The Perks of Seminar

Have I mentioned Seminar is coming up? Because it is. Saturday I got up for the day at 5:20 a.m., made it to work before 7, worked 10 hours on seating charts in the conference room and got home about 6 p.m. It was a LONG day...and we didn't finish! I'll be staying late again Monday after work to help with it. BUT, part of the preparations for seminar means we have to visit (the Jerusalem movie set in Goshen), walk (routes at the SL Temple and Conference Center), and eat our way through samples to try everything out before the recorders/presidents experience it. Perk! The past two weeks have been sample meals since we're using the COB to do the food preparation for several of the lunches and dinners. Delicious!

 

I liked this table decoration the best out of all of them.
Casey didn't want to be in the photo so much though.

This is the day when they wanted us to sample
multiple desserts. There was another piece
of key lime pie not shown in the picture.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cody had a graduation bonfire party Friday night at South Fork Park up Provo Canyon. I went with Sarah and her kids. We thought it started at 6 pm but it turns out it was at 5. We had a fun time playing partner tag. Even Brett got in to it!

 

Micah had a swarm of gnats that followed him
around. He patiently tried to swat and kill each one.

My first day of Primary piano playing went well. It was all songs that I knew though. Hope all the Sundays go like this one!

 

Saturday night Deborah came over and let me know that if I ever needed her to go to the hospital with me, she would in a heart beat (pun intended). She said we could just go over and sit in the car all night and sleep if need be if I wasn't sure we should go in yet or not. It was very sweet.

Emergency Room? To Go or Not to Go...

I got to talk to mom on Saturday and then again on Sunday we Skype'd so I could help her with a blogging question. Dad ended up giving me a tour of their apartment and neighborhood which was nice to see their surroundings.

 

Also on Sunday, I went before Church to meet with a member of the bishopric and now have the calling of Primary Pianist. I skipped out on that Church though and went over to Karen Allred's ward instead as it was the farewell talk for her daughter Alyssa who is leaving this week on her mission to Calgary, Canada (Spanish-speaking). There was a luncheon afterward at Karen's house where we all got to chat. It was very cute seeing Alyssa's brothers crying more during her talk than she did! I got home from that just in time for another lunch that Lori put on for us, grandma, and Kevin.

 

After work last night, I went to the Rec with Amy Felix. When I got out of my car to walk in, I was dizzy and unsteady on my feet. I had to hold on to Amy to make it in the building! Playing racquetball was fine and I didn't have any problems, but then we went lap swimming afterward. I got so, SO dizzy on my first lap that I had to stop and just float there for a bit. Amy asked if she should swim me to the side and I said yes. I think she thought I was kidding though. I swam myself to the side and stayed there for a bit before I felt good enough to swim again. Getting out of the pool though, I couldn't walk straight. I kept listing to the side. Then when I was home, my heart kicked in with the dizziness. I had the skipping heart beat, and then it really went out of control and started fluttering then pounding so hard. I was feeling my pulse and it would go from pounding hard, erratically, to barely being able to feel the beat because it was so soft, then it would flutter, go soft again, pound super hard, repeat, etc, all while being out of rhythm. It hurt so bad. So bad! And it scared me to death. That's the closest I've ever come to driving myself to the emergency room. I finally decided to lay down and go to bed to see if it would go away on it's own like it usually does. I finally fell asleep after about 40 minutes and only have a residual headache from it this morning. I actually thought, when the beat would go so soft I could hardly find it, that it might just stop on me all together while I was sleeping. Someone would eventually find the body, right? Eventually.

 

Lisa and I skype'd on Saturday. It was an
exciting conversating as you can see. We
weren't even pulling these faces on purpose!

 

Shot Through the Heart!

It's been a busy week. I've worked some overtime after hours at home trying to prepare for the upcoming seminar, and then combined that with some extracurricular, couldn't-be-missed activities.

 

A friend from work, Sarah Mayfield, called me and asked what I thought about Bon Jovi. I immediate broke into song and sang an entire verse for her of You Give Love a Bad Name. Apparently my audition was successful because she invited me to go to Jon Bon Jovi's concert with her Wednesday night. It. Was. Awesome! Who knew Sarah was a dancer? We seriously rocked out. My voice was hoarse afterward from singing and screaming to Jon that we loved him and my ears sounded like they were stuffed full of cotton. Totally worth it!

 

Our close concert seats.

I love this shadowy picture of us mid-concert!



Afterward, I spent the night in the Pacini's west-wing. They bought the adjoining condo next to their home in the Avenues and knocked a hole in the wall so they can use the entire space. I had an entire wing to myself! I crashed there because I didn't want to drive all the way down to PG so late at night and then turn around a few hours later and come back up early morning for work. I love my extra space down in PG, but that is pretty much the only positive about being down there. Without mom and dad there, I don't have any family. Not sure right now about my decision to have done this.

 

For work, a few of us went to This Is the Place Heritage Park for an open house put on by the catering company that we're going to be using during the seminar. Turns out if was more than just a lunch to sample the barbecue options this place had. The Park had all sorts of vendors there demonstrating party options. I maxed out on homemade ice cream, Tiger's Blood shaved ice with sweetened condensed milk, all the barbecue items, dessert table, crepes, etc. I got a balloon animal made for me. The guy had been making amazing Disney princesses which I wanted and I couldn't decide which one I wanted so I told him to surprise me. Boy was I surprised when it was a panda holding on to a bamboo tree rather than a princess! We had our caricatures drawn (I'm the one on bottom if you can't tell), and I even stopped for a picture next to the pig head that was all that was left over from the entire roasted body.

 

 

 

Amy picked me up from home tonight after work and we went to see a movie. It's been awhile since I've gone to the movies so we went to one that's been out for a while and is now at the dollar theater. She likes the family ward for the area where she lives. Apparently it has about 60 fairly normal mid-Single's that live in it. I may try the ward out with her. Activities at the very least!

Zabel Weekend

I talked Amy Felix into playing racquetball with me Thursday night. She hasn't ever played before so I had to give a lesson. She didn't understand why I was so surprised that she picked it up fairly quickly. She had to point out to me that she used to do sports and was on the high school basketball team. It was an even workout for me because I played the first half with my right arm, then switched to the left so she'd have a better chance of scoring. Felt pretty good!

 

Friday after work I drove to Heber because Jenny, Brett, and Jeremy were spending the night in Salt Lake for their stake youth conference. Nate took on Jeremy's usual role and was a big help! He made dinner for us both Friday and Saturday night, and made breakfast Saturday morning. I did some work Friday night while we watched a movie. Saturday we went to the Rec Center and played racquetball. I got a lot of time in with my left arm again. ;-)  We picked up lunch at MacDonald's and then drove to the duck pond out in Midway. The boys enjoyed feeding the ducks and Micah even made friends with a guy that was fly fishing there so he got a chance to try it out, catch a fish, and then release the fish back into the pond. He LOVED it! We watched Anne of Green Gables when we made it back to the house. I can't believe how they allowed me to talk them in to it...and LIKED it! After dinner, I took just Christian out to MacDonald's again. This time we were going for ice cream for his birthday. He told me how great it was to be there just the two of us and that he got ice cream too. It was sweet. Even though Jenny and Brett got home that night, I slept over again since it was late and went to Church with them this morning.

 

Crazy-face Christian

 

 

While I love spending time with the boys, and they begged me not to leave, it's still nice to get home and relax. Did I mention that I've finished unpacking everything in my home space? Here are a few pictures of it:

 

I love my music corner with the guitar, cello, and piano.

Finally, an exercise room!

 

Goshen or Elberta?

Monday for work, I was picked up by the freeway on 500 South in American Fork by some co-workers. We were headed to Goshen to see the Jerusalem movie set the Church has built there to film bible videos. We went in preparation for the recorder seminar. It was a VERY cool place, even though it was rainy and cold. They allowed us to take pictures, but only on the grounds that they not be transmitted over the internet. So, if anyone wants to see the pictures, let me know! We went to Red Robin's afterward for lunch. We learned that even though everyone says that the set is in Goshen, it's really in Elberta, Utah.

 

Today, I had lunch with some of my work friends. We were celebrating Kathy Barlow's soon-to-be return to the Temple Department. Linda Clawson came back and met with us and MaryAnn for it. We went across the street to the new Johnny Rockets at City Creek. The fire alarm went off while we were placing our orders so we had to evacuate and stand outside for about five minutes. It wasn't just that restaurant, but all the stores in the area. I've been missing our 'core group'! That's what we called the old group of us that previously did the temple president seminars.

 

I was able to get ahold of Edna on the phone and we went to the American Fork Rec together tonight for swimming. I got a little motion sick doing the laps, but was glad that we went. I've told her to plan on it once a week. We'll see if I can talk her in to it each time.

 

MaryAnn's getup in Goshen so the boot from her
surgery wouldn't get wet in the rain and mud.

 

Las Hermanas del Distrito!

Jennifer Schmidt Knowlton came into town Friday night to go to her and Waddill's mission reunion. She came over afterward to spend the night and we stayed up late catching up. I worked on the recorder seminar usher maps during the first session of General Conference. Schmidt listened off and on while she got ready for the day, before heading out to meet Emily's kids. All of the hermanas from our MTC group then met up at 4 p.m. at Texas Roadhouse. Emily's birthday is today and Alisa's is at the end of the month so we celebrated with them and got the waiters to all sing happy birthday for them. Alisa couldn't stay any longer than that, so Emily, Jennifer, and I went on for the rest of our big evening without her.

 

We headed to Royal Nails in Pleasant Grove next and got manicures and pedicures. Then we went to Massage Envy in Orem and got full massages. Schmidty had free massage certificates built up there from her membership so it only cost us the tip. Then we hit Farr's Fresh for ice cream afterward, Sweet Tooth Fairy for their ladies night special of buy two, get one cupcake for free, then we came back to my place to watch Schmidty's wedding video. She had to leave Sunday morning to drive back to Wyoming so I ended up watching the rest of General Conference by myself.

 

Schmidty! We've renamed her Schmowlton as
a mashup of her new married name.

Emily and Jennifer

Me and Alisa

The dried apples I made on my new food
dehydrator. I added cinnamon and no-calorie
sugar. They're delicious!

 

Moab

I drove down to Moab after work on Tuesday to join up with Jenny and Lori's families who'd already been there since Monday. Wednesday, we drove almost two hours to Little Wild Horse Canyon  to go for a hike in the slot canyon. Jenny's family was pretty cute. They all have hats that they wear when out hiking - all very distinctive, and quite funny to see on. It was a VERY COOL hike! As we were hiking out of the canyon, Chris got tired so I gave him a piggyback ride where he ended up falling asleep. It's pretty hard carrying a sleeping kid on your back when they're not holding on!

 

Afterward, we drove to Goblin Valley and the boys played hide-and-seek amongst all the plops of mud. Chris had absolutely NO fear climbing rocks during our hikes. He followed Jeremy up to the top of a cliff and Jenny about had a heart attack.

 

Thursday we drove to Canyonlands and stopped at Dead Horse Point and saw some great views of the Colorado River and it's hairpin turn, then we went and hiked up to Mesa Arch. The weather was perfect for the two days of the trip that I was able to be down there. Sunny, but not too hot. When we got back to camp, I went swimming with the boys at the campground's pool, before driving home.

 

Early morning in the Zabel pop-up trailer

 

Driving in big red to the slot canyon

TJ is doing muscle arms.

I ended up running into an old friend from
my Monument Park 19th ward. We had to
climb under her to get through the slot canyons.

 

Nate fits into the baby stroller!

Chris was tired and a little sad.