Catching Up

Its been a busy week, but in the summer time sometimes that is "fun busy". Layne has been recruited to fill in on league softball teams multiple this summer and was recently asked by a neighbor to join a team. In addition to softball, Layne has been playing basketball with guys from the ward on Tuesday nights which keeps him busy. He has also made friends with our neighbor Chad who is his new weekend skate buddy. The weather has been so nice lately that its a shame not to be outside. Yesterday it was a breezy 88 degrees! Not bad for August!

On Wed. evening I had to miss mutual to endure my annual vocal assessment/re-audition for the Salt Lake Choral Artists. The only difference for me is I joined the ensemble in January so it hasn't even been a year. Dr. Allred is really cracking down on the membership of the ensembles to step it up, so everyone had to go through a vocal assessment to demonstrate skills and improvement since the last assessment. Then he's going through and re-organizing and reducing the size of the ensembles so that there can be a higher level of musicianship and performance. I had to prepare a solo piece, for which I chose a Franz Schubert lieder called Du Bist Die Ruh'. Then I had to sing my part in one of the movements from Elijah which we performed several months ago. I sang both pieces well and vocalized surprisingly high for my voice. Then came the musician's nightmare...sight reading. There were several bars of music in 6/8 with some interesting intervals, but I surprised myself by nailing it all but one interval at the end which I self corrected. After my audition Dr. Allred once again expressed his desire (not the first time he's done this) to have me audition for the University of Utah Singers, which is his prize 34 voice chamber ensemble.
It would be a BIG commitment, but I told him I'd sign up for an audition in 2 weeks. He asked me to prepare a solo that showcased my upper range (since the Schubert showcased my lower range), among the several other things I'll have to prepare. I was flattered that he was so insistent that I audition, because I've heard the group and they're pretty amazing.
While I'm glad to have SLCA assessment successfully behind me, I now have 2 weeks to prepare for a MUCH more difficult audition. There is nothing more intimidating to me. I don't know if my nerves can take all this.

Friday night Layne and I went to the IMAX with friends from the ward Rob & Kim Gardner after which we came back to our place for ice cream. They both served missions in Brazil which of course provided a lot of fun conversation. Even though I'm the odd person out who didn't serve a mission in Brazil, at least I've been there so I can share in the fun.

Also last night (and this morning), I met with my first new 'clients' for a side job I've taken. They are a diverse bunch of individuals, but so far I've enjoyed working with them. Thunder and Lightening are brothers and are 11 year old Springer Spaniels who were rescued and are ADORABLE. Mr. Mow is a friendly cat and there are dozens of unnamed tropical fish that I am also "working with". You guessed it, I'm an independently contracted professional pet sitter.

Thunder & Lightening fighting for lap space.

Doing my job. :)

Calming down after a BRISK morning walk around the neighborhood.

One more good scratch behind the ears and I'm off to my next client.

This is Mr. Mow. All I had to do was feed him and the fish and let him out. Easy-peasy, Japanesie!

The girl who owns "No More Lonely Pets" is a law student up at the U about my age, who I met several weeks ago. Its a great business that is putting her through law school. I get as many jobs as I want, and it couldn't be easier. My first 2 jobs are right around the corner from my house which makes it a breeze. All I have to do is feed, water, walk, let the cat out in the morning and in at night, and spend a little time giving some much appreciated belly rubs and my job is done. Easy money. And for someone like me who loves dogs, its not really even work. For any of you who live in the Salt Lake valley and have pets, may I recommend No More Lonely Pets for all your pet/house sitting needs! Here is their website.

Water on the road!

I seem destined to find delays in morning traffic if they are in existence. Last week a broken down bus blocked 3 lanes of freeway traffic. The week before there was a goose in the road that wouldn't get out of the way of a car. Earlier in the month someone's mattress had come untied off the roof of their car and was clogging up a turn lane. This morning I ran into a rather interesting hold up in traffic. It took me 15 minutes of sitting in line to work my way up to the point where I could see what was causing the delay. Turns out the only problem was a little water on the road. Aquafina to be precise.
A pickup truck carrying dozens of cases of water bottles in the back had lost half it's load going around this turn scattering water bottles everywhere. It was amusing to watch the 2 guys scurrying around in heavy traffic trying to clear the road while dodging cars in a hurry to get to work. Though they had kicked most of the bottles out of the road by the time I got close enough to see, my favorite part was when a big rig oil tanker truck with TWO trailers passed through the intersection running over dozens of bottles which all exploded shooting water everywhere and soaking the guys. It was like some crazy water park attraction gone awry!
Moral of the story: If you're going to carry stuff in the back of your truck, make sure its tied down.

Conquering Fear

Yesterday after work, the opportunity presented itself for me to break free of the chains of fear and doubt that have gripped me for sometime regarding a certain outdoor activity. This is going to sound really silly, but I have long been afraid of skateboards. Not skateboards themselves of course, but getting on one. The last time I tried to ride one was IN our apartment after Layne and I first got married. I was on the carpet. I was merely standing on the thing trying to get my balance when it slipped out from under me and I face planted on the floor and the board shot out behind me denting the wall. I took about a 4 year hiatus from going anywhere near the thing until several months ago when I attempted standing on it again while holding onto Layne for dear life. It looked about as natural as elephants on ice. And there you have it, my skateboard history...until yesterday. For Layne's birthday he ordered a new custom skateboard and it arrived yesterday afternoon. Since it was brand new, it was in the house and I decided to play around with it on the carpet in our loft under close supervision and with Layne guarding the walls and the computer. After about 20 minutes of that (figuring out how to stand on it and figuring out which foot to push with), I took it downstairs to the wood floor for a test run. Another 15 minutes of practice on the wood & tile, and Layne convinced me to take it outside for a real road trial.

Sometimes our biggest hurdles in life are in our own heads. I've been convinced since my earliest recollections that I am the Queen of Clumsy, and though all logic told me I had no business being on a skateboard, I couldn't allow myself to be beaten by this "toy". So, I disregarded logic and reason for the greater good; overcoming my fear and doing something I didn't think I could do. At that, I cast my tentativeness to the side, threw caution to the wind, and mounted the beast. The rest is history. I rode outside for about half an hour, and even went down our steep driveway twice! I knew that without proof, my family wouldn't believe me (especially after that Christmas morning when we were all taking turns on Dane's wave board), so here is video evidence of my triumph! Granted, I look like a complete hack, but BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE HUMAN WILL!



I actually ended up having a lot of fun! Layne says I'm a natural (which is probably a tidy little way of saying he was surprised that I hadn't cracked my melon on the pavement yet). After slaying my dragon, Layne and I celebrated by going to the store to buy some Pineapples. They are so good right now, we have been going through like 2-3 a week. Afterwards we watched the big air competition on the opening night of the X-Games where we saw some of the biggest skate board wipe outs in history. I'm just glad we watched that AFTER my first attempt, otherwise I doubt I could have summoned the courage. Here's to conquering fear and trying something new!

A Lion's Tale

This video was shown on The View recently (I don't watch The View, but I saw this) and I thought it was pretty amazing, and sweet. So here's the TRUE back story. In 1969, two friends (John Rendall and Ace Berg) happened into a Harrod's Dept. store in London where they lived, and to their surprise, found that the store had a lion cub for sale and were quite keen to get rid of him. He was living in a tiny cage and looked extremely sad and pathetic. So the men adopted the cub and brought him to live in the basement of their furniture shop. During the next year, the cub (named Christian) grew from 35lbs to 185lbs and they knew they couldn't keep him. As it happened, Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna (stars of the 1966 film 'Born Free') came into the store one day looking for a desk. When they found out about Christian's predicament, they suggested that George Adamson, the conservationist about whose real life experiences the book Born Free was written, may be able to help them relocate Christian to a proper home.

So the men fly with Christian to Kenya, where they were able to get him integrated into living on the Kora Reserve. Ace and John made several sporadic visits to Nairobi throughout the years to observe Christian's life from afar. In 1974, George Adamson informed the men that Christian had established his own completely self sufficient pride and that he had a mate and a litter of cubs. He had finally adapted to the wild. John and Ace decided to make one final trip to Kora to say goodbye, in spite of Adamson's warning that he was now wild, and that their trip would most likely be a disappointment and a waste of time. This video documents their final reunion. The video itself (music and all) is a bit cheesy, but the footage is definitely cool. I told the back story here so you don't have to read along with the video, plus that version isn't completely accurate. Enjoy!

Traffic Jam Discovery & Favs

This morning's commute was simply awful. A disabled bus was blocking 2 lanes of traffic on the I-15 turning my 20 minute morning drive into an hour and 15. However, I did have something interesting to look at while at a standstill on the freeway. The vehicle next to me was something I had never seen before. My first thought was that a jet ski and a motorcycle hooked up and had a deformed child.
Meet the Can-Am Spyder Roadster. With gas prices the way they are, I'm seeing more and more "alternative" vehicles on the road. I guess this is just newest addition!

Layne and I had a busy weekend starting with me getting back from camp Thursday afternoon. After a long day of work Friday, Layne and went to my cousin McKenna's wedding reception. First thing Saturday morning we had the annual ward breakfast at Murray park. Layne volunteered to cook and I volunteered to help with the relay races. The turnout wasn't too bad for a Saturday morning at 8:30, and it seemed like people had a good time. Afterward I got my hair cut and spent several hours preparing my lesson for combined YWs on Sunday and baking brownies. Layne and I went to a matinee showing of the new X-Files movie, which was ok. That evening I met up with the 1st counselor and her daughter and another laurel for Cafe Rio and an Anne of Green Gables marathon. We had a great time. Its always fun to watch with someone who has never seen it before.

So I haven't done any product pushing of my favorite things in a while. Here are a few that come to mind at the moment.

Venus Breeze Razor
I shave a lot. You may be thinking, "well so do I" but trust me on this, I win. As soon as we have some extra cash to throw around (I'm not holding my breath) I'm going to finish the job I started about 6 years ago and complete the laser hair removal treatments. Until that sweet day comes however, I'll be sticking with my Venus Breeze. I've tried just about every razor on the market, and this is the clear winner. It's got the soapy moisture strips built in and I'm a big fan. We all have to do it (though some more than others) and as one who has tried them all, I recommend the Venus Breeze.

Wells Fargo Bill Pay
Ok, I know that this isn't really a "product" per se, but I love it none the less, and most banks offer a similar feature. I'm glad I live in the day of debit cards and online banking. I DESPISE checkbooks and balancing them. Frankly, there is no need anymore because it's all available online! Once I set up my account online and added all my payees, it made paying all my monthly bills a breeze. If your bank offers this feature and you don't use it, you should. It rocks. I haven't mailed a payment somewhere in over a year. Get with the times!

Luigi's Italian Ice
Layne and I adore these things. Our favorite is the box of Mango and Pina Colada. They're great fat free tasty treats for a summer's eve...or any eve...or afternoon...

Suzy Mei Mei's Magnetic Earrings

For those of you who don't know, I have never been able to have my ears pierced because I have what is called a keloid in my left earlobe. It's an overgrowth of tissue at the site of a healed injury, often from a chicken pox scar. Anyway, its benign, but if its ever punctured it can ulcerate into something like this. Gross huh? There is no good treatment for it and surgical removal most often results in its return bigger than it was before. I'd rather not take my chances with piercing thank you very much. HOWEVER, I do have a desire to look extra purty sometimes and most clip ons are really ugly or look worse than wearing nothing at all. A few months ago I ran into Suzy Mei Mei's store on ebay where she sells magnetic earrings of all kinds like these that I bought. They're great! No one can tell the difference when I wear them and I don't even notice that they're there. Most of you don't have my problem, but if your holes ever close or you need an answer for a young child who wants to wear earrings but you think may be too young, Suzy Mei Mei is your girl!

Speaking of looking purty, my sister just sent me this email (titled: Guurl, I jus' got my nails done!) and I got a big kick out of it. Looking at these pictures reminded me of some people I met in North Carolina. GROSS! Props for creativity and a steady hand though!

Girls Camp, Skating Pics & The Heber Creeper

I returned home from stake girls camp yesterday and while I had a great time, it was really nice to get back to where there is a bathroom that isn't a quarter mile walk, electricity, my own bed, and a snorer who I can control. I didn't get any sleep, but the girls had a great time so mission accomplished! The stake theme this year was 'Steadfast and Immovable' and the stake leaders did a fabulous job planning activities along those lines. Here are a few pictures:

Goofing around

Dinner preparation

The BEAUTIFUL hike we went on. I know what you're thinking right now, "The hills are alive, with the sound of music..." Don't think we didn't sing that the whole way.

Kimi, Moses & myself.
The top!

Going down is always a little easier, and a little more fun.

Bishop Van Tienderen inspecting his cabob.

The testimony fire. It was COLD that night, but we had our testimonies to keep us warm. I know, I know that was intentionally cheesy.

Dani and I trying to stay warm...and sane.

I'm so proud of all my girls. They are a stellar bunch and were all really good sports about camping.

While I was camping, Layne was doing something else...

Here are some pictures his skate buddy took of him during their last "session". Looks to me like he's still got it. I've been wanting to go watch him myself one of these days, which would make me a "skate Betty". I suppose I'd have to sit off to the side along with all the "Groms" (little kids who are just learning to skate). I'm learning the lingo as I go here...




And now, for the BEST bad date story I have EVER heard, HANDS DOWN! This story is called 'The Heber Creeper' and is much better told in person, but because I can't call each one of you to tell it, I'm going to do my best to recreate it in print. First of all, this is a true story as told to me by a friend of the main character. Ok here goes.
A young man (we'll call him Steve) from Salt Lake City served his mission in South America. Upon returning home, he mustered up the courage to ask out a girl (we'll call her Jane) he really liked on a date. Steve decided it would be fun to take Jane up for a ride on the 'Heber Creeper' aka the Heber Valley Railroad. This train is so named because it doesn't go very fast and is actually infamous in Utah for being extraordinarily lame. We'll cut Steve some slack though because he was fresh off the mission. So fresh in fact that he hadn't yet shaken the parasite he brought home from South America. This parasite was of the variety that once you felt the urge to use the restroom, you had about 2 minutes tops before you exploded involuntarily.

Steve picked up Jane on a Saturday afternoon and began the hour drive up to the Heber Creeper station. As they neared the station, Steve began feeling the urge to go. Before even making it out of the parking lot however, Steve lost the battle with the parasite and COMPLETELY filled his britches. Not wanting to alert his date to the situation, Steve devised a plan to tell his date that he had promised some friends that he would bring them back some souvenirs from the gift shop. Steve picked out several items in the gift shop such as some post cards, magnets, a sweatshirt and a pair of shorts (which he intended to change into the first chance he got). He took his items to the counter, and when Jane wasn't looking, he told the cashier that he really only needed the shorts and that she could put the other items back. So the cashier rang him up, and he and Jane boarded the train.

Once aboard, Steve excused himself to the restroom with his souvenir bag. He stripped off his pants and garments that had been completely mucked and immediately threw them out the window of the train. After cleaning himself up as best he could, Steve opened the gift shop bag only to find to his utter horror, that that cashier had given him the sweatshirt and kept the shorts! Panic stricken, Steve tried his best to put his legs through the arms of the sweatshirt, but to no avail. Not only could he not get his feet through the arms of the sweatshirt, but his poop filled underwear and pants were somewhere in the woods at least a mile behind them! At this point, poor Steve could think of only one option, so climbed up to the window and jumped out of the train. Half naked, he walked the distance back to his car, got in, and drove home, leaving poor Jane alone on the train, wondering what had happened. Upon arrival back at the station, the confused Jane found Steve's car gone and had no choice but to call a friend for a ride home.

The next day, a beautiful bouquet of flowers arrived for Jane with a note that simply said,

"Dear Jane, I'm so sorry about yesterday. I hope you can forgive me.

-Steve"

And that was it. Jane never received any explanation for Steve's disappearance. When Steve arrived home half naked and was questioned by his room mate, Steve told him about what had happened in the strictest of confidence. As most people would do with a hilarious story like that, Steve's room mate blabbed, brining this sad but hilarious tale to us today. I hope this makes you think back with different eyes on your worst date stories! I'm pretty sure Steve wins the award!

Mr. Mayer & Destination Camp Piuta

Last night Layne and I went to the John Mayer concert opened by Colbie Caillat and had a great time. John Mayer is an AMAZING musician and most of the concert was him jamming on guitar. It was the most chill/relaxing concert I've ever been to. If you get the chance I HIGHLY recommend him! Here's a little taste of what we got:

I LOVED his cover of this song! It was a great show and we didn't come away smelling like smoke or beer so that was an added bonus to our usual concert going experience. :) We could tell he just loved to play music and was VERY gracious to his fans. Two thumbs up John! If you like this, he's putting out a DVD of his performance live in LA called Where the Light Is which has this and more. There are more songs on YouTube like this one (which I LOVE) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e1FHJkVoFE, but due to restrictions I couldn't embed it on my blog. Anyway, great artist, great show.

This afternoon I'm packing up and heading to camp Piuta in the Uinta mountains for stake girls camp. Even though I've been in YW's for a few years now it's been AGES since I've made the trek to girls camp so wish me luck. Thanks to a wonderful Utah holiday (July 24th) I'm able to take one day off work and make the trip this time. Catch you on the flip side!

Commercial Parodies & a YouTube Discovery

Layne and I had a really nice weekend and Layne enjoyed his birthday on Friday. We went and saw the new Batman movie. Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker was both amazing and disturbing. If you're going to see it, you're in for an Oscar performance, but prepare yourself to be a little creeped out and to remain seated for a solid 2.5 hours.
So I finally read the Twilight series (books 1 & 2 so far) at the urgent request of one of my young women. She gave me the books and texted me every day until I convinced her that I was reading them. I was a little let down after all the hype, but overall enjoyed reading them. They're no Harry Potter, but fun and interesting reads. So at the theater this weekend I saw previews to the movie 'Twilight' and was thoroughly disappointed by the actor they chose to portray Edward. This guy who is supposed to be the epitome of strength and masculine beauty looked a little scrawny and feminine to me. Does anyone else who has read the books share my sentiment?

In addition to the movies, we went to Best Buy to use the gift card Layne's parents sent him which is always fun. We stay as far away from that store as possible unless we have a gift card or extra money to blow, and lets face it, it's been a LONG time since we've had any of that! Among the items we picked out was the DVD of the best of SNL commercial parodies. We had a good time watching and remembering some of our favorites (such as: Mom Jeans, Dissing Your Dog, The Love Toilet, Buh-Weet Sings, Happy Fun Ball, Bad Idea Jeans, Colon Blow Bran Flakes, Taco Town, Old Glory Insurance, Litter Critters, Dog Laywer, Swiffer Sleepers, Woomba, Homocil, Eterna-Rest and Oops, I Crapped My Pants). There were some that I was disappointed didn't make the cut such as Chess for Girls & Cookie Dough Sport. Since we had so much fun watching them, I thought I'd share a few.

Swiffer Sleepers


Homocil

Old Glory Insurance

Cookie Dough Sport


Chess for Girls


Oops, I Crapped My Pants

Ah, classic! There are plenty more where those came from! Now for some other videos. Its amazing what one can stumble across when they're on YouTube. Someone posted these videos of the ECU Chamber Singers' first performance at the National ACDA Convention in Miami in March of '07. Oh the memories. I'm posting these mostly for my mom who never got to see my choir perform and would have loved to have been there. I wouldn't post these for general audience viewing. In fact I'm actually quite embarrassed by them. I look awful!! We had to be up at 5am the morning of this performance (which was at 8am). The night before, half the choir ate bad seafood and my room mate among others was up all night with the worst vomiting and diarrhea I've ever witnessed. Of course, in the middle of the night when our toilet clogged, I was the one who had to clean up after her and get maintenance to come fix it. Anyway, it was a miracle we were able to take the stage at all missing as many people as we were. The sound quality of these videos is pretty bad, and we didn't know we were being video taped, so bare with it. The other 2 songs of the performance haven't been posted yet.

Wondrous Love

Der Geist Hilft Unser Schwahheit Auf - Bach motet for double chorus that took FOREVER to learn and even longer to memorize!

El Hambo - This piece is written in Swedish gibberish (think the chef from the muppets) and drove us all nuts.

Daniel, Servant of the Lord- Good ole spiritual that brought the house down everytime.