the life of the riddle

Lost wallets and good Karma

2012-01-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

Today I got this text from Spencer:

"I lost my wallet! It fell out as I was riding my bike. I had my debit card canceled."

You know what a lost wallet means. New drivers license. New student ID. New debit cards. New Credit cards. New Health insurance cards. New Dental card. Library card. The list goes on and on. Our list included a new national parks pass $80 (non-refundable.) a UTA card. USA Cycling cards. A few un-cashed checks and $20 cash. (obviously we aren't millionaires but who can afford to loose a wallet?!?!)

Then around 3:45 today two guys I'd never seen in my life knocked on my door. They had found Spencer's wallet in the street. They searched through it, found his address and drove up to the avenues to deliver it. Everything was in the wallet.

We read about liars and thieves all the time in the news. I'm here to say that the world has good people. Lots of good people. And although you know lots of good people most of the good people in the world are strangers to you. Think about it. It is a comforting thought.

I also might be persuaded to believe in Karma. 6 years ago I was jogging in the avenues and found a wallet. It belonged to a Japanese girl. It had her passport, her student i.d., and a $100 bill. I tracked her down via a friend of mine (Angie Clarke) who speaks Japanese. She sent both me and Angie a $40.00 gift card to Wall-Mart. What goes around comes around.

I thanked the guys who returned Spencer's wallet and I really really hope that if they every loose their wallets that Karma will catch up to them as well.

The two of us

2012-01-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

We love hanging out together.

Baby G:

7.5 months old
Lots of cute baby moments.

I'm so glad she is in our lives!

David Bowie and my baby

2011-12-30T22:14:00.000-07:00

Last night baby G kept me up most of the night. Somewhere between 3 and 4 a.m. I kept picturing David Bowie stealing Baby G and taking her to the Goblin Castle. He strutted around singing Dance Magic Dance in his ballet tights.

I'm not sure what brought this thought to mind......

Maybe it was her outfit.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Working Mom, Awesome Nanny

2011-12-02T20:17:00.002-07:00

Do you remember how I had a baby last June? Baby G is gorgeous and smiling and delightful. I spent all summer playing with her. Then school started again and I went back to teaching. Full time.

Your brain prepares for what you know you have to do. Right now I have to work so I've been mentally preparing to return to teaching even before I got pregnant. I teach every day and little baby G hangs out at home with her nanny.

Her nanny is Elise, my little sister. It is WONDERFUL to have family watch G. I know that Elise loves her and takes good care of her. She reads to her. She plays with her. Not only that, Elise cooks and cleans my house. Elise = pure gold. I wish I could afford to pay her a million dollars a year.

So far me continuing to teach has been an okay thing for my family. Leaving for work every day makes me a little sad but once I get to class and starts teaching I realize how much I love to teach. Having a job you love makes working outside of the home much easier. I do love my job. I think being a choir and German teacher is the best profession in the world. My students are adorable. I get better at teaching every year and I really really enjoy it.

So that is my story. School gets out June 1.

Halloween with the Goblins

2011-11-01T19:05:00.002-06:00

Doesn't a valley of Goblins sound like an enchanting place

to spend Halloween weekend?

We thought so!

We took our little Ladybug

and introduced her to

one of Utah's coolest state parks: Goblin Valley.

Chillin' with 2 Goblins!

Goblins as far as the eye could see.

We dragged the beautiful Hannah along with us as our native guide. She may have been living in Chicago for the last few years busy becoming a doctor but having spent so many summers as a river guide in Moab, she knows southern Utah as well as any Idaho Girl.

We also met up with mission friends Josh and Cali and their 2 offspring. My how the times flies....

All in all we think Goblin Valley is a great place to spend Halloween!

Happy Halloween to you!

Baby G’s first slot canyon

2011-10-23T18:03:00.002-06:00

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

We love hiking. We hope our baby girl grows up to love hiking too. When she was only 5 weeks old we introduced her to some of Southern Utah’s most exciting slot canyons, Spooky and Peek-a-boo. (Near Escalante Utah down Hole in the Rock Road and great gateway canyons to the sport of hiking)

Spooky and Peek-a-boo aren't technical (no rope needed) but a hand is always helpful

The debut of my brother in law Marshall on my blog. He stole my little sister and married her 10 years ago. I'm over it. really.

My cute Mom and my cute Sister

Baby G wasn't too into the scenery.

Not too into the scenery, but happy to smile at Dad!

My new desktop photo.

Some of the more manageable twists of the canyon.
Spencer was pretty sick of my taking pictures every 2 steps.

watch those curves.

Arwen and Eden

Baby G and me!

Sisters and babies

How old were your kids when you started them hiking? My parents dragged us on many a hike when we were little, but it wasn't till college that I really enjoyed it and started going on my own.

Any tips for training young hikers? Do share!

How I spend my Money

2011-10-10T23:12:00.000-06:00

I'm a pretty thrifty gal, but I could blow ALL of my money framing art work.

I love going to the custom frame shop and picking mats, frames, and glass. I love how a certain frame or color can make a piece pop.

Here is what I brought home from the frame shop last month:

It is called Ode de Cologne by Geoffry Wharton. I first saw the print at music conference I attended in Tuscon two years ago. I scribbled the name down and Google informed me that I could buy it from All posters for $30 - OR I could buy it directly from the artist for 9 euro. I emailed Geoff (he is a professional musician in Cologne) and had him ship it to my father-in-law's house in Germany. We picked it up on our March trip to Germany.

The Cologne Cathedral is Germany's most famous Cathedral and dominates the cities sky line. The artist outlined the famous German landmark on orchestral staff paper with musical notation. It is unique and beautiful and I knew I had to have it the minute I saw it.

I chose a dark brown frame and a frame insert with rounded nobs similar to the intricate notes on the staff paper. It makes the notes really stand out. Also I chose no glass and instead had them texture it. Glass often darkens and adds unneeded cost.

The actual Cathedral

The famous spires

When I picked it up from the frame shop the girl said "Oh we liked this one!" Apparently they frequently frame the same 5 pieces so variety is a novelty. It is now adding a touch of class to my living room. I'm hoping it counter balances out the fact that I"m using my Grandmothers old (but relatively nice) couch.

The artists web site is here. Have you ever seen a piece of Art and it was love at first sight?

Summer Fun

2011-10-01T09:08:00.000-06:00

This was my first summer with a baby. I managed to fit in a respectable amount of hiking/camping/out door activates. I was recapping some of the events to a friend and she said “Wow, having a baby hasn't really slowed you down.” While that isn't necissicarialy true (my bike is collecting dust.) We did have some fun times!

In July we went over the river and through the woods to Grandmothers Cabin. Grandma summers in her Cabin near Cooke City MT. It is my favorite place in the world. (true statement) I took Baby G up to visit Grandma’s cabin when she was 5 weeds old. Much to the dismay of Grandma&pa.

Grandma's cabin is just below these mountains. Pilot and Index peaks.

Grandma explained to Baby G, that everyone in the cabin worked. Hence the newborn jeans.
I think Grandma let baby G off easy. no rock moving for her.

Crazy Creek falls was extra crazy with all the snow melt!

I was a waitress at the Bearthooth Cafe in College. Good memories.

Main Street Cooke City Montana, you don't want to blink and miss it.

Oma giving Baby G a bath.

All the cousins wanted to help!

Me, G and Jani.
All big Montana fans.

Body Image

2011-08-07T08:50:00.002-06:00

I've got some stretch marks. None of my clothes fit. I'm fatter than I want to be. My stomach which always remained relativity flat despite my weight ups and downs, is not flat at all. I feel all disproportionate. I'm slow. I went running yesterday and a senior citizen passed me. Um....she was walking. I looked down at my super fancy heart rate monitor. I was doing 15 min. miles. But despite all of this.....

I can't help but think that my body is AWESOME! I grew baby G! My body made her! She started out microscopic and ended up 7 lbs 7 oz in only 9 months! My body feeds her too. She has gained 3 lbs since she was born and it is all due again to my amazing body! My body has never been so awesome before. Not when I climbed Mt. Rainier. Not when I ran marathons. Not when I fit into smaller jeans. Nope. Baby G is the most amazing accomplishment my body has to boast.

In early stages of labor with Baby G....still smiling.

Baby G's blessing day.

I've never had such a positive body image as I do right now....at the fattest. Go figure. Life is a miracle.

We love her so much! Look at that pretty mouth.

When I had Baby G I lost a friend.

2011-06-28T14:23:00.000-06:00

The Family Dog now hates me. I’ve known Max since he was a puppy. I helped train him. I’ve taken him on hundreds of walks. I’ve fed him lots of juicy table scraps. I’ve pet him for hours. We’ve traveled the country together. But now…. We. Are. Not. Friends.

I took Baby G down to my parents house to visit last Sunday. It was the first time I’d ventured out rather than demanding family come to me. I stepped out of the passenger seat and Max greeted me with his normal I-adore-you-and-want-to-slobber-all-over-you way. Then I opened the back seat and pulled out my new baby. The dog just stared at me. Slowly his tail stopped wagging….

I’m not sure if that was the moment when he turned on me or not. But a short while later I knew I had fallen from grace. After Sunday dinner I carried Baby G into the living room to nurse her. As I walked past Max he growled at me. He. growled. at. me. The family dog growled at me. Ten years of loyalty stripped away by a nine pound baby.

The rest of that day Max avoided me. He came when I called him but with no enthusiasm. He took the treat I gave him and then walked away to enjoy it assumably with better company. Sigh.

This is not wholly unexpected. My younger sister Jani is mother to 4 children. Jani’s easygoing ways and kindness make her popular with everyone. Everyone except Max that is who can’t forgive her for bringing 4 grandchildren into the world.

We have our theories on why Max hates primi and multigravida. Any baby ranks above the family Dog. The baby gets to sit in the dining room during dinner while Max has to watch from the back door. The baby gets more face time with everyone. I’ll admit from a certain perspectives it is unfair.

Who is to blame for the babies and consequently the upheaval of the pecking order? The mothers of course! Poor Joanie and Jani are the source of all of Max’s problems.

A favorite family story: Little 4 year old Eden was walking down the hall with Max. She kept petting him and saying over and over “Look he likes me!” Max’s response to this was a low frequency growl. He doesn’t like anyone under 4.5 feet.

In summary for every action there is a consequence. I acquired the worlds cutest baby and lost the love of a great dog. It is a little unfair considering I’m not the only one responsible for Baby G. Let’s just say that Spencer was also involved in the process (ask your mother.) But the complexity of the human reproductive system is above Max’s cognitive skills. He still LOVES Spencer whom he’s only known for 5 years (anniversary this week.)

In this case “Man’s best friend” doesn’t apply to woMAN.

My Baby has hair!

2011-06-22T11:44:00.000-06:00

The first comment Spencer made about his little girl (as she was crowning for-what-felt-like-an-eternity) was "It* has lots of hair!" True. My baby girl has lots and lots of hair! This is surprising since I have only 4 hairs on my entire head. I have a vanity full of overly expensive hair products that make my 4 hairs look like 10. I've always longed for "sleeping beauty hair." sigh. My youngest sister Kate must have stood in the beautiful-hair-line in heaven and consequently has long thick beautiful hair the envy of all of the rest of us sisters.

In my baby pictures I have little/no hair. In Spencer's baby pictures he also had little/no hair. But baby G's pictures have hair pattern similar to Aunt Kate's baby pictures. We are crossing our fingers that she develops hair like Aunt Kate. All except Kate who swears that it is more trouble than it is worth. We don't believe her.

*remember we didn't find out the sex of Baby G till she popped all of the way out. Popped is a rather silly word in childbirth. Replace popped with was pushed and then pulled out.

The best moment of my life

2011-06-08T14:11:00.000-06:00

After the nurses had gone. After the doctor had sewn me up. After I’d had days of consistent contractions, six hours of really hard labor and two hours of pushing. After I’d survived natural child birth. After I’d fainted from lack of blood. After Spencer announced “It’s a girl!” After the first wave of visitors had come. After I’d spent a few hours looking at her. After all of that…..came the best moment of my entire life.

Unequivocally the best moment of my life. I had never been so happy.

It was still Baby G’s birthday. She was 20 hours old. All family had left and the bustling nurses settled down for the night. For the first time since the delivery it was just the three of us. I lay in the bed exhausted and Spencer held little G in the rocking chair by the window. Out of the window I saw the dome of the capital building glowing against the night sky. It was cozy. It was intimate. It was sweet.

We were parents! It hadn’t (still hasn’t) settled in. But we were trying to get used to the idea. I watched Spencer bounce and look at little G and he started to give her Daddy’s first lecture. I tried to write all of the things that he said, but reconstructing the words don’t do the moment justice. Spencer sat and rocked baby G and told her how excited we were to have her in our family and all of the fun things that we hoped to do with her. It was so sweet. It was so wonderful to see Spencer talking to our baby. If I could watch video footage of my life this moment would be my top request. I was and still am so grateful for my new little girl and my husband who helped me so much during labor and who adores our sweet baby. Life does not get better.

Is the Baby a Boy or Girl?

2011-05-04T18:33:00.000-06:00

That is everyone first question when they see me waddling along. Spencer swears I don't waddle, but I think he is just trying to stay on my good side, which is harder and harder to do the bigger and bigger I get.

To this question I give my standard response: "We don't know. We decided not to find out."

You should see the looks I get.

Shock. Horror. Disbelief.

No one waits to find out anymore. We asked the ultra sound technician how many people didn't find out. He said 1 in 50. In our Lamaze class we are the only couple (of 15 couples) who doesn't know pink or blue. At my work there are 4 pregnant ladies. I'm the only one with a question mark hanging over her uterus.

How can you dooooo that? Don't you want to know so you can plan? What about a nursery?

I can see wanting to find out if you are planning on buying lots of stuff while you are pregnant but I"m planning on buying NOTHING. Baby is due in 20+ days and so far the baby has the following items most of which are borrowed from my little sister the birthing machine:

bassinet - I'll get a crib later
car seat -borrowed
bike seat - obviously a necessity in this biking family
breast pump - technically this belongs to me, but as we will be sharing my boobs I'll let baby share claim
dresser - the old dresser I used as a baby
2 blankets - one is yellow (unisex) one is rainbow (also unisex) also belonged to me as a baby
1 pair of newborn jeans
1 bronco jersey - a gift from my sister back when we were bronco fans
1 adorable on the go changing kit - a present from a students mom.
yellow booties - also gift from students mom
the outfit that I came home from the hospital wearing - I can't believe my mom saved it

Realistically before Baby is born I'll have to busy some things, but really I can count those on one hand.

newborn diapers,
pacifier (I'm not a fan of the word binky)
package of onesies,
socks

Baby will come in the summer so I don't need to worry about warm clothing right away.

As for a nursery.....That is a future post.

As much as we want to make everything perfect for our coming babies - let's face it - a baby will sleep in a box. It doesn't care what color the nursery is. It doesn't care if it is wearing designer outfits.

It does care that you hold it, and rock it and love it. For the first few weeks Baby and I are going to play recluse and get to know one another. By that point I'll know whether or not to get pink or blue. Also, although I realize I am being exceptionally pragmatic in this post I do hope by that point our "nursery" will look a little less like a bike garage. (future post.)

For us the excitement of being surprised at the birth far outweighed the advantages of finding out before so one can plan.

But the bottom line is....when it is YOUR baby....you can do whatever you want!

So what do you think? Did all of you find out? or will you find out? Did anyone else wait to be surprised?

Europe to SLC

2011-04-30T23:13:00.001-06:00

I'm just off of a European Vacation (don't hate me) but still, I've been missing Europe lately. Probably because I know it will be a while before I cross the Atlantic again and if I ever do I'll be dragging kids around. Needless to say life is about to change for us with baby no. 1 on the way. But I digress...

Luckily, two of Europe's greats are now or will shortly be available in SLC.

No. 1

I heart Magnum bars. I make sure to eat one or two or TEN every Europe trip. I justify the calories with the exotic location. Now that the glorious Magnum are available at the grocery store one block away from my house I no longer have the -calories don't count in foreign countries- excuse. I'll have to learn more self control. Read about Magnum's launch into the US market here. If you've never tried one....why are you still reading....get up and go buy one now! (Available at Target and Smiths and lots of other U.S. stores)

No. 2

H&M has long time been one of my favorite clothing stores. If you've never heard of them (for example I bet my Mom has never heard of H&M) they sell cute but affordable clothes. H&M has been in the states for a while now, the closest place to SLC being Las Vegas. (I've never been impressed with the Las Vegas H&M) Now they are moving to the valley! Hurray! Sadly they aren't coming downtown. Isn't H&M such a downtown store? I mean seriously what could make the new city creek development better? read about H&M coming to Utah here.

My No. 3 wish:

If I could only buy the German H-Milk here in the states I'd never have to go to Europe again. (Of course I'm kidding.) They pasteurizer the milk differently in Germany. In fact H-milk is sold in boxes and doesn't have to be refrigerated until opened. I LOVE the taste so much. In fact I'd go as far s to say that it trumps even my love for Magnum bars.

What do you miss most about Europe?

I've come full circle.

2011-04-27T18:38:00.000-06:00

I'm 35+ weeks pregnant.

I stare at myself in the mirror in disbelief all the time. Is that REALLY my abdomen all swollen? I'm so disproportionate. My belly which for so long was flat even for a pregnant lady has really started to protrude lately. I can't see my toes when I look down.

But the worst is....the tiredness is back.

Do you remember how I spent the first 20 weeks of pregnancy lying on my couch or crouched over my toilet? No you don't remember because I didn't blog for 3 months. Remember that?!? I tried EVERYTHING for nausea. I slept 10+ hours a night. I inhaled ginger. I killed a chicken and danced with it on my head....okay well maybe not everything...

I haven't thrown up since January. My morning sickness vanished with the night at week 20. From week 20 to week 35 I felt great! I had tons of energy (comparatively) I actually managed to cook dinner, keep the house clean and blog a bit. It was great.

But now I'm back to that previous self (albeit I"m not as bad). I'm TIRED again. I come home and see the couch calling for me. I go to bed at 8:30 each night. I crawl out of bed having pushed the snooze button the MAXIMUM amount of times. I have no energy for cooking or cleaning.

I have to remind myself. I'm incubating a humane.

Then I think how amazing that my body can do something like that.

And I remind myself that at least I"m not nauseated.

And I only have 33 days left.

Then I'll have the cutest little baby I've ever seen.

Hurray!

Our Last stop in Europe: Switzerland

2011-04-22T21:24:00.001-06:00

From Lake Como we drove up to Interlaken Switzerland and then into the Laterbrunnen valley. We lucked out with another great hostel (unfortunately the bathroom was down the hall and I had to go TWICE in the night.) Traveling cheaply has its ups and downs especially when you are 7 1/2 months pregnant.

The next day we took the gondola up to the top of the world.

Once we got to the top, we realized that the view was mostly covered by clouds. sob.

We were almost the only non-skiers on the gondola.

I threw on my ski hat to try to blend in with the super cool skiers,
but my wool coat and jeans gave me away, not to mention my protruding belly.

This is what we would have seen if we'd gone on one of the 3 days per year with no cloud cover.

The Schlithorn is where they filmed the 1969 Bond movie On Her Majesties Secret Service. You can watch a few clips of the film at the top. They have a great scene where Bond and the villain fight in a barn perilously filled with large Swiss cow bells. Terrifying.

I wish they had had a life size photo booth of this film promo poster where tourists could stick their heads through. Spencer could have pretended to be James and I could have been Ms. Cleavage. (Hilarious that she has so much exposed considering she is in skis.)

I wasn't about to show any cleavage (although with this pregnancy I have plenty to show!)
Instead I cast fashion aside and sported my awesome Sherpa hat most of the day. It was COLD!

Every where we looked were beautiful views.

I was pretty happy to be in the small village of Gimmelwald again.
It hadn't changed much since I back packed through here in 2004.

One of us is very happy to be in Switzerland.
The other one of us hates posing for pictures.
Can you tell which is which?

My Geology training in college lets me know that this is a U shaped valley carved by glaciers.
I sure do love what glaciers do to mountains.

Can I please have MORE COW BELL?
Okay I know it isn't an original comment but YOU come up with a better caption. Seriously. Send me your ideas.

From Switzerland we headed to Frankfort where we flew home. It is always great to visit Europe, but with the little one on the way I have a feeling it is going to be a long while before we make it back. So long Europe. You are beautiful and as enchanting as always. I"m very lucky to have seen you so many times. I'll miss you. xoxo. -Joanie

Lake Como ITALY!

2011-04-19T18:10:00.001-06:00

We left Bavaria and drove down through Austria and Switzerland past Lichtenstein to Italy. I wish I'd taken more pictures of the swiss Alps, it was breathtaking!

In Lake Como we'd planned to stay at George Clooney's house, but sadly he was off shooting in some remote location, so we had to rain check. We settled for a cheep hostel instead. This hostel was great! It had clean sheets a private bathroom (very appreciated by the pregnant lady) and a bed for each of us! Hurray!

Lake Como is pretty much the stuff dreams are made off, or Hollywood movies since our overly stimulated brains don't do any of our own dreaming any more.

Lake Como Italy

Pregnant me and Lake Como

We had cereal on a park bench overlooking the lake for Breakfast. We travel on a budget! One restaurant per day!

We walked along the little villages exploring Belagio as recommended by Rick Steves. Italy is so enchanting.

I could NOT get enough of the tiny Italian alley ways.

Spencer didn't share my passion for alley ways or constant picture taking but he's a good sport.

In our car we drove around the lake and then loaded up onto the ferry to cross.

A holding the camera shot and the busy ferries in the back ground.

The Ferry had great views of the lake.

Not even Eric could complain about the view.

Spencer and his friend Michael Johnson. He's working as a Lawyer in Munich but he is from Utah. He decided to come along for the trip. Don't ask him if he has a girl friend. It is apparently a very touchy subject. Poor poor guy.

The enchanting village of Belagio on the banks of Lake Como.

If I weren't in Italy I'd be teaching 9th graders how to conjugate German verbs.
I do love my job but....I think you can guess that at this moment I was pretty happy to be in Italy.

Little Baby won't remember Italy at all. Or Spain. Or Switzerland. Or Morocco. Or Germany. Poor kid.

We couldn't leave Italy with out some authentic Italian pizza.

Stay tuned for the next chapter....Swiss alps and skiing at 7 1/2 months pregnant!

Southern Bavaria

2011-04-18T21:45:00.002-06:00

Happily reunited with Spencer in Munich we headed to Bavaria. Note: Our hostel (aka Spencer's friend's house) in Munich was MOST unsatisfactory. Can you imagine letting guests sleep in your apartment but then not giving them clean sheets?!?! The "friend" is American of course. Germans would NEVER be so inhospitable. Neither would most Americans.

Either way Spencer and I survived a horrible night crammed into a tiny single bed and headed to beautiful Bavaria.

Schloss Lichtenstein.

The Wieskirche

The Wieskirche is amazingly light and beautiful inside.

Doesn't it make you all want to move to Southern Germany?

Schloss Lichtenstein and the Weiskirche are minor attractions compared to the Disney Land castle of Neuschwanstein. The interesting thing about this castle it is this place is that it is only as new as Utah (approximately.)

The perfect fairy tale caste.

The Castle courtyard

Looking at the Castle Gatehose

Poor Baby won't have any memories of Southern Germany.

The Castle has beautiful views of the German Alps.

The walk up to the Castle.

I'd been to Neuschwanstein a few times when I was a kid living in Germany. It was fun to see it as an adult. The walk up to the castle was the perfect scroll for a pregnant lady. Last time I walked up to the Castle it was poring rain.

Next up: Lake Como!

After the German Party or our European Road trip!

2011-04-09T14:43:00.001-06:00

The day after the party we headed out. We had five days left of our trip and lots of Europe to see.

The first night Spencer and Eric left me in Leipzig where I visited my good friend Denise.

She insisted I sleep in her bed even though I tried to explain that Americans don't give up their own beds for company like Germans always do. Still, she was very kind. I slept great and when I got up Denise surprised me with another German Breakfast! Hurray!

Denise's cute apartment and German Breakfast!

After that we walked around Leipzig. I've lived in Leipzig twice now. Once as a missionary in 2000-2001 and once the summer of 2008 as a student. Leipzig is a fun little town. It isn't nearly as touristy as Munich or Berlin, or as breath taking as Dresden, still if you are on a German tour it is worth a stop.

Cute Denise with the famous Thomas Kirche (church where Bach played) in the back ground.

I have tons of missionary pictures with me and the Thomas Kirche.
This is the first picture of me and the Thomas Kirche and the pregnant belly.

The main square in Leipzig.

From that point I jumped on an ICE (very fast train) and headed to Munich where I was supposed to meet up with Spencer and Eric after their adventure in Prague/Vienna/Saltzburg. (I'd already been all of those places and had much more fun with Denise!)

I hadn't been to Munich since I was a teenager. One thing is for certain, it is a TOURISTY town. It was almost dark by the time I got there. I heard lots of Americans as I headed into the old part of the city to look around.

It was too dark to get any great photos so enjoy this one courtesy of the Internet:

If I had seen Munich in the daytime I would have seen this.

I enjoyed window shopping and checking out these gorgeous Dirndls.

I jokingly asked the shop lady if they had any maternity Dirndls.
She didn't think it was funny.
German's do have a different sense of humor.

I met up with Spencer at his friends house. I was a little late arriving and boy was Spencer worried. His poor pregnant wife walking around the city alone. I was of course happy he was concerned but really, Germany is a pretty safe place to go by yourself. Especially when you speak the language.

The next day we left for Italy...via Neuschweinstein Castle. Stay tuned!

The Big Birthday Party - German style

2011-04-08T21:56:00.004-06:00

THE BIG PARTY!

My father in law turned 70 a few weeks ago. Like every 70 year old he wanted to have a HUGE party with a band, hired actors, and a fully catered open bar. He also wanted to have this party in Germany, his homeland. Partying in Deutschland was fine with me because he was also gracious to fly the whole family over with him to celebrate. Despite the free ticket, I really debated weather or not to go. I love Germany. But being 30 weeks pregnant meant international flying was getting trickier. In the end I decided to do it. First of all I've never been rich enough to say no to a free ticket to Europe. (I doubt I'll ever be rich enough to say no to a free Europe trip) Secondly Spencer kept talking about how much fun it would be to be back in Germany. I just couldn't let him have all that fun with out me! Intense followers of my life will now remind me that I've gone to Europe TWICE without Spencer since we've been married. Poor guy. But don't worry he's gotten a new bike for every Europe trip I've taken.

On the day of the party Heinz wanted his sons to look sharp.
He bought them new suits.
More on the suits later.

Add caption

At the party I....

Ate lots of cake
spoke lots of crappy German (How do adjective endings work again?)
took lots of pictures
drank lots of juice
sang German folk songs
met lots of German relatives
and one again ate lots of Cake

Me and Spencer's first cousin. I'm wearing a maternity sweater from Target. She is wearing cool traditional German garb.

The Birthday boy and his sons.

Spencer dancing with all the German Fraus.

Texting is what Spencer and Eric did at the party.

German cousins. They did some comparing of noses.

Eating what might have been my 4th piece of cake.

True Love and a very drunk German who got in the picture.

As the German relatives were comparing noses and eyes for similarities.
I felt I most resembled this potted plant.

The drink list. Ze Germans, zhey lohve zhe beer and zhe wine.

Every time I turned my back he was flirting with the German hotties.

All in all it was a very fun party. I hope the birthday boy had the time of his life.

Note: In answer to Megan's comment. The professional actors were a hired band of comedians. They performed half way through the party. They spoke Platte Deutsch so I didn't understand one word. In fact most of the Germans couldn't understand a word unless they were old and from that area.

Germany 2011 - the first few days leading up the the birthday party of the century.

2011-04-04T20:36:00.000-06:00

Once again we returned to Germany! This time was to celebrate my father in law's 70th birthday. I know I haven't even blogged about my October trip to Spain or November in Morocco, (I will, I swear) but remember I was so morning sick back then I could barley function. I know you don't feel bad for me....throwing up all over Spain and Morocco is better than never seeing them. I'll admit I've been pretty blessed to travel the last 10 years but I have a feeling that my passport might soon start collecting dust. We do have a baby coming in T minus 60 days.

Yep I'm 32 weeks. Or for those of you who don't speak "weeks" I'm 7 months along.

So now a quick overview of our latest Germany adventure.

We flew - SLC - Paris - Frankfort. It was long but uneventfully.

Then we took and ICE (very fast train) to Hannover where Heinz picked us up. It was 8:00 p.m. by the time we got to his house but we weren't tired so instead we changed in to pj's and played some pool.

We were sleep deprived and pretty giddy.

Needless to say I was super excited to have authentic German breakfast. If you are a long time follower of my blog you know how much I LOVE German breakfast.

Eric and Spencer with great Bed Head and cold cuts.

The next day was Sunday. We went to Church like good Mormons. It is always pretty fun to hear all the service in German again and I love singing the hymns in German. This is great practice for my German which has never been as good as I want it to be. After Church we went out to a restaurant like not so good of Mormons. Does that cancel out going to 3 hours of church?

The restaurant had great atmosphere.

Spencer looking so handsome!

Me fulfilling every girls dream to be a pregnant bar maid. right?

This guy tipped me well.

After Lunch we took some time to visit Spencer's Grandparents Grave.

An interesting cultural note: German cemeteries function VERY differently than American cemeteries. In America once you are in the dirt you are in for life...or whatever...they never dig you up. In Germany your body only gets to own a particular cemetery spot for 25 to 35 years. Then they give your headstones back to your family and bury someone else on top of you. Americans are appalled by this. Germans are used to the idea.

Then we "as in Heinz my father in law" decided to drive across Germany to check out his apartments. We got onto the autobahn and soon were stuck in STAU.

People have this idea of the Autobahn as being nothing but a blur of Mercedes and BMW's and Porsche's racing down the lanes. That is sometimes true...but not on this Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately for us we were stuck in "Stau" the German word for traffic for TWO HOUR. Did you hear that TWO HOURS of not even moving. In America they at least get one lane going and you can creep along. Not in Germany. We and 1,000's of others just sat trapped.

People got out of their cars. Two girls walked around passing out candy.

After an hour Spencer and I walked up to an overpass to check out the view. Cars were stopped for miles.

Meanwhile back at the ranch Heinz my father in law was asleep at the wheel.

Eric my brother in law was also catching some ZZZ's.

Eventually we made it out of the Stau. We made one more stop at a random castle. (they are all over the hills) to check out a pretty view of Green Germany.

castles and little villages

Then we returned home to get all rested for Heinz's big Birthday which was the next day. Stay tuned for the Big Party Blog which I'll post later this week!

Belly pictures 26 weeks!

2011-03-17T22:40:00.001-06:00

Me and baby at 26 weeks.

After 4 months of sickness with not even a bump to show I was happy to start poking out at month 5. I'm feeling great now that I've stopped throwing up all the time. The baby kicks constantly. Pregnancy in the 2nd trimester is a world of difference from the first. The only problem is I high center when I sleep on my stomach. Ahhh the prices mothers pay.
P.S. I'm flying to Germany this weekend. Any tips on how to survive the flight? I'm a little nervous!

LDS Church reverses the no-kids-allowed policy.

2011-02-21T19:00:00.004-07:00

Their are wards in "the church" where children are not allowed to attend. Visiting children are welcome, but if you live in those ward boundaries and have children ages 2 - 18 you are assigned to go to a different ward. Mormons joke about the 4th kind of ward the "Newly wed and nearly dead ward." This kind of ward usually happens in an older well kept part of a city where real estate is too expensive for new families. Old retired couples and the young married couples who rent their basement apartments go to church together. I'd heard the term before but I didn't know it was an official practice.

In other religions you pick your church because of the pastor or the time you go to mass. When you are Mormon, you go to a congregation called ward based on where you live. Their are several different types of wards. I've experienced all of them.

Family wards: These wards are all inclusive, Grandparents, babies, teenagers, and adults all worship together.
Student wards: organized just for college age students.
Singles wards: organized for singles ages 18-31. At 32 you are kicked out.

Have you ever heard of a NO KIDS ALLOWED ward?

I'd been attending a singles ward for 10 years when I got married (getting married is jokingly referred to as graduating from the singles ward.) I was so looking forward to a good old fashioned family ward and snagging the best calling in the church -primary chorister. I was excited to have the full ward experience again. It was such a disappointment when Spencer and I attended church in our new ward for the first time and found out our ward was a NO KIDS ALLOWED ward. Our next door neighbors who have 2 little kids go to a different ward than we do Older couples get kicked into our ward when their youngest child goes away to college. Young couples get kicked out of our ward when their babies are primary age. It is very weird. Our ward has a nursery, Elders Quorum, High Priests Group, and a Relief society but no Young Women, or Primary. I've tried to like this ward, but it is HARD.

But then last Sunday everything changed.

Our ward was reorganized. Children were reintroduced into the habitat. Their were CHILDREN in church. Their were families with 4 and 5 children. WE have YOUTH SPEAKERS, we had actual DEACONS pass the sacrament. Can you tell I'm excited? I'm beyond excited I"m ecstatic. I hadn't been this excited to go to church since.....that kid in I had a crush on in high school gave his farewell talk. It had been a while.

Also exciting is the new meeting time. We now meet at 10:00 a.m. which in my opinion is the very best time for church. The church is true. amen.

Happy Valentines Day!

2011-02-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

In my 30 years of life I've had good Valentine days. I've had bad ones too. Story time!

Here is a bad Valentines Day:

It was either 2004 or 2005. The kid I'd been kind of dating hadn't called for a week. February 14th rolled around. I was alone. I was lonely. I tried to make my self feel better by going running. I did my 5 mile usual run. Just as the sun was setting over the mountains I crested the top of a hill (by the Utah state capital.) It was a warm day. The sky was amazing shades of pink and red. Everything was so romantic including the couple I saw up ahead. He was tall dark and handsome. She had cascades of sleeping beauty hair reaching half way down her back. They were strait out of a Vogue photo shoot.

I was about 20 feet away when I saw the man go down on one knee and reach for his pocket. Uh-Oh! The girl started tearing up. It was pretty obvious what was happening. Uh-oh, Uh-oh. UH-OH! Just picture it: setting sun, the man/woman you love, valentines day, silhouette of the capital in the back ground etc. It was a perfect moment to get engaged. Except for me.....the random jogger ruining the moment.

I promise I would have run a different direction, but there was. nowhere. else. to. go. They glanced at me and then quickly away. I looked strait ahead and sprint past them as fast as I could, but I've never been a sprinter. Two eternal minutes later I rounded a corner and finally gave them some privacy. Then I realized I was crying. Yep, that was a bad Valentines Day.

Here is a good Valentines Day:

It was 2007. Spencer and I were dating but not engaged. We were saying "I love you." All signs pointed to marriage. I was crazy about him and he me. We simply could not get enough of each other. Valentines morning he snuck into my room before my alarm went off and woke me up. He brought me lots of red presents including a red toothbrush, a red Prada purse, a red balloon and a red candy bar.

His "outfit" was the best part. He'd made a shirt with my picture on it and had the caption below it: "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like mine?" For those of you who don't know this "quote" was a twist on a popular rock song from the time. We had breakfast together. I went off to teach school and he went off to work. Later that night he picked me up and took me ice skating and then to Market Street Grill. A few months later we got engaged.

As for this year's valentines day...

Today was just a normal day. We didn't do anything fancy. We just bought a new (to us) car. We paid cash so now we are feeling rather poor. I made dinner while Spencer studied for a test. It was a wonderful valentines day in a boring sort of way. Despite the sad valentine day I described earlier where I ended up ruining someones engagement and crying, I've always liked this holiday celebrating love. Valentines doesn't necessarily mean romantic. We have all kinds of relationships with people we love.

Happy Valentines Day to all lovers, friends, daughters, sons, grandchildren, grand parents, nieces, nephews, etc. etc. etc. I hope you all have lots of people to love.

2010 Goals

2011-02-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

One month ago I realized that I wasn't going to die of pregnancy. I started feeling better. I could open the fridge with out dry heaving. Food started to taste good again. I had more energy. Basically there were birds in the trees and I could here them singing!!! Since then I continuously marvel at my efficiency. It is amazing how much you can get done in a day when don't lie on the couch from 3:30 till 8:30 - at which point I'd crawl to my bed. sigh.

Despite the 3 months of sickness I"m so happy to say that I accomplished a very important 2010 goal. I lost weight. I started 2010 heavier than I'd ever been. Despite getting pregnant I ended 2010 a whopping 30 lbs lighter than I started. All in all I lost 35 lbs in 2010. Can I get a hip hip hurray!?!

Now I'm going to reveal the secret to health weight loss.

1. Become a lover of running. Period.

I inhaled fitness guru's Covert Bailey' weight loss philosophy. He blasts dieting (sorry dieters, dieting is NOT a healthy lifestyle) and instead explains how to speed up your metabolism with daily exercise. I lost about 1 lbs a week. I still ate chocolate from time to time but I didn't pig out. I did run about 4 times a week.

Thanks to my families competitive exercise program and logging it all in Google docs I was able to keep track of all my 2010 exercise. I logged 220.3 exercise hours from January until September. Spencer won the competition with almost 400 hours. I guess that is what happens when you train for and ride LOTOJA. He only lost 10 lbs and believe me he has nothing left to loose.

Right now it feels great to be lighter that I was this time last year even though I have a 2 lbs baby in my soccer ball sized uterus. Hurray for running! Hurray for dropping 4 dress sizes!

As for my other 2010 goals.....I still haven't improved my piano skills (goal number 2) and I still chew on my fingernails (goal number 3) But hey what is life with out something to work on?

I hope you all accomplished your 2010 goals!

Tribute to 2011

2011-01-01T18:49:00.000-07:00

Hello, Hello, Hello? Is anyone out there?

I've never been to blogging school but I'm pretty sure that the quickest way to kill your blog is to NEVER post. I'm sorry I've been a stranger these past long months. I apologize. Please forgive me. I hope some of you still read my blog.

Before I launch into the reason for blog hiatus -let's review the year in highlights.

2010
In Feb we were really saddened to find out that I was a carrier of the CF gene but luckily Spencer was not! So although we might have children that are also CF carriers no one will have CF! We are blessed!

In March I was DELIGHTED to escort my 56 year old mother to the mall to get her ears pierced for the first time. My heart warms every time I see her in earrings.

In March/April/May I had some great teaching moments including taking my students on choir tour and winning competitions.

This summer brought lots of fun things including biking biking and biking! The highlight was our bike trip along the Oregon Coast and a fun warm up weekend around Bear Lake!

I also copped 7 inches off my hair. I LOVE it short but I'm growing it out again for Spencer.

In July I did a week long trip down the SALMON RIVER! Thanks to the advice of my doctor father (skin cancer kills) I was the fairest of them all. (think "albino")

In August school started again. I'm always bummed to stop summer adventures but once I get back I realize how much I adore my job. (They PAY me to hang out with high schoolers and teach them cool stuff!) Love Love Love!

By September the families exercise program was well underway. I had racked over 220 hours and lost 35 lbs. Hurray! If you run for 80 minutes a day trust me...it just melts off.

In September my amazing "cycling" husband did LOTOJA! You know 206 miles of biking in one day. Two weeks later our car died. The engine exploded (the piston head shattered.) We still have he piston head under our end table here in our living room. Spencer promises me we won't keep it forever.

That same day our car died I found out I was PREGNANT! Hurray!

Then I dropped off the face of the blogging world.

That is because all I do is hang out here....

or with this...

eating these....

And although I didn't continue to loose weight...I sure haven't gained any. That is what happens when you throw up everything you eat. I'd never make it as a bulimic. Life. has. been. miserable.

So that is why I haven't yet blogged about my amazing fall:

October: Went to Spain, competed in an international Choir competition. Won first place despite me throwing up.

November: Went to Morocco and explored the old imperial city of Fez and the port city of Tangier.

December: Spencer continues to play angel and cook and clean the house as I lie on the couch with my bucket. But right around Christmas day I felt the baby kick for the first time. Who knew getting kicked in the gut would be the best part of 2010?!?

I hope you all had a great new year. I assure you that although I haven't been blogging it has been fun to read all about your lives. Many Happy returns!

Happy New Year's everyone!

LOTOJA

2010-10-01T20:10:00.001-06:00

The name of the race is short for its starting and finishing locations short for LOgan TO JAckson.

It is 206 miles long.
It takes most riders the entire day.
It happens every year the 2nd weekend in September.
It is the longest one day USCF-sanctioned bicycle race in the country.

Not to bury the lead or anything so here is the big news....

Spencer did LOTOJA!!!

And I did LOTOJA as a support crew!

With such a long race the cyclists have to constantly be eating and drinking. Being support crew was no easy task (but lets face it, riding 206 miles is much harder than driving 206 miles) I had to make it to five feed zone stops. I had to make sure I had the right food for the right stops. I had to fight traffic in middle of NO WHERE Idaho. I had to battle my way to the front of the lines to feed Spencer. But lets remember that I didn't have to climb up three mountain passes using the power of my thighs! (Go Spencer!)

Before we attended the LOTOJA information - which was both informative AND humorous - I had incorrect ideas about what my duties would be as a support vehicle.

This is what I thought: I'd park the car somewhere in the designated little towns. I'd text Spencer my location and he would come find me. We'd both have a nice snack together hanging out by the car and do some chatting before he rode back to the Race. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

This is how it really was: I had to find a parking spot 10 blocks away and then haul in all the food (amazing how heavy peanut butter and honey sandwiches can get) to the feed zone. I had to wait between feed zone 7 and 8 watching the bikers race past. I was constantly worried that I had missed Spencer and he had had to ride on to the next stage with out any food. Once he got to the feed zones there was no leisurely chatting. I had to pre-open all of the granola bars, bananas, etc. I handed him his goodies and then 2 min later he was flying down the road. again and again and again.

He crossed the finish line in a little over 10 hours (not bad for a first time guy)

I have very overly zealous tear ducts. You can imagine what happened when he raced across the finish line.

What a great race! I want to do it myself next year! Anyone want to drive our support vehicle?

Good job Spencer!

Death my Ford Focus

2010-09-26T22:04:00.000-06:00

It was the first car I ever bought.

It had gangster tint windows.

It was a stick shift (Love Love Love)

It got great gas mileage.

I got a great deal.

I bought it four years ago when it had 60,000 miles on it.

I drove it until it had 150,000 miles

and then.....the engine exploded.

The piston head randomly shattered

. Here is Spencer holding the shattered remains of the poor piston head.

In lieu of flowers please send positive thoughts as we try to decide what to do next.

Senior Recital

2010-09-19T19:04:00.001-06:00

I thought it was lost. I tried never to think about it because if I did sorrow would over whelm me. I simply could not think about the fact that I lost the only copy of my senior recital. It was so upsetting that I would daydream of going back in time and making more copies of the CD or of getting my voice back in shape and doing another one. (yeah right!)

Every music performance major has to do a senior recital. Basically you memorize lots of songs in lots of different languages, you rehearse and rehearse till you have everything totally memorized, then you keep rehearsing because there are all kinds of "what if's" i.e. What if I forget the words? What if my pianist forgets to bring music? What if my teeth get dry any my upper lip stick to them? (stay hydrated) What if I loose my voice? It is a stressful thing and fulfilling at the same time.

You make posters and invite all your friends. Your family comes, and your mom is gushing. In this case my Dad is an amazing singer so he and I did some Schubert duets for the German section of my recital. You provide treats afterward for all the friends who came. You are graded. (I think I got an A.)

Bottom Line: You have spent years preparing for this. If you don't do it you don't graduate.

Most people's parent come with video camera's. My parents have never really been into that. I have to agree with them. Who wants to watch video's of your first dance recital. Do we every go back and re-watch? So I didn't insist on having a video camera although now looking back I do wish some one had video recorded just this one performance.

The School of music makes an audio recording and gives it as a gift to you (kind of like you have paid us $$,$$$ in tuition and we will give you a token gift.) Most people make lots of copies for their friends and family, but I've never been like that. If you didn't come you didn't see it. I made two copies: One for my Mom, and one for my Grandparents in Denver who couldn't make the drive.

My Mom lost her copy, and my grandparents: they don't know where it is either. I had lent my copy out to an ex-boyfriend in 2005 who I thought had kept it. I've been cursing his name ever since. He swore he'd returned it, but I looked high and low and couldn't find it.

The years ticked on and the precious CD never surfaced. I pictured telling my children, "Your Mom used to be a pretty decent singer, but you are just going to have to take my word for it." Sigh. Like I said I tried not to think about it.

But then low and behold Miracle of all miracles TODAY as I was cleaning out my spare bedroom I found another copy. JOY! RAPTURE! TEARS! WONDER OF WONDER!

I don't sing much anymore. I mean I sing CONSTANTLY in class for my students, and I sing with Dr. Allred as a choir girl. But being a soloist isn't something I decided to pursue (no regrets I like teaching better) so the chances of me ever doing another recital are slim. I'm so glad I found this one. And now can finally stop cursing that ex of mine.

More pics from the Oregon coast.

2010-09-06T21:23:00.000-06:00

And now some more pictures of our biking along the coast trip.

We really fell in love with the Oregon coast. Especially biking it.

I think you can see why we like it.


This was the Devil's Punch bowl. It was a fun distraction from biking.

We took a billion pictures.

We had a great view of the tide coming in.

But luckily it was low when we went. So we got to see all the great tide pools.

We also really liked the Sea Lion Caves.

We watched the Sea Lions playing and lying around.

And we dragged our "kids" to the Tillamook cheese factory. They wanted to stay in the car and read their books instead.

But everyone got happy once they handed out free samples.

And we all were really happy when Spencer bought us all ice cream.

Cannon Beach and Beaverly Beach

2010-08-29T14:58:00.000-06:00

I was excited to see Cannon Beach. I had hear so much about it.

Staying on our trip budget we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the beach and we all tried to get potential face book profile pics with these famous monoliths.

Taking a great picture didn't work out so well and after only 10 pictures Spencer was bored.

Kate sporting her new Nike shirt.

Spencer preferred playing with the seagulls to having his picture taken.

I think he missed his little bird.

Daniel took the most successful picture with the famous Cannon Beach landmark.

Apparently women on online dating sites respond most favorably to pictures of Men that are looking away from the camera.

So if 16 year old Daniel wants to start meeting chicks on line -this is the picture he should use.

Our next beach stop was Beverly Beach.

It was LOVELY.

We all had a great time.

Until we realized that the car keys had mysteriously fallen out of Daniels pocket.

The keys were LOST somewhere in the sand.

I made him go look on the whole beach for them.

Amazingly they were found!

Hurray!

I still felt it was a perfect opportunity to give:

"Older Sibling Lecture on Responsibility #1"

But who could stay mad at this cute kid?

Day one of the Oregon Coast

2010-08-29T08:43:00.000-06:00

Once we headed to the Oregon coast the adventure didn't stop. Our first destination was Astoria home of the "Goonies" btw-Astoria is not in any danger of having a golf course built anywhere near it. Its hilly streets rival San Francisco.

The famous Astoria column

Better view. It reminded me of things I'd seen in Europe.

We climbed all the stairs.

From the top you could see as far as the fog.

Which was a great view of the mighty Columbia entering the Pacific.

From Astoria we headed to a very cool shipwreck in Fort Stevens State Park

After exploring around outside we climbed inside
and pretended it was our personal photo shoot.

This ship crashed near the start of the 1900 century. You can only access it at low tide.
Having never lived near an ocean in my whole life the whole "times of the tides" are a little foggy to me. It was just serendipity that we came at low tide. It was VERY cool.

That was the end of a the first beautiful day on the Oregon coast.

Biking the Oregon coast

2010-08-13T08:27:00.000-06:00

In July 2010 Spencer and I did a biking tour of the Oregon coast. Well it was SUPPOSED to be an all biking tour, but with so many fun things to do along the coast we got a bit distracted. Here are some of our distractions....

Day One: The Drive featuring the Columbia River George

We stopped at the beautiful Multnoma falls in the Columbia River Gorge to break up
the 12 hour drive from Salt Lake City to Portland.

Day 2: Portland and Nike

In Portland we got an awesome insiders tour of Nike Campus
from my cousin John (Nike's best computer programmer.)

Don't let Spenser's face fool you he LOVED Nike.

Nike looks like a fun place to work. The employees had all kinds of fun work distractions like:

A Rock Wall
Golf Course
Soccer field
Track
Pools
Volleyball nets
Tennis courts
Basketball courts
Weight rooms
Cafeteria where you frequently see famous athletes
etc. etc. etc.

Enjoy the Nike Museum documenting how it all started with a waffle iron and a desire to make better running shoes that has turned into one of the biggest companies in the world.

Cool Athlete stuff (Mostly cool for Spencer)

And of course if working out or visiting athletes shrines isn't what you have in mind for your lunch break, then stroll around the beautifully manicured lawns. Enjoy lake Nike and pretty statues.

Then came the best part. John got us passes to the exclusive Employee store.

I've always protested to be not a huge Nike fan, but the receipt proves otherwise.

Joan's purchases:

Running Capri's (M)
Running Pants (M)
Running Capri's (S)
Running Pants (S)
Hey with all that running I"m sure I'll get down to a size (S)
Built in Sports Bra running Tank
Running shirt (short sleeve)
Running shirt (long sleeve)
Socks X4

Spencer's Nike Purchases:

World Cup Soccer shirt
Basketball Shirt
Socks X1

I should have restrained myself but everything was top of the line bran new and 50% cheaper than any store (even the Nike outlet in Park City which we frequent.) I sure now I won't have to buy work out clothes for years!

From Portland we headed to the coast. Stay tuned for more.

The best part about having married an elder from your mission is:

2010-08-06T21:58:00.002-06:00

When you go to mission reunions, you don't have to talk to each other.

You stand on opposite sides of the room chatting with old companions.
You sense him saying: "That is my wife over there, the former Sister _______."
You wave and smile.
All other spouse looks tired-out from entertaining children at a boring adult function
But your reunion is perfect. Perfect.

What is even better than marrying an elder from your mission?!?

Answering the question "So um...how did you guys meet?"

My favorite answer is: He was like my zone leader. We had this really hot affair and then we like got married when our plane did a layover in Vegas on the way home. It was way romantic and totally spiritual."

People just blink. blink. double blink.

Sigh.

So then I say: We had mutual friends who introduced us and we got married seven years later. We supposedly met once, I don't remember meeting him but he remembers meeting me. The End. (If you really want more details click here.)

We had a mission reunion for all the Deutschland Mission Leipzig elders and sisters who served with President Moss. It was fun to see everyone and their growing families. It got me to thinking back 10 years ago when I was knocking doors in former East Germany. My mission was hard. I cried a lot at first. So often I felt like I was wasting my time. I'm still trying to figure out how faith ties into peoples free agency...but at the same time I'm glad I served. I learned to have more charity. I saw people change. I made some of my best friends. I experienced a new culture. By the time I was ready to go home I didn't want to go. I walked off the airplane and burst into tears. Yep. My family was a little taken back. Oh well.

Congratulations to everyone who survived a mission!

The albino

2010-08-03T20:39:00.004-06:00

Dear Dad,

You told me that the sun would kill my skin. As a teenager I opposed everything you said on principle. Instead of lecturing me, you taped articles from dermatology magazines on my bedroom door depicting the horrible things that happened to people who went tanning. Eventually it all sunk in. Now I wear a hat. I wear long sleeves. I buy SPF 100 and apply it like religion.

I keep telling myself that in 30 years when all my friends are dying of skin cancer......I'll be happy. Right?

Love,

Your Albino Daughter

P.S. Dad....HELP! I"m faltering...brown looks so beautiful!

P.P.S. Left to right: Gia, Derek, Karen, Albino, Melanie, and last but not least, the very tan Dale.

P.P.P.S. The Salmon!

Picture update to Journal Entry

2010-07-31T01:49:00.000-06:00

I talked in my last blog post about the buffalo all hanging out at my Grandparents cabin, but I don't think I expressed how UNUSUAL it really is. They say a picture (courtesy Grandpa) is worth a thousand words.

Dear Buffalo: Don't step on Grandma's flowers. You don't want to mess with Grandma. Love, Joanie

Journal Entry - June 16, 2010

2010-07-23T07:42:00.000-06:00

I used to keep a journal. Since I started blogging my journal pages remain empty. In some ways blogging is more appealing than writing in a journal. But the writing styles are very different. On a whim I hand wrote out an old school journal entry during my trip to visit my Grandparents in Cooke City last week. Since this is now my "journal" I decided to record my words here. It will be most interesting to my family and my cousins who also make annual summer journeys up to visit with Grandma. Enjoy!

July 16, 2010
Cooke City, Montana

Today I got up early. I wanted to repeat my Monday run and jog down to Cooke City and back before breakfast. But I was a little bit nervous. Yesterday we saw 5 Buffalo between the cabin and Cooke. I don't know what Buffalo were doing 6 miles out of the park but I don't want to find out. Instead I ran down to the Wyoming boarder and back. I thought I'd run to where I could see Pilot and Index but I got tired and headed back to Grandmas at the state line.

I wanted to send my mother in law a post card so Jani and I took all her kids to town. I bought them overpriced candy at the General store. Hawaiian Brian came in while we were there to say hello. It was fun to be recognized and remembered by a Cook City local even though I haven't worked up here since I was 20. I think I return year after year hoping to relive a part of that glorious past.

Grandma made us lunch then we headed up the Bearthooth Highway stopping at Crazy Creek Falls along the way. Construction confined us to the Clay Butte overlook with its Alpine like views. I studied the topo map like always trying to memorize all the peaks in the area. I know all the Absaroka peaks because they are either so distinguishable (i.e. Pilot and Index) or not name worthy. The Bearthooth mountains are wilder.

We had forgotten to take to trash to the dump when we went to town earlier so we drove through Cook again. Unfortunately a tree had fallen in Wyoming cutting the only power source to the whole valley. We explored Aunt Phillis's store the Yellowstone Trading Post with flashlights (which was actually really fun) it was fun to meet some new 2nd cousins up working for the summer.

We headed back up the Bearthooth highway to Grandmas and only saw one buffalo on the way. (it was by the ranger station)

The power was out at Grandma's cabin too. I braved the very dark basement to retrieve the tangled fishing poles. After untangling them on the back porch we headed down to the river to drown worms and poach fish (Grandma sais it is okay to fish with out a license on your own land.) Jani and the kids had already dug worms that morning at Vic & Liz's horse barn. Eden my 3 year old niece caught a fish!

We wanted to keep fishing up at the car bridge so we started up the road but we didn't get very far. A HUGE Buffalo was in the road right by my Grandma's cabin. We ran over to the Goodsell's cabin and watched from the safety of her porch. Buffalo never stop us in Yellowstone but we took 100 pictures of this Buffalo swimming in the river we'd just fished!

Since the power was still out we all assumed we'd eat cold cereal. Luckily, Grandma's domestic Goddess abilities transcend electricity. She whipped us up Hawaiian haystacks on the wood burning stove. (Three cheers for Grandma!!!)

We lit the kerosene lamps which the kids had never seen. I was due for another progesterone shot so Jani gave it to me by the kerosene light. Grandma told stories about growing up during WWII. 9-11 vs. Pearl Harbor and how different life is now. Although I've always enjoyed my Grandparents stories I've just begun to realize what a valuable asset they are in helping me understand my world and my history. I'm so lucky to come from such good people and to have such a magical place to escape every summer. I always feel like a kid when I"m up in the mountains. Right out of high school with my whole life ahead of me.

Is anything cuter than 9 year olds singing opera?

2010-07-09T21:47:00.002-06:00

Welcome to Opera Workshop! This week you will create, design and perform your own Opera. Participants should be ready to sit both in the directors chair and sing under the lights. This extremely hands-on camp teaches kids about opera, stage direction, sets, costumes and singing! Open to children ages 8-10.

If you saw an add like that at your University's summer camp program would you send your kids? You should. It is a blast.

I've taught a children's summer Opera Workshop at the University for 4 years.

Don't let the word Opera scare you (an honestly if you say you hate opera have you ever actually seen a good opera?!?....exit soapbox...we can still be friends.) this camp is about learning to tell a story through song. That is what Opera is - minus the romance, murder, sex, scandal and love. This camp helps kids to learn to sing and develop confidence. If they don't sing as children by the time they come to me in high school my job is much harder. Music is so important for kids!

Here is the recipe for opera workshop class:

5-9 students
basic knowledge about opera
understanding of how young voices develop
Major motivating and cheer leading skills
Crazy costumes & Basic props
Lots of energy
Superior classroom management skills

Combine and cook for 2.5 hours a day Monday - Friday
End result: A 10-15 minute performance of your kid singing their heart out on stage.

This years class was particularly cute. They chose Snow White as the basis for their Opera. We talked about proper singing technique. We talked about opera. We talked about moving on stage. We talked about props and costumes. They told me we needed to build a coffin for Snow White to rest in. I explained that often times in theater we have to pretend....10 minutes later we found a coffin in the prop room. They were ECSTATIC.

To kiss or not to kiss.
That is the question.

With 9 year-olds infected on both sides with cooties kissing was out of the question. Very different from my high school students...

Dialogue from this week:

Prince: How will I wake up Snow White?

Snow White: No! NOT a kiss!

Me: Maybe you could give her a hug?

Prince: No...not a hug. I think a hand shake.

A hand shake it was. The prince came galloping up on his stuffed white horse to the coffin. Borrowing the tune of Twinkle Twinkle he explained that he had been looking for a princess who wasn't selfish (TOTALLY his words) He shook her hand and they all lived happily after. I heart my summer job. THE END.

P.S. Sleepy and Sneezy sang a duet. I kept calling them Sleazy. Luckily no one asked who Sleezy was.

A tribute to my father - today is his birthday

2010-06-25T19:57:00.001-06:00

I was working with my Dad in the hot sun for over two hours before I realized it was his birthday. I stopped and said “Hey Dad….h-h-h-appy birthday.” When the words came out I was still counting days…24^th, 25^th?!!! hoping that tomorrow was his actual birthday and praying it wasn’t yesterday. I loose track of days in the summer.

Let me tell you a little bit about my Dad.

He is wonderful. I feel very blessed to have him as a parent.

He has the most amazing Baritone voice. In college I studied vocal performance. After college I sang with the symphony. I heard a lot of wonderful Baritones. But no one came even close to his rich full tone. When I was little he would sing us to sleep at night. One of our favorite songs was a German folk song “Weisst du wieviel Sternlein stehen” translation “Do you know home many little stars there are?” I memorized the whole thing even though I didn’t speak German. I moved to Germany years later and heard the song again. I got all teary eyed – homesick for my family- but also I realized that I understood all the lyrics. (For now we see through a glass darkly.)

When I graduated from college I had to do a senior recital. I sang in English, French, Spanish, Italian and German. I chose some beautiful German duets to do with my father. At one of my final voice lessons (after about 10+ years of voice lessons) my teacher said; “Just do it like your Dad! He is doing it perfectly.”

It is true. Every time he sings people ask if he is or was a professional singer. I could practice 10,000 hours and never be a good as he is. I’m not jealous. I’m very proud of him and grateful I inherited a tiny part of his amazing talent.

When we were little my Dad would tell stories about growing in“The Pond.” Apparently my parents had their first kiss near the botany ponds at BYU. My father claims that my mom was walking past and reached down to the water and kissed him. You see.....he was a frog……and then she turned him into a prince! We heard all kinds of pond life stories. If we complained about eating homemade macaroni (We wanted KRAFT) my dad would tell us about eating flies and water skeeters as a young frog. It was his version of "uphill both ways with no shoes."

The frog post may be a sign that my Dad is a little eccentric. It is true. He is ½ crazy. He is obsessive compulsive about saving things. Old letters. My kindergarten report card. Things he finds on the side of the road. etc. We love him anyway.

My Dad is incredibly smart. When he was in medical school scored higher on his anatomy final than any Creighton Medical student ever had. He knows virtually everything about history, plants, geology and medicine. Last year I was reading a book which made me feel very ignorant of European history. (I only took Music History in college.) One day on a long hike I made my Dad tell me everything about European history including the Ottoman Empire, the Great War, WWII up to present time. I was amazed at how much he knows. Now that I"m 30 I'm eager to listen to him. As opposed to when I was a teenager and thought he knew NOTHING. sigh.

I’ve learned so much from my dad over the years. Thanks for helping me prune my bushes this morning and happy birthday!

Love,

Joanie

Out of Last Years F-A-I-L Rises a Phoenix. –or- My Families super successful exercise Program.

2010-06-23T22:28:00.001-06:00

Since January First I have exercised over 120 hours and lost 22 lbs. The math tells me that 5.4 hours of exercise = one pound lost. Doesn’t it seem like it should be more? I mean I’m sweating like a pig. I drag my self out of bed at 6:00 a.m. I don’t eat sugar. But I’m not complaining. My clothes are falling off me. I’m getting closer toward my skinny jeans and I’m happy. I’m so happy. My smile gets bigger and bigger with every notch of my belt (I have to wear a belt now all the time.)

Don’t get me wrong, no one is signing me up as a stick fashion model. I’ve still got a good 25 lbs to get back to my favorite college weight. But I’m on the right track and I owe it all to my families exercise program.

Like most Americans everyone in my family wanted to loose weight. (except my sister Elise and her perfect 36-24-36 self.)

Last year we started our own the Biggest Loser program. We all failed. No one lost.

Still wanting to loose but realizing that something had to change in order to get different results my favorite brother in law Marshall came up with the new 2010 program.

We called it The Biggest Exerciser.

The rules:

1. Log more exercise hours than anyone else (aerobic or anaerobic.)

2. Loose at least 15 lbs.

The winner exercised the most and lost at least 15 lbs.

We keep track of everything in shared Google doc’s spreadsheet. This has been the biggest reason for success. We can daily see how everyone else is doing. It is so MOTIVATIONAL to see that my little sister (who has 4 kids) has already exercised 4 hours this week. Surely I can do better! I only have a husband and a bird to take care of.

Need more motivation than numbers? Try seeing it in a pie chart.

I’m Joanie the yellow-green color. You can see that my biggest competitors are my husband (the avid cyclist) and my father (the surprisingly avid walker.)

In the next chart you can see that I was neck-n-neck with my sister Jani and husband Marshall. But I’ve pulled away. I guess being a teacher on summer break will do that. 3 weeks ago I exercised 17 hours!

(Can I get some appreciative “wow” comments?)

Each day I spend 20 more minutes at the gym, or riding my bike to the marina, or running up city creek canyon (I’ve got mace you psychos.) just so I can see the yellow line rising in the ranks.

I’m telling you there is NOTHING like a multi media shared motivational chart to keep you going.

And then the sweet part is:

The weight loss chart:

I’m down 22.

Jani (who had Baby #4 in December) is down 24

Marshall (who gained sympathy weight with Baby #1-4) is beating us all. He is Down 27 lbs!

And if loose jeans weren’t reward enough:

The winner gets $50

The runner up gets $50 (we knew in advance Spencer would win)

This has been a great family project. And as I'm currently leading the top excerciser who has lost 15 lbs. I'm number 1.

Now I want to hear from my readers: What has been the most successful way you’ve lost weight? What is your favorite way to exercise? What gets you out of bed? Do you run? Do you walk? Does your family do something similar? Do tell! We all need motivation. (except 19 year old Elise)

Last week we had an ADVENTURE.

2010-06-05T20:52:00.005-06:00

As a yellow personality I live for adventure. What else is there in life? Three day weekends give us hope for the future. They make working possible. A good life = an action packed life.

We drove up to Bear Lake with Three goals:

Raspberry shakes (check)
Camping (check)
Biking around the lake (check) and (check)

That is right! I biked the entire 51 miles around the lake. I didn't think I would make it. Spencer left me after about 45 minutes. (He's a speedy) I told him to go get the car and then come pick me up. But by the time he did I was only 8 miles away from the car. I made it! (1/2 hour behind and dead tired)

After riding around the lake we were DELIGHTED to find that our camping ground included an indoor hot tub. Soaking in the hot tub, looking out at the lake, enjoying a rasperry shake we were wondering "Does life get better than this?"

I vote this great weekend should be annual summer tradition. Who wants to come next year?

Ummm!

New Hair Cut - Now even shorter

2010-06-05T20:09:00.002-06:00

I had chopped off so much (7 inches) but it still wasn't enough. Its summer/hot/change. When I look at these pictures I admit that part of me was trying to recreate my early 20's when this was my standard hair cut. Those were some good times. But like I said I needed more of a change. Today I went to Molly for more choppy-chop.

Spencer made some wonderful husband comment like "I like it a little longer but you look great with it short or long." For me the jury is still out on weather or not I like it this short (I'm no longer 21. sigh.) but for now it was a welcome change! Happy summer!

P.S. These are not the most flattering pictures of me but Spencer has a low tolerance as a blog photographer. i.e. "That last one was just fine. So was the one before it!" He's never quite as ready as I am for my close up.

Spencer's Awesome Birthday present!

2010-05-30T10:17:00.000-06:00

Spencer recently had a birthday. So Naturally, my Mom being the most amazing Mother-In-Law in the world took him flying as a Birthday Present. Don't you all wish you had a pilot mother-in-law who could take you on a test ride?

You have to admit: My Mom is pretty cool. I always find the fact that she became a pilot after age 40 and after she had had SEVEN children very inspiring. Someday I want to write a book about her life. I"ll call it from the Kitchen to the Cockpit.

Happy Birthday Spencer and Mom: You are the best!

P.S. She let Spencer do the flying, but she did the landing.

The new hair cut

2010-05-28T17:11:00.000-06:00

I was sick of my long hair. Mostly because long hair + no time = ponytail. Two days before school was out (when I have endless time to spend on my self) I decided enough was enough and I chopped it off. It still hits below my shoulders (my husband's request) but they took off over 5 inches. We are currently with out a camera. The family camera (a gift from an ex-boyfriend years ago) finally died. My sisters really wanted to see so here you go thanks to the camera phone.

When I realized that my shirt matched my pet bird I felt I coulden't get any nerdier so Petie might as well be in the picture too. Plus he recently molted (feather are allover my house) so new hair cut kind of applies to the bird too. umm...I'm going to stop talking about the bird now.

What do you think? Does it look shorter? Should I go shorter? blonder? or grow it back out?

Who's #1

2010-05-23T07:30:00.001-06:00

We are We are! Despite that some days that I still feel completely inadequate at my job, we did win first place (or took state) in a recent choir competition. We were fresh off tour and ready to sing, sing sing. I feel so proud of my students.

Not to get all Mom blogie on you...

2010-05-21T16:19:00.000-06:00

Since I'm not a Mom this is more Aunt-Blog type material.

Isn't this the cutest Flat Stanley picture ever?

On another note today was the last week of classes. Hallaluja. Summer. Big Sigh.

The School year is winging down or how I am Michael Scott

2010-05-19T21:25:00.000-06:00

Everyone is restless

I have to use all my teaching skills to keep the students focused and learning. Sometimes when I think they are learning....they are not.
A few weeks ago I was enjoying some amazing focus in German class. The kids were quiet and participating. I was happily teaching new vocabulary words. But soon I realized that my amazing teaching skills were not what was keeping everyone so fixated. Oh NO. NO one cared about German.

They were watching my pants. More specifically (and in some ways less awkwardly) the hem of my pants, The cuff was so frayed that a strip was just hanging literally by a thread. One boy mentioned it. Then another one said "Oh yeah I noticed that too." Then they all started talking about it (very awkward.)

I tried to keep teaching. I blabed on about German School systems or something.

The didn't listen. They still stared transfixed at the frayed hem of my pants.

Suddenly one kid ran up to my chair and pulled the dangling strip off of my pants. The class exploded in applause. Kids even started packing up their bags to leave. They claimed they just thought class was over. The sleeping kids woke up and demanded to know what had happened.

It reminded me of the episode of The Office when Michael Scott calls everyone into the board room to discuss a "serious" problem. Instead of listening everyone is fixated on the screen saver that bounces from one wall of the computer screen to the next. Does it ever bounce into the corner? Dwight swears it does. No one believes him. Then suddenly it happens. The screen savor goes directly into the corner....and then bounces out. The Office erupts with excitement. They all leave the room with out even a backwards glance at Michael Scott.

You know you are beat when you are comparing yourself to Michael Scott.

A whole lot-a-CASH

2010-04-25T10:48:00.003-06:00

I lost my phone at school. It wasn't in my drawer where it usually was. It wasn't in my purse. I wasn't on my desk. I wasn't in my bra (you ALWAYS have a pocket ladies.) It wasn't on the edge of the piano. Oh. No. Oh. NO. OH. NO. OH NOOOOOOOOO. I had left it on my desk and some kid was now texting everyone in my address book, or snooping through my messages. (Good thing I read and delete.)

I was concerned, but class was starting. No time to worry about it now. After school I did some SERIOUS phone searching. Still no phone! Just then my boss came in holding my phone. I stammered an idiotic thank you:

Me: Oh errr....thanks! I must have left it somewhere. I'm glad you found it....if this had fallen into the wrong hands......ha ha (weak laugh) I mean....ha ha

My Boss: Yes. Well. I did enjoy the picture of you holding all the school's money. Maybe we should talk about that?

Me: (horrified) oh yeah.....um.....that picture was a joke....I mean....not that the money is a joke...or that I joke about school money....I just.....well....Fernando and I were joking around.....and......

He let me sweat it for a minute. I stammered out more explanations. Then he smiled and said:

My Boss: I know Fernando told me.

WHEW!!!! Oh man he really got me. That could have been awkward.

And now me holding all the cash that paid for the choir tour last week, taken my Fernando my co-worker with my cell phone which I then left on his desk as I rushed to get back to class. I haven't held this much cash since I was a waitress living in a town with no bank.

(And for the record my fingernails were purple. NOT BLACK!)

The Pet that hates me.

2010-04-21T18:15:00.000-06:00

Relations between myself and the Bird continued to spiral downward. I mentioned that he tolerates me and respects my position, (wife), but things have gone from Bad to Worse. Last Saturday things went from Worse to completely Unbearable!

Here is what happened: I came home from rehearsal. Spencer was out riding his bike and Petie was alone chirping in his cage. Feeling sorry for the little guy I got him out and with him perched on my sholder I headed into the bathroom to put on makeup for the day (I feel better now that you know why the picture below is so scary. No-makeup/Tired/Early-Morning-Rehearsal.)

Just then I heard the ice cream truck outside. You know ...that super annoying high pitched "song" penitrates concrete walls better than Superman. Apparently it drives Pet Birds just as crazy as it did my mother. It was pretty loud in the bathroom. Petie went CRAZY! I tried talking to him to get him to calm down but it didn't work. He was mad and determeined to take it out on me. Petie did several touch and go's on my sholder and then.... HE BIT ME! He bit me HARD. As in I BLED!

His sharp beak bit down on my tender ear lobe until I managed to swat him away. This had never happened before. After he bit me Petie flew away but then turned around to land on my shoulder. He was coming back for more! I could feel the blood dripping onto my shirt. I saw him coming. I put out my hand and I swatted him down mid flight. Yep. I hit my pet Bird. You think I'm crule. You think I abuse my bird. You think I have no patience with animals. Let's just seal the deal and I'll tell you I hate PETA. (I really hate PETA.)

So at this point I was determined to do what I had been avoiding for years (since we rescued Petie. I don't hate animals I just hate PETA.) We had to clip his wings. Birds with clipped wings are more docile and easier to handle. We've always thought about clipping his wings but it was so cute to see him flying around the house following Spencer from room to room.

The time had come. We found a few video's on YouTube on how to clip a bird wings. And snip snip snip twenty minutes later it was done. I held Petie (with gloves) and Spencer clipped with the nail clippers. He didn't seem to notice when we did the clipping but as soon as I let him go he tried to fly to the top of our candle sconce. He never made it. He can still fly a little but gains no elevation. He landed on the carpet and humbly crawled back to Spencer.

I would like to say that it worked and he is a new bird. But he bit me on the lip last Sunday. We have a new theory. The birds are mating like crazy out our window. We think that Petie just needs a girl friend (or mating season to end.) For now I'm still living with the pet that hates me.

Friday night movies

2010-04-10T00:12:00.000-06:00

After the Rachmaninoff concert I tonight I had a ton of adrenalin. It was 8:30. I was now where near tired. I bought ice cream and rented New Moon. I made Spencer watch it with me. (don’t judge) He made it through the first 20 minutes just snuggling with me on the couch. Then he said something about fixing his bike. He graciously brought the bike into the living room to work on so that (like I insisted) we could still be “together.”

My favorite part about watching New Moon was Spencer’s constant color commentary. Here are some of this best one liners.

“So is this like Werewolf Puberty?”

“Umm…sorry….responding (to that question Jacob vs. Edward) would imply that I have some kind of emotional attachment to this movie.”

“Who is Alice again?” (twice)

“Oh yeah, this is the part I was waiting for! When he jumps out!”

“Didn’t the other guy just break up with her? This is becoming a theme”

“That is a surprisingly decent CG animal.”

“No……..Bella…..Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!”

Yep. this is what happens when you are married. You rent chick flicks which your husband that he may or may not watch with you (He made it through most of North & South but not Anne of Green Gables.) He had to prove he’s a man. I made him suffer. But in my defense I did recently sit through Swordfish (with Spencer editing.)

Ahhh The entertainment we endure for love.

P.S. The movie New Moon was much better than the book New Moon. Discus!

Conference and Doughnuts

2010-04-04T20:15:00.000-06:00

Twice a year in Mormon Culture something wonderful happens. It is called General Conference. If you are Mormon you know all about this so skip to next paragraph. If not keep reading. Semi-annually the Mormon leaders get together and hold a conference in Salt Lake City. They give wonderful talks reminding us to be more Christ like people. They tell encouraging stories and relate very touching personal experiences. The best part of General Conference is televised so you can get all this great advice in your PJ's on the couch (or like me yesterday at the gym with my ipod!) Hurray!

My family has a wonderful tradition surrounding conference. Every Spring and Fall during conference weekend we make doughnuts. I say "We" as in the Royal "We." My Mom does 90% of the work leaving a strenuous 10% for the rest of us.

The next time you drive past Krispy Kreme tip your hat! Making Doughnuts is a rough job. You have to get up early and make the dough, (Mom's job) then you have to roll out and cut the dough into doughnut shapes. (also Mom's job) Then you have to fend off native teenagers who pick at the raw sweet doughnuts (Mom again armed with a wooden spoon.) If you have saved enough dough from the hungry natives to cook then you can heat up the hot oil on the stove. (Mom's job)

Then the whole family has to be involved. One person cooks (Today it was me) one person ferries plates of hot doughnuts to the doughnut frosters (Today's doughnuts were frosted by siblings Kate, Daniel and Elise) One person puts the raw dough into the oil (My Mom.) And one person runs doughnuts to my father every few minutes who is busy playing free-cell on the computer.(Mom Again)

Doughnuts are tricky. The oil has to be heated to just the right temperature. If it is too hot they burn (TRAGIC) if it s not hot enough they cook too slowly and absorb too much oil which makes them gross (ALSO TRAGIC.) If you don't have enough oil in the pan for them to float then they burn on the bottom of the pan. (SOB)

We make WAY more doughnuts that we could ever eat and we NEVER want any left over so we have teams of couriers (Mom and Dad) running them up and down the street to various neighbors before they get cold. But don't worry. We eat our fare share as well. And doughnut holes have no calories. Happy Conference Sunday Everyone. I hope you enjoyed it!

Me slaving away at the stove.

We tried to make this one look like a bunny!

Happy Easter to Everyone!

He is risen!

Not a Carrier!

2010-03-21T20:53:00.002-06:00

If you have missed all the drama on my blog about me being a CF (Cystic Fibrosis) carrier then you get to catch the happy ending of what could have been a very different story. Here is the boy version (short): I have a cousin with CF. My sister is a positive CF carrier meaning I was 50% likely to be a carrier as well. I had the genetic testing done and turns out I landed on the unlucky side of 50%. I was a carrier. Spencer went back and was tested. He is not a carrier! Hurray! We are elated and very happy that although our children also have a 50% chance of being carriers of the CF gene, none of them will ever have CF. If that wasn’t enough detail keep reading for the girl version with lots of details and an emphasis on feelings, experiences and future plans.

The girl version: Hurray and Hallelujah! We feel blessed that we are not both carriers of CF. It is a huge weight off of our shoulders and we are blessed. As we share our story with our friends and families members I am so shocked to hear people say they are against genetic testing. Really People? Really? Against genetic testing? The thought to be against genetic testing never once crossed my mind. I found out that my sister was a CF carrier about five years before I got married. She was a carrier so I might be too. At the time it didn’t really affect my life. But I was worried for my sister and her husband. He had had 3 siblings die of CF so they were pretty sure he was a carrier. Triple Hallelujah that he wasn’t! At that time I really didn’t think of CF as influencing my life. It was something my married sister had to deal with. I wasn’t having sex (NOTE: I’m a practicing Mormon and didn’t have sex till my wedding night when I was 28 years old. If you are Mormon you aren’t at all shocked by this. Mormons know plenty of pretty 28 year old virgins. If you aren’t Mormon and just blog stalking me then yes, be shocked.) so there wasn’t any chance under the sun that I’d get pregnant with a baby, let alone a CF baby.

When Spencer and I had been married a few years we started thinking about having children someday. After all, we were in our early 30’s and far behind everyone in my graduating high school class that already had 4 kids by 25. (ANOTHER NOTE: I’m glad that wasn’t my life.) I knew we needed to face the possibility of having a CF baby. I told my doctor I wanted a CF carrier test. I know people have strong opinions about Genetic testing. I’m not saying that every one needs to do it but if you have cases in your family of genetic diseases particularly CF (which is high in Utah) then you should get tested. I knew that if we were going to be parents of a CF baby we would need to prepare our selves mentally and also financially. We would need good insurance. I would need to stay home full-time. We would need to learn a lot about CF and how to provide proper care. Abortion of in utero testing with risk to the baby is absolutely out of the question for us. But I did want to know what our future could be like. So in conclusion I am very grateful not to both be CF carriers. I really don’t know what we would have done had we both been positive. I suppose now I’ll never know. Which is just fine. We feel very blessed.

Pierced Ears

2010-03-19T22:42:00.003-06:00

When I was 10 years old I wanted to get my ears pierced. Unfortunately my parents (and their signature) were against it. I cried and cried for weeks.

“But why not!?! my response that I must have said hundreds of times.

“You just want to get your ears pierced because all your friends have their ears pierced. If a million flies ate manure would you eat manure too?” -Father’s response. The Manure story was one of my father’s favorite teaching one liners which was supposed to warn us of the dangers of peer pressure. It worked. To this day I have never eaten manure.

“You can get them pierced if you still want to when you are older.”
- Mother’s response. I knew she was secretly hoping that with age I would mature and make the right decision NOT to put holes in my sacred body that was a temple (and still is).

“But Mom” I wailed “I want them pierced now!”

Twelve seemed like an eternity away. To give my 10-year-old-self credit it was a long time away. It was 1/5 of my entire life.

Eventually (to my shock) my parents agreed….under a few conditions.

I had to list 10 GOOD reasons why I wanted them pierced.
I had to pay for the piercing and any earrings I wanted with my own money.
I had to agree to keep them clean.
I was never allowed to complain about how much it hurt.

I agreed to everything. Just after my 10^th Birthday my mom agreed to take me to the mall. We had seen a sign advertising FREE EAR PIERCING a few months before. I had my $10 ready (for the earrings.) I remember the pain. That was the start of a long and beautiful friendship I’ve had with earrings. I’ve never looked back.

This past Saturday I had a similar experience. I went to the mall and paid for an ear piercing. However this time it was not for me. It was for my very own cute mother.

That is right! My 54 year old mother FINALLY got her ears pierced.

I thought about insisting she adhere to the same list of conditions I had to when I was 10. But I decided to be more mature. In fact I really took the high road and let bygones be bygones. To prove that I had no hard feelings I paid for the piercing and earrings myself. (Happy Birthday Mom!)

I drove her to the Mall. With two of my other sisters (4 out of 5 have pierced ears). I sat her down in the chair and told her not to be afraid it didn’t hurt for long. I helped her pick out some small and classy earrings.

We told her to hold the Bear if she got scared.

The adorable girl from Claire's insisted she didn’t need my authorization signature.

The actual piercing.

She was so brave. She didn't even cry.

Pretty Pretty and no more painful clip-ons!

I was Elated. Seriously I almost cried.

We were all very excited. Including my Mom.

She had this to say about it: “It was much less painful than giving blood.”

Now for the darker side of this ear piercing. Everyone in the family knew of my mom's ear piercing plans except for one person. The unknown person: My little sister and best friend Jani. Despite my constant pro-pierced ear testimonies Jani still maintains a strong anti-piercing ear stance. We were all a little nervous to tell her what Mom had done. Finally it was decided that I should break the news on my blog. So here you go blogging world! This news is fresh and full of family controversy. My cute 54 year old Mother now has pierced ears! My little sister doesn't and swears she never will!

So what do you think? Jani? (don’t be mad at me please! I swear she WANTED to do it! Please call me!)

Everyone else? How old were all of you when you got your ears pierced? Any regrets? Any good stories? Discuss!

It is HARD living with some one who hates you ...or.... how we got our first pet.

2010-03-11T21:53:00.002-07:00

Who hates me? I'll tell you...

Nope not this guy. This guy loves me. (Thank my lucky stars!)

Petie the family Bird does not love me.
He tolerates me.
He respects my position as 'mate of the Alfa male'.
But he does not love me.
He loves Spencer.

Petie has mastered the art of looking innocent.

Petie loves Spencer. I could take it personally but I don't. (most of the time) I love when he shows his pretty wings. Spencer rescued Pete two years ago. I was in Europe when all this happened.

Spencer saw a bird on the roof of a warehouse near his work. He thought Petie was a pigeon at first but then saw his pretty colored face. He climbed up on the roof and luckily Petie - worn out from being on the run - didn't try to fly away. Spencer stuck him in a box and kept him in his office for a week. Petie flew around pooping an anything he wanted during that week and took a real liking to Spencer's brother Eric.

Meanwhile Spencer was worried that some family was missing their pet Cockatiel so he made "Found Bird" posters and posted them all over. Lots of people called wanting Petie for free but none knew Petie. I joked from Europe that Spencer missed me so much he replaced me with a bird!

We ended up keeping Petie. For the last two years we have been sharing our lives and occasionally our bed with Petie. Like I said he LOVES Spencer and tolerates me.

How do I know he doesn't love me? I'll tell you. When I try to pet him he does this:

Here are some facts about Petie:

Likes:

Sitting on Spencer's sholder
Whisteling to himself in the mirror (cute wolf whistle)
Sitting at the window looking out over the city
Whole Wheat Crackers
Lettice, Jalapenios and cucumbers
Spencer's brother Eric

Dislikes:

Joanie trying to pet him
Anything that remotely looks like a snake (i.e.bike tires)
Running water
Feather dusters (he FLIPPED out)
night time after 8:00 p.m. (he is an early bird)
the kitchen mirror (crash zone)

We never would have gotten a pet. But there is something very comforting in knowing that we saved this cute little bird from what was bound to be a tough life on the street. Poor Petie has no streetcred. It is fun having a little bird crawl all over you and fly from one person to the other. I used to make fun of couples that had a pet and treated it like there baby. Now since this blog post is the closest I've ever come to a mom-blog I"m guilty as charged.

Like Father....

Like Son!

I have the best boyfriend in the world

2010-03-07T10:00:00.001-07:00

I have the best boyfriend in the world. I really do. He goes way out of his way to make sure that I am happy. Here is the latest example of his great boyfriendness!

Saturday night he was waiting for me at the airport when I flew in.
He had a cold beverage for me to enjoy on the way home. (Cream soda)
He also had a and a stick of kinder chocolate. (my fav!)
He had the house spotless and clean sheets on the bed.
He had rented a movie I'd been wanting to see.
He is planning on cooking all day Sunday so I can relax after my long trip.

As if that wasn't enough I crawled out of bed early to do my favorite pre dawn Sunday morning ritual of emailing and reading blogs. Pretty soon he crawled out after me and the contents for another wonderful German Breakfast started appearing on the coffee table.

I have the best boyfriend in the world.
And the best part is...he is also my husband.
The best part of being apart is the sweet reunion.

Acronyms that affecty my L.I.F.E.

2010-03-02T15:45:00.001-07:00

Currently I'm experiencing mild or moderate symptoms from the following:

ADD (diagnosed just after my undergrad)
PCOS (diagnosed last fall)
CF (as a carrier and potential CF parent)

What would I do if I got cancer or something and it didn't fit in a short acronym?

Despite these acronyms I am relatively healthy. I ran 5 miles yesterday. I can walk. I can read. I successfully hold down a good job. I am not depressed. I feel mostly healthy but I guess I no longer feel invincible like I did in my early 20's. Having good health is such a blessing! Lets all enjoy what we have in the time we are given.

German Breakfast

2010-02-21T22:50:00.003-07:00

There are many things I miss about living in Germany.

I miss seeing castles on every hill
I miss winding cobble stone streets
I miss German Christmas and Easter traditions.
I miss my German friends.
I especially miss German food

German food is delicious. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. If you suffer from the misconception that German food is only sausage and sauerkraut then you are as bad as the Germans who believe American food = McDonalds.

Granted I’m not a fan of all German food, but 90% of it is amazing. Meat and fish so fresh it will walk off your plate. Pastries to die for. Literally. Die. It is much less sugary and preservative laden than our food. Germans don’t consider high fructose corn syrup part of a balanced meal.

The Mann and I were wandering through the Draper Harmon’s (the Disneyland of Grocery stores) yesterday and we saw bread that looked almost like Brötchen we couldn’t resist buying it. This sparked the WONDERFUL idea to do German breakfast. We made another stop to the (Fleischer) meat department and the (kase) Cheese slicer man.

I woke up early this morning and put it all together. It looked beautiful if I do say so my self.

Chances if you are an American with no German experience this will look odd to you. The traditional German breakfast is hard bread rolls (die Brötchen) with butter and meat and cheese or butter and jam, Germans often include a soft boiled eggs on adorable little egg stands I wish I had. Hot coco, tea or coffee always accompany this meal along with occasional fruit and yogurt.

The best part... it keeps you full all day!

You should give it a try!

And when you do...let me know how it goes!

Valentines Weekend!

2010-02-20T00:37:00.001-07:00

Q. It is possible to have a great Valentines weekend AWAY from your beloved Valentine?
A. Yes it is possible! But everything with your valentine is better.

I was a little skeptical of leaving Spencer as I drove down to land of the rocks (Moab) last Saturday. We had a fun Valentines/President's day weekend planned. We were going to bike and climb and take amazing pictures so everyone would say "Wow, they are cool." Endless fun.

Unfortunately Spencer had to work all day (12 hours) on Saturday, Sunday and Monday! The nerve! When I got the news I immediately decided I couldn't go to Moab with out him. My back up plan was to mope around the house all weekend. It did need a deep cleaning after all. And laundry....etc etc.

But I ended up jumping in the car and making the trek by my self with Spencer's 100% support.

What is in Moab?

Lots of Rocks. Lots and lots of Rocks. And Karen (KP)

I heart KP. We were mission companions in Germany. We discovered we were kindred spirits and really bonded as we swapped stories about our eccentric fathers (they are now friends!)

By summer KP is a professional river guide in Moab. By winter she does odd jobs and shops at DI. She is wonderful and it is always great to see her.

Sadly, I got to Moab to late on Saturday to do any hiking.

So Sunday before church we drove up river road to check out the frozen river.

And along the way we found a very picturesque rock.

Unexpectedly as KP was climbing to the top of the rock it broke.

Naturally we were concerned, because we broke the rock.

But we chanelled all of our rock breaking worries and frusterations

into photographing "Broken Rock."

like this one...

and this one....

But finaly enough was enough and we left the poor rock alone.

RIP.

KP gave a great talk in the Moab singles branch to all 12 members. Aprently the swarms of young hippies living in Moab don't reguliarly attend church. But it was Valentines day. We had to celebrate. So KP and I made a yumme dinner and relaxed by the roaring fire.

Ahh True LOVE! (KP is so discusted by my sappy blog about her)

Monday morning (Presiden't day) we hiked up the Moab rim trail.

The views were amazing!

Moab in the foreground and the La Salle Mountains in the background.

Then atop the next plateau you could see all of Arches National Park.

The importance of showing a cool picture of the Arch in the back ground outweighed the horror of showing such a realistic picture of me on the internet. Early in the morning. Sunburned checks. No makeup. Sigh. But it is a cool arch right?!?!

Then I headed back to SLC to be with my Valentine. He was really happy to see me.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Positive

2010-02-18T23:20:00.003-07:00

I had a hunch this would happen. It still hit me hard. The news came while I was driving home from teaching. The nurse was very professional. But I just wanted her to hang up right away so I could cry. I didn't say much to her. I feared my voice would shake and betray me.

Now the optimistic among you will be saying: "But don't worry Spencer is most likely not a carrier." and "Wait to panic until you find out more." This is all good advice. I really appreciate all the love and support. I would feel very alone with out such wonderful friends and family. Thank you all.

Spencer has a 1/29 chance of being a CF carrier. If he is a carrier of CF then our children have a 25% chance of having CF. I do not have CF. Carriers of CF don't develop CF. You either have it or you don't.

It is hard to drive when you are crying.

Despite some really wonderful things that happened today....

1. A good friends Bachelorette party
2. Good talks with co-workers
3.Talking with Spencer

....this felt like a very dark day. Not even my bright yellow sweater or husband could make me feel better. I'm not asking for lots of loving responses. I try to keep this blog as real as possible and this has been a very real day. We all have them. I can't wait for tomorrow.

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch...the natives were restless.....

2010-02-11T21:36:00.001-07:00

Very restless.......but upon fist glance "the natives" didn't appear restless at all. The were calm. Like before a storm.

I spent the morning at the doctor and had to miss teaching my first German I class. Confidant that I would return in time for German 2, I chatted up a storm with the doc, and waited patiently in line at the lab. I called school and said I'd be 10 minutes late and my school responded with standard operating procedure number 1: They put a note on the board informing the students to wait quietly for me. (my school is a bit casual about some things.)

"The natives" were waiting when I walked in the room. They were waiting patiently. 90% of them had books in hand and they genuinely appeared to be engaged. No sound of quickly hushed conversations preceded my entrance. They weren't talking. The were reading. All of them.

"I'm so sorry I'm late you guys!" I said as I rushed in. I have excellent students, but still the sight of them all studying with NO adult supervision surprised me. I had to find out if this was real so I innocently asked for more details.

"You guys are seriously all being so good? Really?"

They nodded.

"Wow! guys I'm seriously impressed!" I said. "I mean I'm seriously so proud of you guys! You are amazing!" They all looked so guiltless only Steffen* was smiling slightly in anticipation.

"I can't believe you all just waited for me to come in." My bags were getting heavy in my arm by this point so I turned to set them down.

That is when I saw Uwe. I gasped. He was sprawled out on the floor between the grand piano and my desk. His hands and legs were duct taped together and his mouth was completely hidden by another silver strip. He wasn't moving at all.

I would have been panicked.
I would have screamed.
I would have fainted.
I would shouted at the class.
Except this was not the first Uwe duct tape incident.
I was startled but not surprised.
Not at all.

You might want to pause and read some of the previous German Class duct tape incidents.

Duct tape incident #1

Duct tape incident #2

This qualifies as Duct tape incident #3

I burst out laughing. I made a big show of going to Uwe and making sure he was all right and lecturing the class about not taking jokes too far. I mean what if Uwe had suddenly started to choke? Did you guys think about that?????

More memorable quotes from the day:

Felix: "Removing the duct tape from you mouth is the worst part...I should know it was originally me on the floor waiting for you to come in but then my leg fell asleep so I let Uwe take over."

Me: "Were you guys watching out the window to see me drive up?."

Uwe: "Oh no we thought you were in the building some where. I had to wait a long time on the floor."

Me: "Klaus you let this happen?!?"
Klaus: "Oh yeah I roughed him up a bit first."

Me: "You guys are seriously so funny."
Moritz: "We really weren’t sure how you were going to take it."

Me: "I have the best students in the world"

Despite the initial disturbance we had a great class. We took a quiz, leaned new words and talked about the German school system. Now I've just got to think of some way to get them back since the "revenge" plan I used last year won't work again.

*all names have been changed to protect the guilty

CF

2010-02-11T07:54:00.003-07:00

In a few hours my sweet husband will wake up and we will go to my doctors appointment together and find out information that could affect the rest of our lives. I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned all night thinking about my doctor and choir tour and all the work I've got to do. Not even yesterday's yoga could drive my ToDo list from my brain. Sitting on my love seat looking in the gloaming and watching the falling snow seemed a much better alternative to tossing in bed.

My little sister is a CF carrier. So is her little son. If you are white and of northern European you may be too. In fact you have an approximate 1 in 13 chance of being a carrier. This is pretty high making CF a very common fatal disease. Cystic fibrosis also known as CF is a is a hereditary disease which affects the entire body, causing progressive disability and often, early death. Both parents have to be carriers in order to have children with CF. Because my sister is a CF carrier I have a 50% chance of also carrying the genetic mutation as do all my 6 siblings.

I am going to get tested to day to see if I carry the CF mutation. If I am a carrier we will have Spencer tested as well. I want to have children someday. I would never abort a CF baby as many people do, but if CF is in my future I need to plan my life accordingly. I have to think about insurance and facilities. On the upside if I am a CF carrier I am immune to cholera. This is why the disease has survived so many generations.

Life is so tricky isn't it.

Worst Test Ever!

2010-02-07T10:38:00.001-07:00

Last Month on a Saturday morning I got up well before sunrise, dressed in full winter attire and drove an hour away to a testing center where I took the most horrible test of my life. I am not exaggerating. Worst. Test. Ever. = The Music Praxis.

The worst part about this Saturday morning ritual was turning into a pattern. I had done this before. I felt like a rat in maze. Let me out! The Praxis was the last step to me being a fully certified bone-a-fide teacher in the state of Utah. So when I went to take this test (I’ll admit it) I was cocky. I had good grades in college. I was a good student. I’m a good teacher. This would be a breeze. I didn’t study a bit.

Turns out it was NOT at all breezy. I scored ONE POINT less than the required for a Utah Teaching License. And I felt like a complete failure. A COMPLETE FAILURE. One more time…..A COMPLETE FAILURE.

Some of the test questions were easy. For example:

Puccini wrote which of the following Operas:
a. La Boheme
b. Falstaff
c. Appalachian Spring
d. The Marriage of Figaro

Who came first: Michael Jackson or the Beatles?

But others were so hard:

What fingering would a beginning Trombone player use in measure 13?
a. 1-6-6-4
b. When in doubt guess b.
c. 555-love
d. 1-6-1-6

Which traditional Japanese instrument is heard in the following recording?

Identify the soloist (Recording of a Jazz dumber)
a. Benny Goodman
b. Jelly Roll Morton
c. Miles Davis
d. some guy I’d never heard that wasn’t Art Blakey of so I picked him.

Which arranger/composer would best fit the needs of and 8th grade Jazz band?

a. Some guy I’ve never heard of
b. Some other guy I didn’t know.
c. Some guy with an uber nerd name
d. Your mother.

Some questions were very opinion based for example:

What disastrous things will happen if a charter school is built near your high school?
What sequence is the best for teaching a passage of music to third grade students?

I sat there for two long hours listening to excerpts of music, studying scores and trying to wrap my ADD brain around 180 multiple choice questions.

And I learned a few important things in this process.

1. Standardized tests are a royal pain.
2. This would have been easier for me if I had actually majored in Music Education in college instead of Vocal Performance. read more about that here.
3. It is really hard to study material you never learned in the first place.
4. I hadn’t taken a multiple choice test since the ACT my senior year of High School.
5. I am not so great at multiple choice. I have to re-read test questions several times before I realize Ooooooooh OBVIOUSLY it is “B.”
6. Test taking is in and of itself a skill, one I have yet to master.

But it is over. I took it and passed it last month and did much MUCH better. And I was happy. Very happy. So very happy

Where I have been Blogging

2010-02-01T19:30:00.000-07:00

I sure haven't been bloggin here. I've been taking a soon to be over blog break. I've been running lots and reading lots and I've been catching up on my family book blog. Abibliphobes. Check it out here.

I don't know where to begin.

2010-01-26T22:44:00.000-07:00

Hello faithfull Blog readers. I love you all and don't want to disappoint but I"m stuck. What should I blog about? What do you want to know? The daily desires of my heart? Random things like discovering that my sock had a big hole all day? How I feel about debt? My marriage? My travels? My nightmares? My dreams? Things that haunt me from my past? Where I see myself in 5 years? Things that disgust me? Teaching? Reading? Running? Spelling? I can't seem to put my fingers to the keyboard. (I'm hoping that catches on as the modern replacement for "pen to paper.") I miss blogging. But I'm in a January rutt (which is unlike me) and I can't climb out. Help.

The real me vs. The vampire version of me

2009-12-19T11:58:00.002-07:00

Occasionally when I meet people and tell them I'm a high school teacher they try to be nice/funny/flattering and say something awkward like "Oh I bet the students are all in love with you since you are so pretty" ha ha ha HA! Very funny! On a side note I maintain a very professional relationship with my students and no one ever flirts with me (thank goodness) But just in case you have secretly had the same thought this story should clear up that disillusion.

Last week I taught my German classes the word die Ehe trans. the marriage I was using die Ehe in various sentences and then I realized that I had a mini album of wedding photos on my desk. So I grabbed a few and continued talking about die Ehe while I flipped through. I ended up sending the album around the room while I tried to continue teaching. Then one of my students said: "Is this really you?" and the conversation continued like this:

male student: "Is this really you?"

me: "errrrrrrr yes that is me" (in English)

female student: "wow you look really pretty."
male student: "This is seriously you? How long have you been married?!?"
male student: "yeah! how long?"

me: "I got married two and a half years ago. *pause* Doesn't it look like me?"

male student: "Well it kind of looks like you, but you don't wear make up."
female student: "Yes it looks like you. You guys be nice to her." - bless her heart!

me: "I wear make up! like last week when the...."

male student: "And you don't have your glasses on."
male student: "I didn't even know you had contacts."
several male students: "yeah!"

me: "You guys know I have contacts I wear them all the time!"

male student: You look so happy!
female student: yes you look so happy!

me: "I was really happy! But I'm happy to be at school teaching you too. Don't I look happy?"

male student: "no not really."
female student: "you look a little tired."
male student: "This is seriously you" - obviously someone just woke up.
me: "What!?! I'm totally happy and YES that is me"

male student: "Okay you look a little happy but a little tired too."
female student: "You still look like that. Don't listen to them." -thanks but my confidence is wavering.
male student: "I can tell this is you...but.......its...... like.......it's like the VAMPIRE VERSION OF YOU."

The VAMPIRE version of me? Seriously?!?!?

Then the whole class started to laugh (me too) The vampire comment was just so funny coming from a boy. Note: in the Twilight series which all my students have read the Vampires don't have fangs, they look normal(ish). Once you became a vampire apparently you look like the supermodel version of your self.

Could my smile get any bigger????

I guess I can see how this was the vampire version of me. It was the happiest day of my life and no matter how happy teaching makes me it obviously doesn't compare to marring Prince Charming. This picture courtesy of my cute cousin-in-law Alison who is also a life of the riddle blog follower. (It is such a pleasant surprise to find that people follow my blog!)

Merry Christmas everyone may all of us look closer to our Vampire-selves on a daily basis.

Christmas Concerts and other thoughts.

2009-12-14T21:41:00.006-07:00

I'm a musician and Christmas is busy! I have concerts with my kiddies all over the city, I have concerts with my professor Brady Allred and the SLCA. I have musician friends I always want to support! I have choirs I want to check out and listen to. December evenings always look like this: Concerts/rehearsal/concert/rehearsal/Performance/rehearsal/rehearsal/concert/Performance acne/Christmas EVE!/Day/relax! Some years I get lucky and have time for some eggnog and quite family time. Most years that quite time comes after Christmas.

Saturday night I slipped out of the house and left poor Spencer studying his honey comes (physics charts) in peace. I walked up to the University of Utah alone to see the University Singers Christmas concert. I was in Singers in college and those times were some of my best college experiences. They did a great job I was inspired.

I am so grateful for Christmas music and the spirit it brings. Despite my life long church going Mormon gal self sometimes I don't feel very religious or as religious as I should feel. What I mean by religious is spiritually tuned. I don't always feel as spiritually tuned as I should or want to feel. Christmas helps me spiritually tune in. Christmas music reminds me that all talents come from God and to be grateful for the blessings I have including the music talents I have and can share with others.

This video is of wonderful director Brady Allred and his University Singers singing Carol of Joy. I'm doing this song with my school choirs this week too! I feel so grateful for all my blessings at Christmas. I'm also grateful for all my blog readers! Enjoy and Merry Merry Christmas.

And now I can die.

2009-12-05T14:39:00.003-07:00

If it is true that we can't die till we have left our mark on the world then my time is short. Last winter through sheer luck I invented the most perfect light Christmas snack that ever was. Yes Yes Yes I know this is a little pretentious of me to say but keep reading.

Recipe for the perfect Christmas snack:

Crackers
Pomegranates
Cream Cheese

Direction: Spread cream cheese on Ritz whole wheat crackers (don't let whole wheat confuse you these tasty treats are TASTY and NOT nutritious.) Sprinkle with 20-30 pomegranate seeds. Eat right away and enjoy!

Are your taste buds salivating?
No yet?!?!?
Then take a look at these:
Karen and Keri sure seemed to like them:

Yes they will make you the hit of any bring-food-for everyone pot luck Christmas party. And now I can feel good about having contributed to society and made the world a better place. Enjoy!

Presents to me!

2009-11-28T16:31:00.005-07:00

My birthday was this week. Last year I was turning 3o, which means this year I'm 29 again. Last year their were lots of things I wanted...their are still lots of things I want. I made a list of some present ideas and had faithful readers of this blog (all 3 of you) vote. Thanks for voting here were your choices:

1. Living room couch
2. CZ earrings
3. i-pod
4. Guitar
5. Kitchen Aid Mixer
6. Hawaiian vacation
7. New Lap Top
8. New fingernail
(this last on is in reference to this event)

Most of you voted for a Hawaiian vacation which would have been nice. For my actual birthday present I ended up getting CZ earrings. But in the passing 365+ days since my last year I've managed to score most of the items on my original list. Here is an update!

1. Living room couch - Grandma's old couch Feb 2009
2. CZ earrings - Birthday last year
3. ipod - Birthday this year (BE EXCITED!)
4. Guitar - I stole my parents guitar back.
5. Kitchen Aid Mixer - Christmas 2009 (sale pending)
6. Hawaiian vacation - still a dream away...sigh
7. New Lap Top - birthday last year
8. New fingernail - still not as good as new but close.

If you read that last list closely you will realize that I have an ipod. Yep! I'm in club ipod! or club apple or something nerdy/cool. That was my birthday present this year! Hurray!

Having an ipod has never been a top priority although I've always thought it might be nice to have one. But I'm not a very spendy girl. I would convince myself it wasn't worth the money with arguments like this: I've run 100'ds of miles with out one. They cost so much money! They are so trendy. You hate headphones...But finally I caved. The hardest part was picking out the color. They have so many! Here are a few:

But I finally picked this yellow one. Yellow is my favorite color. I've spent all day playing with it instead of studying. I'm kind of excited!
Books on Tape/CD are a big part of my life. Now made easier!
And then their is music. That is kind important to me too.

How do you want your children to be?

2009-11-24T22:14:00.005-07:00

I'm not a Mother. I'm not pregnant, but sometimes at work (I'm a choir teacher) I feel motherly as I calm down teenagers and their over active hormones. Do you remember how HARD life was as a teenager? No? Really you don't remember that? You missed out on a once in a life time rollacoaster ride.

I really enjoy teaching and getting to know all my students. Most of them are so funny/sweet/smart/witty/adorable/etc. Some students are more challenging but I still I've grown to appreciate the individual DESPITE that I had to send you out TWICE in one week. The more and more I teach the more I think of how I hope my own children turn out. I think I've got it figured out.

I want nerdy children.

Yes that is right. Nerdy children. Not TOTALLY socially awkward (just slightly) hopefully relatively smart and interested in learning and improving. Nerdy and nice children who feel that decorating a room means putting up more book shelves. Is this too much to ask?

I come from a long line of Nerds myself. Both my Grandpa's had Ph.D.'s and those wonderful nerd genes have trickled down to many nerdy aunts/uncles and hundreds of uber nerdy cousins. I'm not pregnant (really I swear!) but when I am I'm going to pray for the nerd genes.

What are your thoughts?

20 Years ago today

2009-11-09T17:27:00.003-07:00

I was almost 11.
I was living in Schweinfort Germany very close to the border of East Germany.
I did not expect the Wall to fall.
Very few people did.

I consider myself very fortunate to have been living in Germany when the wall fell. I was young but I still remember how exciting it was. I remember the East Germans streaming across the border in their tiny Trabants. I remember my German teacher at the time talking about what they were going to do with all the German Shepards that had served as bourder guard dogs. I remember thinking that they would have to rewrite all the text books. I remember driving to former east Germany and seeing how gray it was. It was an amazing time. I still get emotional when I talk about it. 10 years after the wall fell I was living in East Germany serving as a volunteer for my church. I got to hear first hand accounts of the events leading to the fall of the wall.

Is it any wonder that I got a little teary-eyed when I told my students where I was 20 years ago and the day that changed the world. Sorry students, your teacher is a girl and she cries. I showed them this really amazing 10 minute video "Walled in" talking about the fortifications the wall had and the precautions the East Germans/Communists took to keep their people from leaving.

I think for most of my students it is hard to think about what would be to separated from family and the rest of your country. But lots of my students thanked me as they left so I think it touched them.

Congratulations Germany you have come a long way since then.

How I became a German/Choir teacher.

2009-11-05T19:02:00.005-07:00

The short version:

In college I majored in vocal performance. I loved my major and I loved singing. But by my senior year I realized I didn't want to try and make it as a professional opera singer. I had sinking fear in the pit of my stomach that I should have majored in Music Education. I could see my self teaching and loving it. I thought about switching but I was really poor and very tired of school. I graduated and took the first job with benefits.

I was miserable and felt like I was wasting my talents. I stuck it out for two years and then I was elated to find a job teaching choir at a high school. I mentioned in my interview that I spoke German and they asked me right their if I would be willing to teach German. I said yes. (I had always secretly wished to be a German teacher too)

One month later I was teaching. My first year was rough.I don't even want to think how many hours I worked. But still I loved it. Being a teacher uses every ounce of talent I have and demands that improve in all areas of my life. I still don't speak German as well as I want too, I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever speak German as well as I want too. I still don't know as much about music as I want to either. I still work lots of hours trying to make my lessons better. I'm almost finished with my teacher certification. Then I'll be a bonafide certified teacher. But my classes are great and just keeping getting better and better and the best part is I love my job. I really love it. Loving your job is such a blessing in life.

So that is how it happened.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T09:24:00.004-06:00

I LOVE Halloween. It is such a strange holiday based on darker things but I LOVE all the little kids in costumes. And I love how they make dark things like zombies and skeletons cute. I love dressing up but I think I peaked when I was 8 years old and went as Bubble Gum. I was so cute a few people took pictures of me when I came to their door. Closest thing to paparazzi I've ever experienced.

I vary what I do as a German teacher for Halloween. Sometimes we watch Nosferatu the original Dracula still considered to be the closest version to Bram Stoker's classic Novel. On the other years I give them Goethe's famous poem Totentanz (Dead Dance) and we discuss it. Most of the German is over their heads so we briefly read the German and then compare that with tow English versions I have. I talk about how somethings get lost in translation and that is why reading things in the original can be beneficial. I usually try to speak 90% German in class so this day is a little unusual.

Then I tell them that I have actual footage of this dead dance with the skeletons rising from the grave and dancing. I tell them not to be afraid and if they are we can turn on the lights. They all roll their eyes. Then I show them this (I've included the English version for those readers who don't speak German)

Here it is actual footage of the dead dance as described by Goethe:

If the intro is too long or you make sure you click to the middle to at least see the dancing skeletons.

San Diego Vacation Fall 2009

2009-10-18T17:16:00.009-06:00

My family decided last spring that come UEA weekend we were going to go to California and make a new starts. Well not exactly a new start although we did have a great time. We rented a house so we could have some family together time. It was cosy enough to have a few family squabbles but big enough to keep us all friends.

Day One: San Diego Zoo

Let's face it. This little bear is the star of the zoo.
She posed very prettily for us.

We also enjoyed the SkyFari ride.

Which gave us beautiful views of the zoo and city like this one!

And provided some great moments to smooch!

Much to the dismay of my little niece
who so graciously shared a skyfari car with us.

We loved the zoo!

Day Two: Sea World

(We shared this special moment with every other Mormon from Utah) Yep My siblings all saw friends from their Utah high school. The BYU shirts were everywhere. Still Sea World was relatively empty. We didn't have to wait it line and rode the Atlantis rollercoaster 5 times!

This was time number 5.

The speaker said great things like:
"The spirit of Atlantis will only speak
to you those who keep
their legs and arms inside the ride at all times."
- classic

You can tell we are from Utah because of our matchy matchy t-shirts.

Now everyone knows Shamu is the star of Sea World. But let me put in a good word for the trainers too. We kept wondering how much they paid them to stand on the nose of a Killer Whale and then dive like an acrobat into the relatively cold (55o water) What do you think? $80,000 or $150,000. How much would you do it for? Free? Remember they can kill you.

Spencer wanted to get in on some of the Shamu fame.

Day Three: Zoo (again) & the Beach

Sadly I forgot to charge my camera battery. The zoo was great and the beach was even better. The pacific was really warm and we swam like crazy. My athletic husband brought all kinds of beach games that required too much coordination for my uber nerdy family. Poor guy. I don't think he quite realized how nerdy we were. I'm afraid I'll dilute his perfect German blood.

Day Four: the USS Marriner and the BYU football game.

The USS Mariner is a retired Air Craft Carrier. This was fascinating for all the pilots in my family. They discussed different landing techniques and approaches and lots of other pilot jargon.

My mom the cute pilot.

Sadly no pictures of the BYU game either.
But was fun and BYU won. GO Cougars.
(even though I'm really more of a U fan. )

Now I"m back to work. Trying to recover from the cold. Spencer is taking good care of me.

How does one avoid getting sick?

2009-10-18T16:56:00.003-06:00

I'm sick. Again. I'm. sick. again.

As I told my mother yesterday (doesn't everyone just want their Mom's when they are sick? even when you get 'old'?)

Mom: how are you feeling? -asked in a very tender loving motherly voice.
Me: "I feel awful. I can't breath out my ears." -said in a very sulky voice.
Mom: You can't breath out your ears? (laughing gently)
Me. No I can't....I mean I can't hear....but I can't breath either. Ahhhhggg!

I've realized that I get sick often. I don't know why. I eat okay. I exercise. I am RELIGIOUS about getting enough sleep. I wash my hands. I take vitamins. I've never smoked a day in my life.

Despite all this I have the worst immune system. I catch all germs with in a 50 mile radius. It is one of the reasons I decided not to become a professional opera singer. SO much pressure not to get sick. So instead of singing professionally I became a teacher (which I love more) I teach high school where I"m exposed to lots of germs. Although after 4 years teaching I would think I had built up some immunity. This is my 2nd cold this fall. I got sick on Friday right in the middle of my family's San Diego fall vacation. It was not fun. I was grouchy the rest of the trip, (sorry family.)

I just don't know what to do about it. I feel like I've had a cough my whole life. My sister thinks it is allergy induced asthma (who know it had a t?) and told me to go get tested by an allergy specialist. Every October I get a cold with a cough that lingers in various stages of severity till the next October comes and I get a fresh cough. I"m amazed I can even sing at all. This makes me so sad because I spent a good portion of my life training my voice.

This weekend I made the mistake of not bringing any cough drops or Kleenex's to California. Luckily their were some still lingering in the dark places of my purse from my last cough outbreak.

I could keep this to my self but I really want to know what I should do? Dear Internet please help me figure out how to avoid getting sick. I"m pretty much willing to do anything short of sporting a Michael Jackson surgical mask. I promise not to shake hands. I promise not to share drinks, chap stick or food (gross.) I just want to never get sick again. Help please help. Love the Sicky.

Our worst nightmares

2009-09-27T15:07:00.006-06:00

This week was a rough night for sleep in our household. We both had disturbing nightmares.

Mine was:

I was teaching my class (I'm not sure if it was choir or German)when two students walked up and hit me across the face, hard across the face. I ran out crying and kept running down the hall to the administrative offices. Tears streaming down my cheeks I found a director and said "Two students just hit me on the face during class!" THEN as if getting hit in class were not the most terrifying thing, what happened next was: The director said "Well, what did you do to them to make them hit you?" Yeah. Thanks for your unwavering support.

Spencer's nightmare was:

That he was married to someone else (so cute no?) He soon realized that the person he married was not his best friend. So he tried to remember who his best friend was and he thought "Joanie is my best friend! Why I didn't I marry Joanie?" Then he woke up.

But thank goodness these were just night mares. No students have hit me in class, and Spencer managed to marry his best friend: ME! Our lives are pretty good.