give everyone, even our selves, a break and just try each day to be a little better.

Hash and Hotcakes....Spa Day and Cupcakes

Labor Day was a riot... we labored and relaxed then labored some more.  By the time my head hit the pillow I was out like a light.  It was filled with family fun and ended with a YSA BBQ in our backyard for 50 people.    I ate sugar, sugar and more sugar and I am now in a headache zone and regretting the sweets.

We gathered at 10am for brunch with Wayne cooking his famous HASH and hotcakes.  We had everyone but Truman, Sophia and Andrew. 

We couldn't decide just one event for this day so we decided on two.  First was a Spa Day  or more like a SPA hour made possible by my darling friend Kathleen Newman.    She has all of the equipment and the towels.     We were all in with  feet soakers, face masks, nail polish, lotion, hand wax, hot wash cloths and zen music....adding a bit of chocolate helped too. 

 NEXT..... our second event was CUPCAKE WARS!   We divided into three teams , made our cupcake plans then went to the store to get ingredients. 

 Bre, Landon and Laila created Lemon chiffon Raspberry cupcakes.   They made their own lemon curd......Very British baking show.  Theirs looked the best because the frosting was a marscapon lemon flavored whip cream which really mounded up beautifully, then decorated with candied lemons and raspberries.   

 Melinda, Monson, and Alex created a pineapple upside down type  cupcake decorated with a cherry and a pineapple slice.  We frosted with pineapple flavored cream cheese frosting and made a brown sugar crushed pineapple syrup to put on and in the center of a yellow cake.   It was DELICIOUS

 Addison, Wayne and Lexi...along with teammates Alfie and Tayla.... made a Lemon curd Blueberry cupcake.    They made a blue lemon frosting.  Wayne went to a few stores to find the lemon curd.  Addison plated  it up perfectly and the yellow cupcake liners really added. 

 We brought the Farleys up for the blind judging.  They had to score in Creativity, Appearance and Taste.  THEy were such good sports to do this or us...but they also really liked the cupcakes.

 AND THE WINNER IS...................My team with Monson and Alex and or delicious Pineapple cupcakes!

It was really fun to see everyone working together and creating something.  We all stayed interested, involved and invested.  I was impressed.  I love this family of mine. 

I don't know if we would ever do Spa day and cupcake wars all in one big Labor day celebration again, because it was a bit much..but it was fun!