HEART!

So, I had to catch a ride home from work again today early as I was having some serious heart palpitations that HURT! I tried lying down first on the floor of one of the directors' offices while they were out, but after 30 minutes of it not working, I went home. I started hyperventilating in my breathing at one point because it hurt so much it took my breath away. It finally went away after a few hours and only came back once this evening for about an hour. Fortunately, it went back into rhythm on it's own so I didn't have to go into the doctors.

Holiday Wrap-Up

One more morning at the pool (this time it was too cold to get in, but just right to lay there and read a book, and then Jodie and I cleaned up the condo a bit, watched a little SATC, and then headed home. Mom and dad went at noon to a Memorial Day picnic with Sherry and her family which Jodie and I didn't do.

Riding home, Jodie wasn't too happy with me because instead of talking to her, I listened to an audiobook. I can't believe how fast it made the miles fly by though!

Apparently while we were enjoying all the sun in St. George, it was a horribly stormy weekend for everyone else back home. Lots of rain, hail, snow, flooding, etc. Glad we got out while we could!

Who Is This?

Jodie wanted to do my hair sometime during our trip so I had her do it for church since we didn't go until 1 p.m. She straightened and curled it and I think it turned out really nice.

We used some of the Papa Murphy's free pizza coupons I won from the radio station for our Sunday dinner (we picked them up on Sunday). Aunt Ann came over to join us and ended up staying for four hours chatting afterward. It was good to catch up with her.

Mom, dad, and I played games after Ann left (Jodie was very involved in a book).  I had also brought my movie The Tourist down and so to finish up the day, we all curled up and watched it together.

Poolside Party

We had a nice leisurely day. I spent three hours at the pool, didn't burn, and was refreshed by my dips in the pool between laying out and reading

Dad became friends with everyone in the complex and got the keys for two of the homes there that are for sale so we went in and checked them out. They were seriously considering the first one because it was all on one level and had a room for grandma. I think they've now decided that they need a place in Pleasant Grove AND one down in St. George so they're going to keep looking for something they can afford.

We all went to see the 3D Pirates of the Carribean movie and then to dinner afterwards at Texas Roadhouse. Mom also had a coupon to See's Candies so we picked up some chocolates for dessert.



Laughing at the difficulties in getting a kissing picture.

The two lovebirds.

St. George Baby!

I left work early today to meet up with Jodie in Pleasant Grove and then we headed down to Debbie Loock's condo in St. George. Mom, dad, and Grandma Backlund left earlier in the day to go down to Mesquite first to Sherry's home to drop off grandma and then mom and dad came back to St. George to stay with me and Jodie. The weather is slated to be nice this weekend down here and bad up north so hopefully we'll get a little sun finally!

Jodie and I sang songs from my iPhone iPod the entire time...okay, I may have sang the most because Jodie didn't know all the songs. We made a deal though that if she sang at least ten songs with me, that I would play one that used to be our favorite to sing together back in the olden days. She agreed and we were almost to Cedar City when we finally belted out (screamed) Man of La Mancha. She'd forgotten about the extra high bit at the end and I have to say I was pretty amazing. We sang it again for good measure. Needless to say I arrived in St. George hoarse.

So You Think You Can DANCE!!!

Guess what is back on TV for the season?!! So You Think You Can Dance!!! (Hereafter referred to as SYTYCD.) Today were the Atlanta and San Francisco areas and there were several very unique, impressive dances. I actually clapped after one that I thought was quite exquisite.

When picking up the taco shells for the farewell social, we found this super cute cookie in the bakery. I want to try making it sometime for someone. Is that vague enough? Sometime, someone? Maybe eventually. But so cute!

Costco Crap

I went on a run to Costco today to pick up supplies for a farewell social tomorrow. My dislike of fish is well documented, especially after last week's seminar when it was served one of the evenings for dinner. So, imagine my surprise when MaryAnn handed me a sample at the store which I popped into my mouth only to discover it was a salmon burger. In her defense, she thought it was chicken and was surprised herself when she tasted fish...then she turned to me and after seeing my face of horror, busted up laughing knowing I had a much more painful discovery than she did. It actually brought tears to my eyes it was so bad. It felt like it kept multiplying in my mouth and my cheeks got fuller and fuller and I couldn't do anything about it. Though I accepted her apology, I might feel better about it if she didn't continue laughing through the rest of the store, the car ride back to work, and the remainder of the afternoon. She said she wishes she could download the image of my face into a picture so I could see the exact grimace I pulled. All I can say is, I remember it from my end well enough.

Cello Chump

Thanks to my hectic schedule the past several weeks, I've been slacking on my cello practice. I managed to start practicing again, but you can tell I'm a wee bit rusty.

I also got my previous cell phone provider final bill in the mail. It charged me a full month's price for one day, so I called. They immediately apologized and said that since I called, they would take it off right away. What if I was one of those people that don't call? They would have gotten away with it! I can only imagine how much money they make from doing that to people.

Success! and Park City

I have a great visiting teaching partner right now. Thanks to her diligent efforts, we were actually able to see both of our girls AND give them a lesson, with a minimum of broken appointments. It is even early in the month!

After church, I went with a group of about twenty people from the ward up to a cabin in Park City for dinner. It was a good getting to know you experience and was pretty fun. We played Catch Phrase and took a tour of the cabin which was immense and gorgeous!  I didn't get home until later than I would have liked though so my entire weekend did not allow me to catch up on rest from the seminar like I wanted!  :-(

NOT a Sleepy Saturday

I was convinced to drive down to Pleasant Grove for a baby shower for my cousin Brad's wife. I wouldn't have gone down, but had also been invited to a temple session afterward and that convinced me to make the effort. After spending the week going in and out of the SL Temple, I figured I should actually go for a session!

Do you know what happens when you're physically and mentally exhausted, and then go into a quiet, dark, peaceful room? I had a serious struggle to stay awake to say the least. At lease I did better on my battle than Lori! She was sprawled back in her seat with her head against the back, eyes closed, and mouth wide open. So funny! Mom and Cody were there also but I don't think they had the sleep problems Lori and I did. Taylor came over with us to the temple to do baptisms. He was so cute all dressed up in his suit carrying his brush and recommend. He went down to dad in the baptistry and did baptisms and then the two of them went in to get something to eat at the cafeteria. He had his mom's cell phone so he called for a ride when he was done. He had a GOOD time!

Quick Summary...Again

The Seminar for Temple Engineers passed this week pretty smoothly.  We went to This is the Place Park on Monday and the rain held off so that we were able to walk around and enjoy the park. Tuesday was good...except when I played the piano at lunch in the JSMB Empire room. The piano there is up on a stage and you have a spotlight on you. That caused a reflection of the keyboard and my hands playing to be thrown up on the piano and it triggered one of my dizzy attacks. I had to push through it, but was sick then for several hours afterward. MaryAnn and Karen sent me home early (only a 10 1/2 hour work day) so that I would be good to go Wednesday when they needed extra help.

Wednesday the rain continued so we went over to the Tabernacle for pictures below ground (which engineers loved to see of course). Even though MaryAnn was gone half of the day taking her son to the MTC, everything seemed to work out just right. Elder Scott liked my piano playing and asked that I be told thank you. There was a dinner with vendors that night and I think it was a big hit. The food was AMAZING and actually sparked quite a bit of joking and laughing afterward amongst us when we were returning to the office at 9 p.m. Security was giving us some pretty hungry looks as we passed by with our cart laden with food so MaryAnn opened one of the to-go containers on top and said it looked like a really good assortment of the dinner items so she gave it to the security guys. Once we were past them, I brought up the fact that she had just given away my personal container...the only one on that jam-packed cart. It was a source of much amusement through the remaining days.

Thursday evening the International Children's Choir came in to sing after dinner. I was a van driver beforehand going between the hotel and the JSMB bringing the engineers' wives over to join their husbands for the event. I got to employ quite a bit of my Spanish for that.

Friday had the temple session and by then I could match the engineers up with their spouses and they were all quite impressed that I was able to inform them by sight if their wife had come out of the dressing room or not.

I was EXHAUSTED come Friday night after work and of course didn't get near enough sleep to recover from the work week of early mornings and late nights. But, it was a success!

The beautiful weather and flowers on Temple Square
the week BEFORE the seminar. Rainy the entire week following.

We got a kick out of the hole in the sock on one of the
Area Directors. He laughed about it afterward as well.

Super Saturday

I had a lazy Saturday...up until some friends called and said they were going to be here in an hour for a movie. That means I had to finally get ready and dressed for the day and meet up at the theatre for Thor. It was not as good as I'd been told, but still fun to spend time with the friends.

Work, Work, Work

Normally I'd do individual entries, but I was a bit busy this week with late nights at work. So, my week consisted of...work!

I did find a really funny picture on Jenny's camera. Jeremy is pretty proud of growing up and all that entails. Apparently he wants to document this.

In Jer's words, he's 'a beast!'





Mother's Day

I went to Church at mom's for Mother's Day and because Taylor was getting the Priesthood. The family all gathered for it and it was another very nice example of seeing all the Priesthood holders in my family standing up in the circle.

Once all the guests went home, we enjoyed a Sunday dinner together with the remaining people there. I made chicken cordon bleu for mom's day. There was mashed potatoes, sour cream chicken gravy, fruit salad, and lots and lots of pie. Delicious!

Also, you know your dad's a farmer when he has to have a garage big enough for his John Deere tractor.

Soccer Saturday

After spending the night in Heber, Micah was on a soccer team so we went to watch him play. I actually got an action shot of him kicking the ball and a few of Christian deciding to model various stages of taking off his shirt. No Saturday at the Zabel's would be complete without hitting the garage sales. I took the three oldest boys home with me to mom and dad's afterward where we all were going to spend the night. We also went to see the movie African Cats together.

The welcome sign at Brett's new school. He's got his work cut out for him!

Heber Hurrah!

I left work early to drive up to Heber for Jenny's birthday. We went down the canyon to Vivian Park and unloaded all their bikes. While Jenny and Brett drove down to the bottom of the canyon to drop off one of the vans, I fished with the three youngest boys. I haven't gone for ages, but figured out how to cast their lines for them. Micah caught a fish within one minute of me casting his line and I got some pictures for him. Everytime I did Christian's line he would say, 'Oh thank you' in a very matter-of-fact voice. It was very cute.

When Jenny and Brett got back, we all got on the bikes and headed down the trail for a five mile ride. We stopped at Bridal Veil Falls and the boys hiked up the falls a bit. At the end, we ate dinner at the park, played on the playground, ate birthday cake, and did football and superman on the grass. It was a fun night!

Christian and his very own fishing pole. Oh thank you!



Micah's fish





Love this tandem bike!

My skills at riding while taking a picture were amazing!



Cinco de Mayo

I had to bake two cakes for our work's social committee in celebration of Cinco de Mayo. They were delicious as were the other tres leche cakes and the nacho supreme fixings. Especially the melty cheese. Mmmm! I was sent home with some of the leftovers and made some tasty toasted cheese sandwiches for dinner!

Elder Kikuchi Devotional

Elder Kikuchi is going to be released at our next General Conference so he gave his farewell devotional for our department today. He related his conversion story and then gave a powerful witness and testimony of the Savior. It was so touching! I also like seeing all the general authorities that we had seated across the front of the room and realizing how international it was - Elder Zivic (Argentina), Elder Gibbons (U.S.), Elder Baxter (Scotland), Elder Kikuchi (Japan), and Elder Walker (Canada). Very cool!

Amy and Amanda popped by tonight for a bathroom run while they were in the area. They were waiting for another friend before going to get an iced 'hot chocolate' and convinced me into going out to dinner with them...their treat! I had to drive as usual, in Amy's car, but I don't mind being chauffeur. I took them to Hatch's afterward for the chocolate that they wanted. They convinced me to taste a bit of the drink and then laughed their heads off at the face I pulled. What can I say, it was BITTER! Yuck! I had to put something into my mouth immediately afterward to get rid of the gross chocolate taste. Still cringing!

New Office Space

We are officially moved in to our new office space. While the quarters are a bit closer than I'm used to from our last spot, I get my first glimpses of window since being on this floor. I can look out the window from my computer and look directly at my bedroom window...and wish that I'm there right then...but it is very nice to know what the weather is like before I have to walk home in it!



Picnic in the Park

Lisa and her kids are only in town for a few more days so they came up to have lunch with me. We headed over to a little park close to work and had ourselves a picnic. Grant was completely worn out so he slept almost the whole time, but Matthew loved having his shoes and socks off so he could be dipped into the cold stream. It was also the nicest weather we've had yet this year so it was a lovely afternoon!



In Protest

There was some kind of protest today about immigrant workers' rights. It sounded like a huge mob outside my apartment, but when I looked out...there weren't really that many people. But they sure could make some noise!













Osama bin Laden (not to be confused with Obama and Biden) was killed today during a stealth mission in Pakistan. When Jodie sent me the text about it, I initially thought it read Obama died. It was very surreal to think we were without a president for that moment in time. While I believe as it says in 1 Nephi that it is better that one man should die than a whole nation dwindle in unbelief, I do think there should be certain limits to the celebrations and parties that result from that death. Americans are not viewed well internationally...let's not give them any more ammunition!