Getting Along Swimmingly

I sent this brain-teaser out to a bunch of family and friends. You're supposed to count how many squares you see in this image. I'll give the answer at the end of this blog entry.

 

 

 

Tonight, I finally went lap-swimming again for the first time in two years. It felt so good to be back in the pool! But, the place we went to was crowded and not up to my standard (I was spoiled by the Pacini's pool). I went with a temp co-worker who I've become friends with and it was a splash! The pool is 25 meters long and we ended up doing 650 meters during the time we were there. Made me feel like an Olympian! =D

 

The square answer is 40. Did you get it?

SYTYCD

We're down to the top ten in one of my favorite shows, So You Think You Can Dance. I haven't bonded as much with the dancers this season, but there are still some really good ones and I still love to watch. I've taken to watching the show downstairs in the living room at my new place. There isn't a DVR there, but I have a roommate who kind of likes to watch too and sits down to join me. A little bonding time if you will. Tonight, she baked cookies and brought me some along with a glass of milk, and then she came and got my glass off the floor afterward and washed it and the dishes. She told me she likes to serve. I responded that this is a great match then because I love to be served! It got a good laugh out of her. I hope she doesn't think I was kidding...  ;-)

 



Birthday Blowout and Temple Togetherness

Since I gave up my President Monson birthday celebration tickets to Jenny and her family, they brought me flowers when they came to pick up the tickets. Beautiful!

 

Yesterday, Jodie received her endowments at the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple. All the family that could, went and did a session together. Then we had the big monthly family bday party, except the months this time included the July, August, and two of the September bdays. (Now I get a bday celebration of my own for September!) There was lots of food, and we had a music recital. Jeremy blew everyone away with his memorized Fur Elise. I couldn't download the entire video, but I'm including a snippet.  Bailey came home with me last night and we had a sleepover. I tried out the family ward in my new neighborhood since she was with me.

 

Then today, we all drove up to Brigham City to attend the open house at the new temple there. It's a lovely temple and was nice to even have Jon and his posse there. A lot of family time this weekend!

 

Love, love, LOVE this face!

 



Farewell to Jodie!

Since Jodie will be moving back east next week, Amy Morby gave me the assignment of putting together a farewell dinner for her. We ended up going to Cheesecake Factory of course, and though Mindy couldn't make it, Amy, Jenica, Lori, Jodie, and I did and it was a good time. At one point, we had Jen and Amy laughing so hard that Jen said, 'we've got to do this every night. this is the BEST conversation!' It may have been a little adult in topic...



Double-Header

Last night, Amy and Amanda came up to Salt Lake and we went to a double-header movie. Normally, that's one of my favorite things to do! But, that is for regular, two-hour movies. The two shows we saw, The Bourne Legacy and Batman, are both movies over 3 hours. That made for a lot of sitting! Still fun though. LOVED Batman! The Bourne Legacy was good, but definitely not as exciting as the ones with Matt Damon!

 

Lori has been texting pictures of Ari and they are so cute! I thought I'd include a few of them here.

 

Linda Clawson, a friend who recently retired from the Temple Department, lives in my new neighborhood and she came and brought me a 'Welcome to the Hood' basket. She got items from businesses in the area that she thought I should know about, tagged them with the store name and location and put funny information about each place. My favorite items included bread from a nearby Great Harvest store that she also included with some homemade strawberry freezer jam, a gift card for ice cream, Sweet Tooth Fairy cakebites, etc. So sweet of her!

 

So bright out here!

Oof, soooo comfortable!



Baby on the Mind

After an extended waiting period to get in to the hospital and down to business, Lori and Cody are now the proud parents of baby Ariana! She weighs in at 8 pounds 6 ounces and is 19 inches long. She had her eyes open and seemed pretty alert while we were there visiting. Lori didn't look like she'd just had a baby and looked really good. I drove down Wednesday AND today to await the birth and see the baby. She's beautiful!

Also, there have been numerous fires throughout Utah and the country this past summer. While driving home on Wednesday, there is a fire by Camp Williams that you could see from the freeway. The smoke was obscuring the road so that it was almost like thick, fog conditions reducing visibility. Pretty crazy!

Family Time

I spent last night in Pleasant Grove so I could be there bright and early for Lily Renee's baby blessing at 9 a.m. I went through my closet at mom's and found all these skirts that I fit again (down 36), so I got to wear a new/old skirt to Church. Bailey is growing up and likes girl time so she always makes sure to sit by me. Then I had Christian and TJ w/me too. Jenny's boys are so cute! Lily Renee (still have to say the full name because mom likes it so much) looked beautiful in her blessing dress. Lori took a great photo of the two of us. We had a luncheon after sacrament at Dana and Deborah's and spent some time all chatting together.

After leaving from there, I drove to Snowbird to join in on the Ervin Pack family reunion. Yes, I've been adopted into the family. We played a bunch of games and had a good time. They told me all these stories about the wild animals that they've seen and heard outside of the complex, so when I had to walk to my car in the dark afterward, I was pretty psyched out hearing things in the bushes. It's been awhile since I've scared myself that much!

Jenny and Chris holding Lily Renee.

Cute skirt, right? And...I guess the baby is cute too. ;-)

Jodie took a picture of me in the rear view mirror. I kind of like it!



Wedding Hoopla

Brittany Pacini is in town for Ashley's wedding, so we met up after my work on Thursday to go to a movie (Step-Up Revolution). Then we went back to the Avenues for the Bachelorette party. It was pretty low key. I ended up giving several people facials before having to head out to a dealer for a Miche bag pickup. Kathy Barlow you owe me!

Friday night was the wedding reception in the Empire room at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Ahhh, all the memories from Seminar for New Temple Presidents! I went through the line twice. Once, getting into the room only to discover the wedding party hadn't arrived yet, and then the second time to get through the line to congratulate the couple. Today of course was the actual wedding at the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple. I think it all went really well!

Why yes that is my necklace she's wearing. It went perfectly!

Meet the Van Orden's!

Organizing

You know me and my need to have things organized around me. The past week has been spent unpacking and arranging things just right at my new home. It looks good now and everything has been fixed and is functioning!

Also during this past week, I went down to Pleasant Grove for Lori's last meal. Meaning, she wanted a girls night out before having her baby. Sarah came as well as Lori's friend Kary. I also attended a wedding shower for Ashley Pacini.