Hiking the Y and FHE

 Finally got up to the Y on the mountain since our return home.
Forgot how steep it was, and with Scotts asthma, it was not really fun for him.  But it felt good to get up to the top and it was a spectacular view!

 We have been trying to find some ways to fit into the ward just a bit since we are so busy at the MTC.

The past few weeks I have been emailing a compilation of ward missionary letters home out to other interested ward members.  That was something they did in our Peoria ward that I enjoyed. 

Another thing we enjoyed was to get together once monthly with couples in the ward (whenever we could make it work) who did not have young children at home, for an adult Family Home Evening.
We hosted the first one this month, and all seemed excited to continue the tradition!
It was really fun for us too!  An excuse to cook some Cafe Rio Pork is always good!

Remembering Sept 11/BYU Game on Sept 11, 2014 : BYU Card Stunt

http://youtu.be/zNSJXgOANGY

CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE TO SEE THE CARD STUNT AT THE GAME SEPT 11, 2014














 The night before Sept 11, I was looking at scrapbooks helping Breanna find some photos to show her class what it was like before Sept 11 in New York City.
Here is what I found:

 Scrapbook pages from our trip to New York City 3 months before the Sept 11 terrorist acts.

 I remember it was eerie to scrapbook these pages later, knowing that things had drastically changed in that part of the city, and in our hearts and minds forever.










I was grateful to Breanna for helping me take the time to think about what happened...my memories of that day, and how grateful I am for sweet memories of this place, of love for those who lost their lives and for those who tried to help and for the fierce loyalty that I feel towards a free country with ideals based on principles that I believe deeply in.

 We were lucky enough to be at this BYU game on September 11 and to participate in the "Card Stunt" shown at the top of this post.  We were in the top lefthand W and then in the "Y" when it changes.

Cody and his friend Jayce came along and really made it more "normal" for me, as I was pretty used to taking a child to a game when we had season tickets.




We enjoyed dinner before the game at our house with Carole, Lori, Mitch, Al, Aaron and Matthew and Ella along with Ed from Scott's work.


We really had a good time!  Felt good to be at a BYU game, and to be with family!
We struck it rich and saw one RM, Derek Scharf and a couple of RM Mission President friends the Pingrees!  







The boys really made it more fun!  Cody was creative and we used the tape that held our card stunt cards, to make him some face decor!

PROJECTS

 Coming home has given us an opportunity to upgrade some things around the house...new carpet on the main floor was wonderful to come home to, and we gave away our sofa set so we ordered a light color set and totally changed the colors to match more our kitchen with navy and natural.

This created a need for lighter wood pieces and not so much oak, so after looking all over for some new pieces, and after spending tons on yard and such we were just poor enough that it made it perfect for some DIY projects.

 So, the old laminate table got painted barely off white and then antiqued.

 As did the little oak side table that is about the only thing small enough to fit by the huge new couch.

And this week my storage bench that I ordered custom made from Target no less, arrived and I had already purchased some nailhead trim to hammer onto it to make it match the sofa and large chair in the room...it looks like part of the set!

And it serves to store the blankets that I cover my sofa and chair with during the week so little preschooler feet do not ruin the light color fabric!

DEPARTING MISSIONARIES MTC August-September 2014

 We decided to try to continue the tradition of getting a photo with our departing missionaries...even if we have only known them for 6 weeks!  But, we have met with them twice a week for that time, so we get attached!
Leaving early Aug were:
Elder Rowland, Portluck, Caldwell (all to Mexico), and Sister Graham (to SLC before Spain) and Mattson to Spain.

Our second departing missionaries were all going to either MONE Mexico or CIUO Mexico...not sure which missions those are...the church has their own abbreviations.
Sisters Burton, Turley, Wagner, Louie, Elders Williams, Shakespeare, Lords, Tanner and Jepson.  We got pretty attached to this group, they went through a lot, and we know they will be awesome!
We love our work at the MTC.  We know where they are going, and a bit how to help them on their way!


This group of Elders were heading to Mexico Monterrey W. and Mexico City West.
Elders Wall, Kitchen (from Cottonwood) DeMars, Kennington, Goff, Andrews, Gale, Nielson, Lofgreen, Fjerstad, Nisson and Larson
 






We got pretty attached to this group!

Sisters Kiel, Mello and Tew all going to TEMPE!! Yay! and standing, Elders Gamble-Thompson, Goodrich, Guymon, Reese and kneeling, Elders Pudil, Hoyt and Blanding.
Guymon, Hoyt, Goodrich and Reese all are going to Tempe too, the rest to CA San Fernando.  

   Here are a couple more districts that are leaving the last of September!

Elders Atkinson, Checketts, Konieczny and Selfsaison, Us, Sisters Dossett, Gomez, Titensor and Lee.  Heading to CA Santa Rosa (except Elder S to NYCS)

 And...some things never change!
This is what happens when you let any missionary have any photographic device, even your iPhone.

 Well,  you get some pretty cute photos too!

Love these Sisters!

And some random shots of the nice courtyard area of the West Campus, which will soon be just a memory as they are consolidating our campus up onto Main Campus by the end of October.

DANA COMES TO UTAH!

The long-awaited day arrived when Dana flew in to Utah for a week!

She used the excuse to come to BYU EDUCATION WEEK to come visit us.

It was a good excuse!

This is us at the SLC Airport.  Her phone died, so it was amazing she found me at all!









She brought our friend "FLAT CHERYL" to come along for the trip!

Flat Cheryl has been having amazing adventures in Arizona after "real, live Cheryl" left in July!

On our way down to Provo, I surprised Dana with some stops at some pretty cool places on the way.





First stop was the OQUIRRH MOUNTAIN TEMPLE.  Really, it is a pretty bold name for a temple, hard to spell.

But beautiful to visit and so pretty that day with some clouds behind it.

 Next stop was the JORDAN RIVER TEMPLE which was also very beautiful.  What can we say...temples are just naturally so pretty!

 But when we arrived at the DRAPER TEMPLE, it was truly the perfect setting for incredible photos...the night setting in and clouds and such were just perfect!

And to top it all off, we saw this as we came down to the roundabout down from the temple and I got this amazing shot.  Nice!

Friday we packed up and headed out for the day...after a good morning run!


We headed to THIS IS THE PLACE HERITAGE PARK for all morning.  I had not been there in FOREVER!

It is really nice now, it is commercially operated, but works out well.

 We then went and picked up Scott to go to lunch at Blue Iguana, a favorite Mexican restaurant downtown.



Then we walked over and toured BEEHIVE HOUSE and then over to Temple Square to tour it all over!

We even went across the street to take a tour of the CONFERENCE CENTER that I had never done before.  Our guide was so nice and we stayed a lot longer than we anticipated!  (Much to Scott's disappointment since we were giving him a ride home from work)


We even saw where they film MUSIC AND THE SPOKEN WORD so that I knew where the guy stands to speak during the broadcast...it is STAGE LEFT!

 We went all the way to the top of the center and got a nice view of the city behind us.

Saturday morning began with a walk in Provo Canyon to Bridal Veil Falls.  We walked, fed fish and got pretty chilly for AZ natives!

 Later that day, we dressed up and went to the temple to do a temple session with a couple of boys in our Provo ward.

That was really special!

 After that session, we booked it to get to the MT TIMPANOGOS TEMPLE for a sealing of one of our missionaries (Adam O'Neal).  Worked out well that we made it because his folks did not, so we got to play Mom and Witness for him!  Pretty awesome!

 We came right from that temple to meet the family for Nathan and Daniels 3 birthday party at the park.  So, we were in dresses...



...didn't stop us from some swinging good times!

Dana loved meeting Mel and Ivan...they loved her too!

Monday night we were invited to Bishop and Valerie Eastmans condo for dinner and this was our 33 ANNIVERSARY, which is always horrible timing to go out to eat with Education Week and BYU graduation...so, it was perfect to celebrate with friends...including PHAT SOMETHINGORANOTHER...help, I cannot remember his name Dana!

Education week is also my first week of teaching for the fall, and hence, pretty stressful!  Dana was super patient with me and our friends picked her up each morning so I did not have to worry about that.
Wednesday night we met up with Eddie Geritsen, one of our RMs who taught Dana's husband, Ed.  It was sweet to go to the temple with him.

 Friday Dana skipped out on Education Week to go with me up to Ogden to the new TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE.  It was lovely!  They did a really great job of re-working this old temple.

 From here, we picked up Scott back in SLC and drove him back to BOUNTIFUL TEMPLE where we attended the sealing of another missionary, Carlos Arias.  Dana did initiatory work while we attended sealings this week.  She just loves going to the temple and got plenty of chances with us!

We took Scott back to work and then went to THANKSGIVING POINT to walk the gardens...but first, we had to change clothes somewhere, so this gas station was perfect.

We joked about having a NEW BFF...don't think that the Doritos something will take her place!

Dana was playing photog today and took some nice shots of Scott and I.  We still look like a missionary couple don't we?
It's really strange to see us without tags.

 This is a selfie in the gardens...does not do the falls justice.

But, you will be glad to know that we did get rained on and liked it.  AZ people think rain is a miracle you know!

Saturday AM, we headed to Idaho for another sealing and Dana headed to the airport to head back home.

This was the view she got when she went outside.  The weather cooperated fully and let her see snow before she headed back to the heat!

It was SO GOOD to be with this best friend!  She was sent to me from God to help me with my life mission, and we are so glad we found each other!

THANKS FOR THE VISIT MISS DANA!
Utah loves you too!

Leather Furniture Dyeing Project

 Before we came home from AZ I had been looking online to see about re-dying our leather sofa set upstairs.
I knew Aaron and Michelle had this done to their set like ours and wanted to see if it was a good DIY project.

You can see from my "BEFORE" photos that the furniture was in great need of something!  Very worn and faded!

I found a company online that would do custom color matches and had good reviews.  I had Breanna collect a sample from the Nelsons who were renting, and mailed it in before we came home, so that when we got home, I just had to call them and arrange for amounts of product to be shipped.

 I also watched a Youtube video of how to remove cat scratches using hair clippers so I shaved off some claw fraying before beginning the dye process and now you cannot see at all that we ever had cats with claws.

 It took me a day to complete the main project.
1) You clean the leather with leather cleaner.
2) You apply a Leather prep (alcohol base solution)
3) You sand lightly the entire surface to be color coated.
4)  You apply prep lightly again.

5) You brush on a first light coat of leather dye
6) You brush on a second coat of leather dye and then use a pressurized sprayer to spray a light mist of color to hide any brush marks...all this came in the kit.
then you wait for at least a couple days...
 We took our trip to Seattle and let it sit while we were gone that week.





Then
7) You apply a conditioner on top.

(The big chair that Scott was constantly sitting in was the very worst before I began.)

 Here is the finished look!  It looks brand new other than being very soft and loose from years of use.

 Definitely worth the time and relatively low cost to Do It Myself.

Come see it yourself!
Welcome Home!