Lovin' the '80's!

One of the items in our reunion packet was a pair of tickets to an '80's reunion concert at the Usana Amphitheater.  We met our friends Rinehart and Lisa there and listened to the likes of Eddie Money, Kenny Loggins, and even Belinda Carlisle (she's still got it!) with a few others. The irony wasn't lost on us that the concert was put on by and for employees/consultants of Usana... a company that sells health promoting supplements... yet many of the artists were NOT examples of people who had taken care of their health or aged well... despite all of that it was a fun night... and we ended with ice cream at Leatherby's which is never a bad thing :).

Twenty Years

Can 20 years really have passed since I graduated from Cottonwood High School? Indeed they have... in August we celebrated 20 years since our high school graduation.

In many ways I was excited to see old friends and renew acquaintances. In other ways I was dreading feeling the same insecure feelings that I had during high school. When it came down to it though I decided that I needed to face my fears and get over my insecurities. I am so pleased with my life and I feel like I have accomplished great things! Even with that "comfortable in my own skin" feeling, I still wasn't completely sure I wanted to go to the reunion. I knew that if I didn't go I would likely regret it (just like I regretted skipping the dinner for our 10 year reunion) so I decided to suck it up and show up.  I was so glad I did!

Our reunion committee planned lots of fun things... on Friday night we had an alumni only night at the school (which to be honest was a little on the weird side to be there) and on Saturday there was a fun family picnic which I dragged my cute family to. Later that night was the fancy soiree at Snowbird. My high school best buddy Kim flew in from the Indiana to be my "date" since we weren't going to force our husbands to come along with us. The printed programs included so many references to pop culture in 1992 and they even included our senior photos on our name tags. We decided that (for the most part) all of the women looked the same or better... most of the men looked pretty good too, but there were a few of us that the years had not been kind to.  The program included a slide show of then and now photos, a tribute to those who have passed on, some love shared with a few teachers that attended, prizes for various things (like who had the most kids, who married other '92 CHS graduates, who was the most pregnant, etc.) and a hilarious, remarkably professional video that a few alumni put together (said video can be watched here if you are so inclined: 7 Tips for a Tolerable Reunion).

In the photo above is a picture of me with Lisa, Sara, and Brooke at the picnic (photo on the left)... and a picture of Noelle (who came from out of state), Kim, me, and two of our buddies Dave and Adam. In the group photo you might be able to find me if you enlarge it... my head is just poking out in the upper leftish area right behind the brunette guy in the light blue shirt.  The photo booth was fun... the photo strip on the left has me and Kim and our fun (kissing) friend Rebecca... the one on the right is me with Sara and Lisa. I was so sad that I couldn't talk our other closest friends Patrice and Loretta into coming... but I guess everyone had to do what they felt comfortable with. Maybe for our 30 year reunion they will come with us :).

When it was all said and done I think I worried about the dumb thing more than I needed to... it was so fun to see everyone and catch up with people that were so important to me during those formative years.  I loved learning that although most of us have gone through hard things in the last 20 years, we are mostly doing okay or better (and that there are really a few crazies in the mix too!).

**Do you attend high school reunions?
**Do you regret going (or not)?

Summer Visitors and Activities

It's hard to believe that summer has come to an end! As I've been looking through photos from this summer I decided to condense a whole bunch of activities into one post, lest you get bored.

Here goes...

Early in June my good friend Kim came to visit for a bit from Indiana. We met Patrice for lunch and had a great visit. We missed Loretta who was our other pal in high school but didn't come to visit until later in the summer. It is so fun that we still see each other (usually at least once a year) and still consider each other our best friends. These ladies are wonderful!

Ryan's sister Traci and her family came to visit in June, so we had a Harper BBQ. It was so fun to get all of the Harper cousins together (of course we missed Mikkie!), they don't get to be together very often and they have such a great time together. I love the picture of Ryan and his brothers and sister.

We went to the zoo! It was HOT and we were dismayed to find out that our zoo no longer "carries" lions or hippos. Some of the new exhibits are neat though. I love the photo of Sophia consulting the zoo map as if she would be our tour guide (top left).

Olivia got to be in the Steel Days parade with her soccer club (Xtreme). Sophia and Coleman enjoyed the parade (and all the free candy) but were especially excited to see Liv.

Loretta and her cute kids came to visit from Alabama!  Patrice and her kids live in Davis County and we met at Loretta's parents house for a yummy lunch and let the kids play. Each of us has an oldest daughter (and they all wear glasses, they thought that was cool). The girls swapped Cinderella stories about all they had to do to help with the younger kids and around the house, so they wanted a picture with the babies on their hips (see bottom left). It was so fun to see them all! This day we missed Kim, who had returned to Indiana with her three kids. Between the four of us there are 14 children... amazing!

Our good friends the Reis' came from California to visit... we spent as much time as possible with them and went to the Scera pool and Discovery Park. Olivia and Madi and Brandon and Coleman would move in together if they could (and often plot how one of our families can move so we can live by each other). They are finally starting to grasp the concept of needing a job in order to live in a certain place, but we enjoy whatever visiting time we can with them.

Matt and his family came out from Connecticut for a couple of days and we met them and Lindsey and her boys and my mom at the This is The Place Heritage Park. I am sad that I didn't take any pictures of Matt's cute boys! They have a ton of activities there including pony rides, gold mining, a train ride, a barber shop (complete with a free shave) and a bunch of other "working" shops with people in period dress there to explain it all. My kids liked the mountain man and I liked the pharmacy full of natural remedies. We all liked the "saloon" that sold ice cream. One of my kids asked if all saloons sold ice cream back then :).

This year some of the descendants of Sophia Mason Crook (who my Sophia was named after) decided to add a marker in the Payson City Cemetery for her. She is buried somewhere in Davis County (where she died) but as most of her descendants settled in Payson they felt it appropriate to put it there. She was a remarkable woman of great faith and determination. We went down with Grandma Cole to see the marker and after wandering the cemetery for what seemed like hours, we found it! Maps and coordinates in that cemetery seemed to be helpful at the entry gate, but when we got into the cemetery we got all turned around. It was still fun to be with Grandma and enjoy a cold ice cream cone with her after we were done at the cemetery. She is a great lady and I feel blessed to have such a close relationship with her.

We had a full, fun summer... but alas, it is time to get back into the groove of school.

**What are your summer highlights?

Good Friends and a Sunday Surprise

On Sunday morning we surprised the Reis kids at church. Carrie Beth told them they needed to be on time to church because they had to sing in Sacrament Meeting. They were shocked when we walked in (a bit late) and sat on the bench next to them. I love fun surprises like that.

Madison and Olivia could spend hours and hours together...

...and so could Carrie Beth and I...

...and Brandon and Coleman could too. Just look at those happy smiles!

We were so happy to spend the day with them! Good church time, yummy lunch, and great conversation.... what more could we ask for?

Baby Shower Celebrations

My cute friends from work and my ward/neighborhood decided that our new baby needed to be celebrated... and despite my initial opposition to the idea of having any parties in my honor (I'm a much better hostess than guest of honor!) I eventually said yes and embraced the idea. I am amazed at how generous people are and so grateful that so many friends and family members wanted to help welcome our little one into the world.

At work there were all sorts of salads... I ate as much as I could possibly fit and still wanted more. (Of course I left room for cake!)

These cute ladies have been so much fun to work with... and they are great cooks too!

My ward and neighbors put together an amazing shower a week later at my friend Tiffany's house... Olivia loved being there as the Big Sister and helper.

There was a flurry of activity in the kitchen preparing an incredible salad bar... complete with suggestions to make gourmet salads. I regret that I didn't get a photo of the completed salad bar... it was beautiful and delicious.

My friend Jessica is an amazing cake decorator and put together a tower of gourmet cupcakes. I loved their brown and pink decor.

Cheesecake with raspberries!!! I don't think that needs any more explanation. I loved the frames that Tiffany and Jessica put together.

Tiff, Andrea, Marilynn, Amanda, Camie, me, Jessica, Sherri, and Jill--a few others that helped with the shower weren't there yet and didn't make it into the photo... (Sara and Miriam!). I feel so blessed to have such good and generous friends.

I wanted to include a picture of Amanda and her quilt... she is amazing!

Thanks, friends, for helping to celebrate our new baby!

Querida Amiga

I found out this week (thank goodness for Facebook) that a dear friend of mine from Concepcion, Chile was killed in an auto accident. Maritza Riquelme was my companion for one short month in Valparaiso, Chile in 1998. She was an amazing person, and the world is a better place because she was here. With her I learned to be more obedient and optimistic, even though our month together was one of the hardest of my mission in terms of finding and teaching people the gospel. She had such a positive outlook on life and was determined to do what needed to be done. We grew to love each other as sisters do, and the loss that I feel is profound.

I had served with Hermana Hinojosa (also from Chile, on the left) for one month and we had a great thing going... we went to our change meeting on a Sunday night and were relieved that there wouldn't be any changes. The next day was our preparation day, and we ventured into Vina del Mar to eat pizza with our zone... we ran into a couple of other Hermanas, one of whom was Hermana Riquelme (on the right) and she asked us what we were going to do about tomorrow... we had no idea what she was talking about... but she had been informed that she would be coming to our sector to work with us as a trio. (For some reason our APs and Zone Leader neglected to let us in on this little tidbit...) I have to admit that I was very wary of working in a trio and not at all excited. It didn't take me long at all to see that we would not only get along with her, but would enjoy every minute of being together. I wrote in my mission journal that I sort of felt like I was in Relief Society all the time... there was always someone to talk to.

We had several nicknames... from other missionaries, ward members and people we met: The Spice Girls, Testigos de Jehoveh (only because missionaries from Jehoveh's witness usually proselyted in groups of three or more in Chile), Las Maquinas (The Machines... we were that good :)), and the Three Musketeers. I survived an attack from several carnivorous dogs (photos were too graphic to show...) while I served with these women (my fear of dogs still lingers a little bit).

Of course the Elders loved us--we worked hard alongside them doing service.

You can see how the hills of Valparaiso had homes stacked on top of each other. You can also see how I looked like a giant my whole mission, particularly when I had Latin companions!

Hermana Riqueleme and Hermana Hinojosa were with me when Marisol was baptized, which was the highlight of our time together. Marisol is another person who changed my life for the better...
There were many, many stairs in our area...

...and a lot of need for service.

We taught Johanna and many others who did not accept our message, but loved us still the same.We visited a multitude of families in our ward boundaries and had a whole lot of fun with them.

We lived in a family's home--this photo shows our papito and mamita with their daughter Nicole.

We laughed and laughed together... for this meeting we found a whole bunch of ugly ties to give to the Elders in our zone... I can't remember how we got them all, but the Elders thought it was as hilarious as we did.

After our missions Hermana Riquelme stayed in touch with me... she knew Ryan from when they served in another Zone together and was thrilled when she found out we were going to get married. She always strived for excellence in her life and served faithfully in many capacities.

Te extranare querida amiga! Gracias por ser persona tan buena y por bendecirme en tantas maneras. Te quiero tanto.

A Day with the Dinos

A week or so ago we had a fun outing with my friend Heidi and her kids... we met at the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point and all of the kids loved it.

Our kids hadn't ever met before, so both of us were a little anxious (and hopeful) that our kids would get along. They acted like they've known each other their whole lives... it was great to spend the day with them!

They loved the dino that looks like the T-Rex from Night at the Museum.

David and Coleman had a great time playing in the sand...

...and Audrey and Olivia enjoyed it too.

Liv just really likes to pose.

They all had fun on the interactive computer games... and I should have grabbed a picture of David who was enchanted with the scale that tells you what kind of dinosaur weighs the same as you (or your group).

Of course they loved the shark. Sweet David said, "He's not real, right? So he won't come back in the resurrection?" (I love that he understands such deep gospel principles!)

Yet another skeleton to pose in front of (I think they were trying to look like they were holding spears?).

...and finally the dig at the end.

We had a great day with fun friends that we can't wait to see again.

(I regret not getting a picture with Heidi this time around... we had so much fun visiting and taking photos of the kids that I forgot about posing for one with her... next time!)

By the way, Tuesdays in August are $2 days at Thanksgiving Point for any of their venues... might be worth a last summer outing before school starts!

Now and Then

The last few months have been full of happy reunions with old friends and people from the past. I haven't always had my camera with me, but we got some fun photos from a few gatherings and I've dragged out some pictures from scrapbooks to show the early days when we first met. I have been so blessed throughout my life with wonderful people around me--I feel like I can honestly say that I have a lot of "best friends." Here are a few of them:

Here I am with my friend Lisa just before Christmas. We met at church on my first Sunday in a new ward in 1989. We were just getting ready to start high school, and I wasn't very happy that we had moved. I remember seeing her in the hall and she asked how old I was... she said she was 15 and I got so excited... I said, "Oh! I'm 15 too!" Then I asked what her name was and when she said "Lisa" I said "Oh! My name is Lisa too!" We became fast friends and spent lots of time together--working at her dad's store and doing caterings, fighting over a cute boy that we loved, and watching and rewatching "Saturday's Warrior" on Sunday afternoons. Lisa is great--I'm so glad we have remained friends after all these years.

Monster Mash was our first dance at Cottonwood High--none of us girls was 16 yet (shhhh, don't tell my kids) but we convinced our parents we should get to go to this girl's choice dance. Our friend Sara is on the left. The boys (all in our ward) were good sports when we told them they got to wear eyeliner for part of their costume. in the middle of the prayer on the food the table started tipping and everything slid towards me. We laughed and laughed--I think I caught a big bowl of spaghetti. I still love to laugh with Lisa.

Loretta (left), Patrice (right) and I became friends during our sophomore year of high school, almost 20 years ago. Our other best friend Kim wasn't with us that day (she lives in Indiana and didn't come for Christmas this year) and we missed her! Patrice and I were roommates during our first quarter at USU, but we found that we were better friends if we didn't live together. Loretta lives in Georgia now, but she comes home once a year and we take advantage of the time to get together, eat good food, and visit. These girls have been with me through good times and bad and they are wonderful, in so many ways.

Here we are at another (girl's choice) dance in the spring of 1990 (nope, still not 16). We are with some other friends--on the back row is Kim (mentioned above) who now lives in Indiana; Heidi is on the front row and lives in California (I got to visit her a few months ago!), and Mary, also on the front row, lives in Nevada (and I've happily reconnected with her on facebook recently). We have no idea where those boys are now!

Heather (left), Lesli (right) and I met at the MTC in November 1996. They were companions and we shared a room and were in the same district with a bunch of mostly cool Elders. There was one Elder who had a serious attitude problem, so we decided to kill him with kindness. We were so nice to him and after only a couple of days he turned around and ended up being a great missionary. We all went to different missions, but we've kept in touch over the years and we try to get together now and again. I love that we spent two months together learning Spanish and strengthening our testimonies of the gospel while preparing to embark on one of the greatest adventures of our lives.
My companion Hermana McLaughlin (we don't know where she is now), me, Lesli, and Heather in the MTC--Good times.

We thought we were so funny posing for this picture of us climbing up the stairs to our room (on the 4th floor!), exhausted after our long day in the MTC. We had no idea what was in store for us when we got into the field!

I love staying in touch with friends and rekindling friendships from years gone by. I'm so thankful for the great women in my life!

**Did you go on "dates" before you were 16?
**How do you stay in touch with your friends?

Friends, Facebook, and Fiction

Through facebook I have been rekindling some friendships from the past... it has been so much fun to get a glimpse of the lives of so many people that have been an important part of my life. Yesterday I was chatting with Rebecca, a friend from high school that I lost touch with after graduation, and we chatted a little bit about books. I was so impressed with her goodreads list because she has read such a wide variety of literature and so many important books. I feel like I'm at a point in life that I can fit pleasure reading into many of my days, but I usually just read fluff (see the sidebar of books read this year).

Then, I saw this today on Jill's blog and thought it would be interesting to do... It was fun to see that I actually have read some books that are deemed important by some group that sounds credible enough to decide which books are important. I was surprised to find that I have read 25 of them... not bad, but not great.


The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and of their top 100 books, they estimate the average adult has read only six.

Here’s what you are supposed to do:
*Look at the list and bold those we have read.
*Italicize those we intend to read.
*Underline the books we LOVE. Share this list on your blog, too, if you like.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (I listened to it on tape, but intend to read it someday!)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling


5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (I've read parts, but intend to read the whole thing)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (I have started this a few times, but couldn't get into it... I am determined to read it at some point in my life)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (I tried on this one too, just couldn't get into it)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger


19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens (I watched it on Masterpiece Theatre, does that count?)
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (I've read a few, but not the complete series)


34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez


44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth


56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy


68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray


80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I didn't underline the ones I loved, because to be honest, there aren't many books that I don't love (aside from that, I don't know how to underline in blogger!). My ratings on goodreads are usually on the higher end rather than the lower end... Don't ask me to discuss plot, characters, themes, or motifs very long after I've read a book though, becuase I can't seem to store anything of importance in my long term memory. I have to read my book club books as close to our meeting as possible if I want to contribute anything meaningful to the discussion (which is still arguable).

The most surprising thing to me is that although I consider myself a Jane Austen fan and follower, I've never actually READ one of her books. That's pathetic, I must say. I'm thinking that Masterpiece Theatre does not count :).

**Are you on facebook and goodreads?
**Are there books that I didn't italicize (intend to read) that you would highly recommend?
**Will you do this on your blog too?
**How about books missing from this list of "top books"? What would you add?
**Which Jane Austen book should I read first?
**Do you know how to underline text in blogger? Do you want to share your knowledge?