A Lovely Evening

Last Monday it was my turn to host The Lovelies.
And my are they lovely!
We had such a lovely time! (If the hostess does say so herself!)

I mean, are we cute or what? We even were color coordinated and it wasn't even planned!
left to right - Amy, Lori, Julie, Elaine, Carolyn, Danielle.
We really missed Sister Kapp, Carol and Loe.
Doesn't it kind-a look like Lori's squeezing my fat roll?
She was a little. Wait - don't look at my fat rolls.

We had crispy bread with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese,
spicy honey chicken with honey citrus vinaigrette from Our Best Bites Blog
and broiled pineapple with coconut ice cream and chocolate corks that ELJ made.
So YUMMY!!!

The dressing wasn't my very favorite - but it was good enough.
I added red peppers to the salad and it was yummy and a little more colorful!

Since it is the beginning of summer I thought it would be fun to give everyone a "Jar Of Discovery!" This was my favorite gift of all time from the Second Saturday Girls in Seattle. If you look at the table in the above picture you can see the jars - they served as our centerpiece too.

Each jar is filled with ideas for activities that might help you discover things about yourself, as well as making you get out of your comfort zone a little.
There are rules to the jar.
Rule #1 - You can only remove one idea at a time.
Rule #2 - Once you take out an idea, you can't put it back.
Rule #3 - You can't pick another idea until you've completed the one you just pulled out.
Rule #4 - If you can't complete an idea, you have to get approval from the group to move on.

Fun huh?

The conversation was better than the food.
I love those girls so much!

I was super lucky because my wonderful friend Amanda and her cutie-pie Nathan came to visit for the day from Wisconsin!
I never could have made it by 6:30 without all her chopping and cooking expertise!

ELJ came over at 6:00 and helped finish all the chopping and cooking and I needed her too! She was a whiz with the pineapple -- I could barely live a day without her and I certainly can't throw a party without her -- EVER!

It was so fun to have Amanda and Nathan here -- he is the happiest baby I have ever been around in all my life! I loved getting all caught up with Amanda and it was amazing to both of us that no matter how much time passes, we're friends like always. Isn't that a miracle?

My Lovely Friends make me So Happy!

Ongoing General Conference Happiness

Ok - this is so up my alley. Cute Stephanie over at Diapers and Divinity is running a General Conference Book Club! How smart is that??!! Every week she picks a different talk and then you can read it and comment and it's great. So, I got carried away today and thought I'd just share my thoughts on my own blog about Sister Lifferth's talk.

I love this talk and I love Sister Lifferth! Besides being incredibly intelligent, articulate and spiritual she has the cutest clothes ever! She was adorable each day of Women's Conference! Love her!

I swear, I highlighted half the talk! I love that she talks about being reverent with each other. Don't you think sometimes we just get all bumped and bruised because we forget who we're dealing with and we don't make a "reverent place in our hearts" for the other sons and daughters of God we meet everyday?

She gave such good examples of how to determine that for ourselves with real everyday applications or possibly irreverent times. I super love her line - Harshness in our training begets resentment, not reverence. So true!!! Remember how Sister Beck (at BYU Women's Conference) quoted Joseph F. Smith (I think) and said that while we cannot force our children to heaven, we may force them to hell while we try and make them better but are not as good as we should be ourselves! Man, I love her. (Check out the link to her talk - you can totally hear me laughing in the background! I love it!!! Besides loving every second of her entire talk, of course!!!!!)

And how excellent for Sister Lifferth to show that the real reason for reverence is at it's core - self-discipline. I am so going to try and be more reverent. I laugh outloud in church sometimes and have even been known to chuckle in the Temple. I'm pretty good about the cell phone in church but profound respect mingled with love is not always my first thought. And that is respect and love for God and our fellow man. Being reverent helps us follow the first and most important commandment! I love it.

Another thought I love -- creating a place of reverence in our hearts. Isn't that a fabulous idea? That is something I can do. And I can go to that place and be reminded of it in times that require reverence and then maybe someday I can just BE that person. That's my goal.

OK - I'm a huge general conference nerd. Who's surprised - come on.

Last thought - (like in testimony meeting - I know the time is short, but...) Isn't it great that President Packer promises not a miraculous transformation but a quiet one. How appropriate is that??? I certainly could use those blessings - so I will try to live the law connected to those blessings -- Reverence. Great talk. Aren't we blessed???

Seriously - General Conference and this new awesome book club I found make me So Happy!

Amy Heaven

Oh What Can I Say More?

SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Isn't She Lovely?

I have a fantastic group of friends.
Specifically, there is a group of us
"Trying A Little Harder To Be A Little Better" this year.
AGK got us all together and encouraged us.
I decided I would try a little harder to be a better homemaker
(cuz JBB says we should :)).
Here is my first effort realized.

Cute chair covers, eh?
Each month we get together and have dinner and a great time.
February's dinner was at ELJ's.
YUMMY!
Everyone brought soup, ELJ made salad and I brought dessert.
And Aprons!

Are we cute or what?
Oh Man I love that lemon fresh fabric!

The ladybug apron for Lori (who knows I LOVE Dolly and sent me this link to her interview on the Today show that I missed the other day - I mean that is friendship!).

The heart apron for AGK (who I completely adore).

I made two aprons from 3 fabrics.
We were missing a few of The Lovelies but we had a fabulous time!
I got the pattern for the aprons at A Feathered Nest.
Love that blog!
My mom had to super help me because it wasn't as easy as I thought it should've been. But it was my first "solo" sewing project and I think they turned out pretty dang cute!!! Once I got the hang of it (thanks only to my mom's super human patience) they took me about an hour to finish.

Homemaking and The Lovelies make me SO Happy!

Going Green

Oh. My. Favorite New Musical.

I got to see Wicked tonight. It was FANTASTIC!!!!! I loved every single second! The music. The sets. The costumes. The story. The singing. The script. The Wizard of Oz references.

A. Mazing.

Honestly, sometimes my life is just too perfect!

I got to go tonight with ELJ and her sis and 3 super incredible grandkids. So Fun.

Also, it was the first time I've ever used a men's restroom when it was not specially set apart as a woman's bathroom. The lines were SO long! Crazy long. Clear back into the theater long. So -- I went up to the third floor thinking only the super-needy would head up there -- but no. Super long line. But no one going into the men's! Well - ok like 3 guys. But we lined up and as soon as the coast was clear we were in! The mom and daughter ahead of me were having a whole, "No mom, I don't have to go." - "Look, if you don't go now, don't even think you're getting up during the show - just try and go" conversation and precious time was wasting! So I gave the mom a little push and said - "you go!" She was like - "well I really don't have to but I know she needs to go..." I couldn't hold back - I said, "Go, Go, Go!" Come on lady! One stall, intermission-over's-warning already rang and I've gotta go! So after I said - go go go - I said - alright, I'll go! So I jumped the line and I was in! And it made it back with one minute of intermission left! PHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love the theater. Love it - loaf it - lurve it.

There were definitely some Gospel parallels in the show - but I need to listen to the music some more to remember them all. Fantastic.

I can't wait to know all the music by heart and get to belt it out in the car all the way to Provo. :) (That's just the farthest place I could think of that I regularly go.)

Noah always calls Sister Rasband "the Rasband of Oz." I like that title. :)

Soooooo... If you get the chance - take it. Definitely. It will make you So Happy!

How Do You Say Happy Birthday In German?

Well -- Happy Birthday to Hilda today.

She would be 96. Isn't that amazing?

I miss her a lot.

It's amazing to me that one person can mean so much to you in such a short time. But she did.

You can read some happy memories of her here...

I remember just two days before she died we were talking about death.

She said, "When I die, you can be happy. It's what I want. I'm ready."
I told her, "I will be happy because I believe you'll be with your family again."
She said, "Ach (waving her hand in front of her face). I don't believe that."
I said, "Well, one of us is wrong and one of us is right and I think you're going to be very surprised."

She laughed with me.

I used to dream about her occasionally but not anymore.

I hope that even though she's busy somewhere she remembers me.

Did you ever know someone that you were absolutely sure you knew before you came to earth?

It was like that with Hilda. I think she was the whole reason I went to Seattle.

There were other wonderful things for me there - but she was the real reason.

I'm pretty sure Ryn got to meet her already.
Lots of times I'll tell Heavenly Father to tell them both Hello and I miss them.
I'm sure they get the message.
It'll be so good to see her again someday.
Thinking about the miracle of Hilda makes me miss her and at the same time,
So Happy.

Break A Leg! (Wait - Not REAL-ly)

{Sigh}

The Melodrama is over...


It was a blast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Damsel In Distress and The Hero!

Thank you so much to EVERY single one of you that came!
I have the best family and friends in the world!
I'm so sad that I didn't get pictures with everyone that came!


Awesome Brothers and Awesome Katie My Sis-in-Law!


































My Grandma!





















The lovely Brittany and Brianna - miss you guys!!

And the Disney Girls --
it was the kind-of day when you opened your mouth and a song came right out!

My First Favorite Friend Kathy from work!
(She gets to be first favorite because 1. she is and 2. she reminds me SO much of Colleen!)




















I love the Women's Conference Ladies SO MUCH!
And the Tidwell family is perhaps my favorite family this side of the Mississippi -- They're always keeping it real smooth!

And I got 4 bouquets of flowers!!!



From the Women's Conference Ladies, The Jack's and My Mom!

Stacey also sent a gorgeous bouquet that she MADE! And she even sprayed with perfume! I'll take a pic of those too -- they are so so pretty!




















I also had a few little fans!

My cousin's Adorable son Caleb -- I was so happy he let me hold him!
And during intermission he kept saying, "More More!" Love Him!



I'm pretty sure I'll be moving to Disneyland ASAP to become Mary Poppins or Snow White because having the little adorable girls come up to see the "princess" (ME!) was potentially the coolest thing ever.

So opening night -- I completely fell! It was pretty funny -- my dress was so long that I had to hold it WAY up in order to run across the stage during the Pink Panther chase. I kind-a forgot and down I went! I shrugged to the audience and then had to crawl off on my knees whispering, "HELP ME!" as loudly and softly as I could until they dragged me off stage.
I got quite a cheer when I ran across the other way and made it without a fall.

(the lip sync to "Think" by Aretha Franklin -- SO FUN! How'd'ya like the American Idol microphone?)


Being a part of this fantastic show made me SO Happy.
(I may make you all watch the DVD later -- not sure if that'll make you so happy!) :)