I Am Woman

This movement is so powerful. I get chills when I read about it and see the pictures. I will let it speak for itself.



Visit the website
stirrupsandstories.mosaicglobe.com/

Be sure to check out #9 on the first set of stories.

Awesomeness of Late

For a week or so I couldn't think of anything to blog about, and then all of a sudden I realized that I have a billion things to blog!
I'll go in chronological order, cuz that's just how I roll, mmkay?

So last Wednesday Dan, Al and I went to the last concert of our high school choir teacher, Norm Lister. I can't even begin to tell you what an amazing man he is and how many people's lives he has changed. He brings music out in kids that sometimes they didn't even know was there. He cultivated a love for music in me that I will never forget or be rid of. He was paid tribute to in so many ways that night and he went up to the mic and said "It's never been about me, or anyone else, it's always been about the music." And I wanted to shout from the audience that he WAS the reason that so many of us have the music!! Needless to say, there were many tears and touched hearts. This community has been changed because of him and he will be missed.
This is us at the concert (before all the tears).

The next night (yes, it was a very busy week) I had craft night with my lovely lady friends. I love craft night! It is so much fun to get together and be girly. This craft was kind of difficult to get the hang of, but since then I think I've gone a little overboard. I was up until 1:30 one night doing them.... Here are a few, and I've made more since this :)


Close-up of some of my favorites


Then it was Alex's birthday weekend! I was in a Lieto! concert Saturday night, which was also accompanied by tears for Mr. Lister, especially as we sang a song called "The Awakening". If you have never heard this song... well, you should! It is even more powerful to sing it, though. It talks about a silent dream, with no music, no choirs, a world filled with pride. And then it says ... okay, I'm just going to post all of the words because I just can't do it justice otherwise. Well, I can't do it justice unless you sing it for yourself, but I won't rob the words of their incredible power.

"I dreamed a dream, a silent dream of a land not far away where no bird sang, no steeples rang, and teardrops fell like rain. I dreamed a dream; a silent dream. I dreamed a dream of a land so filled with pride that every song, both weak and strong, withered and died. I dreamed a dream No hallelujah; not one hosanna! No song of love, no lullaby. And no choir sang to change the world. No pipers played, no dancers twirled. I dreamed a dream; a silent dream. Awake, awake! Soli deo gloria! Awake, Awake! Awake my soul and sing, the time for praise has come. The silence of the night has passed, a new day has begun! Let music never die in me; forever let my spirit sing! Wherever emptiness is found let there be joy and glorious sound. Let music never die in me; forever let my spirit sing! Let all our voices join as one to praise the giver of the sun! Awake, awake! Let music live!"

Chills. Chills, I tell you.


So anyway, after that we went to dinner with friends and fam and Alex got a birthday treat.


Then on Sunday (his birthday) we just hung out and then I threw him a surprise party that night. He was super surprised! This is us cutting his cake because we didn't cut the cake at our wedding :D


And this is a panoramic view of the decorations (and me, working on flowers!) taken with our freakin awesome camera!!



It was a really fun time, but both of us were exhausted all day yesterday, and we probably will be today because we didn't go to bed early last night, either.

How fun is our life?!

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!

This is what I get to plant in front of my house this week!

Wish me luck, because I kill pretty much every plant I breathe on.
I have massacred like 6 plants in my office over the last 3 years. But I like to blame it on the Sahara-Desert-like conditions in the heated glass encased place they like to call "the lobby".

Isn't it funny how much you change after you get married? And by "you" I mean "I".
I was never one for cooking, crafts, gardening, being homely-ish, etc. And now I am all of these! Even homely, as I basically never do my hair anymore. Up in a bun with a headband. It's my trademark. I'm working on a copyright.
Any-hoo, the point being that I love to cook, I love crafts (sometimes to a ridiculous amount... of money), and I am starting to feel the itch for gardening. I read a quote the other day about the mother coming into existence once the child is born, for before she never existed. I kind of feel the same way as the wife. I specifically remember telling Alex that I was not the "Sure, I'll get some snacks together for your friends while you sit on the couch and jam" kind of wife or mother, and to be prepared for that. Guess what I did just two days ago? "Here you go, boys. Chips and dip, bread and dip, and ice-cold Mountain Dews." (Then an internal wink to myself - yes, I just scored "best wife ever" points.)

Sometimes I wish I was more eccentric. Poll: do you think I'm eccentric? I feel like sometimes my life is kind of blah. I wish that I had something that I was like killer passionate about. Like my sister and child birth. Or my mom and indexing (ha!). Or Reagan and bikes. Or - or! It would be totally awesome if it was something that would guide me in choosing my education. I so envy those people who have known what they've wanted to do since they were 10.

So that's my rant for today. Tonight: Quality time with friends and delicious food. (Didn't that sound like a horoscope? I should write those).

Blip

Sometimes I read other people's blogs and love how funny, witty and intelligent they are and I don't even like my blog and feel no desire to try to make it interesting because I feel like it will be to no avail.
The end.

Thursday Things

Just a few things to report on.

First of all, Alex and I made an INCREDIBLE dinner last night. I made a yam soup (sounds weird, I know. And there was peanut butter in it!) and it was delish. It turned out very southwestern-y, with rice, salsa and garbanzo beans. Alex made lettuce wraps. He made P.F. Chang's recipe lettuce wraps. Oh. My. Gosh. Soooo good!! Albeit they were not Chang's exactly, but it's not a two-hour drive and a $50 endeavor.

We bought another camera. It is pretty and I'm super excited to take pictures of stuff again.
We tried using my really old camera but it has a broken screen and so we never used it. It was expensive, but so worth it. This camera has it all.

Next let me tell you about my nightmare that was actually a real experience that I had last night. It was 2:30 in the morning and I was sleeping. Then I woke up because I had hit my face, like you unconsciously do when something is tickling it. It was weird because it felt like food or something (yes, this is my middle of the night brain. I actually thought "that felt like garlic". Literally.) So I got out of bed and turned on the closet light to see if I could see anything. All the while wondering if I had just imagined it. I saw something light on the sheet (it was still pretty dark just with the closet light on) so I touched it.... and it MOVED! So I may or may not have said a curse word and then flipped the light on and saw THIS

Did I yell and squish it very angrily? Yes. Did I run into the bathroom and nearly throw up? Yes. Did I lie awake in bed for the next 45 minutes envisioning it climbing all over my face and so near my mouth and worry about it laying eggs in my throat? Definitely.
I am nauseated now just thinking about it.

On to better things. Tonight I am making cantaloupe bread.

Superb. What a weird word.

So I had a fantastic weekend! Al and I saw The Losers on Friday - HUH LARIOUS. Right after it was over I literally wanted to watch it again. That NEVER happens with me. Saturday we went to Zion and did the Canyon Overlook hike. It was so beautiful and a really fun hike. It feels so great to be out in nature again! Then we had lunch at a delicious place called Wildcat Willies and hung out at the Earth Day celebration and all the granola people. I loved it.
I thought I would be sore from hiking, but I'm not. What I am sore from is skateboarding adventures. I'm just learning and I haven't had any momentous tumbles...until Saturday. Let me try to paint you this picture. So I'm going up a hill and I push off with my back foot, only said foot doesn't make it back on to the board in time to be invited on the ride. So my back foot stayed on the ground while the rest of me went forward about 4 feet. I didn't know I could do the splits! Oh wait, I can't. Ow.
Pain. Lots and lots of pain.
Then I got back up and did it again. I'm such a dork. So the insides of my thighs kill as well as my forearms from impact, and my palms are bruised. Am I a legit skateboarder now? I think so.

Alex and I had several very fun and interesting conversations over the weekend. I love that we still talk all the time. We are in love. Also, we came up with an awesome car game! How many times have I tried to come up with road trip games? A lot. How many times have I been successful? Counting this try, once. We played it all day Saturday. Here's how you play: turn on the radio and listen to a song until it reminds you of another song, then you sing a bit of that song until the other person is reminded of a different song, then they sing that until it reminds you.... and so on and so forth. If you get stuck you can just turn the radio back on for inspiration. It is so fun. Try it. Then report back to me.

Doobie Doobie Doo

Ok, so I didn't actually get to the DMV until a whole week later. It turned out that the gaping jaws of hell really referred to Big O Tires because it took them an hour and a half to do my safety inspection and then tell me I need new tires.
So I went yesterday and I have to say I was very impressed. I went to the drivers license division to update my license and that took about 30 minutes, which was not bad at all. But I'm bugged about having to take a new picture because my old one will go down in history as one of the best, if not THE best, license pictures of all time. I look like a dork in the new one. Ugh.
Then - this next part is amazing. Are you ready? I don't think you're ready. I walked in the door of the DMV to register the truck. Four minutes - I kid you not, FOUR minutes later I was out the door. W.H.O.A. It was awesome.

In other news, I have found a new obsession in sewing and I am feeling the need to spend an inordinate amount of money on a really nice sewing machine. Where did this obsession sprout from, you may ask. I will tell you. For craft night this month we made aprons. Mine is adorable. And I MADE it! I made it! Well, with a lot of help from my mother-in-law who is a sewing goddess. So for now I will go to her house to use her machine and avoid the inordinancy-ness.

I am getting really excited for summer. Camping. Hiking. Swimming. BBQs. Parks. Laying Out. WOOT. Woot, I say.
Alex and I have made the ambitious goal of hiking every hike in Zion this summer. It will be quite the undertaking and quite the awesomeness.

Yay for the weekend! Seriously.