BYU Football and General Authorities

Man, oh, man did we pick the best year to get cable JUST to watch the BYU games! Oh, and even better than watching each game on TV? Going in person! Hilary's sister and hubby couldn't make it, so they gave the tickets to Hilary. Good thing about Lee being a pilot and out of town is that I get to be the fill-in when he can't do cool things like this. :) Morgan took a pretty good pic of the two of us before we set off for the game. Thanks to Hilary's parents, we not only matched, but were ready to FULLY cheer on our BYU Cougars:


Hilary and her parents were quite concerned about me because I forgot to wear sunscreen or bring a hat. (These are things I'll get down when I'm the one with season tickets. :) Anyway, as you can see from the photo above, I just have a red face. However, I kept telling them that if I did get a really bad burn, then when people asked how I got it I could brag about being at the game. I did get a little burned (after turning down Dale's repeated attempts to give me his hat), but not enough that even one person asked me about it. Can you believe that? Anyway, here are the four of us before the game even started. You think those are good smiles? I'm sure a photo at the end of the game would have had us with even bigger smiles on our faces:


So, the only thing better than BYU slaughtering UCLA and shutting them out was that Hilary and I got to see and shake hands with Elder L. Tom Perry of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I saw a man in a suit and knew it had to be someone important! We took pictures without asking him to stop and pose with us, but he was very gracious to anyone who wanted to shake hands or take a picture:


I am so grateful that we have a prophet with two great counselors who are supported by 12 Apostles on the earth today. We have people here to guide us who are as powerful and important as Moses, Abraham, Isaiah, etc. What a wonderful thing it is to have someone acting as the mouthpiece for the Lord here on the Earth to lead all people!

I have no other reason to post the following picture other than every time I look at it I smile. It is one of our newest Apostles, Quentin L. Cook. I received a calling from him when I was the Seattle-area public affairs media director. Since it was an area calling and he was the area authority at the time, he was the one to give me the call. In any case, we had a big genealogy event with the Black Genealogy Research Group of Seattle, and this picture is from a luncheon prior to the event. I never got a picture with Elder Cook (too busy handling a different media crisis), but I was glad to have a copy of the pictures, including this one of him just having a great, ol' time! Look at that smile:


I love that the "celebrities" of our church are just humble, righteous men who are making a difference in their own quiet, humble ways. I think many church members would rather meet our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, rather than any celebrity in the world. I know that's true for me.

9/11

Today is the anniversary of the dreadful 9/11 attacks. It was my first day alone with my new baby Tyler. When Paul heard the news he let me sleep a bit longer before calling to tell me, and then I just sat there glued to the TV trying to figure it all out. Actually, when he called and said, "Turn on the TV," I made him tell me what was wrong, because the last time someone said that it was the Oklahoma City bombing.

It was a horrible day that actually brought out the best in our nation. Makes me realize that sometimes our best DOES indeed come through trials, as much as we don't want them or like them. I'm definitely not one of those who gets up at church and says, "I'm grateful for my trials." However, I am grateful for what I learn when I am pushed to my limit and tested.

Anyway, shortly after 9/11 I received the following via e-mail. I LOVE it! I know that God has to let people have their agency so that He can judge them accordingly. If He stopped people from doing anything wrong, that is taking away their agency, and He can't punish them for something they didn't do. So, although He lets bad things happen to His children, He is there for them throughout.

Where Was God on September 11, 2001?
How many of us have heard that question "Where was your God when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked?" Well I know where my God was the morning of September 11, 2001, and He was very busy!

• He was trying to discourage anyone from taking these flights. Those four flights together held more than 1,000 passengers and there were only 266 aboard. He was also on those four flights giving terrified passengers the ability to stay calm. Not one of the family members who were called by a loved one on a hijacked plane said that passengers were screaming in the background. On one of the flights he was giving strength to passengers to try to overtake the hijackers.
• God was also busy creating obstacles to prevent people who worked in the WTC from getting to work on time. The work day had begun, more than 50,000 people worked in the two towers, yet only 20,000 were at their desks. On that beautiful morning, God created scores of unexpected traffic delays, subway delays, and commuter train delays. A PATH train packed with commuters was stopped at a signal just short of the WTC and was able to return to Jersey City. And far more meetings were scheduled elsewhere than was usual.
• God held up each of the two mighty towers for a half hour so that the people on the lower floors could get out. And when He finally let go, He caused the towers to fall inward rather than to topple over, which would have killed so many more people. The foundations of six surrounding buildings were demolished by the fall of the towers, but God held them up for many hours until all the occupants were safely evacuated.
• And when the World Trade Center buildings went down, my God picked up almost 3,500 of His children and carried them to their home for all eternity. He also sat down and cried that 19 of His misguided children could have so much hate in their hearts, that they did not choose Him, but another god that doesn't exist.
• He sent his children who are best trained for this disaster (firefighters and police officers) and had them save those who were still alive but unable to help themselves. And then He sent many others to help in any way they were needed. And He brought people together across the world in a way that moved thousands to tears and hundreds of thousands to prayer—and caused millions to turn to the one true living God.
• He still isn't finished. Every day He comforts those who lost loved ones and gives His other children the strength to reach out and help them in any way they can. He is encouraging others to reach out to those who don't know Him or believe in Him. He is giving the leaders of our great nation the strength and conviction to do the right thing, to follow His will, not a popularity poll.
• And I believe he will continue to help us in what is to come. He would never leave us in our time of need.

So if anyone ever asks, "Where was your God on 9/11?" you can say, "He was everywhere! And, in fact, he is everywhere today and every day." Without a doubt, this was the worst catastrophe most of us have ever seen. I can't imagine getting through such a difficult time without God at my side. Without God, life would be hopeless.

- Author unknown

Random thoughts ...

Just a few random thoughts about life these days, including a few things that just don't matter but are a part of life anyway ...

First of all I have to say how grateful we are for Paul's new job!!! I went to Costco this week and realized that EVERY item we buy there went up in price. Without his raise, we would be feeling the pain of higher groceries. Also, people are jumping ship left and right from his old company. The management is no longer trying to improve the company, but trying to "slim" it up to sell. It sounds like a mess, and we're glad we left when we did. We just hope Paul's friends still there get out while the gettin' is good! (Jump, Josh! Jump!!)

Something annoying me lately is Lifetouch. They're the photo people who do sports photos here and school pics. I didn't actually order any school pictures this year, because last year's were a crock -- Becca's was so dark her hair looked black (it's brown), and Tyler's were off-center. How hard is it when you tell the kid to sit down and snap his picture?!? Their sports photos are even worse -- in Tyler's T-ball picture he is so far back you can't confirm for sure whether or not it's him. Apparently some lady just posed my nephew so he got the pictures back and doesn't appreciate his feminine pose. In soccer last year they got the water meter cover in the pictures with the individual poses -- until I pointed it out to them and they corrected the problem. Duh! This is your job -- do it right!!! In any case, I've decided to start taking my own pictures by standing next to the Lifetouch photographer and just taking one the same time they do.

Well, due to weather they had to move them inside this year, so I ordered a small package anyway since my camera isn't the best for indoors. (My Canon SLR is still on the wishlist!) Anyway, I took the team photo wihout a problem. Then for individual pictures the lady informs me that their background is copyrighted, and I can't use my camera to take any pictures on their background. Excuse me? The BACKGROUND is copyrighted? I told her I ordered a package, but I wanted a backup since I really didn't always get the best pictures from them. She said no. I asked who her supervisor was so I could ask them. She said, "There's Frank. If he says it's okay we can do it." I explained the situation to Frank and he said sure, I could take a picture -- especially since I ordered a package. She said, "Well, I guess we better ask Mike." HELLO! You just said Frank could decide. Why did we ask him if he's not your supervisor?!? I said, "You said if we ask Frank and he said yes we could do it. We're already going to be late for the soccer game, let's just go on what Frank said!" She was all worried, but Frank said, "Just let her do it!" So, Tyler gets up to pose, and the lady steps in front of me on purpose. Are you kidding?!? In any case, I had him step to the side and got this picture ... hope I don't get arrested for using this so totally original background that Lifetouch copyrighted ...



And the last little annoying thing has to do with my car blinkers -- they're not working. Apparently I have some kind of short in the system, so sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, and sometimes the wrong blinker comes on. (The first time the wrong blinker came on I figured I was really tired and had turned on the wrong one. Nope, just the car thinking backwards. I can't wait to get my Toyota!!! They rule!) Anyway, I haven't worried too much about it, but I'm sure I get some people behind me a little annoyed ("Thanks for the blink, Dink!"). So, last night I came to an intersection where I had the right-of-way, the guy coming towards me wanted to turn left, as did I. I figured rather than making him wait until I got to the intersection to turn left, I would stick my arm out the window and signal that way. You should have seen the looks I got! The guy coming towards me was so stumped by my signal that he just sat there staring at me. The lady sitting at the stop sign on my left stared at me all the way around the corner with a confused look on her face. Maybe I should try the arm signaling more often -- it was hilarious!

Oh, and the most hilarious randomness comes from Becca. Oftentimes in the morning her brain isn't quite awake yet. This morning she wasn't wearing her glasses, and Paul and I kept saying she was missing something ("I SEE when I LOOK at you that you're missing something"), that maybe she had Lasik and didn't tell us, or that her vision improved dramatically overnight, and she said (in a VERY annoyed voice), "I am wearing my retainers!" But that wasn't the one that had me almost crying I was laughing so hard. We were reading scriptures, and we came to the one that I always read as, "Forgive men their trespasses." Becca was reading, and she said, "Forgive men their tapestries." I laughed so hard I almost couldn't be respectful during our prayer later! In any case, if you have curtains I don't like, I will work on forgiving you. :)

College days ...

So today I went onto BYU campus for the first time since I graduated 9 years ago. Has it really been THAT long? I suppose so, considering I moved to Seattle got married and now have four children. :)

I've been meaning to go look at how everything has changed, but I just haven't gotten around to it. However, I wanted a BYU shirt for Shayla (sans shipping costs), so I stopped by for a brief moment this morning.

Walking back into the WILK, where I spent a LOT of time as a student editor of The Daily Universe (it has since moved locations), I just felt a sense of energy. I looked at how things had changed (a computer lab on the first floor of the WILK?) and thought about how much fun it was to go to school there. I walked through the eatery and study area and listened to someone playing beautiful piano music. I remembered the yummy chocolate oreo shakes I would get from time to time at the eatery.

Just looking around made me miss college life! I had so much fun and energy during college, and I felt smart and useful. Seems I often feel like I'm missing on some of those things these days. :)

Anyway, then I remembered how stressful it was to be a student and to look forward to graduation and wonder what it would be like to "start life" after college was over. (Honestly, my most fun as a single woman came from my days in Seattle. I loved the Kent 9th Branch!) I thought about the whole dating scene and what a mess it seemed, and how stressful that could be. I remembered that while I was single I also didn't have the same confidence and surety that I have now, even though my brain doesn't seem to function on the same plane as it did during those BYU days. I remembered that although I did have TONS of fun at BYU and in the K-9, I am SO HAPPY to be married, and to be happily married at that. I am grateful that we have been blessed to have four wonderful children and hope to add more to our ranks one of these days. I'm grateful that I got to experience that life -- and love almost every minute of it -- rather than getting married shortly after high school (which is probably what I wanted to do at the time). And I remembered what an honor I felt to graduate from college, and especially from BYU -- a college filled to the brim with good, honest, hard-working, FUN people who will be friends for life.

I should probably mention on that note that BYU is where I met my BFF Hilary. We were both interns at Novell and spending LOTS of time at The Daily Universe and somehow we just clicked. We served in the public relations student society together, went to Boston together, wrote and worked on a PR movie together, and taught countless numbers of people how to play Yahtzee! (Where did these non-Yahtzee! people come from, anyway?) We were roommates our senior year, and we moved up to Seattle together after that. I'm not sure I would have had the guts to go to Seattle without her, and it was an AWESOME experience with her. Hil, you're the best. Have we really only been friends for 10 years?!? Oh, and when are we doing Hawaii again?!?

In BYU football gear we borrowed for our PR video (BTW, Lavell Edwards was SO NICE!):



With the most awesome college mascot ever (Cosmo), the awesome BYU football coach (Lavell Edwards), and the very kind President Merrill with his wife. Hil is next to Cosmo, I'm ducking down next to her:


Pretending to be broadcast news reporters on graduation day. So glad we stuck with print:


At Pearl Harbor. Yes, I realize Hilary is with my mom -- not me -- in this picture. Somehow at the top of Diamond Head I have a picture with Hilary and my parents, but nobody got a picture of me. I PROMISE I did make the climb!


The Seattle ferry -- Christmas card from 1999:

Men!

On Saturday we had our friends over to join us in cheering on our BYU Cougars (Go, BYU -- AWESOME win!), and their little girl showed up in the same shirt that Shayla has. Now, Marilee and I had already figured out that our girls had the same shirt, because when she came over on Tuesday Shayla was wearing hers. It happened that yesterday Scotty got Savannah dressed and put her in the shirt without knowing that Shayla has one, too.

So, when they showed up with Savannah wearing the shirt, Marilee and I decided we had to put Shayla in hers for a picture of the two together. Then we decided we'd leave her in it and see how long it took our husbands to notice that our daughters were wearing the same shirts.

Guess how long it took them? Well, they never really did figure it out on their own. Marilee gave some not-so-subtle hints as we sat around the table eating dinner -- with Savannah and Shayla sitting right next to each other -- and the men still didn't notice. We had to finally say, "Look at Savannah. Now look at Shayla. Notice anything?" It was hilarious.

So, I guess next time Paul doesn't notice my new haircut (again), I'll try not to take it personallly. It's just a guy thing.

In any case, here are the two cuties:

Kite festival

Okay, so I'm still surprised I got only two comments on Disneyland suggestions. Please, keep 'em coming. Those were great ideas, and I'd love more ...

Anyway, this weekend we got to attend the first-ever kite festival in Spanish Fork. (Actually, I think they eventually settled on the name "Sky Spectacular" but whatever.) What is it about kites? They really are just exciting! They put to use some of this crazy wind we constantly have in Spanish Fork.

The festival was planned as a kick-off event for nine HUGE (>400 feet) wind-powered windmills/turbines that will create energy ... although not energy that we will use here in Spanish Fork. (They are owned by a different company than what we use in Spanish Fork.) We're still waiting for all nine windmills to be going at once, but they are exciting to see (behind Shayla in this photo from our hike to the cross):



Anyway, we decided to go to the festival on Friday to try to avoid some of the ribbon-cutting ceremony crowds on Saturday. They had free kites for the kids to make that were just cool, and they worked really well. We went up with Hilary and her girls, so here are the kites they all made:


We were on the ridge of the mountain, and we got some pretty good wind. The kites were easy to get going, so the kids LOVED them! Here are my kids flying around with theirs.

Zachary:


Tyler:


Shayla actually got her kite into the air a few times, but I included this photo since you can see her cute little face. At one point I saw a woman sitting down clicking tons of pictures of Shayla. I figured she was probably a reporter, but just in case I called Shayla over to me. The woman then came over and said she was indeed a reporter and asked if she could use Shayla's pic in the newspaper. I love when other people realize how cute my kids are. :) Anyway, she did look cute trying to fly that kite, just like my boys (who the reporter also snapped a few pics of):


(This part for Hilary only: Look at the kids' kites they were giving to the kids on Saturday! I'm so glad we went on Friday!!!)


They had some really huge, cool kites there with expert kite-flyers. Unfortunately on Friday there wasn't tons of wind, so they only got the octopus up for about 30 seconds, and they never got the 100-foot cat in the air. However, I was quick enough to get a pic of the octopus, and I went back on Saturday to try to catch the cat, but it wasn't even there on Saturday. (You can see it on the ground by the octopus):


However, on Saturday there was a kite of a woman swimming that was just AWESOME! She really looked like she was swimming, and gracefully at that. Being in the blue sky and seeing the mountain behind her almost makes it really look like she was in the ocean with rocks she was scuba diving around. Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention that there were two small shark kites attached to her to look like they were following her:


Here are Tyler and Zachary in front of a little cove of kites they had:


They also had guys on jet skis on the reservoir to do kites over the water. That was awesome to watch. When I look at these pictures, I relate very well to John Denver's song, "Rocky Mountain High." How can you not LOVE living in the Rocky Mountains when you see pictures like this?


Because the event was a kick-off for clean energy, they also had all kinds of other vendors there, including Smart Cars and others like it:


I also had my first chance to ride a Segway. I've always wondered what it would be like to ride them, and they really are easy. (I guess this depends on whether or not you usually keep your balance. I do, so it was easy. I think I've found an extremely fun way to be lazy! :) The police departments around here are getting into buying them for crowded events. Doesn't make sense to me, but they sure are a fun way to spend tax-payers' dollars! My boys were bummed they couldn't try one (you had to be 16), but Tyler got a picture of me on one:


We're sure hoping that next year they have the event again. I know they were overwhelmed by the response -- when I went back on Saturday morning I had a brief conversation with one of the organizers, and she had been up until 2 a.m. printing off more maps (of vendor locations) and getting supplies to make the alternative children's kite after running out of the cool ones my kids got to make. I guess on Friday alone they had 1,700 cars. What do you expect when it's a really cool event in a beautiful location and is totally free?!? I think next time they'll get it ... hopefully! :)

Disneyland or Bust

We are so excited to be going to Disneyland next month!!! I haven't been for more than 13 years! California Adventure? Never seen it.

We are very excited to be staying at the Portofino in a family suite -- a separate compartment/room for the kids with a set of bunk beds for the boys and a sleeper couch for Becca. Hello! Exciting!!!

Anyway, I need your comments -- what do we need to know to best enjoy Disneyland? (especially Disneyland with kids)?

I'm tempted to do the root beer in a diaper in a bag on the stroller (to look like a messy diaper) so that people will leave it alone, but I'm really not too concerned w/the stroller. (If I did this it would mostly be for the laugh.) Any other (maybe more helpeful) tidbits? I'll take 'em all!