What do I know.

July 2012 - August 2012  July 4th of July - Celebrating the 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays of the entire year. My family always celebrates the entire day, and our home town has lots of activities and things to do.  In fact! While I was on my mission for 18 months, away from my family, with no contact (basically) the only time I was homesick was on the 4th of July.  At the parade with Noah and Abbi. This year was amazing! I missed the sunrise ceremony, but made it to the parade.  The best part about the 4th of July is how many old familiar faces you see, and the community  feeling as you celebrate together.  I literally almost cried at the parade, the feeling of patriotism and community was so strong, and they had an amazing marching band from a college come and perform, the first in years. I should have recorded it.  After the parade we had a great time at the carnival in the park where my dad rushed over to his favo...

April 2012 - August 2012 April you say banana Mutant Banana -  Guess what I found? A frightening banana, that didn't look right to anyone.  Two for the price of one?   Not sure its a prize worth winning. May Beautiful Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe -  Ok, so really I had to go to Reno for the national ABPA conference.  Being president sure does have some glamorous benefits.  Lucky for me I came into some $$ not of my own and after following my non-social friend Danny around the slot machines for a while, I spent 12 hours sitting at a blackjack table. I won a lot, it was a great time, I tipped even more and walked away with.....enough for breakfast.  Dancing queen, feel the beat from the tambourine To recover my grumpy little friend drove me to Lake Tahoe, I woke up 3 times. Once to take this picture.  The second time to eat lunch and take a picture of the amazing dancing bear, and a third time to brief...

January 2012 - March 2012 January New Years - Every January my family has a fancy New Year's dinner, rarely on New Years.  My mom made it up to teach us manners, how to behave appropriately in public and at people's homes.  It was the only dinner of the year where everyone came fully clothed, used napkins, and was barred from expelling bodily gases.  Though, I did light a table decoration on fire once, it got me put outside on the porch in the cold.  One of our traditions is to write down important, or significant events and accomplishments of the year and then write down on the other side what we are looking forward to. Goals, anticipated events, etc.  Its always fun to look back at the previous years, and to realize that, despite feeling like you're coasting along doing nothing, every year is full and memorable in its own way.   (2 things on my list this year that I'll share, starting my MBA degree and The Boy having The Boy Jr, but with re...

He called me Anne Kay sometimes....I liked it. He was on his way to the temple with family names in his pocket when he died. He loved the temple, and loved serving there. He did his home teaching the night before he passed away. He helped me paint "my" cemetery fence, because he knew and cared about "our people." (and because he wasn't too old) His voice is the voice I hear every time I read anything by Dr. Seuss. My earliest memory of him is him holding me and reading Dr. Seuss with me, I think I memorized Hop on Pop just for him. He made the yummiest waffles you ever ate. He was the nicest babysitter I ever had. He was always so very happy to be with family, it was visible and contagious. He always remembered and asked about something going on in my life, it made me feel important. He loves my silly, crazy Grandma. He never turned down an opportunity to serve others or to help someone in need. He was a Marine in World War II, but would never ...

My birthday has come and passed.  I am 30 years old.  It was a fine birthday, I rushed home from my ABPA Conference in San Antonio to have dinner with my brothers, sisters, sister-in-law and Ana.  They brought my chocolates, flowers, a desk ornament of a man on a toilet, and a purse.  It was lovely.   I enjoyed making a list of 30 things to do before I'm 30.  It gave me something to work on that was challenging, and added that last bit of stress I was missing while trying to juggle everything else going on in my life.  I wasn't able to finish everything, but I don't regret the things I accomplished and I hope it doesn't diminish the things I did accomplish.  To make myself feel better about my shortcomings, and utter failure, I compiled a list of everything else I did instead of everything I thought I wanted to do....... Visited Mexico and ate lots of new things. Went to Disneyland and didn't freak out...too bad. Taught myself Joo...

The Irises in their second original home in Riverdale. Irises in their new home in Draper. The Irises origination is unknown, they became known at a home in Riverdale, Utah, built in the early 1900's.  Much later a small portion of the Irises were transplanted by a Master Gardner to a new home in Riverdale, Utah built in the 70's.  Thirdly, the Master Gardner taught her favorite niece how to transplant them and a small portion were moved about 600 ft to a new home in Riverdale, Utah.  A little over a week ago the Irises were separated again, one group finding a new home in Riverdale, and the other group migrating south to Draper. There is no flourish guarantee, I guess we'll see how much they really care for Draper climate....happy first birthday Draper Irises.

I wish I had the pictures of my cemetery with me in San Antonio but I don't.  Maybe I'll find them and post them when I get home.   Here's the explanation.  We have some relatives in the Uintah Cemetery, which dates back to 1855.  The Firth Family Plot is a landmark in the cemetery.  The perimeter of the family plot is bordered with a knee-high   wrought-iron fence.  My parents must have made me go there with them for a Memorial Day at some point.  But I loved going there, not on Memorial Day, to sit in the quiet and think and stare and listen.   There is an empty spot in there, so I signed up with the sexton so he would know it was my spot.  The trouble is now the lovely fence is damaged and since my name is the name he has, I'm the one who needs to fix it.  Unfortunately I have no idea how to fix 100+ year old wrought-iron, but I drilled, and dug, and kicked it to bits until I got the broken piece to a guy at work...

We've reached the end of Love Month, and probably my daily blogging...don't be so relieved. =P But I'll try and put a couple up each week...if I can. I heard that next month is Green Month, I like that. I'll check into it. So here is my last Love Month post until 2011. I Love.... Myself....I guess Is that conceited? I mean, I know I'm not the center of anyone's universe or anything, but I think I'm pretty great. I'd probably be friends with myself. There's definitely things about myself I"m not super fond of but, since it's love month here's what I like: 1. My interesting past experiences. (I'm not super ashamed about them, I think they make me interesting, even now when I feel like I've lost most of my strange personality to being a grownup) - My old dress habits (Loved that UTA shirt) - Misc. criminal mischief and subsequent dealings with the justice system (I don't think I"ll list those.) ...