Ceramics

So here are some pictures of the things I made in my ceramics class. I am going to be giving most of the stuff away for Christmas presents so if you see anything that you might like let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Oak Ridge Boys

At SUU they had a Holiday Gala for all the people who have donated money to SUU. Abe's grandma was invited and we went with her. The dinner was very fancy. The salad had pomegranates, apples, candied walnuts, goat cheese with a raspberry vinaigrette. The main course was turkey with green bean almondine, baked sweet dumpling squash with currant orange stuffing, truffle scented smashed potatoes, sage gravy, and fresh cranberry salsa. So pretty much it was a glorified turkey dinner. Most of it was delicious except the vegetables were not cooked enough for me. Finally the dessert was pumpkin mousse filled chocolate cups, gingerbread cookie, garnished with candied orange peels and cranberry coulis.

I had to write down all the menu because it sounds so delicious and fancy. During the dinner they had the Oak Ridge Boys come in and sing us a song. They were doing a concert that night that we were all going to after dinner. In case anyone doesn't know who the Oak Ridge Boys are, they song they are most famous for is Elvira.

The concert was a lot of fun too. I usually don't like concerts but I think it's because they are usually filled with raving teenagers. The concert was part of their Christmas tour so they had santa come out and he handed out santa hats to the kids in the audience. There were a lot of kids, they just kept coming we all had a good laugh, and they were saying that they might not have enough hats for Idaho which was the next tour stop. Also during intermission they were having a drawing for free stuff and they asked a kid or two to come help on stage and about 15 kids ran up there. One of them was a little girl about two years old I'd say, when he thanked the kids they all left except her. It was cute. The kids were funny. It was a good night.

Flopification

While Gwen was playing with play-doh, she says to me "I'm making flopification." At first I thought did she just say flopification. And then I remembered she had been watching Curious George that morning. For those who haven't seen that show, George thought a pot of boiling water was magic because it made hard spaghetti into floppy spaghetti, so he was trying to flopify other things as well. Thus flopification. Gwen was so cute she used that word for the rest of the day and every time she said it, it made me laugh.

Tarzan

I told you all that I would be posting about the next play and it was Disney's Tarzan at Tuacahn. This was the coolest thing I've ever seen. They started out by flooding the stage. Then they had the gorillas flying through the trees on ropes and pulleys. They even did it over the audience. It was awesome. The costumes were way cool too. They way they did the makeup with the costumes and the way the actors acted, it was easy to imagine them as gorillas. I especially liked Kerchak's costume. When they first introduced Jane they had a whole bunch of bug like costumes and they turned on a black light that made parts of the costumes glow as well as part of my shirt. Then the music was awesome. It was a musical and since the movie doesn't have tons of music they had a lot more in the play. The guy who played Terk was very energetic. He was lot of fun to watch. The boy who played the young Tarzan was also fun to watch. He also had a really great voice. I was really glad we got to go to this play. It was awesome. They did such a good job with this that Disney is letting them do The Little Mermaid next year.

Hair Cut

There is Gwen and I. You can't really tell but it's a A line in the back. And for those who don't know what an A line is, it's shorter in the back than in the front. I'm really liking this haircut.

Spoiled Spoiled

I have been so spoiled lately. My husband and I recently went to another play. It was called Crazy For You. It pretty much was a bunch of Gershwin songs turned into a musical. So I was familiar with some of them. And it very much reminded me of an old movie. The costumes were great and very elaborate in some instances. It was at the Tuacahn, which is an outdoor theater. They even had fireworks at the end. We quite enjoyed it. All except one song that is but I won't go into detail. It was a fun date that we had together. I really love going to plays. There is just something about them that is magical to me. Besides it all reminds me of the plays I used to be in. I am glad Abe has the job he does because it allows us to get tickets really cheap. We are going to another one this month so I'll be posting another blog soon. Also for all you out there that haven't seen me in awhile, I got my hair cut short. I will try and post a picture of it so you can see what it looks like. But until then try and be patient.

Of Mice or Men

Yesterday I had a fun time with my sister Katy. We went out to lunch and had a great time. One of the things we talked about was how she was glad she had a cat to get rid of the mice. Speaking of mice last night I had an adventure with one. I was watching a show when I look over at the furnace and catch sight of a mouse running behind it. I told my husband and he starts looking for it. Then he decides to try and catch it and he had a pretty clever plan unfortunately the mouse had moved before he could put it into play. He looks around for it some more but it seems it had disappeared. Meanwhile I am on a couch keeping my feet off the floor. Maybe I'm scared of mice but I just say it's because I don't want it running over my feet. So I go back to watching my show. A little while later I see it run into the kitchen. Abe grabs the stuff to catch it meanwhile it was about to escape so I threw something in front of it to scare it backwards a little. I actually ended up hitting it but it worked just the same. We finally get it trapped into a corner and almost got it caught but it managed to escape and run under our fridge. By this time its bedtime so my husband blocks off a path to our bedrooms and we go to bed. That's the last that we saw of it. I hope it's smart enough to leave the house. Oh the joys of owning a house. It almost makes me want to get a cat, but not quite.

Education Week

Can I tell you that education week is like a little bit of heaven? I learned so much during the week and had a lot of fun with my aunt, and mom. We would share desserts and go to classes together. I got to spend some time with a couple of my nieces and nephews and that was a blast. They are at such a fun age right now.

I would love to write down everything I learned but that would make for a really long blog that no one would want to read. So I will just pick my favorite class, it was Brad Wilcox's on the Atonement. I never really thought about some of the things he explained. The spirit would be there to let the things that he said really sink it. One of the things that struck me was the difference between the Savior's role and the role of the Redeemer. I always thought of them the same but he said that the Redeeming role was a renewing, refining, perfecting role. Not only are we cleansed from our sins but through the Savior we can be changed as well. This may sound familiar but it really struck me this time. I think he was also the teacher who said how even our best isn't as best as we can be without Him. If that made sense. That when we are filled with the spirit we are better than we would be without it. I could go on and on but I'll leave just those two things. And I'll tell you that if you ever get a chance you should go to education week, because it is life changing. I have a whole bunch of new ideas to try. And I am excited about the future. Anyway that is my enthusiasm for education week and hopefully it wasn't too overbearing.

5th Anniversary

I just had the best anniversary ever. I was spoiled so much by my wonderful husband. So to tell all about it, Thursday night we drove to our hotel and then went to a late night movie at an IMAX. First time I ever watch one of those and boy was that screen big. We saw Inception, I liked it, but it was one of those movies that kind of leave you hanging. I love going to movies. There is just something fun about watching a movie.

On Friday, we went to lunch at a Greek bbq place. It was pretty tasty. We went bowling and that was great. I hadn't bowled forever. I won all three games. But I got progressively worse so did Abe. Then we walked around a mall and I got to drool over some chocolates as well as get a free sample to eat. We went and got some yogurt. Then we ended up at two different D.I.'s where I got to spend some money on books. I love getting books. That's why D.I. is so great. Then at night we went to a Jack Johnson concert. For those who aren't familiar with him he is the one who wrote the music to the movie Curious George. We had a little traffic trouble on the way there so to avoid it on the way back we left a little earlier. Abe was really sweet and got us hotel rooms that had a big jetted tubs. So any down time I had fun taking a bath.

Saturday, we switched hotels and in the morning Abe bought me an hours massage. It was really nice and relaxing. First time I ever got a professional one. Then I got more spoiled by a play. The Pirates of Penzance, one of my favorite plays. I love the music and they did a good job. It was at a Hale Center Theater so it was a round theater. I thought it would be tough because of the small space but they used it well. They even started the play by raising a ship right out of the floor. The singing gave me chills because it was so good. I really enjoyed watching the daughters this time. Usually they aren't anything special but this time they were fun to watch. After the play we had a late lunch at a Belgium Waffle place. It was like Denny's but tasted better. Then we went back to the hotel and watched a show called Top Shot that was a shooting competition. It was interesting to see the different challenges. They had them shot sling shots, bows, as well as the different type of guns. Then on Sunday we went to church and then came home. It was a good trip. Hope you all are jealous.

Modesty

Gwen will sometimes say the strangest things. The other day we were driving and she said that she turns like a doggy, mommy turns like a monkey, and grandma turns like a doggy too. If any of you can tell me what that means I'll be really impressed since I have no clue whatsoever. She has been really enjoying drawing lately. The other day she kept drawing spiders. Of course she doesn't know how many legs they have so hers had about a hundred. They were really cute. And finally today she decided to wear all her clothes backward. It looks really funny but she loves it. She is also wearing a tank top today. I told her to put something under it, I said it was immodest and she said. "I like immodest. It's my favorite immodest." The way she said immodest was without the im but I knew what she meant. What to do with her?

Dying of Boredom and Depression

This is one of those nights that the only thing to make me feel better is make a big batch of cookies. My husband is trying to make up for lost money by working two jobs. He doesn't go in very often for the second one but when he does I feel lonely. It doesn't help that I keep forgetting when he is going in so it's a total surprise to me when he never shows up for the dinner I made him. Well it was a delicious dinner without him. I decided to experiment with curry. The recipes I've made before all came from a recipe. This time I just took a few ingredients from around the house and put them together. Sometimes it's a little scary doing this but it turned out well. The only thing that could have improved it was more curry.

Now just to make you all jealous I'm going to tell you what I'm putting in my cookies. Other than chocolate chips I have nuts and coconut. If I get really crazy I may start putting in stuff like broken up candy bars. But I may not do that since I already experimented with dinner. Wish you were all here to share them with me.

Potty Training trauma

So I thought I was pretty much done with potty training but it turns out that Gwen has reverted. I feel like I have to start over or something. I'm almost tempted to just put her back in diapers and call it quits, next time she can potty train herself. I would rave on about how upset I am about this but I'm sure that no one wants to read about it, so I'll change the subject.

I just got back from a trip visiting my family. It was a lot of fun. It was very relaxing. The next fun thing I have planned other than my 5th year anniversary is Education Week. I am really looking forward to it. Hopefully I'll come back from it uplifted and ready to handle life again. So I should have a lot of fun in a few weeks. If things go according to plan I'll also be taking some classes this fall. So we'll see how it goes.

A Nice Surprise

Yesterday Gwen wanted to bring her pajamas over to Grandma's house so she could sleep over. Grandma said it would be ok so Abe and I had the night to ourselves. He took me out to dinner and afterwards we went home. I was thinking we would just watch a movie or something but he told me that we were leaving again. I asked him where but he wouldn't tell me. Turned out that he bought tickets for a play. I love to go and watch plays. It was Pride and Prejudice. I was excited to see what they would do with it. They did a good job for how short they had to cut the book. There was no big scene changes the action led from one scene to the next quite quickly sometime in the middle of a sentence. Example night time Caroline Bingley says "I hope Jane recovers so that we don't get a visit from... (morning) Mrs. Bennet how good it is to see you." My all time favorite character was Mr. Collins. The actor who played him was good. He talked in a smarmy voice and it was just hilarious how he played it. But this is one of those things that you just had to be there. It was a wonderful night.

Strange

It's strange that sometimes I'll check my blog to see if there are any new entries forgetting that I'm the only one who puts posts on it. Once I remember it's my job I try and think of something interesting to say and usually fall short. So I put off writing on it once again. If anyone is wondering what I've been up to lately, I've been trying to potty train Gwen. It's been about a week and she still doesn't pay attention to it. Hopefully it will click anytime now. I've also been trying to grow grass on my lawn and have succeeded in getting a few patches here and there.

New Pet

This is Gwen's new pet. Now looking at it you would think that it is a snake. Well you would be wrong. This is Gwen's new doggy. She even has a lease around it's neck. She loves this toy and will hook the other end of the lease to the drawer handles so that he won't run away. As far as I know he doesn't have a name. But this is the cleanest pet I've ever owned.

Spelling

I love the way Gwen spells things. She thinks there is only three letters in the whole alphabet. The other day she painted her name with chapstick on her chair. She said,

"This says my name, A T R A."

That's also how she sings the alphabet "A T R A T R A R T A T. . ." etc.

Feet Friends

It all started at my mom's house. Gwen was sitting in mom's chair and I was lying down on the couch with my feet up on the arm rest. After Gwen started crying I wiggled my toes at her and said, "Hello Gwen. Don't cry, it's ok." She was enchanted from the first word. She stopped crying and held a conversation with my feet. Since then she has played with my feet several times. She'll come over and hug them and kiss them. She'll call them her friends. Once when I was watching a show she banged my feet together and started shouting, "Talk friends. Talk!" It makes my feet feel all special to be loved so much. Gwen is so cute and funny to watch sometimes. I'm glad that my feet can be so entertaining to her.

She has quite the imagination. When we visit grandma's house she will call it her castle. Yesterday I found out what our house is called. The Monster House. She got out of the car and patted the side of the house and said, "I pet my monster house. I love my monster house."

Hair Dye part 2

And this is after I dyed it. I decided to go a little red. Katy says it looks a little like my high school days hair color but a little redder. So there it is.

Hair Dye

Been thinking a long time about dyeing my hair. I finally caved in when we saw a sale for hair dye at one of the grocery stores. This is before I changed my color.

Independency.

One of the things that makes me laugh the most is when Gwen wants to be independent.

"Gwen you need to put on your coat or you'll freeze."

"I want freeze."

"If you eat too much candy it will make you sick."

"I want sick."

My favorite though is:

"Gwen you can't ride in the trunk of the car. It's illegal."

"I want illegal."

Kids, you just gotta love them.

Time Out

Gwen has been really funny lately. Yesterday was her first day as a sunbeam in our ward and she was really good. When the teacher asked her questions she would answer them. She would dance and sing to all the primary songs. I hope she continues to be such a good girl. She also had her first time of saying a prayer (repeating it really). She always refused to do it and I finally got her to do it twice now. One cute thing she did was her daddy was expressing some frustration with the internet connection and Gwen told him to stop fighting and that he was on time out. I also got put on time out today because I told Gwen to stop yelling. Now which one of us was the parent again?

I have to watch what I tell Gwen because she chooses the most embarrassing time to repeat it. She has a book about the human body that I read to her one time. We talked about what happens to the food we eat. Of course that's what she says when we had snack time on Sunday. I was a little embarrassed to say the least. That's the last time I will try and be scientific with Gwen. At least I know she understood.