Standby Airline Tickets

Do you, your friends, family, neighbors, enemies, or anyone that you know have standby airline hookups???  If so, is there a way I can be a part of that deal?  I want to visit my family in D.C. this weekend when they visit my sister and the new baby!

,

Some Must Push and Some Must [Shove] – Day 2

I knew it was time to wake up when I heard the rooster cock-a-doodle-doodling. I’m not kidding.  I literally woke up to the sound of chickens!  I absolutely loved it!  It annoyed T.J. to death, but I loved the feel of being out in the country on a farm.

We headed to town to watch the Pioneer Day Parade.  The most special part of the parade was to have T.J.’s Great-Grandfather lead the parade in a horse and buggy.  He had his cute little cowboy hat on and waved to the crowd. One word: adorable.

The rest of the parade was filled with the city’s 3 wards (there is a WHOLE stake in this city of 1000!) and their different floats for Relief Societies, Primaries, and even the Stake President!  Families dressed as pioneers and pushed/pulled hand carts down the street in memory of their ancestors who made the trek across the plains.  My favorite float had their ancestry tree drawn out against the side of the truck.  Grandparents sat in the middle and were accompanied by their huge family.  Who knew a parade could be so sweet?

After the parade, we checked out the national park a few miles away with these cool rock formations called “Honeycomb Rocks.”  We weren’t dressed for exploring, so we didn’t stay too long.

For the rest of the day, we hung out with family, had a huge barbeque, ate so much sugar I thought my teeth were going to fall out immediately, and laughed till we cried while listening to the stories his Grandpa, Aunts, and Uncles told.

The town held races for the children which were pretty entertaining, but it was over a 100 degrees so I couldn’t stay outside for too long.  T.J.’s Aunt Karen also threw some games for the kids to keep all of them entertained.  We played “Name that Tune” with the adults and won an iHome for our iPod.  (Eliesa, about have of the songs you put on that CD for us were in the game, so I owe it to you.)

When the day was drawing to an end and the house was calming down a little bit, we headed to St. George to stay with Karen and her family.  They were a blast to be with, not to mention had the biggest TV I’ve ever seen, so clearly my love for them grew instantly. They also had a great pool with a hot tub, so we finished the night off with a swim and then a movie.

Well.  I’m sure you really didn’t care about what I did every waking moment this past weekend, so I apologize for these past two posts!  I really just wrote them because I’m counting my blog as writing in my journal so my mom doesn’t get at me for not writing memories down.

Anyway, thanks to T.J.’s parents, uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents for making this weekend a great one.  It really was a dream to be a part of such a large family who all share the same values as we do.  Love you all!

[slideshow]

,

Some Must Push and Some Must [Shove] – Day 1

As you may or may not know, I had been looking forward to this past weekend for quite a while.  We had been planning for on going to Enterprise, Utah (near St. George) for Pioneer Day-Weekend since May or so.

Seeing as it is my first summer in Utah, I’ve never had what some may call, a traditional Pioneer Day experience.  But let me tell ya folks, this weekend was incredible. Now, I am going to warn you, I’m going to write a lot of details, simply because I want to remember every bit of it.

Friday afternoon T.J. and I packed up the car and headed on down to the little town in the middle of nowhere.  T.J. was tired from working, so as he slept, I rocked out to my new playlist that I downloaded for the drive.  You know how some days you just want to hop in the car and drive with your windows down and music playing loud?  That’s exactly how I felt.  The last stretch of the drive from Cedar City to Enterprise was the best.  It was a scenic little route through the mountains with windy roads and a beautiful sunset.

{sidebar: a post coming shortly with the list of songs in my summer series playlist}

As soon as we got there, I fell in love with the town.  There were a bunch of old buildings that looked like they were straight from an old western movie.  Ya know what I mean? Like the classic post office building?  I don’t know how to describe it… Also, everyone kept such great care of their lawns, the houses were beautiful and whole place gave off a great “small town vibe.”

When we got to T.J.’s grandparents house, the house was filled with people.  If my family were to have that many present, it would have been a huge family reunion that had been planned out for years, but it was completely normal for all of his family. Most of them I had met but I couldn’t quite match them to the right names.  But one person I noticed immediately was his Great-Grandfather, Leland. Leland is 100 years old, soon to be 101.  He looks healthy and bright.  He always has a quaint smile on his face, although he doesn’t say too much any more.  I gave him a hug, along with T.J.’s grandpa Lyman who is a blunt. hilarious, and down-to-earth farmer.

We got there just in time to head over to the rodeo with his parents, cousins, aunts and uncles.  We listened to his Uncle Brian play with his band beforehand, which was a lot of fun to meet another member of Kelly’s (my mother-in-law’s) family.

The rodeo was a blast.  It was my first one ever.  Although I felt bad for some of the calfs that were lassoed and tied up, I was always amazed when they would just run away like nothing happened! The bull riders were so intense too.  I screamed at the top of my lungs over and over because I was so scared for the people when the bull would come after them.  What crazy person would ever want to do that?  One guy even got pretty beat up and had to be taken out by EMTs.

Probably the most fun part to watch was the chicken catch.  All the little kids tried to catch chickens that were running around the grounds.  It was hilarious to see the little boys walking away triumphantly, chicken in hand.  All night long, they held there chickens under there arms.  I saw one little girl tie a rope to her chicken’s leg.

Precious girl, poor chicken.

After the rodeo was a town dance.  A town dance. How cute is that??  I actually didn’t go though because I was so tired and knew we had a big day ahead of us on Saturday, so I hit the hay pretty early that night at Wade and Angel’s house (another one of T.J.’s Uncles).

So that ends day one of the weekend.  More to come…

Sleep

The first song I learned on the piano went like this:

“Sleep, my baby, sleep.”

or…

C-D-C-D-C.

It’s stuck in my head right now.

The 411 on Homesickness

Okay, there are a number of homesick levels.

Level 1: Completely satisfied where you are at that moment.

Level 2: Home is on the back of your mind. You try to keep in touch when you can.

Level 3: Home is always on your mind for one little reason or another.  Usually brought on by seasons or specific people.  Sometimes tears are shed when things aren’t going quite right where you are, making you remember the “good ol’ days”.

Level 4: A holiday or big event is passing and you are away.  Bad news bears.  Fits and nostalgia are common.

Level 5: This is when you are wondering while laying in bed, “Why on earth am I here and not at home where I belong?!”  This stage is filled with long phone calls, torturing yourself by looking through old songs, home videos, or photographs, and tissues.

Needless to say, I’m always at least on level 2.  Don’t get me wrong, I loveeeee Utah, and home is where your heart is, right? So, I do feel at home when I’m with T.J.  But sometimes I do miss the good ol’ Fort now and again!

So today, I’m on level 3, which is not high enough for you to be concerned.  But it was brought on because my friend was telling me that she and her fiancé just bought a house in Fort Thomas, so clearly I had to check out the place on GoogleMaps… which led me to my old street

Here’s what I found:

Baby Jack

I held a little baby this weekend.

I hadn’t held a baby for so long, I forgot how to do it.

He started to cry, I talked to him like an adult.

“No, Jack, none of that.  You need to stop crying.”

He kept crying.  I handed him back.

I babysat every weekend as a teenager, but I still feel clueless about what to do with kids and if I’m doing it right.  A babysitter is not a mother.

I’m only asking this because I’m curious, not because it relates to my life in any way, nor will it relate to my life for a long, long time, but… when you become a mother, do those instincts just kick in?  How do you learn how to hold a baby right?  How do you make him stop crying?  What if those things don’t work?  How come some people seem like they will be perfect mothers and others just don’t have it in them?

And no, Danica, I didn’t catch “The Fever”…

,

Shake it like Cyrus

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keNwCgdiAJk&hl=en_US&fs=1]

This was made my several students from BYU and UVU.  Pretty awesome.  Yes, I know it’s old news…

Camp Memory

One year at camp when I was in the Young Women’s program at church, Blair and I were youth camp leaders over the first years.

While laying in our cots each night, we all would make up these little rhymes having to do with camp:

“I don’t know if it’s been said, but I wish I was at home in bed.”

“I don’t know if it’s been told, but camp is getting really old.”

Yeah, I know it sounds pretty lame, but at the time it was a blast.  But the best part of this nightly ritual was when this one particular girl just didn’t get that the two words had to rhyme.  Over and over, even when we told her, she just wouldn’t rhyme the phrase.

“I don’t know if you have heard, but BLAIR IS GAYYYY!”

“I don’t know if it’s been said, but today was really fun and I love being at camp.”

Those were the types of things she would say.

It was hilarious.

Even to this day.

Safety First

Yesterday I sat down and reached over to put on my seat belt.

But I wasn’t in a car.

I was at my desk at work.

2 Months

I’ve been married for 2 months, today.

Half of me feels like it has been 2 weeks. Half of me feels like it has been 2 years.

What I’ve learned:

Communication is key.

A husband can’t read their wife’s mind. A wife can’t read their husband’s mind.

Saving money is essential, yet nearly implausible.

Without the gospel, marriage would be impossible.  With it, marriage is bliss.

Oh, and I definitely have the most

amazing, precious, handsome and thoughtful husband

who is perfect for me.